The MoA Week In Review - OT 2024-244
Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
Ukraine:
- Oct 8 - Ukraine - FT Proposes Impossible Peace Deal, Demands More Violence
Related:
- Recruiters raid Kyiv venues in search of Ukrainians not registered for conscription - Euronews
- Wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not treated and sent back to the front-Da Vinci medic (in Russian) - Strana
- Corruption schemes in the MSEC. Who receives millions of disability payments? (in Russian) - Strana
- The Russian ‘Steamroller’ in Donbas - Gilbert Doctorow
- Victims of Communism memorial faces call to remove over 330 names linked to Nazis, fascists - Ottawa Citizen
Palestine:
- Oct 8 - For Doubters - Hizbullah Reports That It Is Back
- Oct 12 - Hizbullah, Iran Put More Pressure On Israel
Related:
- US deploys THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense to Israel amid rising tensions with Iran - Ynetnews
b here - Note on the last headline:The IRIB video of an alleged hit on a THAAD radar has been geolocated and it has nothing to do with THAAD. But the news that the U.S. is scrambling an additional THAAD to Israel seems to confirm that the one stationed there is in deep trouble after Iran somehow hit it.
- More related:
- It's So, So Bad, And It's About To Get A Whole Lot Worse - Caitlin Johnstone
- How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on 7 October - Electronic Intifada
- The great emigration: Israel sees an unprecedented number leave the country - Jerusalem Post
- Zionist groups are falsifying antisemitism statistics and the media are playing along - Redflag
- 'Prepare for post-Hezbollah phase' US envoy tells Lebanon as Israeli massacres intensify - The Cradle
- 'No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound That Is Palestine: Arundhati Roy - The Wire
> As the horror we are witnessing in Gaza, and now Lebanon, quickly escalates into a regional war, its real heroes remain outside the frame. But they fight on because they know that one day—From the river to the sea
Palestine will be Free.
It will.
Keep your eye on your calendar. Not on your clock.
That’s how the people – not the generals – the people fighting for their liberation measure time. <
Empire:
- Oct 9 - Emmanuel Todd On Europe's Hopefully Fading Submission To The U.S.
- Oct 10 - Biden's Intent Is To Sow Chaos - Netanyahoo And Zelensky Are Working For Him
Related:
- The End of History or a War of American and Russian Messianisms - Gordon Hahn
- The Arabs are transparently displaying their crossover to multi-alignment in a US-led Middle Eastern war - Indian Punchline
- Commentary: US not walking the talk in Southeast Asia as Biden skips ASEAN Summit again - Channel News Asia
---
Other issues:
- Five Principles are China’s major diplomatic achievement George Yeo Interview (video) - CGTN Podcasts
- China’s ‘wiser’ long-term strategy paves way to No 1 world power: Kishore Mahbubani - SCMP
- Developing Whole-Process People’s Democracy to Advance Chinese Modernization - Lin Shangli / Qiushi Journal
- House passes $1.6 billion to deliver anti-China propaganda overseas - Responsible Statecraft
- US Grand Strategy in the Middle East to Contain China-Peter Lee interview (video) - Carl Zha
Boeing (is aiming for bankruptcy and a government bail-out):
- Hit by strike, Boeing flies in out-of-state janitors, applies furloughs broadly - Seattle Times
- ‘Why We Need Medicare for All’: Boeing Revokes Health Benefits for Striking Workers - Naked Capitalism
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce, stop most 767 production amid strike - Seattle Times
Also:
- Things Don't Always Get Better. - Aurelian
Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread ...
Posted by b on October 13, 2024 at 13:39 UTC | Permalink
next page »Want some good news?
Starship just finished another flight. Nothing short of magic.
Wow. Screwed up as we humans are, some of us can really make wonderful things happen.
What would the world be like if this is what we spent our attention and effort on?
Watch this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuUgLKK_S5k
Maybe you don't like Musk, or space travel, or even "technology".
The transcendent aspect of this event? This is really, really hard, and takes mountains of hope and effort and discipline to do. And it got done.
Don't like rockets? Fine.
Learn to play as a team the way these people can, and then pick your own favorite, wonderful thing to do.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
Mearsheimer's argumnent is that because Israel has gotten its way the majority of times where mad dog Israel and US interests diverge, it follows that USA is led by the mad dog and its lobby contrary to "U.S. interests."
But the ruling factions of nations are constituted and re-constituted over time, and what comprises any one nation's "interests" change accordingly. Much like two once-competing corporations can later merge interests as interlocking directorates form. Superficially the corporations remain "competitors" but behind the scenes the same powerful players have influence on major decisions of the different companies. Price fixing collusion by competitors is another obvious example. You don't even need a literal merger.
We know the 2009 Brookings paper "Which Path to Persia" explicitly examines the possibility of USING mad dog Israel to instigate an Iranian retaliation that might "justify" an American intervention. The paper EXPLICITLY suggest portraying Israel as unhinged and uncontrollable so that US policy makers can maintain plausible deniability. We know that this paper is just one in a long line of hard neoconservative (re: Israeli) policy plans stretching all the way back to Wolfowitz and the clean break. Primacy and full spectrum dominance was always the goal...OVER TIME, the ruling faction within US/UK have been largely reconstituted with those policy makers who at least ideologically conform with Israeli hardliners and who want to use Israel as a proxy for a wedge war against the West Asian BRICS foothold. How Israel or the USA acted/voted etc in the past per Mearsheimer seems to me to be largely irrelevant.
Posted by: TarzanHasYourWife | Oct 13 2024 14:14 utc | 3
An interesting video came across my feed that highlights the failure of the US Civil War Reconstruction. The video examines lynching statistics and foreshadows the difficulties that await after the fighting in Palestine is over.
An Interactive Map Of American Madness ==> https://youtu.be/wqES5b0F35U
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 14:16 utc | 4
10 year Treasury still mysteriously stuck a little above 4%
De-dollarization brings peace my friends.
Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2024 14:19 utc | 5
Craig Murray short sharp eulogy to Alec Salmond who gave Scot’s the self. Spief to set them on the road to independence from the English Crown. And what that Crown did to destroy him in return. Don’t believe the crocodile tears from the British media and politicians they are hypocrites.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/10/alex-salmond-always-my-hero/
It will be done Big Lec.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 13 2024 14:21 utc | 6
Learn to play as a team the way these people can, and then pick your own favorite, wonderful thing to do.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
---
Thanks but no thanks. I've made my experience playing on a team that achieved horrible things.
Learn to recognize a bait and switch scam for what it is.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 14:26 utc | 7
Re: Victims of Communism SS links.
Prior to the spate of vile historical apologism people such as Bandera had the correct place in history, I suggest looking at wikipedia's edit history on his entry for this.
The new man that is idolised is Simon Petliura. Petliura was formerly reviled as the man that sold Ukraine to the Poles during Poland's interwar aggressive expansionism during the Interwar which saw it attack to seize territory from Germany, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and especially Lithuania. Petliura's UNA was so hated that it ended up with only a sliver of Ukraine near the Polish border. He signed an agreement with Józef Piłsudski of Poland who invaded Ukraine, Poland called Ukraine part of the 'Kresy' ('Borderlands') and was to set Petliura up as a puppet ruler. Few went to Petliura's banner and when the Reds recovered and pushed out the Poles Petliura went with them.
It was until recently that Simon Petliura was considered anything but a traitor, an anti-Semite and a foreign puppet. One of the ugliest habits of the USA empire is its fostering of extreme nationalism and the creation of new nationalistic myths.
Posted by: James Lawrie | Oct 13 2024 14:29 utc | 8
Jews are always persecuted.
And Pfotzer shilling for Musk. A new low. Disgusting. Take away the taxpayer contributions and tax / regulations breaks.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 13 2024 14:40 utc | 9
Posted by: DunGroanin | Oct 13 2024 14:21 utc | 6
Thanks for that DG.
Great closing lines from Murray regarding Alec Salmon:"Heaven just got more fun. At
least Alex will never have to worry about seeing his perjured accusers there."
When Craig Murray passes the same lines will apply.
Posted by: waynorinorway | Oct 13 2024 14:45 utc | 10
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
Starship managed to fly 234 km (145 mi) high. In comparison, Yuri Gagarin flew 327 km (203 mi) high in 1961; Apollo 11 carried Armstrong 384,000 km (240,000 mi) away in 1969.
Decay is when you are unable to do what you managed 50 years ago.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 13 2024 14:56 utc | 11
Things Don't Always Get Better. - AurelianI recommend reading the essay (final link in b's post). Lots of truth there.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2024 15:01 utc | 12
@Passerby | Oct 13 2024 14:56 utc | 11
Decay is when you are unable to do what you managed 50 years ago.Precisely my observation as well. I grew up intensely absorbed by the achievements of Apollo, and now 55 years later I just watched the "starship" test #5 (that so far hasn't reached earth orbit) have its fins burn trough on re-entry and crash into the ocean. Then they talk about reusability.
I have to quote myself from the software industry: "To be re-usable it must first be usable"
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2024 15:10 utc | 13
Tom Pfotzer @2:
Breathtaking and truly historic. It is great to see such an affirmation of human potential in these dark times. So many proclaimed it an impossibility, but here we are.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 13 2024 15:43 utc | 14
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 13 2024 15:43 utc | 14
Indeed here we are. William Gruff praising a Washington Post video that entails one billionaire's underpaid over war and wealth worshipping staff praising another billionaire.
Fucked the Earth up? No problem. Total Recall awaits on Mahhhhzz! It's naht a tooomah!!
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 13 2024 15:52 utc | 15
A few rejoinders to the negativity I see directed toward SpaceX's magnificent performance ...
Starship managed to fly 234 km (145 mi) high. In comparison, Yuri Gagarin flew 327 km (203 mi) high in 1961; Apollo 11 carried Armstrong 384,000 km (240,000 mi) away in 1969.Decay is when you are unable to do what you managed 50 years ago.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 13 2024 14:56 utc
Passerby: It wasn't the mission to fly high. The mission was to test the system. Multiple engines, methane-oxygen fuel (avail on Mars), all the design-assembly-test-control systems, and putting the booster back in its cradle.
Let's check back in a year or 2, and we'll see if "decay" has set in. We won't have long to see just how far that space ship can fly.
== and for this little gem:
And Pfotzer shilling for Musk. A new low. Disgusting. Take away the taxpayer contributions and tax / regulations breaks.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 13 2024 14:40 utc
Tom: you couldn't even conceive of, let alone execute on any aspect of what SpaceX just did. Those are some extraordinary people who just did something incredible. And you discount all that due to your politics.
Musk isn't the subject. It's "team-work of dedicated individuals did extraordinary things" ... that's the subject.
And that's the subject which you, just to meet your political bent, decided to not understand.
Politics is what screws stuff up, as too Scents points out in this quote below.
=====
Thanks but no thanks. I've made my experience playing on a team that achieved horrible things.
Learn to recognize a bait and switch scam for what it is.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 14:26 utc
===
I've had some bad experiences in teams, and some really awesome ones. The issue is "what's the team ethos".
So are you saying "all teams are bad"?
If you don't like SpaceX team's ethos, pick a different ethos, and learn to play as a team with _that_ ethos.
We wonder why we can't get stuff done: here's why. Our politics is blinding us, it's paralyzing us, preventing us from accomplishing great things.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 15:53 utc | 16
The Leprechaun writes on a previou thread:
“I highly doubt PeterAu1 has been banned, more than likely on a walkabout. Clears the head, heals the soul.”
— Or his health has taken another turn for the worse; that’s happened before. In any case a cursory search of the site shows that the claim that all his comments werecwiped is, well, false.
“Open Question. Does b have a banned posters list. How does one know who has been banned or is it just a guess from lack of posts by any one poster.”
— It’s just a guess. The site owner posts no such lists, nor does he inform us when a particular user has been banned. (Most banned users return anyway, which makes one question the efficacy of banning given the appalling primitivity of the site’s software.)
Posted by: malenkov | Oct 13 2024 16:05 utc | 17
thanks b... and thank you to the many fine posters who contribute so much to my growth and insights in the moment..
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 16:08 utc | 18
So are you saying "all teams are bad"?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 15:53 utc | 16
---
I'm saying I worked in an amazing team of talented individuals that achieved profoundly bad things because they were blinded by the chance to pursue new technology.
Musk's rocket is stupid. Its a halo project for the hyper-rich. A bigger boot to lick.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 16:11 utc | 19
Tom_Q_Collins @15:
Nah, western civilization fucked the world up. You (the collective "you" of western society) have all of the answers right in front of you, but refuse to do what needs to be done. Stand about wringing hands over the plight of the poor Palestinians, or migrants, or victims of Nazis in the Ukraine, or fentanyl zombies, or lumpenized ghetto thugs, but do nothing to move humanity to where these issues can be resolved. The plunge towards Dark Ages mkII has only accelerated for all efforts of the contemporary western "left".
Musk and his team are doing things, and succeeding. It might not be what you want done, but then what are you doing for the things you want done? Do you even have a vision; an idea of what you want to see in humanity's future, not to mention a realistic way of getting there?
The Soviets had a vision, but Stalin beat it out of them. The Chinese have a vision, but that is mostly for the Chinese. Rainbow colored ponies for everyone is not a realistic vision, so that pretty much leaves the West with Musk's vision.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 13 2024 16:17 utc | 20
Boy, the last essay is a sure TL;DR. Not to say I won't read it, but will have to print it out.
Although it did mention the left's disillusionment with unfettered immigration and how the neoliberals think anyone who brings up the issue of immigration is a "hard right."
Coming from a Catholic understanding of the world, even from the Doctors of the Church, we understand how slow immigration must be to not allow enclaves to form of one's prior culture in the new, majority one.
One should keep a remnant of their old culture, certainly, but to abuse the host's generosity by spitting into the soup is something that will reap a whirlwind someday and that day is quickly approaching.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 16:19 utc | 21
Thank you, b, and a good Sunday morning to everyone here! I have just begun reading with the Gilbert Doctorow article, and, setting my own sunroom station for the coming winter it was a good beginning. The Doctorow article is spare, but generous to readers such as myself. I absolutely recommend it. Now, on to my second crumpet!
Posted by: juliania | Oct 13 2024 16:43 utc | 22
Thanks b.
Some, forest for the trees, food for thought, further to a previous thematic post(Oct 12 2024 20:39 utc):
Israel IS doomed, and will be abandoned by Empire.
Israel only started on a path as a pampered expendable proxy of Empire only after the Fall of former primary proxy in the ME, Pahlavi Iran, and only minimally. '73 Yom Kippur was a limited Cold War proxy conflict between Empire/US & then USSR.
See: Iranian Revolution, prelude, aftermath, consequences. Previous status & role & relationship re Iran/US/UK as its most privileged Military Proxy in the ME.
Only after the unsuccessful utilization by Empire of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, through the slaughter & horror of the Iran-Iraq war (Ukraine is a redux) did Empire via US/UK/NATO & suborned Arab puppet rulers, then begin to transfer to Israel as a probable next primary expendable proxy.
See: Iran-Iraq war, 1980-1988.
Note: PRC became essentially an Iranian co-belligerent, arming and assisting Iran throughout the War, and ever since. A de facto, undeclared, low profile ally since 1980. Think on it.
Post peace treaty, 'cause Saddam refused to do a Zelensky with Iraq, when Iraq pulled on the leash & went rogue, had to be put down.
See: Invasion of Iraq I & II, subsequent Iraq War.
Ultimately a failure alongside Afghanistan War (Target ting USSR/'Stans/yet especially PRC), further shifting focus to Israel.
Israel minor wars & conflicts post '73 supported by Empire yet not major 'interest'.
Oct 7 '23 opening of hostilities is Empire enacted/protected/sponsored move due utter failure of Ukraine Proxy war, imminent conclusion.
Israel is expendable ... just as for all the rest ...
Empire, Global/transnational, not US vassal, only has 'Interests'.
See the forest beyond the trees, ignore the great wurlitzer & smothering distractions & ever present propaganda.
To misquote: Events matter, dear boy. Events!
Recall history folks & especially:
(1) to what Empires long term strategic Purpose/Objective
(2) Cui Bono ?
Empire never truly risks, mano a mano, a near peer, full peer, multi-peer contestation, that could result in conclusive utter defeat/collapse. Always refuses the gauntlet, and withdraws from the field.
Though now is Empire not only, naked & out of ordnance, with an extraordinarily incompetent & expensive yard workskop substituting for a nation State tech/industrial base/s, and only 25% of, ie US, possible enlistees let alone potentially draftees even minimally combat capable, historically a confirmed coward.
See: Brave, Brave Sir Robin. (Youtube)
PS further to previous posts on same theme:
US response, consequences, to '83 Lebanon barracks bombing, in response to direct engagement on the ground re Israel invasion ... bubkiss & withdrawal.
PPS Dougie MacArthur, Korean War, travesty of UN Command in Korea(still extant!) vs damned pinko commies in China: No Nukes for You! Oh, and, you're fired! ;)
History, most definitely, does indeed appear to, rhyme ...
2c is up
Peace Salaam Shalom
i just finished reading an 8 page pdf and i'd like to share the concluding remarks from it..
The EU at War: After Two Years
Wolfgang Streeck1
Accepted: 3 July 2024 / Published online: 18 July 2024
"How will the three alternative New World Orders 2.0 and
their associated European futures be sorted out? Unfortunately from a European perspective, this will be decided
almost entirely by the United States. It is for its political and
military elites and its domestic politics to choose between a
long bloody struggle in a bipolar world for a return to unipolarity, on the one hand, and, on the other, a new role for
the United States as one global citizen among others. As to
Europe, Germany in particular will have to choose between
transatlantic Nibelungentreue and membership as a midsized
European power in a world striving to become blockfrei — a
world of non-alignment. Here the problem, or better: one of
many problems, is that today’s Germany, unlike France, has
no tradition of strategic thinking about its national interests.
This may result in German policy seeking to fudge the issue,
to muddle through by trying to serve two masters at the same
time, the United States and France: displaying transatlantic
loyalty to satisfy the former and pan-European enthusiasm
to appease the latter, while looking out for arising multipolar
opportunities, especially for its export industries. Whatever
this may lead to, it is unlikely to result in a stable European
order."
The EU at War: After Two Years
Wolfgang Streeck1
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 16:55 utc | 24
@ Outraged | Oct 13 2024 16:52 utc | 23
thanks outraged.. that was a good 2c worth... i agree with you..
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 17:05 utc | 25
@Tom Pfotzer
You do realize that methane burns into CO2 - and that both methane and CO2 are massive greenhouse gases, right?
Why is it that these awful greenhouse gases are bad when they are used to heat houses, but are just fine when sending things into space?
One Starship launch uses about 50 million cubic feet of methane.
This is "only" 650 households' annual consumption of natural gas in Texas.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2024 17:06 utc | 26
@17 Ma
Most unbanned 'users' return as well, so there must be something primitively efficient about the site software also.
'Users' is a funny term though. How about 'contributors' or 'commentators' or 'writers' or just 'people' ?
https://nordspark.wordpress.com/2022/04/28/why-we-should-replace-user-with-human/
I am not a robot ✓
Beep.
Posted by: Ornot | Oct 13 2024 17:19 utc | 27
Topping everything, [thank you, b], is Arundhati Roy's speech. Here, one further excerpt:
"...To assuage their collective guilt for their early years of indifference towards one genocide – the Nazi extermination of millions of European Jews – the United States and Europe have prepared the grounds for another..."
Posted by: juliania | Oct 13 2024 17:37 utc | 28
This is "only" 650 households' annual consumption of natural gas in Texas.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2024 17:06 utc | 26
---
I ran the numbers with data from https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/data/2020/state/pdf/State%20consumption.pdf and found starship consumption in agreement at 648 annuals households for US average consumption.
With the caveat the CH4 liquification and refrigeration is perfectly efficient. It takes ~10% to liquefy CH4, so 713 annual households before pumping and transportation losses.
Overall probably closer to 750 annual households total energy consumption. That seems to good to be true. I must be missing something.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 17:37 utc | 29
Outraged 23:
Good piece.
Rome did try near Peer with Persia and lost. Emperor Valerian became a horse mounting block i recall after his capture. The Persian's seem to have watched the empires come and go and still stand: the Macedonian, Roman, Mongol, etc. etc.
Posted by: Cavery | Oct 13 2024 17:41 utc | 30
Re “decay”, I’m a civil engineer in CA. I can tell you that normal things we used to take for granted doing decades ago are next to impossible to get done these days without Herculean effort.
For example, building the SF Bay bridge was done in about one year in the 1930s … repairing just a section of it took about fifteen years and ungodly cost. More familiar to me, we built a 200 foot high earth dam in 1950 in one year. The dam does not meet current standards and needs to be rebuilt. Well, the rebuild has taken more than twenty years and will cost five times its original projected cost. It’s like this everywhere you look.
The problem is partly environmental laws, partly lack of can-do spirit, but mostly a middle management professional culture where form is praised far over wisdom and results … the modern management society.
Posted by: Caliman | Oct 13 2024 17:44 utc | 31
@c1ue | Oct 13 2024 17:06 utc
That's a legit objection to starship.
If SpaceX sets up a bunch of solar panels to synthesize CH4 from CO2 and water (they're right there on the coast, got plenty water, plenty sun), then SpaceX can address that problem.
Furthermore, that synthesize CH4 from water and CO2 issue is a wide-spread human problem that has multiple re-use opportunities. If I recall, we've discussed this many a time before.
CH4 is an excellent "energy-carrier" molecule, has many other purposes beyond fuel; it can be further synthesized into many useful compounds.
The question, of course, is where the CH4 comes from. Is it formerly-sequestered carbon, or recycled carbon?
But your point is valid, c1ue.
BTW, good to see you posting here @ MoA. You're a galactic pain in the ass, and we're glad you're here.
Cheers.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 17:47 utc | 32
Apollo 11 carried Armstrong 384,000 km (240,000 mi) away in 1969.
Decay is when you are unable to do what you managed 50 years ago.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 13 2024 14:56 utc | 11
No one has ever been in outer space beyond the Van Allen belt, anywhere further than a space station. All the material from the Apollo flight is laughably bad Hollywood garbage, and there are websites where you can see for your own eyes how there are hanging ceiling panels in space above the lander, the sun is pasted into photos with a rectangle of film around it, the lunar mountains shift places, the rover doesn't fit into the lander, the stairs in the photos are completely different size from the lander, the boots leave the wrong footprints, etc.
That is if anyone even needed any other evidence than there being zero stars in any of the photos, even though anyone who's been on a tall mountain knows how bright stars are already up there.
Just look at those three astronauts in press conferences after they came back. Have you ever seen anyone look more guilty, afraid and sickened to the bone by what they'd done?
Plus there's the rather obvious issue that all the billionaires would have been to the moon already if it was possible. They have the necessary money to shoot a pod there a hundred times over, and the narcissism, and the hysteria and hunger to do every thing they can before they die, and the need to show us that they can. But they can't go through the Van Allen belt.
Apart from that, agreed with everything you wrote.
Musk though has as much vision for humanity as bill gates, and as much technical skill. One supposedly coded an operating system in a garage, the other made superior batteries—by cutting off the metal connector at the end to make it 5% smaller and thus 5% more energy dense. Sounds idiotic? Well, because it is. Both are just figureheads set up from the beginning with US government money to create technocracy. Bill might actually know programming, Elon definitely has zero technical skill of any sort. He just knows how to spin to people the launching of a hellish amount of junk into orbit that is for nothing but surveillance and technocracy. Yuvah Noal Harari could do the same job, he's just a bit too slimy for even the average person.
Posted by: Michael A | Oct 13 2024 17:48 utc | 33
@Michael A | Oct 13 2024 17:48 utc | 33
No one has ever been in outer space beyond the Van Allen beltWe don't need this kind of uneducated nonsense.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2024 17:53 utc | 34
Banality of Evil.
CIA Boosts China Recruiting Effort to Exploit Discontent ...Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › cia-boost...
2 Oct 2024 — The Central Intelligence Agency is boosting its efforts to recruit Chinese citizens as it seeks to capitalize on what US officials say is growing discontent ...
Posted by: denk | Oct 13 2024 17:56 utc | 35
@too scents | Oct 13 2024 16:11 utc, who said:
I'm saying I worked in an amazing team of talented individuals that achieved profoundly bad things because they were blinded by the chance to pursue new technology.
Musk's rocket is stupid. Its a halo project for the hyper-rich. A bigger boot to lick.
Same thing happened to me, and more than once, too scents. So, we agree that some people are just jerks, and sometimes it takes a little while to figure it out.
Musk's rocket might end up being stupid if it's used to do stupid things.
We'll see what it actually gets used for. Musk works in the context of the West, and specifically under the thumb of the same people that *&^%-up our foreign, economic, and environmental policy.
So I am not real confident of "what it ultimately gets used for" and - if you're saying "there are better, more immediate uses of all that engineering talent" - then we're in agreement.
I can think of several "better" uses right off the bat, but ... that's _my_ politics, right?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 17:56 utc | 36
So I am not real confident of "what it ultimately gets used for" and - if you're saying "there are better, more immediate uses of all that engineering talent" - then we're in agreement.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 17:56 utc | 36
---
Drinking beer is a better use of engineering talent than stroking Musk's vainglory.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 13 2024 18:00 utc | 37
An addendum to the previous: I'm sure people could go to the moon if they were protected by enough lead or some other radiation shield. But so far no Chinese, Russians or anyone else seems to want to try, or the amount of shielding needed is impossible or not worth getting up there. And I guess you'd have to stay in the shield on the moon too. No fun walks outside.
Why no country comes out and talks about this, and instead keeps up the moon landing lie, is a mystery, and disturbing. But come on, no Chinese people on the moon to at least survey the minerals? When launching unmanned probes and landers to even further planets is rather trivial by now? No, my guess is people can't survive the radiation and that's that for now. I can't see any other reason why nothing that goes into outer space has people inside.
Posted by: Michael A | Oct 13 2024 18:03 utc | 38
American Moon highly recommended for anyone still in the grip of moon trip fantasy's.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7794734/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_americas%2520moon
Posted by: qparker | Oct 13 2024 18:14 utc | 39
We don't need this kind of uneducated nonsense.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2024 17:53 utc | 34
I think I insulted your intelligence. Or your cult beliefs? Your reply sounds the same as a typical person when you suggest that the covid vaccine could be dangerous or that 9/11 was a setup — what a horrible, horrible thing to doubt the government and the accepted truth.
Now go ask NASA (set up with nazis saved from Germany) how it's possible that absolutely every single piece of film from this grandest of all human achievements has mysteriously been "overwritten" or thrown away? Hm?
You can also explain how examining the Apollo photos available online with your own eyes is somehow "uneducated"?
Now to be clear: those photos could be faked. I could be wrong. The astronauts could have been just under stress and not lying through their teeth. all the film, despite having likely more collection value than anything else on earth, could have been reused to film office parties at NASA, or I could have been scammed and you can actually still find the film and examine it. The tinfoil piece of shit might withstand vacuum. It could be. I'll be a fool, but your instant herd response was stupid.
Posted by: Michael A | Oct 13 2024 18:19 utc | 40
Posted by: qparker | Oct 13 2024 18:14 utc | 39
Much obliged. I'm off now from filling up the thread, time to cook dinner.
Posted by: Michael A | Oct 13 2024 18:21 utc | 41
USAss
Owner of the teflon club, aka the licensed to kill franchise.
[Very exclusive club.
Member are given a free hand killing even anglo/euro, often with a helping hand from Washington !]
China is our teflon enemy !
https://www.evangelinetoday.com/editorial-columns/china-our-teflon-enemy
Posted by: denk | Oct 13 2024 18:23 utc | 42
Posted by: Cavery | Oct 13 2024 17:41 utc | 30 " The Persian's seem to have watched the empires come and go and still stand: the Macedonian, Roman, Mongol, etc. etc."
In one sense this is completely trivial, just another example of decadent westerners repeatedly overcome by the manlier, non-woke "traditional" cultures that still have integrity? But this is in other ways completely typical. Whatever the agenda promoted (openly or covertly) uses very strange statements purported to be facts.
The Macedonians' won, and Persian weren't independent of the Macedonian Seleucid dynasty until over a century later. And the Mongols ruled nearly a century.
The long period from about 100 BC till the eighth century was two different empires, each based on a different people in Iran. They were at least related, I grant.
The Romans never conquered Persia, contesting largely Armenia (much larger then than today) and very briefly Mesopotamia, hence their inclusion is peculiar.
On the other hand, the Sunni Abbasids (generally deemed Arabs) rule Persia for close to two centuries, before part of Persia/Iraq separated under the Buyid dynasty. Hence, their omission is peculiar.
The medieval period did have a long period of Persian unity and independence under the Safavids, to be sure. Along the centuries a number of Turks, like the Seljuks, held sway, so they could have been said to come and go?
Timur, the Turkish-Mongol conqueror, conquered Persia and left it to his son.
Overall this is not quite as wrong as those people who think Alexander failed to conquer Afghanistan.
Lessons from history treated as one of Aesop's fables, with a neat little moral are overall as plausible as any talking animal story.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 13 2024 18:35 utc | 43
Thanks b. The piece by Aurelien2022 is excellent. This especially resonated:
We have to bear in mind that Liberalism is a teleological belief, with a strong eschatological component. That is to say it moves ever forward towards some future goal, when the righteous shall be saved and the evil-doers punished. Liberalism is, of course, a Christian heresy, where The Market has taken the place of the Grace of God which passeth all understanding. Thus, apparent contradictions and apparent negative effects will all be put right by the magical hand of The Market, given enough time. This, more than anything else, accounts for the violence and the moral fervour with which competing ideologies are denounced, and even of dialogue or debate itself. The problem, inevitably, is that Liberalism isn’t based on any coherent set of principles or beliefs, so instead, we have a series of competing and often mutually detesting groupuscules all seeking greater freedom and power for themselves, and trying to secure their share of funding and media attention.
Posted by: Patroklos | Oct 13 2024 18:48 utc | 44
To make a rocket stage re-usable, you need to carry additional fuel, to brake the descent. The weight of this additional fuel increases the cost of the launch. In normal circumstances this additional cost makes re-using the booster not affordable.
However, assume you are asked to put so many satellites in orbit that there is no time to construct new rockets.
That's the case with Starlink. Starlink requires thousands of satellites in orbit. For that number of satellites, re-using the booster may well be the only viable option.
Maybe a re-used booster is a little bit less reliable. But assume that you are mass-producing satellites on an assembly line, so cheap that occasionally losing a few satellites due to a launch going wrong is an acceptable risk.
In those circumstances re-using the booster makes sense. But this requires the deep pockets of a government agency. Starlink is used to provide internet to Ukraine. That is not a commercial venture. Twitter / Space-X / Starlink is a vertically integrated a color revolution. Visiting other planets is a nice cover story.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 13 2024 18:49 utc | 45
Michael A | Oct 13 2024 18:19 utc
Beat me to it. You could have also mentioned how NASA has forgotten the tech to go to the moon, even though many examples of the tech are on display.
There is also the wonderful tale of a US coast guard boat (minus its gun) travelling to Murmansk to collect a "dummy" command module.
Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Oct 13 2024 19:00 utc | 46
The Party That Cannot Tell You What A Woman is, Mad Men Will Not Vote For Them. https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/the-party-that-cannot-tell-you-what
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Oct 13 2024 19:02 utc | 47
Arundhati Roy,
"Exposing Western hyporisy - how much more exposed can they be? Which decent human being on Earth harbours any illusions about it? These are people whose histories are spongy with the blood of others. Colonialism, apartheid, slavery, ethnic cleansing, germ warfare, chemical weapons - they virtually invented it all. They have plundered nations, snuffed out civilisations, exterminated entire populations. They stand on the world's stage stark naked but entirely unembarrassed, because they know that they have more money, more food and bigger bombs than anybody else"Things").
GHOSTS OF A GENOCIDE:
Posted by: denk | Oct 13 2024 19:13 utc | 48
@ Caliman | Oct 13 2024 17:44 utc | 31
thanks for your and @ 11 passerby's comment which are very related.. maybe human development doesn't go in a straight line up, but instead weaves up and down? it appears that way to me at present..
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 19:48 utc | 51
@ Passerby | Oct 13 2024 14:56 utc | 11
@ Norwegian | Oct 13 2024 15:10 utc | 13
@ Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 13 2024 15:52 utc | 15
Concur, Salut.
@ Ornot | Oct 13 2024 17:19 utc | 27
I am not a robot ✓
Beep.
Am supposed to take ya word for it ? ;)
@ Caliman | Oct 13 2024 17:44 utc | 31
Absolutely, without question! "Project Managers" with zero qualifications & nil practical 'hands on' experience in the relevant field. Merely one example/aspect. Salut
@ steven t johnson | Oct 13 2024 18:35 utc | 43
How about quite recent historical events, actions & consequences, over the last 75 odd years, referred, hm ?
@ Passerby | Oct 13 2024 18:49 utc | 45
Quite. And by design in co-operation with Pentagon & DARPA, has significant redundancy re actual system failure. Unles an opponent simply turns lower earth orbit & Orbital ISR/Comms/targetting realy into a manmade micro-asteroid belt, fer starters. Musk is a Deep State 'Realist' faction member.
@ Dogon Priest | Oct 13 2024 19:02 utc | 47
Whatabout 'Real women', especially actual 'Feminists' ?
b, you have a great site, but stop with that “from the river to the sea” shit. You will drown in that river and Israel will still live! F..ck all antisemites!
Posted by: History Guy | Oct 13 2024 19:56 utc | 53
I have a original roll of film from the Hasselblad cameras from Apollo 8 CSM. Sure looks real to me. We found it in my Father’s stuff after he passed away. He was a Engineer on the CSM in the 1960s.
Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2024 20:18 utc | 54
Michael A @38
How did the retro reflectors get to the Moon then?
These are still active today and allow astronomers to measure the distance between Earth and the Moon by aiming a laser at the retro reflectors and measuring the return time.
The astronauts did receive a dose of radiation.
The radiation belt is like weather. It is possible to chart a course through it like a pilot avoids the worst of a storm.
The possible advers effects of radiation are probabilistic. They agreed to take the risk.
They did infact report the effects of radiation that manifested as flashes of light within the eye. The eye acting as a biological bubble chamber of sorts. An experiment in and of itself.
I do agree with you regarding the press conference.
Maybe they were just tired?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI_ZehPOMwI&pp=ygUdRmlyc3QgYXBvbGxvIHByZXNzIGNvbmZlcmVuY2U%3D
Posted by: Zippy& bungle | Oct 13 2024 20:24 utc | 55
… b, you have a great site, but stop with that “from the river to the sea” shit. You will drown in that river and Israel will still live!….
Errr - B. Is just quoting the 1977 Likud Charter which mentions from-the-river-to-the-sea as Israel’s boundries. btw it’s unclear which river and which seas the Likud meant, but Smotirch kinda made it clear yesterday :)
Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2024 20:25 utc | 56
Posted by: History Guy | Oct 13 2024 19:56 utc | 53
> b, you have a great site, but stop with that “from the river to the sea” shit. You will drown in that river and Israel will still live! F..ck all antisemites!
Posted by: hopehely | Oct 13 2024 20:27 utc | 57
@History Guy, #53 (1--13; 19:56 UTC):
I don't know how old b is nor how vulnerable he is to the recent medical conditions he just fought throw, but I optimistically surmise that he has at least 10-20 years of staying away from being drowned to look forward to.
Israel, on the other hand, looks to be on the path to be exterminated from the River to the Sea within the next decade, or 2 at the most. This is based not on how cocky and mighty they presently seem to be at the moment, but on how fast the Empire with its vassals and ME elfs in tow are deteriorating and self-destructing. Without the security blanket and the material support the big mouths in Tel Aviv are not superior to whom they are locking horns with. Those support is fast disappearing.
Yeah, as an old time civil engineer above said, it now takes 15 years to fix a segment of the Bay Bridge the whole of which took only one year to construct way back then. He is only lamenting the obvious; what haven't been exposed under the sun during the past 1, 2 decades here in the Empire-Land are actually much worse--in technologies, medicine, bureaucracies, and people's plain intellect. You probably live here in this Empire-Land so I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
The worst part of what is happening here is the deterioration of morality in the general society. The Jewish mentality has quite thoroughly infected throughout this Empire-Land.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 13 2024 20:31 utc | 58
Israel is a cannibal state- it lives by devouring other peoples and their states. The choice is between Israel and humanity.
As every day reveals, in stark relief, to support Israel is to promote murder and theft. This is settler colonialism as bad as any practised in Canada or the USA but equipped with weapons of mass destruction beyond anything ever available to or even conceived of by earlier practitioners.
Either Israel is destroyed or mankind is.
To conflate humanism and morality with anti-semitism is extraordinary- and most Jews in the West know it.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 13 2024 20:34 utc | 59
@44 patroklos
As I wrote in a prior thread, humanism/liberalism is just Catholicism minus the sacred.
And because liberalism has made the fundamental error of non-acknowledgement of the need for the sacred, it risks sinking back into the false transcendence of scapegoating, which was the hallmark of the original religions.
Indeed, what you say about the apex of liberalism being the acknowledgement that all non-believers are anathema is the scapegoating process writ large.
It will continue to pat itself on the back in that eschatological darkness that has its goal in the total eclipse of Christian revelation.
Folks, I will just keep saying it: you hate religion without realizing you are all acolytes of it. Christianity is an anti-religion as it holds in check the terrible tendency of humans to spill innocent blood.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 20:38 utc | 60
The choice is between Israel and humanity.
Either Israel is destroyed or mankind is.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 13 2024 20:34 utc | 59
A simple truth. Thanks, Bevin.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Oct 13 2024 20:49 utc | 61
well said bevin and oriental voice.. thanks to you both...
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 20:55 utc | 62
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 20:38 utc | 60
See: Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), extermination of designated/declared 'heretical' Cathars in southern France, well, actually for plunder & territory, for the French crown & the Vatican.
Which, through time, gave us, in modern parlance re the original latin as instructed by the Popes Plenipotentiary:
"Kill 'em all, Dog will sort 'em out".
From Arundhati Roy's PEN award acceptance speech:
Not all the power and money, not all the weapons and propaganda on earth can any longer hide the wound that is Palestine. The wound through which the whole world, including Israel, bleeds.
Indeed. Even Israel is bleeding from the genocide it's committing. And it will bleed much, much more.
Posted by: Cyrus | Oct 13 2024 21:07 utc | 64
More Arundhati Roy:
Polls show that a majority of the citizens in the countries whose governments enable the Israeli genocide have made it clear that they do not agree with this. We have watched those marches of hundreds of thousands of people – including a young generation of Jews who are tired of being used, tired of being lied to. Who would have imagined that we would live to see the day when German police would arrest Jewish citizens for protesting against Israel and Zionism and accuse them of anti-Semitism?
(Emphasis mine.)
Posted by: Cyrus | Oct 13 2024 21:14 utc | 65
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 20:38 utc | 60
> As I wrote in a prior thread, humanism/liberalism is just Catholicism minus the sacred.
No. Liberalism is inspired by Greek philosophy, mostly Protagoras (man is measure of all things) and Epicurus (the pursuit of happiness).
The core myths of liberalism, namely myth of free will and the myth of an individual are not from Christianity.
Posted by: hopehely | Oct 13 2024 21:19 utc | 66
Cyrus | Oct 13 2024 21:07 utc | 64
Cyrus | Oct 13 2024 21:14 utc | 65
Oops, both of these posts were by me.
Posted by: Cyril | Oct 13 2024 21:19 utc | 67
Darn, some deranged loner just tried to shoot Trump again.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 13 2024 21:42 utc | 68
@63 Outraged
For me, it's easy to use the phrase the Fullness of Time. I know what it means and can recite this to myself whenever someone brings up something evil about my past or the Catholic Church.
For you, where is your Church? The U.N., the U.S.S.R., liberalism, feminism, Switzerland?
Justice?
If only I could feel so good about myself to think that everyone else is wrong.
It is easy for you to go on the attack having no flag for me to identify you.
Keep me from becoming a fool who will not accept thy chastisement, or a rebellious fool who is unwilling to accept thy chastisement, a fool who is unwilling to accept it for his blessing, or a rebellious fool who wants to accept it for his perdition.~ Soren Kierkegaard
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 22:09 utc | 69
@ NemesisCalling | Oct 13 2024 22:09 utc | 69
Hm ... You're mistaken.
No offense, nor attack was intended, re your person, values, beliefs, whatsoever. No mockery, nor disrespect. If you have taken offense or are offended, I apologize. Your response and comments to me ? Will disregard, as mispercieved. No harm, no foul. No hard, nor even strong feelings. IMV case of misconception, mispercieved intent. I have another cheek. ;)
outraged@23
thank you for your 2cents!
re: prc & iran during the eighties. i remember rumours of the prc aiding iran. iran was so abjectly isolated, fighting the impossible fight against empire, furious & hell bent to reclaim ITS lost dominion & ITS oil, unleashing chemical biowarfare, nukes a probable ace. & then rumours began flying from wildly different sources: rabid anti commies & from the opposite side old stalinists & mourning maoists. ussr reeling. deng quiet, inscrutable. i hope you might share how you viewed iran/iraq & china, many people starving & yet seeing far & away to stretch its reach across a forgotten trail to revive a storied silk road & hope for the rest of humanity.
Posted by: emersonreturn | Oct 13 2024 23:31 utc | 71
ZH has a posting up withthe title
Worsening Geopolitical Conditions Could Have "Far-Reaching Effects" On Human History: JPMorgan CEO
the quotes
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, warned Friday that “treacherous” geopolitical conditions might have a profound impact on the global economy and “the course of history.”“There is significant human suffering, and the outcome of these situations could have far-reaching effects on both short-term economic outcomes and more importantly on the course of history,” Dimon said in the bank’s third-quarter results release.
He said his bank has been “closely monitoring the geopolitical situation for some time, and recent events show that conditions are treacherous and getting worse.”
...
“Iran, North Korea and Russia, I think you can legitimately call them [an] evil axis,” he told reporters at the Financial Markets Quality Conference in Washington in September, referring to a term that was first used by former President George W. Bush to describe Iraq under then-leader Saddam Hussein, Iran, and North Korea.Aside from geopolitical tensions, Dimon said Friday that U.S. inflation is slowing down and the economy has been resilient. But he cautioned that “several critical issues remain, including large fiscal deficits, infrastructure needs, restructuring of trade, and remilitarization of the world.”
Jamie Dimon leads the most corrupt private financial institution in the world and I noticed that Dimon excluded China in his axis of evil group. Why would he do this when the public system of finance of China is his biggest threat?
Treacherous are the actions of the God Of Mammon cult for centuries and now/finally they are being challenged and I hope brought to social justice in a manner that helps our species evolve away from barbarism and patriarchy in the process.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 14 2024 0:05 utc | 72
Darn, some deranged loner just tried to shoot Trump again.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 13 2024 21:42 utc | 68
Waiting to see how they pin this on Iran.
Posted by: Suresh | Oct 14 2024 0:10 utc | 73
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
Many of the hot button topics are replete with examples of capitalist thinking. The financialization of the American economy in pursuit of greater profit by offshoring manufacturing to other nations. Capitalists ignoring climate change because its negative outcomes take many decades to manifest themselves, then being shocked when rising temperature and extreme weather events devastate crops and livestock.
On the topic of COVID and vaccines, I have mentioned before how capitalists prefer having a large population of patients paying for expensive treatments for post-COVID issues over a smaller population due to higher vaccination rates and other mitigation measures. Some may mistakenly think that this is a case of capitalists exhibiting the ability for long-term thinking. It isn't. Healthy workers are the most productive workers. Workers saddled with post-COVID health issues are not. The capitalists harm themselves by harming the workers.
The capitalists' rapacious pursuit of capital accumulation inevitably plants the seed of the capitalists' own destruction as a class.
Their destruction is assured, but what isn't assured is the manner of their destruction. Without conflict from within the imperial core, the core is very much an unassailable fortress, and many proletarians might have to be sacrificed when the Empire lashes out in its death throes. The capitalists could very well take down the whole world with them via nuclear annihilation. If the capitalists' end is assured, then the capitalists would assure the end of all other classes too.
Russia, Iran, China, etc. are pursuing policies that can be described as a gentle letdown. The goal is to starve the beast. Weaken it so that the beast cannot go off and plunder others, but not to the extent where the beast feels cornered or that it's facing mortal danger. As imperial loot dries up, the contradictions in the West will hopefully be sharpened to the point where the worker aristocrats feel that their own capitalist class is an easier, softer target than another imperial adventure in some faraway land that will inevitably end in failure.
“No War but the Class War.”
Some read the slogan as encouraging the proletariat to not engage in any war except for the class war. Others see it as recognizing that all wars hiterto have been class wars.
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Oct 14 2024 0:24 utc | 74
re: recent events show that conditions are treacherous and getting worse.
from Naked Capitalism
‘Why We Need Medicare for All’: Boeing Revokes Health Benefits for Striking Workers
“Boeing’s greed offers another perfect example of why we need Medicare for All,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media. “Like other wealthy countries we must guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child as a human right, not a job benefit. Whether you’re on strike or not, everyone is entitled to healthcare.”//
. . .And lets take another look of the $880B Pentagon budget.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 14 2024 0:50 utc | 75
I'm pleased to see others pushing back at probably the most outrageous claim nemesis has made out of many ridiculous pro-xtian claims he has made in here over the years and that is "humanism/liberalism is just Catholicism minus the sacred" such gall imagining he could get away with such a claim in here.
I suggest anyone who has an interest in the subject take a gander at Humanist Lives of Classical Philosophers and the Idea of Renaissance Secularization
The paragraph above the paper's forward tells us that in essence xtianity imitated philosophic humanism when xtianity first established among jewish slaves in Rome.
"Humanists seeking to defend the classics in Christian-dominated Europe often reframed ancient philosophers as virtuous proto-Christians. This is particularly visible in the biographical paratexts written for printed editions of ancient philosophers such as Pythagoras, Epictetus and Democritus, whose humanist editors' Christianizing claims grew longer over time. Pious humanists intended and expected the classics to strengthen and reaffirm Christian Orthodoxy, but humanists' own claims that pre-Christian sages, by the light of reason alone, had deduced the central truths of theology and surpassed Christians in the exercise of virtue inadvertantly undermined the necessity of scripture and paved the way for later deism."
In fact I would go further and say that the histories I have read about the Reformation led me to conclude that the Catholic church obstructed, excommunicated humanist philosophers within its church. Initially many of the renaissance era humanists published and preached within the structure of the Church. They didn't leave the church, the church left them when those researching and publishing the humanist beliefs central to early christianity were declared to be heretics and executed.
Saying humanism comes from the catholic church is like saying a man-eating shark is human merely because it shits pieces of humans periodically.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 14 2024 0:58 utc | 76
Some read the slogan as encouraging the proletariat to not engage in any war except for the class war. Others see it as recognizing that all wars hiterto have been class wars.
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Oct 14 2024 0:24 utc | 74
"Free Market" == "Eat or be eaten".
And thus they are all obsessed with their war with each other.
All the good old US manufacturing names exist only as part of somebodies portfolio or not at all today.
It's no way to run a country.
Class was is the only war that matters.
Thank you for your comment.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 14 2024 1:19 utc | 77
@bevin | Oct 13 2024 20:34 utc | 59
Either Israel is destroyed or mankind is.To conflate humanism and morality with anti-semitism is extraordinary- and most Jews in the West know it.
The issue before us is greater than the mere state of Israel, it is the founding myth and ethos of "The Chosen" that must be destroyed.
Posted by: majoab | Oct 14 2024 1:25 utc | 78
Simplicius seems to think if he puts articles behind a paywall it will "keep off unneeded eyes" as the current censorship regime has him spooked. It may keep very broke trolls away but not the monitors he fears.
the launch?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
Posted by: Debbie | Oct 14 2024 1:44 utc | 80
the launch?
then pick your own favorite, wonderful thing to do.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
Another civilization ending waste of limited energy and resources we can ill afford to spend on childish egotistical ambitions of Psychopaths - the greedy capitalists sitting in board rooms across the US and the world.
The wonderful thing I want to do is to destroy SpaceX and NASA and impoverish insane psychos like Elon Musk for life and many more on top. These dysfunctional psychopaths deserve the Napoleon treatment of being banned to a desert island excommunicated for the rest of the world until they perish.
I pray this is coming for them all very soon, including for those rank fools who promote them as awe inspiring "mountains of hope and effort" instead of the anti-human anti-life criminals they really are. .
Posted by: Debbie | Oct 14 2024 1:45 utc | 81
Alex Salmond. RIP.
In tribute and recognition.
Australia has a Scots-born, but now 100% Aussie-icon-Legend, Jimmy Barnes.
He became genuine good friends with another Scots-born, much loved and admired Aussie celebrity chef, Jock Zonfrillo. (I say “genuine” friends because in celebrity-entertainment there’s genuine friends, friends, people who want to be your friend, people you need to consider themselves friends, … right through to people you hate with an intergalactic force, but whom you publicly proclaim as friends…)
Jimmy and Jock, while separated by age, bonded over extremely difficult childhoods in Scotland and Australia.
Jock, having battled and beaten youthful drug addiction and other demons, finally found himself a celebrity on the top-rating reality television program in its genre… a cooking competition show.
At the height of his career, with the very best example of a model-gorgeous trophy wife by his side, two photogenic young children, and all the “toys”, a Sydney beachfront mansion, cars, media appearances and endorsements everywhere …. He decided to cash in his Ticket on Life.
No-one ever understands why someone with Everything to Live For decides to quit permanently. So many people with terminal illness, with their expiration date rapidly approaching, want nothing more than a few more months or, preferably, …years.
Suicide is something the Australian media dance around… but there was no way of not acknowledging what had happened.
For those who watch (and become more invested in these “reality” shows than their own lives), it was a shock, confronting and stirred up a lot of emotion.
The television network that broadcast his show needed to find that incredibly difficult tone of acknowledging Jock, paying tribute respectfully, while not seeming to glamorise his End it All choice.
Something had to be said, and of course, no PR department had anything prepared for this.
Steps in Jimmy Barnes. A veteran hitmaker with 50 years at the top of Australian music.
Someone who was a real friend of Jock. Someone who, like viewers, was hurt (and a bit angry) at Jock’s choice…
Jimmy only had a few hours to prepare something for the network to air in the time slot that evening. He chose to sing a song from their birth country, with a voice full of pain, love, anguish and resignation.
A long-winded explanation as I dedicate this performance of “The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond”, to Alex Salmond.
Who genuine barflies would wish had at least another decade or more to share with us.
Supporting Jimmy in the background of his own home studio are family. His wife Jane, daughter Mahalia, son Jackie and partners.
Vale Alex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brBQbAcrsl8
Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 14 2024 2:30 utc | 82
>… “Some deranged loner just tried to shoot Trump again.”
Bemildred | Oct 13 2024 21:42 utc | 68
So many shooters
So few sniper/ marksmen.
Odd, doncha think
{and no, I don’t think Trump is “in” on the attempts}
Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 14 2024 2:36 utc | 83
maybe human development doesn't go in a straight line up, but instead weaves up and down?
Yes to that. It's clearly visible in the history of ideas field in philosophy. A stark example is the crude representation of key writings on metaphysics by Aristotle today, after they passed through the middle ages. Another example is the violent eradication of Manicheaism, a true world religion, around 1200. In sharp contrast to modern superficial recounts of Mani's teachings, he had a very advanced and logically satisfying theology underlying his tale of creation and the meaning of life. Yet another case is about a very specific idea, or rather logical insight, known to Proklos in the Academy of Athens right before it was shut down, but apparently forgotten widely today as evidenced by modern reductionist thinking in various fields such as constructivism, mainstream analytical philosophy, or neurobiology -- the understanding of how parts of a whole relate to the whole in general: the whole is commonly not just the sum of its parts but something different; and also a whole may not always be separated into a unique set of parts, or be put together from its parts again.
Whole is related to German Heil, a very old term which means as much as an original state of undisturbedness and being at one with itself, a profound spiritual view which predates all efforts towards processual, functionalist explanations of logos/nature and time.
On the topic of SpaceX my own hunch, worth about 2 cents here:
I believe Musk is a frontman for an empire project, just like some other tech figures are. SpaceX is a continuation of NASA, and its main purpose is clearly military - it's about logistics to the high ground of the next big war. A bit unsettling in the grander scheme of things to see this working out for them.
No opinion from me on the moon visits. The Hasselblad story however was intruiging, and always plausible the stuff simply was stolen from the archives ... thanks for sharing. Any chance to see the photographs?
Posted by: persiflo | Oct 14 2024 3:03 utc | 84
More on philosophy from me. As many of the barflies know, I'm a huge fan of Edmund Husserl and his phenomenology, which I consider worthy of consideration as a major turning point for the course of science, or even history itself (if the consequences would gain hold and start to impart themselves on disciplines such as ethics). Husserl is no easy read, even in native German, so I'm happy to present a fine article by an american scholar, Thomas Nenon from the U of Memphis, on some aspects of Husserlian thought: Freedom, Responsibility and self-awareness in Husserl.
The paper is based on the Kaizo articles which Husserl wrote specifically for a Japanese audience, to be published in the Kaizo periodical. Thomas Nenon, who is married to a German wife, is the responsible editor for the Husserl Edition's chapter on the Kaizo articles, a lesser known but quite rich part of his written legacy. I really enjoy his take here, and recommend the paper to those who wish to gain a deeper view on Husserl's thinking, especially so if you don't read German.
Posted by: persiflo | Oct 14 2024 3:42 utc | 85
"One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud! That is precisely what it is: there is nothing either amusing or witty about it, it is simply cruel and stupid."
~Leo Tolstoy, A Confession
This quote from Leo Tolstoy's A Confession reflects his deep existential crisis and disillusionment with life, which he experienced during a period of profound spiritual questioning. In A Confession, Tolstoy grapples with the meaning of life, morality, and religion, and ultimately expresses a profound sense of despair at the human condition. The idea of living "intoxicated with life" suggests that, for most people, everyday distractions, pleasures, or ambitions serve to dull the awareness of life's deeper meaninglessness. However, once the "sober" reality sets in—when one steps away from these distractions and confronts the full weight of existence—life appears to be a "fraud," cruel and devoid of higher purpose.
Tolstoy's use of "fraud" emphasizes the deception he felt: that life lures us in with superficial joys and routines, but underneath these lies emptiness. The harshness of his language—calling life "cruel and stupid"—reveals his bitterness toward the seeming futility of human pursuits. This sentiment is not unique to Tolstoy; it mirrors themes in existential philosophy, where thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard and later Albert Camus explored the inherent contradictions and absurdity of life.
Ultimately, Tolstoy wrote A Confession to document his journey through this spiritual turmoil, eventually finding some solace in faith and a return to a more grounded, religious worldview. However, the quoted passage illustrates the darkest moments of his existential struggle, before he reached that point of reconciliation.
It is a common misconception that Leo Tolstoy was a Freemason, but there is no credible evidence to support this claim. Tolstoy is often associated with Freemasonry due to his philosophical and spiritual writings, which touch on themes such as moral reform, personal enlightenment, and social justice—values that some might associate with Masonic ideals. However, Tolstoy's spiritual journey, particularly his later rejection of institutionalized religion and conventional social structures, suggests that he would not have aligned himself with an organization like Freemasonry, which holds rituals and hierarchical structures that he would likely have found restrictive.
In fact, Tolstoy’s later philosophical outlook was marked by his pursuit of Christian anarchism, pacifism, and a rejection of organized religion, including Orthodox Christianity. This path led him to seek a direct and personal relationship with God, free from the rituals and dogmas of established institutions—again making it unlikely that he would have had any formal ties to Freemasonry, which has its own set of rituals and traditions.
Thus, while Tolstoy’s ideas may occasionally overlap with some ethical principles promoted by Freemasonry, as far as the historical research provided thus far, he himself was not a member.
Posted by: Debbie | Oct 14 2024 4:07 utc | 86
@ Melaleuca | Oct 14 2024 2:30 utc | 82
my dad used to sing that song when i was a kid.. thanks for the post and triggering some warm memories for me.. craig murray wrote a great eulogy for alex salmond.. not sure if someone posted it already.. here it is again regardless..
Posted by: james | Oct 14 2024 4:27 utc | 87
yeah.. DunGroanin | Oct 13 2024 14:21 utc | 6 posted it earlier.. i thought so.. oh well - i recommend it to others too..
Posted by: james | Oct 14 2024 4:30 utc | 88
I think the posting title and short words from Xinhuanet below will show the "war" with empire continues.
Chinese PLA conducts "Joint Sword-2024B" drills surrounding Taiwan island
NANJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday organized its troops of army, navy, air force and rocket force to conduct "Joint Sword-2024B" drills in the Taiwan Strait and the north, south and east of the island of Taiwan, said a spokesperson.Li Xi, spokesperson for the theater command, said the drills involve vessels and planes closing in on the island from multiple directions and assaults by joint forces.
The drills focus on joint sea-air combat readiness patrol, the blockade and control of key ports and areas, strikes on sea and land targets, and the seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, so as to test the joint real-combat capabilities of the forces of the command, Li said.
The drills are a powerful deterrent to the separatist activities of "Taiwan independence" elements, and are legitimate and necessary actions to safeguard national sovereignty and national unity, Li said.
I never see Taiwan being another Ukraine proxy possibility in spite of the rhetoric and militarization.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 14 2024 5:02 utc | 89
Starship just finished another flight. Nothing short of magic.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2024 14:07 utc | 2
Rocket science is a mature field of engineering, so it is hard to be awed by its "magic". What obstacles were heroically overcome?
For the tale of heroism and perseverance against the odds, I propose Units 3 and 4 of Vogtle nuclear power station. Commissioned in 2009. In 2011, COMPLETELY REDESIGNED, Fukushima and all such. Works starting in 2013. Construction contractor taken over that year. Westinghouse, the technological contractor got bankrupt in 2017. In the light of such obstacles, it verges on a miracle that the units were completed in 2023 and 2024 with costs only doubled, to ca. 30 billion. Perhaps half of it in loans guaranteed by USG -- another miracle.
The obstacles that were overcome and the cost definitely exceeded the case of Starship. On the positive note, these units will produced A LOT of electricity for decades, something more tangible than benefits from Starship.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 14 2024 5:05 utc | 90
... maybe human development doesn't go in a straight line up, but instead weaves up and down? it appears that way to me at present..
Posted by: james | Oct 13 2024 19:48 utc | 51
A fragment from Heraclitus says that the way up is the way down. I think both Dante and T.S.Eliot, two very different Christians in their lives, their poetry and in their perspectives, made use of this paradoxical statement.
Many posts here seem to assume that the only structural Church with a capital 'C' is the western, Catholic church, which apparently absorbed humanism and added the sacred to make it complete. But, NemesisCalling, you are leaving out Eastern Christendom as well as a whole lot of other Christ-respecting religions, and you really can't do that. It's not about numbers or size; if it were the west would have won already mediawise, hamburger sales wise, bluejeans and jazz wise and all the rest, but they haven't.
Back in the day when the Iraq war was raging, there was a site put up online that I remember called 'Not in My Name' -- just a lot of photographs of people holding up that sign to say that they personally objected to the so-called coalition of the willing. One that I particularly remember was a young lady holding her own version: "I am a born again Christian, and this war is not in my name."
I will just add that the desert fathers of my Orthodox faith certainly studied the Greek philosophers because those fathers too were lovers of wisdom which is a part of the human uplifting desire to know more about themselves and the world in which they and we live. I would say that this inner need is as holy, as sacred, as any other of our God given gifts, but that is just me. Nor, as Patroklos would tell us, can you lump all of the Greeks together and call that 'humanism' or 'liberalism'. That really says nothing about their actual diversity.
What distinguishes a Christian from those philosophers, as many here have rightly observed, is that a Christian, to the best of his/her ability, follows Christ. And really I haven't seen many who disagree with how Christ was said to have spoken and acted, or why such a person deserves to be noticed. Indeed he's been noticed quite a lot. A dear friend of mine since passed used to take delight in swearing, as many do, juxtaposing his name in the most outrageous phraseology. Our priest used to say, well, they do remember his name a lot, don't they?
And just as the lives of the Greek philosophers deserve to be studied, so too is what is written about Christ worthy of more than just a passing glance. As Alexander Mercouris says: just sayin'. Or, better, as St. John the theologian was said in his last days to himself say to his flock: little children, love one another.
Posted by: juliania | Oct 14 2024 5:28 utc | 91
thanks james. Murray’s tribute to Salmond says a lot in a few paragraphs. A skilled writer.
§| A thread or three back the @bar was grappling with how and why so many politicians across captured nations, and across all political stripes and hues act against their intrinsic national and ultimate personal interests….
I contributed some pixels expounding how youth leadership programs seek to identify and “groom” (in every sense of that word) teens and adolescents who eventually are co-opted and mature into service of a hidden world of intrigue, espionage and obligation.
I note from Murray’s short Salmond piece:
He was also focused on Liz Lloyd, whom he believed to be an MI5 agent. He said that Lloyd had no connection to Scottish Independence and had initially been placed inside the SNP as an intern to an MP (or MSP, I forget) by a British Government graduate training scheme.
That’s how it’s done, folks.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 14 2024 5:30 utc | 92
@ juliania
Of course I would never denigrate the Orthodox. If there were a way to heal our division, which I think there is, I would be all for it, even if it meant us western-rites had to make more concessions than y'all considering our fat greater number of members. I would make that trade in a second.
Regarding prosletyzing and this blog, I think it is safe to say that prosletyzing would be a fool's errand here. The quality of the patron is far too high and my admiration for the various walks here and their story is quite strong. I feel so giddy when someone responds to a post. And I would never commit low-blows here or post in bad faith. I don't like to hurt feelings.
But when we are talking about Christ, we are indeed talking about the unique revelation of Christianity.
But what is unique about Christ that did not already come onto the scene from the Greeks and Aristotle's Ethics or Plato's Republic?
Put simply, it is the concern for victims, not investigations into those qualities that are most fitting to rule over people.
If you want to concede to the humanists here that Christ appropriated an existing humanism from the Greeks, I think you are conceding that we do not need Christ.
If Christ is just a "Johnny-come-lately," and he is not divinity, why consume Him at Mass? Divinity would not bother in sending the Son if his message had already arrived in the hearts of Greeks 500 years prior.
No, we must seek out what is special about Christ and why he said, "I have come to reveal things that have been hidden since the foundation of the world."
Things, Juliania, that after He revealed them, can just as easily slip back into the primordial ether and where the concern for victims would fall away. Liberalism's concern for victims completely apes the Church. Just ask the Palestinians.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 14 2024 6:05 utc | 93
I’m still watching YouTube updates of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Tennessee.
A thread or three back a new name (maybe not a new poster) blew in to chide the @bar if anyone disputed the magnificent and magnanimous FEMA.
Ok. This incident wasn’t FEMA, but the mindset is similar….
I’d viewed this YT account of a helicopter pilot recounting how he’d been threatened with arrest for taking the initiative to rescue by his private helicopter an elderly couple standing stranded abandoned on the road … their house had dropped off a cliff …
I’d lost the report in the volume of YTs I’d watched.
But it’s now made its way to the “reaction” sidebar of YT. Where people react to content uploaded by others.
I like this guy’s take, as he interrupts just enough to interject an appropriate WTAF as the account unfolds.
He also catches the moment where the fire chief, who’d prevented the rescue of the elderly man, was said to be “unavailable for an interview” to account for his actions…. but then he unwittingly fotobombs the interview being conducted with the city manager running interference and protection for him…
Liar liar pants on fire….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuMygSAeG7w
Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 14 2024 6:18 utc | 94
@86 Debbie
Thx for the post. I am sure there be a hell of. a lot of despondency here at the bar lately.
People look at us following this shitshow must think we are crazy to surround ourselves with such awful news. Many, many religious types would tell you, "you do not have to pay attention to the news. If it depresses you, perhaps don't look into it."
Well, the last I looked, us Americans were the vanguard of the empire's mission to pillage. One simply can't turn away.
Socrates was sentenced to death because he corrupted the youth. He merely told them that war with Sparta wasn't worth the cost.
Jesus was a rabble-rouser so he had to go, too.
So I would say, don't turn away. Maybe check your distance so you can keep your strength and will to wrestle with these questions.
And in the end, I like to remember what Walker Percy said about depression:
You have every right to be. A well-adjusted person in today's age is completely deranged.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 14 2024 6:21 utc | 95
Someone mentioned Starship as logistics to space. That is the gist of what is, an inexpensive dollars per pound, massive space truck. At this stage, without any further improvements or refinements, it gives the US a huge lead in the space race.
Anyone belittling it's capabilities is amusing. Others noticing it's military primacy seem to me to be more on track. There are posters here who say Russia has the worlds premier war tech, or China is killing it technologically. Not an easy feat to accomplish, or Russia/China/India/Iran/EU/Japan would have already done so.
Imo one use will be as a global scale net to keep other nation states from accessing or using space without permission. The journey to mars while ideal in intent, and imo believed whole heartedly by Musk, is nice disguising PR.
Irt remarks about making orbits unusable, littered with space junk - the lower orbits have gravitational pull slowly being cleared, and the higher orbits have larger cubed volumes. Thinking the US has not thought of technical workarounds is an underestimation. For example, the AD lasers will have no atmospheric loss or deviation and may be used to de-orbit debris. Unlimited sun, solar panels, automated targeting - something akin to Peresvet or Kalina.
Wiki says the S-500 target limit is 200 km. ISS space station is about 400 km. Anything placed even higher is... even if in reach, SpaceX is already 90% of launches and tonnage 9-1 vs total ROW. If that lead extends to 100-1, or 1,000-1 launch cadence based on logistics someone will win that war.
There are other disruptive wildcard technologies in the near term, but in this aspect the US (SpaceX) looks to dominate.
Posted by: jopalolive | Oct 14 2024 7:44 utc | 96
@ jopalolive | Oct 14 2024 7:44 utc | 97
It is unforeseeable what will come from SpaceX's single point of failure prone rocketry follies but it won't be military primacy.
Posted by: too scents | Oct 14 2024 8:02 utc | 97
They did in fact report the effects of radiation that manifested as flashes of light within the eye.
Posted by: Zippy& bungle | Oct 13 2024 20:24 utc | 55
Your eyes as a scintillation counter.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 14 2024 8:14 utc | 98
10 year Treasury still mysteriously stuck a little above 4%
De-dollarization brings peace my friends.
Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2024 14:19 utc | 5
Nothing mysterious about it. It is due to the seasonal fiscal flows. It is going to start dropping very soon exile, probably before the end of the month.
You can make a fortune shorting it. Give some of your profits to b.
You'll see.
This is excellent, people who know what they are talking about.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=62050
Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 14 2024 9:16 utc | 99
There is money lying in the street ready for you to pick it up Exile.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvr7XuCiXdc
Stick with the people who are never wrong. Instead of weatherman who predict a storm every day.
Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Oct 14 2024 9:21 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
"It’s very generous to consider people who spend twenty seven years preparing for and then overseeing the plundering of another nation’s oil, but then realize the error of their ways ‘good.’ I’m the same age as you are, Larry, and I knew in high school what US foreign policy was all about, and it hasn’t changed a bit since. I made the choice not to serve those interests in any way that I could control"
Honzo, have I told you how very much I love you? I no longer subscribe to Johnson, so don't post, but do read there. I will give Johnson one credit: your post & the echoes that follow still stand! (I was cancelled/ banned by Wauck for a similar, but much less blunt, statement re: 1 of his pals)
Posted by: Mary | Oct 13 2024 13:53 utc | 1