News & views not related to the Ukraine conflict …
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January 12, 2023
Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 2023-10
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@Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 14 2023 5:47 utc | 89
William of Ockham was smart enough to say not merely, “”Do not multiply entities” but “Do not multiply entities unnecessarily.” Sometimes, as Einstein noted, it is necessary to, “Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Ockham’s expression is a “razor”, a tool to trim the number of initial hypotheses evaluated, but does not eliminate other possibilities, or hypotheses. If two or more hypotheses provide indistinguishable outcomes, then you cannot decide which, if any, to prefer, except on æsthetic grounds (Corollary 3 to Hermit’s Law see my On Truth and Models. Personally, I prefer my Corollary 4, “When people bring you assertions or arguments, ask for evidence. Accept no substitutes.” I am offering you evidence, and you are responding with arguments.
In this case the article is loaded with proximal and compelling evidence.
Additionally other monitoring stations, reportedly including at least South Africa’s Republican Intelligence, also intercepted the NSA’s retransmission and had conspired with the CIA and MI5 to bring about the attack (Lynch Colum (2022-02-15). What Really Happened to Dag Hammarskjold’s Plane
More than 60 years after the deaths of the U.N. chief and his team, the victims’ families believe the answer may lie in Washington’s and London’s archives. Foreign Policy Magazine.
So, even if you remain in denial of a “statement against interest” (Van Risseghem’s alleged confession), and the statement that the airframe had been modified to provide additional fuel, and the evidence that a nearby airfield was available and used as a base for the attack on the UN aircraft, then you are still left having to find a compelling reason why somebody broadcast an attack on an aircraft shortly after Hammarskjöld died, preferably one which explains what compelling national interest prevents the US from releasing signal intercepts related to the murder of the UN team and air crew, despite having acknowledged possessing such information, or you will need to explain this separately (thereby possibly getting on the wrong side of Ockham). It may be worth noting that, at the time, the US and UK had been looting uranium from the Congo, rejected it’s independence from Belgium, opposed Dag Hammarskjöld’s position and mission, had been annoyed and embarrassed by his intervention suspending hostilities in Korea just before the US deployed nuclear weapons, and repeatedly attacked him* up to his death, which overnight transformed him into “the world’s greatest statesman” (Kennedy JF).
*[Hammarskjöld] was in a confident mood and seemed unaffected by the ordeal of the attacks on him at New York.(Dayal Rajeshwar (1976-10-21). Mission for Hammarskjold: The Congo Crisis, Princeton University Press. p168, referring to 4 January 1961.)
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 14 2023 19:12 utc | 101
@Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 14 2023 5:47 utc | 89
PS The UK and South Africa also refuse to release signals and human intelligence related to this incident, despite the UK acknowledging that they hold such information, and South African officers who have said such information exists in the archives.
PPS “You know what they say — no smoke without fire; nil combustibus pro fumo.” Michael Flanders
PPPS If the reference in the PPS evaded you, try looking up the contemporaneous “Profumo Affair”. You will be so glad you did.
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 14 2023 19:43 utc | 102
In case anyone doubted it, the evidence of Israeli involvement in Latin American death squads continues to grow:
“…The AUC paramilitaries are a fighting force that originally grew out of killers hired to protect drug-running operations and large landowners. They were organised into a cohesive force by Castao in 1997. It exists outside the law but often coordinates its actions with the Colombian military, in a way similar to the relationship of the Lebanese Phalange to the Israeli army throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
“According to a 1989 Colombian Secret Police intelligence report, apart from training Carlos Castao in 1983, Israeli trainers arrived in Colombia in 1987 to train him and other paramilitaries who would later make up the AUC.
“Fifty of the paramilitaries’ “best” students were then sent on scholarships to Israel for further training according to a Colombian police intelligence report, and the AUC became the most prominent paramilitary force in the hemisphere, with some 10,000-12,000 men in arms.
“The Colombian AUC paramilitaries are always in need of arms, and it should come as no surprise that some of their major suppliers are Israeli. Israeli arms dealers have long had a presence in next-door Panama and especially in Guatemala.
“In May of last year, GIRSA, an Israeli company associated with the Israeli Defence Forces and based in Guatemala was able to buy 3000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and 2.5 million rounds of ammunition that were then handed over to AUC paramilitaries in Colombia…
“Israel’s military relations with right-wing groups and regimes spans Latin America from Mexico to the southernmost tip of Chile, starting just a few years after the Israeli state came into existence.
“Since then, the list of countries Israel has supplied, trained and advised includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
“But it isn’t only the sales of planes, guns and weapons system deals that characterises the Israeli presence in Latin America.
“Where Israel has excelled is in advising, training and running intelligence and counter-insurgency operations in the Latin American “dirty war” civil conflicts of Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and now Colombia…”
One of the more interesting revelations is the enthusiasm that Israel showed for assisting the Argentinian military in its ‘dirty war’ on the left, in which thousands of young Argentinian Jews were disappeared, tortured and killed.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/israels-latin-american-trail-of-terror/
Posted by: bevin | Jan 14 2023 22:06 utc | 103
Paul Greenwood | Jan 13 2023 10:40 utc | 62
You are correct about the BNA. I do however find credibile the idea that the Manitoba act, is the act that solidified Canada as a country.
Without this act Canada would not be the country it is today. Incidently the GOV of Canada has only just recently owned up to its part of this act.
This has created a division within the Metis Community, as the Metis leadership is now culling its own so that the few will get bigger payouts.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jan 14 2023 23:02 utc | 104
“After Henry VIII the Monarch no longer issued Royal Assent IN PERSON. – so you are around 500 years out of date !”
@ You Dickhead | Jan 13 2023 10:40 utc | 62: Fuck off and die.
“The Canada Act 1982 received royal assent on March 29 in London, but it did not take full effect immediately. Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, was proclaimed in force by Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada on April 17 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Act_1982
Posted by: Laurence | Jan 15 2023 1:25 utc | 105
Below is a report from Xinhuanet about Covid in China….such an example for the world
BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — China has reported declining numbers of fever patients and critical COVID-19 cases nationwide as both peaks have passed less than a month after the country optimized its epidemic response in early December.
The country’s health authorities reported 59,938 COVID-related deaths in hospitals between Dec. 8, 2022 and Jan. 12, 2023.
“The number of critical cases in hospitals peaked on Jan. 5, totaling at 128,000 on the day,” said Jiao Yahui, head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under the National Health Commission (NHC), at a press conference held by the State Council joint COVID-19 prevention and control mechanism, on Saturday.
The number then began to drop with fluctuations, falling back to 105,000 on Jan. 12, Jiao said.
“At present, 75.3 percent of beds for severe cases are being used,” Jiao said, adding that the total number of intensive care beds is sufficient to meet the need for treatment.
PEAKS PASS
According to Jiao, the number of people seeking treatment at fever clinics peaked on Dec. 23, 2022 at about 2.87 million, and the figure has since been in continuous decline.
The number of fever patients fell to 477,000 on Jan. 12, a decrease of 83.3 percent from the peak daily figure.
Two weeks after the peak of fever patients, the number of critical cases in hospitals reached its peak, Jiao said.
The COVID-19 detection rate at fever clinics also continues to decline, peaking at 33.9 percent on Dec. 20, 2022. The number dropped to 10.8 percent on Jan. 12, Jiao added.
The proportion of positive COVID-19 tests among all hospital outpatients peaked at 5.7 percent on Dec. 19, 2022, and has since continued to drop, falling to 0.9 percent on Jan. 12, Jiao said.
People seeking treatment at general outpatient departments totaled nearly 9.14 million on Jan. 12, basically returning to the pre-epidemic level, Jiao said.
Regular medical services at hospitals are recovering gradually, Jiao said.
PROTECT THE VULNERABLE
According to the press conference, the majority of critical cases and COVID-related deaths are the elderly, most of whom have underlying issues.
The average age at the time of death was 80.3 years, said Jiao, adding that more than 90 percent of the deaths involved underlying issues, including cardiovascular diseases, advanced tumors, cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, metabolic diseases and renal insufficiency.
The average age of severe case patients is 75.5 years, said Jiao, adding that of the severe cases in hospitals on Jan. 12, 92.8 percent have severe underlying issues complicated with COVID-19 infection.
In the next step, efforts will be made in health monitoring and referral services for the elderly, pregnant women, children and patients with underlying issues, said Mi Feng, an NHC spokesperson, at the press conference.
Mi called for ensuring the smooth channel for transferring critical cases, treating patients with integrated Chinese and Western medicine and further boosting vaccination among the elderly.
He also underlined enhancing the capacity of medical services in rural areas.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 15 2023 6:03 utc | 106
Posted by: bevin | Jan 14 2023 22:06 utc | 103
appalling. supporting fascism for the sake of fascism, though I guess they got paid.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 6:13 utc | 107
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 14 2023 19:12 utc | 101
a lot of bad shit happened on JFK’s watch.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 6:15 utc | 108
Bad Deal Motors and Hermit
What Bad Deal Motors did, he did not read the text in Hermit’s link. When told so, he became nasty and started bs ing. If I had to guess, I would say he is an Indian. Conceding gracefully is not an indian forte.
However reading his posts wastes time. So I will not do that and skip his posts in the future.
Posted by: RealBeast | Jan 15 2023 6:21 utc | 109
migueljose @5
“I don’t like when they condemn Russia’s “invasion” in Ukraine. At that point I can’t tell if they are selling out or if they are making a tactical accomodation in order to survive the moment. But their actions on the ground reveal their long term strategic direction which appears to be away from the U.S. empire and toward the sane, multipolar world.”
I guess that’s the bottom line, but the possibility they are selling out is stomach churning. I’ve seen that happen over and over with US politicians. the risk reward ratio is different for Lula and Amlo, I know–they are far more likely to get whacked if they don’t go along.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 6:26 utc | 110
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 14 2023 19:12 utc | 101
Interesting. Nice 2%. Let us ignore the remaining 98% inconvenient truth of a controlled plane colliding with a reverse slope of a hill. On the western approach. Wheels down for landing. Then resubmit with a substitute 98% fantasy fiction.
First, you told me the plane was allegedly shot down by a light Fouga Magister jet trainer. Do not exceed Mach 0.82 speed limit.
For that furphy to fly? The plane would have required fuel to fly 2500 miles(with 25% reserves). A fuel load limit that is well in excess of the gross maximum permitted take-off limits. The maximum range with full fuel including tip tanks is 750 miles. Endurance not exceeding two hours forty minutes. The sole armament is two nose-mounted 7.62(or lebel 7.5) browning light machine guns at 1200 rpm max ammunition 200 rpg. Completely inadequate number of bullets to shoot down a DC6B 35-tonne plus four-engined passenger plane.
A MIG15bis cannon pack would be a dead easy kill. The downside the reverse slope wreckage spread would double in size radius. This is not reflected in photos from the crash scene.
On the night in question? The actual moon phase was a rising half-new moon. Indicating the plane was flying under cloud cover and overcast conditions. No visible ground resolution from half moonlight. This leads to.
Not activating a radio altimeter. A standard piece of equipment on all commercial passenger planes. The failure to activate such a landing aid is a breach of standard night landing procedures basic checklist 101. This leads to.
The recovered structural and body remains show zero bullet/shrapnel holes. Strike out super fail! Send that one off to the trash can of useless information. The steel prop damage is consistent with fully functional running engines at the time of impact.
To date, all evidence provided by you is not from any credible or even official government sources. Conjecture Troll internet 98% is lying source yes. All of which are too good to be true. The Guardian News articles are nothing but trash and complete rubbish. Or poorly written ‘z” grade “DJT” poop As the late TS Giesel would say.
None of the so-called fresh evidence supplied is admissible. Or relevant. In any air crash investigation board hearing. As this is completely inconsistent with the actual incident site physical evidence.
As to why the USSAF SIGINT aircraft was parked in Rhodesia. The Portuguese Diktator Salazar was running an extremely successful $2 dollar a day per man “kill all rebels” fest in Angola/Mozambique(1961-74). Salazar won that one by a long mile! Unlike all the USSA super fail to kill rebels slaying in lieu of all 35 mil civilian deaths plus in the suppression of revolting peon wars conducted since VJ day. Smarter Portuguese 90-day military conscripts versus the “Dumb&Dumber” career Yankees?
Sad all you have provided to date. Is a mere 2% fleshed out with lies and crappy totally unreliable information sources?
Finally zero explanation as to why the pilots flew well below the minimum Ndola approach level NOTAM. Or why they failed to activate the radio altimeter either? Which leads to.
What next a FLAK Panzer(whirlwind) parked in the heavily treed woods on the reverse slope? With trees high enough to obscure a plane flying at treetop level.
It is and will always remain “PILOT ERROR”
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 15 2023 7:28 utc | 111
Posted by: RealBeast | Jan 15 2023 6:21 utc | 109
Sadly the references were all complete duds and total fact-free dead ends. Since he used the “GUARDIAN waste of time and effort ‘z’ grade trash poopaganda” as reference material. Referred to other known and documented internet troll sources noted for 98% levels of deliberate misinformation.
This leads …………
Thanks for the compliment! 🙂
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 15 2023 7:40 utc | 112
Interestingly the UN maintains an archive on the Ndola crash of September 1961.
Much of BBC/Guardian/Alleged US intelligence leaks reads more like fiction than fact. The alleged Ndola listening post came from an Intelligence office based in Cyprus on an unsubstantiated no evidence supplied cockpit recording??? This plane had no “BlackBox”.
LINK :https://archives.un.org/content/death-dag-hammarskjold
The majority of these reports are still lacking in concrete evidence from the real world.
The verdict is unchanged.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 15 2023 11:57 utc | 113
Friends, I am trying to understand the love for Lula in Brazil. I understand he’s pro Russia but he’s also pro a dozen of the most wicked globalist narratives.
What am I missing in my analysis?
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2023 17:08 utc | 8
Good part: short, correct English.
Missing part, facts “a dozen of the most wicked globalist narratives”. If a dozen, of which I know none, then you should cite two-three, but you cited none.
Grating part: excessive cuteness, “what I am missing”, “Karen attitude” (which is this b..ch so popular? I am the cutest of them all)
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 15 2023 13:24 utc | 114
@psychohistorian #1 quoting Zoltan Pozsar:
The Federal Reserve will bail out the government by buying up bonds of all maturities, effectively capping yields across the curve. Inflation will stay elevated, above the entire yield curve, which lowers the value of money. In this environment investors and foreign central banks will flee to gold.
They could also flee to yuan. On December 30, 2022, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund FNB has adopted new flexible allocation of 0–60% yuan (used to be fixed at 30%) and 0–40% gold (used to be fixed at 20%). Since there’s nothing else to allocate in yet (Russia is still talking to India about modifying rupee regulations so it can be used as a reserve currency), it must currently be at 60% and 40%, meaning that, in this particular case, out of every 5 units of value previously stored in Western currencies, 3 went into yuan and 2 went into gold.
Posted by: S | Jan 15 2023 15:11 utc | 115
@RealBeast | Jan 15 2023 6:21 utc | 109
Thank-you. I had concluded that if Bad Deal Motors wouldn’t even look at a map to see the distance asserted to have been flown, ignored my statement about it, missed the fact that his own sources contradicted his assertions, did not recognize that other information could have resulted in different conclusions, and could not or would not recognize that the conclusion of the inquiry was deductive, not compelled by evidence, that it was not worth continuing the discussion which could only generate heat, rather than light.
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 15 2023 16:23 utc | 116
Jose Garcia | Jan 12 2023 16:24 utc | 2
Gas stoves are dirty. First they do a terrible job of burning gas venting significant CO2, Nitrates and unburned hydrocarbons, but that’s not really the big problem. The big problem is America’s failing gas distribution system, which leaks gas from everywhere. Methane is some 72x worse than CO2 as a greenhouse.gas in its first year. 20x worse in the medium term. And eventually breaks down to CO2. And, since Obama lifted the 40 year old ban on exports our legacy hydrocarbons, including Natural gas, a non renewable resource, is being shipped to the rest of as fast as we can so that our oligarchs can make their customary profits, even though Americans are broke. At some point in the near future, you won’t be able to afford gas for domestic purposes (and the price of everything else will soar). At that point you will be very happy to have an electric induction cooker and oven (both of which offer much better control, which is why they are used by leading chefs and restauranteurs.
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 20 2023 16:38 utc | 117
@pretzelattack | Jan 15 2023 6:15 utc | 108
Indeed. But then, that is what happens in all oligarchies as is shown by the shit 5hat has gone down in every US administration since before it’s founding.
Posted by: Hermit | Jan 20 2023 16:47 utc | 118