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Links 9/28/2024

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Penguin chicks survive tearaway iceberg BBC

Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rate Ticked Up in August Calculated Risk

Nobody Knows Anything, The Beatles edition The Big Picture

Climate

Helene’s impact felt far and wide across several southern states PBS

Hurricane Helene causes over 4.7 million power outages across Southeast US S&P Global. Commentary:

‘Zombie’ storm Hurricane John regains strength as it returns to coastal Mexico Guardian

* * *

Dozens dead and millions without power after Helene’s deadly march across southeastern US AP

TEMA: Duke Energy Says Waterville Dam Has Not Failed, Evacuation Notice Still in Effect WIVK

* * *

How climate change is intensifying storms like Hurricane Helene The Hill

U.S. Climate Policy Explained: What Americans Need to Know RAND

Syndemics

Missouri investigates more possible human-to-human H5N1 avian flu spread Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Bird flu casts a wider net as U.S. health officials keep drip-feeding information on Fridays Fortune

Review shows bird flu control strategies ‘not working’ Pirbright Institute

* * *

SARS-CoV-2-specific plasma cells are not durably established in the bone marrow long-lived compartment after mRNA vaccination Nature. From the Discussion: “Here, we measure SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific [antibody-secreting cells (ASCs)] in multiple [bone marrow (BM)] compartments up to 33 months after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination and compare them with well-known long-lived responses such as tetanus- and influenza-specific ASCs and show the absence of SARS-CoV-2-specific ASCs in the BM [long-lived plasma cell (LLPC)s]. This finding provides a mechanistic explanation for the short duration of systemic antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines.”

Federal lawsuit challenging mask ban in suburban New York county dismissed AP

China?

‘Get things done’: China tries to rally risk-averse officials to revive economy South China Morning Post

Moving Bricks: Money-Laundering Practices in the Online Scam Industry Global China Pulse

Sri Lanka’s Lenin-loving new president unsettles establishment FT

Philippines, US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand to hold joint maritime activity in South China Sea Channel News Asia

Water

Millions depend on the Mississippi—but the mighty river is running dry National Geographic

War over water in Central Asia’s Ferghana Valley France24

India

Schools feel the heat as closures increase with extreme weather events Monga Bay

Syraqistan

Bowen: Huge Beirut strike leaves West powerless as Israel chases victory BBC. Commentary:

“Here’s the truth, Israel seeks, yearns, has made and will make peace again”. Netanyahu’s address in UN Times of India. Meanwhile:

Israel says it has killed Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah FT. Meanwhile:

How Israel went after Hezbollah’s chain of command – and why it matters Telegraph

* * *

As Israel Widens War, Gallant Triumphs Over Netanyahu in Their In-house Battle Haaretz

Israeli army hacks into Beirut Airport control tower, threatens Iranian civilian plane Anadolu Agency

Surgeons and others detail gruesome injuries; many of the thousands of victims were blinded, with fingers severed New Lines Magazine

Middle East Maritime Threat Escalates: Israeli and Lebanese Ports in the Crosshairs, Ambrey Warns gCaptain

* * *

Biden directs Pentagon to review US military’s posture in Middle East Anadolu Agency

Anti-Daesh/ISIS coalition mission in Iraq to end by 2025; US ‘not withdrawing’ Anadolu Agency

* * *

Israel accused of breaking global labor law by withholding Palestinian worker pay Guardian

Europeans, Arab and Muslim nations launch a new initiative for an independent Palestinian state AP

Dear Old Blighty

Keir Starmer: a technocrat without a plan Unherd

Where do neoliberal economists think money comes from? Funding the Future

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukrainian Recruits Surviving Only a Few Days, Poorly Trained and Prone to Panic – British Sources Military Watch. Commentary:

Almost 7,000 kilometres of power lines needs to be demined in Kharkiv Oblast Ukrainska Pravda

How Defense Experts Got Ukraine Wrong The Atlantic

* * *

Military aid to Ukraine at risk due to lack of funds from partners – Bloomberg Ukrainska Pravda

What Are JSOWs? Long Range US Glide Bombs Handed to Ukraine Newsweek

* * *

Serbian President suggests war in Ukraine will end according to Korean scenario Ukrainska Pravda

Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine Change Is More Cautious Than It May Appear The Wilson Center

South of the Border

Argentina’s poverty rate soars above 50% under Javier Milei FT

2024

Harris walks fence at US-Mexico border as she works to project tougher stance on migration AP

False Hopes New Left Review. Israel.

Rep. Ilhan Omar to Introduce Major Long Covid Bill Mother Jones

Antitrust

Google CEO Says Antitrust Trials Could Drag On for Years Bloomberg

A Flawed Divestiture, Dynamic Pricing on Steroids, and Worker Harms: Why the Kroger/Albertsons Merger Should Be Stopped The Sling

Police State Watch

Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops The Verge

Imperial Collapse Watch

DoJ Notified of Suspected Faulty Welds on Subs, Aircraft Carriers at Newport News Shipbuilding US Naval Institute

Class Warfare

How Easy Is It To Become Middle Class Now? Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds

Visual Contracts in U.S. Courts (forthcoming) Drake Law Review

How Evangelical Christians Seek to Influence American Politics Through… Bible Museums? Literary Hub

Antidote du jour (Per-Ola Norman ):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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127 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Séamus Malekafzali
    @Seamus_Malek
    A photo of Netanyahu giving the order to strike south Beirut tonight from New York, destroying several apartment buildings.’

    This is Netanyahu just mocking the US and all those who wanted to establish a truce. He actually waited until he was in New York, ordered the attack on Lebanon, and then had this image published as a big upraised finger to show everyone that nobody can stop him or Israel. No wonder there was a mass walkout on him when he gave his speech at the UN. He claimed that the UN was antisemitic but that is not the truth. Those diplomats don’t hate Jews. They just hate him.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      My tin foil side is beginning to think it must be more than just money and fear of AIPAC that is keeping the US onboard. Perhaps it’s a mind-boggling collection of blackmail material residing on a server in Tel Aviv?

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Or helping Israel destroy Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, etc, let’s the US become a dominant force in the Middle east once again and that is why the US is shipping them everything they need to do the job. It’s a proxy war against the Middle East and Israel in return gets their dream of a Greater Israel as promised by their holy real estate realtor.

        Reply ↓
        2. Kouros

          Indeed. Not for nothing Pentagon has to update its “defense” posture in the area. Scare the sheikdoms to the core and turned them away from China…

          If the Chinese were serious, they would start arming the Syrians and Iranians to the teeth with AD systems and even aviation.

          Reply ↓
          1. Roger Boyd

            The Chinese are too busy watching the US, and the West, destroy any credibility or legitimacy in South East Asia (Malaysia and Indonesia are both majority Moslem) and the wider world outside the West, while overcoming the technological lead of the US in one sector after another, and removing their own areas of weakness.

            A good parallel would be with Russia and the Donbass, it showed great patience over the years until it was ready to act. Then it acted. China is the same, by 2030 we will live in a very different geopolitical world. With China much, much less dependent on Middle East oil.

            Now if the West starts to really go after Iran all bets could be off, from both Russia and China. This is pretty brutal geopolitics, but Russia and China have to follow their own interests and not be dragged into conflicts that may undermine those interests.

            Reply ↓
            1. Mikel

              China seems mostly busy worried about what to do with all those exports.
              They need regions with the wealth and infrastructure (right now) to absorb them.

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        3. LifelongLib

          As long as the U.S. can buy oil (which is sold on a world market) it doesn’t need to care who runs the Middle East. I remain baffled as to what (we think) we get out of all our meddling there.

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          1. Joker

            You get to buy that oil with the money you can just print as needed. It ain’t rocket science, but basic (neo)colonialism.

            Reply ↓
          2. JBird4049

            “As long as the U.S. can buy oil (which is sold on a world market) it doesn’t need to care who runs the Middle East.”

            Huh? The energy policy of the American Empire has been to keep the oil as abundant and cheap as possible while under its ultimate control.

            Reply ↓
            1. hk

              I always wondered if that is still true.

              During 1970s, say, there was the Cold War and the United States was not an oil exporting country (or even completely self-sufficient). Now, the biggest consumer of imported oil is our supposed enemy, the Chinese, while we think we are more or less self-sufficient (fracking and all that–I’m not entirely sure how exactly this goes–my understanding is that a lot of domestic oil production is not profitable unless oil price stays sky high, which is itself a bit of interesting wrinkle.) The Chinese want oil abundant and cheap worldwide. I’m not so sure if US does nowadays. Domestic price of gas is a concern for US pols, but that hasn’t bothered the CA politicians, for example, much, has it? They have to think that there’s some way to go before things get bad enough domestically, as long as they can keep spreading “joy.” (I bring this up b/c 2024 election will be a useful test of how much of a price the sitting administration would pay electorally for inducing much inflation largely through their own foreign policy blunders.)

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              1. Amfortas the Hippie

                fracking is, by definition, what one does to spent fields….literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.
                as for profit…lol.
                its been a boondoggle, ponzi scheme, and likely money laundering fiasco from the beginning.
                we are NOT the “New Saudi Arabia”.
                and even those dregs are Light Sweet Crude….almost all of it is for export….mostly to feed the giant squid on wallstreet.
                venezuela will be the next target for “liberation”…because they got a giant pool of heavy sour crude…which is what all our domestic refineries spent decades switching over to.(watched this happen over years of goin to my dad’s in clear lake texas, and passing through pasagetdowndena and deer park, etc…there southeast of houston, proper. he knew a lot of folks in the refinery bidness, due to my grampa’s 50+ years of doing work for them)
                Iran has the same sort of oil…as does Nigeria.

                and peak oil is a real thing, btw…just so much ink-cloud around everything that its difficult to determine where we are on the sawtooth decline slope.
                one indicator is that we spend so much on low…or even negative…EROEI projects…fracking, tarsands, very deep water, etc.
                hence all the subsidies and assorted welfare for the oil patch…hidden and in the open…not that anyone is paying attention.
                and those subsidies do definitely include the “foreign policy of the usa”.
                aside from Grenada, i cant think of a single “intervention” abroad that did not have resources like oil at its root(somalia is titanium, etc)

                iow, not all of this can be chalked up to ideology and imperial concerns…lotsa material things under the carpet that we are mostly not told about in msm. those material concerns end up supporting the ideology, of course…but its also vice versa….both reinforce the other…and around and around we go…doing evil shit

                Reply ↓
                1. Martin Oline

                  The thing that has always worried me about fracking is the secret sauce they use to wring out the last drop. It’s a industrial secret. Remember Times Beach, Missouri, where oil contaminated by Dioxin was spread on the streets to keep down the dust? I’ll bet companies pay a premium to put similar waste products into that secret mix. What could go wrong?

                  Reply ↓
      2. deedee

        Didn’t some guy with Mossad connections and tons of blackmail assets hang himself in prison? If so I imagine it would be fascinating to know what happened to all of that kompromat.

        Reply ↓
      3. Mikel

        “Perhaps it’s a mind-boggling collection of blackmail material residing on a server in Tel Aviv?”

        Along with that hypothesis comes the question: what kind of expiration date(s) could go along with that material?
        Hence, the urgency of now.

        Reply ↓
  2. AG

    Animals are my new favourite category.

    p.s. A book review on
    “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy”
    by Rev. Dr. William Barber II

    The critical review is by
    Gary Olson
    Chair, Department of Political Science, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pa.

    “Whither White Poverty”
    https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whither-white-poverty/

    It ends after a longer read (officially 13 min. whatever that means):

    “(…)
    The late sociologist Gerald Dawley concluded that “The ballot box was the coffin of class consciousness” and the Black anarchist revolutionary Lucy Parsons proclaimed “The ballot is only the paper veil that hides the trick.” And even after his earlier unqualified suppport for the franchise, the great W.E.B Du Bois refused to go the polls in 1956 and declared “Democracy is dead in the United States.” Class consciousness was lacking during both the First and Second Reconstructions and my fear is that Barber’s well intentioned book, with its “Vote and Change the System” slogan will not advance that class consciousness and may retard its development.

    Barber may be romanticizing the First Reconstruction in that the conditions for class consciousness and real international solidarity simply did not exist at the time. Even W.E.B. Du Bois wrote of the “lack of vision of vision” by both Black and White legislators in the South and my reading the Marxist Du Bois may have fallen to exaggerating the “dictatorship of labor.” And I’ve yet to see any evidence suggesting that the essentially conservative Reconstruction governments were inclined to enact legislation hostile to capitalism. Such assertions reveal wishful thinking that to our peril in not umcomon on the Left.

    Again, there is a highly selective use of Dr. King’s writings in the book. We know know that in his final speech to the Southern Cristian Leadership Conference (SCLC) members he said, “One day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin asking that question, you are asking about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question you begin to question the capitalist economy.” And in a posthumously published essay, King wrote “…only by structural change can current evils be eliminated, because the roots are in the system rather those men in the system” and a post gradualist reformer added, “The dispossessed of this nation — both White and Negro — live in a cruelly unjust society [and] they must organize a revolution against injustice.”5

    Finally, words “capitalism” and “socialism” did not make their way into the book and this reminded me of Bruce Dixon’s final bit of advice about the PPC: “We can and should march alongside them. What we can’t do as socialists is to consent to this cramped vision, a vision which refuses to name the capitalist system.”
    (…)”

    Reply ↓
  4. mrsyk

    How Defense Experts Got Ukraine Wrong While all we armchair generals (to one degree or another) got it right? For anyone waiting for an apology over the absurd western policy called Ukraine here it is I guess. I’m not reading it.

    Reply ↓
    1. Revenant

      If you read it, you would discover that what we got wrong was the mirage of Russia’s initial success and that if we hadn’t been so afraid of the mangy old Bear, we could have armed the brave Banderists and they would now be winning.

      Basically, the Nazi-Liberal faction have added some epicycles of gaslighting to their theory of how the world revolves around predestined Ukrainian victory, to make it fit with the unfortunate observations of Ukrainian defeat.

      It is profoundly disturbing that people can write and read this twaddle without their internal organs trying to strangle them, like the worst poet in the Universe and his audience in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Grunthos_the_Flatulent

      Reply ↓
      1. Mark Gisleson

        They’ve completely erased the miles-long column of tanks and personnel who sat out in the open for weeks, seemingly poised to march on Kiev but instead Putin was showing the world that Ukraine’s air force had already been neutralized and couldn’t touch the Russian Army sitting out in the open.

        All erased in real time as pundits insisted Putin was invading Kiev but then had to back down. Bolshoi! The war was won by Russia and then the peace was canceled by Boris Johnson’s visit with Zelensky.

        I believe that under U.S. law the authors of this Atlantic piece and the publishers of The Atlantic should be subject to legal scrutiny as knowing accomplices to war crimes. Every life sacrificed after the lost peace opportunity should be seen as the casualty of US/UK/NATO war crimes.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          Did you see Boris’s article in the Spectator the other day? Said that the Ukraine has to go right into NATO to deter Russia and then a message can be sent to them-

          ‘The message is: that’s it. It’s over. You don’t have an empire any more. You don’t have a ‘near abroad’ or a ‘sphere of influence’. You don’t have the right to tell the Ukrainians what to do, any more than we British have the right to tell our former colonies what to do. It is time for Putin to understand that Russia can have a happy and glorious future, but that like Rome and like Britain, the Russians have decisively joined the ranks of the post-imperial powers, and a good thing, too.’

          https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/its-time-to-let-ukraine-join-nato/

          What a clown. He really does want WW3 for some reason.

          Reply ↓
          2. .Tom

            Before he got into politics but after his failed attempt to be a journalist he made his career as an attention-seeking media celebrity quite deliberately and self-consciously, it was obvious to most of us, I assumed, as a clown. I found it enormously dispiriting to see how well his clown act served him as he moved into politics. I believe we can measure the progression of pointlessness of our elections by observing political party adoption of such types.

            Does he really want WW3? Maybe not but he’s willing to risk it for some more media attention to his clown act.

            Reply ↓
          3. .Tom

            Before he got into politics but after his failed attempt to be a journalist he made his career as an attention-seeking media celebrity quite deliberately and self-consciously, it was obvious to most of us, I assumed, as a clown. I found it enormously dispiriting to see how well his clown act served him as he moved into politics. I believe we can measure the progression of pointlessness of our elections by observing political party adoption of such types.

            Does he really want WW3? Maybe not but he’s willing to risk it for some more media attention to his clown act.

            Reply ↓
          4. steppenwolf fetchit

            Does he speak for the Anglo-British Establishment? If he does, then it seems he wants to trick and lead America into a British-sought war with Russia in the same way that the British Government during WWI sought to trick and conspire America into WWI against Germany. ( With the active co-conspiratorial connivance of 20th Century America’s most Evil President, Woodrow Wilson).

            Reply ↓
      2. pjay

        Worse than the reckless and delusional content of the article itself is the fact that its lead author is Eliot Cohen. Cohen is one of the most despicable neocons of our era. Though somewhat lesser known than some of his mentors like Wolfowitz and Perle, he was a co-founder of the Project for a New American Century, a very loud “expert” voice pushing all the lies justifying the invasion of Iraq, Iran, and everywhere else in the neocon dreamscape. He is widely known for referring to our Global War on Terror (aka the neocon Project) as “World War IV,” so it’s no surprise to see this “expert” in “military history” lying his ass off to justify an actual World War. Here is his Wikipedia bio; it’s pretty revealing – and bear in mind this is Wikipedia:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_A._Cohen

        Not surprising at all that the Atlantic would publish this kind of crap from this kind of author with this kind of background.

        Reply ↓
        1. Randall Flagg

          This comment is one of the many, many reasons I love NC. Someone will point out the background of the authors of these links so we all understand what side of the BS they are pushing. Thanks for that.

          Reply ↓
    2. OnceWere

      You might have thought that you were going to read an article criticizing the experts who declared that a Challenger-led tank charge would send starving Russian conscripts armed only with rusty AKs running all the way back to Moscow. You would be wrong. It’s the experts who expressed doubts over the Ukrainian army’s ability to defeat the Russians that should hang their heads and express a little intellectual humility. This from the bozo who wrote in an article in the same publication from April 2022 that “The evidence suggests that Russia’s armies can, if met by a well-equipped Ukrainian force, be thoroughly wrecked and defeated.”

      Reply ↓
      2. cfraenkel

        Well, yes. While true enough, it’s hardly illuminating. You can use that as the answer to any similar question on this site. COVID? Poverty? Boeing planes falling out of the sky? Lack of real action on climate change? All due to $$$. Now what?

        The real question is just how does keeping the insane neocons in authority serve the monied class? And even more importantly, what can be done to change the status quo.

        Reply ↓
        1. sarmaT

          Well, I didn’t try to give a general answer to all the questions, but a specific answer to a specific question. Those experts are paid in cash (or some other way) to say certain wrong things. They even get the specific terms to use, like: “unprovoked invasion”, “war of aggresion”, “Putin’s war”, “defending democracy”, etc.

          On the other hand we, pro bono armchair generals, don’t have same motivation nor constrains, and can say that the Emperor has no clothes, if we see it that way.

          Reply ↓
          1. steppenwolf fetchit

            Maybe they aren’t paid ” to” say those things. Maybe they are advanced into their positions because they are already eager to say those things anyway.

            ” I like the way you think.”
            ” That’s because I think the way you like.”

            Reply ↓
      3. Retired carpenter

        Reminds me of Lamb’s “What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”
        Too bad there are so few damned fools in power.

        Reply ↓
  5. Psyched

    “How Evangelical Christians Seek to Influence American Politics Through… Bible Museums?”

    A museum for Christianity is fitting. But I would call it a cemetery.

    I am a follower of Christ’s teachings because I try to live his teachings and I have seen how it makes my life, and the lives of those suffering around me, much better. I would say I am closer to how St. Francis saw God and understood Christ’s teachings.

    I ask these types of Christian; “Can you live like Christ? Give up everything you own for the benefit of someone else?” They tithe their 10% and think that this is what Christ asked of his followers. No one pushes them, not even their pastors like close to Christ’s example. They wan to convince people with words, but Christ did more than that, he convinced people with his actions, and this was repeated by St. Francis.

    I live in Central NC, just went through some tornado warnings from Helene and still cannot contact a friend who lives south of Asheville. I see this storm as one caused by the heat generated by our greed for money and power. We are not going to fix anything with words, we need to act and sacrifice. And this is why I think all of the worlds problems right now stem from a unitary spiritual problem. I do not see a Christian god, I just see God. So choose whatever you wish and when we see each other expressing God, wee will smile at each other.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mark Gisleson

      One of my brothers continued to tithe long after he’d left high school and gotten a real job that paid well. Everyone thought he was nuts, you weren’t meant to literally tithe for god’s sake!

      Reply ↓
  6. Balan Aroxdale

    Biden directs Pentagon to review US military’s posture in Middle East

    US president ‘directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary U.S. force posture in the region to enhance deterrence,’ says White House

    There she blows. The US has committed itself to troop deployments and boots on the ground in the ME for the coming escalation. I doubted Netenyahu went all the way to Washington to give a speech at the UN. This confirms it.

    The timing is a little short for Biden, but I assume Netenyahu has agreement from one or both of the incoming Presidential candidates.

    Reply ↓
    1. tegnost

      The timing is a little short for biden in that he and his handlers thought starting ww3 would be easier and now they’re running out of clock as imo things are not looking so good for the cheney harris (birds of a feather flock together) globalist dems and said war will in their fantasyland mindscape create the opportunity for a patriotic support of the wartime .gov or at worst cancelled election due to crisis out of the control of the innocent and peaceloving warmongering pschopaths…

      Reply ↓
    2. Mikel

      I’ll add a little hyperbole here, but not too far off the mark: In a way, the US is sending hostages. The troops will be hostages to the conflict.

      What have the ACTIONS (not words) of the past decades taught? It’s a lot easier to send the troops in than to get them out.

      Reply ↓
  7. Carolinian

    Re Helene–Those of us in the Southeast who were feeling smug and safe from the new weather will have to rethink. A walk down my street yesterday evening revealed two late model SUV crushed under trees and on another street a tree fell on a car with somebody in it who miraculously survived. At a stoplight intersection all the stoplights are down on the ground with a shattered tree on top of them.

    In the past many of our trees had already fallen or been cut down, often due to old age, with replacements planted. So we will get by. But via the AP story it sounds like others have it much worse. That threatened dam across the border in NC contains a large lake. Floridians are perhaps more familiar with all this.

    Reply ↓
      1. Alice X

        Wowsers!

        Why the hell are you living in Tampa anyway!

        I have a friend in NC I’ve written to with concern, she hasn’t replied.

        Reply ↓
    3. KLG

      Yes, the aftermath of Helene has been very unpleasant and disruptive from the Coastal Plain through the Piedmont and into the mountains. The break in I-40 is catastrophic for commerce. Of course, this also reinforces the truism that long-haul transport was meant to be steel-on-steel instead of rubber-on-pavement, with the final 100-200 miles reserved for trucks of various sizes…but I digress.

      It will be interesting to see how the property and casualty insurance business reacts. Replacing pole barns in farm country is one thing. On the other hand, the damage in Atlanta as Peachtree Creek turned into an all-consuming monster brings our climate home in a different way to the PMC. And it doesn’t take much wind for a 150-year-old hardwood rooted in saturated soil to come crashing down where the laws of physics dictate. Yes, this was “just the weather,” albeit fueled by a Gulf of Mexico holding at comfortable bathwater temperature.

      Reply ↓
    5. griffen

      Some normalcy returned with the power back up…but I’ll say at roughly 9am this morning things seemed pretty bleak. I did not see much nearby for structural damage, but my how the trees were felled and a few uprooted.

      Btw…SC highway 9 in both directions was a veritable parking lot, from 8:00 ish to about noon. Gonna venture out again tomorrow….but grateful no real personal losses, aside from losing power and related creature comforts

      Reply ↓
  8. mrsyk

    Federal lawsuit challenging mask ban in suburban New York county dismissed, for lack of standing. The photograph of county executive Bruce Blakeman and his henchmen are a study of human expression while communicating a mis-truth. Quote, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who signed the bill into law in August, said in a written statement that residents “can be grateful that the court dismissed a lawsuit that would have made Nassau County less safe.”

    Reply ↓
  9. sarmaT

    What Are JSOWs? Long Range US Glide Bombs Handed to Ukraine Newsweek

    The precision hardware, known as the 70-mile Joint Standoff Weapon, is a 1,100-pound winged bomb that will allow Ukraine to circumvent Russian air defenses when launched at a low altitude, according to TWZ.com.

    70-mile range requires high altitude release.

    According to one expert, they are smarter than the glide bombs used by the Russians against Ukraine and they cost $500,000 each.

    According to a guy I met on a parking lot, no bombs are smart but some are guided. This one has the ability to use terminal infrared homing in addition to standard INS+GPS. No ChatGPT available.

    So it has a stealth-like signature, making it that much harder for Russian air defenses to shoot down, according to TWZ.

    Yep. Just like Storm Shadow and JASSM, but without the ability to hug terrain. Also, not heat emission.

    Reply ↓
    1. Polar Socialist

      Yeah, low altitude release range is around 12 miles. It seems that Pentagon is merely getting rid of weapons beyond their 20 year lifespan – apparently it costs $20 million per year to maintain the exiting stock.

      I hear they are very good for suppressing tier three air-defenses in the Global South. And Ukraine has lately been flexing it’s muscles in Northern Africa and West Asia, so maybe they do have use for these?

      Reply ↓
  10. The Rev Kev

    “Israeli army hacks into Beirut Airport control tower, threatens Iranian civilian plane”

    The Israelis wouldn’t start shooting down civilian airliners with their fighters and pretending that they were actually carrying Iranian arms for Hezbollah, would they? Would they? (crickets)

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikex

      An out of control military group hacking an airport control tower and threatening civilian planes is the entire plot of the movie “Die Hard 2”. Maybe it’s time to send Bruce Willis over there- if it continues to mirror the script, Bruce can have this whole business wrapped up by himself in less than a day.

      Reply ↓
    2. flora

      They sure seem desperate to drag Iran in creating a wider war that would drag in the US’s full military. Chaos is little Bibi’s only hope.

      Reply ↓
    3. hk

      They have done it in the past, I think multiple times, even. There was a Libyan airliner shot down by Israelis in 1970s, off the top of my head, for example.

      Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      More than what’s happening to the leaders, entire communities are being disrupted
      What if the attackers are thinking that the resistance would possibly be smaller and more contained – especially, with the destruction and disruption of already decades of regional war?
      In order to build a resistance of any size, people first have to be able to get sustain basics like food, clean water, and shelter. What’s the physical and mental health of the society at large going to resemble?

      Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    “Ukrainian Recruits Surviving Only a Few Days, Poorly Trained and Prone to Panic – British Sources”

    The biggest problem for the Ukrainians is that for the past two and a half years they have been squandering the lives of their soldiers. There is no fight so suicidal that Ukrainian command will not send in their troops in wave after wave after wave, to be wiped out piecemeal by the Russians. Napoleon had the same attitude to his troops during his wars and so did the Mustache man back in the 40s. Both men at the end found themselves short of trained soldiers and had to rely on unreliable, untrained conscripts. If the Ukrainians had tried to conserve the lives of their soldiers all this time, they would not be in the crapper that they find themselves right now.

    Reply ↓
    1. Tom Stone

      If it were just the AZOV types being killed I’d be fine with it.
      The original notsees documented their final solution and I saw those movies when I was ten or eleven years old when Balmy Rutledge invited the neighborhood kids over to see home movies.
      He was a tad eccentric and a lot of fun, the city finally passed a law banning people from keeping wild animals after the baby lion he had in his back yard upset the neighbors with its constant noise…
      I class NAZI’s with rapists, torturers and those who commit genocide, a good one is a dead one.

      Reply ↓
    2. Skip Intro

      Ukraine didn’t really have a choice, since they had to produce headlines that would give NATO sponsors hope for prolonging the war. If they had the option to behave in a strategically and tactically sound manner, they would have taken win in Istanbul. Or even just followed their Minsk commitments.

      Reply ↓
      1. Kouros

        A better approach would have been by threatening to make peace and stay neutral, while saving men, if Ukrainians wanted more support.

        Reply ↓
  13. Trees&Trunks

    Regarding the updated Russian nuclear doctine: it seems as if Finland and Sweden should immediately call Putin and say thank you and ask what they could do for Russia.
    US and UK will hardly order strikes on Russia now when they now know they will also feel pain. Up until now, especially the US thought that they could set Europe on fire and enjoy the bonfire from afar. Not anymore.
    Thank you, Russia!

    Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    “Keir Starmer: a technocrat without a plan’

    If I had to pick a word that described Starmer I would have to choose sleazy. He spent all those years climbing the greasy pole with the establishment helping push him up and before he is even elected, he was out getting any freebies that he could for he and his wife. The guys at The Duran posted a video recently about his behaviour and had a lot of fun with it but noted that his ratings have already fallen off a cliff-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AEhvLoVziE (26:27 mins)

    He is really going to wreck the UK and The Duran guys were thinking that perhaps he won’t be PM all that long.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      re: “perhaps he won’t be PM all that long.”

      The UK seems also to have a uniparty. Change the office holder has made no difference. What difference would it make if it changed back again?

      Reply ↓
      1. flora

        adding: (adjusts foil bonnet) It seems like neither party is running the US and neither major party is running the UK. So what is running the US and the UK? And before anyone mentions a tiny country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, remember that tiny country is propped up by the US and the UK and serves the pol purposes of the US and the UK as a cutout for larger ambitions, imo. So again, what is running the UK and the UK? (removes foil bonnet.) / ;)

        Reply ↓
        1. Chris Cosmos

          The same loose organization (not just the CIA) that staged the ’63 coup is in charge. It still exists and it is hard to “see” because it is organized along the lines of a neural network and not a bunch of people sitting around a table it’s much more diverse than that which makes it very robust and hard to trace. Because of our inability to (still) to process ideas and their implications that came from cybernetics and systems theory, we most of us don’t have a clue as to how the world actually works. The “Deep State” is a highly movable feast with different characters wielding power but the network is and will be always there so policies never change.

          The only difference today from ’63 is that everything including the Deep State has become more corrupt that it was in former eras because there is no counter to it.

          Reply ↓
      2. Kouros

        It is a tad easier in the UK to start a new party and even win votes in the Parliament, compared to the US, where States can cockblock any new parties to prop the incumbents…

        Reply ↓
        1. OnceWere

          Easier to start a new party but, with a first past the post voting system, just as hard for a new party to gain traction.

          Reply ↓
    2. Michaelmas

      Rev Kev: perhaps he (Starmer) won’t be PM all that long.

      Not unlikely. Here’s a few samples of what’s leading in all the UK news outlets Saturday night —

      Rosie Duffield quits Labour with damning attack on Keir Starmer
      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rosie-duffield-labour-starmer-b2620584.html

      UK lawmaker Duffield quits Labour in protest at PM Starmer
      https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-lawmaker-duffield-quits-labour-protest-pm-starmer-2024-09-28/

      MP quits Labour over Starmer ‘hypocrisy’
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vkdy997rko

      In her letter Duffield said: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale. I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”

      She added: “Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister.”

      Reply ↓
  15. Pat

    I realize that it is still September, but could the gods and Netanyahu have produced this election’s October surprise? Between Helene and its aftermath and Israel’s overwhelming attack on civilians in Lebanon the effects of Friday’s events will be massive in swing states.

    It won’t just be how fast and how much help there is for the devastation left in Helene’s wake, there will also be the usual price gouging for necessities and supplies and insurance reticence followed by increases and cancellations. Once the shock and horror and immediate grief subside, anger may be common.

    And I think our government may be seriously overestimating the public’s support for Israel’s carnage. Not cutting them off, when they are clearly the aggressor will not just alienate the Muslim community but others as well. This will most certainly be a problem for Harris, she is still a part of the current administration, but it will be an issue for Trump as well. And not for nothing, there is unlikely to be a patriotic rush to enlist if we are entered into another undeclared war in the Middle East. In truth that might also be a negative, our military has real problems. If it is blackmail and not just delusional belief in American Empire fueling the reluctance to really muzzle Israel, it will still end badly. And not just for the election.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      Eh, methinks Isr has a covert green light from the US. As Gerald Celente said in January on the Redacted show with Clayton Morris: In a US pres election year when the incumbent Dem pres is behind in the polls they take the country to war. One way or another they take the country to war.

      Reply ↓
    2. IM Doc

      Don’t forget the port strikes – coming to a port near you on Tuesday. Many of those ports are in the same states that Helene just kissed.

      It is a fascinating concurrence of events. I hope the Buttigieg babies have grown out of their diapers.

      Reply ↓
      1. JTMcPhee

        I’m told diapers are part of sex play in many circles. May have outgrown the physiological need for diapers, or not reached dotage-induced incontinence, but still very much part of the paraphernalia.

        Does Biden need nappies? Inquiring minds want to know…

        Reply ↓
    3. Chris Cosmos

      I think the gov’t knows that the public simply does not care about the situation in West Asia. They will “condemn” the atrocities if asked but go along with it–as the rest of the world is currently doing except the Houthis and Hezbollah. Israel can do whatever it wants and have the full support of the US government–in the USA, even if the people cared, there is no mechanism to do anything about it because all political movements support Israel even if it builds ovens and starts roasting Palestinians. That may change eventually but, as we used to say, money talks bullsh*t walks.

      Reply ↓
  16. Jabura Basaidai

    have not read anywhere yet about the effect of Hurricane Helene on the many chicken & hog CAFO’s in the SE and also with so much flooding there will be a lot of mosquitoes looking for a meal – we have yet to see all the effects this hurricane will deliver – it has only just begun – a very sad situation – there will be a cascade of misfortune yet to arrive – and with so much $$$ going to fight and support wars how much will FEMA have to help –

    Reply ↓
    2. ArvidMartensen

      Remember the times 20/30 years ago when a few people tried to say intensification of hurricanes and floods and wild fires were a result of global warming.
      And remember the times when they were howled down for being insensitive and selfish for “bringing politics into the suffering of those affected”.
      Our children in the future will read this and weep.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jabura Basaidai

        children in the future? – how far in the future might you be thinking? – Yves had an environmental piece posted yesterday and your comment reminded me of this in it,
        “And we’re expecting the exhaustion of all arable land around 2050, which is actually kind of moot because studies from institutions as variable as MIT and the University of Melbourne suggest that global civilizational collapse is going to happen starting around 2040 or 2050.”
        more warnings – depending on your age we may have a front row seat – i do remember those warnings 20-30 yrs ago – remember them even further back –

        Reply ↓
  17. The Rev Kev

    “Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops”

    I suppose software could be built so that your driver’s license would be in sort of a “sandbox” on your mobile but if the police copy your entire mobile out, what is the point? Better to have your mobile on a single purpose burner mobile that has none of your details or files on it if forced to use a digital drivers license. Yes, it is “inconvenient” but do you really want the police going on a fishing expedition on your mobile?

    Reply ↓
  18. Bsn

    I have hope. It’s a sad hope, but I’m hoping for it. With two hurricanes, one in the west hitting Mexico and one tromping through our SE, just give climate disaster a couple more years. There will soon be three hurricanes at once. Imagine the NE getting flooded while one hits Louisiana and the one the just hit Mexico is now ravaging Arizona and entering New Mexico. Concurrently, the fires n Oregon and Montana are out of control.
    When this happens, and it will, how will we be able to fight 3+ wars?
    This is my (twisted) hope.

    Reply ↓
    1. Michaelmas

      Bsn: When this happens, and it will, how will we be able to fight 3+ wars?

      Actually, you don’t have to hope that the US gets hit by three hurricanes simultaneously (though it will be) to avoid those wars.

      The US no longer possesses the military and logistical wherewithal to fight those wars now . And while the warmongering pols and the neocons at State are too deluded and stupid to understand this,** the brighter minds at the Pentagon and in the US military have a much firmer grasp of reality, not least because they’d be the ones called upon to actually prosecute those wars.

      ** See DJG, Reality Czar’s comment just below: “…the meddlesome, addlebrained male and female politicians know nothing of war and of how to conduct a military campaign. These are the tactics of some mediocrity like Hillary Clinton, Victoria Nuland, and Emanuel Macron.”

      Exactly true.

      Reply ↓
  19. DJG, Reality Czar

    Armchair Warlord and the long twiXt posted about Ukraine and why the war by NATO failed. Worth your while. And normally I wouldn’t recommend a TwiXt, because they are too often sloppy.

    Armchair Warlord gets most things right. I will mention that the Warlord doesn’t analyze the obvious lack of a strategy. Ukraine was going to provoke a collapse of the Russian state with its large army? Not likely. So what is the strategy? Division of the Russian Federation into 43 statelets that Elon Musk can then “coup”? Arresting Putin?

    Giving Maria Zakharova her own television show (that may work…)?

    The Warlord’s twiXt is one horrible tactic after another, as if the Western military is mentally impaired, and because the meddlesome, addlebrained male and female politicians know nothing of war and of how to conduct a military campaign. These are the tactics of some mediocrity like Hillary Clinton, Victoria Nuland, and Emanuel Macron.

    I suspect (backhanded compliment!) that one of the reasons that Giorgia Meloni has been the Ukraine chameleon is that she simply isn’t this stupid.

    But the Warlord lists one tactic after another that were a combination of hybris, shortsightedness, lack of education, and plain obtuseness. (Note that I haven’t even mentioned Antony Blinken.)

    If there is a hell, let these “leaders” all go to the Ninth Circle.

    From a U Texas site about Dante’s great poem: “There is perhaps no more grisly scene in all the Inferno than Dante’s depiction of Ugolino eating the back of Ruggieri’s head like a dog using its strong teeth to gnaw a bone (Inf. 32.124-32; 33.76-8). Ugolino’s story, the longest single speech by one of the damned, is Dante’s final dramatic representation in the Inferno of humankind’s capacity for evil and cruelty. Aimed at explaining the scene of cannibalism in hell, Ugolino’s story is all the more powerful because the speaker makes no attempt to exonerate himself of the crime–political treachery–for which he is condemned to eternal damnation.”

    Reply ↓
    1. Zephyrum

      The Western military and politicians thought they could make their own reality by speaking it. (“We are an empire now.”) Even now they refuse to recant, because the consequence would be to admit everything they have built their lives upon is false. So they double down, and will continue to do so until stopped. May that be soon.

      Reply ↓
    2. Ignacio

      Given we are talking here about a proxy war in which the West has convinced a servant country to fight “beyond their means” per the Armchair Warlord, and I agree, plus given that money has probably been the main convincing factor for the leadership of such servant country one has to concede that the power of money looms as too influential in too many places.

      Reply ↓
  20. CA

    https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1839835162789691507

    Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

    Argentina’s poverty rate has now reached 53%, up from 41.7% at the end of last year and more than double the 26% just 7 years ago.

    Is poverty “freedom”? It’s the exact contrary of freedom.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mileis-austerity-seen-pushing-half-argentina-into-poverty-2024-09-26/

    Milei’s austerity seen pushing half of Argentina into poverty

    9:10 PM · Sep 27, 2024

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris Cosmos

      At one time, poverty was seen as a kind of virtue in a spiritual sense. I have always sought some level of poverty because I didn’t want things–I was and am anti-materialistic. I’m not insane I just don’t like the whole materialistic ethos at the heart of things in Western culture. This is why I always favor doing “something” about the climate change because it would, in a sense, lower our standard of living in a material sense which we desperately need to do even more to save human culture. Lowering carbon is very easy but because we are collectively obsessed with a hyper-materialist world-view (even religious and “spiritual” people included) we cannot see past it.

      Reply ↓
      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        lol. dude…youd love my lifestyle, then.
        being on the bleeding edge…save for those few years after Tamster became a boneyfried Teacher…keeps one on one’s toes, fer sho.

        i made deer barbacoa, today…big dutch oven…open fire…everything except the lard is from right here.
        well, and the flour tortillas…made them myself for the first time…over an open fire, no less…with a griddle from academy, long ago…as well as an 100 year old Comal.(latter made better product)
        Eldest’s new girlfriend said the water wasnt hot enough when i added it to the mix…so they turned out more like matzha crackers than actual flour torts,lol.
        but im determined to use the mix to get adept, and then eventually learn to do it from scratch.
        Tam’s grandma took flour salt, baking powder and never even measured, save with her fingers…best tortillas evah.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51oPKLSuyQY

        Reply ↓
      1. CA

        “Indexed to 1977 is great if you want to toot your horn…”

        Thank you so much for the kind words.

        What is interesting to me is just how poor economic policy in Argentina has been these last 45 years.

        Reply ↓
  22. Mikel

    A Flawed Divestiture, Dynamic Pricing on Steroids, and Worker Harms: Why the Kroger/Albertsons Merger Should Be Stopped – The Sling

    As soon as I started reading about their interest in dynamic pricing, I rediscovered Trader Joe’s.

    Reply ↓
  23. Jason Boxman

    Ongoing Spectrum debacle; It is down seemingly in most areas of North Carolina. There has been no status updates of any kind, unlike in previous instances of minor outages. I don’t recall any updates throughout the entire hurricane and aftermath, so far.

    If you go to Spectrum’s site, you have to somehow sign in to see if there’s a service outage. They have no globally accessible outage page I can find. I’m forced to rely on random web sites, like downdetector, where the comments are unhappy to say the least. The outage of the past 24 hours shows to be 24 times baseline outage reports.

    One reddit post on the spectrum reddit says, correctly:

    Shouldn’t a major communication company in open communication with emergency management during a widespread comms outage and state of emergency? This is still an election year, amirite?

    Another:

    Operating a small home-business online, so the outage is already bad enough. Why has the company been effectively silent? How come every update we’re getting is “My mom’s friend read on facebook” or “a guy on NextDoor who lives next to a house with a Charter Installer”, or “a twitter post by someone in a Charter shirt”.

    No updates on the app, no useful information from calling in. Heck, not even a peep on the local news, despite it sending a few businesses in the area into reduced capacity/temporary closure.

    What gives?

    inb4 “Dont you know people died in da storm?!”
    Yes, I get that, and that is tragic.

    I can certainly confirm, no official or unofficial communication of any kind from Spectrum. If you’re using Spectrum for your VoIP-based phone service (remember copper landlines?), I guess you have no telephone service either. So much for 911?

    Reply ↓
    1. Screwball

      Best of luck in these trying times. Spectrum bought Time Warner here a few years ago. Time Warner wasn’t the best, but were OK. That immediately changed with Spectrum who’s service, pricing, and communications suck, to be honest.

      Reply ↓
  24. Mikel

    Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops – The Verge

    This in addition to it currently being a minefield of scammers to avoid from all the places that sold peoples numbers or been hacked.

    And I have to wonder if all the “scammers” are the alleged hackers.

    Reply ↓
  26. Mikel

    Where do neoliberal economists think money comes from? – Funding the Future

    “So, are the comments made by Rupert Harrison macroeconomically and politically malevolent to prevent this country enjoying the investment it needs and can afford, or is he simply unaware of how money really works? That is the question.”

    That is the question…AGAIN:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/biden-s-economic-adviser-jared-bernstein-can-t-explain-how-money-works/ar-AA1o78UC
    Biden’s economic adviser Jared Bernstein can’t explain how money works.

    Even if they believe it, the question is still there because they were taught this. This becomes a question about every institution that they are involved in and not an individual question.

    Reply ↓
  27. Bugs

    An evocative essay on the 40th anniversary of the BBC television film Threads.

    https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/black-sky-thinking/threads-tv-film-review-anniversary/

    I highly recommend seeing it at least once for its unsparing approach to what it might mean if the unthinkable is ever decided to be unleashed on us, obviously without our consent, because no one can possibly consent to it.

    In the West, our betters today seem oblivious to this risk, or at least, more willing to push against the button until the inevitable mistake or insane parry finally gets their ok.

    ***

    We occasionally talk about music here and The Quietus is my go-to for keeping up with what’s happening in the avant garde, electronic, contemporary and rock scenes. Great interview this week with Aaron Hemphill from Liars and Nonpareil.

    Reply ↓
  28. Mikel

    ‘Get things done’: China tries to rally risk-averse officials to revive economy – South China Morning Post

    Move fast and break things…with Chinese characteristics?
    Just a tweak of so many buzzwords heard before in the USA.

    “The Three Exempts” sounds like the name of a doo-wop group that never made it.

    Reply ↓
  29. Ignacio

    The antidote is a sunfish. Strange in Spanish these are called pez luna, so moonfish. In Danish it is klumpfisk which might be translated as lumpfish. In French pesciu tondu might be translated as cropped fish. Weird isn’t it?

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      They can be huge! I recall one showing up on the beach near Biarritz that was about 4 meters across. A wonderful creature. Respect!

      Reply ↓
    2. sarmaT

      The fish is weird. Difference in names, not so much. Moon-fish in used in some other languages too, though I see many use mola (which came from Latin).

      Reply ↓
  31. Glen

    Apologies if this has been reported. Here’s the news on the CUPS security issue. CUPS is a printing system common to Unix based operating systems such as Linux:

    That doomsday critical Linux bug: It’s CUPS. May lead to remote hijacking of devices https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/cups_linux_rce_disclosed/

    CUPS Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Fix Available https://ubuntu.com/blog/cups-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-fix-available

    CUPS has been supported/developed by Apple, but I have seen no reports that Apple devices have been affected.

    Reply ↓
    1. Procopius

      Thanks. I run Ubuntu Linux 24.04.1 and have a printer connected, so have CUPS. I think Apple devices would be affected — IIRC iOS is just a fork of Debian Linux, although it’s diverged pretty far by now.

      Reply ↓
  32. Anonted

    Re: Milei gov

    “They had left us on the cusp of becoming a country where practically all the residents are poor,” he said…

    So they cut 50% of the population loose, to ‘save’ the other ‘50%’ (feeling generous). Noble of them. Dirty job and all.

    This is standard, capitalist fare, but in the first world we go at a humane, sustainable, 15-20% or so; and many of our untermenschen suffer to see old age! Seems Argentina is in for a few shakes. *sips tea*

    Reply ↓
    1. CA

      Milei gov:

      “They had left us on the cusp of becoming a country where practically all the residents are poor,” he said…

      [ Importantly, this is not true. Argentina experienced very little growth for 45 years, however earlier policy had left Argentina with a relatively high per capita GDP. High per capita GDP and little growth for decades meant extreme income inequality. The level of poverty reflects extreme income inequality. ]

      Reply ↓
      1. Anonted

        Quite. Austerity being the tool that ensures our betters can maintain their standing, while others (No! Not me! Please!) perform their pedestrian duty, taking it on the chin. There is no alternative.

        Reply ↓
      2. skippy

        Every time I see GDP I hear in my mind a drum beating faster and faster in a slave galley. They work harder, but the distribution vectors go to the owners of the slave galley.

        Reply ↓
  33. steppenwolf fetchit

    That article from the Hill on how Climachange intensifies hurricanes has the following interesting sentence . . . . ” Noting the increase in wind speeds, earlier this year scientists suggested adding a Category 6 to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, saying that the currently used categories 1 through 5 are “inadequate” as hurricanes continue to intensify. ”

    I think that is a very good idea. (Beau of the Fifth Column made a video about why he thinks it is a bad idea. He thinks that if people hear that a hurricane is Category Five, they will say that at least it is not a Category Six, and therefor it is a minor hurricane and does not matter. In this instance I would disagree with Beau. Truth in Labelling is more important than saving clueproof people from their own refusal to understand what words, numbers and designations mean.)

    I would go further. I would say we should make the Saffir-Simpson scale open-ended on the up-side.
    Each interval up the scale is almost the same size increment of increasing wind-speed. As long as Category Five is the designated ” Highest Category”, then a 200 mph hurricane and a 300 mph hurricane are both called Category Five. Whereas if we kept adding topside numbers to the Saffir-Simpson scale for every further equal-sized increment in rising sustained wind speed, then the Truth in Labeling principle would be maintained no matter how high the sustained windspeed.

    If we keep adding Categories to the Saffir-Simpson scale as the sustained windspeed keeps rising in equal-sized increments, our measuring system will be prepared for the Supercanes of near future, the Hypercanes of the mid-future, and the Ultra Mega Ginormicanes of the farther future after that.

    If a hurricane deSERVES Category Seven or Category Eight or Category Nine status then it should GET
    Category Seven or Eight or Nine status.

    Reply ↓
  34. steppenwolf fetchit

    . . . ” “Here’s the truth, Israel seeks, yearns, has made and will make peace again”. Netanyahu’s address in UN” . . .

    Oh REAlly . . . ? Well, that’s part of the truth. Here is a part of the truth which Netanyahu quietly left unsaid . . . . that when the IsraelGov sought to work on making a yearned-for peace by joining into the Norway-hosted Oslo Process, Netanyahu and his helpers assiduously created the social climate for assassinating Rabin, using the disposable little Oswald called Yigal Amir.

    If we accept Pape’s suggested distinction between “Israel” and “Judea”, then we could write an equal sized add-on to that headline which would read . . . ” Here’s the truth, Judea rejects, hates, has destroyed and will destroy peace again”.

    I personally suspect that many of the few-remaining Israelis do ” yearn, seek, etc., whatever” peace but are unwilling and probably no longer even able to do the one thing that would make peace possible. And that one thing would be to swiftly and savagely exterminate the Judeans into submission or enough demographic reduction that the Israelis would again become the commanding majority in Judea and would be able to turn it into Israel again. Then they would use that power to cancel the law “annexing” East Jerusalem and “annexing” the Golan Heights, and they would move all the illegal settlers out of the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem either by marching them at gunpoint back into Lesser Israel Proper or killing them all in place. And then also moving the Separation Apartheid Wall right back onto the border of Lesser Israel itself.

    And then wait as many years or decades as it takes to see whether the Palestinians and Arabs ever come to regard these as “confidence building measures” or not.

    If Israel can do all of that and keep it kept done, then Israel might regain the Mandate of Darwin. If it can’t , then it is likely that Judea will lose the Mandate of Darwin in the fullness of time.

    Reply ↓
  35. zach

    Moving Bricks: Money-Laundering Practices in the Online Scam Industry Global China Pulse

    Thanks for the added context. The Springfield Legitimate Businessman’s Social Club will retain my patronage, just can’t trust all that cyber hooha.

    Reply ↓
  36. Jason Boxman

    The western NC debacle continues. Asheville seems to have it worse, but Internet access seems to be down throughout the region. No notifications from Spectrum still. The login server was broken earlier, so if you had a working cellular tower, you could not get information about your Spectrum service. They fixed that finally, and now you can get information when you login, which is just that Internet is done. Duh. They finally have — maybe always did, but I never got any notifications — a global page about storm status that I don’t think needs a login, but it is generic. No maps of where service is effected, for example.

    In my immediate area, regular gasoline is gone. I didn’t see any places with any. With the Internet down, there are lines at ATMs for cash. Officially people are supposed to stay off the roads, so I haven’t ventured to see if any grocery stores are open or what the level of food supply might be.

    Relative to Florida, the overall level of official preparation for this seemed to be low. In Florida you’d see tree trimming track caravans moving up and down I75 or I95 or parked in staging areas. I’ve only seen one so far, 48 hours after the event. I’ve heard the lack of reliable cellular and Internet is effecting official communications. We certainly saw this with an inability to coordinate between agencies during the first Trump assassination attempt.

    Here we are, 20 years after the 9-11 commission, and we still don’t have reliable inter-agency communications systems; and here we have no functional cellular network, the workaround to this 20 year failure of effective governance. Surprise.

    Someone on the Twitter asked Musk to provide StarLink services. Hilariously probably not a bad idea.

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