The Terrible Truth About Sherita, Brooklyn’s Beloved Billboard Dinosaur THE CITY
CERN Gears Up To Ship Antimatter Across Europe ars technica
A Devastating New Exposé of Johnson & Johnson Indicts an Entire System New Republic (resilc). ZOMG, a must read. Yours truly has regularly raged about Tylenol. Why the hell is a product that toxic at not that much above a “therapeutic” dose sold OTC? But there is way way more than that plus baby powder on J&J’s rap sheet.
Is There a Least Bad Alcohol? New York Times
#COVID-19/Pandemic
FDA Officials Detail Plan to Limit COVID Shots MedPage. As indicated before, you can get your doctor to Rx it if you want it, but that is not the point. It is to restrict insurance coverage, which will deter many possible users. And the US is restricting the use of the almost certainly less problematic Novavax
Climate/Environment
Fires drove record loss of world’s forests last year, ‘frightening’ data shows Guardian
How climate change threatens eye health Yale Climate Connections
China warns of extreme heat threatening wheat crops in key growing regions UkrAgroConsult
Somalia faces rising hunger and flooding as climate shocks intensify Hiiran
Wildfires rage across US state of Arizona, with over 8,000 hectares burned Anadolu Agency
China?
A couple weeks ago, @AngelicaOung wrote a viral post about how many Chinese entrepreneurs intentionally compress profits, not because they can’t charge more, but because they think it’s smarter to build market share through efficiency and scale rather than pricing power.
One…
— Rui Ma (@ruima) May 20, 2025
Very concretely this means that China is developing nuclear anywhere between 3 to 7 times cheaper than comparable projects abroad, which is an insane advantage.
For instance, the Hinkley Point C project in the UK is now estimated to cost $43 billion for just 3.2 GW of capacity… https://t.co/ssKv74l4sY
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 19, 2025
US brain drain handing the global talent war to China Asia Times (Kevin W)
South of the Border
Mexico uncovers new ‘death camp’ as pressure on president rises Financial Times
European Disunion
Romania’s far-right leader challenges election results, alleges foreign interference Euractiv
Old Blighty
Angela Rayner demands tax raid on savers Telegraph
Israel v. the Resistance
Israel’s aid distribution plan aims to turn northern Gaza into ‘depopulated area’: Israeli media Anadolu Agency
Mercenary firm set to oversee Gaza aid for Israel goes on LinkedIn hiring spree Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
UN says no aid yet distributed in Gaza as international pressure on Israel mounts BBC (Dr. Kevin)
EU decides to review its trade ties with Israel over Gaza DW
Israeli doctor compared killing Palestinians in Gaza to ‘eliminating cockroaches’ Middle East Eye (resilc)
Israel named its ongoing assault on Gaza “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” a name pulled straight from the Book of Judges, where Gideon leads a divinely sanctioned massacre of 120,000 people. This isn’t just poetic branding. It’s part of a long pattern where the Israeli military… pic.twitter.com/jQ5LMsa9p5
— Jehad Abusalim (@JehadAbusalim) May 18, 2025
🚨Breaking: Israeli bombing targets power generators at the Indonesian Hospital, resulting in the death of several patients. pic.twitter.com/N4iE4VOaPb
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) May 19, 2025
I no longer go to the Indonesian hospital.
What foolishness it is, to speak of hospitals in a place where life is no longer preserved but merely postponed. Once, I believed, oh, how bitterly I believed, that the presence of a doctor among the dying was a sacred thing, a last…— Dr. Ezzideen (@ezzingaza) May 18, 2025
* * * Iran’s Khamenei slams ‘outrageous’ US demands in nuclear talks Reuters
Iran says nuclear talks will fail if US pushes for zero enrichment Khaleej Times
Mohammed Marandi: Iran’s Alarming Moves: Ready for the Worst Against America? Dialogue Works. Witkoff, not surprisingly, wears beautiful suits.
New intelligence suggests Israel is preparing possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, US officials say CNN. IMHO, this leak is to try to get Iran to come to heel.
The Pitfalls of Pseudo-Engagement Daniel Larison
* * * Cut Israel Off—for Its Own Sake American Conservative (resilc)
New Not-So-Cold War
Europe races to keep Donald Trump involved in Ukraine-Russia talks Financial Times. BWAHAHA!
Chancellor Merz and European partners make calls to US President Trump Die Bundesregierung via machine translation
Europe May Use Fighter Jets to Down Russian Drones, Missiles in Ukraine Libertarian Institute (Kevin W). They are losing their minds.
* * * INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING – DECODING PUTIN STATEMENT AFTER THE TRUMP CALL, TRUMP TWEET AFTER PUTIN’S STATEMENT John Helmer. FUGUP is a keeper.
Back To The Un-Table Aurelien. Important.
It Ain’t Just Putin… Key Russians Singing from the Same Sheet of Music Larry Johnson
Ukraine Negotiations Still Hover Around Its Root Cause Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). So now that Putin’s “root causes” point has finally registered on the Collective West, they are trying to define it to mean Russian hegemonic designs.
Germany – Major Criminals Should Keep Quiet Peter Haenseler o
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals To Buy 23andMe and Its Data For $256 Million CNBC
Imperial Collapse Watch
America Desperately Needs To Invest in Infrastructure OilPrice. What is really pathetic is spending on overdue infrastructure maintenance and upgrades more than pays for itself in GDP terms, as in this would lower the US Federal debt to GDP ratio, which some unduly obsess over. But Trump is out to kill any government spending, even the highly productive sort.
‘Transition’ to a new world order is beyond most in the West Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)
Trump 2.0
What’s in Trump’s ‘big’ tax and immigration bill House Republicans are struggling to pass ABC (Kevin W)
GOP battles threaten to torpedo Trump package The Hill
Trump tells House GOP not to “f**k around” with Medicaid Axios
Like a 180-degree shift in the winds, the Department of Interior on Monday reversed its order from April for Norwegian energy giant Equinor to halt work on the $5 billion Empire Wind project. https://t.co/GT9jA364aI pic.twitter.com/PykMREwzG3
— Forbes (@Forbes) May 21, 2025
Hegseth is taking the Army on another dead end ride to Asia Responsible Statecraft
Democratic senator says he has recordings of favors ‘promised’ by Trump’s IRS pick The Hill
Trump’s Pick to Lead I.R.S. Promoted a Nonexistent Tax Credit New York Times. resilc: “Only the best.”
Rebecca Gordon, Donald Trump’s War on Black People TomDispatch
Tariffs
Walmart responds to Trump’s directive to ‘eat the tariffs’ USA Today (Kevin W)
Immigration
Trump officials ‘illegally deported’ Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan Guardian
Meet the Right-Wing Ultra-Zionist Immigrant Pushing for Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation Zeteo
Biden
This headline is exactly right: the scandal about the years-long cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline is not about Biden's actions, but the actions of Democrats and their media allies who brazenly lied to the public to try to help him win the 2024 election.
That's what makes it… https://t.co/vCIgFj7aMW pic.twitter.com/OUQ8Clhrk2
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2025
Our No Longer Free Press
France Barred Telegram Founder Pavel Durov From Traveling To US Politico
Kill the Editor The Metropolitan Review (Anthony L). Mainstream pubs are whinging about Substack! Who’d have thunk it?
Darwin Award Futures
Students Are Short-Circuiting Their Chromebooks for a Social Media Challenge New York Times
Antitrust
Apple F$@ks Around with Court Order, Finds Out Matt Stoller
AI
AI is More Persuasive Than People in Online Debates Nature
AI chatbot to be embedded in Google search BBC. Kill me now. I already have to do extra work to avoid those AI summaries, and now they want to impose chatbots? Which I already hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns?
A Major Newspaper Publishes a Summer Reading List—but the Books Don’t Exist Ted Golia
Morning Coffee: UBS analysts complicit in their displacement by a simulacrum. JPMorgan’s ominous hiring message eFinancial Careers (Micael T)
Guillotine Watch
Pay $6,000 This Summer to Be a ‘Status Guest’ at This Montauk Restaurant New York Times (resilc)
Class Warfare
Does Education Have the Same Impact on Church Attendance in Europe and the U.S.? Ryan Burge
Spain clamps down on Airbnb as tourism backlash returns for summer BBC (Kevin W)
Tipping Point: How America’s Gratuity System Got Out of Hand Scrap to Stacks. resilc: “Was nice not to tip in France last winter. Food was cheaper and better too.”
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus (Robin K):
An absolute masterpiece pic.twitter.com/kbN70bpcB5
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) May 20, 2025
A second bonus:
Bro fighting for equality! 😂pic.twitter.com/V5aFHPULlB
— Interesting things (@awkwardgoogle) May 20, 2025
And a third:
A bird pushes his friend under a shed during a downpour.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/X6tvTewFzg
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 20, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Ye Olde Debt Ceiling
(melody borrowed from That Same Old Feeling written by Tony Macaulay and John Andrew Macleod, as performed by the band Pickettywitch, in 1970.)
(The GOP is attempting to increase our national debt limit by 4 or even 5 Trillion to afford giving a Trillion Dollar Tax Cut to the richest 0.01%. This is all printed money that we don’t actually have.)
Let’s go raise Ye Olde Debt Ceiling
Swearing that’s our new red line
Our final budget paradigm
When none of that is true
We spend money we aren’t earning
All our Congresscritters shout:
‘Now our Empire’s down and out!’
‘Who do we owe this to?’
It’s all a silly parlor game
Of raising eyebrows
Nobody wants to take the blame
For sacred milk cows
This budget rodeo
Is porcine pie farrago
There’s been a lot of double dealing
Profits made across the line
Your net worth makes a rapid climb
It’s all gross revenue
Some of it is stomach churning
We aren’t here to be Boy Scouts
It’s a knock down and drag out
Ya gotta follow through
(musical interlude)
We’re raising money every day
Go get cash somehow
Some of it you can salt away
A thing we allow
Your time is never free
No one will judge or referee
Let’s go raise Ye Olde Debt Ceiling
Swearing that’s our new red line
Our final budget paradigm
When none of that is true
We spend money we aren’t earning
All our Congresscritters shout:
‘Now our Empire’s down and out!’
‘Who do we owe this to?’
When we raise Ye Olde Debt Ceiling
Swearing that’s our new red line
Thank you, Yves.
Can the older British members of the NC community please explain what the references to this being Starmer’s Jeremy Thorpe moment is about. I was small at the time and can only remember that the Liberals killed Rinka. :-)
Where does it say that something is Starmer’s Jeremy Thorpe moment?!
The mind boggles. He was a local boy made good-then-bad….
Thank you.
It was not a propos of any links. I just wanted to make mischief when pausing from some dull drafting and quoted what Craig Murray and, over the week-end, another commentator said.
Are you following the story? Bit odd, no? The alleged arsonists, who advertise themselves as models, don’t look like builders, as the BBC reports.
I thought Starmer was like Johnson and Trump, but Trump has not sired children out of wedlock, afaik.
A year or two ago, I chatted with a retired economist. He did some work for the Liberals one summer and spoke at their conference. He left soon after, saying how Thorpe was a wrong un.
Thanks Colonel. The Thorpe affair a bit before my time in Blighty, too. What I find most odd about the current situation, where 3 young men from Ukraine have been charged with firebombing Starmer’s house(s) and former car, is that British mainstream media have published the bare minimum facts, seemingly with no attempt to dig deeper via proper investigative journalism. I expect the tame scandalmongering if it suits the Establishment rag Private Eye, will only report any further details if MI5 tells it to.
Thank you, John.
That’s a good point about the Eye. This is what happened to Thorpe, if Wikipedia is accurate.
It’s only today that the “third man” has been described as Ukrainian.
Goodness me, that’s a while ago. But as I recall there was a “male model,” Norman Scott, who was supposed to be blackmailing Thorpe for some reason, and claimed that Thorpe threatened to have his dog shot, or may even have done so. There was a scandal. No more Thorpe. It’s the sort of thing you actively never want to hear again and are prepared to invest time in forgetting. No, I don’t know what it has to do with Starmer.
Vaseline came into it somewhere…
High Grant has never been better in the recent dramatisation of it all.
https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/a-very-english-scandal
Ooh, Colonel, you are awful! That was an entertaining half hour, taking a vada down Keir Stürmer’s rabbit-hole, as it were.
We appear to have three male models (*)
setting fire to the Prime Minister’s back door. Sorry, front door. Either the Ukrainian SBU has merely misunderstood the denial in plausible denial and this is merely an exotically cast political terror campaign or we are indeed back in the “Norman Scott” of it. :-)
*check out the boy band here: https://nitter.poast.org/NigelJohns60209/status/1925233611671793844#m
Guido Fawkes claimed to have proof that Starner has a child out of wedlock but then never delivered (superinjunction?). Then there was a murmuring about Statner spending inexplicable periods of time living with Lord Ali, an out Labour donor. Now we’re supposed to believe Starmer is being attacked by multiple Ukrainian male models and it’s perfectly normal?
Something very odd is going on!
I don’t know about this story, but there is a very tenuous connection between Thorpe and Starmer, insofar as both of them spent much of their lives in Oxted & Limpsfield in the Tandridge district of east Surrey. I have also spent much of my life there. They are both adjacent parishes which have sprawled into each other in the early/mid-20th century.
Thorpe’s widowed mother, Ursula, was chair of governors of Oxted County School. ‘Battleaxe’ is perhaps the right word. She lived in the former Limpsfield workhouse, and dominated the community. She would walk along the middle of the road which runs through Limpsfield village and expect traffic to make way for her: indeed, she pretty well ran the village. Her husband, a fanatical empire loyalist MP, known as ‘Union Jack’ Thorpe, had died quite young and his premature death had left her in somewhat reduced circumstances (hence her living on the ground floor of the old workhouse). Growing up under the wing of such a formidable personality may have accounted for Jeremy’s flamboyance, and proclivities. It is well known that some of the key events in Rinkagate took place in or around Limpsfield.
Starmer grew up about half a mile away, in the Bluehouse Lane/Granville Road area, and attended Reigate Grammar School (which is about a 30-40 minute commute along the A25). One of his teachers, the late Keith Louis – a very erudite classicist and deputy head of Reigate GS – lived in Detillens Lane, which is very close to Bluehouse Lane. Mr Louis was my Sunday school teacher at St Peter’s, Limpsfield.
Local loyalties do not impair my visceral feelings about Starmer. I should add that the Tandridge area did have a much more radical tradition: J. A. Hobson lived in Limpsfield, as did the Garnetts (closely involved with Russia) and Sydney Olivier (captain-general of Jamaica and first Labour secretary of state for India – whose house – the Cerne – and daughter Noelle, were frequented by Rupert Brooke). St Peter’s contains the burials of a number of notables, from the cabinet minister Laming (‘Worthy’) Worthington-Evans and founding cabinet secretary Maurice Hankey, to the bishop of Chichester Charles Ridgeway, the outstanding Indian administrators Mountstuart and John Elphinstone (the first being the effective founder of British rule in much of western India), the musicians Frederick Delius, Thomas Beecham, Norman del Mar, Beatrice Harrison, etc.
“It Ain’t Just Putin… Key Russians Singing from the Same Sheet of Music”
It’s not just key Russians but goes all the way down to the troops. The New York Times interviewed 11 Russian soldiers the other day and found to their surprise that though they were tired of the war, they will not quit until they have finished the job. They want to fight the war until it is over and won’t settle for a false peace which will mean that down the track they will have to go back and continue fighting this war-
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/world/europe/russian-troops-peace-putin.html
In typing this, I am reminded of the Union soldiers back in the US Civil War who went to lodge their vote during a Presidential election. They could have swung the election one way or the other and by voting Lincoln out, could have ended the war and saved many of their lives. Instead, they voted for Lincoln and to continue the war to the bitter end.
Another similarity to the same period of the Civil War is the seemingly static warfare in Virginia that led many to say that the North was getting nowhere. Like Russia, Grant was waging a war of attrition. This ended with the sudden collapse of the Confederate lines and the total defeat of the Confederacy.
Bastille Day
(Modified from Original lyrics by Neil Peart, music by Canadian band Rush.)
Will there be bread riots in the good old USA by July 14? Where are the “90 trade deals in 90 days?”
Ooh there’s no bread, let ’em eat tariffs
Trump’s in town, he’s our new sheriff
Flaunt the fruits of ignoble birth
Wash the salt into the earth
But they’re marching to Bastille Day
The empty shelves reveal Trump’s trade deal lies!
Free the masses of their bank accounts
The king will kneel while Xi just winks his eye
Ooh, bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow when they rode by
And we’re marching to Bastille Day
The empty shelves reveal Trump’s trade deal lies
Sing, oh choirs of CNBC cacophony
The king has kneeled to let the prices rise
Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago, the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day
The sticker shock reveals Trump’s trade deal lies
Hear the echoes of the centuries
Power tools aren’t all that money buys
Oh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoxIb85rww
That was opening song on their live album “All the World’s a Stage”, Massie Hall June ‘76. Like to think one of my whistles is on recording. Three night show still get goosebumps when hearing it.
Saw them in 1980 at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, then again in ’87 in Binghamton, NY, and finally around 1992 (?) at the Philly Spectrum. Wish I had caught them one last time for the R40 tour here in GA.
RIP Neil Peart.
The first bonus and the third are identical.
Fixed. This happens WAY too often with Twitter’s sucky embed process (which is also designed with unnecessary steps so as to increase the number of page views). The code copied step regularly does NOT displace the last clipboard item.
Happens when trying to share or embed YouTube links too! Highly annoying!
Thanks for the fix. The orange cat/white cat video is magic and one heck of an antidote.
“The Terrible Truth About Sherita, Brooklyn’s Beloved Billboard Dinosaur”
This is pretty bad reading about this criminal family and what they were doing. Of course, you do have to wonder. Is this how the Trump family got their start in New York nearly a century ago? Not such a stretch as Trump’s grandfather got wealthy by providing a restaurant and brothel to miners in the Klondike Gold Rush o morals would not be an issue.
The article about going to church and people’s education levels in both the US and in Europe, leaves out what they were educated in. It is likely the people of europe are more familiar with the history of europe over the last 1500 years, and know there isn’t any case to be made for the reality of any of the religions peddled there.
This article tries to conflate the fact that people are educated in “something”, would be a sign they know what they are talking about when it comes to their faith. But why? If they were history majors, maybe they would be aware of the actual history of the last 5 thousand years. Then maybe.
I live in the southeastern US. There are we;; educated people, everywhere… trained in all sorts of things, But when it comes to history of the world…. most are lost. And what is worse, they are exposed to the propaganda/lies that these church preachers spew every week. It is indoctrination from the cradle to the grave. For many, their view of the world is one of the missionary. They think they are bestowed with “the truth”, and it is their job to go tell everyone else. This is all marketing. From the cradle to the grave. Then they work for the corporations who rule the world. Then they vote in the republicans and democrats who serve those who own the world. They forget the plight of the truly oppressed . what genocide?
I would say the real aspect these graphs made was that the american people are largely out of touch with reality. And a persons belief in made up fairy tales/myths/superstitions… is as good of a sign a person isn’t really open to reality. Reality being that in the last 5000 years there has been no sign of any truth in the stories that people believe.
We can understand people HAVE beliefs, without the need to actually BELIEVE that those stories are real. But we americans, are a dangerously delusional people.
The article conflates church etc. attendance with religiosity. I suspect the high values of attendance for Spain etc. reflect cultural mores, not belief. And I suspect the increasing attendance in the highest educated in secular places like the UK reflects specific phenomena. In the UK, these could be
– Establishment-signalling;
– quaifying your children for church-sponsored schooling;
– attending the Alpha course (evangelical cult for lonely Russell Group / Ivy League Type A personalities – my friend’s son has been sucked in during his A-levels by a girlfriend, hoping Uni escapades will break him free…)
– high achievers are simply people who *do* stuff (free time, money, organised schedules) whereas everybody lower down has increasing headwinds to attending anything!
I have been to church more in the last 18 months than in the rest of my life put together simply because son #2 is a chorister at a cathedral school and I go to watch him and collect him, not to commune….
> They think they are bestowed with “the truth”, and it is their job to go tell everyone else.
At least for American evangelicals, there is also a strong motive of compassion, in that they firmly believe that people outside their faith community (broadly defined) face horrifying future post-mortem prospects.
This (I can testify from having been on the “inside”) is a strong motive for investing time (or, at a minimum, money) in “propagating the faith.”
I think that in the very long run (it’s a movement with deep historical roots and probably has a good bit of “shelf life” left in it), this movement will run its course and be replaced by something else, hopefully something better.
People need community, and “church” is one of few remaining forms of community in America.
… and the marketplace is one kind of “community”.
In Judaeo-Christian history, priests and temples managed the marketplace. Current U.S. “temples” organize the sale of personal services like child care (private schools and good, ‘God-fearing’ babysitters), and big-ticket professional services (doctors, dentists, lawyers, and car dealers are usually prominent in temple advisory organizations like the Masons, the Knights of Columbus, and the Ku Klux Klan — a harsh note to strike, but consider that churches are among the last remaining and most racially segregated U.S. institutions). The priest and occasional priestess oversees and so indirectly ‘blesses’ such transactions, while continuing to ‘bless’ marriages that will keep the wealth inside the community.
As Wuk notes below, any ‘belief’ will suffice, but Christianity is where most U.S. customers are found.
Hence, USian’s deep devotion to the Prosperity Gospel.
That susceptibility to the Prosperity Gospel may be more a function of an immature worldview than the content of Christian theology. Kohlberg identified six stages of moral development, and his student, James Fowler, wrote about six stages of faith. Many Americans never progress beyond Fowler’s mythic/literal stage that is focused on pleasing a vague “God” for the sake of winning awards and avoiding punishment. That, of course, is precisely the opposite of what orthodox Christianity teaches. These folks are the target of the Prosperity Gospel and all kinds of other scams religious, political and financial.
Circumstances in the United States would immediately improve if all evangelicals were purged.
No advocating violence.
And as we found with lawfare v. Trump, violating established practices can have very big costs.
> We can understand people HAVE beliefs, without the need to actually BELIEVE that those stories are real. But we americans, are a dangerously delusional people.
It think it is not controversial that people’s behavior is rooted more in emotion than in rational reflection. Our rational faculty enables us to construct convincing self-justifications for what we want to do (those wants being rooted in other-than-rational considerations/desires/motives/fears). It seems likely to me that “what one believes about the world” might also be more strongly rooted in emotion than in evidence (or that the evidence that one finds convincing is shaped by deeper-than-rational considerations; we pick the evidence to suit what we want to believe about the world, in order to reinforce or justify how we want to live in the world).
I don’t know what can be done about this. I came to self-skepticism about my own cognitive biases comparatively late in life. Perhaps this should be on the primary education curriculum — “how your brain fools you”.
This might be important — we seem, as a species, to be unable to cooperate in our own survival on a planet that is endowed with only finite resources.
We not only have blind faith in things dogma, but our entire economic system is essentially blind faith based.
If both belief systems were to crash, we’d have to find imaginary replacements…
Like an imaginary reading list I suppose. Looking forward to new works by Hemingway and McCarthy, lol.
“And a persons belief in made up fairy tales/myths/superstitions… is as good of a sign a person isn’t really open to reality. Reality being that in the last 5000 years there has been no sign of any truth in the stories that people believe.”
All human beings have a worldview. It’s the filtering and organizing mechanism for a reality that would overwhelm us without it. Part of what forms worldview is myth, partly because humans beings have a very imperfect and incomplete understanding of the cosmos, and partly because it seems to be in our nature to seek some kind of meaning in the universe and in our lives.
In general, myths are not the result of some evil conspiracy to mislead, misinform or manipulate. They’re generally attempts to answer questions for which neither the history or science of the time can provide answers like, “How did all this stuff get here? How did I get here?” Every culture has some kind of Creation Myth even if that culture is not monotheistic.
Other myths may provide an answer to the big questions while also teaching a lesson about humans’ place in the world. The Adam and Eve myth probably answered an important question which Ezra and his scribes had to answer as they were putting the Torah into roughly its current form. This group of returning exiles, with an assignment from the Persian emperor to restart the YHWH cult and rebuild the temple, found themselves in a ruined city in which the remnants of Judah had lost their cultural identity. They had to answer the question, “How did things get so screwed up if YHWH is a powerful god who cares about us?” Their answer was, “We screwed up,” some blame shifting that was necessary to the founding of Judaism
But the Adam and Eve myth was so brilliantly conceived that it’s still used to answer the “How did things get so screwed up?” Within the past few years, Peggy Noonan wrote an op-ed using the Adam and Eve myth in which she identified the apple as AI. Many others have connected it with human hubris or technology in general. Now we can make all sorts of historical arguments about whether our apple eating moment was the adoption of agriculture, finance, the Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution, but none of these would pack the power of an adapted Adam and Eve myth (you can leave YHWH out of it entirely), especially because of the power that stories have with us.
The truth of myth does not lie in its historicity or scientific validity, but in its ability to pass down hard-won human wisdom from one generation to the next. In the case of Adam and Eve, the wisdom is that human beings get themselves in a lot of trouble when they get too big for their britches.
I believe we have a new question to answer, one that all of the science, history and anthropology we’ve learned has failed to make much of a dent in for the majority of human beings. How did humans, two-legged animals not much different from our primate siblings and our mammal cousins, get so completely alienated from Nature? We can talk about Descartes “mechanization” of Nature or Bacon’s proposal to torture Nature to get her secrets, but we’re likely to end up with nothing more than schismogenesis and polarization. But use myth like Daniel Quinn did in Ishmael, especially after the two-party dialogue helps the reader uncover his own worldview the way a fish might finally discover she’s living in water, and people may actually experience a change in worldview. That’s essential if we’re ever going to get off the consumerist treadmill we’ve been trapped on for more than a century.
It’s human hubris that leads us to think that we know it all now: how we got here; why we’re here; and, of course, why things are so screwed up. We think we’ve outgrown myth. But knowledge is not wisdom, and more and more people, academics and activists, are recognizing that behind our polycrisis lies a metacrisis marked by alienation from Nature and a loss of meaning. This dialogue between Dougald Hine and Nate Hagens is a good introduction to the topic. So is this one between John Vervaeke and Iain McGilchrist.
While not a myth, the Tao te Ching opens with an important piece of wisdom:
Lao-Tzu is talking about the Tao, the subject of the book that follows, a book full of metaphor and myth. His point is that the wondrous complexity of the cosmos and the force/power/intelligence that lies behind it are too much for a human to grasp in their fullness. The old Newtonian watch model coincided with our “common sense,” i.e. worldview, because our sensory perceptions operate at a scale where it usually seems like a billiard ball world. But with finer tools, we found that billiard balls can appear and disappear as if by magic, a very disconcerting challenge to common sense. And the cosmos is capable of confounding us ad infinitum. Myth and metaphor are the way we make this intelligible.
How come we fervently believe in Santa Claus until we’re around 6 years old, but then know its bullshit, but if you act as if you believe, you get more stuff. By the time we’re teenagers its all a bit of an embarrassment that we were taken in…
And then there’s that Jesus fellow who never gave us jack around his birthday, and yet people keep on believing in selected events of 2,000+ years ago as if it happened yesterday?
Your first paragraph answers your question in the second.
The point you made above, Wuk, is exactly right:
As for what Christians believe, the Synoptic Gospels don’t really present themselves as myth. Myths are usually set in the distant past and almost seem to cry out for a “once upon a time” opening. Also, there’s no attention paid to authorship. The Torah attributes itself to Moses, but there is obviously no claim that Moses hung out with Adam and Eve, nor is any specific information provided about how Moses came by these stories. The Synoptics, on the other hand. purport to be historical accounts about real people (there really were guys named Pilate and a Herod) written by people who were eyewitnesses (like Matthew) or gathered from eyewitnesses (like Luke). So believing, orthodox Christians accept certain parts of the stories as historical truth, especially those elements listed in the Apostles’ Creed.
It can be argued that the Gospel of John is different from the Synoptics. It’s the most distant in time (and place) from the historical Jesus, and its opening is clearly mythic:
The insistence on a strict reading of the much older myths in the Torah–Six Days of Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Tower of Babel–as history is more pronounced fairly recently with the birth of Fundamentalism. There are plenty of Christians outside the infallible/inerrant circle that understand these stories as instructive myths.
As you pointed out above, humans will seek to fill the void if they have no answers about origins, meaning, teleology, an eschatology of one-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins, etc. Laughably, it’s economists who seem to provide most of the prevalent mythology today: homo economicus, the Invisible Hand, inevitable progress and infinite growth. All those elements are as untethered to fact as anything in the Hebrew or Greek bibles as has been well-demonstrated in whole or in part by folks ranging from our host to Kate Raworth to Steve Keen, yet it has had a hold on our society for a long time. It is falling apart now because its promises are going unmet and its explanatory power over even economics is fading.. And you’re right, something, or maybe multiples somethings in competition will replace it.
HMP, many thanks for bringing your habitual lucidity to this topic. I happened to email a friend yesterday, attempting to explain why I persisted in trying to find my way through the thickets of economic theory. Not nearly as eloquent as your last paragraph, but heading in the same direction:
“I read these things very, very slowly and having no background in this, am satisfied with an occasional glimmer. Michael Hudson has many rambling but informative podcasts on YouTube. He maintains that economic history is no longer taught in graduate Economics, leaving the neoclassical version unquestioned. The history interests me –what little I’m able to grasp anyway– as one more example of the way theory has been used to divert us from observing the way things actually work.
But I find most useful a general reminder I recently ran across from Xenophanes (5th, 6th? c. BCE):
“Even if someone should happen to be almost right, he could never be sure, for dokos is upon all things.”
“Dokos” means seeming rather than actually being.
Given several intervening centuries of technological advances, that leads right into the Matrix.
Or at least, it sometimes looks that way to me.”
Thanks, anahuna. I appreciate your appreciation. A last minute edit put “eschatology of one-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins” with the human needs list instead of the mythological elements of economics list.
Dr. Hudson’s comments about neoclassical economics being above history is another confirmation of its mythic nature in our society.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been a fan of capitalism, industrial or financial or neoliberal, but it’s only been in the last 8-10 years that I’ve come to appreciate its impact on the Earth, and the role of the mythology of economics in making so many of us believe that this self-destructive behavior is all perfectly normal and natural. Part of that was through learning more about anthropology and ecology through Links and Water Cooler at NC. Part of it was through exploration of writers like Thomas and Wendell Berry, and Jeremy Lin who were proposing “new” ways of relating to the Earth. I’ve also listened to hours of people like Schmactenberger, Vervaeke, Capra and others talking about this.
So when I read Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael last week, I usually knew where the dialogue was headed. But here was something that takes 4-5 hours to read and brings the reader to the same point I’m at after years of looking into this. Our economists would have to admire its efficiency.
Separation from Nature.
An old friend (who would be as old as I now if she were still among the living), used to say that it started when humans learned how to make fire independently. It’s all downhill from then on, she maintained. But I came to believe (foundational myth again) that it was earlier than that: It starts with Adam naming the animals. Separation, division. Not just distinguishing one animal from another, but, implicitly, the Namer from the Named.
Leaving the Nameless untouched, but keeping our minds busy, often frantically, reifying and fragmenting things.
Then, today, McEvilley’s The Shape of Ancient Thought delivered up Parmenides: “The primal moment in which two things are first distinguished (like the separation of heaven and earth in traditional cosmogenic myth) is, according to Parmenides, the birth of language. From an original or first moment of ‘naming’ two things rather than one only, the world of the Many flows out as a complexly ramified mistake.”
Leaving it there (though McEvilley — suggestive name — continues into the Chandogya Upanishad)…
Beautiful. Map and territory. I loaned Ishmael to my son, so I can’t check, but I don’t think that’s one that Quinn catches. It doesn’t exactly work into his Taker/Leaver frame.
But someone it does fit with is Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity. What a great title! Already a powerful metaphor in the title. She contends that the apple eating moment is perceiving the world as separate.
With your interest in this topic, I’d strongly recommend this Nate Hagens Youtube where he interviews her. She speaks constantly in myth and metaphor, and it’s funny to hear Nate keep excitedly commenting about how much they’re on the same page. It’s one thing I’ve observed is that there are more and more people getting on that page. It seems like convergence. Collective unconscious?
The Upanishads explain that there is looking for reality outwardly, through your eyes, intellect, and other senses, and there is looking for reality inwardly, through awareness alone.
Most humans are utterly busy with shelter, safety, and scratching up more than one meal a day. Busy humans give existential questions a pat answer and put all that on the top shelf to gather dust. Nobody really believes religious myths–it matters more that your tribe stands by them, and that you stand with your tribe.
Reality…
The Higgs field and Higgs Boson of the Standard Model…
But there is something missing…
Quantum gravity…
And what was the Universe like before the Higgs field turned on…
I’m glad I was a musician where magic is quintessential,
Rather than a physicist where it is not.
Well, except for string theorists…
I suspect that our widespread alienation from nature most recently stems from the enclosure movement which rendered former peasant subsistence culture impossible and subjected the non-propertied to wage labour and all the social pathologies associated thereto.
Another good candidate. Perhaps it’s all one wade into the Big Muddy driven by a worldview alienated from Nature. The commons were protected by an agreement among its users that they would be Leavers in Daniel Quinn’s terminology, using only what they needed, and leaving the rest for their fellow commoners and Nature to restore itself. Along come the capitalist Takers (from Quinn), grab it all, and exploit it to the max, the land and the displaced people.
That’s happened over and over again going back to when Taker agriculturalists, with their surpluses, grew their population and outcompeted the hunter-gatherers and pastoralists around them. Daniel Schmachtenberger focuses on the game theory aspect of this, and how Leavers will always be swamped by Takers in the absence of some kind of restraining force, usually worldview/morality. With enclosure, the peasants had a democratically generated agreement that served as restraint. Unfortunately, the Taker proto-capitalists weren’t parties to it, and their worldview is, “Take it! Take it all!”
At this point, though, I think it’s not only the land and resources in the Amazon that drives us to kill that commons, but a compulsion to kill some of the last Leaver cultures so their existence doesn’t indict the mad Taker culture.
Then there’s the religion of neoliberalism wherein the Market God (all hail) is the infallible force in all human activity. The morning neoliberal prayer:
Market is great,
Market is good,
We thank it for your servitude.
A few comments:
1. Does it matter whether the Good Samaritan really existed? The myth makes the ethics promoted more universal, IMHO.
2. The Bible (the source of many myths) actually forbids Bible-olatry (don’t worship symbols/idols, give your devotion to the genuine article). Fundamentalism is anti-biblical.
3. By the 18th century, enough sources for the Biblical text had been found that more than 35,000 variations were available. Today, with more source texts, that number of variations is astronomically more.
Is it “Give us our day our transubstantial bread”? Not in most sources, but as often as not, the exception/illogic lets biblical scholars say illogic must be the original, not some later connection. (See the Jesus Seminar)
Bottom line: The Bible (and I’m sure many other holy books) is full of profound wisdom, but the limited humans who wrote it couldn’t express that profundity in a way that always resonates today. And since Satan is the “father of lies,” there are certainly plenty of evil people willing to twist the text. Jerry Falwell supported abortion before his political masters told him not to, so it could be a wedge issue.
Recommended reading: Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg. Respectful, but realistic.
Great points.
It doesn’t matter to me if Luke made up the Good Samaritan story, or if Jesus made it up, or if it’s Jesus relating and framing an event he knew happened. What’s important to me is the way the story AND its context teach us about our tendency to create ins and outs, and to self-justify our mistreatment of those we label outs.
What about the story of another Samaritan, the woman at the well in John, when Jesus talks about casting stones? It doesn’t appear in the older manuscripts. Did someone add it because there was a historical kernel to it that had been passed down in another oral tradition? Was it made up out of whole cloth? I’ll leave that to the Jesus Seminar. But it’s a powerful story about our tendency to judge harshly, especially those who are outs.
As I explained above, it is different when we’re talking about the Gospels that claim to be history and the “once upon a time” or “in the beginning” quality of the well-known myths in Genesis. On the other hand, if we’re talking about parables, we’re back to myth. The woman at the well is tricky. It’s a parable in form, but Jesus makes himself a participant in the story, historicizing it.
Re: criticism of the Hebrew and Greek bibles. Even the seminary where I was trained, which taught inerrancy, agreed with your point about bibliolatry, likening it to the Golden Calf (who would bring on a Golden Age, no doubt). That’s why they used “inerrant” rather than “infallible,” because it’s God who is infallible. They also practiced text criticism like the point I made above about the woman at the well story. What wasn’t kosher was engaging in what they called “historical criticism” of the type Wellhausen used to derive his JEPD hypothesis. Check a standard English translation. What is the divine being called throughout most of Genesis 1? Then check the section beginning with the last paragraph of Genesis 1 and stretching into Genesis 2. What’s the divine entity called? You won’t find “LORD,” the translation of YHWH in the Hebrew text, in that Genesis 1 section that is the first Genesis myth. That’s the “E” source, so named because It only uses the Hebrew word “Elohim,” the plural of “El,” the word for god, any god. The second Genesis story, Adam and Eve, comes from the “J” source, so named because “YHWH” is used along with Elohim (LORD God) as the name for the divine entity. Why “J?” Y transliterates to J in German, and Wellhausen was German.
Whoever put Genesis together, we’ll say Ezra, knit those two stories together. It wasn’t exactly a smooth segue, but whoever established the chapter divisions managed to obscure the stark difference a little.
I don’t think “transubstantiation” appears in any Greek text or even Latin translation, like Jerome’s. But your point is basically the one that Luther made. It was eisegesis, an attempt to read human interpretation into the text. Luther assumes the account of Lord’s Supper is historical, and Jesus’s statements about it being his body and blood are enough without some Aristotelian elaboration from Aquinas or anybody else. To Luther, the biblical text was enough, even if it sure looked like bread and wine he was consuming.
As for those who claim to revere the text but happily change or twist it to serve other agendas. back in the Oughts when I was blogging about this stuff, I did some research on the NIV translation of Exodus 21:22 where two men fighting hit a pregnant woman and cause a miscarriage. The penalty prescribed is a payment to the woman’s husband, not death for the offender because a human life has been taken. With no basis in the Hebrew and a centuries-old history of translation as “miscarriage,” the NIV changes it to “gives birth prematurely.” Pretty shameless. The Evangelical NIV was first published in 1973. Hmmm.
The Hebrew and Greek texts are the products of humans from long ago grappling with, as Maude would put it, the big questions. These humans often disagree with each other, something that make these texts a lot more interesting to me, but something that is denied, even covered up by those who claim inerrancy or infallibility. Ideas evolve over time, for example compare the Ten Commandments in Exodus to the version in Deuteronomy. Elements from other religions creep in, especially the Ba’alism of the neighboring city states like Ugarit. Subversive stories like the one about Tamar getting the best of her father-in-law, Judah, get included in the text. The Hebrew bible evolves before our eyes from henotheism to monotheism. It’s great stuff with a lot to teach us today about who we were, even who we are. The same with other ancient texts, especially those with lots of myth and metaphor. But I believe our circumstances requires some fresh interpretation and even some re-working of this material in the way Daniel Quinn does it in Ishmael.
NC regularly foresees things many months in advance of their notice in conventional media.
IIRC, there was discussion of what was arguably “elder abuse” in connection with JRB from mid 2024, perhaps earlier.
It does lead to conversational awkwardness in interaction with people whose views have not yet been marked to reality but, as the Good Book counsels, “if you get one thing, get understanding”.
Thank you, Yves and company.
I am sure I saw people here rumbling about “elder abuse” all the way back to the run up to 2020. Right now, it kind of feels like the “how could we have known?” contingency are trying to limit this to 2024 and the George Clooney fundraiser incident, but we knew the signs were there long before. I definitely remember Biden blurting out about having cancer before then, not to mention the cognitive decline was painfully obvious to anyone not drinking the Kool Ade.
I’m sure this will reach a boiling point then a new distraction and nothing will fundamentally change. It would be nice if something did, but I guess I’ll just enjoy the circus until the next one comes to town.
At the beginning of his term as President, he promised to fight cancer a coupla times but eventually reneged on that promise. Bet that he’s sorry that he did that now. Karma is a *****. They may try to treat that cancer but as Caitlin Johnstone pointed out, cancer has a right to defend itself.
Careful what you wish for, Caitlyn.
As a side note, it feels to me like at first they were trying to make Biden himself out to be the sole villain. Like he tricked everyone, he made all these poor decisions, he gave us Trump all by himself. But with this evidence coming out that Biden barely knew where he was most of the time, it looks like they’re switching to Dr. Jill being the villain. The Republicans seem to be going after her and it doesn’t seem like she has much love in the Democrat party. So, I could see the Democrats and their enablers offering her up as a sacrificial lamb if they think it would take the pressure off. Heck, make her the villain and they can even recast Biden as this tragic figure that many of their enablers are already trying to do.
Plausible. An alternative scenario might be that the Trump mafia is moving to further diminish what power and influence the Biden mafia has left.
I am now about half way through the Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson book “Original Sin”. There have now been three books about the 2024 election. I have read the first 2 – 1) Fight by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes – is the one so far that is most balanced between Dem and GOP sources. 2) Uncharted by Chris Whipple – very much almost only Dem sources and was very revealing about just how bad the entire mess was.
The new book “Original Sin” is seemingly all from the “make the media look as good as possible” camp and describing the real problem as the inner circle in The White House, the Dem leadership and the Dem establishment. These groups were by this account in the book “lying” to the media at every step. I find that assertion ludicrous on its face. Every American could see with their own eyes how bad this was especially in 2023 and 2024. It was no longer subtle medical signs and symptoms. What a complete joke our media has become if they think they are going to get away with this neglect of duty with that lame excuse.
The very first thing of interest – the media coverage of this book is very much underplaying many of the big revelations. Some of which are very concerning. These revelations are not really expounded upon or addressed – just laid around in the text as little bread crumbs. It appears there were actual cabinet members who as early as 2021 realized that in no way shape or form was Biden up to the job. The sneaky trick this book does is not name any sources – just anodyne descriptions like “cabinet members” or “long-time Democratic Senator” etc. The negligence of these sources and their egregious behavior as outlined in this book is overwhelming. My gut response is that if a cabinet member felt that Biden was impaired, it is their constitutional duty to get the 25th Amendment ball rolling or resign. The End. The fact that they are now telling this story has made me determined not to vote for, support, or in any way encourage ANY Biden cabinet officials for any office until such time as the ones making these claims stand up and admit this. Until then, none of them can be trusted. They have literally failed at the most fundamental responsibility to the country. The same is true of Dem US Senators and other groups mentioned as sources. The problems are that explosive. If this book is correct, there was a junta in charge of about 5-6 people with unbelievably Hunter Biden in some position of authority while Joe was at best the grandpa in the attic. Crackhead Hunter being in charge at least begins to explain some of the lunacy of the past 4 years and the betrayal that so many old-school Dems like me feel in our souls. The level of badness this book describes is just not getting out in these media summaries.
Not even Pete? He managed to cure the nation’s transportation issues, including air traffic control, in just four years. If the talking lady in the dashboard had just told him how to get to East Palestine…
The DLC, Hamilton Project, From, Boren, etc. and thousands of other anti-New Deal Democrats spent decades taking over the DemParty from within and steadily preventing newer New Deal Democrats from replacing the aging ones as they died and retired.
If there are enough Old School Democrats left to form a long-term action group devoted to reconquering and decontaminating the DemParty and making it New Deal again, they would have to think in terms of a slow steady Maoist-type conquest followed by a complete and total Stalinist-type purge ( bloodless of course) designed to root out and expel the many tens of thousands of New School Democrats brought in over the last few decades by all the leading Clinton-types, Obama-types, Pelosi-types, etc.
It might have to start in one particular state or another, or maybe several.
It feels impossible.
Many of the younger citizens I know have never seen an effective left politician at work. They have no idea what it looks like and subsequently DO think virtue signaling means something. They have knee jerk reactions to right wing lunacy and an inability to critically analyze beyond team colors. They cannot imagine, as we like to say, concrete material benefits to the American citizenry.
You say you want a resolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
You tell me that it’s the Two-State Solution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
But when you talk about Gaza destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright
Alright
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother, in line you’ll have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright
Alright
You say you’ll ignore the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You’d better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying grudges with Netanyahu
You ain’t going to make it with you know who
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright
Alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Revolution, by the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MbqzDm1uCo
Don’t’cha know it won’t be alright
Unstated reality John was implying, to which I just caught on.
“New intelligence suggests Israel is preparing possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, US officials say”
If the Israelis tried to attack Iran, it would only be to try and wreck any agreement between the US and Iran itself. I actually wonder what an Israeli attack would look like without any US help at all as in zip. So no satellite intel, no re-fueling aircraft, no tapping into and command and control systems that the US has for this region, no search and rescue choppers on standby – nothing. Let the whole thing be an Israeli operation from start to finish. Can they mount more than a raid? What if, like India, they find that their opponents have extra long range air-to-air missiles. That would be a nasty surprise. And as this would be Israel attacking civilian infrastructure, it would allow Iran the license to return the compliment and attack Israeli civilian infrastructure. It’s a target-rich environment in Israel for the Iranians to choose from.
Israel can do its own air refueling, because we gave them the aircraft to do so. I do not know if they can or would use their own satellite data, but if for whatever reason they were not able to do so or to attack via the skies at all, my guess is that we’d see the kind of terrorism we’ve already seen used against Iran https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-soleimani-explosion-kerman-2524cfed1d040370bf98000e2b53ad5a
Israel has not had any magical increase in capabilities since the last time it tried to attack Iran, when its stealthy jets in its first of what were intended to be three waves of attack realized Iran radar had identified them, and they decided rather than go into Iran to attack, they’d launch from where they were and turn tail. The result was not much damage at all in Iran.
I guess $800 million worth of S-300s (4 units total) spontaneously disassembled themselves.
F-35i’s spent the last six years striking targets in Syria, including a Russian base in Latakia, without a single interception by Russian operated s-300s. This after Israel spent the last 13 years training against a Greek S-300 on Crete, learning its frequency, pattern, and reach. But first, one would have to explain how a pilot would even know when a narrow-band track radar became active when modern TELs use both narrow-beams and wide-beams, simultaneously, for both illumination and guidance. It’s the software that interprets the signal returns. Then explain why it’s so hard to believe that, when the LORA air-launched missile has a 400 km range and the S-300 PMU-2 interceptors have a 195 km range, the F-35i’s weren’t forced to turn cold and run, even if the S-300 wasn’t highly vulnerable to being spoofed by active electronic measures.
The only known use of an S-300 interceptor against an Israeli pilot, flying an un-stealthy F-16, was on May 17, 2022. It was launched pitbull into empty Syrian sky.
Your statement is inaccurate. Only one S-400 radar was damaged and it was repairable.
And you are straw manning what I wrote. The pilots turned tail and the second and third waves of the planned attack were scuppered. So why would they be worried if your undocumented claims were true?
Even the US military has long realized that a military attack on Iran is a non-starter for a lot of obvious reasons. Israel, which is smaller than New Jersey, whose military and economy has been exhausted by several years of war, and who has few friends in the region, has no chance of achieving anything against Iran assuming they don’t want to go nuclear.
Further, Iran is backed by Russia to an unknown extent and has recently demonstrated that Israel is within its missile range.
I assume Israel’s plan is to try to provoke Iran into some kind of retaliation which could then be leveraged into getting the US to enter the war on Israel’s side. Hopefully there are people on Trump’s team that are wise to this strategy but it’s very hard to tell since Trump seems to change his mind weekly if not daily. In any case, after the recent US military performance against the Houthis, having the US on your side doesn’t count for as much as it used to.
Re; Climate/Environment
It’s Not Just Drought Meteorologists Are Concerned About This Summer, It’s Also Heat
With the record heat across the Plains and South last week, a sudden burst of cold across the upper Midwest and the outbreak of tornadoes that tore across the country over the weekend, it’s been an active weather pattern so far this May. That trend is set to continue.
https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/crop-production/its-not-just-drought-meteorologists-are-concerned-about-summer-its-als
Locally, our gypsies have returned from winter in Texas but weekenders from surrounding states have yet to arrive due to persistant wind and “cold.” It was a dry winter and the lake is low. Clouds of dust rise from farms as the Spring planting-season is underway. Looking out towards the pines I cannot help but think, “all it would take is a spark…”
I’m sure that if some of the older gypsies were asked to look into their crystal balls to see what the future weather is going to be like in the US, that they would peer closely into those crystal balls, mutter a few incantations, and then pronounce their findings thus-
‘The future weather of the US will be – kinetic!’
Who knew that climate change would not just restrict itself to third-world countries.
My crystal ball was purchased at Wal*Mart, and oddly enough shows retail price increases on damn near everything, in somewhat of a terrestrial Kessler Effect.
Hunga Tonga was 1 of only around 120 known ‘Submarine Volcanoes’ and has been responsible for our wacky weather, as all big volcanoes blowing up real good tend to do, but lookie here, we have a 2nd Submarine Volcano about to go, 300 miles west of the PNW~
You know, that term that you used – a ‘terrestrial Kessler Effect’ – is not a bad one. Not when you think of the knock-on effects of tariffs as they go ricocheting around the economy and setting off other damage which effects other sectors of the economy.
Last winter was brutal, persistant, actual cold up here, so back at the squat (in a very literal sense) I moved “my bedroom” to a small room once used as a home office in part of the finished basement of this house: just space enough for a bed, small desk, small dresser, and me and the small dog that I seem to have inherited. A small space-heater is all it takes to keep it warm and comfortable, and as the rest of the house is mostly unused, I just need to keep it warm enough to prevent the pipes from freezing.
The oracles are warning of heatwaves, and I’ll trust them much more that my crystal-ball which, having failed, misled me more than once, gathers dust somewhere along the path of my travels, gathering dust: I shall remain mostly underground, like a mole, where it is cool and away from the heat that Summer (and undue attention) can bring.
That’s where surviving humanity will be, for the reasons you give. I think they’ll have to go deeper than your basement, though. The uncertainty among climate scientists leads me to believe we’ll be more than 2℃ above 1770 temperatures by 2050, and more than 3℃ by the end of the century.
A very minor accommodation, but perhaps useful at the margin: for gardening in hot sun, shade cloth is very helpful. I have been using this, with much success, for hardening off of indoor starts.
It could also be used for established plants in soil. The cost per square foot of shaded soil is less than the value of the produce (vegetables; commodity grains, probably not) that is protected, and the cloth has a multi-year life span (mine is holding up reasonably well after nearly a decade of use).
Unfortunately, most shade cloth products are made of synthetic polymers and will eventually break down into microplastic pollution.
Perhaps there will be a market for durable products of this kind that are made from natural fibers.
I don’t suppose that hessian would be an acceptable substitute, would it? Something like this-
https://gardensuperstore.com.au/hessian/
Or maybe even repurposed hessian bags if you can find ’em.
I’m considering ostrich ferns. They grow to about six feet and are native to the Green Mountain State. The ones in the yard are already two or three feet tall. Strategic placement amongst the veggies might provide adequate sunlight filtration, maybe.
Thakk you! I will look into the idea of tall shady plants that could be grown in containers and moved about.
(and pole beans, per Bsn below.)
We’ve “grown” to using Fortex pole beans as a variation on shade. They can grow 8 – 10′ if supported and so we put a row of them between about every 3 rows of other veggies. The other veggies get direct Sun for 4-5 hours then are shaded by the beans as the Sun progresses across the sky. The beans themselves are tops (no string, 1′ long, prolific and tasty) and when it gets above the high 90s, their blossoms fall off – but they protect the other veggies from extreme heat. Fortex are the basis of French cut canned beans that you buy in the store. “Try it, you’ll like it”.
yep, Samuel.
ive told folks hereabouts for years that when it says “full sun” on the seed packet, they are talking about new england or oregon, or somewheres…not the nw texas hill country.
i prefer trees(and preferably fruit and nut trees…pecans are the best in my experience…lets enough sun through) for my shading ops….but i do use shade cloth.
we’ve bought it twice in my lifetime…1st time, some 40 or more years ago(and i still have and use quite a bit of that batch), 2nd time, 20 years ago…all still in use.
like walmart bread that never seems to rot(lol), it does make me wonder whats in it.
but i console myself that we bought it long before i had ever heard of the micro/nano-plastic polution problem.
You know how all the insurance tv commercials are always joking, you’ve got Flo & friends, some guy named Mayhem, a professorial type, that idiot with the emu that wouldn’t know funny if it hit him in the head, a talking gecko with an English accent, and more…
What if it was more in regards to your cabin insurance going from $1479 a year to $4500+, as per yours truly?
Guess i’m happy they didn’t drop me, here’s what I was informed:
‘Dear Wuk:
Thank you for your business and your loyalty. We have discontinued our Fire insurance product in the state of California. However we have good news! We are automatically converting your coverage to our new exciting XYZ plan!’
You’d think that if they were going to triple your insurance policy but remove the fire insurance part, that the very least that they could do would be to send you a complimentary asbestos blanket. Not a good feeling having to lose that fire insurance what with being in the middle of summer and all that dry fire loading material nearby that you have been talking about.
I’m covered in case of fire, but not if it is on account of a meteorite, among other disclaimers.
Does that cover Kessler debris? (You never know. When I was a kid, the first chunk of Sputnik to fall to earth fell directly in the middle of main street in front of my county historical museum. As a historical artifact, it was promptly removed.)
There are so many exclusions, here a loophole, there a loophole, everywhere a loophole to let the insurance company squirm out of paying for coverage.
Not the same as a meteorite, but do they exclude debris from any of Elon’s rockets or satellites?
That was other exclusionary act of god stuff, but I don’t think Elon has self-elevated himself to that level, so i’m safe for the time being.
How will we know? Will he float up to the clouds or have a glowing halo around his head?
Got my letter this week: “sorry but we are no longer writing fire insurance in Cali”. They did provide a number to call to help us find an alternative carrier. We never bought an earthquake rider from CEA: if the big one comes we will just eat it.
“CERN gears up to ship antimatter across Europe”
A good idea this as after all, what could possibly go wrong. I can imagine the containment chief engineer talking to the driver now if things did start to go wrong-
‘I’m giving her all she’s got but the containment canna hold together much longer. She canna take any more, driver! She’s gonna blow!’
LOL. Actually, the amount of anti-matter would be so small as to be not noticeable if containment was lost. Sorry to be a spoil sport.
Yes, more danger from the coolant expanding and exploding than from the anti-particle annihilation as it hits the surface of the vessel. The article is devoid of useful information, for instance the antimatter is presumably anti-hydrogen which consists of an anti-proton orbited by a positron, this is problematic for containment because it has no net charge, hence they have to use huge magnets to exploit the magnetic dipole of the atom. I’m not a particle physicist and I’m sure the quantum explanation would make no sense to the layman, but I believe this is because the positron (+ve) is orbiting(moving around) the anti-proton(-ve) and moving charge produces current which produces a small magnetic field.
It’s interesting, but memory is the poor in the US and the rich in Europe were more likely to attend around 20 years ago.
One issue in the US is the decline of mainline protestant churches. I can see a process where if the wealthier patrons leave for a megachurch the services provided by the church breakdown.
In Europe, I think there needs to be delineation between church and mosque attendance. Then the Episcopal church in the colonies was the closest the US had to the Imperial Religion of the empire at least on a large scale (no one cares about LDS outside of Salt Lake).
I suspect the shift to selling indulgences (the prosperity gospel) without a stream of new church goers and structures dependent on personalities versus structures will collapse.
With that in mind, I think it won’t be a wave but sporadic collapses coupled with limited new recruits. It’s why the megacurch donors have been running that he gets us routine. They know it’s not attractive to younger people, and the childless don’t have that drive to take kids to church.
>>One issue in the US is the decline of mainline protestant churches
Ironically now (2020s) mainline protestant churches are “outperforming” others (such as evangelicals)….but only because mainlines hit the floor decades ago and can’t go any lower; while the evangelicals took a big existential hit in the 2007-10 recession and slowing dying off since. —evangelicals also got a temporary boost when mainline churches pivoted to liberal culture-war stances.
an implicit/explicit part of megachurch evangelicals was that “salvation of the elect”/God’s grace = you get a McMansion with a BMW in the garage.
Godzone, as you’ll note from the name, is mostly in regards to Big Dogma with a number of MegaMAGA evang churches on Caldwell Ave in Visalia-their happy hunting ground, and don’t think for a minute that good old time religion wasn’t feeling the pinch, so the Catholics built the largest parish church in the country in a city with a population of less than 150k!
“an implicit/explicit part of megachurch evangelicals was that “salvation of the elect”/God’s grace = you get a McMansion with a BMW in the garage.”
From my experience that simply is not the case with the dispensationalists and holiness/Pentecostals I’m familiar with. But certainly these churches emphasize the “whole experience” more than the liturgical churches.
Though I’m one of those evil post-grad educated weekly church attenders, so what would I know? Fortunately education has allowed me to study Christian theology. But my general approach is along the lines of “Forbid them not; for whosoever is not against us is for us.”
Thanks for the tipping article. Didn’t see TIPS defined: To Improve Personalized Service. Kinda hard to reckon the tip amount prior to receiving the service. I’m old school and expect my bill at the end of the meal at which time I assess the service and add a cash gratuity accordingly. But fast casual is the norm so the expectation is to tip for services not rendered when placing an order, fetch one’s meal when your name is called, grab your own water and setups, and bus your own table! What, exactly am I tipping for? As the article says, it’s to support business owners underpaying staff. The author’s recommendations are high minded with the exception of, leave a cash tip. Very practical material benefit.
The tipping culture makes me so angry, I don’t bother getting food out anymore. The food at restaurants is not good anyway so no loss for me.
The benefits? I spend no money on eating out so I use that money to buy very good, healthy foods at home. My skin looks great and I feel really good, no stomach aches from preservatives etc…
aye…since my wife passed,almost 3 years ago, ive lost almost 35#…doctor buddy wanted to check for worms,lol.(he hadnt seen me since right after the funeral, when he went on and on about the badness of bmi, etc)
….at least until i explained that during her almost 4 year trek through cancerland, we were always on the road, or camping out 130 miles from home…ergo, we ate out all the time.
go to for on the way home lunch was whataburger ffs,lol.
all that abruptly ended when she died.
and since i was now back to poverty mode, ive been cooking all my meals ever since(and a great deal of what i cook, i also produce)…on top of working like an anthill thats been stepped in, for to distract myself, among other, more practical, reasons.
i’m prolly fitter….and more svelt…than ive been since i was 20(55, now)
I seldom eat out and when I do I am very particular about tipping and I would never tip before a meal and I would never have a problem conveying to the company why this is wrong. I wonder if folk are afraid to be made to look cheap and that’s one of the reasons they allow themselves to be taken advantage of.
I am cheap and proud of it.
I rarely eat out due to finances, but when I do if I pay by card I add 10% as the basic tip (something like that is established in law). Then I leave another 10 to 20% cash. I mean to be attuned the working class, I’m not exactly removed. I more often go to a bar to hear music and the tips go into a pot for everyone, I pay in cash and I generally tip 30%. That cuts back on my outings, but…
One thing you have to think about when tipping, is the card transaction companies want more of it. They make fees on the total transaction, so they want more tips to drive up the dollars/charge.
Thank you, Yves.
Further to the ongoing genocide, this community may be interested in this cracking defence: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-israel-gaza-starmer-david-lammy-sanctions-trade-b2754928.html. I’m looking forward to that one being used at the Hague.
Labour’s crimes against Jews under Corbyn were so serious that Starmer needs to atone by supporting Israel’s extermination of Palestinians. Did I get that right?
If that’s the basis of his plea in mitigation, he should be hung in publicin his nightdress pour décourager les autres.
I tried to reply to you, Colonel, but it ended up further down the page. The comments on that piece of sophistry are a tonic, restoring one’s faith in the readers. Scroll down to find out!
Tipping: I notice that bartenders are starting to turn away from cash offered, then go to the terminal to produce a bill (often electronic) designed to stimulate a card payment with the tip prompt. New Yorkers are used to the $1 per drink tip, but this maneuver is so manipulative that staff risk not getting one at all. Not to mention the places that refuse cash entirely to the same end–still illegal in NYS.
I tried a new coffee shop last week. The ‘barista’ took a ten-spot and gave me change and an empty cup. Whereupon I went to the the dispenser for coffee, ice and milk. If this is the future then the tipping thing will solve itself.
I was a waiter/bartender for ten years and depended on tips, and the current tipping culture really annoys me. I used to tip $1/drink thinking that was pretty good, but now drinks are $10 each give or take a little bit, so $1 seems cheap. The cost of everything has gone up and waitrons don’t make all that much and have few benefits, so I usually give $2 now. That being said, I was at a bar recently and ordered two mixed drinks. There were no prices posted. Bartender asked if I wanted them in a small or large cup and I said ‘large’. Total charge was $41.00(!). I felt a little bad leaving $45.00 since it was < 10%. At first. Then went to a different bar in the same venue, and this time the question was did I want a single or double. I said single and got a $12 drink, so apparently the first bar was upcharging for doubles without mentioning it. Not only is this really uncool, it is also potentially dangerous to serve people more alcohol than they were expecting. I say potentially, because the "large" drink I received certainly didn't hit me like a double – I probably got overcharged and shortchanged on the alcohol at the same time. They would have made more moiney off me if they were honest, since I could have afforded more drinks. Did I mention this was a corporate chain (Roadrunner in Boston) and not some local music venue?
I did appreciate the rundown in the article on tipping in Europe, which has always confused me. I asked a waiter last year who said about the same thing – a euro or two is fine and five would be considered a very large tip. Then this year I went to a restaurant in Athens and got the screen shoved at me with the suggested 20% tip! So I had to try to figure it out all over again. My best guest is they could tell we were USian tourists, so gave us the bill in such a way as to maximize their take. But the tipping culture gets ingrained in a person, so even when we went to other places that didn't use screens, I still wound up tipping more then 5 euros per meal. Leaving two on an 80 euro tab just felt cheap, even though I knew it was acceptable.
All that said, I really miss the 90s when I could walk in get, pay 3-4 bucks for 3-4 fingers of booze in a bucket, leave a $1-2 tip, and everyone was happy. Now get off my lawn while I shout at some clouds.
Even if the business doesn’t take cash, the workers will accept cash tips, at least in all of the places I’ve gone so far. In any case, I always give cash for tips, since if you add it to the credit car paid receipt, you don’t know that the workers will actually get all or any of the money you write down on the receipt.
Indeed. And if there’s a tip jar at the counter, not uncommon for the shift manager, general manager, or even franchise owner to take whatever they want.
Is there a delivery service in the DoorDash model that hasn’t been to court for tips fraud?
Re: Google crapifying search with shoddy AI:
I feel you. I think it is Google’s way of making us pay for all the money they’ve thrown down the AI rat-hole. Data centers, research, etc. They’re going to force feed us this crap to try and get some ROI but I don’t think it will work.
I don’t have the links handy but there are plain old search engines, I think one commenter posted about a paid service for like $10/month that avoids all the AI slop.
(Hey, that’s the business model! Crapifying a perfectly good feature, then make your customers pay more to get it back. We already pay for search with ads.)
Couple of alternatives: one just cleans up G*e, the other just doesn’t deliver garbage at the top.
https://udm14.com/
https://www.ecosia.org/
Also DuckDuckGo. Seems to be available on many browsers as a built-in option, and returns results very reminiscent of old-school Google.
When it was recommended to me a few years back it still seemed to be old style keyword search and didn’t handle natural language queries anywhere near as well as Google. I just tried again and it seems to have improved a lot on that front. If Google continues forcing AI on us it may become the better option purely for UI reasons.
I used it for years, but it became gunked up over the years as did google, perhaps because it uses google as its engine, and it wasn’t as anti-tracking as I would like. I checked it today and it seems to have improved. Maybe all the searcher front ends are finding they lose users when they serve SEO slop as top results.
Wildfires rage across US state of Arizona, with over 8,000 hectares burned Anadolu Agency
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow is a red flag-no burn day in Tiny Town, strong winds combined with low humidity levels are a recipe for disaster, just add a spark.
Apparently we have an arsonist on the loose here-there was a fire of some 20 acres that required air support along with ground support to quell, and just about every day for the past fortnight a spot fire or 2 has been extinguished before they got sizable, but tomorrow could be a different story.
How scary to have that active threat lurking in the background.
Good thing Orange Man has a solution: Centralize all federal firefighting! It’ll be so helpful to have a Department of Homeland Fire Complication to command all efforts from a snazzy building in DC!
Orange Man may end up “compromising” on permitting sub-centralized federal firefighting center in “Republican” states but not in “Democratic” states, which he wishes to see burn all the way down.
If that change isn’t made over the next three years, the readership can laugh at my paranoia.
“A Major Newspaper Publishes a Summer Reading List—but the Books Don’t Exist”
Sight unseen I knew that it was an AI that did it. They could have thrown a janitor twenty bucks to check to those titles but obviously didn’t. And now that newspaper has suffered humiliating reputational damage and them blaming a black box is not going to do it. So what else will AI be used for with newspapers then. Weather predictions? Astrological predictions? Stock market tips? Book reviews? Oh, wait, they did that already. And now they are trying to cram AI into search websites, programs, mobile apps and any other place that they can jam it in. But having an AI on your computer would be like having a fish in it. By the third day you would want it out.
I made this joke yesterday when this link appeared in comments, but I laughed so hard at my own joke that I’ll repeat it. We shouldn’t take these non-existent books as a failing on AI’s part but as a wonderful new invention.
For that mellow summer vacay, a non-existent book is the perfect read:
– the price is right;
– it doesn’t take up precious room in that carry-on; and
– best of all, you can brag to your friends about reading it, and they can never prove you a liar.
For those in the US who want Novavax, and want enough demand for Novavax in the US that it is available here, a tip lifted from the comments in the linked article. This T is not me! Just a solid citizen.
T
TA-RN
13 hours ago
Still possible to make a public comment:
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Final Step 6. Click “Submit Comment.”
Did anyone catch “Action Barbie” Noem’s response when asked what Habeas Corpus was?
The proper definition:
What it isn’t – whatever Noem said, something to the effect of the right of the President to deport whomever the hell he feels like with no hearing.
But it seems that “Reality” may be overtaking the “Definition.”
Once the Feds habeas the corpus, they sure seem to believe that they get to do whatever they want to the corpus. Possession is 9/10ths, right? ;-)
I’m loathe to say it, but I liked her better when she was dispatching pets that gave her agita in a gravel pit, versus dispatching human beings.
I liked her better posing with a gun.
The guy next to her was not so happy about it:
‘You’re Pointing That Weapon Directly At That Guy’s Head!’: Noem Roasted For ICE Video By Gallego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y06LbgczjJc
Notice how he very carefully steps back out of the line of fire.
Thank you, Colonel.
There isn’t a single positive comment! Two worth lifting are:
“NotaWinstonin1984
2 hrs ago
This article demonstrates why the working class hate Starmer and the entire right wing faction now in control of the Labour party. Shifting blame for the consequences of government policy onto others who are not in government is the behaviour of political cowards who not willing to take responsibility for their own policies.
Next the Starmarites will blame Corbyn for the cuts to the winter fuel allowance and cuts to the welfare budget.
How is Starmer and his faction still getting away blaming others for their actions and their policy decisions?
The answer lies not in parliament but outside parliament, it lies squarely on the shoulders of the trade union leadership that insists on funnelling 77 million pounds to the neoliberal Labour party. Even when that neoliberal labour party leadership has supported genocide.
While Starmer’s government has supported genocide what have the trade union leadership done, they have continued to funnel millions into the Labour party. The trade union leadership continues with the lie to working class voters that the Labour party is on the side of the working class .
The working class now have no representation in parliament. Just as was the case before chartists and socialist first fought for universal suffrage in the 19th century. Now in working class representation in a pretense a sham to fool workers into believing Westminster offers the working class anything. And the trade union leadership helps the labour party leadership and it’s rich backers in the ruling class maintain this fiction. Maintenance of this fiction with the help of the trade union leadership is proof the trade union leadership are stooges if the capitalist ruling class just as the leadership of the Labour party are stooges of that same ruling class.”
And
“Northwing
5 hrs ago
Is this meant to be a work of fiction?
“Antisemitic conspiracy theories suggesting Labour is being held back by Zionist interests can readily be found on social media, but none of this is true.”
Really? It is a fact that Starmer concealed who bankrolled his leadership bid until the votes were counted. His most significant donor is Trevor Chinn, one of the UK’s most prominent pro-Israel lobbyists. He continues to fund the party and chosen senior MPs. The largest single donation to Labour under Starmer, and one that likely saved the party from bankruptcy, come from Gary Lubner, a South African multimillionaire and another major pro-Israel lobbyist. He is one of the two main figures who recently bought The Observer.
From the Register of Interests, we can see that other prominent MPs are funded by Red Capital (an investment company that grew out of Lord Jon Mendelsohn’s gambling empire). Jon Mendelsohn is another Israel lobbyist and also a major backer of Progress- an organisation that trained Right Wing apparatchiks for public office. Progress has been superceded by Labour Together Ltd., a private limited company bankrolled by Trevor Chinn and a US-based hedge fund. Under Starmer, it has been empowered to effectively run the Party management. It also provides staff and funding for chosen MPs, and via Josh Simons and Luke Akehurst (the latter formerly chair of “We Believe in Israel”), imposed nearly two hundred hand-picked crony candidates on constuituencies the lenght and bredth of the country.
LFI is another lobbying group that conceals its sources of funding. (https://www.declassifieduk.org/who-funds-labour-friends-of-israel-and-why-wont-it-say/). It donates to MPs directly. 25% of the PLP are in LFI, but 1/3 of the Cabinet are.
I could go on, but there isn’t space.”
The unions are useless, their policy is to make sure the senior staff members are OK at the expense of the youngsters. Hence the CWU allowed Royal Mail to have different contracts for existing Posties from new hires. They must work weekends (incl Sunday) if asked and they have less rights to sick pay, plus a few other penny pinching things. Sorry can’t find a link, but this is info from someone who recently resigned after 2 years working there.
“A Devastating New Exposé of Johnson & Johnson Indicts an Entire System”
This is a real evil history and qualifies Johnson & Johnson as a Nazi corporation because of it behaviour and the untold deaths credited to it. One name pops up often in connection with these stories and is Alex Gorsky and you would not know about it from his Wikipedia entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Gorsky
The article is staggering – I knew they were bad, but I didn’t realise J&J were quite that bad.
Its interesting that they seem to have liked recruiting ex-military on the basis, it seems, that they are more likely to just follow orders.
This is true across all pharma. Ex military guys make the best drug salesmen because they will follow a script exactly. That is necessary for FDA compliance.
If you’re a psychopath, it’s smarter to work for Johnson & Johnson than to join the Nazi Party. You could become wealthy and avoid the hangman’s noose.
I’m curious if Johnson & Johnson has guidelines discouraging its employees from using or recommending its products to friends and family.
Is there any chance that Trump will be impeached? He is doing so badly with the economy and now foreign relations as well. Or is it more likely that he will “end”, one way or another, as Biden once said about the Nord stream pipeline?
If the “economy” in selected low-population Republican states with Republican Senators became so bad that the local Business Gentry instructed their Republican Senators that Trump would have to be removed to relieve the pain the local Business Gentry were feeling, then perhaps the relevant Republican Senators could be pressured into accepting the need for Impeachment, Conviction and Removal of Trump. I can’t imagine any other way in which it could be achieved.
So the question becomes, how could tens of millions of people who wanted Trump deleted from office coordinate their “economic” behavior in such a way as to bring such utter and total economic pain, collapse and despair to some low population Republican Senator states that those Republican Senators would quietly plan with other Establishment figures to set up the deletion and removal of President Trump?
What if hundreds of millions of people from all over America and the world were to stop buying Kentucky Bourbon? What if they all wrote the relevant political authorities and especially the appropriate Bourbon Authority organizations about it? What if they wrote nice polite letters about how they really wish they could buy and consume Kentucky Bourbon but as long as Trump is in office, their “consumer sentiment” just “feels depressed” and they just don’t feel like buying bourbon? What if they were to suggest that their mood might brighten so much once Trump was removed from office that they might well celebrate their own rising consumer sentiment by buying a bottle of bourbon?
I got AI to write me a Javascript program based on a MittelEuropa one that let shoppers use their smartphone to identify a prduct belonging to the national oligarch who was running for president. The resulting program was Greek to me, since I don’t know programming, but I’m looking for someone to give it to, so they can use the barcode database for Koch Industry-owned products (almost exclusively Georgia Pacific). I have that database; other databases for similar villainous oligarchs and corporations could certainly be included.
I never would have thought that I could have become this jaded and cynical before the 2024 election cycle, but I am absolutely unwilling to believe in Biden’s cancer diagnosis as reported by his personal office. After the gaslighting, distortions and lies about the increasingly feeble-minded Biden, I am unwilling to take anything from Democratic leadership in general, and from the Biden administration specifically, at face value. Consider me a casualty in the complete loss of trust in the statements of the Democrats.
Is There a Least Bad Alcohol?
Unfiltered ale; preferably home-brewed. Because, on top of being tasty and easy to consume, it is also (for the win)…nutritional. A valuable source of vitamin B complex and trace minerals.
At least that’s what all my home brewing books say. Cheers.
– CT
Naseem Nicholas Teleb has been banging the drum for some time that multiple studies on alcohol use dubious statistics – essentially identifying effects that aren’t there.
Big population studies don’t really show that big an effect. If alcohol was so bad you’d expect to see some sort of differential impact on low to zero alcohol societies (i.e. muslim countries) against the wine and beer drinking nations. If anything, its the opposite (northern vs southern bank of the Mediterranean, for example).
Alcohol isn’t good for you, but health is a big package thing – in the greater scheme of health bads and goods its well down the list after smoking, bad diets, exercise, etc., etc.
For life insurance, the big question (pre-COVID anyway) was smoking or not. They didn’t have drinking and non-drinking policy ratings. If alcohol were truly that bad, I’d expect there to be a similar distinction.
> Is There a Least Bad Alcohol?
Alcohol is only a problem if you cannot metabolize it.
Ethanol is first turned into an aldehyde by Alcohol dehydrogenase, which uses Zinc as a cofactor and NAD+ as a coenzyme. This is why alcohol use depletes zinc. And this is why you should take zinc or eat oysters if you drink. Not enough zinc and the liver then uses Catalase and CYP450 backup enzymes which is not ideal since we need those enzymes for antioxidation and detoxification.
Next, the aldehyde (Acetaldehyde) is metabolized by ALDH2, an enzyme which needs NAD+ as a coenzyme and produces acetate, a ketone that can be used in the krebs cycle.
So, what about NAD+? NAD+ is basically the vitamin niacin which we also aquire from food, but we also make NAD+ ourselves from tryptophan via the Kynurenine Pathway. That pathways enzymes depend on B6 and B2 to function well.
So, you see, nutrition is the problem, not the alcohol. But you will note the Times article did not bring up nutrition once.
Fascinating. thanks!
Very interesting, thank you!
Thanks for this. Alcohol is the new boogie man it would seem.
In USA it’s the boogie man as new as the Tommy gun and pinstripe suits.
No offense to the new person, but man I really miss Lambert. I used to read water cooler every day and now I just check the site a couple times a week and read an article or two. The ones I do read are well written and the Commentariate is as good as ever, but it’s just not the same. Dang I must be getting old.
He is badly missed – I do hope he’s enjoying his retirement.
I think he is writing; IIRC his announcement at “D-day – 2 months” mentioned writing projects that he wanted to do and that he considered that he ought to do. Maybe he has some book projects in mind.
I hope that we (the wider world, as well as the NC community) will hear from him in due course.
On the plus side, the balance of my day is again available to me; I didn’t realize how much time there was in a day! (Only half in jest.)
I imagine him doing really deep dives into subjects now that he has the time.
This is pretty funny, 2 minute video. Beau Biden asks your help in saving his dad from elder abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPxjQfV8X6o
Re; China?
From a corporate investor-relations post, but of interest as this is an effort that is piggy-backing off of China’s Belt-and-Road project. Basically, Chinese companies are seeking to assist in managing and regulating the “drone-zone,” the low-altitude airspace, above participating countries– with full-backing and support from Beijing, I should add:
“Guided by the principles of standardized planning, scenario-driven operations, and modularized technology,’ we endeavor to co-create scalable, replicable demonstration zones for the low-altitude economy, “ said Mr. Wang, “Through this partnership, we will promote Chinese standards on the global stage, and extend the benefits of safe and intelligent air mobility to broader regions.”
https://www.ehang.com/news/1229.html
This is the future everywhere, not just in China. We will live under a constellation of low orbit satellites with clouds of drones and 6G AI to direct operations. See Russia’s 2030 plan for example. I am sure Mr Musk has similar aspirations for the US. Control will be maximised for profit.
Western Qld is looking better by the day for retirement.
Comparing construction cost in the way Bertrand sets out those figures is meaningless – there are many different ways of calculating the ‘true’ cost of a major construction item such as a nuclear power plant, just picking wikipedia figures doesn’t mean very much. And thats before you get into insurance and decommissioning costs.
The attached tweet is from a pro-nuclear bot. I can’t find any original source apart from a China Daily report (and numerous other articles quoting that same article) for that $27billion figure. It doesn’t even clearly say what that figure covers. I don’t find it in any way credible as a final turnkey figure – its about a quarter of fifth of what you would expect for the raw construction (minus financing costs) for the 10-12GW capacity plants that are approved.
Nuclear plants in China are generally built and operated by one of a handful of companies with complex cross-ownership structures, including the State. The contracts for supply are again quite complex – large thermal plants get substantial subventions where there is an identified need for additional baseline. My guess is that the $27 billion figure is the contracted subvention figure for the plants to compensate the owners for constructing and maintaining baseline capacity. In other words, its a subsidy for the over-construction necessary in a grid to maintain long term stability (in a pure free market power system, there would be a strong incentive for operators to construct only up to average demand – they would not lose money from outages). So the actual real cost of those plants is not available.
The plants themselves are a mixture of Chinese versions of long established designs, including the Westinghouse 1000. Given what we know about construction costs in China, it is credible that they can build them ‘relatively’ cheaply given the available scale, but its simply not credible that they could build them for what amounts to 20% of the costs elsewhere. We know from comparative construction industry guides that while the Chinese are very good at building at a mind melting scale, there is no evidence that they are building at a substantially cheaper rate than worldwide norms. The cost of laying concrete and steel is pretty consistent worldwide.
“There is no evidence that they are building at a substantially cheaper rate than worldwide norms.”
It’s not cheaper that “worldwide norms”, but it’s a credible number. South Korea spent ~$2200 per kW during the construction of their nuclear fleet, with a typical 6-year build time. Russian nuclear reactors apparently cost ~$2450 per kW. If China is reporting $2300 per kW, that’s credible.
The real question isn’t why Chinese nuclear is so cheap. It isn’t. The question is instead this: Why is Western nuclear is so terribly slow and expensive? The recent Vogtle units 3 and 4 took a whopping 15 years and cost ~$15000 per kW. Hinkley Point C is apparently going faster but is expected to cost ~$18000 per kW. Why is it so much worse in the US and UK than elsewhere?
Here is some GOOD news! Perhaps even good enough to lift into a link tomorrow?
In the cartoonishly Manichean fight between an evil London hedgefund landlord and the entire rest of England over the right to wild camp on Dartmoor (the only place that is legal in England), including the National Park Authority, the Supreme Court has sided with the Court of Appeal and affirmed the right stands! Hurrah for the little man!
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/21/wild-camping-on-dartmoor-is-legal-supreme-court-rules
I really hope the campaigners organise a wild camping night on Hedgie’s common land, to stick him a polite, leave-no-trace two fingers!
God damn, here is some BAD news! Perhaps also worth a link tomorrow?
Mo Chara of Kneecap has been charged under the Terrorism Act. :-(
https://news.sky.com/story/member-of-kneecap-charged-with-terror-offence-13369377
He has to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18th June. The timing is deliberate: in three days they play their first gig after Coachella, in late June they play Glastonbury and they are applying for US visas for their sold-out tour in the autumn. Sadly, the Zionists are out to crush them, just as the rest of the world is admitting the genocide in Gaza.
The offence is not specified but is seemingly in relation to allegedly appearing on stage and briefly donning a Hezbollah flag and shouting once the phrase “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah!” at their second London gig in November (I was in the front row and don’t remember it).
He has been charged as Liam Hanna rather than Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, which is a unnecessary move of the CPS to deny his Irishness. Here’s hoping he exercises the 2022 right to be tried in Irish with Irish-speaking counsel. :-)
Without details of the charge it is hard to comment but I would point out that there are two offences in the Terrorism Act 2000 regadimg support. One is s12(1) which makes it an offence to support a proscribed organisation (which Hamas and Hezbollah lately are, but Hamas is appealing its proscription). The second is the 2019 created offence of s12(1A), of making statements directed at a person reckless as to whether by that person will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation.
Elementary logic suggests that s12(1A) was only added because s12(1) did not cover statements, ergo support in either offence must mean more than statements of fact or sympathy. It is therefore hard to see what support he has given or encouraged, let alone to whom it was directed in the 2,100 crowd. If it was directed to me, I missed it!
Even if the elements of the offence can be made out, there is a reasonable defence that the alleged actions cannot be support because every politician in Northern Ireland, of both persuasions, has marched with or alongside flags and chants of proscribed organisations (IRA, UVF etc) and there has been no prosecution. East Belfast has a UVF Memorial Parade!
The Crown Prosecution Service is playing with fire in Northern Ireland in bringing this case given the precedents and the appearance of selective enforcement. I hope Keir Starmer, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, believes that keeping the Zionists happy is worth blowing up the Good Friday Agreement.
Oh the irony, given the UK used its experience (and the same troops ansld police) policing Ireland’s anti-colonial struggle to pacify Mandatory Palestine and got blown up by Haganah, Irgun and the Stern Gang etc.
If you consider linking this tomorrow, the best statement is Mo Chara’s own words, sadly prophetic.
https://nitter.poast.org/KNEECAPCEOL/status/1925296560197267697#m
Its pretty grim news – very obviously intended to give an excuse to refuse them US visas, so we can guess the origin.
I would hope there would be a reaction from the music industry, but its so depolitisised these days I would not hold my breath.
Btw, I was a little mystified by the exchange between you and the good Colonel about Jeremy Thorpe – I just stumbled across the story this morning on the twittery thing. So very mysterious, even more so that it seems the rabid right is as keen on ignoring it as the centrists. I assume there is a gagging order out of some type (who knows, maybe gagging was involved).
I just read the judgment and the Supreme Court spends the final page insisting the Attorney General should have been joined to the original judicial review so as to bind the public whose rights would be restricted rather than bind the National Park Authority to introduce the restrictions.
This is the Supreme Court’s English way of deciding this with prejudice, in the US mechanism, and closing the door on any re-litigation – “you and whose army?” now includes HMG itself…. LOL.
Surprisingly good news – every now and then UK courts do surprise. I’ve never been to Dartmouth, but a friend of mine who has explored pretty much every remote and beautiful part of the planet insists that its very special by any standards and moved there with his family. I must set up my bike one day and go explore.
Thank you for continuously posting articles and posts about Gaza. The doctor’s X post was heartbreaking. Oh, how I wish I had the power to stop this genocide.
.
Isreali Zionist freaks and the AIPAC ruled Congress don’t remember how shocking images of starved people can change people’s minds.
From Students Are Short-Circuiting Their Chromebooks for a Social Media Challenge
Worse, this kind of fire releases noxious vapors, so this doesn’t just put the impressionable, idiotic perpetuator at risk, but everyone in the confined space, much like COVID.
Honestly, computers don’t have much place in schools. What’s wrong with pencils and paper? We had computer labs, in school, and that was it. And today this stuff all runs garbage like Google’s educational suite, as I understand it. It’s called “Google Classroom”, how horrid. Getting school districts to sign up for this trash is yet another grift.
I bet districts have an entire role, social media investigator, where they just follow accounts on Tik Tok for advanced warning about stupid, dangerous trends. How sad.
COVID brain damage?
>>>> What’s wrong with pencils and paper?
parents and activists will shriek that learning to do math inside your head and creating a first draft paper by hand is for luddites. (which nicely aligns with administrators who attend junkets to edu conferences sponsored by Apple and Google and Microsoft)
enriching Google, Apple, and Microsoft (OpenAI) via a lifetime of using the internet as a crutch is progress. just ask that “journalist” who gave ChatGPT millions of hits of free exposure, lol
Education has been monetized as Software as a Service, mission accomplished!
Didn’t young people always double-dog-dare eachother to do stupid things? In the past, such young people had to double-dog-dare eachother in person, one by one or in small groups at most.
Now TikTok and other such social media platforms allow a few young people to double-dog-dare millions of other young people at a time to do something stupid. If you extend a dare to millions of teens at a time, you can get some of them to take it. I doubt the teens of today are different. I suspect that TikTok reaching millions of teens in an instant is what makes the “scaling up” difference.
Computers don’t have much place in lots of venues where they are prevalent. The dodgy software often gets in the way of work being accomplished as much as it helps. But they’re just assumed to be a necessity, so we let them shape our work routines and daily activities to the point that when “the system” goes down, we don’t remember how to function otherwise. And the internet in the workplace offers more opportunities for employees to screw off than to be more productive. I can see a student having a computer at home with a printer for doing terms papers and whatnot, since few people own typewriters now, but in the classroom itself they only seem as necessary as you’ve let the tech bros talk you into believing. (Obvious Luddite here, I know!)
There are reports from people on the ground that a military coup is underway in the Ivory Coast, apparently motivated by the US plans to build a military base there near the border with Burkina Faso and Mali. It is also reported that the internet has been shut down.
https://youtu.be/-JUqdR2DbR8
re: 23andMe. From 6 weeks ago:
23andMe has declared bankruptcy — here’s how to delete your data now
How-to
By Amber Bouman published March 24, 2025
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/23andme-has-declared-bankruptcy-heres-how-to-keep-your-dna-from-being-sold
re:‘Transition’ to a new world order is beyond most in the West – Alastair Crooke
Thanks for this link. Important read, imo.
re: Mallard duck antitdote. He shows excellent ice skating form. / ;)
Re: Biden and the mala fides of the Democrats at large, Eugyppius has a different and very interesting take:
“In fact, I think a simple cover-up is the most harmless possibility here. It’s likely that doctors have diagnosed Biden’s cancer so late because the former president was subject to a high degree of isolation and medical neglect while in office. Perhaps family and close advisers carefully managed Biden’s annual physicals to avoid any inconvenient findings as part of a broader campaign to hide his dementia. Alternatively, it’s possible that signs of cancer were discovered at some point, but that Biden’s inner circle avoided confirming the diagnosis or pursuing treatment. Either way, the late diagnosis and the advanced cancer together suggest that Biden has been left sick and untreated for a long time.
As I wrote last year, Biden’s presidency was an informal and unacknowledged regency. Biden himself did not have the mental capacity to rule on his own, and so a confined circle of close advisers and family effectively directed the actions of the presidential office on his behalf.
Importantly, this regency was not “the White House” or “Biden’s staff” or “the Democratic Party” in general. It was much smaller than all of those things. The regents worked hard to obscure Biden’s dementia from Congress, from large parts of Biden’s own campaign, from the Democratic Party and from many others within Biden’s White House. They ensured that even internal meetings unfolded in highly scripted and predetermined ways, so that cabinet and other officials could not gain a clear idea of Biden’s mental state. They berated and intimidated anyone voicing concern about the president’s health behind the scenes. And they had very simple reasons for doing all of this: If Biden’s dementia were to become common knowledge and not merely an object of private suspicion (however widespread), the regency would be shown up as illegitimate and potentially broken.
Regents exercise power by restricting access to their charge and restricting their charge’s access to information and the outside world. It is thus unsurprising to find that Biden’s regents subjected him to strict social isolation, particularly towards the end of his term . . .
The regents were in no position to hide serious diagnoses, which would have rapidly drawn all manner of doctors, experts and outsiders into the inner circle. Perhaps Biden’s cancer could be kept out of the press for a time, but knowledge would spread beyond the regents’ tight-knit ranks to their rivals, sceptics and enemies in the palace. Still worse, others would suddenly gain access to the president and form their own opinions about such tabu topics as his mental state. Their best and perhaps only strategy would have been to limit care and keep any signs of disease secret – if necessary also from the president himself.”
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/bidens-cancer-diagnosis-is-very-strange
Re the Metropolitan Review article, I’m wondering what makes a writer acceptable to a mainstream publication for them to publish one of his/her essays or stories, especially in the beginning of that writer’s career? Family relation to an already famous writer? A degree in creative writing from Yale or Harvard?
Always thought they monitored and medicated to keep him going but avoided diagnosis.
Yo, Noem. let’s kick it
ICE, ICE Barbie
ICE, ICE Barbie
All right stop, collaborate and listen
ICE is back with the brand-new makeup intention
Something, grabs a hold of eye shadow tightly
Flows like Earl Scheib daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights and she’ll still glow
To the extreme she walks the border like a supermodel
Light up a stage and wax eyebrows on the video
Dance go rush to the immigrants, some from Montevideo
They’re killing Emma Lazarus’s hopes like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly when she testifies about a 1-way Habeas Corpus melody
Anything less than getting the best is a felony
Love it or leave it you better gang way
You better hit bull’s eye the undocumented can’t play
And if there was a problem, yo, they’ll solve it
Check out her losing face while her blush resolves it
ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Now that the Republican party is jumping
When January 20th kicked in and Barbie is primping
Quick to the point to the point of yucko!
She’s applying concealer like a pound of stucco
Making her look like Tammie Faye if you ain’t quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear looking good is a status symbol
And foundation with a souped up-tempo
I’m on a roll and it’s obvious saving face is her temple
Yo, man let’s get out of here
Word to your mother
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
Ice Ice Baby, by Vanilla Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOQtzxPnoY0
Love it!
Chef’s kiss.
I can only view these statements, alongside the recent UK/French/Canadian non-statements, as quick-dry PR spin, trying to put some distance between complicit western states and Israel’s latest massacre chariots operation.
These are just statements. Not actions. In fact, most of these states still continue to supply the very bomb and bullets Israel is using to carry out wanton slaughter. For the amount of energy they put into a statement, they could simply have suspended arms shipments. Spain has, apparently, voted to do so. But Lammy in the UK and I think also the EU continue to stall and equivocate. The Israeli foreign affairs spokesman has openly stated the UK trade agreement for one was frozen anyway, so what harm.
PR-wise, western governments are spooked. But that’s about it. The amorality and material support for genocide continues unabated.
I am confused on how given the new FDA policy, access to Novavax will work for the under-65 adult cohort.
Could a patient self-report 1 of the “high risk conditions” and then thereby get Novavax? Or would a patient need their primary physician to prescribe it or certify this “high risk condition”?
Even if available, is health insurance likely to cover it? What is the projected Novavax no-insurance cost? The current version from this recent winter was around $180.
f KennedyJr & Trump, “your medical choice rights TM!” Big Govt Nanny State hypocrites
re: German censorship rising
As mentioned on the WE it is now confirmed: 2 German citizens/bloggers are targeted by EU sanctions against RU for their reporting: Thomas Röper and Alina Lipp.
The following text so far is the only one addresing this very terrifying development.
It mentions one cause for major concern: Even JUNGE WELT (albeit under state surveillance) so far did not report on this in a serious manner. But I assume it will follow. (Though it must be stated even they are very anti-Putin and buy into many many lies…)
Machine-translation didn’t work with archive but it’s without paywall so no problem to do it yourself.
It´s a brief comment by Ulrich Heyden one of the few remaining German genuine correspondents in RU.
EU sanctions against German bloggers: Punish two, frighten many
https://overton-magazin.de/krass-konkret/eu-sanktionen-gegen-deutsche-blogger-bestrafe-zwei-aengstige-viele/
They have been going after Alina Lipp for a while. Her mother had to leave Germany.
https://xcancel.com/pharma_portulas/status/1559300856289296385
https://www.visiontimes.com/2022/06/26/alina-lipp-german-journalist-charged-bank-frozen-ukraine-reporting.html
so i got some turkey chicks, 5 or 6 years ago, during cancer time…and cancer won out with a fly ball…and i had to run off.
so mom had my turkeys….2 males survived.
no hens.
so i raised em up right, and the adopted the chicken chicks and then the guinnea chicks(such that my 2 guins, hatched from eggs, think that theyre turkeys)
so these 2 male turkeys will fight on occasion(havent figgered out s chedule)
usually, theyll put a fence between them…which i have helpfully provided.
but….here lately Tom(the dominant), has been getting more and more agressive in regards to Jerry(the sub).
2 days ago, i caught Tom trying to fuck Jerry.
i seprated them.
TOMS IN JAIL,LOL
but Jerry was so freaked out about it all that he got his leg caught in a notch in the roost…that i never considered a problm in my lifetime of bird management,lol.
took me 20 minutes to get that leg free without…i’d hoped…breacking th leg.
but Jerry is layin around.
limping away, etc
i brought him water(its hot)
and he can get around a bit.
after 2pm tomorrow is when i can have help to splint the leg.
old tshirt parts, some sticks and gorilla tape.
“Ted Golia” should read “Ted Gioia”
Rachel Cummings of Save the Children, on the situation in Gaza:
https://www.channel4.com/news/gaza-children-are-on-brink-of-death-warns-save-the-children
Search engines show other reports from her, over time:
https://yandex.com/search?text=save+the+children+rachel+cummings+gaza
https://www.qwant.com/?q=save+the+children+rachel+cummings+gaza
It is being reported that a man who shouted “Free Palestine” has shot dead two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington DC.
https://yandex.com/search?text=israeli+embassy+staff+killed
This is sure to inflame the pro-Israel camp and in general make individuals’, institutions’, and governments’ attitudes and actions worse in every way, if that is even possible at this point.