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November 3, 2024
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-264

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

—
Other issues:


Georgia/Moldavia:

Palestine:

Peanut's Elections ("Neither is qualified, both deserve to lose."):

Politics:

Economy:

Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread …

Posted by b on November 3, 2024 at 14:26 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Thanks b!
I absolutely LOVED the Xi Xinping’s Axis Of Losers article. It confirms the truism that if there’s nothing left to say, a dumbass US Defense Department wonk will call a Press Conference – and say it.
Pure gold!

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 3 2024 14:58 utc | 1

It is impossible to live in a civilized society that values knowledge and wisdom and at the same time promotes neoliberalism, imperialism and hegemony. Its survival depends on the destruction of the public education system and its fundamental components: the class, the group, the school and the link that connects it all, the teacher.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/11/03/neoliberalism-and-the-destruction-of-conscience/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 3 2024 15:33 utc | 2

Moldova runnoff results will start to come in 22:00 UTC.
Until then live turnout is being updated here ==> https://radiomoldova.md/p/42396/2024-presidential-runoff-voter-turnout

Posted by: too scents | Nov 3 2024 15:42 utc | 3

Ron Paul wants to help Elon with DOGE!!! I actually grinned ear-to-ear on the way into the gym this morning thinking there may actually be a glimmer of hope for our country.
A few months ago I planned to write in Ron Paul for president as I was so disgusted with the top three out competing each other with their Zionism. Then RFK Jr went back to advocating for health and getting rid of agency capture instead of helping terrorists murder women and children.
I even convinced hubby to hold his nose and vote Trump because of the team he assembled. He’s still POed over the tariffs that nailed our small business the last time he was in office. Our parts were somewhere on the high seas, bought and paid for almost two months earlier, when they came down via edict. The port of Miami held them hostage for almost $20k and if we didn’t cough it up, we are idled with twenty workers twiddling their thumbs. Sun of Alabama is right about who pays for tariffs.
Anyhoo I can’t see how Trump can lose this time.
BTW whatever agencies were involved in P’Nut’s murder need eliminated on day one. Talk about grotesque overreach. You have nothing better to do than murder pets?

Posted by: cc | Nov 3 2024 15:43 utc | 4

Aleph_Null@1533
Shortly after WWI, John D. Rottenfeller massively gifted Columbia University to establish a bought and paid for “college of education”. That development quickly spread through the rest of the Ivys and then throughout the fruited plain as Rottenfeller’s policy of deliberately dumbing down the American people by means of indoctrinating school teachers in modes of “education” which abjured the Classics, history, geography and literature.
Later culturally destructive schemes by the likes of Edward Bernays and the Barons of Hollywood served the same agenda in degrading minds on a nationwide basis. Result: Pop-Kultch, most particularly targeting women to induce them to embrace glamor and glitz. Husbands became enmeshed in the maelstrom as was clearly depicted in the Blondie and Dagwood cartoons featured in daily newspapers.
Radio, too, became the destroyer of community culture and “visiting” amongst kinfolk and neighbors. An addiction was established which was designed to atomize society. When the Boobtoob became widespread, even in rural America by 1957 or thereabouts…the dumbing-down into hyperspace acceleration, as well depicted by the then head of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minnow, who described the new addiction as “the Great Wasteland”.
MainScream Mass Media is being rejected almost unanimously by Gens Y and Z. Many are distracted into so-called “social media”, but the brighter ones are turning with higher levels of frequency to alternative sites, some of which are culturally positive and not controlled by those who would lord it over the “Goyim”.

Posted by: aristodemos | Nov 3 2024 15:55 utc | 5

thanks b, for all your work…
on the topic of georgia/moldova, the fellow – Marat Khairullin, has written an article that i recommend… substack –
We Must Remember
@ lex in la – you might enjoy this if you haven’t heard it before.. Terry Callier –
Keep Your Heart Right

Posted by: james | Nov 3 2024 16:48 utc | 6

I second b’s recommendation to read the “Prejudice and China” article. It was written by an investor type guy who is probably ultimately concerned with drawing in western investors to what is available to invest in China, but I could be wrong about that. Maybe b or a fellow reader could weigh in for some background on that.
Anyway Yves at Naked Capitalism posted it in “Links” yesterday or the day before and I read it and recommended it to a couple friends I have in academia and media (doctoral student in “Human Rights” and foreign relations and an NPR radio anchor) and they both said it was informative and a different angle on China than you’ll see in almost any American publication.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 3 2024 17:18 utc | 7

Kathleen Tyson is the author of a very informative and easy to read book ‘Multicurreny Mercantilism, The New International Monetary Order’ (2023).
She has impressive credentials:
SWIFT was my idea
I wrote the first Triparty Repo to create an interbank secured credit market averaging $18 trillion in daily secured credit
Etc
She knows the plumbing and is interested in helping the BRICS.
“The challenges will come from the internal dysfunction of bond, credit, and derivatives markets”
“States, central banks, bank consortia, clearinghouses, payment platforms, and settlement systems will all have to adapt to a new reality.”

Posted by: financial matters | Nov 3 2024 17:21 utc | 8

“Xi Jinping’s Axis of Losers – The Right Way to Thwart the New Autocratic Convergence”
Does any sane person even need to read this? This has to be the most idiotic, juvenile headline I’ve seen in a long time. Does Imperialism have any genuine intellectuals anymore?

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 3 2024 17:24 utc | 9

Bravo, bravo, bravo !!!!!!!Aleph at 2!!!!!!!!!

It is impossible to live in a civilized society that values knowledge and wisdom and at the same time promotes neoliberalism, imperialism and hegemony. Its survival depends on the destruction of the public education system and its fundamental components: the class, the group, the school and the link that connects it all, the teacher. [my bold]
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/11/03/neoliberalism-and-the-destruction-of-conscience/
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 3 2024 15:33 utc | 2

Decades of North-American multiple-choice tests in which students are told what to think instead of being made to think for themselves, of bureaucratization and commodification of education, the attack on public schools and the destruction of the individual and collective status of teachers, were the vehicles used by neoliberalism to achieve what fascism did with illiteracy and analphabetism: convince the people that their interests were, in reality, the interests of the oligarchy that oppresses them.

[my bold]
This is the argument upon which depends everything else that has been happening since I was a student in the 50’s and 60’s — this! This!! THIS !!!
Thank you, Aleph_Null.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 17:28 utc | 10

I just wrote this. Hope you dint mind.
My America Produced Ronald McNair and J.D. Vance, So Why the Hate?
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/my-america-produced-ronald-mcnair

Posted by: Dogon Priest | Nov 3 2024 17:41 utc | 11

I spent a few minutes the other day trying to learn why all US students must learn algebra in high school. I finally found the answer — because algebra is required in college! So youngsters must sit down and shut up, and if they don’t like algebra they can go ahead and fail the educational system, as many do because they know it’s only required by some in life and not all.
The roots of the word education, BTW, are ‘to draw out’ [. . .of what a student is, not how you want him/her to be].

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 3 2024 17:49 utc | 12

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 3 2024 17:18 utc | 7
i 2nd yours and b’s recommendation on the article – Prejudice And China – excellent article with so much info and insight!!
i don’t think he is promoting chinese equities directly, but that is the result regardless!

Posted by: james | Nov 3 2024 18:04 utc | 13

So much Trump discussion today which I have shamefully participated in.
Separate from that, I do my best thinking in the bathroom. Not going to the bathroom, it’s a weird thing because the moment I step into the bathroom, even to brush my teeth, my neurons go crazy. Maybe it is situated on a ley line or is a pocket dimension. I feel like I could write the equivalent of Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon in there.
Today’s thought.
Am I the only person who finds it interesting that Trump ran beauty pageants and was buddies with Jeffrey Epstein and this connection has been almost entirely glossed over?
Now I am wondering (outside of the bathroom) if RFK Jr had any interaction with the Epstein operation.
I just looked it up.
He did.
The dots connect themselves.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 3 2024 18:06 utc | 14

US election charts already published 🙂
https://t.me/kabezki/4371

Posted by: Arioch | Nov 3 2024 18:08 utc | 15

Just made it about 3/4 of the way through Adam Tooze’s masturbatory “rah rah USA” rant – disguised as some sort of critique – at LRB. Notably he lavishes praise on the COVID mRNA vax, rails on about hydrocarbons and the environment without mentioning the environmental catastrophe of blowing up NS2 under the ocean and completely avoiding the fact that it was US and EU sanctions on Russian energy that are nearly the entire reason that the US “had to” increase hydrocarbon production to sell to Europe at high prices. He also fails to touch on the hydrocarbon angle of the Israeli genocide in Gaza (the off-shore deposits and the US and Israel’s role in future pipelines to EU).
All in all a waste of time and not recommended.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 3 2024 18:10 utc | 16

Thank you, Aleph_Null.
Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 17:28 utc | 10
“Decades of North-American multiple-choice tests in which students are told what to think instead of being made to think for themselves, of bureaucratization and commodification of education, the attack on public schools and the destruction of the individual and collective status of teachers, were the vehicles used by neoliberalism right-wing conservative attacks on public education and the financialization of the economy led by right-wingers and conservative Democrats to achieve what fascism did with illiteracy and analphabetism: convince the people that their interests were, in reality, the interests of the oligarchy that oppresses them.”

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 3 2024 18:18 utc | 17

Andrei’s Yakov Smirnov impersonation. What a country!
I Always Suspected that Joe was a KGB asset–to demolish the United States so thoroughly one has to be an operations of influence virtuoso. Luckily, we can now disclose Joe’s (Colonel Iosif Robertovich Bidenov) identity, since the operation is over and Iosif Robertovich is back home, in his apartment in the apartment block at Lenin’s Street in the city of Syzran, recovering from a long work under deep cover.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 3 2024 18:19 utc | 18

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 3 2024 18:19 utc | 18
Yakov Smirnoff on King of the Hill
Mike Judge. What a country!

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 3 2024 18:26 utc | 19

> sanctions. There will nearly always be some unforeseen backlash coming in an unexpected area that will hurt.
Oh, a funny story i heard about America week ago. Indeed, unforseen…
There is “bugurt” or “buhurt”. The time passsing American reportedly learned form Russia and Ukraine. That is, wearign makeshift medieval style plate armor and bashing one another with sort of swords, mediaval style. Just, you know, those rural fights for the sense of it, but with a fleur of medieval european glamour. Nost sure why did Americans pick it in Russia, since the word utself is French-German, and Russia clearly took it from Europe, together with Tolkien books and role-playing. Whatever.
Thing is, it is rather expensive a recreation, when you for hours hit steel plate with steel stick both gets damaged and should regularly be renewed. Somehow USA – the lande of rich charcoal and ore deposit – did not developed smithery needed. Before Europeans arrived (with firearms) the ever warring Native Tribes somehow missed the opportunity to invent knighthood. And don’t point at horses: Japanese samurais did fine without them. Whatever.
While the worlds still was globl it was not a problem: Americans just placed orders in Russia and Ukraine and got their equipment regularly. Then 2022 come. Now they can not buy in Russia (because land of the free) nor can buy in Ukraine (few forgeries their got bombed to smitherens). They tried to buy from India, but the quality was so bad it was a suicide deal. They tried to buy in Europe – but Euopean smiths quoted prices so high even Americans could not cash out. They tried lack with Mexica, but those smiths (conquistadors offsprings?) are few, have the workqueue few years untoi the future, and have prices not much lighter than Europe demands.
They still manage to havr their clanging bonking parties somehow, and i wish them well. Just i feel it very funny that the trade war unleashed by West on Russia – among serious consequences and big victims in “real economy”, somehow manacged to ricochet at the escapists American LARPers were.

Posted by: Arioch | Nov 3 2024 18:28 utc | 20

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 3 2024 14:58 utc | 1
Absolute absurdism more like it! The level of dis-connectivity to reality evident in this article is alarming.

Posted by: Ogre | Nov 3 2024 18:31 utc | 21

In the contemporary geopolitics that define our so-called multi-polar world, the dynamics between the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China reveal a deliberate orchestration of power reminiscent of a grandiose relay race. This elite cohort, akin to the points of a pentagram, periodically ‘passes the baton’ of progress and dominance, creating an illusion of rivalry while tethering their ultimate ambitions. The parallel to the Tower of Babel is striking; what we witness is not merely competition, but rather a coordinated effort to construct a formidable structure of influence and control. Just as the ancient builders sought to reach the heavens, these nations entwine their fates in a relentless pursuit of supremacy, obscuring the underlying unity of their motivations. Thus, the true structure of our multi-polar world reveals itself not in opposition but in a collective endeavor towards a shared goal, masked by the superficial narratives of discord.
Our tormentor is revealed in Blake’s “Ancient of Days”.
Do we foster unity among humans, or resign ourselves to an infinity of long devision?
WE SHALL RISE UP AND CONFRONT THE DEMIURGE!

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Nov 3 2024 18:32 utc | 22

The paper ‘Capitol Equipment not enough to revive US chip-making’ is very good.
From the paper:
‘However, I found that, given the same equipment, plant performance was a strong function of local management quality and staff training. The variables to be controlled and adjusted with automation were practically endless and the plants had to develop their own process engineering skills to perform economically.’.
What the author doesn’t mention specifically is the process management ‘systems’ that need to be put in place to render the process engineering skills and training useful. And here is the rub. Authoritarian culture hates systems, because it limits the authoritarian’s actions.
In the West, particularly the U.S. and Britain, authoritarian culture, led by the elites, is very strong, and has been growing stronger for the past 40 years. This authoritarian culture is a primary cause of the degradation of the economic systems, of the governance systems and of basic democracy across the West.
What this paper tells us is that the U.S., and the West more broadly, cannot return to economic leadership until its authoritarian culture is reformed, which will not happen until the current system of rule by the elites is overturned in favor of true democracy.

Posted by: dh-mtl | Nov 3 2024 18:42 utc | 23

I strongly agree with the excerpt from Hugo Dionisio, conveying a Portuguese view of the global assault on public education, out at SCF. But the credit should go to Dionisio for so clearly connecting the (multiple-choice) dots, and for placing public education at the very center of our struggle.
Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy forms my most sustained commitment. Freire’s thinking, though emerging from a freedom of thought endemic to socialism, outstrips mere Marxism in social significance, for me. Because it goes straight to the very core of how a healthy mind is nurtured: in the relationship between teacher and student — or rather, teacher-student and student-teacher.
True learning goes both ways. That’s the spiritual insight at the heart of critical pedagogy. Regarding which, my recent studies of ASL (American Sign Language) have been a revelation. It’s only been recognized as a full-fledged language for about 50 years, but it’s much older. Having grown slowly, practically, and democratically through the give-and-take of (capital D!) Deaf students and teachers.
Eric Malzkuh was a Deaf legend, an ASL virtuoso and teacher of teachers. His reading of “Jabberwocky” is like nothing else in the known universe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWfDFtyIBjU

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 3 2024 18:49 utc | 24

What this paper tells us is that the U.S., and the West more broadly, cannot return to economic leadership until its authoritarian culture is reformed, which will not happen until the current system of rule by the elites is overturned in favor of true democracy.
Posted by: dh-mtl | Nov 3 2024 18:42 utc | 23
Correct. The fundamental problem with the Neocon heaven is that it cannot compete with countries that value competence over birth and social status, and economic management that looks past the next quarter’s profits and revenue. In such rigged societies, elites do not need to be smart, and they aren’t.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 3 2024 18:56 utc | 25

“Xi Jinping’s Axis of Losers – The Right Way to Thwart the New Autocratic Convergence”
Does any sane person even need to read this? This has to be the most idiotic, juvenile headline I’ve seen in a long time. Does Imperialism have any genuine intellectuals anymore?
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 3 2024 17:24 utc | 9

I think, yes, it’s worth reading. It helps to make clear how f*cked up even the “leading lights” in the US actually are, how detached from reality they are, etc., etc.. So, view it as a helpful reminder.
Or, just consider it as entertainment; it’s so stupid that it’s funny. And having a laugh now and then is good for ya.
I found the repetitive use of “axis” and “allies” noteworthy. It’s like some college gamer or cos-player way out of his depth. I guess “Axis” and “Allies” would be, well, just a little TOO obvious.
Rumplestiltskin. It all becomes clear. Once you get it, you can’t un-see it.
Cuban Jose Marti once noted that a lie can run for a hundred years, but the truth can catch up to it in a minute. That’s where we are at right now. We are catching up to the lies and it is no contest.

Posted by: N. Hanrahan | Nov 3 2024 19:06 utc | 26

In the shadowy corridors of Gnostic thought, particularly illuminated by texts like the “Hypostasis of the Archons” found in the Nag Hammadi library, a profound narrative emerges that resonates deeply with our contemporary struggles against oppression. At the center of this narrative lies the figure of the Demiurge—an ignorant and flawed creator deity who, in his hubris, constructs a world plagued by ignorance and suffering. This archetype serves as a chilling reflection of the modern power structures that bind humanity, a metaphorical architect of our collective torment who values control over enlightenment.
Gnosticism posits that true knowledge and liberation are not found within the confines of established norms and institutions, but in the inner awakening of the individual. This echoes today’s urgent call to resist the oppressive forces that seek to manipulate and subjugate us—from imperialist wars to corporate hegemony. The Archons, as described in the Gnostic texts, symbolize these oppressive rulers, maintaining their dominion over humanity by perpetuating ignorance and disconnection from divine wisdom.
The struggle against these Archons is not merely a philosophical exercise but a tangible fight against the systemic injustices that plague our world. Just as the Gnostic seekers sought the divine spark within to transcend the limitations imposed by the Demiurge, so too must we harness our collective consciousness to challenge the structures of power that seek to control and divide us. The narrative of Gnosticism thus becomes a rallying cry for liberation—a reminder that the path to true fulfillment lies not in submission to the powers that be, but in the courageous pursuit of knowledge, unity, and dissent.
In recognizing the enduring relevance of these ancient texts, we illuminate the grim reality of our present—a world where the legacy of the Demiurge manifests in the oppressive machinations of state and capital. The time has come to break free from this cycle of manipulation, to awaken to the truth of our shared humanity, and to reclaim the divine spark within, challenging the Archons who seek to maintain their dominion. In this struggle lies the potential for a new dawn, rooted in freedom, authenticity, and the relentless quest for truth.

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Nov 3 2024 19:13 utc | 27

Thank you so much, b, for the Jeffrey Sachs video discussion. I most certainly agree with your strong recommendation.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 19:15 utc | 28

Posted by: Ogre | Nov 3 2024 18:31 utc | 21
I suppose I could’ve pinched Jaques Chirac’s one-liner:
“He missed a wonderful opportunity to shut up.”

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 3 2024 19:22 utc | 29

A man in the world, but not of the world….
https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=macka+b+rasta+soldier

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Nov 3 2024 19:22 utc | 30

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Nov 3 2024 18:32 utc | 22 an
That is foolishness, SacredGeometry. Go listen carefully to b’s recommended post, the video at Cambridge Union. The differences matter to us all; even us religious folk. We are not only spiritual beings; we have a world to understand and live in.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 19:26 utc | 31

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 3 2024 18:18 utc | 17
Why did you cross out neoliberalism, Tom Q?

Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 19:35 utc | 32

@Posted by: N. Hanrahan | Nov 3 2024 19:06 utc | 26
Yep, the guy who wrote that tripe was actually the National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009. It basically says “we must continue to increase the military budget to crush China, Russia and Iran even though that hasn’t been working for quite a while now”. Which just happens to align with the board of Raytheon that he sits on and the funders of the Atlantic Council that he is also on the board of. Also CFR, and has been to Taiwan to stir things up.
A US oligarch courtier doing what courtiers do, serving their masters. A lawyer by training (Yale), as so many of them are.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Nov 3 2024 19:54 utc | 33

For those who found Hugo Dionisio’s piece about the damage to teachers and education in general from decades of neo-liberal fundamentalism, another example might be noteworthy.
The Province of BC (Canada) has a long history of neo-liberal politicians making war on teachers. It’s gone on for decades.
Teachers in BC, many decades ago now, mustered the courage to form themselves into a union and their numbers are, naturally enough, massive.
Anyway, one of the most recent Premiers of the Province, one Christina “Christy” Joan Clark, is a useful example of neo-liberal fanatic. Having made war on the teachers as the Minister of Education she, later, once becoming Premier, continued that war and found herself in hot water with a Judge of the BC Supreme Court. Basically, the Judge found fault with Clark in her contempt for the law.
“Christy Clark’s legislation is again struck down as unconstitutional. After 12 years of chaos in the public school system, the B.C. Supreme Court finds that the B.C. Liberal government has been trying to orchestrate a province-wide shut down of schools with full scale strikes for political gain.”
You can read some details over at
https://www.vinta-bctf.ca/timeline-of-christy-clarks-12-years-of-chaos-in-education/
Clark had to bow out of Provincial politics in 2017 after the Opposition was able to form a government following a close election.
Now Clark has “humbly” put her name forward as a possible replacement for the rather unpopular PM Trudeau in Ottawa.
You know what floats to the top, eh, in neo-liberal land?

Posted by: NH | Nov 3 2024 19:54 utc | 34

@bird enthusiasts @bar.
Thanks all for replies last week re my feathered visitors (yellow-tailed black cockatoos) to my garden last Sunday arvo..
Didn’t visit MoA much this week, so here’s my late reply to the comments from last Week in Review Open Thread.
I’m fortunate as everyday I see numerous species of spectacular coloured birds, rosellas and pink galah parrots, and the large grass field by the river (unofficial off leash dog park) has about 200 sulphur-created cockatoos feasting on grass seed every afternoon. Yes. 200. Grazing like cattle.
They are complacent around the dogs, which is great. I guess most people are like me and call the dog away from the flock/herd.
Late winter(August)/early spring I saw the dog staring in fixated fascination at something in the rockery.
Oh-no.I feared, a juvenile red-belly black snake had moved in, (it’s perfect habitat). I don’t object to snakes a good distance away in the paddock, but I can’t have them sunning themselves on the back deck, because of the dog. (They are highly venomous). I nearly stepped on one a few years back, while barefooted and retrieving laundry from the clothes line. I thought it was a hose, centimetres from my toes, and then it moved. And I levitated backwards several metres.
Luckily the dog hadn’t found a snake. I was delighted to discover it was this guy:
I’m calling him Fat Boy, because boy, he’s obviously finding plenty of snails and whatever to feast on. I actually hope he’s female, I’d love to see lots of babies.
I get a buzz when I spy him (her) sunning himself in various locations around the garden.
https://www.reptilepark.com.au/eastern-blue-tongue-lizard/

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 3 2024 20:23 utc | 35

I wasn’t going to vote at all but discovered a very important ordinance on our right to local food.
It protects our right to sell, trade, buy & eat food & seeds directly from farmers, community social events, & traditional food ways.
Sad that we need ordinances to obtain & eat fresh, nutritious food, but there it is.

Posted by: Mary | Nov 3 2024 20:24 utc | 36

Sulphur-crested cockatoos.
I swear my auto correct is demonically possessed.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 3 2024 20:28 utc | 37

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 3 2024 17:49 utc | 12 Algebra includes calculating percentages such as sales taxes and discount, calculating interest on loans, calculating averages, and similar useless folderol required only by elites, according to this. Algebra is also essential to learning statistics, an essential key to understanding all manner of economic statistics and political opinion polls, also apparently only elite concerns to this commenter. If the interest is only in what is immediately useful, then it’s history, geography and literature that shouldn’t be taught. Dropping Latin and Greek in favor of modern foreign languages isn’t immediately useful in the US, so the choice is…none of the above! Training in patriotism and free market economics isn’t immediately useful to the student, so why are these essential goals of conservatives pretending to liberate schoolchildren from woke conspiracies?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 3 2024 20:39 utc | 38

Topic: US housing bubble:
DR Horton gave a profit warning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOOngS6xJ8
and its stock tanked by some 15%.
DR Horton is the biggest homebuilder in the US: https://www.drhorton.com

Posted by: WMG | Nov 3 2024 20:57 utc | 39

NH 34
I think maybe that Mark Carney, if anyone is soon to take over Trudeau’s position will be the one approved. He was recently Governor of the Bank of England (2013-20) moving there from his role as Gov of Bank of Canada.
Right now he has taken on a role advising the federal Liberals.
Just in 2020, I believe Clark intended to run for the Conservatives but her French was rusty.. Now, she would like to compete as a Liberal. (Carney speaks fluent French!)
(i should change my id from mjh – as i see now there is a mjn, who posted the other day abt baby powder in response to Jane! And you are NH, that’s close too .. and there’s MJH also !

Posted by: Same Sun | Nov 3 2024 21:01 utc | 40

( I wanted to say i am not approving of either those two ) – What i wish, is if there was a federal Union of First Nations affiliated party, this is what I would like to see, governance by the First people if only

Posted by: Same Sun | Nov 3 2024 21:20 utc | 41

“I think maybe that Mark Carney, if anyone …”
Posted by: Same Sun | Nov 3 2024 21:01 utc | 40

And then there is Christina Alexandra, She-wolf of the Waffen SS, currently in the role of Deputy PM.
Canada has a real embarrassment of riches when it comes to neo-liberal thuggery. More American than the Americans, you might say…

Posted by: NH | Nov 3 2024 21:24 utc | 42

“…he was doing all that to fight the Deep State”
https://x.com/mtracey/status/1807541656029176203
Michael Tracey @mtracey
You don’t understand! When Trump bombed Syria twice, tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela, started arming Ukraine, expanded NATO twice, got record-busting military budgets, dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan, signed off on FISA warrantless surveillance, imposed massive sanctions on Russia, tore up arms control treaties, handed over the State Department to Mike Pompeo, stationed US troops in Taiwan, assassinated Iran’s top general, conducted a record number of drone strikes, installed a Raytheon Lobbyist as his Defense Secretary, gave Israel absolutely everything it wanted, did enormous arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and most recently orchestrated the passage of the $100 Billion War Funding Bill, he was doing all that to fight the Deep State

Posted by: michaelj72 | Nov 3 2024 21:29 utc | 43

Dogon Priest | Nov 3 2024 17:41 utc | 11
The mention of Ron McNair piqued my interest, being one of those 80s space cadet kids who watched him die over and over again on our TV screens (he didn’t die until the crew cabin hit the ocean but that was kept quiet at the time). Although growing up in Clinton’s neoliberal wasteland was no fun for JD, growing up in Jim Crow Georgia would’ve been a whole other level for Ron. His mother had to stage a minor sit-in to break the color line at the local library in order to get access to science books for Ron!
And instead of hobnobbing with hedge fund vultures and building an ill-gotten fortune for himself, Ron used his astronaut celebrity to form a musical collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre. He was planning to bring his saxophone with him on Challenger and beam his part into Jarre’s studio from orbit, until good ol’ boy Commander Dick Scobee but the kibosh on it. He was planning to leave NASA after the mission, having missed out on being the first African American astronaut for being a little too ‘uppity’.
Here’s the Jarre-McNair piece:
Last Rendez-Vous (Ron’s Piece)

Posted by: S.P. Korolev | Nov 3 2024 21:29 utc | 44

Posted by: N. Hanrahan | Nov 3 2024 19:06 utc | 26
All true, but I’ve read so much of this trash, I honestly think I could write it myself. The point is: at a point, you already know what they’ll say.
Nonetheless, I like your rational optimism. You are certainly right. The truth is catching up faster every moment.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 3 2024 21:29 utc | 45

Posted by: Arioch | Nov 3 2024 18:28 utc | 20
In days past several of my acquaintances engaged in various medieval “combats” as members of SCA (society for creative anachronism) which engages in many other facets of medieval recreation. I watched some of these “battles” as a guest, but never felt the urge to participate. Some of them did purchase their gear and some of that was imported, but insofar as I could determine, it appeared that the majority of the “weapons” and almost all the gear was manufactured locally. I stopped attending such events circa thirty years ago, has it really changed that much?

Posted by: Snowleopard | Nov 3 2024 21:34 utc | 46

Topic: Hurricanes in Florida and the housing bubble
“Florida Housing Market Crash Post Hurricane THOUGHTS: Mass Exodus Coming?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFP3WVHHmU
The housing market in Florida suffers under:
1) Ageing population
2) Real estate prices in Florida almost doubled in 2019-2022 on the back of falling interest rates and the pandemic.
3) Then interest rates went through the roof in 2022 & 2023 breaking the real estate market(s).
4) Rising interest rates mean that local property taxes and insurance costs had to be increased at a sharp rate.

Posted by: WMG | Nov 3 2024 21:38 utc | 47

You don’t understand! When Trump bombed Syria twice …
Posted by: michaelj72 | Nov 3 2024 21:29 utc | 43
—
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
It is what it is. Trump is defined by his observers. Tighten your chin strap!

Posted by: too scents | Nov 3 2024 21:40 utc | 48

I remember that in the 90s, they were taking whole factories down to the bolts and screws and moving them to China. There wasn’t any “ism” involved. I was pure unadulterated greed. Now that “we” offshored our industrial base, China is now the enemy? Anyone with the sense God gave a turkey would know that we’re our own worst enemy. Thanks b. I’m sorry if I offended anyone.

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Nov 3 2024 21:51 utc | 49

For those who found Hugo Dionisio’s piece about the damage to teachers and education in general from decades of neo-liberal fundamentalism, another example might be noteworthy.
The Province of BC (Canada) has a long history of neo-liberal politicians making war on teachers. It’s gone on for decades.
Teachers in BC, many decades ago now, mustered the courage to form themselves into a union and their numbers are, naturally enough, massive.
———————————————–
We have the same problem in the U.S., we don’t call them neo-libs, we call them Republicans who are in the pockets of the Christian fundamentalist. You may know that the U.S. has a constitution that clearly demands a wall of separation between church and state. The right-wing Christian Zionist movement in the U.S. wants to tear down that wall.
For example, in Oklahoma, the state school superintendent wants to put Bibles in every public-school classroom in the state of OK. To top it off, he wants to buy the Bibles from Donald Trump for three million dollars. These are surplus, made-in-China, Bibles that Trump got stuck with when his hairbrained scream to sell the Bibles for $59.99 each to raise money, fell through.
.

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 21:54 utc | 50

fyi,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)
Inferno (Dante)
Seventh Circle (Violence)
In the first round of the seventh circle, the murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and tyrants are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire…
https://x.com/TameeOliveFern/status/1853011643879563411
Tameem | تميم @TameeOliveFern
hell
https://x.com/BBCWorld/status/1852989862682427632
BBC News (World) @BBCWorld
The place Biden will call home after leaving White House

Posted by: michaelj72 | Nov 3 2024 22:17 utc | 51

Posted by: juliania | Nov 3 2024 19:26 utc |
Thank you for your reply Juliana.
I have indeed watched the recommendation Sachs video. Sadly his opening remarks regarding the proliferation of nuclear weapons only serves to reinforce my perception of being imprisoned within the material struggle.
Nuclear weapons may serve to restrain the great powers from the madness of all out war on the macro scale. Unfortunately they have the effect of forcing the conflict on to the micro level, OUR level if you like. In other words, just another aspect of the containment facility.
You seem to talk from the perspective of a religious person. Would it be presumptuous of me to guess that is a Christian perspective?
My understanding is that Christians see themselves “in the world but not of the world”; distancing themselves from the “prince of this world” and recognising the “powers and principalities” that operate in high and low places.
If the created world is good, why wouldn’t a Christian embrace the world, its Princes and powers?
We know the Roman church spent centuries engaged in Heretic Hunting. Why the zealotry? Maybe in an effort to conceal texts like The Gospel of Thomas from reaching the ear of the masses at all costs?
In light of the above, would it not be understandable that any person or persons throughout history that attempted to bring this knowledge to the masses would be persecuted, silenced or even put to death?
I don’t know.

Posted by: SacredGeometry | Nov 3 2024 22:18 utc | 52

Posted by: WMG | Nov 3 2024 20:57 utc | 39
I wonder if there are any commercial real estate projects being done anywhere, aside from renovations.
Plenty of empty storefronts now, plenty of empty office space, as work at home rates and amazon delivery models continue to grow.
Who is dumb enough to sit on these rentless, empty strip malls, expecting renters, much less a turn around in value?

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:19 utc | 53

i checked out a youtube video of “Moon of Alabama”, not knowing who Bertholt Brecht was, or the kind of music she did was.
I thought it was like a folk-blues song, seems to be some kind of… i dont know, but disappointed.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOOngS6xJ8
Posted by: WMG | Nov 3 2024 20:57 utc | 39
—————————————————————-
I live right next to a recent DR Horton community. Four years ago, they started building overpriced homes which drove our property and school taxes up to the point that many working-class families had to sell and move. My wife (who has Parkinson’s disease) and I are retired and these taxes, alone with inflation, are draining our retirement funds like sands in an hourglass.
Now things are changing. Home builders are advertising low interest loans and 0 down move in, just like in 2007&8, before the great crash of 2008&9. Something is definitely going on in Texas.

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 55

MOATS, Ep 392 with George Galloway
https://www.youtube.com/live/T_Xarlv_67Q
“The election countdown.”
With Prof Seyed Marandi, Hassan Chami

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 3 2024 22:45 utc | 56

i checked out a youtube video of “Moon of Alabama”, not knowing who Bertholt Brecht was, or the kind of music she did was.
I thought it was like a folk-blues song, seems to be some kind of… i dont know, but disappointed.
Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 53
_______
It looks like someone stole UWDude’s nick; I can’t imagine he would’ve posted something this…unintelligent. Bertolt (note spelling) Brecht, for starters, was a guy, and the music to the “Moon of Alabama” song was not by Brecht (who wrote the words) but by his collaborator Kurt Weill.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 3 2024 22:47 utc | 57

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 3 2024 22:47 utc | 56
I am supremely ignorant when it comes to many things, especially old folk culture.
I know almost nothing about any movies, music or stars from before 1965ish, besides classical artists like mozart and Bach.
It has nothing to do with “intelligence”
I just expected a more mournful song, since it talks about drinking and a dead mother, and instead it was kind of… …flapper?

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:54 utc | 58

Now things are changing. Home builders are advertising low interest loans and 0 down move in, just like in 2007&8, before the great crash of 2008&9. Something is definitely going on in Texas.
Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 54
If history rhymes look at the Texas Real Estate crisis of the late 80’s, this also seems centered in Commercial, largely forgotten is that EVERY Bank in the State of Texas went under except one.

Posted by: qparker | Nov 3 2024 23:01 utc | 59

Who was Berthold Brecht?
Playwright Eugene Berthold Brecht (also known as Bertolt Brecht) was deeply influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Karl Marx. This strange combination of inspiration produced Brecht’s twisted sense of humor as well as the political beliefs within his plays.
Brecht was born on February 10th, 1898 and died on August 14th, 1956. Aside from his dramatic work, Berthold Brecht also wrote poetry, essays, and shorts stories… Brecht developed a style known as “Epic Theatre.” In this medium, actors did not strive to make their characters realistic. Instead, each character represented a different side of an argument. Brecht’s “Epic Theatre” presented multiple viewpoints and then let the audience decide for themselves.
Does this mean Brecht didn’t play favorites? Certainly not. His dramatic works blatantly condemn fascism, but they also endorse communism as an acceptable form of government.
His political views developed from his life experiences. Brecht fled Nazi Germany before the onset of World War II. After the war, he willingly moved to Soviet-occupied East Germany and became a proponent of the communist regime.
Brecht’s Major Plays
Brecht’s most acclaimed work is “Mother Courage and Her Children” (1941). Although set in the 1600s, the play is relevant to contemporary society. It is often regarded as one of the finest anti-war plays.
Not surprisingly, “Mother Courage and Her Children” has frequently been revived in recent years. Many colleges and professional theaters have produced the show, perhaps to express their views on modern-day warfare.
Brecht’s most famous musical collaboration is “Three Penny Opera.” The work was adapted from John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” a successful 18th-century “ballad opera.” Brecht and composer Kurt Weill filled the show with humorous scoundrels, riveting songs (including the popular “Mack the Knife”), and scathing social satire.
The play’s most renowned line is: “Who is the bigger criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?”
https://www.thoughtco.com/life-and-work-of-playwright-berthold-brecht-2713613

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 23:03 utc | 60

@ UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:54 utc | 57
This particular example of “old folk culture”, as you have it, dates from the 1920s.
I always thought that a necessary aspect of intelligence is not flapping one’s gums on subjects one knows nothing about. Given this example, your attempt at etymology earlier today, and your (ummm…) astonishing statement about Black women…well, I rest my case.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 3 2024 23:03 utc | 61

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 3 2024 23:03 utc | 60
All I did was say I found the Moon of Alabama song not quite what I expected.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 23:10 utc | 62

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 54
When I lived in Redmond (Microsoft) there was a company paying cash for homes, demolishing them, and putting up big fancy houses, six bedroom+ types.
The demolished houses were often only 25 – 50 years old. A real crime against nature.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 23:14 utc | 63

Bob Dylen lifted the words for “The Times are a Changing” from Bertolt Brecht. And Mack the Knife was a Brecht song as well, or was it a poem?

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 23:20 utc | 64

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 22:22 utc | 54
If history rhymes look at the Texas Real Estate crisis of the late 80’s, this also seems centered in Commercial, largely forgotten is that EVERY Bank in the State of Texas went under except one.
Posted by: qparker | Nov 3 2024 23:01 utc | 58
——————————————————————
Look at it? I lived through it. And yes, it was a mess; of course, interest was sky high as well and inflation was everywhere.

Posted by: Ed | Nov 3 2024 23:25 utc | 65

i have a family member that moved to a small town in Texas recently.
One of the many indignities they are suffering right now is they are getting double taxed on their property, and the county insists it is correct, when it clearly is not. their only recourse is a costly lawsuit, which they are still debating.
There is an even far worse thing that happened, which I can not get into the specifics of, but their is an alive and well good ol boy network in that rural texas county, including the police, doctors, councilmen etc.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 23:32 utc | 66

On Sach’s interview.
Partial agreement, but he suffers from the usual liberal blind spots, such as being unable to see that the international order is not shaped by individuals making decisions on the basis of rational acting, but by the dynamism of a mode of production and its internal contradictions. Most capitalists would object to being nice to poor people; some even give vast amounts to charities, etc. But poverty and a distributive regime is produced (not ameliorated) by capitalism indifferently to the views of individuals. If wars take place it cannot be reducible to a failure of the intelligence (or whatever) of ‘leaders’ (who are not in case decision-makers in that transparent naive sense). Wars are the resolution of contradictions immanent to systems. There can be no ‘deciding one’s way out’ of these because the ‘leaders’ are as much a consequence of the contradictions as everything else. Boris Johnson (or Hitler, anyone etc) not an aberration but typical of the historical moment. Liberals don’t get this unless they read Marx and self-critique liberalism.

Posted by: Patroklos | Nov 3 2024 23:49 utc | 67

I read about the CRE Extend and Pretend paper over at Wall Street On Parade where they added

The authors refer to this extend-and-pretend behavior as another “manifestation of zombie lending, namely the provision of subsidized credit to impaired borrowers.”
The phrase, “zombie lending” reminded us of a scene from the movie, The Big Short, based on the Michael Lewis book by the same name on the 2008 financial collapse. This is the scene where actor Steve Carell, playing the character Mark Baum, is sitting in the audience at the American Securitization Forum and interrupts the speaker on stage who has just stated that he expects subprime losses “will be contained at 5 percent.” Baum stands up and boisterously asks: “Would you say that it is a possibility or a probability that subprime losses stop at 5 percent?” The speaker says: “I would say that it is a very strong probability, indeed.” Baum sits back down in his seat in the audience but then begins to waive his arm in the air, forming a zero with his fingers. Baum then shouts out: “Zero! Zero! There is a zero percent chance that your subprime losses will stop at 5 percent.”
…
The authors of this extend-and-pretend study, Crosignani and Prazad, are effectively doing what the Baum character in that scene from The Big Short did. They are yelling out in a public forum that this banking era of extend-and-pretend is unlikely to end well.
It is also critically important to remember that a key reason that publicly-traded megabanks (with some CEOs making $25 million to more than $30 million a year in compensation) don’t want to properly reserve for potential losses is that it lessens quarterly earnings, which might reduce their stock awards and their path to becoming a billionaire like Sandy Weill and Jamie Dimon. Good quarterly earnings also provide a prop under the share price so that the guys in the corner offices can cash out their stock option grants at a fat profit. (See Jamie Dimon Dumped $150 Million of His JPMorgan Stock in February; Now He Says His Regulators Want 25 Percent More Capital at his Bank.)

I don’t know when or what makes the music stop but it seems imminent. I am seeing empty store fronts all over my college town that should have a student factor for supportive businesses keeping more viable.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 3 2024 23:51 utc | 68

@51 sacredgeometry
This is really a misunderstanding of Christianity. We do think the world is good. But the Fall inflicted a wound on the self that inhibits us from experiencing the world the way God intended.
As a result, those who do not adhere to the Gospel do not recognize the need for the self to reconcile itself with God through the Son.
TPTB, the powers and principalities, are they that distract us from admitting this fundamental despair about the self and its dire condition. That is why Kierkegaard says to, “Choose despair.” Because this is the gateway to understanding man’s precarious position in life.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Nov 4 2024 0:00 utc | 69

@ michaelj72 | Nov 3 2024 21:29 utc | 43
You’ve got a lot against Trump there, but his (not mentioned) move that outweighs all the rest was his effort to make nice with North Korea. That would have changed the US-Asia situation for the better if allowed by the deep state. Tens of thousands of US troops with their gear have populated Asia mostly thanks to maintaining the seventy year war with DPRK.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 4 2024 0:03 utc | 70

ZH has a posting up with the title
The Internet Is Getting Flushed Down Orwell’s Memory Hole
the quote

When the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine was hacked in early October, it looked at first like just another email-and-password smash-and-grab. But that was followed up by repeated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that crippled the service. The Internet Archive was hit again on Oct. 20, “this time with the threat actors gaining access to their Zendesk support email system.”
The Wayback Machine came back but as a read-only service.
What that means is, while you can search archived webpages from before the attacks, “you can’t currently capture an existing web page into the archive.”
That matters bigly. When the New York Times, Washington Post, or anyone else stealth-edits a news report to hide the truth, you could still find the original on the Wayback Machine. That’s no longer true. “For the first time in 30 years, we have gone a long swath of time – since October 8-10 – since this service has chronicled the life of the Internet in real time,” the Brownstone Institute reported this week.

As of this writing, fully three weeks of web content have not been archived. What we are missing and what has changed is anyone’s guess. And we have no idea when the service will come back. It is entirely possible that it will not come back, that the only real history to which we can take recourse will be pre-October 8, 2024, the date on which everything changed.

But it gets worse.
Google killed off its cache feature — similar to the Wayback Machine — right around the time the Internet Archive got hacked. Coincidence? Probably. But I’m making a tinfoil hat, just in case.

It is a feature, not a bug that the mission/vision and goals of the Intertubes has never been laid out in public.
The infrastructure is privately owned and not really regulated. It is like the early days of TV and we know how much that is a brainwashing/control mechanism with a side of consumerism encouragement.
Is humanity ever going to talk about how society works presently and how the public might want to see society operate going forward?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 4 2024 0:03 utc | 71

It has nothing to do with “intelligence”
I just expected a more mournful song, since it talks about drinking and a dead mother, and instead it was kind of… …flapper?
Posted by: UWDude | Nov 3 2024 22:54 utc | 57
Check out the doors version of Brecht: Alabama Song. You’ll probably like it more. Most people of a certain age hear this one first and later realize it was an adaptation of Brecht.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 4 2024 0:07 utc | 72

Voting arithmetic according to Central Electoral Commission of Moldova as reported by AP:
“When polls closed locally at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT), turnout stood at more than 1.68 million people — about 54% of eligible voters, according to the CEC.” 1.68 / 0.54 = 3.11 (million)
Of that turnout, “diaspora cast ballots in record numbers of more than 325,000 voted, heavily in favor of Sandu in the runoff.”
And Moldova is “[a] former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.” As the arithmetic shows, given that there should be ca. 300 under-age inhabitants, the diaspora has ca. 0.9 million eligible voters, about half in Russia where only two voting locations where made, contrasting with ca. more than 100 in EU. Were diaspora in Russia allowed to vote, the diaspora turnout could be much higher and much more balanced, giving at least 70 thousand votes and thus the majority to the opponent of Sandu, very powerfully backed by the West.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 4 2024 0:19 utc | 73

Typo: ca. 300 thousand under-age inhabitants of Moldova

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 4 2024 0:25 utc | 74

The genius of Google:
Showing results for foreign voting locations in Moldovan elections
Search instead for foreign voring locations in Moldovan elections

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 4 2024 0:31 utc | 75

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Nov 4 2024 0:07 utc | 71
I know I’ve posted it before, but here’s my favorite version of Whiskey Bar.
Jahmiga 8-bit Whiskey Bar

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 4 2024 0:44 utc | 76

Applying “the dog that didn’t bark in the night” principle to the alleged Israeli attack on Iran. If the Israelis had really destroyed Iran’s air defences we would have seen far more attacks on far more targets that night and probably on subsequent nights but we didn’t so Israel’s attack didn’t do much damage and the air space over Iran is still dangerous for Israeli aircraft.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Nov 4 2024 0:55 utc | 77

your attempt at etymology earlier today,
Posted by: malenkov | Nov 3 2024 23:03 utc | 60
Its really funny that word was “fremdschamen”.
XD

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 4 2024 1:25 utc | 78

The camel’s hump
The camel’s hump
The tyrant’s dump
A kosher haggis
Served in Paris
Here’s the menu
To upend you
Meat and soya
Munch and Goya
Come all ya hairy’s
And on old rumps
Just watch the show
With vertigo
That cute Koala
What a palaver!
Sprays urine on
Godfather Don
Those narrowed lips
Launch thousand ships
And business swells
In seven hells
On Gina’s side
There’s no divide
United Reich
What’s not to like?
Trump the stump
Dump the frump
Ride the camel
Dressed in flannel
On Afric’s shore
We’ll keep ‘em poor
For all ‘em races
Load the bases
Electric cars
And flights to Mars
A plate of chips
A sea of ships
The rising sun
What’s to be done?
Our rise and fall
Our alter call
Socialism or
Solipsism?
Don’t give too much
You’ll lose your touch
The dude, the babe
The land of Abe
The babe, the dude
In solitude
Bonnie and Clyde
Nowhere to hide
November’s choice
A phantom voice

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Nov 4 2024 2:09 utc | 79

Thanks for the week b.
I watched Prof Jeffery Sachs at Cambridge Union. As you say in bold, Recommended.
He’s clear and concise, and tells it like it is, with relevant facts and personal experiences.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Nov 4 2024 2:34 utc | 80

I am getting a demand from who? – to “Verify that you are human” with a check box, before opening the MoA. This has started only a few weeks ago. The same happens when trying to open al mayadeen english, but that started several weeks before the same demand started with MoA. And the strange thing is that it is not every time.
Any ideas what that is all about? is it the chinese thought police (irony alert)?

Posted by: fanto | Nov 4 2024 2:41 utc | 81

BTW whatever agencies were involved in P’Nut’s murder need eliminated on day one. Talk about grotesque overreach. You have nothing better to do than murder pets?
Posted by: cc | Nov 3 2024 15:43 utc | 4
Even most essential “agencies” may cross a line at occasion. Should we eliminate Phoenix Police Department with excesses like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMBVw_MBk8&t=322s
“Man suffers third-degree burns while being held on hot pavement by Phoenix police”. It was 114 F on that day (in the shade, but on the parking lot where it happened there was none, and as we know, paved and concrete surfaces are yet hotter under the blazing sun), policemen made sure that the burns were very extensive by kneeling for minutes on the man, as he was prone then on his stomach), then pestered him and even handcuffed from time to time as he was hospitalized for more than month. That happened in June, district attorney and police internal affairs still “investigate” so they refuse to release any footage or other materials — there is footage of a security camera. And this is not the only shocking news story provided by PPD for our YouTube viewing pleasure.
But a truly national story is about a squirrel.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 4 2024 2:47 utc | 82

Posted by: fanto | Nov 4 2024 2:41 utc | 80
generally just slow connection. You can actually just refresh to skip it.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 4 2024 2:48 utc | 83

But a truly national story is about a squirrel.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 4 2024 2:47 utc | 81
burns heal.
Somebody killing two of your beloved pets will never heal.
And if you want to talk about unjust police actions, chances are mr pavement burns was not mistreated by the police for helping injured animals.
so off your high horse you go.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 4 2024 3:07 utc | 84

Historic Vids
@historyinmemes
Native American land loss in the United States of America from 1776-1930
https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1852845643527565398

Posted by: Menz | Nov 4 2024 3:14 utc | 85

Over 130 Sudanese women committed mass suicide yesterday to avoid being raped by UAE backed RSF militia…
3:17 AM · Oct 27, 2024
·
Ze | Keep Eyes On Sudan 🇸🇩🌺
@KushiteDictator
More than 500 men are killed in a single village, the women are resorting to s*icide to protect themselves.
Bodies are scattered everywhere. Tell me a reality worse than this.
https://x.com/tastefullysaucy/status/1850210224470143110

Posted by: Menz | Nov 4 2024 3:16 utc | 86

AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY
@AfricanArchives
104 years ago on November 2-3, during Election Day in 1920, the single bloodiest day in modern America political history happened, The Ocoee Massacre.
A black man attempted to vote & the Ku Klux Klan responded with rampage that led to the exile/death of every black person that lived there
—The dark day in Florida’s history escalated after one Black citizen tried to exercise his right to vote at a polling location but was turned away on Election Day.
Mose Norman, who had been part of the voter registration drive in Orange County, decided to vote in the national election on November 2. When he attempted to do so, twice, he was turned away from the polls.
When Norman was driven away the second time, a white mob, then numbering over 100 men, decided to hunt him down. Concluding he had taken refuge in the home of another local Black resident, Julius “July” Perry, they rushed Perry’s home hoping to capture both men there. Norman escaped and was never found while Perry defended his home, killing two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Leo Borgard, who tried to enter through the back door. The mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and surrounding Orange County. Eventually they caught and killed Perry and hung his dead body from a telephone post by the highway from Ocoee to Orlando to intimidate other potential Black voters. Perry’s wife, Estelle Perry, and their daughter were wounded during the attack on the Perry home. They were sent to Tampa by local law enforcement officers.
The mob then turned on the Black community of Ocoee.
Homes and properties of Black families were scorched, burnt to the ground. At least four Black individuals were confirmed killed — one of which was lynched, his body hanging from a tree limb for all to see.
On June 21, 2019, a historical marker honoring July Perry and others killed in the massacre was placed in Heritage Square outside the Orange County Regional History Center.
🖋️if you love our content, please consider supporting our page on http://AfricanArchives.Support (follow the ko-fi page too for weekly posts roundup)
https://x.com/AfricanArchives/status/1852739269032296564

Posted by: Menz | Nov 4 2024 3:21 utc | 87

Posted by: Menz | Nov 4 2024 3:21 utc | 86
The only thing, and I mean the only thing, that is FAKER and GAYER than united states elections are the JEWISH BLOOD LIBEL LIES about black massacres done by White men.
And considering how thoroughly jewish both of those things are, that’s saying a lot.

Posted by: ryanggg | Nov 4 2024 4:47 utc | 88

53. UWDude. Brecht song was a bitter take on the desperation and dependency of impoverished German citizens after the defeat in WW1. A condition that has been related by some historians to what was to come.
It pays to learn some history.

Posted by: Lavieja | Nov 4 2024 5:19 utc | 89

63 Ed. It was a song. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne
Und der trägt er im Gesicht
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht.
An ‘nem schönen blauen Sonntag
Liegt ein toter Mann am Strand
Und ein Mensch geht um die Ecke
Den man Mackie Messer nennt.
Und Schmul Meier bleibt verschwunden
Wie so mancher reiche Mann
Und sein Geld hat Mackie Messer
Dem man nichts beweisen kann.
Etc.

Posted by: Lavieja | Nov 4 2024 6:03 utc | 90

MOATS, Ep 392 with George Galloway
https://www.youtube.com/live/T_Xarlv_67Q
“The election countdown.” With Prof Seyed Marandi, Hassan Chami.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 4 2024 6:22 utc | 91

Posted by: Lavieja | Nov 4 2024 6:13 utc | 90
I ride my high horse in truth and righteousness.
Using someone else’s tragedy to promote your own is questionable. I let it pass on the Palestinian childrem thing, although even that I find dishonest.
There is not a limited amount of “outrage” people can have for all the injustices of the world. I can be outraged against both and still be righteous and truthful in my thought.
So I will mount this horse again when I see dishonesty in peoples argumemts… ..especially when they invoke the blood of Martyrs. Then I’ll get on my high horse, sword in hand.

Posted by: UWDude | Nov 4 2024 6:27 utc | 92

Compare:
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that Spain will send seven more powerful generators to Ukraine. The generators, valued at 360,000 euros, will be dispatched to Ukraine via Poland in the coming days. (pravda)
Spanish villagers cast back to the 19th century by flash floods.
The Valencian town of Chiva has been without electricity, water or communication for days while coming to terms with a heartbreaking death toll. (elpais)

Posted by: Passerby | Nov 4 2024 6:27 utc | 93

You’ve got a lot against Trump there, but his (not mentioned) move that outweighs all the rest was his effort to make nice with North Korea. That would have changed the US-Asia situation for the better if allowed by the deep state. Tens of thousands of US troops with their gear have populated Asia mostly thanks to maintaining the seventy year war with DPRK.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 4 2024 0:03 utc | 69
In my view, the only reason Trump wants/wanted to play nice with the DPRK is/was that he wants to pull it away from the Chinese sphere of influence. This is also why he wants to be “nice” with Russia – to break their relations by pulling Russia to the “western” side – to leave China alone facing the collective “west”. Trump hates China and wants to go after them.

Posted by: jure | Nov 4 2024 7:39 utc | 94

Trump wants/wanted to play nice
Posted by: jure | Nov 4 2024 7:39 utc | 94
—
Trump’s going to have a hard time finding a carrot in his bag of tricks. All the USA has to offer is less stick.

Posted by: too scents | Nov 4 2024 8:49 utc | 95

@LoveDonbass #14
You do understand the difference between voting age beauty pageant queens and middle school age girls?
Furthermore: Epstein was certainly running a honeypot operation with his own role as steerer.
Why would anyone be surprised that he would cozy up to one and all?
I doubt there is a single prominent male person in the West that Epstein did not try to cozy up to.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2024 10:56 utc | 96

@michaelj72 #43

You don’t understand! When Trump bombed Syria twice, tried to overthrow the government of Venezuela, started arming Ukraine, expanded NATO twice, got record-busting military budgets, dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan, signed off on FISA warrantless surveillance, imposed massive sanctions on Russia, tore up arms control treaties, handed over the State Department to Mike Pompeo, stationed US troops in Taiwan, assassinated Iran’s top general, conducted a record number of drone strikes, installed a Raytheon Lobbyist as his Defense Secretary, gave Israel absolutely everything it wanted, did enormous arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and most recently orchestrated the passage of the $100 Billion War Funding Bill, he was doing all that to fight the Deep State

Trump bombed Syria, but only for show. To see what a real bombardment looks like – examine Iraq (Dubya Bush) and Libya (Obama).
Venezuela: yep, although the Venezuela thing has been going for decades already.
Would you prefer Biden and sock puppet Harris – who are both complicit in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza ethnic cleansing?
Ukraine: nope. Arming Ukraine was Obama. Overthrowing the original voted-in government of Ukraine was Obama and HRC and Biden as VP.
Expanded NATO twice – and also made the NATO nations pay up.
FISA surveillance: yeah right. You have no idea what you are talking about. FISA operationally has nothing to do with the POTUS office. FISA legislatively is passed by Congress. Trump did not veto it when 702 came up for reauthorization when he was POTUS, but he clearly think differently now:
Trump on FISA reauthorization in April 2024

“KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform in the hours before the House GOP conference meeting.

sanctions on Russia: Russia thanks him for it. Best thing evah.
arms control treaties: bad, yes. But again, part and parcel of US policy for decades. Was this Trump himself or the US Deep State telling him to? Would he do it again?
Pompeo: bad. But then again, Trump has repeatedly said that he was completely unprepared when he entered office – that there are 10000 top level appointments that an incoming President must make. He relied on the dinosaur neocon Republican party top levels, which is how Pompeo and Bolton got in. Will he do that again? No.
Soleimani: on him for sure. But again, is this Trump or is this the Deep State agenda at work?
Drone strikes: Bush had 57, Obama has 563 in 2 terms, Trump had 401 in one term. So no, Trump did not order more drone strikes than anyone else. Obama still the king.
Obama 10 times more drone strikes than Bush
Truthout tabulation of Trump drone strikes
US troops in Taiwan: Nope. US Troops have visited Taiwan, they are not stationed there. Biden has done the same thing.
Raytheon lobbyist – I see your Raytheon lobbyist and raise you a Raytheon board member: Lloyd Austin.
Israel: hmm – sorry, you cannot remotely compare Trump’s behavior with Israel (peace accords, however misguided) with Biden’s literal abetting genocide.
Saudi Arabia: and so?
Defense Budget: and so? Every single US President for the last 2 generations has done the same.
To summarize the above:
I hate Trump and will find any excuse to extend my TDS.
Any Democrat gooder than Trump.
Clearly a member of the Halperin “mental damage if Trump wins” clique.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2024 11:21 utc | 97

BIS Abandons Project M-Bridge As Russia and China Take Globalists for a Ride.
https://youtu.be/UB-iC6VHw1g

Posted by: too scents | Nov 4 2024 11:30 utc | 98

@Ed #49
I am unclear on what exactly Trump is alleged to have done here.
Did Trump buy these Bibles as President of the United States?
Did he force an Oklahoma state bureaucrat to buy said Bibles as President of the United States?
If this is a private endeavor by Trump with the state bureaucrat deciding to buy Bibles – any separation of Church and State violation is by the bureaucrat, not Trump.
As for the Republican party being in the thrall of Christian evangelicals/fundamentalists: that would be Dubya Bush and the dinosaur neocon Republicans.
You do understand there are many factions within the Republican party, unlike the Democrat party?
The populist Republicans like Trump and Vance are the ones welcoming RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard.
The dinosaur neocon Republicans are McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Pompeo and so forth.
Those of us who think Trump *could* accomplish a lot of good, hope he will do so because he is surrounding himself with like minded populist and reformist people this time, as opposed to rolling into office literally half-assed in his first term and accepting the dinosaur neocon Republican poisoned chalice.
In contrast – Harris is guaranteed to be more of the same Obama/Biden/Soviet Democrat nonsense.
The choice seems pretty clear to me: some, maybe tiny, maybe not chance for change with not one, but many public figures who have said so vs. a guarantee of more of the same by voting for Harris. The Democrat platform in 2020 and 2024 is nothing more than “not Trump”.
But ultimately everyone gets to make their choice for whatever reason they think is best.

Posted by: c1ue | Nov 4 2024 11:32 utc | 99

I live right next to a recent DR Horton community. Four years ago, they started building overpriced homes which drove our property and school taxes up …..

There is a traffic engineer who has carefully studied this phenomenon. He runs a informative website called Strongtowns.com
Worth checking out.

Posted by: Exile | Nov 4 2024 11:33 utc | 100

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