Links 11/22/2024

Why Do Banks Fail? Three Facts About Failing Banks Liberty Street Economics

High growth doesn’t tell the story of the US economy FT

Wall Street Took Over a Vital Sign Language Service—And Started Union Busting Workday Magazine

Climate

New global climate finance draft poses challenges for developing world Business Standard

Climate change is increasing hurricane wind speeds, study finds Axios

Pacific Northwest reeling from bomb cyclone; atmospheric river targets California USA Today

Almost half of Spain’s flood victims were aged 70 or over, data shows Euronews

Syndemics

USDA: California Announces 63 More Infected Dairy Herds (n=398) – More Poultry Outbreaks in 7 States Avian Flu Diary

Human Cases of Bird Flu Confirmed to Be Occurring Undetected in The US Science Alert

Five Years On: A Covid Retrospective Nate Bear, ¡Do Not Panic!

India

Three Bank of America bankers in India depart over alleged client tips FT

Sri Lanka’s president makes U-turn on IMF bailout Channel News Asia

Syraqistan

Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in Israel-Hamas fighting AP

Starmer backs arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli Prime Minister ‘will be arrested if he enters the UK’ Daily Mail

Biden calls ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders ‘outrageous’ Anadolu Agency

* * *

Israel’s ‘Day After’ Plan for Gaza Is No Secret if You Know Where to Look Haaretz

* * *

Israel’s state prosecution indicts main suspect in Netanyahu’s office leak scandal Anadolu Agency

* * *

Tehran to launch ‘new and advanced’ centrifuges in response to IAEA censure France24

The Koreas

South Korea’s Dockyards: A New Factor in Korea-US Military Burden-sharing The Diplomat

Ukraine Is Now a Proxy War for Asian Powers RAND

New Not-So-Cold War

What I Am Talking About… Andrei Martyanov, Reminiscence of the Future…. Videos.

Russia fired experimental missile at Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin FT

Ukraine Fires US Missiles at Russia Risking Wider War Joe Lauria, Consortium News

‘New’ Russian missile used against Ukraine not hypersonic, defense officials say FOX

* * *

Thunderbolt from the Skies: Putin’s Doomsday Weapon Puts NATO on Final Notice Simplicius, Simplicius the Thinker

Biden’s ATACMS Gambit on Ukraine Could Blow up in America’s Face The National Interest

New Missiles Won’t Change Ukraine’s Broken War Math Foreign Policy

* * *

Using Missiles as Diplomacy: Ukraine & Russia w/John Mearsheimer (video) Daniel Davis / Deep Dive, YouTube

Glenn Greenwald: Dangerous New Escalation in Russia, & Our Blackmailed Politicians (video) Tucker Carlson, YouTube

* * *

Russia targets three of Ukrainian largest energy company’s five operating thermal power plants over the weekend Ukrainska Pravda

Analysts outline three scenarios for Ukraine’s winter blackouts BNE Intellinews

* * *

Hybrid warfare? China sabotaging Baltic Sea cables would be ‘super surprising’, experts say France24

Suspected undersea cable sabotage had ‘little-to-no observable impact’ on internet service and quality — Cloudflare says suspected sabotage incident mitigated with redundant design Tom’s Hardware

* * *

Trump may be right about Ukraine’s endgame FT

The New Great Game

After a slow start, the Georgian protests are gathering momentum BNE Intellinews

Systematic election violations in Georgia aimed to secure ruling party victory, say local NGOs JAM News

South of the Border

Lula and Xi sign dozens of trade deals as Brazil-China ties deepen Al Jazeera

Brazil’s Federal Police indict Jair Bolsonaro, two generals and 34 others for coup attempt El Pais

Venezuelans Debate 30-Year Plan for Popular Democracy in Historic Bloc Congress Venezuelanalysis

Trump Transition

Ex-Trump deputy press secretary: No Treasury pick yet because ‘it’s a long list of folks’ The HIll

* * *

Michael Pollan Is Not Endorsing RFK Jr. Poliitico

We’ve got a bigger problem now Closed Form. MAHA.

* * *

Democrats strike deal to get more Biden judges confirmed before Congress adjourns AP

Our Famously Free Press

A Legal Showdown Over Press Freedom The Free Press

Spook Country

The FBI and DHS leaders won’t testify publicly about national security threats before the Senate AP

I Don’t Own a Cellphone. Can This Privacy-Focused Network Change That? 404 Media

Healthcare

How Stem Cells Stay Young The Scientist

Book Nook

Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.” Vanity Fair

Leaving Cormac: Life Lessons From My Correspondence with Lee McCarthy Literary Hub

Digital Watch

How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment NYT The deck: “Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible.”

What you need to know about the proposed measures designed to curb Google’s search monopoly AP

Zeitgeist Watch

Clonazepam, popular anxiety-reducing drug, recalled nationwide for ‘possibly life-threatening’ error FOX

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Who coined the term dystopian? What is considered the earliest dystopian novel? Daily Mail

Guillotine Watch

Billionaires Are Bad: Revisiting 50 Shades of Grey in the Age of Mega-Rich Creepers Literary Hub

Class Warfare

Michigan Nurses Win the Largest Union Election in Years Labor Notes

The 51st: Building a worker-led newsroom from the ashes of DCist Editor and Publisher

General Strike 2028 Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic

How Native Americans Guarded Their Societies Against Tyranny JSTOR Daily

Antidote du jour (Romano Gianluca):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

This entry was posted in Links on by .

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.

134 comments

    1. Randall Flagg

      I hope so as well but I doubt those dumb*** mother family bloggers will.
      What evidence could be presented that they may introduce themselves to the reality we live in?

      Reply
      1. Trees&Trunks

        Now would be a good time to look up the website of your country’s parliament and government and to start sending emails. I have a nice bottle of wine to support me this weekend keyboard-warring for peace.

        US
        https://www.house.gov/representatives

        EU
        https://the-president.europarl.europa.eu/en and MEPs https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home

        France
        https://www.elysee.fr/en/
        https://www.info.gouv.fr/contact/premier-ministre

        UK
        https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

        Germany
        https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/service/contact/contactform
        https://www.bundeskanzler.de/resource/blob/1833748/2157584/59796a789cbd9dabb0e2f78b46a3d11b/2023-01-13-organigramm-bk-en-data.pdf?download=1
        https://www.bundestag.de/en/members

        Reply
    2. mrsyk

      Thanks. From your link, …. Because there are no means of countering such weapons today. Missiles attack targets at a speed of Mach 10, which is 2.5 to 3 kilometres per second. Air defence systems currently available in the world and missile defence systems being created by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept such missiles. It is impossible.

      Reply
      1. midtownwageslave

        I wonder if this means that any interceptor missiles need to achieve a speed of at least mach 10. Sounds like a tall order.

        Reply
        1. cfraenkel

          No, because they’re moving towards you. You can just put a rock directly in their path and it would be enough. Getting it there to exactly the right place, when you have maybe two to five minutes to do so is the part that is practically impossible.

          Reply
          1. Polar Socialist

            This is true. It’s basically a limitation of radar physics – at these speeds they can either have a good measurement of the target speed or range to target, but not both. Unfortunately both are needed to place that rock on the path of the incoming missile.

            Reply
    3. Acacia

      George Galloway is getting out front, stating that the UK would be hit first:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK6rbIsV6Bg

      Excerpts:

      Re: Biden, “a man not fit to be president again is nonetheless fit to take the world into nuclear oblivion. Of course, the Democrats are allowing him to do it because its primary purpose is not to assist the crook of Kiev, Vladimir Zelenski, the primary purpose is to scuttle the incoming Battleship called Donald J Trump”.

      “Britain fired 12 cruise missiles into Russia today, and the Parliament was not even told never mind consulted. Not only was there no parliamentary vote on it there was not a parliamentary murmur against it.”

      “I confidently predict that the United States would be prepared to broker a halt after Britain had been incinerated. The United States would not be prepared to see every city in the United States wiped off the face of the Earth in retaliation for the incineration of the United Kingdom and — guess what? — neither would our European allies.”

      Reply
      1. Neutrino

        Silence from so many in Washington about the wreckless and spiteful behaviors of Biden and others.
        Combine that with the refusal of Wray and Mayorkas to testify in front of the Senate and that adds to the dysfunction and malevolence. The latter is reportedly angling for some type of immunity as part of an early exit. Rich, considering what he and so many others in his sphere enabled on borders and in cities across the country.

        Politicians with memory loss about who elected them, and why. Not a banner period for the country as it slides further into low-trust territory.

        Reply
      2. Martin Oline

        He is right about Biden not being fit to be president. Someone should make a portrait of Joseph Biden using only vegetables to reflect his vegetative state, like the Giuseppe Arcimboldo portrait of Rudolf II that consisted of multiple fruits, vegetables and flowers. Here is a picture of Vertumnus.

        Reply
  1. The Rev Kev

    “Biden’s ATACMS Gambit on Ukraine Could Blow up in America’s Face”

    A gambit is an act to give you an advantage. This is not what Biden did. No amount of western missiles will change the course of the war but what Biden did was to have the US military attack Russia itself. I ask you. What was the advantage there? All it did was to ramp up tensions with a nuclear power for no gain whatsoever. You even have Pentagon officials saying that the US is ready for nuclear war. Col. Douglas Macgregor was talking to Judge Napolitano and he was ropeable about this. Then Biden went further and also authorized shipments of illegal anti-personnel mines to the Ukrainians. And I think that this was Biden telling Putin that even though the war is lost, that he will see to it that as many Russians will be killed and wounded as possible-

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2d1lj3nwqo

    So don’t forget that grandpa has nearly two more months to keep this up and push the Russians into a nuclear corner. If the US still had napalm stocks he would be sending them as well. People were having hysterics how Trump had the nuclear football back in 2016 so how do these people feel about grandpa having that nuclear football right now?

    Reply
    1. Randall Flagg

      >So don’t forget that grandpa has nearly two more months to keep this up and push the Russians into a nuclear corner. If the US still had napalm stocks he would be sending them as well. People were having hysterics how Trump had the nuclear football back in 2016 so how do these people feel about grandpa having that nuclear football right now?

      Doesn’t matter, TDS ( and submission to the MIC), overwhelms any and all possible moments of reason and common sense, microscopically minuscule they may be. Even when that means the possibility of the extinction of most human beings in the northern hemisphere of Planet Earth.

      Reply
    2. griffen

      I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing the proverbial glue…or was it those Magic Markers back in the day as well?!?

      America as we turn slowly into 2025….

      Reply
    1. anahuna

      Charming fellow.

      Here’s an excerpt from the LitHub article about his second wife, Lee McCarthy:

      “Lee will eventually leave and head West, telling her version of the split in a poem I heard her read again and again. Transported back to “the front porch of a farmhouse near Pigeon Forge,” she says: “You don’t act as if you want a wife and baby. You act as if you want to be single again.”

      “I guess that’s right,” the man says. I picture Lee packing a suitcase that she drags to the porch where Cormac waits.

      “But what will you do?” the man in the poem says to Lee, “Be a whore?”

      Reply
      1. mrsyk

        Aren’t we all, in some small way, charming fellows? The long quote you hoisted seems a common story of the disintegration of a marriage. I seem to remember acting less than noble when my first marriage was heading for the dumpster.
        McCarthy wrote much about how good and evil coexist within us all, and the struggle to consciously choose the former and not fall back to the latter.

        Reply
    2. DJG, Reality Czar

      mrsyk:

      I read the article by Vincenzo Barney, “Secret Muse,” about Augusta Britt.

      It is an excellent look into how writers work and how writers’ lives intrude into their work and how one’s life is fodder for one’s work. The excerpts from Cormac McCarthy’s letters are wonderful to read — for his emotions, for his command of the English language.

      [But then I still write many letters and still think of letters as part of the art and skill of being a writer.]

      Barney also doesn’t fall into the usual trap of so-called literary and theater critics — running an agenda and engaging in psychobabble. There isn’t much sensationalism in this article.

      One thing that intrigues is the age difference. One has to set aside one’s puritanism. Also, I write from Italy, where the age of consent is 16.

      I am reminded of the French writer Colette, whose life was always fodder for her fiction. When she was roughly the same age as McCarthy at his meeting with August Britt, Colette was busy seducing her stepson Bertrand de Jouvenel, who was then about 17. This event likely led to one of her masterpieces, Chéri. (There is some evidence that she also had a love affair with a young noble/athlete who was over 21, who may also be the source of the character, Fred, of Chéri.) Her third husband, her great love, Maurice Goudeket, was 17 years younger than she was.

      I was reminded in reading the profile of Augusta Britt how much the U.S. of A. is segregated by age.

      The one detail in an article otherwise so life affirming is McCarthy’s unfortunate ties to the various intellectuals at the Santa Fe Institute. Those are the only section of the article tinged with sadness. Maybe McCarthy should have hung out instead at the Plaza and eaten Frito pies.

      Reply
      1. lyman alpha blob

        That was a great article. I choked up a little at the end where Augusta recounted her recent dream involving McCarthy.

        Regarding the age segregation, one of my favorite experiences was stumbling into a Greek wedding years ago. Pretty much everyone in the town was in attendance, and everybody ate and drank and danced well into the night, children and grandparents and everybody else all together. You definitely don’t see that type of thing often in the US. I chalk that up to the Puritan sensibilities of the country’s founders which we haven’t quite rid ourselves of yet. As Mencken noted of Puritanism – it’s “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”.

        Reply
        1. tawal

          Happened to me and my girlfriend at the time in Poros when we were traveling Europe in 1983-84. We were met with smiles from people in a lorry saying wedding! Helped into the back of the lorry and taken up into the hills for a glorious night of merriment!

          Reply
    3. mrsyk

      Whoa, I’ve just met Augusta Britt. What a story. It appears we (Cormac McCarthy readers) are all in her debt.
      Then, sometime in the ’80s, McCarthy sends her the manuscript for All the Pretty Horses. “The first thing I see, obviously, is the title. And I thought, Oh my gosh. I started reading it, and it’s just so full of me, and yet isn’t me. It was so confusing. Reading about Blevins getting killed was so sad. I cried for days. And I remember thinking to myself that being such a lover of books, I was surprised it didn’t feel romantic to be written about. I felt kind of violated. All these painful experiences regurgitated and rearranged into fiction. I didn’t know how to talk to Cormac about it because Cormac was the most important person in my life. I wondered, Is that all I was to him, a trainwreck to write about?

      I see the overly starched crowd are up in arms over the impropriety (Vanity Fair under fire for ‘glorifying’ Cormac McCarthy’s sexual relationship with underage ‘muse’), all while packaging it as click bait.

      Reply
      1. BlueMoose

        I also appreciated the extra insight into his writing provided by this article. It appears he was human after all. I might just take the plunge and read Blood Meridian finally.

        Reply
        1. lyman alpha blob

          You should. It is very high on my list of “great American novel”, up there with All the King’s Men, Underworld, a few by Twain. The Judge Holden character has got to be one of the most memorable ones in American literature (although that may be because I just read it in the last year – my memory isn’t what it used to be!). Read it, and you’ll have a better understanding of why war will likely always be with us.

          Reply
          1. Craig H.

            You only have to read it once. Not because it is not objectively a great novel. But because the unspeakable horror ought not be stomached two times.

            Reply
  2. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Biden calls ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders ‘outrageous’

    Come to think of it, there should be an ICC arrest warrant for Biden for state sponsorship of the genocide. I wonder why there isn’t?

    Reply
    1. Samuel Conner

      One suspects that part of JRB’s umbrage is the implication that he is accessory to crimes against humanity. I suppose that he may be thinking, channeling a famous predecessor, that “when the President does it, it isn’t a crime against humanity.”

      I take a small bit of comfort from the thought that JRB, and the people who arranged for him to be the 2020 D nominee, will not be remembered favorably by the writers of future histories of this time.

      Reply
    2. ChrisFromGA

      Trump has to think long and hard about this. He’s protected, for now, being President-elect. However, the minute he is sworn in he becomes responsible for enabling Netanyahu’s genocide as well. If one of his first EO’s isn’t to cut off the supply of lethal aid, then he goes down in history with Genocide Joe.

      Reply
    3. Emma

      They don’t want to be invaded as prescribed by US law.

      I was amusing myself with figuring out how many individuals can properly found to have committed serious warcrimes or worse and I think the Chinese are going to have to re-open their Uyghur deradicalization centers to house and process them all.

      Perhaps with some jobs training and the appropriate ideological reorientation, someone like Jake Tapper can be rehabilitated into being a sanitation engineer and not think racist thoughts every time he sees an Arab.

      Reply
    4. Polar Socialist

      United States ratified the Genocide Convention only after granted immunity from prosecution without the consent of the US government.

      Reply
  3. The Rev Kev

    “Ukraine Is Now a Proxy War for Asian Powers”

    They keep on talking about these North Korean troops, supposedly in Kursk, and the latest estimate for their number has now reached 10,000 men. So where are they? Are they the world’s masters in the arts of camouflage? But I think I know where they are. Back during the Korean war you might have a battalion of Chinese troops moving near a village. But when word was received that a US plane was in the area they would rush into that village and cram themselves into those huts. You might have scores jammed together into just one hut. Meanwhile the US pilot above would be looking down and saying to himself ‘Nope! no enemy troops here.’ So maybe they should be paying attention to all those houses in all those settlements in Kursk for them. /sarc

    Reply
    1. vao

      Ah, now I understand why the Ukrainians have been so intent on conquering town supermarkets in the Kursk region. You can cram more North Koreans there than in your normal dacha.

      Reply
    2. Bugs

      My thinking on the elusive DPRK soldiers in Russia is that the ingenious Kim Jong-un deployed the secret Chinese human shrinking science first mentioned in Vonnegut’s Slapstick.

      The dastardly orientals are so small that they just look like a green mist in their tiny uniforms. They can use the slightest gusts of wind to fly to the front and deploy their useless (or highly advanced and very scary) weapons to wipe out the last traces of democracy in noble, scrapy little Ukraine, our firewall against the Moscovite tyranny that intends to depose Queen Ursula and enslave rule-based Europe for a millenium.

      Reply
  4. The Rev Kev

    “COMMENT: After a slow start, the Georgian protests are gathering momentum”

    I got an idea. There are a lot of despondent Democrats right now after losing that election, right? So what if the Georgians helped organize a sit-in protest on the Mall until the Republicans are forced to let the Democrats keep power? It’ll be great. They can have tents and toilets and everything. You could have the Ambassadors from China, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, etc. come down and make speeches how those protestors have to fight for democracy so that the right side wins because freedom. You could ask all those Democrat protestors how could the Republicans have possibly won the election as every respectable person they knew voted Harris. That it must have been rigged. Biden might even go along with it if it mean that he stays in the White House. Sounds like a plan to me.

    Reply
  5. AG

    material related to the Dnipro missile attack:

    Andrei Martyanov with Nima on “Dialogue Works”
    48 min.
    https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2024/11/nima-and-yours-truly_21.html

    As I understand the main goal was to demonstrate to WH personnel that in case WWIII breaks out they will die too. Because no bunker is safe any more and RU will find and kill them. So better negotiate. There is nothing to gain from escalation.

    However I doubt that an attack on NATO installations on NATO territory – as Zakharova apparently suggested – would help resolve this. Because if an Art. 5 event happens media here will go berserk and make it difficult for governments to negotiate for real. So I don´t quite want to believe that would happen as the next step. But I can be wrong.
    Ian Proud suggested the same scenario as Martyanov.

    According to this Meduza report RU did inform US about the attack on Dnipro in advance:
    https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/11/21/russia-pre-notified-washington-about-missile-strike-on-dnipro-through-nuclear-risk-reduction-channels

    Dmitry Stefanovich with a short ad-hoc thread on Twitter about Dnipro:

    “Please welcome – Oreshnik (Hazel)”
    https://nitter.poast.org/KomissarWhipla/status/1859703757078135101#m

    And on Nov. 20th CSIS had this 2-part panel on the situation from US POV:

    Report Launch: Project Atom 2024

    https://www.csis.org/events/report-launch-project-atom-2024

    part 1 is 3 hours
    part 2 is 2,5 hours.

    part 2 contains a keynote by Rear Admiral Buchanan from US-StratCom.

    on Buchanan:
    https://www.stratcomds.com/2024/speaker/1245200/rear-admiral-thomas-buchanan

    The speech is hard to listen to practicing the art of saying something without expressing anything.

    However I liked the dishonesty of the term “integrated deterrence”. Take your own guess what that means.

    I believe it´s a nice way of justifying regime change and US state terrorism making it part of national security.

    There is a Q&A however afterwards.

    That´s more revealing.

    e.g.:

    TC 32:30 Buchanan says in essence that Stratcom believes a nuclear war is winnable if the US afterwards remains the hegemon and has still forces to deter with. It is a convoluted statement but worth to take in.

    TC 52:00+ he is scaremongering. He says Americans should be ready.
    Ready for what?
    Ready that things “can turn bad”.

    And then he tries to defuse that statement again.

    Nice try. I am sure it was registered by the audience in the intended way.

    Additionally in between however he admits all the bad news from industrial US we are getting, without matter of fact admitting it once.

    He says, we need to build SSBNs faster (than China, and cheaper, too, I think he means to say) and that the armed forces are about to employ more welders and craftsmen building ships! (in a panel on CSIS!!! imagine that.)

    And he constantly praises USA pre-1939/41 when they still could build “things”. And they need to get back to that.

    Altogether in public not a word uttered about backing down, about changing anything about how the world works and how the US behaves.

    Instead more of them same, i.e. 2-front war. And that the US population should prepare for hotter war than the Cold War.

    So yeah, it´s all pretty fucked up.

    For the rest 4,5 hours I have had no time yet. But I assume it´s just a bunch of genocidal maniacs who have learned NOTHING. USA USA USA!

    How are you supposed to talk to these people without a machine gun in your hand. To quote Martyanov who likes to quote Al Capone.

    Reply
      1. AG

        re: Capone on an OT-note!

        from Wiki on Brian De Palma´s crime thriller “The Untouchables” (1987)

        “Robert De Niro was De Palma’s first choice to play Al Capone, but it was uncertain if he could appear in the film because of his appearance in the Broadway play Cuba and his Teddy Bear. He also wanted to gain about 30 pounds (14 kg) to play Capone; according to De Palma, De Niro was “very concerned about the shape of his face for the part.”[1] De Palma met with Bob Hoskins to discuss the role in case De Niro could not appear. When De Niro took the part, De Palma mailed Hoskins a check for £20,000 with a “Thank You” note, which prompted Hoskins to call up De Palma and ask him if there were any more films he didn’t want him to be in.[14][15] Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando were also considered as options in case both De Niro and Hoskins proved unable to perform the role.[5] De Niro’s research for the role of Al Capone included reading about him and watching historical footage.[16] He had one extra scene written for his character, and contacted Capone’s original tailors to have identical suits and silk underwear made for him. He was paid $1.5 million for the role.”

        Reply
  6. The Rev Kev

    “Thunderbolt from the Skies: Putin’s Doomsday Weapon Puts NATO on Final Notice”

    Not to be missed is the section near the bottom marked-

    ‘Victor Orban’s thematic speech at the Eurasia Forum in Budapest today puts a finishing touch to underscore developments’

    Orban really puts recent developments into a formal context and you wonder if he has talked about this with Trump. In short-

    ‘The five-hundred-year era of dominance of Western civilization is over’

    And this coming from a western politician. No wonder the EU leaders hate him so much as this is the last thing they want to hear.

    Reply
    1. CA

      ‘The five-hundred-year era of dominance of Western civilization is over’ – Victor Orban

      [ Astonishing understanding and honesty for a Western leader. Truly an impressive diplomat, to be able to understand a past self-destructiveness of Hungarian leaders during the 1930s and ’40s and knowing that legacy must be forever discarded. ]

      Reply
      1. helianthus

        “Truly an impressive diplomat. Astonishing understanding and honesty for a Western leader.”

        Is it April Fools Day already?

        “Truly impressive” in this way? “The mafia-like character of Orban’s regime explains his behavior.
        A criminal organisation, whether private or public, has three crucial needs: sources of money, the ability to launder it, and impunity for its members. The last requires neutralizing law enforcement, which Orban is finding much harder to do at the European Union level than at home. Over the past decade, Hungary’s mafia state has mastered the first two imperatives – looting and laundering money.”

        https://balkaninsight.com/2019/06/21/hungarys-mafia-state-fights-for-impunity/

        Or this way here?

        https://apnews.com/article/hungary-orban-arrest-warrant-netanyahu-2b25696df9b6d8a6624a8c4243ce3368

        Apparently the world is in urgent need of more mafia states, more corrupt authoritarian strong men posing as populists, and more PR Kool Aid for its thirsty citizens.

        Reply
        1. Yves Smith

          Your tone is out of line. But you are giving me an excuse to identify a new disorder: Populist Derangement Syndrome.

          Orban is in fact heads and shoulder in terms of the caliber of his commentary above any EU leader I can think of. We are supposed to see you as credible when you effectively maintain that he is worse that Ursuala von der Leyen, Scholz, Habeck, Baerbock, Macron, Starmer (or Truss or Sunak or Bojo)? Having said that, Meloni is pretty good.

          Balkan Insight is funded top to bottom by neoliberal/neocon NGOs. The idea that Hungary is a money laundering center is rich. Nicholas Shaxxson, in his definitive Treasure Islands, in fact described how US and UK banking complexes are the biggest money launderers. A country with a very minor currency is not at all well suited for money laundering. And on official money laundering scores (which lump in corruption, when that is a separate category), Hungary’s score is similar to the Switzerland of Central America, Costa Rica’s, and higher than Hong Kong’s.

          I agree it is poor for Orban to say he won’t execute the ICC warrant, but your argument around that amounts to halo effect thinking, of seeing people as all good or bad. That is a cognitive bias. And many doubt that the EU countries that say the will honor the warrant will actually do so if, say, Netanyahu’s plane were to make an emergency landing.

          Reply
          1. helianthus

            1. TONE: “the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.”

            2. ATTITUDE: “point of view, informal: truculent or uncooperative behavior”

            3. In other words, you appear to be unhappy with my attitude and my point of view as you interpret it. My attitude and/or my point of view is irrelevant to the evidence that is publicly available. Apparently that same evidence is creating cognitive dissonance for yourself, as it appears to be contrary to your personal beliefs and what you have invested in them, if in fact your response is an honest indicator.

            4. A deliberate and calculated reliance on intellectually third-rate, emotionally inflammatory pejoratives (“Pejorative is an adjective that describes something that has a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force. In modern English, pejorative is used to describe words or phrases that express disapproval or suggest that something is not good or is of no importance.”), i.e., “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a pseudo psychiatric diagnosis, in order to shut down or discredit an opposing evidence based reply has an interesting historical precedent that you should be well aware of and therefore should know that it is simply an intimidation tactic.

            That is, for example, “Speaking to Reuters during his detention, Umerov described how the entire experience reminded him of the Soviet-era practice of punitive psychiatry, when dissidents and activists were locked away under trumped-up mental health diagnoses in an effort to intimidate them and other dissidents into silence. “It is all an attempt to keep the population in a constant state of fear,” he told Reuters. “If the Mejlis [self-governing body] deputy chairman can be charged and punished, then everyone else should just shut up.””

            https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5224961/

            You can research the entire history yourself, further noting that the admirers and apologists for authoritarianism and its methods most certainly reveal the form and substance that is their personal hierarchy of values,

            5. Another reality demonstrating the use of intimidation by the cult of the authoritarian strongman, “A crack in the system emerged after the 2014 election, however, when one of Orban’s most loyal oligarchs, Lajos Simicska, defected and briefly led his media outlets in an anti-Orban campaign ahead of the 2018 election. Threatened with assassination, Simicska turned over his companies to Orban loyalists and fled the country.”

            6. You state that, “Balkan Insight is funded top to bottom by neoliberal/neocon NGOs.” Do you have “neoliberal/neocon” Derangement Syndrome? You have failed to discredit in any credible way, the multiple analyses that exist demonstrating the Orban/Hungary reality. Again, for example,

            https://transparency.hu/en/news/cpi-2023-results-annual-report/

            https://jordanrussiacenter.org/blog/sociology-of-corruption-patterns-of-illegal-association-in-hungary

            7. “but your argument around that amounts to halo effect thinking,” How so? Explain in detail. Provide evidence.

            8. “We are supposed to see you as credible . . . ?
            The available evidence speaks for itself. How you choose to interpret that same evidence is up to yourself, as is always the case.

            Reply
  7. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Systematic election violations in Georgia aimed to secure ruling party victory, say local NGOs

    First of all, the article is extremely vague as to the details of the alleged fraud. One thing they cite is “organized transportation of voters” to the polls. I don’t know about Georgian law, but in the US that is not illegal, and the article doesn’t claim it’s illegal in Georgia. If it were, you’d think they’d mention that. They cite security cameras “positioned to compromise ballot secrecy”. Well where exactly were these cameras? If they were actually recording people marking ballots, that’s a problem, but that is not what’s claimed. Lots of other allegations about “violations” and “altercations” with no mention of which side was doing the violating and altercating.

    One of the “local” NGOs is the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy. After searching for all of about 3 seconds, this comes up, which was eminently predicatable: https://www.usaid.gov/georgia/news/isfed-launches-election-monitoring-under-usaids-elections-and-political-processes-program

    Yes, that’s a notice from USAID’s website about their cooperation with this NGO. For those not familiar, that’s the US spooks. The “local” NGO is a CIA asset. That’s who’s running the show in Georgia – organic protest my sweet Aunt Fannie.

    It’s a big interweb and I’m quite sure Georgians are well aware of who runs USAID and what their purpose is. Perhaps some of these vaguely documented altercations were Georgian citizens giving the spook-backed “election monitors” what for.

    Reply
    1. .human

      We read here recently that in this country of little more than 3 1/2 million souls, there are some 25,000 NGOs. That’s just a little less than 1/150!

      Reply
    1. Socal Rhino

      Russia combat tested a hypersonic ballistic missile with a relatively flat trajectory and multiple maneuverable warheads capable of striking anywhere in Europe without any possible defense, explicitly in response to Western countries firing missiles into Russia proper, and promised further tests in response to any future western strikes on Russia. These tests used conventional warheads but can deliver nuclear. Putin gave prior warning and said civilian warnings will precede any future strikes. He specifically called out the US, UK, and France.

      If you’ve seen the video, that was all one missile.

      Reply
      1. ChrisFromGA

        I think that part of the deal is that Ukraine will now be a testing ground for these new weapons.

        So, Kiev is no longer safe. I expect to see a drop-off in the Western politicians trekking off there to be seen and get social media likes.

        Reply
      2. Late Introvert

        … gulp. Thanks. I wish I could forward this concise explanation to family and friends, but alas. They don’t want to know, it will confuse/anger/bum them out such that I will just show up at family gatherings all smiles while my gut churns.

        Reply
        1. Acacia

          I wonder what happens if you start to say something to them, pause, and then say “nah, I know you don’t want to know” whilst signing scare quotes in the air with your fingers.

          Reply
  8. LawnDart

    Cory Doctorow:

    Trump won the election because white men, especially young white men, voted for him, but he couldn’t have done it without the votes of white women, and Black and Latino men. These voters may even conceive of themselves as being in favor of women’s rights and of the rights of racial minorities, but they still voted for Trump, because some facet of their identity – their maleness, their whiteness – mattered more to them than everything else.

    Is this projection, or an excercise in mind-reading?

    What a tool.

    Reply
    1. flora

      I love what Glenn and Tucker had to say about libs who think they “own” the voters when those same voters go against the libs preferences. How dare they!? It’s funny cause it’s true.

      Reply
    2. lyman alpha blob

      Lots of projection going on these days. One middle aged white guy involved with the immigrant community in some capacity was interviewed about the election in the local paper. He said that while he hadn’t heard many immigrants say anything about the election one way or the other, still their fear of Trump was real. I had to wonder how he knew that if they hadn’t said anything to him, and why the paper would print such nonsense. Maybe talk to some recent immigrants directly to get a quote instead of using second hand speculation from the TDS afflicted white PMC guy? Amazing how these people can pretend to seem so caring and yet they still manage to come across as the paternalistic jerks they claim to oppose.

      Reply
  9. Captain Obvious

    Tehran to launch ‘new and advanced’ centrifuges in response to IAEA censure France24

    I wonder if they are using those special Russians chips, just in case Israel launches ‘new and advanced’ Stuxnet.

    Reply
  10. sarmaT

    ‘New’ Russian missile used against Ukraine not hypersonic, defense officials say FOX

    Despite Putin’s claim, two U.S. defense officials told Fox News the missile was not hypersonic, which, according to NASA, is a speed greater than 3,000 mph and faster than Mach 5.

    Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?

    Reply
      1. sarmaT

        More like run-of-the-mill stuff. Blatant lies, like this one, have been their modus operandi since forever (hence The Empire of Lies moniker). Back in the days before smartphones, stuff like this would have passed without a hitch. Something, something, old dogs new tricks.

        Even now, people buy Ghost of Kiev, and Snake Island Defenders, and that Klitchko showed them downed Kinzhal (which does look a bit sluggish compared to this doomsday device).

        Reply
    1. Martin Oline

      I saw the video this morning shown on Dima’s Military Summary of the missile in flight and the large plasma envelope surrounding it. That was very impressive and combined with the strike video, sobering. I was surprised to learn that Michelangelo got it wrong – God has six fingers.

      Reply
    2. timbers

      The flashes of light you might have seen in Dima’s video or elsewhere were hand held sparklers. You can get them every 4th of July. I’m hoping to get on the guest list of MSM experts.

      Reply
    3. John Wright

      I guess TPTB thought it was a better look to not be able to shoot down a slower missile.

      They want people to know they COULD have handled a supersonic one.

      In baseball parlance, they can hit the fastball, but not the curve.

      Reply
    4. cfraenkel

      I suppose the tell is putting the “U. S. defense officials” statement next to a NASA definition of hypersonic = speed.

      Thats not the defense meaning of hypersonic, which is a maneuvering vehicle at hypersonic speeds within the atmosphere.

      All ICBMs reenter at hypersonic speeds (much higher, actually). Typical reentry velocity is > 20k ft/sec, or > 13,000 mph. IRBMs are lower, depending on flight path and range, but still way over that NASA speed limit.

      “Hypersonic” has been turned into a propaganda term, kind like ‘gluten-free’ for shaking funds from gullible Congress critters and getting favorable press from useful idiots who can’t be bothered with grade school math.

      Reply
      1. cfraenkel

        The impressive bit from that video are the multiple RVs per ‘flash’. Pure speculation here, just from observation. Part of the offense vs defense calculation has been the use of decoys and chaff to make the interceptor’s job harder, but these are only partly effective as they’re typically very light, so as soon as they hit the upper atmosphere, they fall behind the heavier RV. All those impacts in the video were simultaneous, implying they were more or less the same mass, so assuming they were decoys, they’d be almost impossible to tell apart. Other reports said the Russians used an older ICBM model for the booster, and repurposed it into a shorter range role. If so, then it’s got the throw weight to lob a much heavier payload(s). I’ll bet a lot of folks in DC are inspecting that video frame by frame.

        Reply
      2. sarmaT

        NASA was just thrown in as a buzzword-authority (like “experts say”, or “scientists say”). Videos were made at the ground level, and they show the fastest thing ever fired in anger. For these US defense officials, that’s not even worth a speeding ticket. I guess, if it was a US missile, they would have told Fox News that they have aready recovered driver’s licence and a speedometer stuck at “Ludicrous Speed”.

        Bonus Joke: U.S. defense officials defining hypersonic missile, is like U.S. defense officials defining peace, or victory. They have never seen any of those in real life.

        Reply
    5. Dean

      Hey it wasn’t supersonic guys!

      Whew. That’s a relief.

      But wait…didn’t they still fire a missile in response to Ukraine firing a missile?

      Yes but it wasn’t Supersonic.

      Ummm….okay?

      Reply
  11. eg

    Regarding the Covid retrospective of Nate Bear:

    All resistance to a proper public health response to Covid has been rooted in the profit motive — all of it. From the haste to reduce the period off work after a diagnosis from initially 10 days, to 5 to “when symptoms subside” (never mind asymptomatic spread) all the way to a refusal to take seriously the need to improve indoor air quality infrastructure paralleling the great public works efforts which eliminated the scourge of waterborne diseases all across the Western world over 150 years ago.

    All. Of. It.

    Reply
    1. no one

      I agree. If the current crop of politicians, officials and greedheads had been in power 150 years ago, we would not have clean water in our homes or elsewhere. The investment in clean air fell to our generation and our leaders failed all of us.

      Reply
      1. Raymond Sim

        The same kind of people were in charge back then. They won on airborne diseases but had to give ground on waterborne.

        There’s never been a time when this wasn’t a fight against the powers that be.

        Reply
    2. mrsyk

      I seem to remember a footnote from a CDC presentation on response strategy that Lambert flagged stating that focusing on ventilation was not economically feasible. This was early days of the pandemic, mind you, when maybe we could have mounted a real response.

      Reply
  12. Neutrino

    Doctorow’s Pluralistic article about unions led me to a few observations.

    The assertion about unions voting with near-unanimity against Trump could use some backup as the anecdotal evidence and press reports around the time of the election was not as compelling.

    Shawn Fain of the UAW is an electrifying speaker and motivator to the members and public. His directness resonates!

    Teacher unions need to do a better job of listening to their teachers, parents and students or face irrelevancy and down-votes. Declining achievement trends mean failures on various levels, compounded by shorter careers for teachers. Talk to current and recently retired teachers to understand more of what they are up against and what could be done for them and for their students. Not just about money, but that certainly helps.

    Reply
  13. The Rev Kev

    “South Korea’s Dockyards: A New Factor in Korea-US Military Burden-sharing”

    It is true that South Korea has an ace up it’s sleeve with their productive dockyards. But what if Trump demands that the South Koreans rebuild one of the dockyards in the US itself to build ships with? And why wouldn’t he? He ordered the Taiwanese to build a foundry in the US to build chips with – though it has not worked out so well that. But I would not put it beyond Trump trying to try to make American ship-building great again by having the South Koreans re-build an American dockyards.

    Reply
    1. Emma

      American reliance on South Korea for shipbuilding, munitions, and electronics is so risky when you think about it. The place is basically a small island like Taiwan and it’s technically in a state of war with its nuclear armed only neighbor.

      The genius of outsourcing all out most vital and sophisticated needs to teeny countries on other side of the Pacific!

      Reply
      1. SocalJimObjects

        What’s even more winning is that South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan are places that are rapidly greying out. Birth rate has collapsed and young people just don’t want to have children any more. War is a young man’s game and win or lose, those places won’t even be able to rebuild after a big war. China just has to play the waiting game and it’s pretty much over.

        Despite all the saber rattling, there won’t be a war in East Asia because the demographics look terrible.

        Reply
        1. The Rev Kev

          ‘Birth rate has collapsed and young people just don’t want to have children any more.’

          It may be that because neoliberalism has such a hold in many countries, that many young couples simply cannot afford to have children. Come to think of it, young Chinese have the same problem in their hard capitalist system too. What they have in common is extreme forms of capitalism, which as an after effect, puts a crimp on young people being able to lead normal lives and being able to form families.

          Reply
  14. Afro

    For all of the very intelligent people that we have in this community, and indeed that we can read in adjacent communities, I did not see anybody suggest that Biden/Blinken would be so petty and vindictive as to accelerate the conflict with Russia during the transition. In hindsight it’s arguably kind of obvious that they would, for example they were vindictive enough to sink Kamala Harris, but what I think happened is that most normal and sane people have trouble projecting what really horrible people can plan.

    Reply
    1. AG

      It was suggested by readers. But since many worried about the way the election would go many comments mused over something like this more under the label of “October” surprise, not post election-escalation.
      Another scenario outlined by readers was a possible WWIII to upend a normal election outcome. That was suggested early summer aIready when chatter intensified over a possible coup by Dems.

      On the other hand I asked myself tonight if the Trump win had anything to do with this. And for the moment I doubt that. This escalation of events would have happened any way. By RU and US.

      Reply
    2. Mark Gisleson

      The instantaneous pivot to “surviving until the inauguration” suggests that this wasn’t a sudden realization: Job #1 was keeping Harris out. Job #2 is a direct extension of Job #1: keeping Team Biden from blowing up the world.

      I suspect most here anticipate a lot of chaos and second-level lawfare post-Inauguration but why talk about it now when we are on the cusp of nuclear war? If we make it all the way to Trump 47, then I’ll worry about the next round of issues. That is a rather large “if” in my opinion.

      Reply
    3. Jeremy Grimm

      When General LeMay was named vice chief of staff of the Air Force in 1957, Power became commander in chief of SAC and was promoted to four-star rank. General Thomas Sarsfield Power (June 18, 1905 – December 6, 1970) was a United States Air Force officer who served as commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command from 1957-1964.

      General Thomas Sarsfield Power speaking on Nuclear War with Russia at a high level meeting:
      “At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!”
      Professor William Kaufmann from the RAND Corporation, losing his patience, noted: “Well, you’d better make sure that they’re a man and a woman.” At that point, Power stalked out of the room. The briefing was over.

      Having been briefed by another famous member of the RAND Corporation, Herman Kahn, on the genetic effects of nuclear weapons, Power replied: “You know, it’s not yet been proved to me that two heads aren’t better than one.”

      It seems the u.s. Brass continues to adhere to strategic thinking of depth and quality that might be admired by the late General Power of SAC.

      Reply
  15. timbers

    Putin and missile diplomacy. The Duran gave an account of Putins speech warning the West they might be the next target of Russian new and unstoppable missiles. The speech was sane rational logical and fact based. Then it occurred to me – Western Neocons don’t do sane rational logical. It’s a language they don’t speak nor understand. They wont even hear a word he spoke. So what language do Neocons speak and understand? Sadly the best answer I could come up with, is Russia’s largest and most powerful bomb nuke or otherwise delivered by hypersonic missiles to Washington DC, London, Paris. And maybe every single US aircraft carrier. THAT might be the only language the Neocons understand.

    Reply
    1. Afro

      My model for these people is that they assume that American power is limitless, with one caveat and that is willpower. If America wills it, it can happen. They themselves are perfectly safe since no neocon has ever gotten fired from anything. I think that that might be the path for them to see reason, but it cannot come from an external agent such as Russia or China, it needs to come from within the USA, if they start losing access to patronage, they’l reflect and think differently.

      Reply
      1. timbers

        We have a clue…”Russia Lists US Missile Defense Base In Poland As ‘Priority Strike Target’.” Those Angis missile bases. Another one Romania I believe. Should have been take out long ago IMO.

        Reply
        1. bertl

          Rather them than the UK, although as a property owner and a law abiding ratepayer, I say that purely out of self-interest. But, then, from Russia’s point of view, if Kiev, why not London? That would clarify and focus a few minds. And, as the icing on the cake, why not a direct hit on Germany’s Foreign Ministry?

          Reply
  16. Mikel

    Re: Google anti-trust

    Too bad all these moves are being proposed for the benefit of “AI” companies. It’s all about getting their hands on information for the new and improved crapifications.

    Reply
  17. hamstak

    I am nominating this article from The Hill as the most unhinged offering for the day:
    World War III is now Trump’s to lose
    The title alone is…noteworthy. As for the rest of it…

    Excerpt:
    “Future historians likely will not judge him based on his two impeachments, felony convictions or his ever-present hyperbole, but rather whether or not he wins World War III.”

    Reply
    1. Screwball

      I must say, that is quite the article. FTA:

      Negotiations with Russia would be futile. History tells us that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words are meaningless. Anything short of a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and the restoration of their 1991 borders would be a victory for the Kremlin.

      The defeat of Russian forces is the best outcome, and precision deep-strike weapons are a vital part of that outcome. Now is the time to invoke General Ulysses S. Grant — to close with and destroy the enemy, applying relentless pressure until they capitulate.

      Speed is of the essence. Russia fatigue is real in the U.S. Nevertheless, Russian intrigue is very real, and it is not going to go away. Nor is Putin’s war against the West, and in particular his war against Washington.

      Wow! I hope there are some sane heads left in DC.

      Reply
      1. jrkrideau

        It is trivial in a way but telling in how divorced from reality the author is: “CNN reports that “butter, some meats, and onions are about 25 percent more expensive than a year ago,” and that “some supermarkets have taken to keeping butter in locked cabinets.””

        Gilbert Doctorow, reporting from St Petersburg, “I have spoken briefly in earlier Travel Notes about my visits to the neighborhood supermarkets in various price categories from Economy to Premium. I reconfirm here that they are all very well stocked including with exotic fruits that you would imagine are sold only in the most exclusive. In our Economy standard Verny supermarket, they offer not just the sharon fruit (rock hard as usual) but also the fragile, shall we say voluptuous genuine persimmons that presumably are imported from Iran, along with the salted pistachios that are ubiquitous here and some very good stalk celery and iceberg lettuce.

        I will go one step further: these Russian supermarkets seem to have better stock control than our leading Delhaize (the Lion) chain in Belgium (now Dutch owned) which frequently runs out of this….”

        Reply
    2. Sibiriak

      Thanks! Unhinged indeed!

      Trump may be tired of “Russia, Russia, Russia,” but that is the stark reality he will face after he returns to the White House. Russia is not going away, but rather Russia is coming for him and our way of life .”

      Reply
  18. Tom Stone

    Biden unilaterally starting a shooting war with Russia with the complicity of the Military and with no push back from our congresscritters is clarifying.
    And the UK jumps right in with no notice to Parliament.
    This behavior is reckless to the point of Insanity, and there is NO pretense that this is lawful.
    Maybe we will get lucky….

    Reply
    1. Dean

      I was thinking about this too. You’d think congress would exercise some authority here. Their collective silence is deafening.

      Reply
  19. pjay

    – ‘A Legal Showdown Over Press Freedom’ – The Free Press

    In my view some of our most important – and endangered – legal protections concern freedom of the press and the related need for protection of sources. So why does this article bother me so much? Perhaps because depending on which side you are on, in this case “press freedom” could be seen as a smokescreen for actually protecting government secrecy and the suppression of evidence about leaks against a targeted defendant.

    I also strongly support “humanitarian” protection of civilians from repressive governments. But I’m not too dense to recognize when “humanitarian intervention” is used as a smokescreen for imperial war-mongering. I guess the moral is beware of simplistic labels meant to trigger knee-jerk emotional reactions.

    Reply
  20. Jason Boxman

    Clonazepam is dangerous, regardless. The body develops a tolerance to it, and it is very difficult to get off this family of drugs, without a slow taper. Even then, you’re in for a rough ride. You can’t quit from the smallest dose, so you need a doctor (lol) to give you a script for valium to taper further. Good luck with that. Quitting from a 0.5 mg tablet is going to leave you laid up in a bad way, even cutting it into tiny 1/4th parts is a bad time.

    Reply
    1. integer

      I quit Clonazepam cold turkey, after I was prescribed it for about a year during a very difficult time in my life, without any understanding of the consequences. I had no idea what I was in for. I slept for a total of 9 hours over the course of 5 days – if you could call it sleep – and then went to benzo withdrawal syndrome hell for somewhere between 6 and 9 months. I didn’t know what was happening and it was absolutely terrifying. There are no words to describe it, except to say I’d definitely have killed myself if there was a gun in close proximity, and it took every bit of mental fortitude I had to prevent myself from harming myself or others. It seriously fucks up the fight or flight part of your brain, pain regulation, sense of balance, everything. Benzos are no joke, and apparently 10 times harder to quit than heroin. I will never fear anything ever again after making it through that. It was seriously fucked up.

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

      Reply
  21. Chet G

    Regarding the “What is considered the earliest dystopian novel?” from the Daily Mail

    Why Jack London’s “Iron Heel” is ignored by the Daily Mail is beyond me. Orwell credits it as being an influence on him, and the Iron Heel is easily a dystopian novel that was written decades before “We.”

    The Iron Heel is also an appropriate novel for our times. When the worker-candidate wins the US presidential election, the head corporate guy says (in effect), What makes you think we’ll let you take office?

    Reply
  22. Acacia

    New footage of the Russian Oreshnik in flight:

    https://x.com/HJB_News__/status/1860035900442653004

    And another, closer view of the warheads coming in:

    https://x.com/igorlachenkov/status/1859561766646071673

    Here you can see how each of the MIRV’d warheads is actually a group of them (mini-MIRVs?), spreading out to hit a number of targets at once. All enveloped in plasma.

    Nothing is going to stop this kind of attack.

    The talk at MoA suggests another “demonstration” in the Ukraine, and a next escalation would be to hit missile bases in Poland or Romania.

    Reply
    1. Polar Socialist

      The text in the footage says it’s city of Satpayev in Kazakhstan. Yesterday Russians launched Soyuz MS-29 mission (cargo to ISS) from Baikonur, about 100 km west of Satpayev. The chances are the footage is of that launch, not the Oreshnik.

      Looks cool, in any case.

      Reply
  23. XXYY

    Despite Putin’s claim, two U.S. defense officials told Fox News the [mach 10 Russian] missile was not hypersonic, which, according to NASA, is a speed greater than 3,000 mph and faster than Mach 5.

    Mach 10 is 7,400mph.

    Maybe the US defense officials missed out on 2nd grade math.

    Reply
    1. bertl

      I guess hypersonic is what US defence officials think whilst, to the Russians, hypersonic is as hypersonic does. And we wonder why the US is incapable of fighting wars that it can win…

      Reply
    2. Glen

      Going a bit too geeky here, pardon that.

      Mach number actually varies a bit depending on the altitude:

      Mach number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number#

      It would be interesting to know exactly what data America has on these missiles, but it’s obvious Russia purposely used these in a manner such that America and the West has the hard data.

      Reply
      1. Captain Obvious

        What hard data? These guys haven’t even seen the videos (not to mention estimating velocity of the objects on them).

        Reply
  24. Ignacio

    We have an urgent NATO meeting with Zelenskyy next tuesday (called by the incumbent, link in Spanish). He will be calling for WWIII of course. There have been reactions by Tusk and Scholz to the tune of “serious risk of global conflict”. So, is there any chance that Zelenskyy will manage to drag a few, some, or all idiots to full confrontation with Russia? My best guess is nope, yet one must never underestimate the level of idiocy of our leadership.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *