Just Some Randomer
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@Dr D: “Point: If Britain of all people can function with nearly no bureaucracy, get all that done up to 1901, then maybe we can do with 90% less and STILL have 4 Times the bureaucracy they did in their heyday?”
Quite so. At the height of Empire, the jewel in the crown (India, with its population in the hundreds of millions) was run by a Civil Service staff of no more than 1,200 mostly British administrators. I’ve worked for companies that had more people than that in their HR department.
“One unnamed “long-term Trump adviser” told the Financial Times on Monday that the Republican candidate could resolve the conflict with “a reimagining of the failed Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015,” under which Kiev agreed to grant some autonomy to the majority Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. This time around, the adviser said, the deal would be enforced by EU peacekeepers.”
Someone needs to tell this bozo that Donetsk and Lugansk are Russia now. Kiev will not be ‘Granting’ them anything, and Trump has precisely zero leverage over what the final settlement in Ukraine will be (hint: Moscow will dictate terms of surrender). I do not believe that Russia will ever again fall for the Western ‘Let’s all sign a treaty that we will break the moment it suits us’ gambit.
I appreciate Trump’s position on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but really, all he can do is stop sending weapons and money. Everything thereafter is out of his hands.
@DBS: “The correct strategy is to wear them down to nothing (literally!) by manipulating them into CONTINUING to waste their resources in a fruitless effort to maintain their hegemonic thirst for empire.”
Quite so. You might recall that this is exactly the strategy adopted by Osama Bin Laden.
In his media appearances and addresses throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Bin Laden carefully laid out the strategy by which he would antagonise and provoke the West, through the use of escalating terrorist attacks, into “bleeding wars.” It was by these wars that Bin Laden stated that he would exhaust and bankrupt the United States and its Western allies.
And of course we fell for it because the prospect of a forever war to feed the MIC was too tempting to pass up.
I certainly don’t expect the election to be fair, scrupulously or even approximately. I would further add that while I have zero expectation of it being legal in every case, we must also consider that some parts of the country have been specifically legislating to permit blatantly irregular activities – making them ‘Legal’ but not fair.
I am genuinely of the opinion that no matter what the announced results of the voting or, more precisely, of the vote counting are, a very large part of the population will not accept them. There’s a lot of hyperbole out there on the interwebs about the possibility of civil war/conflict/whatever post election, and it’s not easy to dismiss the thought of a ‘Fiery but definitely not mostly peaceful’ scenario out of hand.
@ Dr. Day Kyle Young, Waging “Weather Warfare” and “Plunder Capitalism” on the good folk of the US
As I understand it, the current mass media position on this is that people who believe that the government can control the weather are nut-job conspiraholics, whereas people who believe that the government can control the climate are totally correct and just following ‘The Science’.
Further to the psychopathic ravings of Matthew Brodsky yesterday, it appears that the IDF have decided to follow his advice and open fire on UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon. It would appear that Netanyahoo has resolved to double-down on his mission to make Israel even more of a global pariah state than it already is. When peacekeepers from Ireland etc. start coming home in bodybags things might get a little ugly.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/10/israel-iran-war-hezbollah-lebanon-latest-news1/
Two United Nations peacekeepers were wounded on Thursday morning when an Israeli tank fired toward an observation tower at their headquarters in Naqoura, reports Ben Farmer from Beirut.
“The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” a source told the Telegraph.
The attack has caused diplomatic consternation, with Italy, which leads the UN mission, summoning the Israeli ambassador on Thursday afternoon while Ireland has called the incident ‘intolerable.’
Israeli soldiers also fired on a UN position in Ras Naqoura, the source said, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system”.
The source said the headquarters of the peacekeeping mission, called UNIFIL, and nearby positions have been “repeatedly hit”.
In a later statement, the UN accused Israel of deliberately firing at security cameras on the perimeter of one of its positions.
The United Nations has around 10,000 troops in the country from 50 nations, including several hundred soldiers from Ireland, as they monitor the ‘Blue Line’ between Lebanon and Israel.
@Dr D. “Looks like yet another reason why Americans are so retarded, the effect of lead on the brains of children is well known. Lead with your American beer, yikes.”
And Fluoride of course. Lead, Fluoride and Beer – the drink of champions. Explains a lot when you think about it.
“How Russian Buying Could Help Drive Silver to $50 and Beyond”
Hmm. Have the Russian Central Bank staff been taking Metals trading lessons from Gordon Brown and announcing their intentions to the world so we can all front-run them?
@RIM ‘Easy. Step 1: you step down.’
He can’t though, can he – no longer having an official position from which to step down?
@WES – I’d wager that the main reason 50%+ of the populations of the towns and cities Russia has been taking control of recently haven’t departed is simply that they would prefer to live in the part of former Ukraine that will be run by Russia from now on. These are, after all the Russian speaking and historically Russian Oblasts.
Even if we leave aside cultural and historical affiliations, from a purely pragmatic perspective, whatever is left of rump Ukraine west of the Dnieper after the dust settles, will be an immiserated wreck governed by whichever corrupt gang-boss happens to be top dog on any particular day. Not many people would be making a beeline towards that given the alternative of simply staying put. Similarly, the EU countries had best be making plans for the permanent settlement of the millions of Ukrainians that they are currently hosting, as I doubt there will be anything at all that would convince those people to return to their former homeland and a life of poverty.
“The Subsidy Effect: If you “give” some people $25,000 to buy a house, the cost of all houses will immediately rise $25,000.”
Which is exactly what happened in the UK when the government introduced the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme under which the Government would lend first time buyers up to 40% of the value of a property (interest free over 5 years) for use as a deposit on purchase. Naturally, since this did nothing to increase the supply of properties in high demand areas, prices were driven even higher as the property developers cashed in. They’ve closed this economically illiterate scheme down now, as I understand it.
‘Anyway, that’s the state of your reporters: nobody could have shot Trump because that is against the law. Nobody in USSS could have arranged it, because that would be against MORE laws.’
Reminds me of this:
Regarding ‘Joe Biden’ and his supposed Freudian slips, I well remember him ‘Accidentally’ commenting in an interview before the 2020 election that ‘We have put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.‘
And so he did.
Of course, according to the ‘Fact Checkers’ he never said that, and even if he did he meant the exact opposite.
“God I hope capitalism and the Nikkei finally bring the whole system down”
Same here, but October is the traditional month for financial system implosions, so we may have a bit to wait yet. Unless, of course, things in the middle east go kinetic before then.
A combo of unwinding Yen carry trade, US recession, elections, plus a regional war in the ME with consequent soaring oil prices at one and the same time might just be enough to finally tip the cart over in a big way.
“Gen. Mark Milley: Robots to Imminently Replace Humans Soldiers in U.S. Military”
That’s all well and good, but will they be appropriately diverse robots with the correct allocation of genders across their number?
Has anyone else noticed that Ukraine is, apparently, carpeted from top to bottom with ‘Children’s Hospitals?’ Seems like one can barely launch a potato in the country, never mind a missile, without hitting a ‘Children’s Hospital’.
Particularly if the aforementioned potato happens to be sent on it’s airborne way a couple of days before an important decision about funding/arming Ukraine is to be taken.
I’m recalling various incidents like the ‘Maternity Hospital’ strike that was widely reported early last year following which one of the Nurses featuring in the widely distributed video of the event spoke to the media complaining that Ukrainian forces had taken over the hospital and basically kicked the women out several days previously to use the building as a base.
Seems like, once again, a ‘Russian strike on civilians’ was in fact the inevitable outcome of firing lots of air defence missiles into the sky from the middle of cities, most of them hitting nothing and falling back to where they came from, warhead intact.
“It might clear things up for them if they realized that “woke” is simply a disingenuous way of saying insane.”
In exactly the same way that ‘I identify as…‘ really means ‘I pretend to be…‘
“Biden is not quitting. He will do another debate in Sept.”
Biden better be careful or he might find himself catching a bad case of death.
@ Celticbiker – they may not need to do anything more to Assange. Would be interesting to know if he was compelled to take the notavax while in Belmarsh. Another friend (30 years old) of my wife’s was told today that she has terminal cancer. Was perfectly fine six months ago.
@Oriboros – strangely, the US is the only country (of many) I’ve ever been to where # is referred to as ‘Pound’. Everywhere else it’s just ‘Hash’.
@DBS – Holy Moly – your point about the utter silence around the Saudi/Petrodollar situation is spot on. I read a ton of material every day on matters political and economic from sources right across the spectrum from MSM to alternative media. Not a whisper about it anywhere until it was mentioned in passing during an interview with Douglas McGregor on Judge Napolitano’s channel posted just now.
I simply cannot believe that nobody’s picked up on the significance of this anywhere. It seems like the biggest news item for a years but…..crickets. WTF is going on?
“Not too shmart”
Cunning but not smart. What kind of ‘Smart’ gets booted out of country after country over a millenium but never figures out why?
It’s over already?
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 13, 2024
This is why the Gold slam yesterday. Knock it down in advance of events that will spike it up. Exactly the same thing happened hours before Bernanke announced QE1.
Is the US now facing its end-of-empire ‘Suez Crisis’ moment? ‘Allies’ in the region closing ranks against them and closing airspace? Could very well be. It’ll be interesting to see what’s happening at Incirlik air base.
@ Dr D “Mass feeling is Carbs and seed oils but who knows if that’s right. Probably not literally, they are cutting out large, cloudy wings of whatever “it” is, when some still gets through.”
My observation is that much of what passes for ‘Food’ in the US contains numerous substances that are outright banned and illegal to use in most of world. Examples include High Fructose Corn Syrup (there’s the cause of your diabetes epidemic right there), Genetically Modified corn, soy and so on, and any number of colourings/flavourings/preservatives.
I am not saying that no other country has serious issues with the quality of, and nutrition provided by, the food consumed by the general population, but it seems that US food manufacturers have gone out of their way to include some really nasty and dangerous things in their products.
Even a comparison of the US and European versions of a McDonalds meal containing what are ostensibly the same items reveals how much more polluted the US version is. The humble french fry, for example, lists 14 ingredients in the US version whereas in Europe they contain potatoes, oil, dextrose and salt.
If I were looking to understand why so many people are overweight and unhealthy I think I’d start with the regulatory frameworks that allow all of this.
@Dr D. “……If so, my guess is he’s the equivalent to our UniParty RINOs, and he gets by on people over 60 and divides the others. Let me know, but I bet the first. Nobody likes him now AND nobody EVER liked him AND your voting system hasn’t worked in 20 years.”
Macron got into power purely and solely because all the other parties agreed on an ‘Anyone but (that dangerous fascist!) Le Pen’ policy and coordinated during the second round of voting to ensure it was implemented. Luckily for Rothschild-backed Macron he was the anointed spoiler candidate and so it came to pass that the lions lay down with the lambs across virtually the whole political spectrum (other than Le Pen’s team) and all supported his run.
“So what you’re saying is, if I leave the country, destroy my passport (that’s physically impossible)…”
Damn right. You can even blow them up with a jetliner full of kerosene and they’ll still flutter to the ground unscathed. Damn tough stuff those passports are made from. You’ll probably have to fling it into Mount Doom to unmake it.
“Great. Um, if no one’s in space…there’s no one there, we have no Mars bases, no Aurora space planes….then what are you powering? Waving Buddhist cat figures? Or are you saying something is ALREADY on the moon, and you’re finding a way to finally admit it?”
All good questions, BUT – if we do have Mars Bases and space planes, they sure as hell aren’t powered by 1950’s technology like Nuclear Power Plants – so why build one on the Moon instead of just using the Fusion-Reactor-In-A-Briefcase tech that got us to Mars and allowed us to build a Base there?
Victoria Nuland is “retiring”!
Good riddance. Maybe she can return to her ancestral home in Ukraine and enjoy at first hand the complete and total clusterf*ck she’s made of the place. I’m sure the population there will be effusive in their thanks and will welcome her with open arms.
@ Dr. D “The marble is at the top, falls down the track: Order.”
And sometimes quite beautiful order….
Well…..that’s interesting.
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1762107989241078163
Nalvany ‘Died Suddenly’ of a Blood Clot – says Ukrainian intelligence. Two of my favourite ‘Conspiracy Theories’ unite in a pleasing manner.
Probably the single most important phrase in the English language…
Fortunately, she reminds me on a regular basis.
The ICJ ruling was actually a de facto ceasefire demand to Israel. They didn’t call it such but the only way Israel can comply is to effectively pull out of Gaza other than possibly some very focussed Spec-Ops type actions against Hamas.
Now whether this will be enforced is another matter. The US could, veto any action when it gets to the security council stage, but Biden is under increasing pressure from the Democrat left and younger voters are largely pro-Palestine so it’s not necessarily a given.
The drums of War certainly are beating loudly across the entire UK mainstream press at the moment. Lots of reports and editorials being published, the tenor of which appears to be an attempt to shift the Overton window towards contemplation of an inevitable all-out war with Russia. Conscription, Army expansion, Navy expansion, US Nukes back in town – you name it it’s being trial ballooned right now.
The obvious (to TAE regulars and other sentient beings at least) imminent collapse of ‘Project Ukraine’ and the more recent but equally obvious exposing of US/UK military capabilities in the middle east as a paper tiger will require some industrial strength misdirection when those truths finally hit home in suburban sitting rooms.
Looks like what’s in motion here is a broad based psyop strategy to position RussiaRussiaRussia as the pan-spectrum bad guy upon whom can be hung not only the military failure of the west, but also the implosion of the financial system (Russia broke our banks), the ruinous increase in consumer prices (Russia stole our oil and gas) and for good measure either the election of The Donald or the justification for not having an election at all – can’t risk Russia ‘Hacking’ another election, you see.
When the public are in a state of panic and, as is our wont as humans, looking for someone to blame – well, why not sign up to fight against the Russians who caused all of this in spite of the best efforts of our enlightened, benevolent (and entirely blameless btw) ruling class in the West?
No actual war could realistically take place, of course. Even should NATO manage to provoke some sort of conflict, we’d be reduced to throwing stones at them within a week unless that elusive cache of weapons and ammo that is rumoured to lie at the end of the rainbow is finally located. No, once the public can be made to accept that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia that’ll be enough to focus public anger outwards and prevent heads rolling in the west.
Taking the country to war is said to be the last resort of a failed leadership whose crimes and failures are about to explode in their faces, potentially along with some molotov cocktails. The current all-out media push to position war not as something that our brave lads in camo deal with in countries far, far away but as something that concerns the average citizen who may be asked to make sacrifices up to and including being conscripted into the military is a rather ominous development when viewed in that light.
Something very bad may be on the horizon.
““If this is true, and search and arrest warrants are used to drag Steve out of his house in the early morning hours someday soon, that will be evidence of retaliation against a journalist exercising his First Amendment rights to report information that is embarrassing to government officials.”
Since they’ve been doing that for 100 years they’re going to be very confused as to why that’s not okay.
Yep – ask Julian Assange. This is the exact same thing as his ‘Crime’
@ Dr. D “No one will want to hear this, but it’s obvious: there were 6 foot dragonflies then and not today. If there could be, there would be because insects are like that. That means oxygen and/or gravity itself must have been substantially different. Which would make those Brontosaurs possible too.”
There was a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere in the carboniferous and permian periods than now (31% of the atmosphere vs 21% now). Insects don’t have lungs, they breath through tubes in their bodies called spiracles – this ‘Passive’ intake of oxygen, as opposed to actively breathing using lungs with associated muscles, makes them very sensitive to oxygen levels.
Higher atmospheric oxygen levels make it possible to absorb more, even passively, and thus built larger bodies. If oxygen levels fall, mammals can just breathe harder and add red blood cells, insects can’t do that. Their only response is to get smaller and lower their oxygen requirements.
Long story short – the makeup of our atmosphere can change very significantly over time. With or without human involvement.
@Oroboros – When I last worked on a project in Silicon Valley, must be 5 years ago now, one of my colleagues there had just spent a shade under a million dollars on a ‘Residence’ in Mountainview that looked a lot like that shed.
His parents came over from India to visit him and he had to spend quite a lot of time explaining to them that he was not, in fact, poor and living in a shed but a successful tech-worker living in a prestige property in a prime location.
@zerosum “So you built a 3 billion pound paperweight. Nice work!”
No, no, no. Don’t be so silly. They built TWO 3 billion pound paperweights.
