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Links 9/13/2024

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Baby pygmy hippo the star at Chon Buri zoo Bangkok Post

Reassessing William the Conqueror History Today (Anthony L)

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux review – savage with a sensitive side Guardian (Anthony L)

Ask Ethan: Could we determine if UAPs/UFOs are aliens? Big Think

How El Nino and mega ocean warming caused the greatest-ever mass extinction ScienceDaily

Why do we have earlobes? They make no evolutionary sense. Popular Science (Dr. Kevin)

World-leading expert reveals alarming reason for soaring young bowel cancers – a childhood bug that’s in one of five people’s guts Daily Mail. Important. Notice victims typically not overweight and often very active. I wonder if some drink meal replacements. I see ads on YouTube sometimes for ones that claim to be super healthy and are clearly intended to be consumed daily.

#COVID-19

Whatever you want to believe, COVID-19 still surges through Kansas. Even worse waits in the wings. Kansas Reflector (Robin K)

Climate/Environment

Farmers use ‘magic dust’ to capture millions of tonnes of carbon
BBC. Robin K: “Volcano centric.”

Climate Change Will Force a New Political Perspective on Migrants Bloomberg

Banana wine: Malawi’s growing industry to beat climate change BBC (Robin K)

Staggering’ destruction in Yemen after deadly flash flooding Digital Journal

Nigeria floods affect one million people after dam collapse Aljazeera

China?

China’s goals in Africa “Debt trap” or equality? Anti-Spiegel (Micael T)

Chinese troops to join Brazil’s military drills with US forces Reuters (Robin K)

China’s deepening footprint in the South Caucasus Asia Times (Kevin W)

European Disunion

Card payments disrupted throughout Germany Tagesschau (guurst)

Old Blighty

Our values: killing pensioners to save money Alex Krainer (Micael T)

‘Special’ relationship: PM Starmer blames Tories for ‘broken’ Health Service in England but they warned that ‘he is placing Britain on the path to destitution’ International Affairs (Micael T)

Gaza

Infected wounds, maggots and no escape. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis hits new lows as sanitary conditions plummet CNN. ma: “You might need to put a trigger warning on this article. And I did not realize Israel has not been allowing medical evacuations, limited as those were, for four months.”

“Until our last breath”: Journalist Anas al-Sharif on Documenting Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Every Day for 11 Straight Months DropSite

Palestinian child awaits Gaza evacuation as pacemaker battery nears depletion ABC (ma). The fact that this is an MSM account is progress of sorts.

New video, witnesses challenge Israel’s account of U.S. activist’s killing Washington Post. Exclusive, not paywalled. Susan C:

Surprisingly good report from the Washington Post. Ferocious comments critical of Israel too. I served with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank twice some 20 years ago. The purpose is to use your international status, your obvious presence, simply and nonviolently, to protect Palestinians from the Israeli military and violent settlers.”

Palestine’s UN envoy sounds alarm at Israel-Hamas escalation in Gaza Skip Kaltenheuser, Washington Diplomat

How Israel’s genocide in Gaza is creating enemies on all sides Middle East Eye (guurst)

Israel and the Coming Long War Foreign Affairs. Lordie.
,
Canadian FM says she has recently suspended 30 permits for arm shipments to Israel Times of Israel. Robin K: “Canadians gesture.”

New Not-So-Cold War

Putin issues new warning to NATO RT (Kevin W)

What are Storm Shadow missiles and why are they crucial for Ukraine? BBC (Kevin W)

Ukraine SitRep: End Of The Kursk Incursion – Long Range Missiles – Ending The War Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

‘They Have Stolen Our Business’: When You Leave Russia, Putin Sets the Terms Bloomberg (ma)

UK already permitted Kiev to use Storm Shadow, but will not admit it publicly — paper TASS (guurst)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

EXPOSED: HOW ISRAELI SPIES CONTROL YOUR VPN Mint Press. Important.

Apple Vision Pro’s Eye Tracking Exposed What People Type Wired (BC)

EU kicks off an inquiry into Google’s AI model The Register. Personal data concerns.

Syraqistan

US imposes sanctions on suppliers to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program Reuters

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Dangerous Silence on Nuclear War Consortium News. Robin K: “As I recall, having seen it while sitting on my apartment couch in Austin, TX, the ad in question was pulled after appearing on network TV one time. In the ’60s, that was not censorship but, um, just good taste, so we were told.”

Military Alliances of the Great Powers Global Affairs (Micael T)

Trump

Judge drops 2 counts against Trump in Georgia election probe CBS

Trump says he won’t participate in another presidential debate CNN (Kevin W)

German Foreign Office try to dunk on Trump’s debate performance but get their numbers wrong and provoke the ire of a close adviser to the man who may well be the next president of the United States Eugyppius (Micael T). Might get that case of TDS seen to.

Kamala

THE HOLES IN HARRIS’S DEBATE VICTORY Seymour Hersh

KFile: Harris told ACLU in 2019 she supports cuts to ICE funding and providing gender transition surgery to detained migrants CNN

2024

Black voters in key battleground states highly motivated to vote in November: poll The Hill

Goldman Sachs says Harris has a slight edge over Trump but it all comes down to Georgia Fortune

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigns amid federal investigation Gothamist. This matters because, per Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD was the 7th biggest army in the world as of the crushing of Occupy Wall Street. Presumably he was excluding reserves in the measurement of national armies. If his math was right then, it’s plausible on the same basis that the NYPD is still in the top 10.

Our No Longer Free Press

USPS’ long-awaited new mail truck makes its debut to rave reviews from carriers Associated Press (Kevin W)

AI

https://newrepublic.com/article/185490/ray-kurzweil-ai-machines-proving-right” rel=”nofollow”>The Machines Are Proving Ray Kurzweil Right—Sort Of New Republic (Anthony L)

The Bezzle

Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots Futurism. Micael T: “Only Spotify and VC, PEs are allowed to earn money from stealing IP.”

Class Warfare

Rent, utilities rise faster than home value Free Republic. Robin Kash: “The cost of rent and utilities in 2023 rose faster than home values for the first time in a decade, the latest sign that a distorted housing market has pushed more people into renting.”

Treasury proposes rule to prevent large corporations from evading income taxes Associated Press (Robin K)

France: Class Struggle, 2024 Edition Contre-attaque, translated by Alain Marshal

Antidote du jour. William B: “A small painted turtle races across the 7th green at Inverwood GC, headed to the pond.”

And a bonus (Robin K):

A second bonus (Robin K):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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228 comments

  1. Antifa

    AM I BLUE?
    (melody borrowed from Am I Blue?  by Grant Clarke and Harry Akst, as performed by Billie Holiday)

    Am I Blue?
    What’s my hue?
    I’m so tired of these wars that we do

    I can’t choose
    Red or Blue?
    Wish we had a real choice, yes I do

    Was a time when politics was fun
    We used to have a choice of who could run (Lordy!)

    All they say is wordplay
    I’m a pawn who can’t choose
    Red or Blue?

    (musical interlude)

    Every day phone surveys
    Two political zoos
    Red and Blue

    What a yawn I’ll break free
    Red or Blue . . .

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Reassessing William the Conqueror’

    I read a story once about an incident in his life which, though I cannot verify it, would indicate that he thought fast on his feet if true. While climbing out of the boat in that invasion landing in England he stumbled and went down on his knees. Knowing that his troops would regard this as a bad omen, he grabbed sand in both hands and shouted ‘See? I have seized England.’ I would not be surprised if it is true but as they say – ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’

    1. Zagonostra

      A legend whose “unflinching belief that he was right led him to commit acts that caused the deaths of countless thousands of ordinary folk. His notorious ‘Harrying of the North’ during the winter of 1069–70, which reduced England beyond the River Humber to a desert”

      How little has changed in a millennia

      1. The Rev Kev

        You bring up a very interesting point. You never hear of William the Conqueror being accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing but that is exactly what the Normans and their merc allies were doing to the Anglo-Saxons while turning the survivors into helots. I guess a case of the winners writing the history books though with the twist that a lot of the descendants of that invasion force are still running the country – and are proud of it.

        1. Blue Duck

          Upon reflection, britains history of exporting genocide is a mirror image of a lifetime of genocide within the island itself. The beaker people wiped out by the celts, the celts wiped out by the Romani-Britons, the RB slaughtered by the Germanic tribes, their Anglo-Saxon descendants killed by the Normans. Hell, the alternate history Nazi invasion of Britain would have been just another cycle of destruction in the long view of history.

          1. Neutrino

            Do British schoolchildren still learn about paying the Danegeld?
            How might that be updated in these times?

              1. The Rev Kev

                Earlier that that. A lot of Norman English parish’s borders were adapted from Anglo-Saxon ones. For the Normans, it would have been easier to impose their bureaucratic mechanisms on top of what was already there rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. You could say that the Domesday Book was an attempt to find out what they had actually conquered and where those parish borders were.

              2. Revenant

                Land divisions (but not ownership) in Devon date from the Bronze Age. Some fields have been continuously enclosed with hedge banks (four plus feet of mud four feet or more thick, hedge planted on top) or dry stone walls (on Dartmoor) for three thousand years.

                Our farm is a comparative stripling, being first recorded in the Domesday book in 1086 and being continuously named as the same land holding since (though not nu the same family, we pitched up late, in 1920’s but only from next-door!). The farm was likely here before Domesday and one feature, the Drovers’ Funnel, likely is a survivor of Bronze Age transhumance practices: the funnel shaped field and hedge banks led animals down off the common moorland to a collecting field at the heart of the farm, for distribution onward.

                Sadly, I may be the one who breaks it up….

                Ownership in Devon is interesting. The great families are Norman or post-Norman types: the Courtenays, Earls of Devon; the Fane-Trefusis’s, Barons Clinton; and the Duchy of Cornwall, which is mainly in Devon by average and was created for the Black Prince and now in the hands of German arrivistes. But among the gentry, there are people who can trace their modest estates and line back to Anglo-Saxons. We were too far from London, not on the way to anywhere, and too poor for there to be much interference.

                My mother’s mother’s mother could trace her line back to Richard of Copplestone in the 12th century. So we’re dirty Normans. But we also have Anglo-Saxon feet (broad). And given the way we tan, a touch of Mediterranean blood: western populations in Britain and Ireland, especially Connemara, have significant Berber / Tuareg genealogy, presumed to be from Atlantic trade on tin and livestock and other wares, as well.as the alleged “washed up with the Armada” Spanish genes.

          2. gk

            Not to mention the Scots being massacred by the English. They taught us about Culloden in primary school, and made it seem like the Holocaust, Taiping and Hiroshima, all rolled together.

            2. bertl

              That’s what I learned as well. It was, but given that so many of the massacred were fighters, it wasn’t as bad nor as evil as the ongoing genocide in Gaza and what looks like the up and coming landgrabbing genocide on the West Bank.

              1. gk

                As long as you count bagpipers as fighters. Which come to think of it, is no different from what Israel is doing with journalists and doctors.

          3. begob

            I believe there’s a puzzling lack of evidence in the archaeology for widespread scorched-earth conflict following the Saxon invasions. Consensus seems to be of long term intermingling via the west-bound maritime highway of the North Sea, with communal allegiance a bit of a mystery. Investigation of grave goods and dental DNA often shows invaders and established natives buried together. Of course, the elites went to war, but the spread of the Germanic language and retreat of the British were measured over centuries. As for Hengist and Horsa – cobblers! Well, probably mythical, just not as mythical as King Arthur.

            The Vikings and their lawyered-up descendants, the Normans, were a different matter. Although in Ireland they were more congenial than their Tudor descendants.

    2. Steve H.

      KING RICHARD
      Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy
      To stand upon my kingdom once again.
      [Kneels to touch the ground]
      Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,
      Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
      As a long-parted mother with her child
      Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,
      So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,
      And do thee favours with my royal hands.
      Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,
      Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense,
      But let thy spiders that suck up thy venom,
      And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way,
      Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet
      Which with usurping steps do trample thee.
      Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies;
      And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower
      Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder,
      Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch
      Throw death upon thy sovereign’s enemies.
      Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords.
      This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones
      Prove armed soldiers ere her native king
      Shall falter under foul rebellion’s arms.

      * Shakespeare, Richard II

      1. AG

        Pretty comprehensive tools there.
        You can print particular scenes, acts and the play. You can also get an entire play on one page. (Best for search)
        Good!

        1. Steve H.

          Website founder is David Crystal. My friend Jeffrey, who is a Shakespeare/OE scholar. says Crystal is the one the others look to. His work on Original Pronunciation is particularly tasty; click on ‘Original’ for latent cadence.

  3. Wukchumni

    Luna & Leo were in Springfield, they said
    So in danger, the moggies had a certain dread
    Soon everybody knew the thing was dead
    He shouts, she bites, they debate through the night, yeah
    She go crazy, he got to make a getaway

    Donald say, “Oh, no hesitation
    No tears and no hearts breakin’
    No remorse”
    “Oh, congratulations
    This is your Haitian divorce”

    He takes the rumors as a hard sell
    Bon Appétit, as far as he can tell
    He drinks in the news from JD’s cell
    He feels all right, he’ll get it on tonight, yeah
    Mr. Moderator, i’ll tell you where the felines flay

    Papa Doc Donald say
    “Oh, no hesitation
    No tears and no hearts breakin’
    No remorse”
    “Oh, congratulations
    This is your Haitian divorce”

    At the debate in the moderator’s chair
    Sits the David with the fact checking dare
    When he smiled, he said it all
    The story was not so
    They dashed the famous tall tale
    Now Donald walks it back
    Now we fade to black

    Tearful reunion for Whiskers in the USA
    Day by day, those mystery meat memories fade away
    Some rumors grow in a peculiar way
    It changed, it grew, and everybody knew, yeah
    Semi-no-go, what’s this kitty Donner Party so-and-so?

    Papa Doc Donald go
    “Oh, no hesitation
    No tears and no hearts breakin’
    No remorse”
    “Oh, congratulations
    This is your Haitian divorce”

    Haitian Divorce, by Steely Dan

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKMCz1b2RxE

  4. The Rev Kev

    “How Israel’s genocide in Gaza is creating enemies on all sides”

    ‘The Israeli military’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the settlers’ terrorism against the Palestinians in the West Bank have sowed the seeds of hatred in a neighbour all by itself. Jordan, which has been quiet for 50 years on the Palestinian question, is quiet no more.’

    Got that right. Netanyahu is already talking about fortifying the border with Jordan in cooperation with them. Is Bibi doing a Trump and demanding that Jordan pay for most of it? It would be neither cheap to build nor cheap to maintain which Israel may have difficulty paying for. That would go down like a lead balloon in Jordan as a guess. Bibi was also trying to put the blame on Iran but the fact of the matter is that most Jordanians hate the Israelis but not so much who they are but for what they do-

    https://www.palestinechronicle.com/a-border-of-peace-netanyahu-vows-to-build-barrier-along-border-with-jordan/

    1. chris

      And yet to hear my Jewish friends and acquaintances talk, the death of Israeli citizens on 10/7 excuses any and every action taken afterward. God help us.

      I think the most interesting comment around NC in the past week regarding the continuing atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank was the reference to the Old Testament. The type of mass scale slaughter described in that collection of books was probably not too different from what we’re seeing now. This is absolutely what it means to cleanse the earth of a people. How will we ever move past our complicity in this horror? Why should the other countries in the world ever listen to the US again about the rule of law or protecting the innocent?

      1. Zagonostra

        How will we ever move past our complicity in this horror? I can only hope that we never do, and that it will be memorialized so that it doesn’t happen again, which I doubt.

        Why should the other countries in the world ever listen to the US again about the rule of law or protecting the innocent? They won’t, not publicly, at least that is my hope.

      2. AG

        “How will we ever move past our complicity in this horror”
        I don´t want to spoil but we already are.
        Actually we never had to move past.
        We built an Autobahn around it right away. So we never had to face that monster in the first place.
        People will simply not be aware of it.
        All they will we be talkin about in school, is Ukraine and how the Putin intended genocide there and broke the rules of civilisation and the rules based order.
        But on the other hand: Outside the West nobody will care what they teach at school there.

      3. Kouros

        The blood libel will ever be stuck on the Israelis and possibly even on the Jewish people at large. Baby killers. And 2,000 years from now on, there will be proof of that.

        Hopefully South Africa doesn’t back down at the end of October and submits to ICJ additional paperwork to continue its initial case brought against Israel (Israel is trying to move mountains in the US to make them make SA retract their case). Fingers cross the case continues and the ICJ legal stamp of genocide is also applied on the face of Israel and Israelis.

  5. timbers

    Big Brother is Watching You Watch ****** Just learned it’s common practice for cities that hire corporations for trash collection for the drivers to video record your trash, to document it complies w/regulations. Some of those “regulations” seem rapious profit driven in the finest neo-liberal tradition. If the barrel (ridiculously small – there was quite a fire storm of protest in Brockton when the trash barrels were announced a few yrs back as being absurdly too small. Now I understand why they were made to be obviously too small) for non-recylicable trash is full, you allowed to place at curbside special green plastic bags filled with trash with town name embolden upon it. No trash w/o these very special bags will be collected. These very special bags are quite expensive. They are only sold at a handful of stores usually grocery, and are kept securely behind the counter at customer service and must be requested. In my Massachusetts town sell for $1.25 per bag, but the clerk cheerfully volunteered she lives in a neighboring city that sells them for $2.50 per bag, so I was lucky. I tried to determine if our collection service makes these bags, but was unsuccessful on the Google. Quite a racket they have going with these very valuable special bags.

    1. gk

      > These very special bags are quite expensive.

      This was exactly what they did at my capoluogo in Italy (down to the selected supermarkets and special counters for them). But they’ve now eliminated them, and they charge the building based on the weight of garbage in the non-recyclable bin.

      1. timbers

        Probably a fairer measure. Being single I’ve never overstepped the limit and hadn’t even known about the green bags disspite living here 8 yrs. There is no way a family could live within the limit they have here, so they are probably paying a noticeable amount of money each month for special trash bags….and meanwhile the city spends money setting up monitor videos in areas known for dumping and propably wonder why so many resort to that.

        1. gk

          No problem here with knowing about the green bags. They always required them, but we got a fixed supply for “free” each year, and you had to buy additional ones if you ran out (the same with the bags for plastic and organic waste which never happened for me).

          Interesting that yours are green, just like ours are. When I go to Germany it’s a pain that they use different colours than Italy. I wish that the EU would standardize this.

    2. Rod

      Some motivator is needed to help us and our waste issue if we can’t figure it for ourselves.
      No?
      Googled “where does Brocktons waste go”

      Burned in waste-to-energy facilities (municipal waste combustors), Buried in modern lined landfills, or. Transported to out-of-state disposal facilities.

      1. timbers

        Nickel and diming people who have already paid for their trash removal, by giving them motivators to purchase plastic bags at inflated prices so some one can make profit killing, and to also motivate some to dump their trash elsewhere, doesn’t seem a worthwhile motivator. You might want to give that idea of yours another try.

        1. jhallc

          Most localities here in MA have gone to a “pay as you throw” system in lieu of an annual sticker fee for the transfer station or curbside collection. The state DEP has actively promoted this to the local towns. In my town the annual fee at the transfer station was $125 with no limits on what amount went into the dumpster. For those of us who tossed one bag every few weeks it was not a very good deal. For the family of five that came up loaded with trash it was a much better option. Don’t ask me why the fee in the first place as property taxes were quite high to begin with. When they went to the pay by bag system, which was voted on in town meeting, they dropped the annual fee in half as a way to offset the cost of the bags ($1.75). So, my annual costs dropped, although not by much and the costs for those generating more trash waste went up, probably by a bunch more. The main thrust of all this was the DEP’s push for the incentive to throw out less and recycle more. I’m not suggesting that this has been the actual end result and much separated recycled material still gets burnt or landfilled.

          1. timbers

            Interesting. But addressing “motivators” I’m thinking this is outside anything local city trash collection can address, because it’s bigger systemic as is national. And you mentioned they are pushing recycling…has that been discredited?

  6. JW

    ‘China’s deepening footprint in the South Caucasus’
    from that Canadian located outfit.
    The map in this article showing something called ‘north caucasus’ coloured differently from Russia leaves you in no doubt the motives.
    I think its pretty self-evident that Russia and China have decided to split responsibilities for the lead roles in trade routes, pipelines etc across mid-Asia, which reflect their own geographical imperatives. China will lead on east/west, Russia on north/south. Co-ordination bi-laterally and through SCO principally.

  7. Zagonostra

    Ahmed Alnaouq
    @AlnaouqA

    This is Zionism

    My utter and total disgust of Zionism is hard to articulate. Those who would support the “Collective Biden” in the guise of Kamala or Trump is even greater.

      1. Alice X

        Grimly, Ralph is probably all too correct on the dire numbers. I would leave any TDS out of the discussion and leave it at that.

      2. Jonathan F King

        Nader only amplified the estimate provided by the Gaza Health Ministry sometime back. It’s common sense to realize there are thousands of uncounted bodies still buried under the rubble that covers Gaza after nearly a year. What TDS could possibly have to do with that is beyond me. Supporting Israeli apartheid has been a joint enterprise of both parties for decades.

        1. 123

          I agree with you. The US and the zionist state are “blood brothers” in that term’s most literal sense. TDS has nothing to do with that. Bringing trump up into every discussion illustrates just how successful trump has been in projecting his person into american life. (SIGH!)

  8. FreeMarketApologist

    Re: NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigns amid federal investigation :

    Good riddance to another ‘leader’ with minimal skills and ethics. If we’re lucky, the FBI work will clean out the rest of the questionable people surrounding the mayor (and maybe even the mayor himself).

    Meanwhile, the continued practice of handing out ‘courtesy cards’ highlights the corrupt and unprincipled leadership of the police union, and lack of ethics by those who receive and use them:
    Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/nyregion/mathew-bianchi-nypd-traffic-tickets.html
    Follow up: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/nyregion/matthew-bianchi-nypd-tickets-settlement.html

    (It’s not just in NY – I remember the donor stickers that Houstonians used – the $500 one was essentially a get out of jail free card.)

    1. Nikkikat

      I doubt it gets any better, I recognized the name of replacement seems he worked for Obama as a national security guy.name is Tom Donilon.

    2. midtownwageslave

      Ha! Given the FBIs involvement I wouldn’t be surprised if they revamped stop & frisk policies to include the use of those new NYPD robo-drones.

  9. The Rev Kev

    ‘Square profile picture
    Daily Caller
    @DailyCaller
    According to a CNN poll, Kamala Harris has LOST support of voters on who they trust to handle the economy, and Trump has gained’

    I have read and heard a number of people saying that their finances were better when Trump was President and I think that this came up in a Democrat focus group after the debate. But since Biden-Harris were elected, everything has become much more expensive and inflation is actually a thing in spite of that some MSM sources say. And certainly Trump didn’t cheat them of $600 on Day One of his Presidency. So speaking as an outsider, I can see how people are thinking that they can’t afford to support four more year of a Democrat admin if the prices and inflation levels continue to spike. It’s too risky they must be thinking.

    1. chris

      The establishment opinion havers disagree. I think the best example of how extreme they are in their refutation of that particular narrative was published in The New Republic, in an article by Tim Noah.

      “OF COURSE YOU’RE BETTER OFF NOW THAN 4 YEARS AGO!”

      The article notes that voters seem to not believe that and their lack of agreement is exasperating to our betters. The truth is neither Trump nor Harris would have stepped in to stop what has made the cost of living such a crisis in the US. The truth is neither Trump nor Harris have a plan to handle the cost of living crisis in the US. The truth is no one expected the extreme rapacious behavior from every front after March 2020. It continues to feel like one big smash and grab. Biden oversaw that and did nothing. Harris stands by Biden and will ikely reverse what little progress has been accomplished. Trump may actually sympathize with his voters but has no idea what to do. Anything short of price controls, anti-trust enforcement, and throwing executives in jail won’t fix the collection of problems that created this situation. But we have no US politicians willing to consider those policies. We also have no way of insulating the citizens from the harsh effects of those policies. So we’re screwed.

      And I can say we are much more thoroughly screwed than we were 4 years ago.

      1. AG

        Wow, that TNR piece is unbelievable.

        It´s even more affirmative towards state authority than a high school graduate essay for getting into an Ivy league degree mill.

        Or as Goebbels famously shouted out at the German audience in 1943: “Do you want total war?!”

        Noah´s Obama-ish respone throughout the text is a: “The correct reply was a resounding Yes!”

        Early on he comes up with this:

        “Public sentiment has, for some time, failed to align with nonsubjective data that tells the opposite story. That’s why Harris didn’t dare tell Muir: “Of course Americans are better off than they were four years ago.” But that’s the truthful answer, even as voters refuse, exasperatingly, to believe it.”

        And this way he rants on and on and on as if he got paid for it by the Harris campaign and eventually – as if this were a writing excercise in “rhetoric 101 for dummies”:

        “But for Christ’s sake, of course we’re better off than we were four years ago. Four years ago was as bad a time in this country as I’ve ever seen. I lost my job in a flash recession, I was terrified of contracting a deadly disease, and while we waited for a vaccine some idiot in the Oval Office told everybody to inject Clorox into their veins. A few months later we had a deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill to prevent Congress from counting presidential ballots.”

        Wonder how he actually made it alive without a couple of M16s in his house because something tells me he owns real estate.

        1. Pat

          I have to wonder if Smith collected unemployment now as opposed to four years ago if he would still feel like things were so much better. Not for nothing, but the increased unemployment rates would have been a huge god send for someone who lost their job in a flash recession. Unlike now if they lost their job to say an AI program, when the rates have reverted to an amount that was woefully inadequate over a decade ago and if this was NY were the same as they were over forty years ago.

          It is a very good thing I do not have a magical digital pin that bursts the bubble so many media and political figures live in. They might really get a sense of what a bad time really is.

          1. anahuna

            I heartily agree. As a long-term freelancer, I was astonished to find that I was eligible for benefits at all, let alone enhanced benefits.

            They certainly eased my way into a jubilee retirement.

      2. neutrino23

        Under Trump the supply chain crashed, we were standing in line to buy toilet paper, used car prices were sky high, the country was losing jobs, and every day we had to tune in to the news to see what fresh hell was coming out of the White House. Trump was nattering on about what a great guy Putin was and how he got a love letter from North Korea and maybe we should inject bleach or shove a laser pointer up our butts.

        As opposed to now when jobs are plentiful, infrastructure is being rebuilt across the nation, manufacturing jobs have increased, inflation is running around 2%, the Fed will soon start lowering interest rates, the stock market is up about 50% raising all of our 401K accounts, the installed capacity of wind and solar is much higher, the TSMC fab in AZ is now running at par with those in Taiwan, used car prices are down and more, and crime is much reduced. So yes, we are far better off than we were under Trump. (Personally my family is much better off but that is just an anecdote of one.)

        1. chris

          Thank you for writing in Mrs. Clinton! I very much appreciate the comment…

          In the spirit of conversation, let’s take what you said bit by bit, because I think it deserves a response.

          “The supply chain crashed…” due to things that no president could control, because of multiple industries that had made their way using JIT logistics, and relying on an underclass of truckers, stockers, and longshoremen. Prior to that, because remember, 2020 was Trump’s last year in office, we did not have those issues.

          “Standing in line for toilet paper…” because the type of toilet paper people use in their houses was not the kind that was mass produced and distributed in a fashion that supported people quarantined at home. The large rolls of paper for toilets that businesses and commercial restrooms use take different paper and are a different product, and prior to March 2020 millions of people would use that different product to relieve themselves outside of the home. When March 2020 hit, and we went into quarantine, no one was using those facilities. We also had a bottleneck on truck deliveries and stocking the product in stores that people could use at home. And we dealt with hoarders and pandemic profiteers.

          “New fresh hell from the White House…” it’s worth noting that Birx and Adams have done quite a bit to redeem themselves after they left the Trump administration, whereas Fauci and others have not. I understand if you did not feel comforted by anything Trump said in his Covid updates. I understand if you wanted a better coordinated federal response to assist with the local efforts that make up what used to be our public health apparatus. But I’d question your perception about many of the details that have been taken for granted from that time, because the media created stories about what was said and done that had no basis in reality. For example, Trump did not tell anyone to inject bleach. Nancy Pelosi and others claimed he did and then the NYT got a hold of that story and ran with it. Check the transcripts, and you won’t find him saying anything like that. As for using light to cure the virus, you may not be aware that is a real thing. He is the company website for the procedure to use a cleansing fluid you invest and then activate with light. You may be new to NC or you may have chosen not to read the various analysis that have been published over the last several years, but nothing you’re saying here is accurate. Surprising, what Trump said in most cases was. I will agree that it was garbled in the same way that an elderly person trying to recite the latest finding in a Nature article would have explained it. But it was fundamentally correct.

          “Putin was a great guy…” I don’t recall Trump ever saying that. I do recall him talking about Putin as a leader in the same kind of favorable ways we discuss the other dictators and authoritarian leaders we work with as a country. I wish Blinken and others had a modicum of Trump’s style there. We might have a chance at diplomacy anywhere if they did.

          “Inflation is running about 2%…” not even close to true, and even then, it disregards the huge change in prices leading up to a stabilized rate of inflation. No one is better off because the sale price of an essential good like food increased in cost by 20% or 50% and is now still further increasing at 2% or whatever. And the details of that low inflation estimate, such as they are, involve durable goods like cars and laptops coming down in cost. Not food, medicine, car repair, etc.

          “The stock market is up 50%…” and has nothing to do with the economy. Very few US citizens own stocks.

          “Raising all of our 401ks…” most Americans don’t have a 401k.

          “The installed capacity of wind and solar is much higher…” and has nothing to do with anything if you’re not a home owner. It also isn’t lowering anyone’s electricity bills.

          “Manufacturing jobs have increased…” based on trends that started and near shoring that started under Trump, with FRED data showing the trend continued under Biden. It didn’t start under Biden.

          “TSMC in Arizona is now running at par with Taiwan…” did you read any of the details in the reports that asserted that? The current status is in the trials that have been run the potential chip yields are comparable to what is in Taiwan, but as the plant is not running yet because full production isn’t scheduled until 2025, we have no idea what will actually be produced and in what quantities. As has already been covered on NC in the past, TSMC is on record saying they don’t know if they’ll be able to produce what is expected because the labor supply in the US is not what they need.

          “Used car prices are down…” after tremendous run up in costs, slightly and that’s highly dependent on where you and what you’re looking to buy.

          “My family is much better off…” I believe that. And good for you. Can you understand that is probably a very limited perspective, which a hundred million or so US citizens do not share?

          The sum total of your statements reflects a point of view that is inconsistent with reality. Which may be why you can’t understand how so many people do not believe they are better off now than they were 4 years ago. The incessant whining of the media and Democrat aligned columnists that the proles won’t accept what they’re being told doesn’t mean the lower class is wrong. It means that you think that because you had a good dinner last night, there’s no such thing as your neighbors going hungry.

          1. Kouros

            As for using light to cure the virus, you may not be aware that is a real thing.
            In my childhood, I was afflicted by yearly bouts of bronchitis, that evenleft secheles on my lungs. So at one point, the docs brought me for a 30 min/day treatment with UV and for about 5 years I was fine, and then got it once more and then I never got it again.

          2. kareninca

            Thank you very much for going to the effort of writing down that excellent response. Things are not good out there right now for regular people, and no amount of propaganda will change that; only different policies can change that.

        4. kareninca

          I enjoyed four years of no new wars under Trump.

          Not a fan of Trump, but I highly disvalue war and will not vote to reinstall an administration that brought us two major wars.

          Also, the job market is terrible right now. I check the reddit posts for Silicon Valley, and things are ugly. Food delivery jobs are keeping a lot of people barely afloat.

          1. XXYY

            I remember in 2015 widely predicting that if Clinton were elected US president, Newland and her cabal would immediately launch a war in Ukraine. It was pretty obvious that Obama, Biden and the other neocons (not to mention Hunter) were getting their feet planted more and more in Ukraine, and this would be the obvious follow-on.

            Surprise! Trump won, and the US actually went 4 years launching no wars anywhere. Fairly rare in the post World War II period.

            Not to worry though, Biden won in 2020 and almost immediately kicked off various schemes that ultimately led to the pretext for the next US war, in Ukraine as previously predicted.

            Not that Trump is some kind of great guy, but he does seem to lack interest in starting or fighting wars, a good quality in any national leader. I’m guessing Harris, if elected, will continue the current wars and perhaps start new ones as a way to demonstrate continuity with her predecessor, whereas Trump has repeatedly stated he would stop the Ukrainian War as one of his first acts. You can of course argue about whether he means it or is capable of it, but hey, at least he said it!

        6. Rory

          Why then do you suppose that so many people in the US do not feel that they are better off now (in their lives as a whole, not just financially) than they were four years ago? Are they delusional?

      3. Kouros

        The question here is what would have been the trajectory for Russia-Ukraine-US danse macabre if Trump would have won in 2020. Escallation by Ukraine to ellicit a Russisan action, or just kicking the can down the road? Because part of the inflation was caused by the war.

  10. griffen

    USPS is rolling out their new mail carrier vehicles which feature air conditioning! It’s a remarkable leap forward…also I’m gonna hope the vehicles perform well and are up to the task*. They’re being built about 25 or so miles away from where I have lived since 2016, off the I 85 corridor in the upstate region of South Carolina.

    Up to the task will mean they last a long time, are reliable and dependable for their intended usage. It will reflect well upon the hillbillies of SC who are building them after all…\sarc

    1. Zagonostra

      I remember a time when Sundays were quite in my rural PA town, now I regularly see USPS trucks delivery for Amazon.

      Whatever happened to drone deliveries? I can’t wait to hear the quad rotors roaring overhead.

      1. Wukchumni

        Whatever happened to drone deliveries? I can’t wait to hear the quad rotors roaring overhead.
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Outsourced to Jet Pack operators…

    2. Mark Gisleson

      This article has some radically different numbers for the trucks.

      AP quotes the USPS study cost at $40 million. No other numbers mentioned. Second article says Oshkosh Defense got $482 million to design and produce the trucks but then later says it’s a $9 billion project.

      The AP article is pure spin, reads like an ad brochure. Went down the search engine results and it doesn’t appear anyone knows how much the trucks will cost apiece.

      Even without that information I’d want this deal audited. Louis DeJoy has not earned anyone’s trust.

      2. griffen

        I’m sure the cost overruns will be politely and promptly disclosed to the American suckers, eh taxpayers…\sarc

        Not really going to debate those points being made, yet seriously it was a perhaps dire necessity to at last upgrade some quite old, long in the teeth mail delivery vehicles. Now if these were military equipment or vehicles needed for our armed forces then no expense would be spared. So saith the leading expert on such matters of military and MIC related spending, our very own Sen. Graham.

        1. jhallc

          If I recall, many of the old mail trucks were built by Grumman (now Northrup Grumman) and they were not particularly good.

          1. hk

            That’s astonishing. What expertise does/did Grumman have to build civilian automobiles? Do they need to take off from carriers or something? :/

            1. rowlf

              Grumman builds a lot of wheeled vehicles like bread vans and such.

              The old USPS vans Grumman LLV

              The USPS purchased more than 100,000 of these vehicles, the last one in 1994. As its name suggests, the Grumman LLV is easily capable of a long life. The required lifespan specified by the U.S. Postal Service was 24 years, but in 2009, this was extended to 30 years. The Grumman LLV can easily last over 200,000 miles on its original engine and transmission before needing an overhaul.

    3. Carolinian

      Oddly I haven’t yet seen any of the new vehicles here in the town where they are built. I’ll have to drive by the main PO and check out their back parking lot. So far SC is not big on charging stations so that may be it.

      Some months ago I did spot a new postal vehicle–a kind of tiny minivan–but the carrier said they are made by Chrysler.

    4. Jason Boxman

      Until recently here, the past year, carriers used their own vehicles. We now seem to have around 2-3 official USPS branded mail vans.

      In honor of this, I had to move my mailbox to the other side of my street, where large trucks/morons backing up to turnaround and go back down the steep hill routinely back into my mail box and destroy it.

      Fun times. Two hits so far this year.

  11. Es s Ce Tera

    “Surprisingly good report from the Washington Post. Ferocious comments critical of Israel too. I served with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank twice some 20 years ago. The purpose is to use your international status, your obvious presence, simply and nonviolently, to protect Palestinians from the Israeli military and violent settlers.”

    Sadly, I suspect this story was allowed to go to print mainly to discourage anyone from joining ISM or protesting in Israel.

    1. Xihuitl (Susan C.)

      Could be. Certainly that’s the motive for bulldozing, shooting, killing ISM volunteers (and other international workers). But it does seem that the MSM is starting to grow concerned. Though I don’t regularly watch or read corporate media.

  12. griffen

    Another day another Trump tax policy. The man is intent on giving out sugar laden candy for everyone. Hard to take much of it that seriously, to be fair.

    So the future is driving on overtime for an Uber or DoorDash and all income reported as tip income…then when I hit Social Security after age 62, I’ll find a gap due to how the wages are recorded ( okay may I am extrapolating too much from these changes )? Admittedly I need to read up on some of these mostly vague policy proposals.

  13. Zagonostra

    Buitengebieden
    @buitengebieden
    Where’s the ball?

    If ever there was a metaphor for the DNC and politicians in general. Where is my $600 dollar check!?

  14. VTDigger

    “The arc of the universe bends democratic”
    Bwahahahaaaaahahaha

    Why does anyone take Kurzweil seriously? The zingers never stop with this fool.
    He started studying AI aged 14 and hasn’t aged a bit intellectually…

  15. DJG, Reality Czar

    I got “cross-linked” to this article by Aaron Maté from April 2024.

    Many readers here will recognize his line of argument and the facts and events that he marshals. What is important is that Maté puts everything into one place.

    Highlights: A photo (!) of the famous whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, who was supposed to testify during Trump’s first impeachment but failed to turn up. Hmmm. Vindman was busy ratting out Trump, and natch, Heather Cox Richardson was busy taking stenography from the Vindman Bros. Win-win-win.

    Cameo appearance by Svoboda. But Ukraine has no Nazis! Just blond and buff right-wing loonies with Freedom-Loving Tattoos that hearken back to the glories of ring-wing history. (See also: Blinken in the Nazipizzeria in Kiev with Kuleba.)

    And for those who have followed events in Ukraine more closely than I have — I don’t agree with Maté’s assessment that Ukraine might have dislodged Russia from Crimea by taking action immediately. My impression is that Crimea is what Russia truly wants and will retain — geography is destiny for Crimea. The other four oblasts along the Sea of Azov weren’t in the original plan, which is why the annexations and referendums seem to have been ad hoc.

    Link:
    https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/04/30/what_10_years_of_us_meddling_in_ukraine_have_wrought_spoiler_alert_it_wasnt_democracy_1027411.html

    1. The Rev Kev

      In the days after the Maidan, a train load of Nazi goons were headed to the Crimea but never actually reached there. The resistance waiting for them was too strong. The Ukrainians, with Turkish help, wanted to seize that peninsular but local Russian forces took over before that could happen. I have the impression that Crimea is to Russians a part of their identity and culture and as I have noted before, Crimea was a part of Russia before there was a United States of America. Now Crimea is an obsession of the Ukrainian nationalists who want to ethnically cleanse that region but it seems that is has also become an obsession with the neocons as well.

      1. Pat

        My back of the seat opinion was that Crimea is intensely important to the Neos of Washington, Con or liberal. One of the things that drove the Maiden coup was not just the president’s rejection of the plan to join the EU, but that he renewed Russia’s lease/legal agreement to have a port and bases in Crimea for 75 years. Our warmongers did not and do not want Russia to have access to that or any port in that region.

        (I know it sounds counter intuitive but one of the things that makes me think I am right is how indignant so many are when they discuss the number of troops Russia had in Crimea during the annexation referendum. It has always amused me to point out to friends that there was nothing extraordinary about those numbers considering the military facilities that were legally there. That America could very well have similar or higher numbers at any time in Germany just because of the bases we have. The recent history of Crimea and the Ukraine is more informative as to the reason for the overwhelming vote, but that is too difficult for most people to grasp in the approximately 30 seconds you have before they shut down their ability to listen.)

    2. Otto Reply

      Thanks for sharing this link. Thorough, well sourced, and mind-boggling. It’s like the Firesign Theatre said, “Everything you know is wrong!”

    3. .Tom

      Maté does good work and he’s brave. After Taibbi’s third strike (two on I/P and one for his hit piece on Stephanie Kelton) I unsubed and sent him a note explaining and I subbed to Maté and sent him a note too.

    4. EMC

      Crimea is what the US/NATO really want, which is military control of the Black Sea. Crimea is what makes this war existential for for Russia. There is a reason the Nazi goons headed there first and a reason the referendum for Crimea to reunite with Russia happened so quickly. The two front failed 2022 summer offensive was on two fronts because US/NATO wanted the offensive towards the south towards Crimea and Ukraine wanted it in the Donbass. Losing Crimea is the one thing that would actually weaken Russia. The Brits fought two 19th century wars for it.

      1. Wukchumni

        We did get the word ‘Balaclava’ out of the Crimean War, otherwise they would be called something like ‘bank-robber’s hood’.

        1. ilsm

          The French and Brits went to Crimea bc the Tsar was pushing the Ottomans out of the area now called Bulgaria.

          Good Christians and all.

      2. The Rev Kev

        Not only military control of the Black Sea but also ownership of all those off-shore gas & oil fields. The Ukrainians needs those resources.

      3. Polar Socialist

        Crimea has been an autonomous part Ukraine since Khrushchev illegally gave it to Ukrainian SSR. Autonomy means that Crimea has had it’s own parliament, and after 1990 that parliament tried to either gain more autonomy or downright independence on many occasions, which Kiev either ignored or used security troops to quell.

        Right after the “Euro”Maidan coup a bunch of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian nationalist tried to violently enter the building of the Crimean parliament while demanding end of the autonomy. Ukrainian police forces watched from the sidelines but did not interfere. Crimeans had always expected the Donbass to be first to rise against the semi-nazi regime in Kiev, but this event made them act as soon as possible.

        The role of the “polite people”, or the “green men”, a few days later was not to invade Crimea, but to prevent the Ukrainian security forces from stopping the Crimean parliament from declaring independence. After all, no matter how important (or lately less important) Sevastopol is strategically, the people of Crimea have had their own agenda for decades, too.

          1. The Rev Kev

            I was following what was happening in Crimea day by day back in 2014 and what Polar Socialist said is the straight truth, If you are still doubtful, you can find your own links and here is one to help you-

            https://www.google.com

            Hint. Don’t bother with Wikipedia as their info is total garbage on these events.

          2. Joker

            These are not his wide claims, but common knowledge for anyone that’s into the subject. As far as substantiating links go, they are available for any claim one can make, form Russiagate to Earth being flat.

            P.S. A rule of thumb for beginners would be to watch CNN, and assume the opposite. They have been wrong on every single war they have reported on.

  16. Bosko

    Regarding the Mint News VPN article, I’d be interested to know of good alternatives to the ones owned by Israeli intelligence…

    2. flora

      I looked into VPNs a few years ago. The ones I was thinking of using all required the installation giving the VPN full access to everything on my machine, for safety reasons. (Of course.) Decided not to use a VPN.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Amen. Last campaign I worked we didn’t talk about anything on the phone or by email.

        I’ve tried using a VPN but abandoned it almost immediately. They really do not serve any useful purpose over the long haul.

        1. AG

          So what did you do (seriously)?

          The public phone scheme à la “Good Fellas”.
          Or got into pigeon breeding.
          Method #3 was I believe the motorcycle messengers in the secret agent flick “Body of Lies”.

        2. flora

          Yeah, when the Brazilian judge who outlawed twtr-X said anyone using a VPN to access X would be charged and fined that told me the Brazilian law enforcement knows who uses a VPN and how they’re used. / ;)

          1. cfraenkel

            Your ISP (and anyone else that sees the traffic) knows you’re using the VPN – both source and destination IP addresses are unencrypted; obviously, or the packets couldn’t get routed to their destination. I doubt the Brazilian govt can read the VPN traffic, but they hardly need to – as soon as you tweet or reply to anything, the whole world knows you’re using the service….

          1. flora

            Good point. In that case I’d probably get a second, cheap laptop to be used only for VPN work. Not used for anything else. But that’s just me. / ;)

            2. t

              I use an older laptop for online shopping and anything related to my real life, mostly. Just for spite. Doubt it matters in the larger scheme of things.

    3. Mark Gisleson

      I could not make any sense of that article. Not one mention of vehicle cost. Only numbers cited were $40 million ten-year project, and USPS has 200,000 vehicles. No mention of how many vehicles being replaced but if it’s the entire fleet then they’re getting these new vehicles for $200 apiece!

      Louis DeJoy has been an absolute disaster. I found another article (no clue as to reliability) that says Oshkosh Defense was awarded $482 million to design and build the trucks. AP said it was a $40 million project. That’s an interesting difference. Did Walz fire his bio writer who was then hired by DeJoy?

      The second article also puts a price tag of $10 billion on the entire project, but still can’t say what each truck will cost. Scrolling down the search engine results it’s clear that the USPS isn’t telling anyone what the per truck cost is. I’m betting it’s an interesting number.

    4. fjallstrom

      NordVPN moved from Sweden to Switzerland to stay out of NATO and EU regulations. They have their lack of logs audited, and you can pay with prepaid creditcard (if you want to) in order for them to lack a payment record of who you are (just that someone paid for the account).

      No guarantees, but so far they haven’t turned out to be bad.

      1. flora

        Most recently, however, from Le Monde:

        In Switzerland, a bombshell report calls for adapting neutrality by moving closer to NATO

        A working paper commissioned by the Swiss Defense Ministry encourages the Swiss Confederation to collaborate more actively with NATO’s security framework. In particular, it advocates the participation of Swiss soldiers in joint Alliance maneuvers.

        https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/20/in-switzerland-a-bombshell-report-to-call-for-adapting-neutrality-by-moving-closer-to-nato_6718527_4.html

        No idea why Swiss is doing this.

    5. t

      Proton is supposed to be open source and my tech buds say it’s not sketchy. I really have no idea but do enjoy weird ads from around the world.

      That’s said, who is behind the online therapy (Better Help?) that every youtuber was sponsored by until extreme data mining and a host of nastiness was exposed?

      And youtubers are often sponsored by meal kit services which are not exactly solid citizens doing their best to feed the world.

      Point is YouTube sponsors like ScentBird hardly seem like trustworthy enterprises and I don’t think Drew Gooden or Causal Geographic or willing tools of dark forces.

      Shoot the Messenger is as excellent podcast series on Pegasus. (Partially sponsored by US public radio, I think.)

    8. Jason Boxman

      There’s AirVPN, which seems very non-corporate and they don’t care about P2P usage, so it’s probably legit. None of the corporate owned VPNs let you get away with this, so they’re probably thoroughly not trustworthy.

      On the other hand, it isn’t unheard of that this kind of thing is actually intelligence service sponsored, so who knows. Who can you trust?

  17. Zagonostra

    >France: Class Struggle, 2024 Edition

    Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux was the embodiment of French capitalism. He led efforts to liberalize the economy, privatize public assets, and weaken workers’ rights. In 2020, speaking from his castle near La Baule, he called for the abolition of public holidays and the extension of working hours to “support recovery” post-COVID.

    During the pandemic, he also declared, “An autocratic system currently seems better equipped to handle a pandemic than our democracies.”

    First of all “democracies” should be in quotes and secondly the “autocratic system” is well underway with the “pandemic” serving as cover for rolling out every more intrusive/invasive/undemocratic means of controlling the proles and eviscerating past gains of public holidays and reduced work week. All part of the plan, we must “trust the process.”

      1. Jeff

        Except they failed to cover the part where the manufacturer can pay the immigrant less than the local due to the feds financially supporting the immigrants…

        Not very thoughtful in my opinion.

  19. Zagonostra

    Collin Rugg
    @CollinRugg
    JUST IN: Former top Clinton adviser calls for an internal probe of ABC for rigging the debate against Trump.

    Curious if the picture of Kamala Harris’s earring is a radio transmitter. Such is the speculation on some TwitterX post that I’ve seen. The close-up of her ear piece supposedly matches a common communication device. Interesting speculation coming from various sources but I’ve not seen anything from the Trump team indicating that the “rigging” included such a device or whether this a flight of fantasy…or not.

    1. Mark Gisleson

      The earring is a look-alike for some ‘hearing aid’ jewelry but there are differences.

      IF the Harris folks were aware of the similarity, her frequent wearing of these earrings could have been a set up. Not for getting caught, but for creating an initial impression that “hey, nothing wrong with these earrrings so shut up already.” And then never talk about how Harris’ hair was glued into place on one side of her head in a way that could have covered an entire antenna array.

      You set up an easy tell that’s then easily debunked and people stop talking about the real question: did Harris cheat? An ABC whistleblower says she got the questions in advance. Now a Clinton honcho is expressing alarm over that signaling that the whistleblower can’t be silenced.

      Expect to see a shªt ton of social media exposing the earrings as just being earrings. As for the whistleblower, well, there are two J6 pipebombs that still haven’t been properly explained four years later.

      We won’t find out the truth about anything until the neocon/lib coalition has been removed from power.

      1. Screwball

        You were talking about your Twitter account the other day and I was one of the people who followed you (I’m under a different name on Twitter than here).

        ***
        I think the earring thing has been proven to be some high dollar pearls from a known manufacturer. $800 bucks worth. That’s kind of amusing IMO. The PMC class can scream – see they were real, not a bug for cheating, you deplorable. While the deplorable says “$800 bucks for earrings?.” Wow!

        I don’t know anything about the whistleblower, but there are reports running on Twitter that Harris and some ABC news person are very good friends, and insinuated she may have been given the questions beforehand. Best I could tell she just rattled off whatever lines she practiced if it matched the question or not.

        A true leader/statesman would have cleaned the floor with either of these two.

    2. Katniss Everdeen

      I watched the debate on the Taibbi/Kirn feed during which they provided commentary.

      At one point, Walter Kirn said he’d been texted or emailed by a friend of his in the entertainment business. Kirn’s friend said that harris’s hair had been “glued” to her face on the right side and was covering an earpiece. Kirn only mentioned it once.

      I spent the rest of the time trying to see if I thought her hair “bounced” as much on the right as on the left as she “emoted.” (Wanting to have “bouncy” hair used to be the holy hair grail back in the 60s and 70s.)

      If I’m not mistaken, the earring on her left is the only one you ever see during the debate but…Dunno. Due to the camera angle and her position on the stage, her left side is the one that you mostly see, particularly when she turned her head to look at Trump which she did. A lot.

      1. Carolinian

        Back when Biden had just resigned she was on TV and floundering a bit, reached back and adjusted the earpiece that people on remote feed wear, and was suddenly articulate. Of course there were those rumors that Dubya wore an earpiece. It didn’t stop him from laying waste to much of Iraq however.

        Which is to say that being a verbal doofus is obviously no barrier to being elected president. As usual from the Dem standpoint “it’s OK when we do it.”

        If the media can make Kamala president she will doubtless win in a landslide. Guess we will see what really happens.

    3. Yves Smith Post author

      The earring story had been throughly debunked. Her earrings are a Tiffany design and she has been wearing them for a while. The Bluetooth earrings have a fake pearl and I assume fake gold but the design is very different. I am told by a fashionista that her hair really was glued, however. Maybe to keep her from shoving it off her face?

  20. The Rev Kev

    ‘il Donaldo Trumpo
    @PapiTrumpo
    I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!🤣🤣🤣
    CATS IN OHIO RIGHT NOW’

    Ninjas have got nothing on cats.

  21. Bugs

    Second bonus video: you’ll notice that the Naked Dog only shows up at the end to see what the commotion is about lol. Mine refuses ball and fetch games because he finds them boring. But he loves social interaction, like parties, and of course, cuddling.

  22. The Rev Kev

    “Our values: killing pensioners to save money’

    Priorities, lads, priorities. Starmer just gave the Ukraine a new £600/US$781 million aid package for Ukraine this week and it was only several weeks ago that he said that the UK will give Ukraine £3 billion a year ‘for as long as it takes.’ That money had to come from somewhere so maybe granny and grandpa should spend some of their pensions on more blankets or something as in a way that will be paying for all that aid – with their lives.

    This idea of the State supporting the aged and the poor with heating is not a new thing and was always so – till now. So I was reading an account from Oxfordshire in 1868 where they had a scheme to support the poor over the winter with a delivery of about 8 hundred-weight (about 900 pounds/410 kgs) of coal to each household that needed it. They could do stuff like that in the 19th century but are saying now it cannot be afforded. Noted.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Maybe they could borrow some Novichok from Putin but unfortunately for Starmer it does not seem to be very effective in use.

            1. Ben Panga

              Happily I am many thousands of miles away from Herr Starmer’s right-think and petty Hitlerism project. D-notices about Pablo Miller don’t apply here either.

              Out of interest do you still have the D-notice system in Oz? I know you used to.

              1. The Rev Kev

                If we do the media could not talk about it because – it would be subject to a D-notice. I have the impression that there is a lot of secret stuff going on that is never reported about such as how much we are helping arm Israel.

  23. AG

    Putin´s original statement for those who cannot access RT like myself without VPN (until they will block kremlin.ru too or ban VPN):
    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/75092

    London was the first to walk back today I think, at least in words, we want no war or something´ of that sort… (should have finished the job in the 1950s when they still had total nuclear primacy. Otherwise, shut up now.)

    2. flora

      adding: thanks for the link. The danger of the EU blocking the news from its current adversary leaves the EU public and backbench politicians in the dark about what is happening and what is unfolding, which is very dangerous, imo.

      1. AG

        “leaves the EU public and backbench politicians in the dark about what is happening and what is unfolding, which is very dangerous, imo.”

        Don´t tell me. It´s aw-ful. People know shit. But when you tell them they treat you that way, too.
        As above someone said it´s about shooting the messenger…

  24. flora

    re: Former top Clinton adviser calls for an internal probe of ABC for rigging the debate against Trump.

    My guess is the call for an investigation is because it was embarrassingly obvious to most viewers.

    Ya can’t make this stuff up.

    THERE YOU HAVE IT: ABC News debate “moderator” Linsey Davis boasts on air about literally being Kamala Harris’ sorority sister. WTF.

    https://x.com/kylenabecker/status/1834173310235533810

    1. The Rev Kev

      I really should get my mind out of the gutter more. When she was talking about a string of pearls being a symbol of that sorority sisterhood, my mind immediately flashed to Willie Brown. You think that that video clip is making the rounds in the red regions? Trump could demand that the next debate be hosted by Fox but there is no guarantee that they might not set him up either.

      1. flora

        Sometimes a pearl is just a pearl, sometimes it’s a …. / ;) Yeah, I’ve seen the twtr-X clip of the old ABC profile of Willie Brown back in the day.

        As for Fox being no guarantee of a neutral stage, I think left-right or liberal-conservative is not the right way to understand what’s going on. It’s call the uniparty for a reason. The uniparty sees T as an outsider, imo.

          1. flora

            Thanks for the link. Sinclair’s campaign and Long’s campaigns in Louisiana both heavily influenced FDR’s New Deal programs.

        2. AG

          I don´t quite get it:
          They were both in the same sorority? But what´s so unusual about that?
          Isn´t every elite individual member of one of those shady clubs?
          Where they get drunk and watch TV all day and give themselves stupid Greek names?

          Or do these two women – Mrs. ABC and Mrs. Harris actually know each other beyond the usual?

          And what about that hairdo and that ear-piece?
          I am German.
          I am confused.
          I am already overwhelmed by a bald guy without any hair to conceal a Glock in who thinks he is chancellor.
          Two women of colour one with ancestors from India, Hawaii and the North Pole, the other from somewhere else. That´s too much to handle for my tiny European brain.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Imagine Olaf Schulz having a debate with a member of the AfD on TV in Germany. And it turns out that one of the two moderator, who was attacking that AfD person, was a buddy from his University of Hamburg days. You do know what they say about Caesar’s wife, right?

            1. AG

              yes.
              But then this is a confirmed fact? The two women coming from the same Univers.? Cause I didn´t quite catch the X comment where she allegedly admitted it.
              So it would ´ve been like Trump and Tucker moderating…

              1. flora

                US “Greek Houses” have no UK equivalent. There are individual chapters of nation Fraternity and Sorority houses in many if not most large US unis. One can be a Frat brother or Sorority sister if one belongs to the local particular chapter house of the national organization. So, I could go to uni A and join Sorority I’maDelta (made up name), you could go to uni B and join their chapter Sorority of I’maDelta, and we’d consider ourselves sorority sisters, for life. Sort of like the old school tie in the UK, I’d guess, except you and I would not have to go to the same uni, only join the same local chapter of I’maDelta, a subgroup of the national organization at our different unis.

            2. ambrit

              Yes, but nowadays, Caesar’s wife’s ‘problem’ can be cured with antibiotics.
              I don’t think that Kamala’s problems can be “cured” by anything.

          2. marym

            “Isn´t every elite individual member of one of those shady clubs?
            Where they get drunk and watch TV all day and give themselves stupid Greek names?”

            Yes, along with other personal connections among elites.

            For perspective, in this case they’re 13 years apart in age, didn’t go to the same schools, and belonged to a sorority “comprised of more than 360,000 initiated members in graduate and undergraduate chapters located in 12 nations and territories…”

            https://aka1908.com/about/
            https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/discover-the-special-meaning-behind-kamala-harris-pearls-180976766/

            US politicians wearing symbolic jewelry:
            https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-members-ar-15-lapel-pins-2023-2

          3. urdsama

            It’s more that ABC was so blatant in their bias, or so lazy to not even check. You’d think they would want to avoid “even the air of impropriety” as the saying goes.

            Now Trump has a reason not to do another debate. And everyone who thinks the PMC is against Trump now has more ammo.

            1. neutrino23

              I didn’t see that the debate was biased. They asked questions of each candidate and let them answer any way they wanted. They only “fact checked” Trump because some of the things he said were so outrageous (murdering babies after birth is illegal in all fifty states – that’s a controversial statement?). Trump had a bad night. He should stop whining like a little child, suck it up and do better next time. That’s what the rest of us do.

              1. AG

                I watched only part. But isn´t it obvious that 80% of what Trump says, like that thing with babies, is intended for his personal audience and not considered a serious argument by himself. Besides, nothing better to stay in the news cycle. That´s what he has been doing for 8 years. But I don´t know if I ever saw any establishment moderatorr admitting this just once. (Since “liberal” media sell their news too on that concept.). Trump plays a role with a function which both sides profit of. The other sides does to.
                What makes me wanna cry is places like DemocracyNow or truthout not getting this. (Or do they in fact? Is everyone eventually lying about this?)

        3. flora

          adding: looking back on the economic/political meaning of the term liberal is interesting.
          The term liberal in Voltaire’s day meant going against the aristocratic establishment. Liberal in our day seems to mean going against the old New Deal establishment. Ending up as supporting a new aristocracy. Or something.

            1. steppenwolf fetchit

              There is also a long-standing bait-and-switch sleight-of-mouth shell-game practiced between the mid-Twentieth Century meaning of “liberal” in the American context and the Forcey-FreeTrade Globalonial meaning of “liberal” invented by the English ruling elite and its mouthpiece economists in the Nineteenth Century.

              Sometimes the anglo-philliac Forcey-FreeTrade Globalonialists ( such as those at the Economist Magazine) call their “liberalism” by the fancy name Classical Liberalism to give it a spray-paint job of lifted-pinky antiquity thought to confer respect and intimidate the doubters.

  26. pjay

    – ‘Israel and the Coming Long War’ – Foreign Affairs.

    About the author: “ASSAF ORION is Liz and Mony Rueven International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel. He was head of strategy for the Israel Defense Forces from 2010 to 2015.”

    These sorts of ridiculously one-sided pieces are useful in providing a glimpse of their worldview. I took several things from this article. Palestinians don’t exist, just Hamas. Iran is the Evil Puppetmaster behind everything. There will need to be a “preemptive” invasion of Lebanon again at some point soon. And Israel will need to pull the US and other “allies” (but especially the US – it needs a superpower supporter) into its regional conflagration. All good to know. What would we do without these IDF think tank guys to keep us informed?

  27. The Rev Kev

    “Israel and the Coming Long War”

    There is a lot of nonsense in this article. Israel has built itself to really only fight short, sharp wars and then quit. The last time they did a war on Gaza, they only stopped because they ran out of bombs. The problem is that they are only a small nation and their economy is already being strained as this war has lasted nearly a year. It is only the US that is enabling them to go on and as this article mentions, that is a major strategy of Israel – to have Uncle Sucker to pay for it all. They would love to smash Hezbollah but they aren’t up to it. Iran showed them that they are not a pushover either and that was before they got Russian air defenses. Their only hope is to get the US involved and helping them fight their wars but that is no guarantee of success either. And in any case it would take up to a year to position forces for such an effort but do they even have the troops for that? They can’t even do Yemen. No good choices for Israel but they did it to themselves with the support of the majority of the population. Was it worth it for them?

    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      How much of that majority support of the population would they have had before the Hamas attack of Oct. 7th? And did the Netanyahu government carefully stand-down forces along that particular stretch of border
      and carefully disregard and “bury” incoming intelligence about a major Hamas operation underway? In order to attract the attack in order to whip the Israelis into government-supporting line? ( Same as with the US government carefully opening up the opportunity for ” al Qaeda” ((or whomever)) to attack America on 9/11/01? And then following up that attack with the anthrax attacks to make sure of getting American majority support?)

      Ilan Pape’s suggested contrast between (secular) “Israelis” versus (national religionist) “Judeans” might be analytically useful here. The national religionist Judeans will consider it worth it if it leads to the End of the World and the Coming of the Messiah to Save the Day. Their Rapturaniac and Armageddonite supporters in America will consider it worth it if it leads to the End of Days and the Return of Jesus to rule from his Throne of Righteousness for the next One Thousand Years.

      The only way the secular Israelis can save themselves from the national religionist Judeans at this point would be to set up an organized movement to mass-remove themselves from Israel before the Judeans realize they are all leaving and seal the border to turn Israel into the North Korea of the Middle East while working on getting a big enough war going to End the World and bring the Messiah. The secular Israelis would have to get themselves out of the country before that happens. They could set up a movement with an infrastructure to facilitate the instantaneous-as-possible exodus of secular Israelis out of the National Religionist Republic of Judeastan in order to save as many of themselves as possible. They could call it the Return To Exile movement or some such thing as an embarrassing reproach to the Judeanists on their way out the door.

  28. The Rev Kev

    “Card payments disrupted throughout Germany”

    Sure is lucky for Germany that they have not gone over to digital currencies. What would have happened to their economy if you could not make payments. Funny that. Countries like Sweden have gone almost all over to digital currency and when their power or net goes down, nobody can pay for anything. But I have yet to see an article in which it describes what it was like for ordinary people when they were not able to pay for anything. Not one article about what they did to cope much less survive. Is this a case of the dogs that were not barking?

    1. flora

      Yep. Here in the great flyover where severe winter weather complete with ice storms bringing down power lines and summer violent thunderstorms knocking out power most of us carry some cash, just in case. This inconvenience covers only the simple electrical/mechanical weather related problems. There are other problems.

      As for Sweden’s cashless thing, this from Forbes. The point has been made in earlier NC posts and comments.

      Why going cashless has turned Sweden from one of the safest countries into a high-crime nation

      https://fortune.com/europe/2024/06/21/why-going-cashless-has-turned-sweden-from-one-of-the-safest-countries-into-a-high-crime-nation/

      I think if the US Fed demands the US go cashless, aka digital currency, Bill Black will need to write an update to his excellent book The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.

    2. JustAnotherVolunteer

      As an interesting side note the tech company involved (First Data) is owned by a US company that also owns Clover. Payment issues via Clover were reported in the UK.

    1. griffen

      Given the prevalence of prequels and the origins behind some of our more noted heroes or villains alike say in the movies…why not a prequel for Jason Voorhees? “Unlucky in high school, unlucky in love and in life….”

      Thursday the 12th. Come on Hollywood, and think of the possibilities! \sarc

      1. Butch

        “Friday the 13th combines two taboos that come from the bible, according to Dr. Phil Stevens, a retired anthropology professor from the University at Buffalo and the author of a book titled “Rethinking the Anthropology of Magic and Witchcraft: Inherently Human.” Based on the story of the Last Supper of Jesus, 13 people were seated at the table and it happened on a Thursday. He was arrested that evening, and crucified the next day, on a Friday.”
        https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/12/what-is-friday-the-13th/75191789007/

        1. gk

          But that brought salvation to the world, which means it should have been a lucky number, as it was indeed in Judaism, and (for a while) in Christianity. That’s why there were 12 apostles in the first place. I’m not sure how it eventually became unlucky (even for some Jews).

  31. pjay

    I only read the non-paywalled part of Hersh’s debate piece. I certainly agree with him about Harris’ dangerous support for the foreign policy status quo. But I’m sorry, I just can’t help but comment on this statement:

    “There is no brief here for Putin, who chose to be provoked by West’s expansion of NATO to the east, despite American promises made more than three decades ago not to do so, and inflammatory language by Biden’s foreign policy aides, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.”

    I mean, what the hell?? Putin CHOSE to be provoked? Talk about ridiculous pretzel-twisting to avoid being labeled a Putin-lover. Good lord. I guess Putin (not Russia – “Putin”) should have just sit back and chosen *not* to be provoked by NATOs continuous expansion, the coup, the build-up of the Ukrainian army and increasing NATO integration, the CIA bases, the pending attack on the Donbass, etc. What a hothead.

    1. CA

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/opinion/david-brooks-snap-out-of-it.html

      September 22, 2014

      Snap Out of It
      By David Brooks

      President Vladimir Putin of Russia, a lone thug sitting atop a failing regime….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/opinion/thomas-friedman-putin-and-the-pope.html

      October 21, 2014

      Putin and the Pope
      By Thomas L. Friedman

      One keeps surprising us with his capacity for empathy, the other by how much he has become a first-class jerk and thug….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/opinion/sunday/thomas-l-friedman-whos-playing-marbles-now.html

      December 20, 2014

      Who’s Playing Marbles Now?
      By Thomas L. Friedman

      Let us not mince words: Vladimir Putin is a delusional thug….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/opinion/paul-krugman-putin-neocons-and-the-great-illusion.html

      December 21, 2014

      Conquest Is for Losers: Putin, Neocons and the Great Illusion
      By Paul Krugman

      Remember, he’s an ex-K.G.B. man — which is to say, he spent his formative years as a professional thug….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/opinion/thomas-friedman-czar-putins-next-moves.html

      January 27, 2015

      Czar Putin’s Next Moves
      By Thomas L. Friedman

      ZURICH — If Putin the Thug gets away with crushing Ukraine’s new democratic experiment and unilaterally redrawing the borders of Europe, every pro-Western country around Russia will be in danger….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/world/middleeast/white-house-split-on-opening-talks-with-putin.html

      September 15, 2015

      Obama Weighing Talks With Putin on Syrian Crisis
      By PETER BAKER and ANDREW E. KRAMER

      WASHINGTON — Mr. Obama views Mr. Putin as a thug, according to advisers and analysts….

      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/opinion/mr-putins-mixed-messages-on-syria.html

      September 20, 2015

      Mr. Putin’s Mixed Messages on Syria

      Mr. Obama considers Mr. Putin a thug, his advisers say….

      1. Zagonostra

        A great round-up of the delusional thinking of oligarchs running this deadly kabuki show…confirms my reading habit of not reading the NYT anymore…they are laying/prepping the American public for what appears to be an imminent escalation, one that has Pepe Escobar clearly been outlining in his various podcast appearances.

        1. CA

          “A great round-up of the delusional thinking of oligarchs…”

          Princeton Russia scholar Stephen Cohen and Henry Kissinger both pointed out in 2014, that a Putin policy was masking a Russia policy. The masking has been successful and President Biden has been taking us ever closer to a war with Russia as though Putin was the issue. I do not think America has ever had such a militaristic President, but this seems too little understood to generate a public push for negotiation and peace.

          Similarly, where is the American push for peace in Gaza?

          So, I worry.

  32. Matthew G. Saroff

    The Eric Adams/NYPD scandal appears to involve the both the NYPD and the Mayor shaking down businesses.

    Yes, they were running a protection racket.

  33. zach

    Apropos of nothing particular, other than the bb that’s currently rattling around the empty can that is my skull.

    Allow me to preface by restating my thorough distaste for the DT. He is the fruiting body of a system that thrives on coercion, extortion, conceit, deceit, and insatiety, all in quantities excessive to the point of lethal toxicity.

    In Kamala Harris, the Democrats have found the perfect foil. Whereas Hilary started from the assumption that the DT was wrong, and thus exposed her ignorance and arrogance, Harris feeds out as much rope as he needs to tie himself up.

    He won in 2016 because he played as if he had nothing to lose. In a zero sum game, that is the only appropriate strategy.

    The assassin’s bullet has had an obvious psychological effect. He is aware now of the stakes, and, self-conscious of his own one-dimensionality, is afraid of losing not because he hates losing but because he realizes the opportunities he missed in his first term.

    The retreat from further debates is a white flag and entirely out of character. How does a man who evades death by inches allow himself to be run off by a woman so devoid of… [struggle to find a word, so effective is she at escaping definition].

    The distinction is easy and obvious – do Americans want a president who sticks his head straight out when the bullets are flying, or do they want an soulless, calculating, Kamalabot algorithm?

    Still boycotting the vote this year, anyone who’s interested is welcome to join.

    2. hk

      Tempting suggestion. I’d been boycotting the election since 2006 (2004 was the last time I voted and the only time I voted Democrat–I thoght back then that I’ll never vote for any Republican again.). The thing for me is that the Dems’ antics this year have been driving me mad enough that I’m seriously tempted to symbolically vote for Trump (I’m in a deep blue state so it wouldn’t matter) if only because he irks the Dems so. But the 2024 version of Trump seems to be as much of an assimiliated swamp creature as any other politico…

    3. ChrisFromGA

      I am worried about Trump as well, though I share some distaste for his blatant lack of self-control.

      He just doesn’t seem to have his heart in it, anymore. RFK Jr. shows more passion. There is no discernible Trump campaign message, AFAICT, except “MAGA.”

      What about the fact that we’re on the verge of nuclear war? To be fair he did bring this up in the debate, but how about running a few of those old LBJ “Daisy” ads?

      Trump had an advantage over Hillary because she reeked of contempt for the people she wanted to rule over. HRC acted like just having to be on the same stage with him was insulting to her.

      By contrast, Kamala came into the race with low expectations and a personality that doesn’t have the stench of contempt for commoners emanating outward. She comes across to me as kind of a fun party girl. I can see her in a bar doing shots with her staff while laughing in her characteristic donkey bray, back in the Willie Brown days.

      (Maybe after putting some minority kid away for 20 years for a minor drug offense.)

      Trump should have tacked away from her in the debate and just kept talking about Biden, since he is still at least technically president. Instead of taking the bait, he could have changed the subject by artfully deflecting her barbs about his family background (rich dad issues) and just said, who cares? Where have you been the last four years while a senile zombie ran the economy into the ground? Where is Joe?

      That would have probably served him well by minimizing Harris as the irrelevancy she really is.

      Of course, this presumes he actually wanted to win. I think something did happen to his psyche. Maybe he finally realized that life doesn’t last forever, and ambition doesn’t always equal contentment. What does he really need to prove, anymore?

    4. zach

      I will commit the cardinal sin, of responding to myself. It’s right up there with self-inserting, self-citing, and self-delusion (according to my rules anyway).

      The “weird” campaign is the soporific that has dulled the Donalds’ razor wit.

      DJT “Yous guys wanna know whats really weird? The national media not reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the fact that the 50 former intelligence officials who said it was Russian disinfo later admitted to be lying through their teeth.
      What else? You’re still talking about Jan.6 Jan.6, guys, that was 4 years ago, move on, I have.
      What else? Harris says 80 million Americans voted to fire me, guess what, precisely 0 Americans voted to hire her. In fact, the people that voted for me, cops, firefighters, dentists, schoolbus drivers, they’re all normal people. The people that bought, not voted for, purchased Harris, they’re big party donors, oligarchs, swamp creatures, not normal Americans. I think that’s pretty weird, bigly.”

      If after the Biden debate Americans caught their first glimpse of a presidential President Trump, then Kamala’s greatest success to date has been to erase that from the hearts and minds.

      Thus far, he’s squandered the Kennedy endorsement. We’ve been told the last 8 years, Trump Lies. Kennedy’s appeal to the indy crowd is, he has the aura of honesty (“i have enough skeletons in my closet that if they all voted i could be president of the world”). Trump could easily try honesty – he knows that tomorrow he may vacate any rhetorical position he occupies today, and in fact it is one of his great assets.

      Kennedy also worked his ass off to get his message and vision out. This is not such an easy fix – playboy Trump is not cut from the same cloth in that regard, nor does he have much message or vision. However, people would, i believe, respond to earnestness.

      Everyone knows, the sequel is rarely as good as the original, The Dark Knight the most recent exception i can think of.

      Jesus if an idiot who’s been sucking down paint fumes and lead dust all week can work this shit out, then he deserves to lose this election.

      Into these fetid waters, I shall wade no further.

      1. kareninca

        Trump is insanely hard working and needs very little sleep – or at any rate, that is how he has been. I think he simply doesn’t look well. A lot of people don’t look all that well anymore. If someone’s typical behavior changes during a pandemic a good first guess is health.

        Another reason to not do another debate is that time is very short and certain states really matter, so rather than spending time prepping for a national audience it makes more sense to campaign in specific states.

    5. kareninca

      Vance will likely give the debate performance that Trump’s fans were hoping for from Trump. This way more attention will be given to that debate. I would guess that is at least part of Trump’s reasoning.

      1. Wukchumni

        Vance is Catholic, and even though they share the same sky daddy as evangs, don’t the 2 dogmas really not like one another?

        1. kareninca

          The Protestants that I know are mostly Mainline, and they are eager for any ecumenical contact with Catholics that they can get. The Catholics are polite about this, and cooperate occasionally. The Evangelicals I know all have Catholic relatives by marriage, and seem to somehow deal with that since of course there are children. It is my impression that the bad old days of anti-Catholic bigotry among Evangelicals is well over. Also, Vance is a recent convert to Catholicism, and so can likely speak to both groups.

          1. Wukchumni

            Here in Godzone in the mecca of houses of worship on Caldwell Ave., the largest Catholic parish church in the country (in missionary style-ye gads) is across the street from a sleek highly modern looking massive evang edifice. They hardly seem in cahoots here, but rivals.

    6. kareninca

      Vance will likely give the debate performance that Trump fans were hoping Trump to provide. This will lead to more attention being given to that debate.

    7. steppenwolf fetchit

      How about a ” woman so devoid of . . . definability”?

      Boycotting the vote is a reasonable alternative to consider; but for myself, I will still try voting against the one who poses a greater threat to my survival over the next 4 years. I hope I can decide which one that is by voting time. Which threatens me more . . . Project 2025 or “having the most lethal military in the world”?

      1. zach

        Have you attempted the Project 2025 document? It reads like a presidential budget – that is to say, a wish list unlikely to go anywhere but straight to the bin, or rolled up and beaten over our heads to cow us into fearful submission to the inevitability of establishment rightthink.

        To be honest, I couldn’t make it more than i think 10 or 15 pages. It’s a laugh riot, that is if it weren’t so dreadfully repetitive. If you’ve managed the entire document, then you are my superior on this and I will not debate you the merits.

  34. Wukchumni

    Valley almond crop in Fresno county up 13% from last year

    In Fresno County, California, the almond production has experienced a 13% increase from the previous year, totaling 2.8 billion pounds. This growth has raised concerns regarding profitability for growers due to a significant drop in the average price per pound of almonds over the last decade, from $4.00 to $1.64.

    Scott Hunter of Hunter Farms in Atwater is currently harvesting his almond crop, focusing on nonpareils. He detailed the process from shaking the almonds from the trees to the final stages where nothing is wasted, with by-products such as the hull being used as cattle feed.

    https://www.freshplaza.com/north-america/article/9658657/valley-almond-crop-in-fresno-county-up-13-from-last-year/
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    There’s about 400 million almond trees in Cali, greed as it turns out-wasn’t good.

    1. heresy101

      2.8 billion lbs divided by 400 million trees is only 7 pounds per tree.
      How many trees are only in Fresno County, not the whole state?

      Still, what a waste of all that water!

  35. hk

    Thoughts in response to Putin’s interview with Pavel Zarubin (i.e. Russia would consider British missiles attacking pre-2014 Russia as an act of war.). If Russia launches a massive missile attack on military installations (and only military installations) in Britain that cripples British military and UK invokes article 5, will anyone actually respond beyond words? I’m curious since it is increasingly becoming obvious to everyone that Britain has been repeatedly warned, verbatim. Everyone knows what’s been going on. Everyone knows what the next step is (bye bye, Paris, Berlin, and probably Washington). By limiting the attack to conventional weapons and miltary targets, Russia will have shown “restraint” but completely crippling UK military in an hour will also show that Russia means business (assuming that this is possible–but having seen what Russia could do in Ukraine, I think they can do this if they mean it.) I don’t see anyone following Britain into war were this to happen and it will have the advantage for Russia of completely destroying NATO for good–having its core member crushed militarily in an hour after having clearly brought the attack on itself without its allies being able to do anything about it would mean that the yapping Chihuahuas in the East have nothing or less to hope for from NATO.

    I think Karaganov was right, but that it needs more lead-in time and the manner of attack should not be nuclear (At least not initially). Assuming they have the capability to do it, I think Russia should take this course.

    1. hk

      One thing I want to add is that Britain is the perfect chicken to execute to put the monkeys in line. It is unduly bellicose. It is close enough for Russia to be targeted by its conventional arsenal, lacks air defenses so that even less capable missiles like Kalibr would be devastating, yet far enough from Russia so that there’s limited dnager of nuclear fallout (compared to the Baltics, Poland, or, certainly Ukraine), and Russia would certainly not be accused of trying to take over Britain the way it would be if it struck Poland, Finland or Baltics. Plus, it’s been engaged in such bellicosity (including actions) for which it has been warned over and over again with all the reasons spelled out that very few people outside the thickest bubble will have sympathy for it, or at least, think that it was an innocent victim who didn’t bring the calamity upon itself. It may have nuclear weapons, but they are limited enough that Russia’s considerable ABM weapons should have a good chance of stopping them and, if one or two still get through, then Russia will have completely justified reason to wipe England off the face of Earth (If the UK nukes don’t get through, Russia will have time to demand unconditional surrender backed up by the threat of justified total nuclear annihilation.). Plus, as a core NATO member, forcing its abject capitulation will destroy NATO for good, which is really Russia’s ultimate aim, not subjugation of Ukraine.

      I don’t see why Russia would not hit Britain hard if British officially give Ukraine that “permission.”

      1. Polar Socialist

        Britain does have two military bases located in Cyprus, comfortably close to the Russian bases in Syria.

        Anyway, the way Mr. Putin formulated his sentences let me to assume he means Ukraine using the missiles in Russia proper means war, permission or not, since Ukrainians can’t target anything with these type of weapons without external help. That’s why it will be interpreted as an act of war, not because some politician said some words in public.

        1. hk

          Yup, I’m taking that into account. I’m really trying to game out what a Russian retaliation against Britain might look like and I have trouble seeing any downside to a big missile strike on Britain itself that takes out much of its military capability in a single blow.

            1. hk

              What would Russia get from striking Falklands that’s better than taking out MI6 HQ, HMNB Portsmouth, or RAF Waddington?

                1. steppenwolf fetchit

                  And a demonstration of its power and ability. To be able to take out something on the other side of the world from Russia itself would convey many warnings to many people.

      2. zach

        Given that Russian responses tend to target the “ow F***!” areas, and the many times Mr. Putin has “reserved the right to respond asymmetrically and at a time of his choosing,” I wouldn’t rule out that they target space-based assets, should push come to shove.

        It’s easier to de-escalate from some nuisance space junk falling out the sky than a tabloid splash of blood and “MAD VLAD LAUNCHES BATTLE OF BRITAIN 2” headline.

      1. hk

        FWIW, “NATO” won’t be at war with Russia if British soldiers in/supporting Ukraine shoot missiles into Russia. It will be at war with Russia only if its members follow UK’s Article 5 invocation with actual war, but if they don’t and find artful ways to duck out of the way, then NATO will have been destroyed. Thus my thinking that, by stringing up the British chicken, Russia can put the NATO monkeys in line, or basically, destroy NATO as a military alliance IF UK were reckless enough to follow through.

        1. AG

          one more thought: you don´t need Art. V to have war.

          If GB is attacked, Poland and the Baltics will declare RU as a hostile and Germany will do too. Parliament vote is sure. Then the German government suggests a response which would be F-35 going against Kaliningrad missile installations e.g. (I am not even sure if those silos are already loaded yet.)

          However, for any WMD action you need US approval. Which is why NATO Art. V is meaningless.
          The only thing that matters is US agreeing to use the bomb.

          US will of course agree – if they think they need war – aware that F-35 have one purpose and that´s being shot down which would whip up public sentiment. THEN you have your war. Without any Art. V. invoked, without Hungary or Slovakia or Portugal agreeing.

          Art. V. is not a beginning of anything. It might happen along the way to make free more troops. But you can do war without it. Since any country has its sovereignty over its army. And the non-conventional arms are under US control. That´s why NATO is obviously US.

          It was never about unity or an alliance. NATO was only a veil to legitimize US troop presence so close to the USSR and now RU. It´s a legal trick. Not a military concept.

          So intending to “destroy” NATO by way of render Art. V useless is not a plan I believe. It´s like hunting a ghost. Because it never really existed.

          1. hk

            If UK is smashed militarily, why would Poland and Germany want to go to war with Russia? This is the point: nobody will risk their neck, especially not the Baltics who have literally nothing to defend themselves with, but Poles and Germans are not that much better. Perhaps they might be able to temporarily retake Kalingrad, but their military will be shattered no less than UK’s, or Ukraine’s for that matter. (I expect Poles to be a bit harder nut to crack than the Germans). There would be nothing that they can do. The only country that would matter by involving itself directly in conflict is United States, but if so, that means that United States, along with most of Northern Hemisphere, will cease to exist. Recall that United States does not have conventional mliitary capability now take on Russia for any more than a few days–and even if we did, we’ll never be able to bring them to Europe. Or, in other words, Article 5 or not, NOBODY in the world, not Germany, not Poland, and definitely not the Baltics, will lift a finger if UK is hit by 500 missiles in a single night.

            So, if the Russians strike UK hard, they will break NATO, by simultaneously demonstrating the hollowness of NATO, the impotence of its wannabe enemies–including United States-and also taking the pound of flesh from the weakest, loudest, and obnoxious of its adversaries that does not border itself (so that it would show itself as both justly vengeful and uninterested in conquest.) to make the point.

            1. AG

              I only would reference Germany as the base of F-35s.
              No real troops or anything. Since they have none.

              Whether those pilots would strike I don´t know.
              But if pilots do get order to fly their mission I must assume they will. Since that´s what they signed up for.
              Especially if another country, which they even know from personal experience has already been hit and they see “just cause.”

              As Russophobia goes I would not underestimate Germans.
              Some of our parliamentarians are mad.

              Seriously. Those particular people are willing to sacrifice others and even themselves if they believe they go down as heroes.

              The problem is that Washington is assuming that very same sanity from RU side, i.e. not taking the risk. And which is why they are playing with fire now in the first place and which puts us into a very dangerous place.

              Any war game of this sort went over badly for everyone involved.

              And lets assume you are right, and few targets are destroyed in GB (I am not talking about the destruction of the country) and nothing more happens.

              That would stick. And once the moral ban over WMDs has been removed it might trigger a response months or years later. Like a dark cloud of revenge and hatred brewing above us waiting to be emptied.

              So no. I do not want to test the level of insanity buried within European (and the US.) Putin already miscalculated their madness, I assume a bit.

    3. AG

      If I remember correctly earlier this year it was Putin who suggested Karaganov stop talking nonsense and keep to stuff he knows. Karaganov knows not much about WMDs (he is an economist. His Dad worked in film business I believe. Don´t know about his Mum.)
      RU attacking NATO directly first is what NATO wants.
      They are too much cowards to do it themselves because it would collapse their PR.
      It´s indispensable to keep painting RU as the aggressor villain.
      Another thing RU is not invincible.
      I have heard the news about S-500/550 shooting down a MIRV. but I still don´t take that.
      My standpoint is so far, no serious ABM possible.

      p.s. the problem with “tit-for-tat” theories – then the threshold is gone.
      May be it´s what NATO wants. Just like they did so far with all the other arms.
      First one nuke then more.
      NATO attacking counterforce hoping to provoke RU into countervalue attack? Which they could use as PR – again? I don´t think the Russians are playing any of that game.
      If there is a first response of that significance it´s via “proxy” somewhere outside NATO.
      EU for that is too insane and dangerous a place.
      But correct me if I´m wrong.

  36. Glen

    Looks like it’s an IAM Boeing strike:

    Boeing risks losing billions as 33,000 workers vote to strike
    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/boeing-workers-strike-rejecting-deal-that-cut-bonuses-compromised-wage-demands/

    33,000 Boeing union members begin strike
    https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/13/business/strike-boeing-vote-iam-751-hnk-intl/index.html

    Boeing’s Sudden Shutdown: Workers Reject New Contract & Vote To Strike
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQNt1WtVpak

    I think this is because the IAM has had nothing but very small wage hikes since the last contract while also losing their pensions, and now many jobs (such as fast food, retail, etc) have better starting pay and benefits in the Seattle area.

    Boeing management has worked long and hard to wreck their workforce so let’s give them accolades for succeeding so well:

    Boeing CEO sorry for ‘cowering’ workers remark
    https://apnews.com/article/c5d4b6edaec64ec9afc167d7c569a00a

    It was notable that while Boeing Co. CEO Jim McNerney was stripping the pension plan from the IAM’s contract, his own pension was $250K per month.

    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      If these workers get enough of what they want from their strike to return to work, what will they do with the money they will earn?

      Will they invest as much of that money as they can in individual and family and shared survivalism? Will they try to emulate the material side of the Mormon Church approach to survival and preparedness? Will they form themselves into ” Boeing Worker Wards” and “Boeing Worker Stakes”? Will they prepay their home-mortgages down to zero as fast and hard as they can? Will they store up 2-3 years worth of survival food for the coming no-more-Boeing future?

      Or will they mistake their victory for something other than Pyrrhic? Will they think that Boeing will just go on and on and on, along with their jobs and pay?

      The only way to save Boeing would be to exterminate “bad” Boeing ( McDonnell-Douglas/ Chicago Headquarters Boeing) all the way out of existence in such a way that only the “good” Boeing (Pacific Northwest Boeing) would be left as an uncontaminated stub to perhaps build back from.

      1. ChrisFromGA

        “I hear there is strong support at zero”

        [Heard on a trading forum]

        Maybe, someday, saved by zero
        I’ll be more together
        Stretched by fewer manufacturing defects
        Chasing after my dreams, traders disown me
        Loaded with danger

        So maybe I’ll win (saved by zero)
        Just like GM (saved by zero)

        Holding on to words that teach me
        I will conquer space around me

        Saved by Zero

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOiZP8FS5Ww

        1. SocalJimObjects

          Buy GME stock and short Boeing and someone will be rich in no time, I am telling you. Perfectly hedged with a substantial upside for the right person.

  38. Balan Aroxdale

    Surprisingly good report from the Washington Post. Ferocious comments critical of Israel too.

    Credibility theater. The Post can at least say they didn’t stoop to the level of the White House over the summary execution of US citizens. But I doubt the editors are going to change their censorship of what Palestinians are suffering in Gaza or the West Bank.
    The only thing this signifies is that indeed, readership has been suffering.

  39. thousand points of green

    From the ” Farmers use ‘magic dust’ to capture millions of tons of carbon”, I read the sentence . . . ” When it rains, the water droplets absorb small amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they fall to the ground.”

    This supports something I have long suspected, that rain falling through the atmosphere picks up and dissolves carbon dioxide as it falls and takes whatever carbon dioxide it dissolved within itself out of the atmosphere and down to the ground. I suspect the same is true for fog, snow, and any other precipitation of water from out of the atmosphere. And most of this precip is falling on the oceans, which makes me wonder if a lot of the CO2 getting into the ocean is coming down in rain/fog/etc. rather than diffusing across the air-ocean interface.

    If this is true, then that means that CO2 can be washed back down out of the atmosphere much faster than in several hundred years. And our skycarbon buildup level is a problem because Industrial Mankind is burning ancient fossil carbon and skydumping it faster than water precipitation can wash it back out.

    So in theory a combination of carbon re-suckdown and capture methods like this could de-warm the global IF combined with radical and radically effective suppression of ongoing carbon skydumping.

    Things like “magic basalt dust” on farms will never be a substitute for carbon skydumping suppression. But if carbon skydumping suppression is achieved, then things like ” magic basalt dust” can help us down-carbonise the atmosphere and de-warm the global faster than people would like to believe.

    By the way, I suspect the increased yield of crops from basalt dust may be due to the mineral nutrients in the basalt dust being easily dissolved from it into the soil system where plant roots can then get them. Various companies sell basalt dust as a source of mineral nutrients for farming and/or gardening. Here, for example, is BrixBlend Basalt, sold by Fedco Seeds ( which has been favorably reviewed by Lambert Strether in the past) for nutrient-enhancement use in gardens or farms.
    https://www.fedcoseeds.com/ogs/brixblend-basalt-8222

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