Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 4:26 utc | 94
If there were to be a world government (heaven forbid!) and this woman Vandana Shiva, once a quantum scientist, were to be our President, the world would be a far, far better place.
———–
I read this New Yorker profile of her, and it does seem that she ‘has a flair for incendiary analogies’…
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/seeds-of-doubt
You could make the case that it’s a bit of a hatchet job, but it’s an interesting read, and she does take extreme positions. As someone who is sympathetic to growing without (inorganic) fertilizers and pesticides (wouldn’t want to use glyphosate), I still think she could come across as less dogmatic and doctrinaire. Perhaps she thinks ‘the enemy’ (the GM lobby, the industrialized agriculturalists) warrants it, and they do the same from the other direction?
While it’s not impossible that a non-industrialized agriculture system could feed the world, it would have to be such a different world… and for sure, without the ‘Green Revolution’ (in the world as it actually is), it would be impossible to feed it…
Cheers, Ron

Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 5:31 utc | 103

Watched the official NASA “live feed” of the LM-1 Odysseus landing as it happened. Two hours of animated simulations, talking heads, and slick advertisements of each of the lander’s alleged virtues.
One of the very last features extolled by the hosts was the battery of video cameras that are on the vehicle’s exterior to record and broadcast the historic event. They described how one of the cameras is even inside a pod that’s ejected from the lander during its descent and lands independently while remaining pointed toward the lander so it can record from a distance the final minutes of the landing.
During the entire show, not a single video clip was shown of the lander’s approach or landing. Not even on any of the many screens that were visible and being monitored in Mission Control.
It’s now 7 hours later, the MSM is packed with victory laps for a successful operation, and still not a single video clip of the lander’s approach or touchdown seems available anywhere. And not a single photo of that action seems to be available either. The nearest I can find is one photo taken while the lander was still in orbit around the moon.
Seems odd for an event heralded as the first lunar soft landing by the US in a half century. Unless…

Posted by: Ralphie | Feb 23 2024 6:11 utc | 105

@Posted by: Honzo | Feb 23 2024 4:34 utc | 96
Let’s remember that the property bubble is being deflated, and therefore the tide is going out and exposing all the rocks of corruption. Lots of crooks that probably cant get out by plane (which would be a much less expensive and risky way of getting to the US) and therefore are taking the illegal route. Basically a bunch of crooks lying about the reality of their situation, and the Western press lapping it all up for propaganda.
Its not the 1980s when poor Chinese would desperately try to get into the US as illegals hidden in ships etc. Chinese can just fly to the US, as many, many millions do every year and then they fly back.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 6:36 utc | 107

@Peter AU1 | Feb 22 2024 22:47 utc | 52

UWDude named that cycle or whatever it is but I forget the name now. When it comes to gravitational pull, other planets seem like minor factors yet he has a far better track record than the church of climatology.

Milanković cycles, after the Serbian astronomer Milutin Milanković.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 7:51 utc | 109

Ralphie | Feb 23 2024 6:39 utc | 108
Will be interesting to keep an eye on that, but it does appear the empire of lies is business as usual.
Perhaps one day we will get to see the thing on the moon…. as a debris field.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 23 2024 7:52 utc | 111

@Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 3:31 utc | 87

Then throw in axis tilt disruptions every 60,000 years or so (which is one explanation for why tropical vegetation remains are found in part of the Arctic Circle I believe) and….

The precession of Earth’s axis has a period of 25,772 years. It is caused by the other solar system bodies pull on the Earth’s equatorial bulge, the Earth is not a perfect sphere.
It is quite clear from study of megalithic structures still to be found (Egyptian pyramids included, but there are many others), that the ancient builders had an intense interest in celestial alignments in general and studied precession in particular, over thousands of years.
The equinoxes drift westward along the ecliptic at the rate of 50.4 arc seconds annually, i.e. it takes about 72 years for the equinoxes to drift 1 degree. Studying precession is a long term effort.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:34 utc | 113

@Peter AU1 | Feb 23 2024 7:52 utc | 111

Will be interesting to keep an eye on that, but it does appear the empire of lies is business as usual.
Perhaps one day we will get to see the thing on the moon…. as a debris field.

I watched a NASA live feed last night, expecting Apollo-style technical information, but got nothing. Nothing at all.
I am not doubting that the probe went to the Moon and attempted a landing, but unless we hear something I guess that tall thing simply toppled over and fell. The only info we got before I switched off was a claim of a “faint signal”, before they switched to a pre-recorded video of a NASA administrator (I forgot the name) telling empty platititudes about how great America is.
I will be looking to see if more information becomes available, but that was a truly pathetic transmission. I remember the Apollo era even if I was just a kid, it was inspirational, and this is the opposite.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:50 utc | 115

@Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:50 utc | 115
The claim now is that the landing was successful and somehow communication has been restored (?). I have not seen any images or details yet.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:59 utc | 117

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 22 2024 21:17 utc | 37
Persiflo, I think you may get a kick out of the work of Arthur M Young:
https://arthuryoung.com/
Cheers, Ron

Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 9:06 utc | 119

Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 7:51 utc | 109
Thanks for the name of the mathematician. I had been able to dig up the name of that cycle after that post you linked. Milanković was certainly an extraordinary mathematician.
UWDude
I guess that’s why I did not find the name in skimming through your posts in the last thread…

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 23 2024 9:27 utc | 121

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 23 2024 9:27 utc | 122
Cool story, bro! Now where did I put those 2 bottles of Wild Turkey?
Cheers, Ron

Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 9:31 utc | 123

The ‘ prediction ‘ is that temperature in the worst version 8.5 will be between +2.5 and +12 degrees in 2300 with the most probable +8 degrees C
At that stage the fossil (fuel) material is likely to be finished and before that time other (energy) methods will have to be used.
So +8C in the year 2300 is what the discussion ought to be about.
Posted by: petergrfstrm | Feb 23 2024 5:09 utc | 99

This is a good comment and a really good point. If I may add a few things?
RCP 8.5 assumes no mitigation of GHG gases and Land Use, which imo is the correct assumption to apply – until and unless real mitigation solutions are a reality.
The downside on this is the conservative nature of the IPCC cherry-picking /deciding of studies and models to use as inputs. It’s a committee. The committee keeps changing. Many great talented scientists quit working to to produce IPCC reports because of these extraneous constraints. That an no climate scientists ‘author’ or lead author gets paid to to do this work, and must get time off from their rel day job to do it.
The end result is that THE BEST of the BEST do not get to do this summary work at the IPCC for nigh on 20+ years now. It’s the opposite of the cream of the crop. IPCC is also a knee-jerk body and not a science led body. And it literally has no full time staff bar the few execs at the top and a few office staff. They have no real Budget either. It’s a TOOL for the UNFCCC COP systems which means it is a Political Tool not a scientific body of real scientists collaborating offering genuine advice. (yes many climate scientists will refute that statement – I don’t care, because the good quality ethical ones say the same things I do)
So …. take what it says with a grain of salt these days, including the work on Net Zero and tha +1.5C is achievable – it physically is not – that budget to blown to pieces and was the day they agree on it in Paris. It’s a ludicrous state of affairs. The crisis is far worse than anything the IPCC produces – and thousands of working climate scientists agree and say so. Just not often publicly.
That being said I believe the real forecasts are sitting at, with no mitigation or rational economic / social policy reforms, nearer +8C by 2200 (not 2300) plus major SLR of up to 12 meters see scientists like Hansen et al.
Looking more like +2C by 2040; +3.5C by 2120 and at least +5-6C by 2200 …. and possibly +8C (it depends)
But whatever things might appear possible in 2200 or in 2120 is irrelevant today. Objectively dealing with today’s reality and the obvious logical trends in 20-30 years is where the focus needs to be – that is the realm in which action can and should be taken Now to circa 2050 …. this is where the current COP agreements are not in touch with reality at all.
Most evidence based objective conclusions (are imo) being nothing is or will be done to address the unfolding much faster rapid warming and energy consumption or environmental resources agriculture degradation pushing humanity to the edge of survival with a looming 9 billion on the planet. Unsustainable in any world.
All the scientific evidence is there and available how bad it is, more or less what to do about it in the short term, and what the only rational actions long term are possible right now and the short term to take to at least minimise the damages and harm for the good of all humanity, ecosystems, and life on earth.
any discussions along the lines of ‘is it proven to be human caused warming’ do not rate any adult attention whatsoever, and must be ignored like any internet Troll or a drunk would be ignored and excluded from serious discussions of life on earth and the actions of Nations.
(sorry for all typos/sefl-corrections) Cheers LD

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 23 2024 9:49 utc | 125

“Voxukraine” has made a picture of the network of russian propaganda.
Perhaps someone put this on a web site as a clickable image, so clicking on a bloggers’ face gives you his blog?

Posted by: Passerby | Feb 23 2024 10:37 utc | 127

“Is it any surprise that the national debt moved higher ?
When spending went from about 2.5 trillion a tear under Trump to 7 trillion a year under Biden.”
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Feb 22 2024 21:18 utc | 38
Echo if you are going to ramble incessantly at least try get your facts correct cause the above is wrong::
In 2020, the total federal budget ran much higher, at $7 trillion, because of all of the steps the government took to address the COVID-19 pandemic.(1)
In 2023 The federal government spends money on a variety of goods, programs, and services to support the American public and pay interest incurred from borrowing. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the government spent $6.13 trillion, which was more than it collected (revenue), resulting in a deficit. (2)
1. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/#:~:text=Federal%20Budget%20101,-Facebook%20Twitter&text=The%20total%20federal%20budget%20of,address%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic.

Posted by: canuck | Feb 23 2024 11:29 utc | 129

“It all makes sense when you realize that none of the ‘western leaders’ that you see are actually leaders. They are mere employees of less visible powers. ”
Honzo 95
Exactly.

Posted by: canuck | Feb 23 2024 11:32 utc | 131

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:34 utc | 113
The axis flip theory is different, from a (controversial) 1958 book by Hopgood prefaced by Einstein. He amasses considerable circumstantial evidence but only hypothesizees (aka guesses) the causes. His favourite idea, if I recall (I read it decades ago), is that ice accumulates excessively on one of the poles, probably Antarctica, which causes an extreme wobble. Then the positive and negative go out of wack viz. the huge magnetic fields binding the Earth’s molten core to the Sun at which point the North and South pole regions physically flip. When this happens, the mantle, a thin floating layer on the surface containing all the terrain we live on, gets stretched as it passes over the wider equatorial regions and compacted as it enters the more constrained polar regions, which may cause mountain ranges to form or disappear – in a matter of hours not the millions of years hypothesized (guessed) by conventional theory. Also, it lags the inner core flip (which is almost instantaneous) which is why previous polar terrain can end up in tropical areas and vice versa.
It explains many anomalies, which also don’t recall, one of which is tropical fauna found deep under the North Pole (?) and another is artifacts found within coal seams supposedly hundreds of millions years old but probably just got ploughed under in the rapid flip-and-shift.
Bottom line: in terms of geological history and long-term climate what we know is dwarfed by what we don’t.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 14:03 utc | 133

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:34 utc | 113
“The axis flip theory is different, from a (controversial) 1958 book by Hopgood prefaced by Einstein. He amasses considerable circumstantial evidence but only hypothesizees (aka guesses) the causes. His favourite idea, if I recall (I read it decades ago), is that ice accumulates excessively on one of the poles, probably Antarctica, which causes an extreme wobble. Then the positive and negative go out of wack viz. the huge magnetic fields binding the Earth’s molten core to the Sun at which point the North and South pole regions physically flip. When this happens, the mantle, a thin floating layer on the surface containing all the terrain we live on, gets stretched as it passes over the wider equatorial regions and compacted as it enters the more constrained polar regions, which may cause mountain ranges to form or disappear – in a matter of hours not the millions of years hypothesized (guessed) by conventional theory. Also, it lags the inner core flip (which is almost instantaneous) which is why previous polar terrain can end up in tropical areas and vice versa.
It explains many anomalies, which also don’t recall, one of which is tropical fauna found deep under the North Pole (?) and another is artifacts found within coal seams supposedly hundreds of millions years old but probably just got ploughed under in the rapid flip-and-shift.
Bottom line: in terms of geological history and long-term climate what we know is dwarfed by what we don’t.”
Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 14:03 utc | 134
Woke idiots cry and pull their hair out about infinitesimal difference of temps yet meteorites and pole flipping is the real menace to human civilization.
Excellent post-yes I believe the weight of the ice cause the wobble, but I am no physics expert:
“Geomagnetic pole reversal effects are natural and spectacular, but they could also destroy the world as we know it.
While that may sound dramatic, renowned science journalist Alanna Mitchell’s book “The Spinning Magnet” revealed that the next time Earth’s magnetic field flips, it could seriously damage the electric infrastructure that defines our modern civilization.
What is an Electromagnetic Field?
While magnetism is fascinating, it has also been historically misunderstood. According to Physics.org, Earth’s magnetic field exists because the planet’s solid iron core is surrounded by liquid metal.
According to NASA, the flow of liquid iron in Earth’s core creates electric currents that generate the magnetic field. This electromagnetic field provides an invisible shield that blocks solar and cosmic rays.
“Flip-flopping Poles
Earth’s magnetic poles have reversed many times in the past, but scientists can’t predict when the next reversal will occur. In other words, a magnetic field flip is coming, we just don’t know when.
To find evidence of the magnetic past, scientists examine ancient rocks. Certain minerals in lava flows are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field as the lava cools; scientists analyze the rock samples to uncover a record of Earth’s magnetic field, according to National Geographic.
Scientific American noted that in the past 200 million years, reversals have taken place approximately every half-million years. The last reversal happened around 780,000 years ago, so we’re due for a flip.” (1)
1. https://now.northropgrumman.com/will-geomagnetic-reversal-effects-cause-a-worldwide-blackout

Posted by: canuck | Feb 23 2024 14:26 utc | 135

The attack occurred around 8.30 pm when officers attempted to disperse a disorderly group in front of 220 West 42 Street.”
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Feb 23 2024 14:14 utc | 135
…………………………
Cyber attacks…rampant violence…and so the Dragon year begins…

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 14:40 utc | 137

So called ‘westerners’,
Beware as the whole world is convulsing in revulsion on you and your genociding politics of plunder, latest being killing the civilians of Ghaza in order to plunder their resources. To enable greater Israel to supply you when you are whithering and dying, and killing your own populations.
On these threads there are many false posters directly working for this agenda of zion:
– false budhist
– false pious housewife
– false muslim
They are easily indetifiedable, and they are being traced.
The truth is one and very simple:
Do not kill.

Posted by: stranger | Feb 23 2024 14:52 utc | 139

https://nypost.com/2024/02/19/opinion/inside-mayor-adams-migrant-debit-card-boondoggle-no-bid-bank-gets-50-million-border-crossers-up-to-10000-each/
………………….
And so it goes…this is organized from within…

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 15:10 utc | 141

@Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 8:02 utc | 112
These people could fly visa free to many countries where they could live very well. So obvious that they are scared of getting caught by the authorities at the airport. They are most definitely more than Chinese “middle class”, more upper-middle or upper if they can afford to pay multiple illegal agents to smuggle them across borders.
Attempting to subvert the state is also a crime in all countries, so what else would they be other than criminals? To be completely expected with the Chinese property market implosion and the ongoing Party-state crackdown on corruption.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 15:24 utc | 143

@canuck | Feb 23 2024 14:26 utc | 136

Scientific American noted that in the past 200 million years, reversals have taken place approximately every half-million years. The last reversal happened around 780,000 years ago, so we’re due for a flip.”

Be sure not to confuse magnetic poles with geographic poles.

Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 15:34 utc | 145

Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 5:31 utc | 103
Well, about Vandana Shiva, she has been an activist leader for decades resisting the chemical industries destruction of her country and has written over 20 books on the subject. I very much doubt the NYT (which never read any more) would do her justice.
But it has been proven time and again – and she is a world leader pioneering this sort of knowledge – that industrial farming is not the solution, rather the problem. That you believe otherwise is quite understandable given how we have all been indoctrinated by corporate culture the past century. Be that as it may, it still remains a fact that most of the world’s eight billion are fed by small farms not Big Ag contrary to the latter’s self-promoting propaganda to the contrary. That also she has researched exhaustively.
I read that Russia went all organic a while ago; no idea if true, but if so it was a wise move.
Most people think organics are a yuppy way of keeping chemicals out of your apples and carrots; that is a small part of it. The main point about (true) organic is that it involves maintaining healthy, living soil whereas BigAg kills it and uses corporate-supplied inputs to compensate whilst garnering income and monopolistic control (whilst driving tens of thousands of small farmers in India to suicide each year as the costs don’t match yield values). Living soil is incredibly abundant and self-regenerating when properly managed. That is the key.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 15:38 utc | 147

>>> Hot Mossad viral infections are waiting for you on —– https://shorturl.hasAvirus
Posted by: Arletta | Feb 23 2024 12:53 utc | 133

Posted by: David G Horsman | Feb 23 2024 15:43 utc | 149

@Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 23 2024 9:49 utc | 125
Very well, and sadly put. Society is stuck between the soft deniers (the IPCC highly-politicized and very conservative process) and the hard deniers. Dimitrov, who is an academic who took an active part in a number of IPCC COP meetings, wrote an excellent paper about the COP and other performative UN environment institutions; Empty Institutions in Global Environmental
Politics.
Then in addition we have the peak oilers who have been saying for at least a decade and a half that there are not enough fossil fuels to cause catastrophic climate change, against all the evidence with respect to coal and gas (the latter worse than coal given fugitive methane emissions) and utterly ignorant of climate positive feedbacks.
It seems that humanity, and the elite that rule humanity, will do anything but combat climate change and will instead use the gift of human intelligence to construct fairy stories (eco-modernism, climate change isn’t happening/is only natural, not enough fossil fuels to drive the climate over the edge …) and profiteering short-term stopgaps (solar radiation management, digging up, crushing and spreading of colossal amounts of igneous rocks to accelerate rock weathering, the carbon capture boondoggle etc.).
Cassandra may have been accurate about the future (which she was) but was fated not to ever be believed. A depressing place to be. Many people mistake the Cassandra as being a “doomer” or something when in fact she was an accurate prophet. Seems that we are both Cassandras.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 15:51 utc | 151

Do we suppose Armenia did this because otherwise France (and, one could postulate, perhaps other French regions) would become de facto member(a) of the CSTO? Per TASS:
Putin did not talk with Pashinyan about Armenia’s CSTO membership — Kemlin
https://tass.com/politics/1750743
“Peskov noted that in this case it is very important to understand the details. “Let’s hope that our Armenian friends will explain everything to us,” he added.
Earlier, Prime Minister of the Republic Nikol Pashinyan said that the country had suspended its participation in the CSTO.”
Co-operation with French forces has far-reaching plans — Armenian Defence Minister
https://tass.com/world/1750833
“ “Bilateral military cooperation has been based on precise planning beginning this year and it is expanding in more than a dozen areas with ambitious goals. Our cooperation program encompasses nearly every aspect of the armed forces. The complete advisory support for defense reforms and military education is particularly important,” he said at a joint press conference with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu.”
You can get poutine in Yerevan, you know.
https://www.poutine.am/

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Feb 23 2024 16:01 utc | 153

Correction — blockquoting lost during time out. Sorry.

Posted by: suzan | Feb 23 2024 16:19 utc | 155

Bad commercial real estate loans put strain on banking system

According to reporting by the Financial Times, average loss reserves held by big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley have dropped to 90 cents for every dollar of commercial real estate debt 30 days late or more. That’s down from $1.60, according to bank filings to the FDIC.

Small and regional banks still have enough reserves to cover their bad debt, but the situation is deteriorating quickly. Overall, U.S. banks hold $1.40 in reserve for every dollar of bad commercial real estate debt, dropping from $2.20 just one year ago. That’s the lowest reserve level in seven years.

And we are only at the start of the delinquency and default process, as problems really manifest as loans have to be refinanced or as property owners run out of cash to make the payments or decide to simply dump the problem on the bank by walking away (as many corporations tend to do, they feel no obligation to keep paying property loans where liability can be localized to a ring-fenced subsidiary or a loan that they can get out of through pre-packaged corporate bankruptcy).

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, around $1.2 trillion of commercial real estate debt in the United States will mature over the next two years. Zooming further out, $2.56 trillion in commercial real estate loans will mature over the next five years, with $1.4 trillion held by banks, according to real estate data provider Trepp.
With rates rising and credit conditions tightening, many loans may face an uphill battle as refinancing becomes more costly, especially if banks and other lenders look to reduce their CRE exposure as we saw happen during previous recessionary cycles. This could lead to lower property values and larger losses for lenders.
Reuters warned about this situation last fall, reporting, “Weak demand for offices could trigger a wave of borrowers to default on their loans and put pressure on banks and other lenders, which are hoping to avoid selling loans at significant discounts.”

This headache, plus the car loan, credit card and soon to be home loan headaches will be with us for years. But heh, NVDA hit a new high! Get ready for years of massively enhanced bank loan loss provisions and write-offs. The government will be coming to your pocket to bail these schmucks out from their own recklessness once again. There’s always that “bail-in” provision backstop where some of your deposits suddenly become worthless shares in the bank!

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 16:48 utc | 157

“…an interesting article in Al Jazeera about Chinese migration to the US…”
There’s a darkhorse podcast – maybe in January – that gets into this. There are specific camps in the gap for chinese incoming. Different routes for them. Mostly military age young men.

Posted by: oracle | Feb 23 2024 17:16 utc | 159

Honzo | Feb 23 2024 4:13 utc | 91
*** Voters, dumb as a bag of spanners.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Feb 22 2024 21:39 utc | 39
Sorry, American voters are dumb as a box of rocks. You must be thinking of British voters, we don’t even know what a spanner is over here.***
Spanners or monkey-wrenches?
Millions of British voters are still — despite decades of fact to the contrary — convinced that there is a huge difference between 3/4 inch and 19mm.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2024 17:38 utc | 161

A couple of Friday evening signing off comments that belong here.
What happened to Wagner in Africa? And Yes it was the Perfidious Brits who actually DID NS2 – being the Royal Navy’s back yard as it were and got Lizzy the Queen Killer Dumbest blonde PM Trussed over excited wet knickers orgasmic “IT’S DONE!!” Yes yes yes WhatsApp to the WH!
‘ 🇷🇺💀🌍 Wagner in Africa: How the Russian mercenary group has rebranded
Russia is offering governments in Africa a “regime survival package” in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources, a major new report has found.
The multibillion dollar operations are now mostly being run as the Russian “Expeditionary Corps”, managed by the man accused of being behind the attempt to murder Sergei Skripal using the Novichok nerve agent on the streets of the UK – a charge Russia has denied.
Control was to be handed to Gen Andrey Averyanov, head of Unit 29155, a secretive operation specialising in targeting killings and destabilising foreign governments.
But it seems Gen Averyanov’s new business was not destabilising governments, but rather securing their future, as long as they paid by signing away their mineral rights.
In early September, accompanied by deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Gen Averyanov began a tour of former Wagner operations in Africa.
They started in Libya, meeting warlord Gen Khalifa Haftar. Their next stop was Burkina Faso where they were greeted by 35-year-old coup leader Ibrahim Traoré.
After that, they landed in the Central African Republic, possibly the most well-established Wagner operation on the continent, before heading to Mali to meet the leaders of the junta there.
On a subsequent trip they also met General Salifou Modi, one of the military men who seized power in Niger last year.
Readouts of the various meetings demonstrate that the two men were reassuring Wagner’s partners on the continent that the demise of Prigozhin did not mean the end of his business deals.
Reports of the meeting with Capt Traoré of Burkina Faso confirmed cooperation would continue in “the military domain, including the training of Burkinabe officer cadets and officers at all levels, including pilots in Russia”.
In short, the death of Prigozhin did not mean the end for the junta’s relationship with Russia. In some ways, it would become deeper still.
The three West African states with close links to Wagner – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – have all experienced military takeovers in recent years. They have since announced their withdrawal from the regional bloc Ecowas, and the creation of their own “Alliance of Sahel States”.
🔗 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68322230
https://t.me/africaintel/9126 ‘
‘
An analytical report by the independent online publication Nordic Times concluded that “members of the British government” during the period when Liz Truss was Prime Minister were the most likely organizers of the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. According to this version, the explosion was carried out by a British special forces team operating from the British nuclear submarine HMS Ambush.
@Slavyangrad | Wiggims ‘

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 23 2024 18:03 utc | 163

“DEMS PANIC Over Michigan Voter Israel REVOLT”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC4q9ja0P78
We saw a similar story in 2016. The Democrats thought they could count on the “workers”/”working class” to elect Hillary Clinton to become president, under the slogan “They have no where else to go”. But these voters did “go somewhere else”. They voted in droves for Bernie Sanders who turned out to be a much larger danger for Hillary Clinton than anticipated. When the Democrats succesfully “killed” Sanders (politically), they thought the working class would vote in droves for clinton but instead A LOT OF those people voted for Trump.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 23 2024 18:42 utc | 165

Posted by: oracle | Feb 23 2024 17:16 utc | 160
“…an interesting article in Al Jazeera about Chinese migration to the US…”
There’s a darkhorse podcast – maybe in January – that gets into this. There are specific camps in the gap for chinese incoming. Different routes for them. Mostly military age young men.

I read a recent estimate of over 30,000 military aged Chinese illegals now in California alone. They are sponsored, many with debit cards refilled monthly, not economic migrants as most naively imagine.
Hmm…the Chinese were there long before Columbus; maybe they are soon going to take it back?! I doubt it, at least not for a few more decades, but for sure something is up. I suspect: a blatantly stolen election which Trump loses; then both real and orchestrated riots possibly involving US military versus ‘patriot’ militias, etc. during which many of these tens of thousands of military aged males will play a part. Large protests will be met with ruthless suppression, arrests, crack-downs etc. Perhaps these illegals will get citizenship in return for joining the military which then cracks down on the hapless citizenry. Also all are already being given ID’s so they can vote. It comes down to about 15 counties in seven swing states, or thereabouts, to swing an election. Just like in 2020. So they have a one party system in place already now so soon can officially mount another system.
Because seems to me that very soon the pretense that the nation is a bona fide republic will be jettisoned as long past its due date. Quite possibly during this Wood Dragon year.

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 19:00 utc | 167

Posted by: Ron | Feb 23 2024 9:06 utc | 119
Thanks for that link. The man has done his homework. Am very much enjoying his:
https://arthuryoung.com/applications/the-theory-of-evolutionary-process-as-a-unifying-paradigm/
in which am pleased to find, in his cosmology, reference to Mahayana and Yogachara Buddhism. As it happens, have been recently writing about both in an ongoing series about non-materialist views/mindsets and was about to write about his ‘Bodies of Buddha’ in the next couple of days (aka ‘Body, Speech and Mind’) as an example of how reality is multi-layered moreover always containing experiential dynamics with no solid, independent physical world outside the field in which life forms arise and which features some sort of consciousness or mind factor, one of whose foundational elements is the perception (and also participatory creation) of three dimensional space with all apparent forms arising within that dimension.
I noticed this tab open from earlier just after writing my earlier comment about the same subject matter. Coincidences are always a good sign, though of what it is hard to say…

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 23 2024 19:25 utc | 169

Mathematics symbolically describes the cosmos and its constraints; it in no way defines or constraints anything.

Not true. In a modern, “formalist” view, its objects are introduced together with the relations between them through a set of axioms. Within such formal systems, research comes across all sorts of interesting and tricky stuff, that gets its own name – group, metric, morphism, dimension, and many more. Those objects are all completely and positively defined; they live in the space given with the framework of the formal system, as parlance goes, and they come to live as ideal, notional “things” of pure reason (though pen and paper helps). As such, maths describes actually nothing. To view numbers as Begriffe is a very interesting perspective: they refer to their formal traits, like in 2+2=4, and nothing else, as in the apples and oranges problem, the first thing kids learn at school.
Modern physics is essentially built on three basic measuring devices (scale, yardstick and clock), which relate observations and experiments to the framework of maths that physicists use to describe their stuff; not accurately termed “laws of nature”, because those things are merely falsifiable theories in modern understanding (cf. Karl Popper). People often wonder how this all fits together so nicely, but I discourage any of the easy and common mystifications that arise here just because maths is a difficult and arcane subject that most journalists don’t understand. I had a professor Mr. Dirk Dubbers who was then head of the physics departement in Heidelberg, he was no less of a teacher than Georg Christoph Lichtenberg or Richard Feynman, comment the issue thusly: “It’s not a surprise to see mathematics so well-prepared to accomodate physical reality, as it has been invented for this very purpose in the first place!” And that is it. Modern physics uses euclidean geometry, calculous, and the delta-distribution (in order of their respective invention), while everything else can be expressed with the notions that are present in those objects (such as complex numbers, topological spaces, stochastic processes, Differentialgeometrie, etc).
Now of course you can play around with other sets of axioms, and this is done a lot by logicians, who came up with three-valued, many-valued, and fuzzy logic among other things, but as it turns out, most of these creations have a very limited use in the Lebenswelt. But even those that are useful must be regarded as an image of whatever empirical “things” to describe; the problem begins already with the fact that you cannot accurately measure a real number with its infinite digits. But even the idealized objects of maths tend to run away if you want to make them too real, such as Poincaré’s theorem (aka the butterfly effect) sets a limit to the predictability of chaotic systems. Also the empirical things would shy away even if you had a magic yardstick to go after them, as quantum mechanics shows (the Heisenberg principle). And then, all axiomatic frameworks you may come up with – they only need to include natural numbers, addition and multiplication – will not be able to decide the veracity of all proper statements you may express within those “formal systems”, as per the Goedel theorem.
So maths can not be expected to describe “everything”; it can’t. Here a few favourite examples: the universe. Feelings. The sensation of colour. Music (as opposed to sound). Sense, meaning and believe. Humour. Reasons. I and Thou. Interest. A fresh drink.
With than, I’m out for tonight.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 23 2024 19:41 utc | 171

@Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 23 2024 19:09 utc | 169
Navalny’s mother already made the call of his “wife” who hasn’t visited him for two years (and she has no travel restrictions in the way of doing that) and has been seen with multiple other men. The whole Western propaganda “stoic wife” is utter bullshit. But you wont find that through google search, you will on twitter.
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1760689047490724042
Mother says:
– His wife did not see Navalny for 2 years
– She forced him to go to Russia
– She made him put all his property in her name
– She appears with other man in public
– Is shamelessly profiting on his death.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 20:17 utc | 173

An actual reliable story, Keir Starmer served on the Trilateral Commission from 2017-2018 without telling his leader Jeremy Corbyn, who would of course have blocked it. The Trilateral Commission was set up in the 1970s by Rockefeller to link the establishments of the US, Europe and Japan. Adds more weight to the position that his role was one of Manchurian Candidate to both destroy Corbyn and take Labour back from the working people. Another thing not well publicized is that he attends a Jewish Synagogue, married a Jewish wife and is raising their children as Jewish (just like Biden’s three offspring and Trump’s favourite daughter!).
Starmer was the one that got Corbyn to follow the utterly disastrous Brexit second vote position!

Starmer was a member of the Trilateral Commission alongside two former heads of the CIA, and spoke at one of its London events alongside the former heads of MI5 and GCHQ.

Starmer did not respond to Declassified’s questions about his membership—and never declared it to parliament as some other British parliamentarians have done.

Declassified has previously revealed that the year after Starmer protected MI5 chief Sir Jonathan Evans from possible prosecution over his agency’s role in CIA torture, the then senior public prosecutor went to Evans’s farewell drinks, paid for by MI5.

KEIR STARMER JOINED SECRETIVE CIA-LINKED GROUP WHILE SERVING IN CORBYN’S SHADOW CABINET
Our family treasures our Shabbat dinners, says Keir Starmer
The CPS also destroyed all records of Starmer’s trips to the US during the time he was in charge of extraditing Julian Assange from Sweden.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), England and Wales’ public prosecutor, has deleted all records of its former head Keir Starmer’s trips to the US, it can be revealed.
Starmer served as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008-13, a period when the body was overseeing Julian Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sexual assault allegations.
While DPP, Starmer made trips to Washington in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 at a cost to the British taxpayer of £21,603. It was his most frequent foreign destination while in post. Max Hill, the current DPP, has made just one trip to Washington during his five-year tenure.

Declassified has previously shown that the UK Home Office deployed eight staff on the secret operation to seize Assange from his asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. This was a highly irregular move as Ecuador is a friendly country and asylum is a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The CPS’s lack of disclosure of documents related to Assange may raise suspicions of a cover-up. While Starmer was still in charge, in April 2013, the CPS rejected Assange’s request for the personal data it had on him “because of the live matters still pending”.
Even GCHQ, the UK’s largest spy agency, had granted Assange’s request for the personal information it held on him, which revealed one of its intelligence officers calling the Swedish case a “fit-up”.

CPS HAS DESTROYED ALL RECORDS OF KEIR STARMER’S FOUR TRIPS TO WASHINGTON

Posted by: Roger | Feb 23 2024 20:53 utc | 175

Roger | Feb 23 2024 20:53 utc | 176
***… without telling his leader Jeremy Corbyn, who would of course have blocked it.***
Corbyn was an idiot not to dispose of him anyway — regardless of TC membership — having seen Starmer’s persistent US-invoked corruption with regard to the Assange case.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2024 22:29 utc | 177

@Posted by: Cynic | Feb 23 2024 22:29 utc | 178
Corbyn was an idiot not to clear out the whole Labour Head Office and force re-selection on all MPs to force out the traitors. The press would have gone insane, but he would have won the election (if he had been allowed to live). Then the next day “a very British Coup”.

Posted by: Roger | Feb 24 2024 0:47 utc | 179

Posted by: suzan | Feb 23 2024 16:17 utc | 155
Heh. I have gotten a sense of confucian morality from chinese historical dramas.
I learned about about it in Chinese history.
There is first and foremost, filial piety. Which kind of means loyalty to your family, and loyalty to the structure of society. It is almost as if if your father tells you to do something, to disobey would be more “immoral” than any “immoral”, by our standards, command he could give
Second. There is competence. To take on responsibility, but to fail, is in a sense, immoral.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 24 2024 1:25 utc | 181

AI futures and the metacrisis. AU
59:42 / 1:15:27
The Metacrisis: Making Sense in a Nonsensical World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aKI2C61jVE&t=1682s

Daniel Schmachtenberger …. Imagining what must the future coordination systems and the distribution and allocation of resources and you start to get into things like doesn’t ‘Interest’ (Banks/Borrowing) by itself even if we don’t think about Central Bank policy or interest rates or fractional Reserve banking or anything doesn’t Interest itself, compounding interest, force exponential growth of Finance?
Yeah it does, and then to not debase the currency doesn’t that mean you have to have an exponential growth of goods and services?
Yeah it does. Doesn’t that mean you basically have to have an exponential materials economy on a finite Planet? Yeah! So Interest has to go too!
Well that’s really fundamental (to how our world operates globally) We don’t know how to make that World.
And then as long as most access to resources is based on private property doesn’t that mean rival Risk Interest where I can do better at the expense of the environment and others, based on private property?
Probably a lot of stuff has to be rethought around property law and then even like – I can appreciate the atmosphere in fact my life depends upon it, but I don’t have to pay for it myself (it’s free / held in common).
And so if I cut a tree down I get immediate benefit from the Timber and the little tiny damage it causes to the atmosphere I don’t really notice that, but when everybody thinks that way it does have that effect (globally to the Commons.)
But locally I have way more incentive to cut it down than to leave it up because the extraction value that I get from turning it into Lumber gives me game theoretic value ($ in hand relative wealth) whereas if I put my resources towards planting more trees, that I don’t have a direct economic interest in, I do less well in
the economic system – become relatively less wealthy.
This means that there is a fundamental rethinking of the value equation because whoever ends up valuing extractable exchangeable wealth ends up doing game theoretically much better than those who don’t.
Which means they influence the world and culture more than those who pay more attention to the Common Wealth, Society and the Culture who then have less influence over the whole thing (economically, socially, politically, and culturally).
So the (near term future) changes (to avoid a meta crisis / civilization destruction of planetary boundaries) that we’re talking about at the level of Economics are things like: interest, private property, fungible currency, which are even deeper than whether we have nation states or not.

The discussion then moves onto the potential of positives from AI/AGI to individuals/society and culture

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 24 2024 2:18 utc | 183

While USA picks fights here and there, it misses the greatest dangers looming above our heads:
Mysterious balloon intercepted over Utah ABC New
Once again, Western states are invaded, but the government does not even know where it came from? Our valiant boldly intercepted the intruder, but not before it reached Utah. If I were a presidential candidate, I would promise re-orientation of defense policies toward identifying and fighting the Mysterious Threat. Some possible bold moves are easy: freeze all assets with mysterious owners, with addresses in Cayman Islands, or post boxes in Panama or Bermuda etc. Send fleets in all directions where the Mysterious threat may originated. Convene assembly of experts. Censor all Mysterious disinformation (expect a conspiracy theory that they do not exist, it should be stamped out).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 24 2024 2:55 utc | 185

Roger | Feb 23 2024 15:51 utc | 152
Thanks for the reply on soft denial etc. and your ref to empty institutions, as well as the one on Food later.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 24 2024 3:02 utc | 187

A change of pace perhaps —
“It is quite clear from study of megalithic structures still to be found (Egyptian pyramids included, but there are many others), that the ancient builders had an intense interest in celestial alignments in general and studied precession in particular, over thousands of years.
The equinoxes drift westward along the ecliptic at the rate of 50.4 arc seconds annually, i.e. it takes about 72 years for the equinoxes to drift 1 degree. Studying precession is a long term effort.”
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 23 2024 8:34 utc | 113

(The Watchman, alone)
I ask the gods some respite from the weariness
of this watchtime measured by years I lie awake
elbowed upon the Atreidae’s roof dogwise to mark
the grand processionals of all the stars of night
burdened with winter and again with heat for men,
dynasties in their shining blazoned on the air,
these stars, upon their wane and when the rest arise.
[Aeschylus, Agamemnon first play in the Oresteia, Lattimore translation]

Night all.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2024 4:56 utc | 189

Re: recent Moon Landing
Might want to learn a bit about the Lunokhod Soviet moon buggy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1

Posted by: Exile | Feb 24 2024 8:34 utc | 191

The timeline of COVID seems to indicate politics and money played a role:
On August 11, 2020, the Russian Ministry of Health registers the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine.
On October 11, 2020, the Pfizer CEO files with the US SEC he intends to sell Pfizer shares on November 11, 2020. (bit.ly/3eQ0RPV)
On November 3, 2020, Biden wins the US presidential elections against Trump.
On November 9, 2020, Pfizer announces its COVID vaccine. Pfizer shares jump.
On November 11, 2020, the Pfizer CEO earns $5.56 million by selling Pfizer shares.
With hindsight, some COVID deaths were avoidable. If the Russian vaccine was used, vaccination could have begun months earlier.

Posted by: Passerby | Feb 24 2024 9:49 utc | 193

Historic moon lander likely on its side, but data is flowing, says company official
Embry-Riddle’s EagleCam payload has yet to deploy to send back pictures
A day after a private company made history with a soft landing on the moon, company officials detailed what they think they know from limited data gathered and lack of imagery about the lander, including the likelihood that is on its side.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander Odysseus touched down Thursday at 6:23 p.m. EST near the south pole of moon, making it the first time a commercial company had achieved the feat. It also marked the first soft landing by a U.S.-based moon lander since Apollo 17 in 1972.
“Just to clear up some confusion, we thought we were upright,” said company CEO Steve Altemus during a press conference Friday, which was what the company declared in the hours after touchdown.

continues ==> https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/02/23/historic-lunar-lander-likely-on-its-side-but-data-is-flowing-says-company-official/

“Data still flowing” is one way to spin it.
Press conference photo of the situation ==> https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/intuitivemachineslanding2.jpg?w=1360

Posted by: too scents | Feb 24 2024 13:52 utc | 195

Sorry, got my open forums mixed somehow. Not way back at all. That was me, laying on its side, not the moon lander — I’m upright now (I hope).
But back to weather — there is a very nasty component to the current lot for us in the US, which is sudden drastic ‘plops’ into frigid temps overnight after warmth. I know that is a usual component of spring weather but here abouts I don’t remember it being so extreme. Thus, I can see how there are extreme positions being taken in predictions here, as very definitely, the hot parts are hotter and cold colder as we get into spring.
I hope that doesn’t start another round of upping the arguments. I would say we just don’t know what’s coming, having not had these experiences before. So, if this is going to continue as our new normal for springtime, we need to adapt. I’ve only planted peas and potatoes (gonna keep trying) so far, all others still incubating indoors or under glass (kale). And some little critter came along the other night and ate or carried away most of my crocus blooms – never had that happen before. Not shrivelled – vanished!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2024 15:48 utc | 197

On the plus side, my indoor sunroom nasturtiums have huge leaves – no flowers, just dinner plate (well, more like sandwich plate) leaves, so that’s the CO2 I guess, or maybe methane (?) as I live under NM’s methane cloud. Also leaves of saffron crocus,(which should bloom in fall but only a few did this year)are extremely long out in the garden as well.
And, come to think of it, all the indoorseys are greener than they usually are this time of year from getting less sun – tomato plants, citrus, dracaenas, geraniums. I thought it was my thumb getting greener but given my usual not so greatness maybe …

Posted by: juliania | Feb 24 2024 16:08 utc | 199