Blood of Man Who’s Had 200 Snake Bites Helps Make a Potent Antivenom Nature
Kuwait Cracks Down on Crypto Miners to Cut Down on Electricity Usage Engadget
Absolutely unreal! 😍🚴♂️ This bike trick is pure talent and courage – one of the best ever! #BikeMaster #EpicStunts #CycleInspo
pic.twitter.com/UXAmOu8TwK— KnowledgeWolf 🧠💡 (@KnowledgeWolfy) May 1, 2025
Since 1981, One Man Has Relocated Nearly 1,000 Snowy Owls from Logan Airport Colossal
“Unprecedented Recovery” – Gene Therapy Reverses Heart Failure in Breakthrough Study SciTechDaily
COVID-19/Pandemics
Common bacteria linked to strep raises worries in US: ‘Pandemic in plain sight’ NY Post
New Drugs Outperform Paxlovid – A Game Changer for
COVID and Future Pandemics SciTechDaily
Climate/Environment
How Climate Change Threatens Eye Health Knowable
Dangerously hot in Alaska? New warnings show climate change impact. USA Today
In His First 100 Days, Trump Launched an “All-Out Assault” on the Environment Arc Technica
China?
China Unveils Its Military Mega-Project Sustainability Times
Small Packages From China Are Now Subject to US Tariffs. Here’s What to Know Wired
⚡️ Chinese special forces deployed armed robotic dogs during anti-terror drills simulating urban combat in Tibet. pic.twitter.com/n7nGn9kluI
— War Intel (@warintel4u) May 2, 2025
Pacific Island nations See a US Pullback – Will China Step Up? SCMP
South of the Border
Second Us Military Zone Along Border With Mexico Set Up to Deter Migrants Al Jazeera
Trump Urges Free Passage for Us Ships Through Panama, Suez Canals Andolu Agency
European Disunion
Hard Decisions Ahead in EU Budget Talks: What Spending Should the Bloc Prioritise? France 24
The Transatlantic Tech Clash: Will Europe “De-Risk” from the United States? CSIS
Old Blighty
I overheard Labour and Tories say ‘we’ve cocked it up’ – they were right Notinghamshire Live
Prince Harry Says He Doesn’t ‘Know How Much Longer’ King Charles Has, Seeks Reconciliation The Hill
The Map That Shows Reform’s Triumph Was Much More Than a Protest Vote BBC
Israel v. The Resistance
Gaza, the US and China: the Future of War and the End of Civilisation Thomas Faxi Substack
what is Happening in Gaza is Unprecedented in Modern History
Hunger, siege, and death are everywhere. Countless injuries go untreated due to a total collapse of the healthcare system. Food supplies have been completely depleted. Medicines are entirely unavailable. Prices have… pic.twitter.com/14RDgkv50B
— Mostafa Alathamna~Gaza🇵🇸 (@alathamnaa) May 3, 2025
Un Urges Independent Probe Into Gaza Aid Ship Attack, Calls for Lifting of Aid Blockade Andolu Agency
Netanyahu Says Freeing Hostages Is Not His Priority Scheer Post
Live: Global Outrage Grows as 57 Die of Hunger Under Israel’s Gaza Blockade Al Jazeera
Israel Calls Up Thousands of Reservists, Plans to Expand Gaza Offensive Amid Stalled Hostage Talks CNN
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin Accuses Zelensky of Making ‘Direct Threat’ to Moscow’s Victory Day Celebrations The Independent
North Korea’s Involvement in the Ukraine War: A New Threat to International Peace Modern Diplomacy
Greene Furious Over Ukraine Minerals Deal, Iran Talks: ‘The Base Is Not Happy’ The Hill
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
From Driver’s License to Digital Dossier? Why Some Are Worried About Real ID USA Today
TikTok Gets Fined $600M for Data Transfers That Broke EU Privacy Rules News Tribune
Can You Opt Out of TSA Facial Recognition at Airports? Travel Noir
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Average American Is Closer to Being Homeless Than Being Elon Musk USA Today
Pam Bondi’s Absurd Claim About Fentanyl Overdoses Epitomizes the Illogic of the War on Drugs Reason
Trump 2.0
— Tony Michaels 🎙 (@thetonymichaels) May 2, 2025
Trump Must Not Repeat Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Iran The Hill
White House Tanks Trump’s Big Idea to Rename Veterans Day Daily Beast
How Rubio became Trump’s minister of many hats Axios
Donald Trump’s Grotesque Lie About the US Role in the European Theater in World War II Sonar 21
DOGE
Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court to Lift Data Access Block on Musk-Led DOGE Andolu Agency
DOGE Is in Its AI Era Wired
Democrat Death Watch
Kamala Harris in new speech:
“This country is ours. It belongs to you. It belongs to us. It belongs to We the People.”
Fact Check: The Democrat party doesn’t even belong to the people as it’s completely bought & beholden to corporations just like the GOP.pic.twitter.com/68Ano2eIeW
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) May 1, 2025
I love it so much 😂 cos are you a Democratic Party or not? If you are, why the silence? https://t.co/rie4dydXWx
— Thando M 🇨🇩🏳️🌈 (@thandomipa) May 3, 2025
Young Democrats Challenge Longtime Incumbents as Party Grapples With Generational Divide
Immigration
Big Tech Takes on Immigration With New Migrant Tracking Software for Ice USA Today
Tampa Woman Deported to Cuba After Normal Check-in at Immigration Office Fox 13
Trump’s Immigration ‘Shock and Awe’ Is Losing in the Court of Law Politico
Our No Longer Free Press
U.S. press freedom falls to historical low Axios
The Cost of Arrogance: Npr’s Undoing Is a Cautionary Tale for the Media The Hill
Mr. Market Is Moody
Trump’s Promised ‘Golden Age’ for the US Economy Is off to a Chaotic Start The Guardian
Here’s What Happens if the U.S. Dollar Collapses nanalyze
Japan Signals Us Treasury Holdings Could Be Trade Bargaining Chip With Donald Trump Times of India
AI
“Godfather of AI” shares prediction for future of AI, issues warnings (video) CBS
Testing AI’s GeoGuessr Genius Astral Codex
AI Scientist ‘Team’ Joins the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Nature
Claude’s AI Research Mode Now Runs for Up to 45 Minutes Before Delivering Reports Ars Technica
The Bezzle
Generative AI Makes Fraud Fluent – From Phishing Lures to Fake Lovers The Register
Walmart Takes Drastic Action to Curb Growing Fraud Problem at Self-Checkout NY Post
Businesses Globally Are Set to Lose $15 Billion in 2025 Because of Fraudulent Chargebacks TechRadar
Guillotine Watch
New record: Most expensive ice cream – JP¥873,400 (£5,469; €6,211; $6,696) made by OMER in Japan.
The ice cream includes edible gold leaf, white truffle and natural cheeses 🍨 pic.twitter.com/kaJOACEear
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 18, 2023
You can try boozy hot cocoa that weighs 20 pounds and costs $375 ☕️ pic.twitter.com/N9aJu2dyKR
— Insider Food (@insiderfood) February 7, 2019
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“Prince Harry says he doesn’t ‘know how much longer’ King Charles has, seeks reconciliation”
Well King Charles would reconcile with Prince Harry, but then Harry would run off right away to write a book all about it.
When Harry met sally?
Considering his recent history, it would be better titled “When Harry Met Sadly.”
Sally, as in a sudden move out of a beseiged location.
Ah ha! Back to the roots for, what do we call it? The Aristocrats!
By coincidence, I just caught a TV ad in the UK where the two ageing actors recreate ‘that’ scene from the movie. I immediately muted, but I imagine it had the same sound quality as this 60 second reunion of the Beach Boys.
I’m probably even more cynical. Harry just lost an expensive court case, which means his fortune just took a big hit. Their media deals are done or ending, what replacements there are aren’t remotely as lucrative. And I have a bridge to sell you if you think Meghan’s jam is the hit it has been portrayed as. IOW, that isn’t going to keep them in designer clothes and polo ponies. Forget the book, Inheritance and if remotely possible an allowance are the goal. Which is not to say that another tell all won’t come out after that has been achieved and is in the bank.
I would be less suspicious if there had been some movement on this while Charles was on the sidelines getting cancer treatments. Like finding out (after the fact) that he and the kids had spent time with his father.
I think it’s worse than that. I am waiting to get my hands on a filing, but a lawyer friend who has a weakness for celebrity gossip says Harry (and Meghan?) is being sued for defrauding a charity, and really big numbers, as in a lot more than just having improperly charged private class travel.
That “charity” wouldn’t be the Exchequer, would it?
Sentebale, the charity Harry founded that helps minors cope with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/03/charity-commission-sentebale-prince-harry-row
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentebale
Modelled on the Clinton Initiative in Haiti?
Please pass on the tip for AGCwebpages . . . it is an old style (think craigslist) style site where an unnamed LA entertainment lawyer dumps all the celebrity gossip he hears in to the blog as barely coded (as in referring to Megan Markle as “the Alliterate One”) references. If even 10% is true the populace would burn Hollywood. It is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
Crazydaysandnights.net
You are saying that Harry is not agreement capable? Hm, it’s not really surprising considering he is now living in Murica. If Trump wants to screw with the Brits, all he has to do is endorse Harry as his candidate for the throne and most of us won’t even need to tune to the next season of The Crown.
From his tone in the video BBC interview, it sounds like his biggest problem is with his brother. That estrangement is probably due to the racist comments about Megan that sister-in-law Kate made, and then “Spare” was Harry’s revenge. Now he’s lost a small pile of money on lawyers and the King won’t even talk to him. Why am I even wasting my precious neurons on this lol. I did watch a season of The Crown, the one where Helena Bonham-Carter played Margaret. That was amusing. This is just pathetic.
He wants his security paid for, but since he left the royal family he is just another influencer now. Besides that, is he even tax resident in the UK? I think not, since he lives in California. Then why should UK tax payers even consider paying for his security?
“Greene furious over Ukraine minerals deal, Iran talks: ‘The base is not happy’ ”
Not just MTG who was always gung-ho for Trump. Candace Owens has been calling out Trump as she thought he was about free speech but he is getting worse than Biden right now-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN6w_vFdXqE (1:16 mins)
Lots of Trump’s base will bail by the midterms as they did not vote for Trump to throw tens of billions more into the Ukraine, attack Iran on behalf of Israel and push the economy at home into a deep recession. That’s why they voted Biden out and now Trump is adopting Biden’s policies. Must be why Musk has already bailed. He sees what is coming and wants out.
Trump. Just another apparatchik of the mob.
Who is the mob.
We could tell you, but then you might wake up tomorrow morning with a horse’s head in your bed. No, seriously. It is basically the DC establishment and the insiders. Putin has publicly stated that it does not matter who is made President as the same policies are always followed and he is right. Brian Berletic also writes about this too. People voted for Trump as a wildcard candidate but in major aspects he is following the same pre-set policies Washington always follows such as such as degrade Russia, lean on Iran, support Israel even in genocide, box China in, cut wages and workers conditions at home, etc.
Is the Trump Group doing anything currently that the Biden-Harris group did not do and was not going to do?
Yes, that’s an easy question to answer, even on the foreign policy side. Tariffs as foreign policy negotiation/shakedown.
Who is the mob?
The billionaire oligarchs who run the country.
The USA has been an oligarchy since the Constitutional
Coup d’EtatConvention in 1787.The oligarchs have a large supporting cast that assists.
It is similar to watching the credits at the end of a movie.
A few executive producers and many, many others that helped make the film.
A nervous and precarious PMC is a big assistant in the operation of the US mob.
Maybe Trump is a new Herbert Hoover that will, unintentionally, destroy both political parties who currently share mob control.
Gleefully running the country into the ditch, while claiming you won the Indy 500, takes quite the leap of bad faith
Washington Consensus, SES PMC, media, lawfarers and lobbyists, all a big collusive bunch. They all have vested interests in keeping the money and power machines humming. Their supporting cast includes the local company town public trough.
Not to mention censoring and arresting people who dare criticise Israel. Because if you criticise Israel, you are an anti-semite, according to the definition of anti-semiticism forced on Harvard by the Trump “administration.” All to cover up the actual genocide Israel is committing against the Palestinians with the full support of both the Biden and now Trump administrations. Apparently, Netanyahu is our emperor.
Rev, if there’s going to be a corrective in the midterms, as I hope there will, how is that going to look like?
Trumpian stooges in congress going to be replaced by career democrats who also toe the neoliberal line and are, for the most part, groveling servants of the corporate and billionaire class?
To tell you the truth, I have literally no idea. It could be like the UK where voters just abandoned both parties as being hopelessly incompetent and went for a new party. Maybe in the US there might be a move to send votes to independents – any independents – so long as they were not Dems or Repubs. The old challenge of ‘wasting your vote’ might finally be laughed at into oblivion. Lots can happen between now and November of next year.
Here’s a start here in the US. A new party with 15 candidates. They claim to progressive, but no platform visible yet.
https://indivisible.org/our-candidates
Nothing to see here. Looks like a team blue cutout to me.
An appendage of the lesser weevil
Lost in OR: This is not a political party; it’s a group that came together in 2016 to *resist* Donald Trump. I looked at their website when you first posted a link a week or so ago, and on their About page, they say they will focus their attention and endorsements on “progressive” candidates. For me, the term progressive has lost most of its meaning, and they don’t define what they mean by progressive values. Their criticisms are aimed at republicans; notably, they don’t even mention democrats.
I looked at about five of the candidates they were promoting, and they all were running on the democrat ticket. One guy, former CEO of Virgin Galactic, has won accolades in 2025 not for bringing home the bacon for his constituents but instead for “being the second-highest performing Democratic Frontline fundraiser in Congress, raising more than $750,000 in the first quarter of this year. Whitesides’ campaign reported over $850,000 cash on hand, the fourth most of any targeted member.” All this in the 1st quarter of his first term. Go democrats! /s
Not a group I would trust, but YMMV.
Agreed. We need parties across the developed world that:
(1) Agree that Adam Smith was right on efficiency grounds and Henry George was right on equity grounds. Land Value Tax. Our cities are dying.
(2) Understand money. MMT and its variants.
(3) Make it illegal to have dual nationality. (I have it and would happily burn the one that doesn’t do the progressive stuff).
(4) Make it illegal for ANYONE who has access to more than 1% of the population through advertising to have citizenship of any other country than UK. If they mess with elections then give them the death penalty. Immediately. I do NOT believe in the death penalty for “traditional” crimes as used in USA due to the false positive rate. But we we know a Lex Luthor when we see one.
(5) Make our 2nd chamber a senate like the Irish system and whereby a certain level of support is required by all four countries (England, Scotland, Wales and NI) must ALL agree before ANY international agreements are reached.
(6) Ditch FPTP. I’m very curious about how best-worst voting might work out as alternative to AV (since stupid Brits voted it down last time).
A possible addition is “death by Gini coefficient”. If you earn too much and don’t spread it out you get shot. I call it “Hard Liberalism”.
You forgot about the Skunk Party!
See The Skunk Party Manifesto
Facts, Yves!
The corporate coup d’état and collapse of American democracy began long before Trump. He is simply snuffing out what remains. – Chris Hedges
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/trumpland?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=fqvc3&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Add to those Hedges links, see this 20 min video from John Titus: Presenting America’s Real Coup d’Etat
He explains Obama’s confirmation of a coup in 2007/08, remember that? Who is running the USA?
There will be no corrective in the midterms. Even if the Democrats win something, they are going to raise a sound and a fury against Trump (maybe even have some further BS impeachments), but otherwise do nothing to disrupt the resources flowing to the oligarchs.
Depends on what sort of corrective to expect. Are we expecting a hard pivot to the left after this right libertarian madness? Maybe not if only traditional dems get resuscitated in their congressional seats.
What they may be capable of doing is, among others, restore funding for Harvard. Or the DOGE-bag be finally declared an unconstitutional animal.
But that will all depend on voters’ sentiment. Assuming their votes still count by then.
Agreed: no corrective will ever come from Dems.
I hoped Obama would be a corrective after GW Bush but Obama proceeded to blanket pardon all fraudsters, step up our wars, bombings and assassinations overseas, and increase deportations.
I hoped Biden would be a corrective after Trump 1, but Biden left Trump’s tariffs in place, left most of Trump’s executive orders in place, further increased deportations, continued bombing and droning people all over the world , and partnered with Netanyahu to carry out one if the most disgusting genocides in world history.
I’m increasingly of the view that Trump is the American version of Dowager Empress Cixi and the MAGAists, the American “Boxers.” That he’s the “wrong” choice doesn’t mean that the other half of the artificial duopoly, the American equivalent of the traitorous and corrupt “Westernizers,” is the “right” choice either. The revolution is just beginning and it may well take a century or more, even asduming it succeeds.
Will future historians write accounts of how the notorious think tank “Project for the New American Century” indeed heralded the beginning of something new — an American “century of humiliation”? Largely self-inflicted, to boot?
To be fair, one could say that Qing China did inflict much of the “century of humiliation” on themselves, although that would have been over at least a century before the Opium War. The peculiar politics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, however, would have made it difficult for the Chinese state to adapt for the world that was coming, though. (Another example of hte long aftereffect of the Mongol Yoke? A lot of weirdness starting with Ming had to do with rejecting the legacy of the Yuan, after all.)
I don’t think the current malaise of the West can be blamed for any single individual. Rather, I’d chalk up the blame mostly on what is mistakenly thought to be “democracy” past century or so–flawed political institutions that turned out to be extremely susceptible to calcification and internal contradiction that cumulated in the current crises (or, just one very big crisis, really).
the empire types among the deep state in US became more powerful after WW2. Truman wasn’t up to dealing with them so they used the executive powers FDR had extended and used to further the central control. The Korean War kept Military industrial Complex alive and well. The Cold war added the national security state to the MIC. Then “They” murdered the reformers in the 60s and got away with it. Each decade since they enhanced their powers using the old British Empire methods (chaos and crises new centralizing solution).. By the new millenium money (mostly financing electoral campaigns) and blackmail ‘they’ had subverted Congressional power. Every new President has seen that Zapruder film. Unlike the Italian mafia, “they” will also kill your children. So like Putin has said, the administration changes but the foreign policy doesn’t. Trump, Biden, Hillary, or Kamala – this is a choice?.
You can’t take over the Democratic Party from within, because the people in power can game the rules against you and feel confident the courts will let them get away with it. And you can’t start a separate party, because where would you get the money for publicity (which the mainstream media might not even want to give you for money) and for lawyers to fight the numerous lawsuits that would be required to get on the ballot? Crowdfunding? But then all the crowdfunding platforms are either owned by (or fatally dependent on network resources owned by) the oligarchs. If you organize demonstrations, they’ll either be ignored (if you’re grumpy but non-poor older white people) or broken up by the police with great violence (if you’re young or non-white). And what’s a demonstration supposed to accomplish anyway?
So many avenues for changing a very unsatisfactory political system have been closed off, it really is getting difficult to think of how we can get out of this mess. And how we can still say we’re a democracy with a straight face. It brings to mind the old Frank Zappa quote:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_the_Above_Direct_Democracy_Party#:~:text=It%20is%20named%20after%20the,term%20limits%20and%20recall%20elections.&text=NOTA%20nominated%20candidates%20in%20eight,elections%20it%20has%20fielded%20candidates.
sorry, dont know where to cut that^^ off.
plus something akin to a general strike…but that aint gonna happen until some unknown critical mass of PMC’s have fallen into penury(a relative condition, to be sure)
a shunning and back turning upon the olig(root in quendi for trolls, btw) as a mass movement would go a long way, too.
that show in the 80’s…lifestyles of the rich and famous.
i hated that frelling show,lol…and told all the people i was smokin pot with while they watched it why.
stop idealising Those People, and instead, publicly revile them.
begin this part of the project right now, or at your next interaction with a mere mortal.I hate it when people who should know otherwise say they admire musk.
and dammit..the stock market is not a measure of “The Economy”…its a chicken house, and were all outside it as events toss in either rotten cabbage heads, or live coons…sounds the same from outside.
Caught a portion of interview this morning, on ABC no less, featuring retired coal miners that suffer from black lung. With the existing or looking cuts to the federal workforce and further budget cuts, a certain program in place that tracks these individuals and guides their treatment for black lung stands to be fully or partly sidelined….said coal miners seemed unhappy with that.
These wealthy people including our leading Democrats just don’t grok what it’s like, struggling to breathe every hour after a lifetime of going underground. The Republican brand will get smoked in the mid terms if they keep this up at the federal government, and it seems most likely that they will.
M T-G surprised me by showing that she’s not just a MAGA stooge (funny how she shows more backbone than some Donkeys in going against Orange Julius.)
There is a small disturbance in the force …
I remember Trump running as a populist in 2016, I did not have a lot of faith in him but tried to keep an open mind. Trump did as I expected, governed as a standard Republican while the populism went by the wayside. I am not sure why anyone would think things would be different this time, especially with Trump term-limited out from running again. Why concern himself about a furious base when he won’t be running again? And I don’t think Trump gives a damn about the greater Republican party who have always been kind of hostile to him anyway.
I am not surprised that the populist promises were abandoned after the election, there was precedent for that. I am surprised at how quickly Trump embraced the Ukraine war. I am also surprised at how fast Trump cracked down on free speech. The Republicans have always been in favor of free speech when out of power, but hostile to it when in power. (Anyone else remember David Horowitz’s about face when Bush II took over from Clinton?). Trump has gone above and beyond in attacking free speech for the sake of Israel.
I will give the conservatives this, however. Greene, Owens, Rod Dreher, and others I follow have been very critical of Trump selling out his base while Trump is in power. Compare that with Bernie, AOC, and other loyal Democrats who talk a good game when there is a Republican president, but roll over and show their bellies no matter how bad a Democrat president behaves (see, Biden, Joe).
My bigger question is how come nothing changes, no matter who gets elected?
Because it doesn’t matter who wins an election. Elections in the USA are past tense. What is next? What is left when an election doesn’t matter? Not an easy question.
The thing is that elections in US, or for that matter, in most of the West, don’t look too different from those in, say Belarus.
Real “phoney” elections are extremely rare now. Those erode the regime credibility anyways and the mechanics of the electoral process are sufficiently understood thst you can control the process “democratically.” You can, in the long run, prevent credible candidates from being developed outside the “normal politics.” You can create legal barriers to “outsider” candidates running and campaigning. You can create political institutions so that such few outsiders who get through are coopted, lest they can’t do anything at all, and so on. Nothing really “undemocratic” about any of these, except, probably in spirit. The more legitimately “authoritarian” governments who ran politics like this (Singapore being the ultimate example) can at least point to their competence. Most of the Western governments can only point to their alleged “righteousness” that only they themselves can see. (Incidentally, this is not without predence either: one time Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and SK dictator Syngman Rhee were genuinely incorruptible patriots who really believed in their role as God-chosen saviors of their countries and did everything in their power for the “greater good.” In fact, that was THE problem (and why people like Rhee still have abhorent admirers despite all the mess they created–because they had the “right goals,” and, in a sense, they are right…and that is the problem.)
CS: Clearly something has changed after the Nov. election. My question is, why do the changes generally wind up making things worse? Human systems like immigration, education, defense, economy, etc. can be modified to improve widespread outcomes, or (as we’ve experienced for the past 50 years) they can be modified to benefit the 1% and to beat down the 99%.
BSN: While not a Kamela fan, I gotta say from where I sit, it mattered who won the last election. Would Kamela have approved snatching people off the street and deporting them without a warrant and/or due process? Would she have imposed tariffs? I understand Gaza & Ukraine policies would not have changed so there’s that.
The message is still a winning message.
So just keep hammering it home, organize locally, and help your fellows however you can.
Even if they suck.
Inside China’s Stranglehold on the Global Medicine Supply Chain (video) The Epoch Times
Why does NC continue to link to the Epoch Times funded by the far right, religious cult Falun Gong? Surely, there are more reliable sources that would provide the same or better information on the topic of Medical supply chains. I have been a supporter of the wonderful work NC has been doing since the GFC and I have never seen this organization linked to before this year. I would again suggest that there has to be more worthy sources of information. I have read their coverage of various topics before and found them to be highly problematic. Here is a link I found with a quick search that is more focused.
https://medecon.org/chinas-stranglehold-on-pharmaceuticals-threatens-americans-health-and-u-s-national-security/
HUH? There’s no link to Epoch Times, or the video you mentioned. Perhaps Haig already removed it.
Please DO NOT accuse the site generally of linking to Epoch Times. None of Lambert, Conor, nor I have ever done so and we’ve been doing all the Links since 2019, save for perhaps Haig, who I took to task based on this comment.
BTW I do regard very limited linking to Breitbart to be OK. They actually do some original reporting.
There was a link earlier in the morning. I saw and went to it when I compared and contrasted with the link that ChukJones provided.
I removed the Epoch Times link after reading the reader complaint and substituted a link on the same topic.
I am surprised to see content from The Epoch Times linked on NC. I came across it as a free paper offered at a local kosher deli. Maybe ten years ago, I picked up a copy with my bagels. That was the first and last time I bothered with The Epoch Times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times
@ chukjones & carla
The reason for linking to publications like Epoch Times is simple. It’s always a good idea to see what they are reading and thinking on the other side of the hill. Otherwise NC could just turn into an echo chamber. I myself have sent in links to outrageously wrong articles simply so that other readers can see what other ‘news’ is out there. Lots of Democrats were completely blindsided by Trump’s win last year because they only read feelgood news and watched feelgood TV. If they had tuned into Fox news they may not have been caught so much by surprise.
Yes. The Epoch Times is a far right Falun Gong outlet, with the extent of its distortions varying with the topic. Their worst topic is usually China. But really, is it any worse than The Atlantic these days? Or the New Yorker’s ridiculous propaganda pieces on Syria or Putin? Or the NY Times on many issues? And as you say Rev, it is also a common source of “information” for the alt-right, so it is useful for staying “informed” on that subject.
I’d believe the Weekly World News over the Atlantic these days.
Even the Men in Black found the best tips in supermarket tabloids-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duA5eWjHCjU (20 secs)
Their ‘California Insider ‘ YouTube Channel does good interviews from a conservative perspective.
it is also a common source of “information” for the alt-right, so it is useful for staying “informed” on that subject
As long as NC flags these links and readers don’t waste time which they might not afford.
Maybe the alt-right should have their own rubric in the lineup, so we don’t confuse them with genuinely informative material.
This is ad hominem. The alt-right can present bona fide information. I often looked at Citizen Free Press news aggregations in the runup to the election. They were the most comprehensive in keeping on top of election news even if they had a heavy pro-Trump bias.
I’m in agreement with you RK, a steady diet of only reading from the right sources makes us all dull boys and girls.
Everybody has their biases, and knowing what you are dealing with going in on usually dodgy content is the better part of valor and/or precious lost minutes you’ll never gain back.
I remember a brunch last summer with 7 PMCs and me. They were convinced of a Harris landslide. All of their sources were from the usual suspects and were convinced that diversity (only skin color, not ideas) was the winning formula against Trump. So much chuckling by the other about how the Trump campaign was just wallowing in their ineptitude. It was a losing argument on my part that, I, the only person at the table that was truly left of the others had to explain that the shittiness of the legacy parties, especially the Dems, was again going to be on full display come November.
Similar experience here as well. My PMC friends regarded Biden as the 2nd coming of FDR in terms of achievement. And thought Harris a worthy successor. Bubble wrap isn’t just for packages….
> My PMC friends regarded Biden as the 2nd coming of FDR
LMAO
Yes, that MSNBC+CNN talking head consent-manufacturing ROI is high, huh?
> I remember a brunch last summer with 7 PMCs and me.
What are they like now? I suspect far less brunching … ?
#TearsInTheirChardonnay
It’s been wild to see the pendulum swing so fast. The PMC brunchers were insanely out of touch pre-election, but in the last several months, the TDS side of my acquaintance circles have been much more right on what’s happening than the “Give Trump/Musk a chance” side. The latter has taken L after L while talking about how Trump is playing 5d chess for peace.
Linking to ZH is also NG when NY magazine was the source and NYT had reporting. ZH is all-i MAGA and CT and called Harris an ultra leftist and socialist.
I chewed Haig out for this and deleted the link. I DO NOT allow links to ZH. The issue with ZH is not its political leanings but its total lack of concern about accuracy (which mean they run all sorts of clickbait nonsense that is not true or so exaggerated as not to be true) and steal tons of content, including from NC.
when im in a newsgathering frenzy, attempting to figure out whats actually going on during some major event, i try to get all around the issue…and i’ll even read brietbart and ZH in those circumstances….as well as the larouchites, and on and on…
north korea crisis, im on the official website, plowing through the english translation of what dear leader is on about.
this is how i found NC, btw,lol….getting well outside the box during the GFC…back when google was still somewhat functional.
its good to keep an eye on what all the “sides” are saying.
so i dont mind the occasional link to some skanky website…but it might be a good idea to include a parenthetical editorial note, or something.
and in the main, dont be so hard on Haig.
y’all are doing a remarkable job filling those yellow waders.
Agreed. It doesn’t really hurt to look at the far out sites occasionally, given that one is aware of how nut case they are. Once in a blue moon, a crazy will actually write something perceptive. The trick is to figure this out when it happens.
they also have some accurate articles that the mainstream won’t go near, “Europe Does Not Want Peace” – Martin Armstrong Warns US Leadership ‘Get The Hell Out Of NATO”.
The Cost of Arrogance. Turley.
Turley may have a brief against NPR, but he gets some basics wrong about the Washington Post. Either Turley is hasty. Or Turley is sloppy. When making big charges, one must marshal one’s facts.
Turley conflates two U.K. editors from the Telegraph and Murdoch-land. They are Will Lewis, publisher / CEO, and Robert Winnett, high-ranking editor.
https://apnews.com/article/post-publisher-britain-phone-hacking-lewis-d215e7c2d598071ea23a63e5ddd62f0f
https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-will-lewis-publisher-2050bc460fcc8f40f5a61b62da7e147e
The “truth bomb” that Turley attributes to said conjoined Robert Lewis isn’t backed by his link. The underlying link goes to some Fox aggregate page. In an earlier iteration of this opinion piece — from which much is lifted — Turley uses the same faulty link.
Haste? In U.S. culture, the righteous are always in haste to correct the damned.
Anecdotally, I, too, was once Murdoched during a buyout and merger of a book publisher. Bringing in the Brits, as Bezos has done here, is a desperate maneuver that I have seen before. And these two Brits wouldn’t be the first two skeezy types that I have seen who headed to the colonies to save their careers and to lecture the colonials.
NPR is a mess. Agreed. Yet I will take Turley’s virtue with a grain of salt.
The problem with “free speech absolutist” Turley is that he got the president he wanted who has now proceeded to violate everything Turley claimed to stand for. When Marjorie Taylor Greene is telling more truth then time for a reboot.
And so he’s recycling complaints about NPR when the issue is clearly no longer NPR but the, yes, dictatorial way Trump is attacking NPR and all the other agencies. Original intent says the founders did not want a king.
Turley works for Fox and just as we used to complain that MSNBC is the mirror image of Fox we can now make the opposite complaint with full justice.
Respectfully, this doesn’t make sense …. “problem with “free speech absolutist” Turley is that he got the president he wanted who has now proceeded to violate everything Turley claimed to stand for.” It’s not a problem with Turley, it’s a problem with Trump. Many voted for trump on the basis that he would do various things. Just because he’s not doing them, but in fact the opposite, is not the voter’s (or Turley’s) fault. Should Turley have voted for Harris/Biden (ouch!).
Then you mention “he’s recycling complaints about NPR when the issue is clearly no longer NPR “. I disagree. The problem, has been and remailns, NPR. Very biased reporting and a propaganda outlet at best.
Where was NPR in Iraq? NPR in Afghanistan, in Ukraine? They so often have interviews with the grandma of a Ukrainian baby. I have not heard them interview Lavrov nor any other representative of the Russian viewpoint. If I’m wrong, I’d love to hear it, but we won’t on NPR.
It’s Turley’s fault for not attacking Trump’s blatant violations of Turley’s claimed “absolute” principles. It reveals Turley to be the Fox shill that he actually is and always has been. Of course the Democrats are just as hypocritical by going on about democracy when it suits their purposes and “deplorables” when that suits their purposes.
Trump will finally be stopped when enough Republicans have the courage to strongly object. Obviously that’s not going to be Turley.
And I haven’t listened to NPR in years and assume that for those who still do they are preaching to the converted and barely a factor politically. Trump is going after them out of spite, not principle. If Congress appropriated the money then that’s not up to him.
As a listener to NPR from its very start, agreed. I listen to my local classical music station now, as I can’t abide their smug half-truths and PMC virtue-signalling. Russia-gate and then its blind acceptance of the narrative on our war in Ukraine. Daniel Schorr would be rolling in his grave.
FYI–NPR
For fiscal year 2020, for instance, the broadcaster’s affiliate stations received 8 percent of their revenue from federal appropriations via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
They also got 10 percent from colleges and universities — which themselves are publicly funded — and another 5 percent from federal, state and local governments. That is 23 percent, not 1 percent.
And PBS
On its website, the TV broadcaster says it gets 15 percent of its revenue from the federal government, 13 percent from state governments, 3 percent from local governments, and 8 percent from universities. That’s a total of 39 percent.
https://www.westernjournal.com/fact-check-much-pbs-npr-revenue-comes-government-funding/
But it’s worth pointing out that PBS in particular was founded as an educational service that probably helps red states more than blue by bringing children’s television to OTA TV. My own state’s ETV has always been a wheel when it comes to this aspect and has hardly been a leftie bastion given it’s onetime producer status for Buckley Firing Line.
And finally public stations like the commercial receive a huge subsidy via their control of broadcast radio frequencies. In that sense Rush Limbaugh too was “government programming.”
For what it is worth, I do remember reading an NPR story from before 2022 (maybe around 2016?) that mentioned in passing the fact that the majority of people in Crimea prefer to be part of Russia rather than Ukraine. That’s obvious to anyone remotely familiar with Crimea, which made it a pleasant surprise to see on a mainstream Western media site. Perhaps they have deteriorated since then.
I thought most of the Western press, not just NPR, between 2014 and 2020 or so, had articles on how Crimeans and many Russian speaking Ukrainians had justifiable fear of the Maidan regime because of the oversized role of neonazis and ultranationalists and such. Most of them have been memory holed since, obviously…
Also worth noting that he mentions bleeding reader/viewership of media, but as Stoller has pointed out, this coincides with Google nuking ad revenue for these media venues. So might it be necessary to their survival to court certain reader/viewership, simply to stay alive?
Google’s adtech monopoly has been extraordinarily destructive to an independent, functional journalism in this country.
Well, many observers have noted that, via websites like Craigslist and then E-Bay, the Internet helped destroy newspapers’ financial viability by taking away a major source of reliable income, classified ads.
RE: “Unprecedented Recovery” – Gene Therapy Reverses Heart Failure in Breakthrough Study
Increasing cBIN1 (Or BIN1 – Myc box-dependent-interacting protein 1) might cure heart disease but will it also increase your Alzheimer’s risk?
Predominant expression of Alzheimer’s disease-associated BIN1 in mature oligodendrocytes and localization to white matter tracts
“An increase in BIN1 expression in AD and an interaction between BIN1 and Tau have been reported.”
I hope they get the dose right. It frightens me even more that they are using a virus to deliver the enzyme.
They really need to stop messing with gene therapy…
After suggesting showing the carnage in Nottinghamshire by Reform, today I held my nose and looked at Xitter to see where the arguing is about now. Lincolnshire. For context, Lincs is the most eastern bit of the East Midlands. Here is a sample tweet. Noice.
Lincs was indeed failed both by the Blair/Brown governments and then the coalition that followed who put all the new EU immigrants there with absolutely no extra money to deal with the massive demand for hospital, GP and school services that would follow. However, most of my Dad’s family (going back to 16th century) were from there and were rather archetypal, being things like publicans: Lincs these days is (in)famous for starting the kids young on gambling at the amusement arcades and the reference to “Spoons” is Wetherspoons, the most iconic pub chain in the UK where fights are most likely to kick off. It’s a place characterised by diseases of despair.
The irony is thanks to glacial rebound and how fast sea level is rising in the East, this map, showing where Reform won across the county almost exactly corrresponds to the bits that’ll be underwater in a few decades. Since I still have family there I won’t gloat but they’re not the sharpest knives in the drawer and there will be cynics out there who will be tempted to say let nature sort things out as you can practically watch in real time the east coastline be reclaimed by the sea: that entire turquoise area.
Hey Terry, did you see that Oz had their own Federal election. The Coalition aka the conservatives got absolutely hammered and their leader lost his seat altogether. The results were in within three hours of the voting booths closing. I like to think that this massive lost was caused in part by them muttering about Make Australia Great Again and how having our own DOGE would be a great idea. People see how that is working in America and wanted none of it.
Oh yep Rev. I watched most of it. Great that the coalition got a kicking. It’s a source of frustration to me that I’d already moved back to Europe in 2019 so didn’t get to vote in Warringah to boot out the mad monk. Glad to see the independents have kept the LNP out of there since. Dutton gave me the creeps.
Labor are not as progressive as I’d like but at least with AV system there are sources of pressure on them from the left. That majority was amazing and I understand it may go up a bit further.
People here had a choice between a hack or a maniac – so went with the former. For the past few weeks when either of them came on the news I just cut the sound. They are both of them just muppets. Saw a snippet of reporters asking Dutton a question though. One asked him how could voters give him their votes when he was refusing to answer the hard question to which he replied ‘Next question.’
Reform want to change things bigly in Notts (to paraphrase)! Where’ve we heard language like that (without true specifics they actually have control over) before?
Four ways Notts County Council will change after Reform seized control. Knew this would be a fun read….for all the wrong reasons.
“Cutting the waste”. Yawn. Mini-doges? Like the ones that have been forced on Nottm City by auditors which have caused most social services and services for those with mental health + addiction issues to collapse recently? That is waste? Nice to know who you prioritise.
“Everybody knows that the place is full of potholes, but they’re not happy with the way they’re being repaired.” OK, tell us what is wrong and how you’d do it differently? You clearly think you’ve solved this one so give us an answer. Plus it’s arguable whether you have the authority in the first place. The BOROUGH councils (the smaller more local authorities) have been doing this for the past 6 months and seem fine by me.
“Everybody knows we’ve got tremendous challenges with special educational needs and disabilities, but they’re not happy with the speed at which we deal with autism.”. You have NO POWER over this whatsoever. Local Mental Health Care Trusts do it and if referrals to them are slow, then that is the fault of General Practitioners (Private Sector operators contracted to the NHS). Plus I’m curious as to why you specifically brought up AUTISM? There are a host of conditions being dealt with too slow. Who else on this planet has made a big deal about autism…..hmmm……
“They’re not happy with how we deal with the attention deficit disorders. These problems are legion, but they’re not new. What we’re bringing is a new way of dealing with these problems and that’s what we’ve been asked to do.” Same as point about autism. Not your remit and ADHD medicines are in short supply because of your signature policy a few years ago.
Asked specifically what Reform would cut, Councillor Rawson said: “Absolutely no idea at this stage, the first thing to do is listen, investigate, dig. Let’s see what there is to see and make plans from that point.” Funny since you HAVE had a councillor before the election and have insights. Perhaps he was too busy jumping on chairs and generally looking just like the David Brent who had come straight into work after a major bender at a club?
Pressed on whether Reform would start cutting salaries if elected, Mr Farage clarified that they would instead be more strict in making sure the highest paid directors were delivering. The party leader said: “We’re very happy to pay people big money, if they deliver.”
5 productive things a day perhaps?
Mr Farage also pledged his party would scrap all roles relating to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion – something he has repeated in several interviews since Thursday’s election. Nottinghamshire County Council seems to have very few staff members working solely on diversity, equity and inclusion, but does employ at least one “equalities officer”. So we’ll save about £0.01 per taxpayer by sacking that person. Wow. I seem to remember someone else who made a stupid promise……Elon? Was that his name?
Something Reform have been particularly keen to double down on since Thursday’s election has been their pledge to scrap home working at councils. Nigel Farage told us on his visit to Nottinghamshire: “Work from home culture under us? Gone.” Since you hate masking, congrats, you want to make it impossible for people like me to re-enter the public realm and who cares if the chronic lack of staff due to long COVID gets worse. There’s a nasty emotive word for what you’re doing here.
One of Reform’s new councillors is Eastwood’s James Walker-Gurley, who works as a kitchen and bathroom designer at Wickes. Will this new crop of councillors bring about a different atmosphere?
Nothing against his job, we need more people doing this kind of thing. But my dad is the biggest producer of Shoji blinds in all of Europe and gets a tad annoyed when the person at Wickes needs the calculator app to multiply 5 by 3.
Dad (industrialist) and me (former academic) loathe these people. Mum watches GB News (ugh). She’d have voted for them had the two of us not been too ill on election day to go out. Already told her if I find out she has voted for these clowns at the General then I’m renewing my Australian passport. (She and Dad agreed not to vote at all in late 1980s when he wanted to vote Labour and she wanted to vote Tory. He kept his word. She didn’t!)
Left-wing populist NOW to counter this utter BS.
I really honestly wanted to say no more. But when local party in power starts up on subjects like autism and showing achievements per day and all the stuff that was OBVIOUSLY COPIED AND PASTED FROM THE MAGA HANDBOOK I get furious.
How can ANYONE not think Farage loves salads of the tossed variety?
But our country is going down the toilet. I used to think we’d be flushed first but Trump is doing stuff that amazes even me and maybe we’ll get an extra 3 years beyond his country. But that does not make things better. Merely being the 2nd flush is hardly boastable. Sheesh. Dad is terrifield at his future; mum is zoned out and I’m seeing all possible ways back into productive healthcare ruled out.
Frankly there were a lot of USians who admitted to being ready to vote for Sanders if he hadn’t lost his spine. And a lot of Brits who were ready to vote for outside parties. Your candidates utterly failed us.
Let’s be 100% clear here. Reform is UK branch of Trumpism.
They are traitors to His Majesty the King. There WILL come a time when choices must be made between government and head of state. It’s coming a lot faster than many think.
Personally I think Reform will be shot by the army who owe their allegiance to the King. Not least because fewer than 50% of Brits know which family blogging way the Union flag should fly. If you don’t even know the basics of your country then don’t be a nationalist. I KNOW members of armed forces who hate that. Family members in armed forces etc. There is EXTREME ANGER. And they don’t like Reform.
PS first race riots were here in Nottingham.
You might like to pay attention to Nottingham. We are the bellweather and exact centre of England.
What happens here will decide UK future. And if I decide to move back to a suboptimal Australia will really show UK is 3rd world.
Just like what happened here in Canada.
Thank you Ann. I really think that we are of like minds.
Go well
Thomas Fazi neglects to mention that, regardless of legal justifications, an “all out war” between the US and China would last about 45 minutes, result in the utter destruction of both countries, be followed by several years of nuclear winter, and ultimately reduce the global human population to stone age levels if it didn’t wipe it out entirely.
I’m sure this is the driving force behind Trump’s enthusiasm for a “golden dome” to make the US invulnerable to missile attacks.
Reagan had the same idea with his Star Wars program. Before WW2 the US had an ocean each side for ultimate protection but then came ICBMs that could cross those oceans. So the dream is to establish once more an America that would be totally immune to the consequences of its actions against peer powers. But what will happen is that Trump’s golden dome” will prove to be a colossal grift that does diddly squat except to mint many more billionaires.
I worry that the grifters will run a skillful enough con to convince the military leaders that their fraudulent tech actually works as intended.
I didn’t really see the point of the essay, which was all over the place, but seemed to be arguing that Israeli behaviour in Gaza would somehow feed through into the conduct of a war with China. Given that such a war is supposed to be a naval/air one in the straits of Taiwan where most of the inhabitants are fish, I’m not sure what he’s trying to say.
I don’t think it is a neglect but just a focus on how American military and legal experts think: as in something like that can never happen with us. We can do it to China and we can find arguments that it is ok!
As if China cannot shoot back?!
Oh, the hubris, it hurts. But it couldn’t happen with nicer people… Maybe after that there will be a cooling off of American Militarism and any politician just mentioning it will be just linched on the spot.
Hot cocoa and ice cream do not fit together.
Yeah maybe it includes some tasty Kahlua though…ha ha. I’d prefer the simpler things like, say root beer and vanilla ice cream..
There’s a lot to be said for a root beer float.
It’s not about drinking but just for clicks & likes.
Saw my first Capybara in the jungle, the mighty Peruvian jungle. It kind of bore resemblance to a Koala, I thought.
Watched it eat a long length of something green as if it was slurping down a lengthy strand of fettuccine.
Struggling mightily with the humidity, think I’ll read a book and watch blue butterflies skitter to and fro.
That’s why they have machetes in that part of the world. So that you can cut your way through the humidity.
We took an hour bus ride where the eco resort fellow told us at one point to put on our seat belts as the dirt road was more bumpy than flat, and then an hour ride on a long thin boat to get to our destination.
Looking into the jungle on either side of the shore, if you were stranded here, you’d be dead in a short time if you tried to make your way through the impenetrable morass. It reminds me of being on the Green River in Utah on a 5 day raft trip, every day the slot canyons rose so high on either side so you could only see a sliver of sky above.
We Southerners prefer to cut through the humidity with our air conditioners. Good thing we have a steady supply from China. Oh wait….
I think I lost a pound of sweat equity over breakfast, its pretty obvious why the deep south was so underpopulated before a/c.
Capybara are the hip new exotic with plenty of mingling bars and cafes which feature the largest of all rodents.
https://thecapybaracafe.com/
Wuk, you could have gone just a bit up the Pacific coast to Washington and feasted your eyes on zillions of capybaras. The Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge is swarming with them.
Capybaras weren’t on my bucket list, but Machu Picchu was and you can’t get that in Washington state
Lower your sights a little and there is Hearst Castle on the California coast. A different sort of aristocracy sheltered on top of a peak from the cold, hard world there.
Claude’s A I model. Isn’t that spelled Clod?
Is this the cat you’re talking about?
See: https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Claude_Cat
John Helmer says that Putin and Trump will hold a summit meeting 15-16 May in Abu Dhabi.
https:/johnhelmer.net/the-summit-in-the-sand-putin-agrees-to-meet-trump-in-abu-dhabi-on-may-15-16/
Have not seen any report of this elsewhere.
Hhhm. If true, not sure why Trump wants this now (although Helmer says the Administration has been pushing for this pow-wow for a while). Maybe Trump still fantasizes he can turn Putin on Ukraine. Any effort on this front will be a waste of Putin’s valuable time. Maybe he wants help with Iran or even China…..but what does he have to offer Russia?
Helmer also cited US poll data in a recent post that showed that most Americans think Trump is too friendly with Russia.
We all should be more friendly with Russia. That would cure many of our ills – and reduce the military budget enormously. Yet we remain friendly with Ukraine and all of its Azov soldiers with swastika tattoos.
a link: Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-trained neo-Nazi army
I hear that Ukraine has a contingent at the VE day gathering in UK. I wonder if they’ll be marching under Swastika banners while sieg heiling.
Trump is not capable of being Russia’s friend. He’s not even capable of being a friend to Japan, our closest ally. The head of the foreign ministry depicted the Trump tariff negotiations as extortion and members of the Diet are calling for Japan to give up on the US and ally with China.
On top of that, the last generation of Russia experts in the US officialdom majored in Putin-hating studies. But Putin despite a brief show of weird fawning (calling the US a partner for a bit after the Trump phone call, ick!) seems to have Trump’s measure. Ray McGovern made much of Putin saying he trusted Trump. But Putin said many years ago (2016-2017, in his interviews with Oliver Stone) that he’d ofter come to an agreement with a US president, only to have it walked back, and he attributed that to the permanent bureaucracy. Even though Trump had tried to free himself of that, the result is a total lack of expert advice and still being hostage to interests in his close circle….some of which are very anti-Russia.
There was a great line in Michael Clayton that fits here. Clayton was hoping to reverse his fortunes and invested in a restaurant his brother was starting up. One scene center on Clayton dealing with its liquidation (and how little he gets back). His brother was an alcoholic. One of the creditors, I think the landlord, knew that and volunteers that his wife was an an alcoholic: “It’s like you’re strapped to a bomb.”
It is looking like Trump has only one “friend,” himself. He is not even America’s “friend.”
The old witticism in Washington, D of C said that; “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Now it has become; “If you want a friend in Washington, get a DOGE.”
Stay safe.
Since the Berlin Wall was taken down, US military leaders and MIC businesses have been struggling mightily to come up with a replacement villain that would justify bigger and bigger military budgets.
We quickly ran through Nicaragua, Panama, and Grenada; narco-traffickers; Afghanistan and Iraq; Al-Qaeda and ISIS; North Korea; Syria; Hamas and Hezbollah; Houthis; and Iran. None of these seemed terribly satisfactory and were difficult to inflate into a sufficiently terrifying threat. They were all small and far away, and most Americans had never heard of them.
China could be made to seem threatening, but unfortunately the US has outsourced every possible domestic industry to China, so there are limits to what we can do here; it’s not possible to have a complete break.
However, now that the Russians have re-entered the world stage as a very credible military power, US domestic propagandists are beginning to feel at home again. Putin has been relentlessly demonized in every possible way, and nasty and racist tropes about the Russian people have been ceaselessly deployed for free as part of the Biden/Trump sanctions campaign. While the Russians present no immediate threat to anyone outside their country, that’s never been an obstacle to The Demonizers in the past.
Trump himself is presently kind of waffling on this program, but will probably get with it sooner or later.
– ‘Trump Must Not Repeat Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Iran’ – The Hill
I was thrown by the opening paragraph of this article:
“In his seminal book “The Achilles Trap,” Steve Coll offers a meticulously documented account of how mutual misperceptions, intelligence failures and institutional groupthink led to the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The book traces how American policymakers, driven by domestic imperatives and regional prestige, misread Saddam Hussein’s opaque and ambiguous signals.”
“Misperceptions”?? “Misread”?? I was about to give up in disgust at yet another “incompetence” scenario, but I read on and discovered that the author actually gets it right later:
“The persistent distortion of facts about Iran is driven not just by flawed analysis, but by a carefully constructed narrative designed to perpetuate conflict. Misunderstandings about Iran do not arise from intelligence failures — on the contrary, for more than 20 years, the U.S. intelligence community has consistently concluded that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, a position reaffirmed in the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment Report.”
“Instead, these misconceptions are pushed by a deeply entrenched lobbying network that benefits from ongoing hostility. This network — neoconservative ideologues, defense industry interests and pro-Israel advocacy groups — has systematically portrayed Iran as a perpetual enemy…”
Iraq was an example of the same purposive narrative construction by the same cancerous network of ideologues and interests. Why the author buried the lede like this is beyond me.
A clip from Anthony Bourdain’s trip to Iran. It all seems so far away now.
Not what I expected.
Spot on! “Misperceptions”?? “Misread”?? … add to that mislead and propagandized. Going back to the cuts at NPR. That’s where you will hear these terms on the radio. Sounds kinda like the ongoing Covid “Misperceptions”, “Misreads”, “mistakes were made” and we killed a few folks.
Debate earlier in the comments about the Epoch Times. At least one won’t read as much of that drivel in that rag.
Re ‘In His First 100 Days, Trump Launched an “All-Out Assault” on the Environment’
There is another outbreak of seismic activity in West Texas and New Mexico which just happens to be the area of the Permian Basin where contaminated water used in fracking is injected deep underground for disposal. Last year several scientific papers linked increased seismic activity there to underground waste water injections. I suppose this is yet another of the sacrifices that are needed in order to keep Ruskie gas out of Europe…
The real ‘poster child’ for fracking related earthquakes is Oklahoma.
See: https://brilliantmaps.com/oklahoma-earthquakes/
The reason for the spike in tremors is plainly stated as being oil and gas fracking waste water underground disposal.
There were several scientific papers last year which plainly stated the connection between the two, in Texas as well as in Oklahoma. I imagine it’s similar in Marcellus in PA, OH and NY.
Recently there is more and more talk of lifting the fracking ban in BG, which is very concerning as the shale formations happen to be in the breadbasket of Dobruja, which besides being in a seismic area, also suffers from critical water shortage. However the opponents deny the dangers and rustle up the “Putin Putin Putin” scarecrow. As if ecocide will somehow ensure “security”, energy and otherwise…
I’m curious how much resonance something like that (“Putin, Putin, Putin” as justification for all manner of nonsense) could possibly have in country like Bulgaria. I mean, it’s one thing to peddle it in countries with Slavophobic, or, at least, Russophobic history, but in Bulgaria??
It would appear so, but it makes sense once you take into account the existence of a small but vocal “liberal” group of dyed-in-the-wool russophobes in whose heads Putin lives rent-free. Therefore everything is a matter of Ruskie propaganda, Ruskin agent conspiracy, or is required to resist Putin’s perfidious plan to invade Bulgaria. Just the other day the very first F-16 delivered to BG turned out to need some part replaced and these good folks want to conduct parliamentary inquiry into whether some hidden Putin sympathizer in the military hasn’t attempted to download proprietary software and thus bricked the plane. I kid you not, they are that crazy, paranoid and stupid.
Nothing like Oklahoma, but northeastern BC is getting regular fracking-induced earthquakes now too. Provincial government has tightened the regulations; we’ll see if that helps.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fracking-rules-earthquakes-fort-st-john-1.7460203
“North Korea’s Involvement in the Ukraine War: A New Threat to International Peace”
I don’t see why. North Korea did not send their soldiers to the Ukraine but only to Kursk – which is part of the Russian Federation so Article 2(4) of the UN Charter does not apply. And by now thousands of sheep-dipped NATO soldiers have been killed in the Ukraine and nobody gave them a second thought. Saw a clip the other day of the Russians capturing a Colombian merc, the only one of his group to survive. Were those Colombians acting against the UN Charter? What about the Foreign Legion that the Ukrainians stood up? What is their status? And this article is stating that Russia and North Korea forming an alliance is against international law. Howsat? Maybe against the International Rule Based Order but not actual international law. And the authoress is worried about the effect on Ukrainian citizens without mentioning those Donbass civilians which were dying by the thousand before the wqar. To tell you the truth, this article sounded like her application letter to become an accepted globalist.
Hyperbole.
Can DPRK compete with USA, NATO, EU, Bibi in the business of mayhem?
While DPRK could send several times the empire’s “stabilization force, well equipped.
She’s an undergrad of International Relations who thinks USA and China should have solved this crisis “because UN”. She seems to have no understanding of any of the levels of this crisis nor does she seem to realize that “rules based” is the opposite of what the UN stands for.
Even if they were fighting in Donetsk or Zaporozhiye, they still would not have been in “Ukraine.” I joke about “the Lincoln’s brutal unprovoked full scale aggresdion against Virginia” whenever I hear Western histrionics about the present war, but then, that was not too far from a fairly widely accepted view around 1939 (when Gone with the Wind came out…)
The reason why they hate North Korea: ” Juche posits that a country will prosper once it has become self-reliant by achieving political, economic, and military independence”
Can’t have that, can we?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche
This ground was likely already covered but is there are really a shock to the mind that a sitting US President doesn’t truly grasp the history of the biggest world conflicts during the 20th century? Having an additional thought, given the article strongly implies that Mr. Trump evaded the draft into the Vietnam War by citing “bone spurs”, so that aspect is nothing new. As for our glorified national leaders since, or rather after, Bush 41…never serving in the military means you skipped out on the duty rightly or not. Lucky for myself my birth year was the early ’70s, as opposed to being born during the ’50s or so.
People who never serve ought to stay with the basics, lest they truly prove idiotic about history, documented at great length the parties most responsible for winning and victory in wars.
Even those that serve can aid in bad decisions.
John McCain and John Kerry come to mind.
McCain always seemed to be wanting to start a new war, as in “Bomb, Bomb Iran”
John Kerry protested the Vietnam War after serving there but later morphed into a reformed, resume padding, John Kerry who was advised by Senator Barbara Boxer to vote against giving Bush the lessor the authorization to use military force in Iraq.
Kerry responded to Boxer with ‘”I have to, I want to run for president.”
Kerry might have been elected if he had taken a stand against Bush, but that is unknowable.
George McGovern did serve in WWII and was anti-war.
And he failed to get elected by a wide margin.
Decency and integrity is not a quality seen often in USA politicians.
“Decency and integrity is not a quality seen often in USA politicians.”
And less and less often in Americans ourselves. Capitalism hardly encourages, in fact barely permits, either one.
I still can’t get out of my mind the title of a book reviewed in the NY Times a week ago: “There Is No Place for Us” about the working homeless in Atlanta. Having read Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted” on much the same subject, but set in Minneapolis, I can’t bear to crack open “There Is No Place for Us” but the title keeps ricocheting back and forth in my brain…
College deferment here. The WW2 generation thought they saved the world from Hitler and Tojo and therefore their children should save the world from Ho Chi Minh. The “generation gap” grew and rightly so since Ho wasn’t Hitler nor is Putin. At least Trump doesn’t seem to be as gung ho for war as spawn of Albright like Hillary. In fact according to the WaPo he just fired Waltz for trying to corner him into a war with Iran.
But Trump still likes to play the big shot and threaten countries with utter destruction. When he does kill people he tries to pretend he had nothing to do with it and Israel “bought” their weapons so his hands were tied. Radical empathy deficit is a syndrome with DJT but then there’s a lot of that going around.
“I overheard Labour and Tories say ‘we’ve cocked it up’ – they were right”
The next UK general election is scheduled to be held no later than Tuesday 21st August 2029. If this much destruction has been visited upon the Labour and Tory parties since Starmer got in not long ago, what will the status of both parties be like in 2029. Will they both be virtually annihilated or will they see the absolute necessity of reforming themselves into something that might appeal to voters. I’m thinking annihilation as they will probably refuse to change themselves in any fundamental way and just keep on sticking to what they are doing. And Starmer? He will be long gone and will be on the board of some major bank or investment firm.
The 2027 CITY local elections (like for Nottingham City – of which I am alas about 200 metres too far north of) will be the real indicator as to what to expect. If Reform cause as much carnage to Labour in the cities and the posh bits of certain towns/cities where Tories still reign then the alarm bells will well and truly go off. And the rigid following of “Treasury Orthodoxy” by our nutcase Chancellor means IMHO this is a high probability scenario.
That’ll be the point (if not before) that a hitherto not-well-publicised part of the Labour parliamentary party will strike – those who do want PR. Ironically Reform CLAIM they want Proportional Representation. They might even be serious if they’re not confident enough of getting an overall majority. It’s not inconceivable that the UK is in such dire straits that the (over half?) of the Labour Parliamentary party who want PR will strike, in conjunction with the other smaller parties. The Tories would go mad and say this was never in their manifesto but if they’re worried about a virtual wipe-out in 2029 they might just bite their tongues. Thus we’d get AV a la Australia or one of the other systems that preserve small single member constituencies (I’ve mentioned these before). Labour do NOT want to be left as a 40-50 member “London party” and the Tories want to keep existing so it’s all to play for.
As the Revenant said re the SouthWest yesterday, Reform are taking votes from both sides. It’s very impolitic to say this but there are old school(ish) Tories in the home counties who have “reasons” not to like Kemi Badenoch. Let’s not forget it was a monumental mess-up that got Margaret Thatcher the leadership of the Conservatives in the late 1970s: that was NOT the plan. She was meant to be the stalking horse to get the hated Edward Heath out, then stand aside in round two for a “Tory Grandee” like Geoffrey Howe (who brought her down ultimately) to take the leadership. Unfortunately she got too many votes in round one and ran away with the prize.
Though the Tories like to boast about their credentials about a female leader etc, you do hear stuff and another female….and whose ethnicity looks like those people we used to rule? Hmmm. Events may well conspire to make all the non-Reform parties in Parliament to give enough support to electoral reform yet. Amazing what the fear of Reform can do if your party looks like the Liberals did in the 1940s. But it is all to play for. There is a cadre of young newly elected Labour MPs who are terrified and could yet shift the course of Labour in time for 2029.
I had a small revelation, which I am only sharing because it may help others.
I’ve spent a lot of my mental energy expressing moral indignation about our politicians, including the Orange Julius, specifically that they are lying liars. Blinken, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer … and yet, why did I ever expect them to tell the truth?
They’re liars -that’s what they do!
Rather than waste my time pointing out the obvious, I will try to focus on improving my writing and analysis skills.
We are all highly cognizant what horrible liars and worse our leaders are, and yet accept financial numbers such as GDP et al as if they were sacrosanct, not connected with the scallywags in any fashion.
I think that with Trump, that is what Trump does. He wears people down with his constant bs. Saying America built the Suez canal, posting an AI image of him as the Pope after the real one died recently, trying to turn Remembrance day into one where people would chant ‘We’re number one!’, pretending that other leaders said things that they would never say. There is no point trying to keep up with him as it would be like trying to keep up with the guy ranting to himself walking down the street. So maybe ignore all his bs and just watch very carefully the things that he does. That is the real tell.
Yeah but if he’s someone with narcissistic personality disorder plus dementia then we should be legitimately concerned by his actions.
I am most definitely not clinically trained in aspects of geriatric medicine (so please pay most attention to the brain trust here who have) but I spent a LOT of my career in health services research sitting in on qualitative and quantitative interviews with elderly people with various cognitive and often personality issues and I’m pretty up on diagnoses. The guy scares me. The unedited clips of him on YT channels make me go “uh-oh”.
I’m not nor have ever been one for the “mainstream” conspiracy theories so am not “thinking too hard about how this may play out” but I don’t think the 3-letter agencies want their country to collapse like a house of cards. Thus I’d be wondering if they are working on plans simulated somewhere as to how to solve this fiasco. One plan might be “just let the markets and the 2nd amendment solve this” since even an explicitly imperial presidency will make everyone spend half their life looking over their shoulder, checking on kids etc. People don’t want that. They know how their puppets in South America felt.
>So maybe ignore all his bs and just watch very carefully the things that he does. That is the real tell.
Exactly. While people get their hair on fire over Trump going on about a 3rd term, or birthday military parade, or idiotic comment about our contribution to winning WW2, the Pope meme, or whatever, and spend a week on it with their opinion columns, shows, podcasts, roundtables, they are not looking deeper into the real damage to the Country, our standing in the World (though that has been an ongoing wreck for years now), and ourselves. The kind of things that will take years, at best, if ever, to recover from. By the time these pinheads get around to discussing the smoking ruins remaining of real substantive programs that benefited the little people in our own country, Trump’s minions have moved onto the next demolition project.
in those almost 4 years of goin to san antone for cancer stuff….i saw a lot of things.
one was the Yelling Guy.
hangs out on sidewalks around Huebner and I-10, walking up and down the sidewalk, gesturing madly, and yelling at someone who isnt there.
obviously needs to be “in care”,lol.
only saw him face to face once…and i passed by without incidence…either because i often look like a homeless lunatic, or he didnt even know i was there.
madness, in the “West” has moved from the streets into the halls of power, i would say.
…. and gardening. There’s a balance between Ostrich cos-play and worthwhile endeavours. I must admit, I find myself “skimming” many headlines and saying, “yep, that’s right, been there, still there.”
Thank heaven’s for a brief respite in the comments of NC> hat’s off to the moderators.
… I’m going walkabout for two months. I’ll check in again in July, though I don’t expect the headlines will have changed much.
Gardening is a worthy pursuit! I managed to save a plant that I almost killed, so I have that going for me.
aye, BSN.
i hardly ever clink on the links, unless it seems somewhat earthshattering…oris from someone whom i take seriously.
(or,as above,if theres some big event).
i come here for the commentariat.
folks from all over the world, with such different backgrounds and experiences, filtering the links through all that.
a distributed think tank.
thats what the intertubes are for, after all.
Why practice writing and analysis when you can let “AI” do it for you? You gotta get with the program! Critical thinking is for our AI overlords.
Some movers and shakers in the software industry aim to replace actual human developer expertise with much cheaper and faster AI-supported “vibe coding.”
Likewise, perhaps it is inevitable that academia, with the exception of a few reactionary pockets of resistance, will eventually replace all that icky difficult intellectual endeavor with “vibe thinking.”
As in marketing, advertising, and PR, it’ll all be psychologically manipulative AI-supported rationalization of “feels.”
Eli Lilly CEO Says Company Can Help ‘Respond’ to National Security Concerns Around Essential Drugs as Tariffs Loom – CNBC
Additionally, an investigation should be opened into how the higher prices people pay in the USA for healthcare and drugs affects national security.
But agreed, especially since the pandemic, it’s a concern that is long over due for addressing.
If it took tariffs to kick off concern about that over globalization, then that’s what it took. It didn’t have to be done as erratically as it is being done.
My late father never talked about the war, and he was 14 when the goose steppers came into Prague without knocking in 1939 and 20 when he was involved in the Prague Uprising today, 80 years ago.
He did talk about it exactly once when my wife and mom & dad went to Death Valley NP to see Hale-Bopp lingering in a complete absence of unnatural light, and his family had a doctor friend who diagnosed him with a series of highly communicable, but non fatal diseases over the course of the war so he didn’t have to labor for the 3rd Reich-all imaginary, I can still hear him laugh saying he was the sickest Czech man in the country!
And then he talked of his involvement in the uprising, which abruptly ended when he related throwing a potato masher grenade on a moving Nazi halfback on the street, from atop a building and it was a direct hit, and then he clammed up and never said another word in regards to his involvement in the war, as if he’d said too much already.
A few years later I’m walking with him in Prague and he points to a rather pedestrian looking wall, and mentions that’s where they lined up Czechs to be shot after Heydrich was assassinated, all sans last cigarette.
I can see now why he sheltered us from the storm…
When I was deciding whether or not to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war, I had some conversations with my step-father about his experiences in WW2. At the age of 19 he was a sergeant in an artillery unit that took part in the D day landings and fought across Europe. One thing he spoke of was the practice of some U.S. soldiers of taking SS captives for what he described as “one way walks in the woods”. A case of turn abouts is fair play I suppose.
The grandpa of a woman friend of mine here in Dresden told me once how, in the desperate closing days of World War II with the Red Army at the gates of the burned-out city, he and his friends, untrained boys aged 12 to 16, were handed rifles and uniforms and ordered to defend one of the bridges over the Elbe.
After a futile token skirmish the Soviets came rolling over the bridge. The Russian commandant took one look at the boys and said, “Now I’m supposed to take you prisoner. I could get shot myself for this. But you’re just kids. Look, drop the rifles and get out of here. None of us saw you, get it? Beat it.”
Situational ethics well applied.
Hell Yeah.
Mercy.
Thank you so much for sharing this very moving story with us, Wuk.
aye…neither of my grandfathers ever said a word about the war(pacific theater).
and Don, my stepdad, told me the story only once of how he got shot in a rice paddy outside of danang…when his Sargent was staying here for a week, and both were piddling in the shop at 8am, sargent drinking straight vodka, Don drinking beer…so i partook(screwing whatever work i had planned) and heard the whole tale from thems that was there.
IOW, only in extraordinary circumstances did i finally here the story about how he became disabled(100% disability, bullet took out his T5 vertebra.)
and never a word about all that after…
but when i informed him, as it came up, that one boy then the other had been playing some SOF video game and was thinking about the marines, he intervened, and strongly….even sounded like me,lol.(“dont fight for them, they aint worth it”, etc)
in retrospect, he was the most vehement antiwar person ive ever known.
Regarding the article “Did our politics fail us during Covid?”, the subtitle is “Political scientist Frances Lee examines the “noble lies” and truth-seeking failures of the pandemic.” There were no noble lies, there were downright lies. Just another attempt to softball, diffuse and confuse the public. I think the latest term is “to nudge”. Give me a brake …. I could have used much stronger language.
Had a dip into the WHO paper referenced in the article. It was about how to handle a flu epidemic/pandemic. It looked to me as though its recommendations assumed that the virus circulating was not novel. This was the basis for deciding how to respond to COVID?
Words fail me. Except to say that I had picked up that here in the UK we did not have a plan to protect against a new virus so used a flu plan instead. Explains a lot?
re: Gaza, the US and China: the Future of War and the End of Civilisation Thomas Faxi Substack
I would argue the US military reached these conclusions (that laws of war need to be tossed, international conventions around war tossed, human rights tossed) long before the October 7th attacks, likely as a result of lessons learned from the invasion of Iraq – where the US killed over half a million civilians (some say closer to a million).
Also, we should recall that it was the Americans who committed the completely unnecessary atrocities at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, given Japan was about to surrender. I’ve said before that at the ICJ the Israelis are likely going to cite these and other American atrocities as proof that, despite the massive numbers of civilian deaths, their atrocity is still less than what the Americans have done. I expect them to profer a very long list of American wars and invasions as justification for their own war.
A ICJ conclusion that Israel committed an atrocity here would logically mean the US has done the same.
Palestine is not the only place where Israel has been associated with genocide (Regarding Gaza, the U.S. and China; The Future of War and the End of Civilization). Israel was very much involved in the mass violence against the Mayas waged in the 80s by President, General Efrain Rios Mott. Israel provided arms, intelligence and training for the Guatemalan military and police. There were over 600 massacres and villages destroyed. 100,000 fled to Mexico and over one million were displaced. It has been called the Maya genocide. https://jacobin.com/2024/04/israel-guatamala-genocide-gaza-imperialism The article has several links documenting what happened.
Greatly appreciate this link (which is broken it should be said, guatamala -> guatemala but I found it in any case); it seems to me that if an American is to be well-informed on anything in particular, our extensive history in aiding/abetting/actualizing genocide is a splendid-sordid choice. Ashamed to admit I was ignorant of this one.
Off topic but I must.
On this date, May 4th,1970, was the Kent State shooting of college students protesting the Vietnam war by the National Guard in Ohio. I lived about two hours away. My neighbor and a buddy were there. One as a student and one in the Guard. Three years later was the last draft. I was a year too young or I would have been gone, as my number came out 8th. I knew many guys who went. Many didn’t come home, and many others didn’t come home the same. Some struggle to this day with the trauma and the hell they endured in the jungles of Nam fighting that senseless war. Screw the war hawks who profit from all the killing. Stop the wars and stop the killing.
A sobering reminder and a song that will echo in my mind forever. It still give me chills;
Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Thank you, Screwball, for this reminder.
Yes indeed. I will check the MSM newscast tonight to see if it’s mentioned.
Won’t hold my breath…
Thanks Screwball, lest we forget.
Also the anniversary of the shooting of the Easter Uprising prisoners.
Apologies for the reddit link, I cannot find the original image source.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1kekkpw/4th_of_may_1916/
Indeed, Thank You. Many friends didn’t return, including my sis’ BF. One father I knew lost both sons. A vet friend returned to live in the woods in a hammock and an abandoned car. Ate snakes. Committed s*.
On the home front, The World Ain’t Round, It’s Square (2:52) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vwh3t4gsIY Same as it ever was.
Thanks.
I was 2nd year in college.
We enjoyed the “strike “.
“Study war no more”,
Indeed.
Never Forget 5/4/70.
If I am remembering a story I heard right, CSNY wrote this tune in 45 minutes after they heard news reports of the shooting at Kent State. They got their manager to book some studio time that night, recorded it, and got it on the air on US radio stations the next day. No doubt this provided a timely protest anthem and helped further cement these killings in the canon of Vietnam war history.
BTW all the pictures at this link show national guard troops having bayonets fixed on the ends of their rifles. What is up with that? Was that a normal thing at the time, or was it reserved for special occasions like facing unarmed college students?
> Was that a normal thing at the time,
I think that “bayonet fixed” in the context of infantry close combat (and suppression of civilian protest probably falls under that) is as old as musket technology. One needs a pointy end to the weapon for when the enemy is so close that there is no time to reload. The buttstock of older style weapons can also be used as a club. Slash, thrust with one end, club, smash with the other.
I would be curious to hear from younger commenters who have experienced modern US infantry training whether bayonet fighting is still on the curriculum. Modern assault rifles may not be as suitable for this purpose as the heavy old M-14 and its predecessors.
If suppression of civilian protest falls under the context of infantry close combat, then they should also chuck a few grenades, for a good measure.
Saddest thing is – from afar it´s almost as if time has been rolled back.
Suddenly Vietnam – just like with all the other shit that has gone down – is subject to that twisted, sicko revisionism that institutions so skillfully and covertly implement. Like venom.
So it´s ever more important to hear from witnesses.
Thanks Screwball, for being another torchbearer of that Memory.
One of the first things I thought of this May 4 morning—like for the last 55 years.
I was in Southeast HS there in Portage Co. .
I remember so clearly that Mayday weekend weather being so glorious and welcome after such an Ohio winter.
We went down to Water St Friday night and it was just buzzing electric with people being out and loud in the warm night. We left before the trash fires, and cops, really got going.
Spring and VN and Cambodia and Nixon and Rhodes and the Mayday rally. Talk of torching the ROTC and Monday coming.
And Monday so pretty until becoming so ugly.
Tuesday morning my HS fired all its KSU Student Teachers and that afternoon invited the Portage County Sheriffs into our Auditorium to break up the Student Protest to the firings and the murders.
The HS stayed closed for another week.
I have never participated in another protest since then without thinking of Kent, Idealism, Authorities, and what can happen when things start going sideways.
Kent State University marks 55th anniversary of May 4 shootings with campus commemoration (photos)
cleveland.com — https://archive.ph/PeDDy
IM doc been saying this for years
https://x.com/jahangirasgha10/status/1918755864674246770?s=46
Shows how powerless doctors are today against corporate medicine that this is so.
It gets worse. Inside the hospital and then outside, challenging for doctors, nurses, staff while also causing grief and more than a few health risks for patients and their families.
See links to stories about Dr. Elisabeth Potter and her experience with UnitedHealth, emblematic of the insurance bureaucracy.
The video of the young woman yelling at AOC gives this oldster some hope for the human race. That a portion of youth will always see the actions of our misleaders in binary terms–good vs evil–is uplifting.
None of this red/blue bullshit, the appeals to nuance, conditional judgement. You vote for the war machine, you are responsible for its deadly results.
Dog bless them all.
The Twitter comments from liberal Democrats are fun; can be summarized as protestor chose the wrong target, why not protest Republicans?
Meanwhile, AOC ran interference for genocide with her “working tirelessly for a cease fire” nonsense.
And some arguing about whether anti-genocide voters cost Harris the election, or not, and how this outcome is clearly worse than Harris.
Liberal Democrats seem to reject the notion that any political candidate for office needs to earn votes.
Antoinette of Color has seemingly no idea what sort of missed content that’s gonna come back to haunt her.
“Let ’em eat Loubotins?”
None of this red/blue bullshit, the appeals to nuance, conditional judgement.
Too bad so many are falling down drunk on both the red and blue BS. Some have even ODed. What a spectacle.
On the flip side of this:
“AOC who may be the next NY senator…is not supportive of Israel. Can you believe that!”
“Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot by having socialists lead the party”
https://x.com/casestudyqb/status/1919231229452280031?s=46
This is the view many people in my circles have. They think AOC is a radical leftist who hates Israel. So, when clips like this circulate it confuses them because they think the pro-Palestine protestors are irrational lunatics going after their own. It would be helpful for the messaging if the protestors were to regularly confront elected reps with actual power and antipathy toward Palestinians and not focus so much on ones like Bernie and AOC.
But, that kind of protesting is hard and risks real confrontation. Whereas protesting AOC & Bernie will get them lots of attention from all corners of the establishment who wish to stifle the only marginally left voices in elected government with an ounce of public support.
So, sure, it’s good to call out AOC’s hypocrisy but what does that accomplish? An ineffectual junior democrat who somewhat already supports the cause is taken down a notch and further marginalized in mainstream politics while those with real power who are hostile to the cause continue unchallenged. Yay?
Is going viral the goal of protests or is changing policy the goal? Because if changing policy is the goal I can think about a thousand much more important targets for protest.
I dunno, someone that lives in the district voices opposite to their representative’s support for genocide. Seems legit to me. Or should this woman have instead traveled to PA to protest at one of Fetterman’s town halls, if indeed he has any?
I don’t think genocide opponents exclusively focus on AoC on Twitter, either, however effective Twitter protests might be. (Likely not at all; it’s a useful relief valve for agitation without effect.)
So “tern” on Twitter frequently posts about increasing infectious disease due to COVID. Lately tern made a chart showing correlation between difference diseases. Prior to the Pandemic, there really was no correlation. Now, they’re all highly correlated.
https://x.com/1goodtern/status/1918723962701312389
Stay safe out there!
I hate to post bomb, this is my last one, but this tariffs story blew my mind most of all because for the first time in a NY Times story in over 5 years, long-COVID is mentioned just causally, like this has been going on all along, which it has. This is America’s future, brought to you by Pandemic denialism and 2019-larpers:
(bold mine)
But the thrust of the story is all about Trump’s auto tariffs nuking small town America from orbit.
The Car Dealer Who Can’t Afford to Say No (NY Times via archive.ph; ~ 15 minutes)
Taibbi’s latest.
No, State Media and Democracy Don’t Go “Hand in Hand.” Just the Opposite
In the age of digital censorship, state media is just as likely to be a threat to democracy as a boon to it
https://www.racket.news/p/no-state-media-and-democracy-dont
I don’t think, in the age of digital censorship, state media is just a threat to democracy and can never be a boon.
His Anti-Communism seriously hampers him here.
“(…)
but outlets like Neues Deustchland, Télé Zaïre, and Tung Padewat more often went “hand in hand” with fingernail factories or firing squads than democracy. It’s bizarre to see Americans trying to whitewash this.(…)”
To compare East Germany with fascist regimes is a major misunderstanding. Taibbi here would fit perfectly into those groups who would love to see Europe conquer Russia.
As wrong as equalizing Zaire with Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (which as far as I remember was a hotly debated subject in the 1970s and 1980s.)
GDR, Zaire, Cambodia are simply not comparable. Neither are their media.
Just like his colleague Ames dared to compare early Putin with a Pinochet: Complete cluelessness and American delusion. (They both believe America is special.)
“(…)
The Russian muckrakers of the 1990s threw themselves into the job like superheroes once they got a whiff of freedom, which in their case usually meant being disentangled from the state. That period, like the lives of many of those folks, didn’t last long. Vladimir Putin sent masked police into the last independent TV station on May 11, 2000, capping less than ten years of quasi-free speech. “Strong state media” remained, but actual journalism vanished.
(…)”.
At least if Taibbi writes this PR I am willing to argue against it instead of just ignoring what I would usually do. But if even he doesn´t get certain things straight why wonder about the rest who don´t even try to understand and scrutinize and have zero integrity.
Of course it resonates if he addresses the same experience with FAIR that I had growing up with FAIR.
But private media are not the solution. To some extent he even points it out himself:
“(…)
As anyone who’s read Hate Inc. knows, I was until recently a proponent of public incentives for journalism, which is necessary but hard to fund.
(…)”
Did anything change since? No.
German media was destroyed for this very reason. In class society with unlimited private property it doesn´t matter who owns the media, state or companies.
May be he should give his Chomsky a reread.
Don’t know about you flora but I find it tiresome when people use the Monolithic application of Democracy[tm]. It has no distinction, so many variants, which one is being invoked. Not to mention America was never a Democracy, representative Republic thingy.
On that note the people pushing so called Democracy the most were the free market sorts from the Chicago school via money is a vote. Add on Market Place of Ideas, and Market place of everything … including the judiciary, see Trumps camp on that now …. chortle what state ….
OT:
Why has the Blueberry keyboard not survived?
I still find the Smartphone digital version inferior. Without auto-correction it´s not a serious application. And I don´t see how that could be improved.
I’m guessing you mean Research in Motion’s Blackberry? I was a devoted user of their devices from 2003 through 2019.
Near as I can tell the obsession with video, and therefore screen real estate, is what killed the physical keyboard on phones.
And autocorrect is atrociously bad.
May the Fourth Be With all y’all.
tomorrow, cinco de mayo, is the last time Tam was home, at our house.
i gave her a bath on the front porch, carrying hot water…
and then did the first of many of my foley cath operations that day, before calling in air support(nurse) and them finally sending her to the Last Hospital.
i am usually…normally…a timeless person.
were it not for others reminding me, i wouldnt remember or be aware of my own birthday…let alone what day it is, what month it is, etc…
but i remember these dates, in spite of myself.
burned into my mind.
Labour day here and I went to work …
National election yesterday, NLP under Dutton came out worse than last time. Now the NLP MSM press is blaming the loss on the stoopid[tm] voters ….
OT but Trump just announced plan to re-open Alcatraz for the worst prisoners.
Call it Bigger Better Mar-a-Lago and they’ll all check in voluntarily. Then we can “forget” to send food etc, direct the odd EMP at it. Oooh ooh squid games 3! This could be fun! Just don’t let inmate 001 out.
It’s free real estate.