Interesting times!

Alas, both government and corporate-owned western media. Continuously boast about Country 404 conscripted army's imaginary pyrrhic propaganda victory.

That which is too good to be true usually is.

Ukrainian military casualties in just five days of its counteroffensive exceeded 12,000, Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed.

More than 4,000 Ukrainian troops were killed and another 8,000 injured between September 6 and 10 in the south and east of the country, ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said during a daily briefing on Sunday.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Sep 11 2022 13:50 utc | 1

Ehrenreich's death is saddening. She was a one-of-a-kind hard left journalist and her work inspired me. RIP, Barbara.

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Sep 11 2022 14:04 utc | 2

The ukies can absorb heavy losses and economic devastation in the short term. Russia's job is to extend the duration of this pain. I'd also recommend they increase their mobile firepower. Any ukie advance plays 24/7 in the west, no matter how small.

Posted by: seer | Sep 11 2022 14:05 utc | 3

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Sep 11 2022 14:04 utc | 2
imagine any journalist today working a couple of full time minimum wage jobs to report the actual hardships people face.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 14:07 utc | 4

Intel Slava reported..

In connection with the ongoing shelling, the last operating power unit of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant was stopped today.

In connection with the ongoing shelling from Ukraine and the threat of terrorist attacks from the Ukrainian authorities, the ZNPP power units were transferred to a cold mode.

That was the smart thing to do.

Posted by: circumspect | Sep 11 2022 14:08 utc | 5

I'm assuming this is NOT a Ukraine thread by the above-"Use as open (Not Ukraine) thread ..."

Anyway, calls for God Save the King, the new English, Charles III were widely booed by the public in Edinburgh.

https://twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/1568923296753762304?cxt=HHwWgIC-7aDb98UrAAAA

Meanwhile republican protesters were man-handled and arrested in Edinburgh today for demonstrating that Scotland doesn't want or need the royals, the over zealous police even forcibly cancelled a demo march in Glasgow on the matter even though the march had been sanctioned by the local council and agreed upon weeks before.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 11 2022 14:14 utc | 6

Pacifica_Advocate (2).

Consortium News has a good article on her right now, and they highlight her Nickel and Dimed book as well.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/08/remembering-barbara-ehrenreich-work-left-undone/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 11 2022 14:58 utc | 7

From Mango Press Telegram (love the image):

🏴‍☠#USEmpire

Anyone for a game of 'Angry Yanks'?

(stolen from weibo)

https://t.me/mangopress/9679

also from the same channel a great animated image:

https://t.me/mangopress/9677

Posted by: William Haught | Sep 11 2022 14:59 utc | 8

@b

The link to the NYT article is broken.

Posted by: S | Sep 11 2022 15:01 utc | 9

@Bad Deal Motors On #1
@seer #3
@circumspect #5

This is a Not Ukraine Open Thread.

Posted by: @ | Sep 11 2022 15:05 utc | 10

Oops, sorry, the above comment is mine.

Posted by: S | Sep 11 2022 15:06 utc | 11

Under the heading Inane in the Roget's International Thesaurus (7th Edition) are found the following; ineffective; insipid; dull; vacant; vain; meaningless; nonexistent; thin; empty-headed; foolish; ignorant; thoughtless; trivial, each having its own constellation of synonyms.

A more useful word would be hard to find to describe the reign of Elizabeth II in "Keeping Up Appearances", seven decades of anaesthesia, oblivious to the obliteration of the remaining British Empire and its surrender to the overwhelming wealth of the expanding U.S. Empire after W.W. II.

Lost under QEII's reign was the leadership of cutting edge economic scholarship, the loss of the industrial, manufacturing base, its intellectual gravity slowly moving elsewhere, the diminishment of its military power to third world levels, the evisceration of its middle classes as well as impoverishing further its working population just to mention a few losses under her reign. Despite the eclipse of the British Empire, Queen Elizabeth II was a delightful, enjoyable, pleasant person throughout, that must count for something. Rest in well earned Peace.

And by the way Q. Elizabeth II, you forgot to put some manners on your kids, especially your Randy Andy; whatever were you about there?

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Sep 11 2022 15:08 utc | 12

Re: Sleboda

Typical of garbage analysis.

Let us review: if Russian military strategy is truly Clausewicz-ian - the objective of the SMO is the destruction of Ukraine's capability to pose a military and economic threat to Russia.

The secession of the Russian speaking areas of Ukraine accomplishes the economic part as these regions are 80% to 90% of Ukraine's pre-2/24/2022 GDP. This is a political process, not a military one.

The military side comprises the pre-2/24/2022 Ukrainian military, PLUS the ex-Soviet gear in the former Warsaw Pact nations now in NATO, plus whatever junk/white elephant/Wunderwaffe the West sends to Ukraine (with the expectation of financial replacement with new budget dollars).

Where exactly is the Masada-like holding of territory in either of these equations? How many actual Russian, Russian National Guard, Wagner, Chechen, etc troops were actually killed or captured in this affair?

I have seen zero indicators of any significant number.

Furthermore, the obvious corollary to the latter part of the military equation is the willingness of Western governments and the Western public to continue to dump billions of dollars into Ukraine.

This is an endurance match, not a chess match.

Even as the Bay Area is experiencing fish kills due to human waste overwhelming sanitation facilities, and the capital of Mississippi not having drinking water deja Flint, the United States, EU and euro region government continue sending billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine and to the US military.

The Sleboda "analysis" is of the same stripe as Strelkov and the childish warhawks: if the SMO isn't perfect, then it is shitty and should be replaced with massive escalation.

This is Western-type stupidity - why exactly should Russia emulate the West's long record of failure adhering to such policies?

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2022 15:22 utc | 13

For those of us who comment on their phones laying in bed, I was wondering if anyone else was having issues with typing their comments in the typepad box here.

After about ten lines of writing, the content of the post becomes unintelligible and impossible to read. It scrambles the text you are writing to make it impossible to continue and it is not easy to scroll backwards to edit your post.

Anyone else having this issue? Probably just a software thing on my end but wanted to ask others.

I have tried a couple different phone web browsers, too. Same issue. Thx, all.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Sep 11 2022 15:25 utc | 14

The latest DeLong PMC-pandering:

Economic Prosperity Failed

As is typical of DeLong - there are valid points but extended beyond all measure of sanity, combined with a tremendous "efficient market" ideology.

For example:

Slowly-improving technology meant that there was not much room for this generation to be more numerous than the last and for people to still get fed: think of an average pre-1870 population growth rate of about 2.5% per generation. If you then do the math, you see that, in such a world, about one woman in three was left without surviving sons.

This is idiocy of the highest degree. I guarantee that not 1 woman in a million, if even that, was thinking that having as many children as possible would guarantee having a surviving son. Among the important factors ignored: no contraception. This is modern PMC thinking transplanted to an 1870s era subsistence farming society - i.e. totally fucking off.

Another example:

But there was even worse: In such a poor world, only a few could have enough. And the only way the few could get enough for themselves and their children was to find a way, through force and fraud, to take a substantial share of what the rest were producing and grab it for themselves.

More idiocy. Feudalism existed long before 1870 - where exactly is the "enough" when the feudal system saw the upwards forcible redistribution of food upwards in the order of 30% to 50%? The insufficiency is therefore not of productivity per se, but of the politico-economic system.

In particular: societies that were NOT feudal had a far different profile than the European peasant. This is plain old euro-centrism.

And the finale:

Soon after 1870 people got a clue that something had changed. Looking back at 1870-1914, economist John Maynard Keynes was to write between the world wars of how it had been “economic Eldorado… economic Utopia… that Devil [of Malthus]… chained up and out of sight…. What an extraordinary episode!” The forces unleashed in 1870 meant that “the economic problem may be solved, or be at least within sight of solution, within a hundred years… is not… the permanent problem of the human race… [which will be] how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well…”

Humanity before 1870 had been stymied because anæmic technology, limited natural resource, patriarchy, and poverty had kept us from being able to bake an economic pie sufficiently large to even raise the possibility that everybody could have **enough**.

There was one particular change that occurred around 1870: it was the destruction of feudalism. The nations of Europe realized that feudal practices prevented them from industrializing; and that industrialization was the path toward not just wealth, but military and economic power.

As such, the change was not technology in the machinery/science sense - it was the short term freeing up of enormous swathes of the economy from feudal rentiers.

In the ensuing short period after this change, the reassertion of rentier control by new lords - the banksters - took time and was a trial and error process much as early feudalism was a trial and error process - and overall society benefited by having access to more of overall productivity's rewards than before.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2022 15:35 utc | 15

Today’s my birthday, I’m 51. « 9-11 » was my 30th birthday.

Anyhow, I really appreciate this bar, and b’s work, and all my fellow barflies here. I really appreciate you guys.

Thank you for making me feel, in the immortal words of Andrei Raevsky, like a submarine NOT in the desert.

🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

Posted by: Featherless | Sep 11 2022 15:38 utc | 16

"Republicans hadn’t packed the court with right wing Catholic wingnuts."
But they did

Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Sep 11 2022 15:43 utc | 17

Liz Truss for President of Space!

now why does the fairy tale factory keep shoving us villains who want to destroy the universe? e.g., Thanos.

or giving us public leaders who make us wish they would?

in the public peformance space, we are being conditioned to root and cheer for the asteroid in a Michael Bay "Armageddon" fantasy.

from preachers who preach the Apocalypse while running ghettoized trailer home parks in Tornado Alley.

it would be fun to ask Liz Truss (and the 1/3 of the audience cheering her nihilism): why not nuke the planet? what is it that you live for?

Samson's riddle: what's the honey, if any, to be brought forth from the cold corpse of that dead lion of Britain? more flies and maggots? maybe with Liz the flies will glow this time?

btw, the name isn't "god save the drag queen" it's "zadok the priest." when will the people stop giving their approval to the investiture w/priestly authority that makes such a drag queen as Elizabeth possible? all the ceremony and funny hats and fancy music. and security theater. maybe if i stop cheering...

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 15:45 utc | 18

thanks for the update and reminders about that study from the university of Adelaide. this kind of stuff never stops, it's not new.

remember: 10% of these fake social media bots are PRO RUSSIAN. (or perhaps more accurately in this new age of heroes and fanboys, pro-putin. in any case, ostensibly "pro russian".)

strategy of tension? and let's not forget, you have to make Bashar al Assad look sufficiently threatening and evil if you want to recruit teenage girls from 5 eyes countries to fight Mordor by joining ISIS.

anyway, on a separate but equal note, I had the horrible experience the other day of reviewing someone's practice answers to GMAT reading questions. (GMAT, the exam for US MBA programs). what little monsters they are trying to produce with their "education." GMO war dogs, a la the conclusion of Rammstein's "Deutschland".

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 16:02 utc | 19

PG & E continues its evil ways.

To be clear: there are many hard working, honorable people in the organization.

But its management has been a disaster, in every possible measure, for decades.

PG & E admits its role in Paradise (Camp) fire

The official investigation into the cause of the Butte County blaze is continuing, but the utility said Thursday that “the company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp fire.”

...

In fact, most of the Camp fire lawsuits cite a grim catalog of death and destruction involving PG&E. Among the disasters are a 1991 gas explosion in Santa Rosa that killed two people; the Butte fire in 2015, which killed two; and the 2010 San Bruno gas line explosion, which killed eight and saw the company found guilty of six felonies and fined more than $1.6 billion.

...

Another suit, filed in December, said a damaged metal hook or ring on a transmission tower was at least partly to blame for the fire. When it failed, the suit said, it allowed an uninsulated cable to touch the steel tower.

“Blazing hot molten materials dropped into the fine dead fuels below … igniting the devastating Camp Fire,” the suit claims. “Strong winds, low humidity, and dry vegetation fueled the fire. The intensity of the heat generated by the fire and the terrifying speed at which it spread are unimaginable.”

The trials will reveal the truth, but it seems highly likely that PG & E has been lax in its maintenance duties even as it reaps solar PV and wind subsidies while installing new generation.

Nor are accidents the only example of PG & E fuckery. I still remember their attempt in 2010 to get themselves permanently emplaced as a utility provider, by trying to get a proposition passed requiring municipalities to have a supermajority in order to switch providers:

California Propositon 16

A "yes" vote supported prohibiting a local government from incurring any debt or expending public funds to expand electricity delivery services and prohibiting local governments from becoming an aggregate electricity provider without a two-thirds supermajority vote of approval from voters in the local government's jurisdiction and voters within the territory that would be served.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2022 16:05 utc | 20

More energy fun:

Wall Street Journal on Newsom's California High Cost Energy and Reliability debacle

“California’s summer electric generation capacity increased by about 10,700 megawatts (MW) between 2010 and 2020—potentially enough to power eight to 10 million homes. The problem is that gas-fired capacity during this time declined by 4,390 MW and nuclear by 2,150 MW. Solar and wind surged 17,000 MW, but those sources can’t be commanded to run when people need them.”

“The state must therefore rely on imports from other states in the evenings, especially during heat waves. But these imports are becoming less dependable since California’s neighbors are also losing base-load generators owing to their own renewable buildouts. Arizona lost about half of its summer coal-generating capacity between 2015 and 2020.”

The impact that California’s energy debacle has on the entire western U.S. energy availability and pricing market because of its politically driven climate alarmist schemes are noted as:

“Meantime, power shortages are causing prices to spike in the Golden State as they are in Europe. Electricity prices in California’s wholesale market surged Tuesday evening to about $1,700 per MWh compared to the normal $100 and $67 a year ago. All of this explains why residential electric rates in California have risen by 50% in the past two years—three times more than they have nationwide.”

As I have noted repeatedly before: there can be a role for solar PV and wind in a grid - but it is clearly a minority one.

Solar PV peak production (i.e. at rating) is between 10 am and 2 pm - which is literally the lowest demand period of the day.

Wind production is random but skews significantly toward midnight output.

The difference between peak demand and minimum demand isn't small: we're talking in the order of 50% more demand between day minimum and day peak demand. With solar PV and wind, grid operators have to now juggle not just the peak to minimum swings, but also the solar PV and wind output swings which are literally hourly.

The effect is unreliability: peaks of multi-day demand due to winter polar vortexes or heat waves are a problem, but so is cool/not too warm weather because too little demand equally creates the problem of too much electricity.

As I have repeatedly noted: too much electricity costs money to fix - money which is charged to the end users. Texas spent an average of $207 million a year in the past 6 years (excluding 2021's winter storm $2 billion number) to handle excess electricity. As solar PV and wind percentage of overall generation increases, the curtailment issue is only going to get worse.

If a cheap, safe storage solution can be found - then this variability issue can be resolved but I am not optimistic. Average lithium batteries have 1/2 the energy density of gunpowder while high end lithium batteries are more like 2/3rds. Any further increases of energy density means the destructive potential of a failing battery is going to be more than gunpowder.
Similarly, cost is an enormous factor.

The entire output of a Tesla Gigafactory for an entire year will store about 3 minutes of the US' electricity consumption.

We would need at least days, if not weeks of storage to go fully alternative energy electricity consumption.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2022 16:21 utc | 21

Today an author under the pseudonym of George Orwell's real name wrote a very good piece in Saker about Queen Elizabeth. But the comments as always horrible. One individual wrote this:

"How can the demise of a sodomite homosexual (Mercury) be considered as a tragic loss ? I don’t understand your morals. All he did through his song videos was to promote homosexual lifestyle. This was the reason that in Russia they don’t glorify such disgusting individuals, regardless of their art value or supposed talent. I listened to his songs one time and I almost vomited."

I wrote the following response: Yesterday Iran announced the death sentence of lesbian women. Here on this site the promotion of hatred against homosexuals is constant and encouraged. Why this hate?
It hasn't been published.

Posted by: José Gomes | Sep 11 2022 16:36 utc | 22

Posted by: Featherless | Sep 11 2022 15:38 utc | 16

Happy returns for the day! Hope some good news strays your way.

Cheers.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Sep 11 2022 16:54 utc | 23

If i quote ancient Chinese wisdom, will I sound smarter?

here's to the maligned Polonius, talking about why he spies on his son. what is it to define madness truly? no, not that sublime statement, which also applies to the practice of deception, so stating "war is the art of deception" might itself be delusional. but

And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:

What a different age it was for spying on the sex lives of kids! computers really are making one or two things in life more efficient, for damn sure. socialization = self-reporting of all activities to Big B, thanks to the likes of Suckerborg and CIA front and "free market" success story In Q Tel.

"By indirections find directions out". a good litmus test for gauging anyone is often how a person talks about Israel. but if some indirection is needed, b/c leftoids sure know how to fake concern about causes, Ireland is a good choice, with its own "special relationship" to the US. get someone to talk about Anglo-Irish-US relations and find out what kind of a cog in the machine you've just met, how much a person is willing to project of himself into the black hole of his own ignorance before saying, if ever, "I don't know."

At the opening of "12th Night", Duke Orsino gives the command to strike up the band. "If music be the food of love..." The world is about to be subjected to an unimaginable display of wealth thru those models of all European kings, indeed, all of Christendom, the British royals. And what do they model? kicking Hansel and Gretel out into the forest to starve? teaching the world how to build modern efficient slave labor camps? protecting London bankers and starting WW3 during a pandemic?

here's some indirection to discover some direction for the misdirection of the world. a true north. why did they pick this song? doesn't one need a big fancy king- or queen- sized carriage? it's a self-driving bicycle right, with lots of Elon Musketry on the handlebars? and what's this commie "sharing" bullshit? let Daisy get her own damn bicycle.

what will we do when we don't have to use deception simply to figure out what the hell is happening? the sign-using animal that drowns itself in false speech inside a Disney image factory. shit. nuke the place from orbit already. it's the only way to be sure.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 16:56 utc | 24

José Gomes | Sep 11 2022 16:36 utc | 22
the received wisdom around here is that the army that penetrates itself the least will win. the fewer soldiers going to the gay bar when on leave increases the chance of victory.

it's really really fun to watch superfags playing dress up on the internet. they all stick together tighter than a band of Spartan hoplites.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 16:59 utc | 25

The US, Germany UK and France doing their best to stall the JCPOA deal with Iran, Biden will not sign the deal because he thinks it makes the US look weak.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/09/11/689022/US-E3-averted-deal-revive-nuclear-pact-months-ago

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 11 2022 17:08 utc | 26

José Gomes | Sep 11 2022 16:36 utc | 22
who knows what Leonidas and his merry band might have done if they hadn't been buggering each other the night before? maybe that's why they call it "the heated gates"? all that heavy breathing and panting? and going to the beauty parlor before battle? no wonder they lost. these are the people who invented "the beard".

people get their knowledge from movies like "300". puff out those chest men! take that artillery fire like you mean it!

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 17:11 utc | 27

As if Israeli settlers hadn't stolen enough Palestinian lands already, they are now setting up outposts in the West Bank, and the razor wire and bulldozers are at the scene.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/09/11/689031/West-Bank-Nablus-settlers

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 11 2022 17:12 utc | 28

Posted by: José Gomes | Sep 11 2022 16:36 utc | 22

Yeah man. I'm straight, but I'm sick to fucking death of the retrograde gay hatred that appears to be becoming increasingly common on the interwebs of late.

We should all be considered equal, and never "some are more equal than others", as therein lies the slippery slope to pogroms, lynchings, and worse.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Sep 11 2022 17:20 utc | 29

@ Posted by: c1ue | 21

Storage is the problem nobody seems to want to admit to. If excess power cannot be stored and made available for times when green sources are not available or are inadequate, then the entire system is broken and unreliable.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/06/29/battery-storage-an-infinitesimally-small-part-of-electrical-power/

Posted by: John | Sep 11 2022 17:27 utc | 30

@José Gomes #22, quoting a homophobic commenter from The Vineyard of the Saker:

How can the demise of a sodomite homosexual (Mercury) be considered as a tragic loss ? I don’t understand your morals. All he did through his song videos was to promote homosexual lifestyle. This was the reason that in Russia they don’t glorify such disgusting individuals, regardless of their art value or supposed talent.

Meanwhile in Russia:

“Elton John is an outstanding person [and] outstanding musician,” Putin was quoted as saying by NME. “Millions of our people sincerely love him despite his orientation.”

Posted by: S | Sep 11 2022 17:34 utc | 31

Meanwhile in China

A big name actor (think Chinese Leonardo Di Caprio), Li Yifeng, is being cancelled for soliciting a prostitute. I never understood the "crime" of consensual sex between adults, free or paid. The standard reasoning is that it is an attack on public morality (like homosexuality) as it threatens the disintegration of the nuclear family. But hey, weight gain is listed as a top reason for divorce too.

Posted by: Jun | Sep 11 2022 18:28 utc | 32

Thank you for making me feel, in the immortal words of Andrei Raevsky, like a submarine NOT in the desert.

🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

Posted by: Featherless | Sep 11 2022 15:38 utc | 16

I will tag onto your row of palm trees, Featherless, to wish you lots of exhilarating years ahead!

But also,on the subject of submarines (or any boats at all) in the desert - I enjoyed posts from karlof1 and PaulGV at the end of the last thread, and needed to post my own comment on their nautical enjoyments. It's mountain desert for me here - even further from the sea than some deserts are, but I wanted to pass on to them that periodically I do my own nautical job --- on the flat roof of my house with tar and webbing. Same principle as sealing the seams of a boat - gotta keep the water out!

I really do think of it as a nautical enterprise - I have a hard time convincing my anxious kids that I love being up there (on a clear day you can see forever). And our heat seems to have broken, so it is anchors away!

Some people climb mountains; some sail; I just climb to my roof ...

Posted by: juliania | Sep 11 2022 18:55 utc | 33

Posted by: juliania | Sep 11 2022 18:55 utc | 33

For you Juliana:
Up On the Roof

I've always thought getting high was a good thing, btw :-)

Posted by: waynorinorway | Sep 11 2022 19:12 utc | 34

thanks b... appreciate all the work you do here...

@ waynorinorway | Sep 11 2022 19:12 utc | 34

nice! i think that is a carole king composition, but can't remember for sure... it is a song from the past! just looked - gerry goffin and carole king - you probably knew this already!

@ Featherless

from my friend - the stormer is currently here
https://stormer-daily.rw/

Posted by: james | Sep 11 2022 19:32 utc | 35

reading the posts backwards and not very thoroughly either...

@ featherless - happy birthday and many more!

@ José Gomes | Sep 11 2022 16:36 utc | 22

hate comes from ignorance... unfortunately there is plenty of that in the world today... i am sorry to hear about this..thanks for trying to raise everyone's awareness.. it is a lifelong and ongoing task... cheers...

Posted by: james | Sep 11 2022 19:55 utc | 36

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 11 2022 16:21 utc | 21

You are quite correct, the maths tells a fearful picture of what "the green agenda" portends for the common man, his standard of living, and his life expectancy.

Rationally, inherently unreliable energy sources like wind should have very little part to play in national energy planning. Energy we can't depend on is of little good to us in a technological society.

Unfortunately I somehow doubt that people who believe the Earth is dangerously overpopulated and who want us to eat insects will be deterred by such trifles as the irrationality of their plan.

Posted by: ZX | Sep 11 2022 20:23 utc | 37

Posted by: Jun | Sep 11 2022 18:28 utc | 32

"Meanwhile in China

A big name actor (think Chinese Leonardo Di Caprio), Li Yifeng, is being cancelled for soliciting a prostitute. I never understood the "crime" of consensual sex between adults, free or paid. The standard reasoning is that it is an attack on public morality (like homosexuality) as it threatens the disintegration of the nuclear family. But hey, weight gain is listed as a top reason for divorce too."

It's about controlling male sexuality and forcing men to get married and start families. Unmarried men are much harder to cajole/bully/threaten than married men. Unmarried men are also much less inclined to generate wealth and therefore taxes. Society therefore typically regards such men with suspicion or even hostility, so anything that enables them is "bad".

Posted by: RTX | Sep 11 2022 20:29 utc | 38

AIPAC has a new attack out against Rep. Ilhan Omar

https://landing.aipac.org/din-1420/?utm_source=rl&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=omar-no-regrets&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI473hiJ2N-gIVuAutBh0AUg1jEAEYASAAEgKU1vD_BwE

It requests individuals to fill out their identification information and then click on either “Yes” or “No” as to whether or not members of Congress should criticize Israel for its crimes against humanity.

Oddly enough, if you click on “Yes” nothing happens.

Posted by: AntiSpin | Sep 11 2022 20:48 utc | 39

file under Notes of a Failing Empire

https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1568924809534259200
Meanwhile the U.S. has only 49.9 miles of high speed rail service to China's... 25,000 miles! (and France's 1,740 miles - 2,800 km)

https://twitter.com/witte_sergei/status/1568764099345154048
The US government cares more about destroying Russia than anything related to the welfare of its own citizens. Nothing will distract them from this goal: not the shot across the bow on 1/6/21, not soaring crime rates, and not an economic collapse.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Sep 11 2022 20:55 utc | 40

And natural gas is the thing that makes renewables viable. Coal and nuclear can’t ramp up or down to deal with demand. Only gas. A serious, carbon minimizing energy strategy would be based on nuclear baseload, renewables appropriate to environment (with some level of storage) and gas to handle peaking. The west isn’t interested in solutions, only media cycles and PR statements.

Posted by: Lex | Sep 11 2022 21:00 utc | 41

Posted by: Jun | Sep 11 2022 18:28 utc | 32

"Meanwhile in China

Unmarried men are also much less inclined to generate wealth and therefore taxes.

They should have thought about that when all the girl's were being aborted!
Consequences are a bitch!

Posted by: jpc | Sep 11 2022 21:01 utc | 42

Hard to find someone who supports Pinochet, Nixon, and Kissinger:

Gonzalo Lira
@GonzaloLira1968
Today, September 11, is a day which will live on forever: The day the Chilean people overthrew the yoke of Communism, and have since enjoyed 49 uninterrupted years of freedom.
¡Viva Chile!

One of the many pushback tweets:
I’m sure You do realize the coup orchestrated there by the CIA established the blueprint for soft power warfare. techniques that would be perfected over the years and eventually used to kick off the maidan coup. That’s not something to celebrate.

Posted by: Kabobyak | Sep 11 2022 21:02 utc | 43

The “panic messages” from Russian social media went black about the same time the electrical grid went down in eastern Ukraine. I wonder if that is a coincidence?

Oh yeah, and the grid is down in Moldova now as well…

Posted by: unimperetor | Sep 11 2022 21:02 utc | 44

Posted by: jpc | Sep 11 2022 21:01 utc | 42

Posted by: Jun | Sep 11 2022 18:28 utc | 32

"Meanwhile in China

Unmarried men are also much less inclined to generate wealth and therefore taxes.

They should have thought about that when all the girl's were being aborted!
Consequences are a bitch!"

That's an interesting point.

I was speaking more generally though, nothing to do with China specifically (even though that was the example given).

Posted by: RTX | Sep 11 2022 21:09 utc | 45

the queen has appeared in a cloud and as a rainbow, but nobody has yet discerned her likeness in a taco or a traditional British fish n chips dinner.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 21:55 utc | 46

it's funny how westerners consuming less never figures into anyone's energy agenda. all that Dodge Ram toughness on display about a lifestyle that is not up for negotiation. the 200 year experiment in industrialization will have burnt itself out within 30 years no matter what people do and a lucky few will be very happy to live like hobbits, telling stories of their journey thru the smog of of world run by heroic whalekillers.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 21:59 utc | 47

pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 21:55 utc | 46

I had a bowel movement that looked like Zelensky. . .

Posted by: Nostrodamus  | Sep 11 2022 22:05 utc | 48

Posted by: Nostrodamus | Sep 11 2022 22:05 utc | 48

sell it on ebay. if you can find a lizzie fish n chips and an elvis taco, you will be able to retire.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 22:08 utc | 49

However, this does not mean that they cannot support certain events. In March, when a full-scale war in Ukraine was just unfolding, Elizabeth supported our country symbolically. In the photo from the audience with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Her Majesty had a vase with a composition of blue and yellow flowers on the table.

Moreover, Her Majesty made a generous donation that same month to the British Emergency Committee helping Ukrainian refugees.

And in May, at the opening of the London Underground line, named after the Queen, Elizabeth wore a yellow suit and hat, decorated with bright blue flowers.

On May 10, in the Queen’s address at the opening ceremony of the British Parliament, Elizabeth also mentioned Ukraine.

“In these challenging times, my government will play a leading role in protecting democracy and freedom around the world, including continuing to support the people of Ukraine,” the Queen said in a statement.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 22:14 utc | 50

Somewhat surprised to see no link to Hudson's very long interview with Ben Norton at Mutilpolartista three days ago, which I missed until juliania noted it in a comment yesterday. At the link you'll find transcript, video and podcast. It has yet to be posted to Hudson's website.

A great many topics are covered. I chose to use it as a frame to illustrate a few of the negative aspects of Parasitic Neoliberalism in this article, "Dr. Hudson on Parasitic Plunder Within the Outlaw US Empire". Hudson is not at all shy in showing his great contempt for Joe Biden, which many will appreciate. One topic towards the end relates to Norton's question about the possibility of a Petro-Yuan. What follows his Hudson's reply:

MICHAEL HUDSON: I think we’re seeing a multipolar financial system. This is part of the de-dollarization of the whole rest of the world.

I think that Saudi Arabia felt under attack for two reasons. Number one, the United States criticizing the fact that it killed a foreign critic. To Saudi Arabia, this is America’s interference with its philosophy, where if somebody disagrees with you, you kill them.

Secondly, America was protesting the Saudi Arabia’s butchering of Yemen, of Yemenis. And Saudi Arabia thought, well, they’re threatening not to sell us arms if we’re going to use them to kill Yemenis. We better diversify.

Most of all, though, all of the wealthy sovereign funds of the world were shocked by how the United States announced this year that, if a country does something we don’t like, and that would include Saudi Arabia, we’re going to grab all of its reserves.

We grabbed Afghanistan’s reserves, because we don’t like the way they treat women. We grabbed Russia’s reserves, because they want to have a multipolar world. We grabbed Venezuela’s reserves.

Well, what’s going to stop them from all of a sudden grabbing Saudi Arabia’s reserves?

Any multibillionaire is going to diversify their investments and diversify the assets. And I think Saudi Arabia thought, well, we’re going to be doing a lot of trade with China, because who else are we going to buy our manufacturers from?

We’re not going to buy them from Europe, because that’s finished. We’re not going to buy them from America, because that’s de-industrialized. We’re going to have to make our own pivot to Asia.

And that means that they’re going to want to be paid in their own currency. So, of course, we’re going to want to begin selling or pricing our oil in their currency so that there can be a mutual trade.

And we’re not going to suffer from ups and downs and squiggles in the foreign exchange rate that’s caused by US intervention or US sanctions.

The United States is driving Saudi Arabia and driving every country out of the dollar, by its statements that, if you have dollars invested in Treasury bonds or in US banks, we can grab them. And that’s how we can control the world.

Well, if you’re going to tell the world that, this is not a way – everybody had thought of the dollar as being something nonpolitical and objective, and they were closing their eyes to the fact that holding dollars is a loan to the US government, that basically is debt that is created by America’s military policy and military spending abroad.

So all of a sudden they realized the whole dollarized financial system is an extension of the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex.

And they’re becoming more and more bossy. We’ve seen what they’ve just done to Europe. What if America would do to us in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries what they just did to Germany, and to England, and to their friends, and to Russia and Venezuela?

We don’t want, we can’t afford to take the risk of depending on America.

So to use Putin’s phrase, America is no longer agreement capable. That means that it’s no longer safe as an investment place.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2022 22:19 utc | 51

51 Cont'd--

Since I was wrongly criticized for being correct about Big Oil and others exerting their Monopolistic Market pricing power, here's Hudson's brief remark about that from the interview:

"And also, under the Biden administration and certainly the Trump administration, there has been no enforcement of monopoly prices.

"So essentially companies have been using their monopoly power to charge whatever they want [which has greatly contributed to rising inflation]."

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2022 22:24 utc | 52

Yesterday unintentionally stumbled onto a freaking Indian or China bashing website.... Basically he was ranting how evil's China encircling INDIA with BRI Belt and Road Initiative.. Formerly known as One Belt One Road or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 countries and international organizations)

Many choke points and members... surround INDIA.. Strait of Malacca, India Ocean... the Quad, with Australia... UK Japan, Korea, 5Eyes, Russia and more...

blurs at first I was stoopid what the Freaking Indian ranting.... soon my 55watt lamp lite up.... he was accusing China... doing exactly. What the USA doing to both Russia and China...

Massing US bases surrounding Russia with NATO and EU.... the same US bases in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia... and more..

How India is TRAPPING China with its Military STRATEGY? : Geopolitical Case study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vz7Ym82_4

Think School main website...

https://www.youtube.com/c/ThinkSchool/videos

from an old overseas Chinese Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Posted by: JC | Sep 11 2022 22:38 utc | 53

Since the topic of the green agendas was touched here shortly i wanted to ask if there is a qualified person available.

Die achsedesguten, a german (alternative) newspaper recently had a couple of articles regarding wind turbines. The claim is that huge windparks at the coastlines would redirect and weaken windflow thereby leading to less clouds and rainfall in the (german) heartland resulting in drowds.

Since the theory sounds plausible to me (law of conservation of energy, obvious influence on airflows etc) i am not sure what to think about it. The articles took in account that wind direction on the ground may be different from higher altitudes but stated correlation.

Do we have a barfly with a qualified opinion in here?

Posted by: Orgel | Sep 11 2022 22:38 utc | 54

Republicofscotland | Sep 11 2022 14:14 utc | 6
With the death of the Lizard Queen, it’s interesting to see the media now creating the narrative around charlie and william.
In Oz on Sunday, twitter had #FFS trending, as people responded with nausea at the obsequious obsessive coverage.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 11 2022 23:06 utc | 55

Orgel @54--

The air masses that cause precipitation rise thousands of feet into the atmosphere while wind turbines capture wind energy at the very base level elevations above ground. Those elevations cannot affect the massive air movements above them; indeed, they merely harvest some of the external energy. Yes, that harvesting does disturb the air flows just above ground level for short distances, but the small amounts of turbulence created abates and wind flow returns to normal. Any good Physical Geography textbook will describe how wind and rain are created by Earth's physical forces. Many are available in PDF format to freely download. As I've explained here over the years, weather and climate result from physical forces which are being altered. Understand the physics and you can understand how the system functions.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2022 23:10 utc | 56

"Annie died the other day..."

Barbara was in no conceivable way an "Annie"--

But I do endorse the prescription:

"Saints and Satyrs go your way,
Youths and maidens, let us pray."

Barbara Ehrehnreich did "the good work" that every journalist aspires to. She was the "real McCoy", so to speak.

The world is worse off without her--and most conspicuously, the US/uk world, where her voice was most needed.

Yo, hey: Nemesis Calling, et al phantom accounts: I don't much care what y'all think about this!

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Sep 11 2022 23:26 utc | 57

At least a month and a half ago, someone highly recommended Grant by Ron Chernow. I've read about 1/3 of the book and am enjoying it even more than Chernow's biographies of Washington and Hamilton. So, to that MoA poster, thanks.

Posted by: David Levin | Sep 11 2022 23:38 utc | 58

Pacifica_Advocate @57--

I used Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On Getting By in America as a teaching tool. As with all good muckraking journalists, she'll be missed by those who used what she unearthed to better society.

//////

Alastair Crooke's al-Mayadeen column is now out, "Gleichschaltung: 'We don’t care what you think: Everything will be regulated or capped to death'", which explores the utter inanity of EU/G-7 price cap on Russian hydrocarbons. And yet it's not actually an EU idea but comes from the #1 Global Plunderer:

"A scheme that is essentially the brain child of US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen."

Crooke details why the following is correct. Do take note of one parasite eagerly awaiting further opportunities to game the system:

"‘Simple to implement’? This is where laughter breaks out: Why? Because, as even Goldman Sachs wrote on Friday, nothing Europe does will lead to lower prices, and if anything will send prices much higher -- suggesting that Europe's ‘historic’ plans work in theory, and collapse in practice."

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 11 2022 23:52 utc | 59

As soon as I heard the Lizard Queen (aka Lizzy) has passed away, I bemoaned the expected month long (?) wall to wall "news" about the 'Royals'. Most annoyingly, and quite tellingly, this one specific monarchy apparently must get wall to wall coverage in every country. Putty Putt won the race to congratulate Charles "I want to be your tampon" III king of Wankeristan and assorted conquered lands and colonies. President Joe "what's so satanic about my last public appearance" Biden ordered the American Colony to lower the flag to half-staff.

Who runs Barter Town?

Posted by: madmax | Sep 12 2022 0:47 utc | 60

On May 10, in the Queen’s address at the opening ceremony of the British Parliament, Elizabeth also mentioned Ukraine.
“In these challenging times, my government will play a leading role in protecting democracy and freedom around the world, including continuing to support the people of Ukraine,” the Queen said in a statement.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 11 2022 22:14 utc | 50

Please note:
Although the Queen reads the Speech, it is written by the government. It contains an outline of its policies and proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session.
https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/occasions/stateopening/

The same protocol applies when she (or the Governor General) has opened the parliaments in other commonwealth "constitutional monarchies" countries from time to time.

As to the colour of flowers. Well given she was the head of state of the UK, she's highly unlikely to be going around with red white and blue flowers or cheering on Putin's government of the day now is she?

No matter which Party or PM is in power in the UK / Commonwealth of nations the Sovereign never publicly goes against the Govt of the day ... it's Protocol, it's how the "system" operates.

It's not a "bug" it's a "feature". Cheers

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 12 2022 0:48 utc | 61

when will the people stop giving their approval to the investiture w/priestly authority that makes such a drag queen as Elizabeth possible? all the ceremony and funny hats and fancy music. and security theater. maybe if i stop cheering...

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Sep 11 2022 15:45 utc | 18

The British Monarchy is a profitable tourist attraction, like Disney. The UK and to a lesser extent, US media promote it for free. No one forces anyone to go or even to pay any attention to it.

I recall the description in a novel within a novel by Martin Amis, maybe 20 years ago, where the author made the entire nation of England into a theme park. A fitting end to the Empire.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 12 2022 0:50 utc | 62

David Levin@58
Don't miss Mark Twain's Grant.
Here is wikipedia and the story is so old that wiki sticks to the facts:

"The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant is an autobiography by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, focused mainly on his military career during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, and completed as he was dying of throat cancer in 1885. The two-volume set was published by Mark Twain shortly after Grant's death.

"Twain created a unique marketing system designed to reach millions of veterans with a patriotic appeal just as Grant's death was being mourned. Ten thousand agents canvassed the North, following a script that Twain had devised; many were veterans who dressed in their old uniforms. They sold 350,000 two-volume sets at prices from $3.50 to $12, depending on the binding (roughly $110 to $360 in 2021). Each copy contained what looked like a handwritten note from Grant himself. In the end, Grant's widow, Julia, received about $450,000 ($13,571,670 in 2021), suggesting a gross royalty before expenses of about 30%.[1][2]

"The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant has been highly regarded by the general public, military historians,[3] and literary critics.[4] Positive attention is often directed toward Grant's prose, which has been praised as shrewd, intelligent, and effective. He portrayed himself in the persona of the honorable Western hero, whose strength lies in his honesty and straightforwardness. He candidly depicts his battles against both the external Confederates and his internal Army foes.[5].."

Posted by: bevin | Sep 12 2022 0:58 utc | 63

We should all be considered equal, and never "some are more equal than others", as therein lies the slippery slope to pogroms, lynchings, and worse.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Sep 11 2022 17:20 utc | 29

Except from DNA and circumstances/location of birth, none of us except twins are equal. Why should we be "considered" so?

If you can't navigate slippery slopes, stay off of them.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 12 2022 1:03 utc | 64

Covid by numbers. Would "our" media lie to us?

COVID-19: China’s death toll puts US to shame but the western centric media tell a different story

By John V. Walsh
https://johnmenadue.com/covid-19-chinas-death-toll-puts-us-to-shame/

Posted by: Paul GV | Sep 12 2022 1:11 utc | 65

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 12 2022 0:48 utc | 61

which has nothing to do with what i wrote. .
i'm responding to the deification of this shallow figurehead.
like Elvis and Jesus. it's beyond farcical.
cheerio.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 12 2022 1:52 utc | 66

Further to my comment posted on another thread re:Khodorkovsky sponsoring the rumours of overthrow at the Kremlin - and my tongue-in-cheek comment that maybe the new monarch has given him incentive to leave London (on tge “Ukraine -Russia explains” thread), I’d like to add this.

He is quoted in this article on the death of Gorbachev:
“The main thing that Gorbachev, personally, did for me, personally, was at our first meeting he washed away forever my fear in front of the throne. … And that changed my life.”

Of course, he doesn’t specify which throne and who’s seated on it.

https://www.rferl.org/a/gorbachev-legacy-russians-divided/32014442.html

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Sep 12 2022 2:08 utc | 67

Ukie democracy was predicted and overthrown by the Washington gang of which Viktoria Nuland was a part. Then, as an American politician, Nuland was able to appoint a person from the extreme right, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, as prime minister, in one of Russia’s brother countries, Ukraine. The road to war can hardly be laid out more clearly than that. Yatsenyuk, in turn, appointed several Nazis to his government.

But the economic and moral support that the USA served never went to fighting undemocratic oligarchs, but to fanning Nazi-style racist sentiments against the Russian population and other minorities who liked to be called “Untermenschen” and who were considered clearly different from the Germanic race. This form of mental rot was found mainly in the western parts of the country. “The Russians are so stupid that they don’t understand why we want to kill them.” In these circles, they were not ashamed of similar vomiting.

Posted by: Pobeda  | Sep 12 2022 2:10 utc | 68

Today for the Russian Orthodox, many of whom celebrate feasts according to the Old Calendar as does Russia, and I assume also some of the Orthodox in Ukraine (not certain about the newer Ukrainian Orthodox we have discussed here) today is the feast of the death of John the Baptist, called in our church the Forerunner.

There are a number of Scriptural passages that concern the feast, and it being Sunday there is an Epistle passage and then one from the Gospel of Matthew. When I read them this morning, it was the Epistle that struck me, just the first verse of that short ending to the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians:

"...Be watchful, stand firm in your faith,
be courageous, be strong. Let all that you
do be done in love..."

My calendar, which is issued at the beginning of the year, has a listing for various saints of the day, and some special notations - one I have never noticed before. On this day the notation reads "Commemoration of all Orthodox soldiers killed on the field of battle."

At this significant point,( sorry to be OT here but this doesn't fit with ideas about the strategic points of the Special Military Operation,) I am seeing how it must have felt for a tiny band of followers when the cousin of their leader was brutally slain, and also how it might have felt for a wanderer like Paul when the flock wasn't much larger and he was writing to those Greek companions -- dark times both of those.

"Let all that you do be done in love."

Posted by: juliania | Sep 12 2022 2:22 utc | 69

Here’s a tweet to send anyone spewing outrage at the lights going out in Ukraine.
Add. Russia has been conducting this military campaign for 6 months…..
Serbia:

https://twitter.com/JovanaXYZ/status/1569043825120759808

3 May 1999 Nato's new weapon was dropped on 5 #power plants across #Serbia.
Power was cut almost instantly across 70% of the country, blanking out military computers and radars and communications systems.
Serbian civilians were ordered yesterday to conserve water and power ...

24 May 1999 "NATO forces this time struck at Serbia's 5 major power-transmission stations with high-explosive munitions, causing damage that could take weeks to repair.. shut off power to about 80 percent of Serbia." #blackout

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 12 2022 2:33 utc | 70

Posted by: waynorinorway | Sep 11 2022 19:12 utc | 34

Thank you, waynorinorway! Love it!

Posted by: juliania | Sep 12 2022 3:17 utc | 71

Barflies there is a must read in the other issues posted by b

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/germanys-energy-suicide-an-autopsy/

Pepe Escobar writes in UNZ on the rigged EU energy market. Yes its the same big bank hit team. The link is up top and Pepe links to William Engdahl at Global Research.ca

https://www.globalresearch.ca/europe-energy-armageddon-from-berlin-brussels-not-moscow/5792005

So I too a peek at which countries produce solar modules and poked out this gem:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/668749/regional-distribution-of-solar-pv-module-manufacturing/

Yes you guessed it: China 70%, next, Vietnam 8%

No mention of Germany.... Yesterday the idiot German minister Habek was advocating flogging China for slave labor camps and every other insult he could assemble in his pea brain. He is advocating BDS against China.

Why is this relevant? Baerbok insists that Germany must turn off the NPP's and go all out for solar and wind. This fanatical supuku of the German 'government' is appalling. And all for the current Dutch merchants of venice. But then in the 1600's the Venetians decentralised to Amsterdam and London didn't they.

Same global cabal, same tricks, same outcomes - permanent war and chaos.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 12 2022 3:53 utc | 72

The Russian talk of preserving their soldiers is IMO based on their lack of troops. No military leader wants to throw the lives of their men away for fun. However if you want to win, men will die. And sometimes in large numbers. The Ukrainians have significant results for their dead and are ready for more. Russia is now fighting a defensive battle.

Do anyone think the Russian army in Ukraine today can concentrate 20-30,000 men in a small section of the front and breakthrough like the Ukrainians did?
The manpower shortage is telling. Only mobilization of conscripts will change that else Russia will lose. And the sacrifice of the Russian soldiers will have been for nothing.

Posted by: Poul | Sep 12 2022 5:04 utc | 73

@ JC | 53

Yes, that Indian think school guy is over the top. Too bad we can't see PR Chinese equivalents on Youtube.....

Still, China has developed and long leased Pakistan's Gwadar port, Sri Lanka's Hambanthota port and Myanmar's Kyaukpyu port.

Did India do similar in Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines or Korea?

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 12 2022 5:10 utc | 74

Several months ago, the Russian government declared it had obtained hard evidence that a number of Ukrainian biolabs funded by America had spent years producing illegal biological warfare weapons for planned use against Russia. Both Glenn Greenwald and Tucker Carlson noted that the statements made by Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland in her Congressional Testimony seemed to confirm the reality of these remarkable Russian claims. But virtually every other mainstream Western journalist either ignored this explosive issue or ridiculed the Russian charges.

Then a few weeks ago, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, held a public briefing at which he expanded on those accusations, suggesting that the Covid virus had been created by America as an illegal bioweapon and deliberately released in an attack. The disease soon spread worldwide, killing some 18 million people, including many hundreds of thousands of Russians and more than a million Americans, while disrupting the lives of many billions. If that Russian charge were substantiated, such an Covid biowarfare attack would rank as one of the most important events in the history of the world, probably only exceeded in significance by the two world wars.

Yet none of those shocking claims by a top Russian general were ever reported in the American media, and when the Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted them out, its account was suspended by Twitter for distributing “false information.” Apparently, our response to extremely disturbing information is to censor it, under the Ostrich-like principle that “what we don’t know can’t hurt us.”

But such total media suppression merely prevents the American public—and American elected officials and policy-makers—from obtaining an accurate knowledge of the world, and this is an extremely dangerous situation. Over the years, I’ve often characterized America as a regime run by its Ministry of Propaganda, and last month I emphasized the importance of dethroning America’s reigning Lords of Illusion.

UNZREVIEW

Posted by: ld | Sep 12 2022 5:45 utc | 75

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 12 2022 1:03 utc | 64

So, what do you suggest from your throne, dear wunderleader? More violence? More hatred? It seems to be really working out for humanity so far.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Sep 12 2022 5:58 utc | 76

Poul | Sep 12 2022 5:04 utc | 77
>…”The Ukrainians have significant results for their dead…”
No.
>…”are ready for more”.
Tragically. Yes.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 12 2022 5:59 utc | 77

Posted by: David Levin | Sep 12 2022 2:44 utc | 72

"These inflated counts became part of the rationale for issuing Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the so-called vaccines."

Another portion was no EUA's, if there's any other known therapies for treating the disease. The medical community wasn't yet aware of ivermectin's amazing properties, but they were aware of hydrochoriquine, or hcq's effectiveness against Covid in conjunction with other therapeutics, so their eua proclamations didn't follow us law, whatsoever.

Presently the mayor of Washington DC is requiring clot shot mandates for school children aged 12 to 15 years and resistors will be deemed truant and their parents' threatened with losing their children to child services.

This sound to you like the land of the free?

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Sep 12 2022 6:09 utc | 78

Timely article by Caitlin Johnstone :

Mainstream culture is one giant psyop geared toward keeping people fueling the oppression machine. Not because of some grand conspiracy (though there’s plenty of that too), but because the manufacturers of culture have a vested interest in preserving our unwholesome status quo. The media are owned by plutocrats who have an interest in making sure everything they’re putting out sustains the imperial status quo upon which their kingdoms are built. The Pentagon has more influence over Hollywood than people like you or I ever will.

Things get elevated to mainstream levels of attention and influence by the people with the wealth and power to elevate them, and they’re always going to elevate things which serve their interests by manufacturing consent for the status quo their wealth and power are premised upon, not things which harm their interests like material that expands class consciousness or highlights the depravity of the US-centralized empire.

So mainstream culture presents a fraudulent image of reality. It’s written into the code of everything that’s mass produced — not just in Prager University lectures on the evils of socialism or propagandistic news stories about weapons of mass destruction, but in sitcoms, in advertisements, in clothing brands, in pop music, in textbooks, in trends. When it’s not constant messaging that capitalism is totally working and the world is ordered in a more or less sane and truth-based way, it’s manipulations designed to shape our values and measures of self-worth to make us into better gear-turners.

If you’re noticing this ubiquitous fraudulence, it’s not because you’re becoming distant from the rest of society, it’s because you’re becoming more intimate with it. You’re getting in real close, so close you can see the nuts and bolts of it, see how the sausage is made.

see https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/08/our-entire-civilization-is-fake-and-stupid/

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 12 2022 7:19 utc | 79

Some interesting news:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/indonesia-considers-importing-russian-oil-to-offset-rising-energy-costs/ar-AA11IDeT?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=47a1e839e30d4219887cef9bad2561d1

When asked if Indonesia is eyeing off Russian oil supplies, the Indonesian President said "We always monitor all options. If there is the country and they give a better price, of course"

Asked how this could be justified, he gave the only sensible answer a real leader can give: "The government has a duty to find various sources to meet the energy needs of its people."

Fancy that.

Annalena Baerbock, please take note. Olaf Scholz, that's what "leadership" is supposed to be about.

I have a suspicion - don't know from where - that poor ol' Joko Widodo's phone is currently running white-hot from all the incandescent rage that is being directed towards him from Blinky-Bill Blinken and Cookies Nuland.

After all, who does he think he is?

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 12 2022 13:26 utc | 80

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 12 2022 5:10 utc | 74

Millions THANKS Antonym China's No. 1 hater... I was just about giving up on MoA. I'll stay! ..... Hope b is watching. Thank You!

While Ukraine recent Russia setback and powerplants destructions... Here in ASEAN... Myanmar News just exploded, Malaysians foreign minister raised warning Myanmar civil right issue...

Brian Berletic posted vid (12 days earlier) on Myanmar...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaOd7UaJ5FY

suggestions trusted Vloggers: Noel Lee, Singaporean now in Shenzhen, Angelo Giuliano: Italian living in HK...

Posted by: JC | Sep 12 2022 13:41 utc | 81

@Lex #41
Not entirely true in either direction.
The issue with coal or natural gas isn't just the ramp-up time; it is that the emissions profile of either during ramp-up and ramp-down is quite bad. Note that emissions profile and maximum efficiency are directly linked, so ramp-up and ramp-down also decreases power output per unit fuel.

Old coal plants are furthermore not designed for ramp-up/ramp-down; it is quite apparent now that the turbines in these plants literally deform if they stop spinning. The only reason natural gas plants don't have this problem is that they tend to be newer - and at least some were designed for rapid spin-up/ramp-down.
The efficiency issue still remains regardless.

One other major problem for natural gas: it is extremely difficult to store.

Europeans better pray for a warm winter because the storage in Western Europe was designed to offset unusually cold winters, not replace incoming flow completely. Past polar vortexes in the US NorthEast region would see natural gas prices jump to over $200/mcf = $7000+/mcm; imagine what the prices could be if European prices are over $1000/mcm in summer...

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 13:56 utc | 82

And in the spirit of the previous post:

If empty toilet paper shelves are a sign of public panic (see: COVID lockdowns, hurricanes etc) - what is being said when toilet paper companies go out of business?

Wave of German businesses going into bankruptcy starting

[via Google Translate] The medium-sized company Hakle from Düsseldorf has applied for insolvency proceedings under self-administration. Hakle justifies the impending insolvency with the increased energy costs. The traditional company has been producing toilet paper for almost a hundred years. During the corona pandemic, the roles were in high demand. But now the energy-intensive paper industry can no longer cover its costs due to the sharp rise in raw material and logistics costs. The company's statement reads: "The massively increased costs for material and energy procurement as well as transport could not be passed on to customers in the food retail and drugstore sectors to a sufficient extent in terms of time and economy" (source: BILD 05.09.22).

The article goes on to talk about steel plants shutting down, auto suppliers, shoe retailers

The Hamburg shoe retailer Görtz has also filed for insolvency (Tagesschau, September 6th, 2022). Görtz cited a drastic slump in sales as the reason. Görtz was already suffering from a drop in sales due to the corona pandemic. Due to the energy crisis, many customers are now holding back and saving to be able to pay their heating costs in winter.

and bakeries

Increased raw materials and the sharp rise in energy prices are causing massive problems for bakeries. The financial pressure was already too high for many and therefore had to close. According to the industry, the energy crisis is now worse for bakeries than the corona pandemic. "As a small baker, we have the problem that we naturally have to adjust our prices to the raw material and energy prices, which of course puts a strain on the customers, even if they are a little short on cash," says an affected baker from Heilbronn.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 14:04 utc | 83

@Kabobyak #43
Dr. Michael Hudson said something interesting in his latest interview at Multipolarista Michael Hudson on Multipolarista

Dr. Hudson said that Allende was nothing like a true reformer - specifically that he was a neoliberal economist type.

Or in other words: Pinochet and Allende weren't bad vs. good, but more like Godzilla vs. Mothra.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 14:07 utc | 84

Posted by: aye, myself & me | Sep 12 2022 6:09 utc | 78

Thanks for adding that information. I hope that your comment doesn't meet the fate that mine did. I'm not sure in what way mine was deemed objectionable: it wasn't even the first comment on this thread to address COVID death counts.

Posted by: David Levin | Sep 12 2022 14:22 utc | 85

@Orgel #54
@karlof1 #56

Orgel said

The claim is that huge windparks at the coastlines would redirect and weaken windflow thereby leading to less clouds and rainfall in the (german) heartland resulting in drowds.

I have actually looked into this.

Wind along seashores is formed primarily by the air/land evaporation cycle: moist air from the sun heating water of ocean/lakes/rivers, gets drawn inland by dry, hot air rising over large land. This is why breezes on coastlines are pretty much always from the water to the land. In SF - the only time it gets hot is a 1-2 week period in spring and also fall when this flow interrupts.

In this ongoing sea-land air movement process, the moisture from the moist air falls out as it heats up and ascends over land. This is the rain.

So: can windmills break this process? No. The physics are that the hot air rising over land is still going to form low pressure, which in turn lead to moist air being drawn inland.

Will the windmills affect this process? Possible, even very possible but short term: any effect would likely not be to reduce rainfall per se but to change where it falls. The most likely outcome is regions far inland, that tend to be dryer due to distance from the sources of moist air, are going to get more dry but regions closer to the coastlines are going to get wetter.

From this point it gets hazier: does the change in location of rainfall (hence change in location where the rising air creates low pressure zones into which the moist air "falls") actually change the overall volume of air moving?

Normally, a mountain range serves as a barrier: the height increase as air flows over the mountain range strips out the moisture - which is why desert regions are always on the land side of a mountain range.

Windmills definitely don't change the height, but the normal vertical air circulation cells which said moist air passes through as it flows inland toward the low pressure cells - would less moist air get deep inland, thus changing air pressure and affecting overall energy flow?

Think of this as a sprinkler problem. A normal sprinkler is operated by water pressure from the spigot pushing water through all the sprinklers. In this case, it doesn't matter if the sprinklers near the spigot put out more water so long as the overall water flow isn't higher than the spigot water pressure.

However, our coastal evapo-transpiration model is driven by the actual net sprinkler flow of water as opposed the spigot. Does the "water pressure demand" on the spigot change if the overall water flow changes from its existing pattern to one where more of it flows out of the sprinklers nearest the spigot?

We will find out.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 14:32 utc | 86

Light at the end of the tunnel for San Francisco commercial real estate: it is a bullet train

SF braces for epic commercial real estate crash

There’s currently more than 25 million square feet of commercial space available for lease or sublease in the city, the equivalent of about 35 Transamerica Pyramids sitting empty.

...

A report published in November by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) calculated that San Francisco could see a short-term decline in commercial property values of up to 43%, the highest projected in the study. [New York was 2nd at 40% decline]

...

The city’s budget office expects property tax revenues to continue to grow. But Howard Chernick, an economics professor at Hunter College and co-author of the report that forecast an up to 43% decline in SF’s property values, paints a much worse picture: His team sees a decline of up to 15% in property tax collections amounting to a roughly 4% drop in total revenues.

To put the above numbers in perspective:

Wolf Street commercial real estate article

CBRE has just published the 2nd quarter results for San Francisco’s office market. Almost 29% of the city’s office space—about 25 million square feet—is now available. Vacancies increased by 362,000 feet in the 2nd quarter, and about 550,000 feet of brand-new office space is coming on-line soon. In short, the vacancy rate is climbing toward a cloud-obscured peak. One industry executive wryly observed, “We’re not overbuilt, we’re under-demanded.”

Wolfstreet has also been at the forefront documenting how the large tech companies had been hoarding unused commercial real estate, but that this has now gone into double reverse.

As I live in SF, I can say that I have never seen so many vacancies. There are blocks where the businesses churn annually like perennial flowers: the Market to Sacramento section of Kearney, for example.

But there are entire swathes now in previously stable areas where the empty storefronts outnumber the operating businesses. The lack of occupants noted in the SF Standard article, doesn't surprise me either.

Low commercial occupancy = less people living in SF and less people commuting to SF for work.
Less people = less stores and restaurants.
Less stores and restaurants = less "city appeal".
And so the cycle continues.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 14:51 utc | 87

And last: a two-fer on our odd Western elite worldviews:

The Narrative Is Coming Apart - Patrick Lawrence

Interesting that Mardini published in The National Interest, the realist’s house journal, which counts among its adversaries “liberal hawks and neoconservatives” who “disparage realism as a moribund doctrine wholly inimical to American idealism.” The current edition features none other than Henry K. on its cover.

It has been many years since I have seen any point in traditional distinctions between “left” and “right” in American politics. Nothing remains of the former, and you can’t talk about “the right” if everyone resides at that end of the garden.

The Submissive Void - John Pilger on Scheerpost

In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer.

She told me that the “patriotic messages” of her films were dependent not on “orders from above” but on what she called the “submissive void” of the German public.

Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? I asked. “Yes, especially them,” she said.

I think of this as I look around at the propaganda now consuming Western societies.

Submissive void - I am going to use that from now on - especially for the liberal, educated bourgeoisie.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 15:00 utc | 88

Folks... stock up pop corns for two major events of the year...

Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin will meet in 22nd Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan and again both plan to attend the Group of 20 summit in Bali, November, Indonesian according to president Joko Widodo....

Two other MF attending... Bali G20... Biden and Australia PM Anthony Albanese... both either begging or threatening PRC Xin Jinping..

Questions.... will Xin Jinping meet Albanese and/or Biden on the sidelines?

Posted by: JC | Sep 12 2022 15:09 utc | 89

I thought I was done for today because email NEVER yields anything of value...I was wrong

Working Harder and Smarter

First up: if energy is a proxy for progress - how are we doing?

After nearly two centuries of fitting the curve, per capita energy usage fell off a cliff in the 1970s and then flatlined. If you have your capital-E Environmentalist hat on, that might be cause for celebration. If you have your progress hat on, it might be cause for despair.

Hrm not so well.

Next: Where is my Flying Car? Or why some Sci Fi predictions are shit

It’s striking. What it highlights is that sci-fi writers’ predictions about things that require 10 kilowatts (kW) or less of energy had a good shot of coming true – with a cluster at 100% prediction fulfillment, and even a couple at 200% prediction fulfillment – but that none of their predictions that would have required 100kw or more of energy came true.

And lastly: per capita energy use by country

Now consider this as a proxy for energy demand vs. supply vs. ability to pay today.

The countries on the right - they have enormous latent demand but zero ability to pay.

The countries on the left - they have huge demand relative to their populations, but their ability to pay has fallen from 60%+ of world GDP in 1991 to 30% of world GDP today.

The countries in the middle? BRICS, EAEU, SCO, etc. A very large part of that 30% shift in world GDP has occurred there. The 3 billion+ of these countries is now competing with the 800 million of the 1st world for the same energy, commodity, food, every other pot your can think of.
It is 3-4 families from this group vs. 1 family in the 1st world.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 12 2022 15:23 utc | 90

It saddens me that I haven't even heard of Barbara Ehrenreich (but I knew who queen Elizabeth II was).
She lived up to her family name - her life was truly a realm of honour.

----------
C1ue, thank you! I learn a lot from your posts

Posted by: glupi | Sep 12 2022 16:15 utc | 91

@ JC | 81

Which people can't distinguish between all Chinese and the CCP members or between the CCP and Xi Jinping?

Indians can, but Chinese origin groupies can't.

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 12 2022 16:40 utc | 92

An Answer to; DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 12 2022 14:05 utc | 138
in the thread on Ukraine. (AS OT to that thread)
****

It is true that a simplified vocabulary and a limited space in which to read or write, make the use of short semantically loaded words a common occurrence.

Various small telephones and reduced screens (plus the small size of keyboards) transform the user into a myopic creature with two opposable thumbs to write with, while lying around slumped in their cavernous hideouts (Safe-spaces).

At this point in time "President" Putin has already been reduced to simply a "Putin" (without personal pronoun). Which, as you say, becomes a key for a pavlovian reaction in the animal at the keyboard. Semantically previously identified with "bad" by the MSM, saying "Putin" has been reduced to soliciting a reaction, not the person.

In this we are in complete agreement.
***

PS. (This next part you can ignore if you want to;)
To counteract, we could try to invent a new personal pronoun - "super...", "SuperPutin" (joined), which emphasise quality not function. (as in Super Mario, SuperMan, SuperWoman, but "SuperIt" doesn't have the same muscular feeling.) The idea of a popular adjunction would fit in with the loss of trust in the official/word "President". But as it would be very difficult to change this nowadays, "SuperPutin" creates a new form, untrammelled by MSM efforts to denigrate just one person.

Luckily "SuperBareback" or "SuperVanderLeyen" do not have the repetion of the "U" which makes "SuperPutin" so easily memorizeable. (SuperTruss is a horrible deviation from purity, whereas "TrussFluff" has possibilities)
****

I was trying to work out why there are so many Woke slaves, but simplification into two primary divisions (Good-bad), continuous repetition of "common held attitudes" as gospel truth, not allowing alternatives (reinforcement by personally negating the alternatives when expressed) and implicitly or overtly belonging to "something" superior, - all lead to the person "becoming" a superior being as well. Identification with the mass, and therefore being a "goodie" as well.

This works in "secret societies" (Masons and Black Hand gangs), Universities and religious orders. etc.etc. All use a methodology that has been tried and tested for ages past.

We should really try to see how many times (and where), "President" Zelensky is used, but not "President" Putin. "President" Biden will be used more and more as the US elections approach.

Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 12 2022 16:59 utc | 93

i'd seen this long ago and forgot about until now, but there are photos of a very young queen doing "sieg heils" with her family.

https://time.com/3963542/queen-elizabeth-nazi-salute/

heilarious.

Posted by: the pair | Sep 12 2022 17:15 utc | 94

@c1ue

Two years ago I lived in Oaxaca on a high hill in the middle of a valley about a mile from the coast whose surf I could hear but not see pounding below. The valley in which this hill stood led far away to a large mountain range looming above in the distance. Every afternoon onshore breezes filled with ocean humidity would rush in, luckily because of our hilltop location more refreshing than oppressive. This would happen every day like clockwork though of course some days the breezes were fresher than others. Also like clockwork every day were the offshore breezes which started around midnight formed by cooler mountain airs from high altitudes (about 10,000 feet) cascading down along the descending landscape until reaching the surf pounding below our hilltop home.

In the absence of such mountains have no doubt that the offshore breeze quotient would have been considerably less and certainly not every day. But with those high mountains nearby, it was a most welcome phenomenon making our house by far the most comfortable one in the entire region. Which is why the rental contract, once expired, was not renewed and a well connected (possibly narco-leader) businessman managed to get correct ownership papers drafted (no small thing in that state due to conflicting property laws and customs) and turfed us out. We then moved a much different part of the country but I shall never forget the deep pleasure we derived every night from the cool breezes wafting down from those majestic mountain ranges at the head of the extended intervale in the middle of which our hilltop home was so auspiciously perched.

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 12 2022 17:22 utc | 95

Posted by: Antonym | Sep 12 2022 16:40 utc | 91

Think School.... CCP and Socialism with Chinese characteristics.. CPC

How America's Strategy built the GREATEST ARMY mankind has ever seen? : Geopolitical case study

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

Posted by: JC | Sep 12 2022 18:18 utc | 96

"Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin TV show, September 11, 2022" actually has an English transcript, so I'll just provide an excerpt for all the FUDsters to try and overturn:

Question: People feel worried. Where, in your opinion, is the world heading? Where are all of us going?

Sergey Lavrov: You are asking philosophical questions right from the start. I think speakers at the Eastern Economic Forum will have a lot to say on this subject in addition to what has already been said by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. We have provided a reliable analysis and the overwhelming majority of world countries share it. Far from all of them are able to say so in public, but we feel their understanding and support in contacts with them.

Where is the world heading? I think it is heading towards a fairer, multipolar world order. The West is frantically attempting, by hook or by crook, to preserve and strengthen its domination. NATO has announced its global ambitions, officially declaring the “Indo-Pacific region” a zone of its responsibility. But far from all are happy with this.

The Americans and their allies are attempting to split decades-old multilateral entities based on mutual respect, consensus, and compromises, such as ASEAN. The West is openly seeking to split this association in order to include at least part of its members in a military political bloc, AUKUS, which they have established. Countries in the region are increasingly discontent with this high-handed, brazen policy.

Our consistent position has never changed. We are in favour of an equitable dialogue and resolution of all problems based on a balance of interests of all world states. This is fully in accord with a key principle of the UN Charter, which commands respect for the sovereign equality of states – large, medium-sized, small, whatever. The truth is on our side and it will make its way. It is not likely to be precipitous, this process will take a certain historical epoch. But it is irreversible.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 12 2022 18:56 utc | 97

C1ue @86--

Thanks for your reply. I live directly on the Oregon coast and our winds are driven by pressure gradients between geographical points that are very widely separated--hundreds if not thousands of miles. We don't have any offshore wind machines yet. My hope is for different wind harvesting applications to be used instead of those machines. I'm a much bigger advocate of wave generated power for our location. Winds are fickle, but the ocean never stops.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 12 2022 19:04 utc | 98

Winds are fickle, but the ocean never stops.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 12 2022 19:04 utc | 97

About twenty years ago, I think, Israel developed very simple wave generators which turn up-down movement into energy 24/7.
Very small wind generators in theory would work better but more conductive wiring is needed. Then each home could have dozens or hundreds of these things (could be 1-6" big each one) feeding into the wiring.

As it is, large power stations feed about 80% of their output into the delivery system - mainly wires - and only 20% or so into the end user - lightbulbs, fridges and suchlike.

Large wind generators are silly things which should be abandoned. I would like to know what Tesla did with his ether-generated black boxes which are rumoured to have been rigged to power automobiles. Maybe it's all fake news, but maybe not. The source of energy is space itself so no wires needed and no payments for usage either. Anathema to governments!

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 12 2022 19:18 utc | 99

Alternative news, and a bit weird if you ask me.

Greenhouses will save the climate, the planet, from deadly greenhouse gases (irony intended) resulting from long-distance transportation:

New York City’s Gotham Greens raises 300 million to expand its greenhouses (fwiw much of USA can harvest greens from the earth much of the time but I digress) Transportation = fossil fuels = climate destruction

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/12/gotham-greens-just-raised-310m-to-expand-its-greenhouses-nationwide

Someone in Canada’s North just produced 180 bananas on his property, thanks to a greenhouse-style canopy heated with an outdoor wood boiler… just sayin’… he found these two banana plant seedlings at his local garden centre and thought he’d try them (<- … ?)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fort-nelson-bananas-1.6577626

Gotham Greens, by the way, is not to be confused with Gotham Green Partners which is a private equity firm that invests in cannabis production worldwide
https://gothamgreenpartners.com/

New York Post reports on a new series.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/12/samantha-morton-serpent-queen-is-inspired-by-the-mob-fleabag/
Quote—
“The Serpent Queen” stars Morton as Catherine de Medici, a one-time queen of France and a member of the iconic Italian noble family.

The drama — which premiered Sept. 11 — follows Catherine in her teen years and into adulthood as she rises to power in the French court.

The “Minority Report” actress, 45, noted how her character is a mixture of mob bosses and the British dramedy “Fleabag.”
End quote—

It’s Toronto International Film Festival time. Brendan Fraser stars in “The Whale”

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/09/11/tiff-the-whale/

“The film’s title comes from the alternative title of Moby Dick. The classic novel about one man’s quest for vengeance against a whale, and how much that desire for vengeance ruins him and everyone around him. Charlie is also struck by a desire to seemingly eat until he dies…”

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Sep 12 2022 19:29 utc | 100