Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein of California was missing in action in the hospital for three months in early 2023.
When she came back to the Senate in May in a wheelchair she acted like she'd never been gone and had been working and voting, but Democrats let the old demented broad keep voting anyway.
She passed away in office in September of that year.
We are given to believe that there was an intense heat release which killed off most of the big animals globally, but that it lasted just hours, and then nuclear winter followed immediately in the days and weeks to follow to finish off the rest of the planet from cold and starvation.
Unfortunately for the theory temperature at the time of the extinction is unremarkable.
Meanwhile our betters want us to think that Odysseus felt g u i l t y and thought his age was d o o m e d.
None of this is proper summer entertainment, dammit.
... arriving back to their prewar state emotionally or spiritually . . . may never happen at all ...
Just like England. Vote Labour.
Vessels evidently are running dark to avoid being targeted by the Houthis.
JMIC Update 077:
... Open-source data tracking Bab el Mandeb transits with AIS-on decreased from an approximate daily average of 50 vessels to 20 since July 24th. Coalition naval units are present in the area. ...
... Trump on Friday said he would be “willing” to take up Thune’s offer to work the phones to try securing the votes to pass the election legislation, and offered no new criticism of Thune during an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. ...
More.
Paul Gottfried never speaks the truth that J. D. Vance is the technocratic class' boy beyond the wildest dreams of Donald Trump for himself.
Vance has no solutions to repair the broken ladder of socio-economic progress. It's his job not to.
... our vice-president has taken note of the stagnant wages and job insecurity of American workers
... the United States has had a mixed economy, one that the urbanologist Joel Kotkin characterizes as “democratic capitalism,” since the last century
... the present left does not care about workers at all
... It has been left to the populist right to take up the cause of the proletariat, which, whether or not one agrees with all his proposed policies, Vance is at least trying to do
... Kotkin is understandably concerned that “democratic capitalism” is no longer working and that the wages and living conditions of our working class have declined as a result of outsourcing, cheap foreign labor, and treating workers like expendable commodities. In Kotkin’s view, the technocratic class, with both governmental and vast financial connections, is sitting atop the socio-economic pyramid, and both workers and what used to be America’s thriving middle class have suffered from this imbalance of power
... Shapiro mocks Vance for stating that workers should find “spiritual” satisfaction in their labor ...
Colonel Saito couldn't agree more with J. D. Vance.
Normal (2022) Strait of Hormuz tanker transits is at least 70/day, Bab-el-Mandeb 30/day.
 |
| Combined Cargo and Tankers UKMTO JMIC Update 076 |
The Guardian has identified at least 33 instances of people damaging, vandalizing and destroying Flock cameras, across 23 states, that appear to have the explicit message of protesting surveillance.
... Not all anti-Flock activism takes the form of camera destruction. A crowdsourced map created by the grassroots group DeFlock maps out more than 115,000 ALPRs across the country. The organization’s site also allows users to see if their license plates have been searched in Flock’s system, get directions to avoid ALPRs and find upcoming meetings about municipal Flock contracts. ...
... Couponing, comparison shopping and cutting back on favorite foods are new habits for Apral Jack and millions of other Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive in U.S. cities since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures. In the 7 1/2 years before that, prices rose 6.4%. ...
More.
Did Nolan?
Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Confronts Civilization’s Original Sin
... I was struck by the deeper prophetic truth of the film’s final statement: Someday, the dawn will break, and all will be made new. And like Odysseus, the leader of the house will return—welcoming the humblest beggar, wielding justice like a well-strung bow, and offering mercy to all who lay down their arms before him.
Cunning Odysseus only had slaughter in mind, not mercy, hid the weapons, and slew them all, save two righteous for whom Telemachus his son had interceded:
So, noble Odysseus remained in the hall, planning with Athene’s aid how to kill the Suitors. At once he spoke to Telemachus winged words: ‘We must hide the weapons away, all of them, Telemachus. If the Suitors miss them and question you, deceive them with placatory words, and say: “I’ve moved them out of the smoke from the fire, since they no longer look as they did when Odysseus left them behind and sailed for Troy, but are all grimy where the draught from the hearth has reached them. Zeus, son of Cronos, has filled my heart with an even greater fear, that you might start a quarrel amongst yourselves, and wound each other, and so bring shame on the feast and your cause. Iron itself draws a man towards it.”’ ...
-- Homer, Odyssey XIX
... When the Suitors saw Antinous fall, there was uproar throughout the hall, and they leapt from their seats in fear, running to the walls to find a shield or a stout spear of which there were no sign.
... Leodes ran forward and clasped Odysseus’ knees, and begged with winged words: ‘Odysseus, respect the suppliant at your knees: I ask for mercy. I swear I have never wantonly wronged a woman of your house, in word or deed. Instead I tried to restrain others from doing so. But they would not listen, or keep their hands from evil, and so through foolish wantonness they meet a cruel fate. And I, though I am only their innocent priest, will die with them. It is true one gets no thanks for good deeds.’
Resourceful Odysseus gave him an angry look and said: ‘If you were really their priest you must often have prayed that the day of my joyful return would be long delayed and that my loyal wife would go with you and bear you children. For that you will not escape a sorry death.’
With this he grasped the sword in his strong hand that Agelaus had dropped on the ground nearby as he fell, and struck Leodes hard on the neck, so that while he was still trying to speak his head bit the dust. ...
-- Odyssey XXII
Promise the moon and deliver a pizza.
ICE nears 600,000 deportations since Trump took office
... The new ICE data is the first update the agency has published since April. ...
Or is the reasoning, which clearly isn't Trump's, that the four new deaths belong to Iran War II, not Iran War I?
Pentagon lowers official Iran war death toll, omitting four killed this month
... Three military officials told the Times that the four service members killed this past weekend — three in Jordan and one in northern Iraq — were struck from the list because their deaths came after President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire in April. All of the deaths listed on Thursday U.S. time on the website, which said it was updated as of Wednesday, occurred in March. ... Trump himself has used the higher figure for the death toll. At an event on Thursday, he said, “I had a very sad day yesterday. I went to Dover, four great American patriots killed. That’s 18 … and one is too many, but it’s 18.”
Trump sends Congress formal notice that Iran conflict has resumed
WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has sent Congress formal notification that hostilities against Iran resumed on July 7, a letter his administration sees as opening a new 60-day window to use the military in the region without congressional approval. ...
That's the spirit, John.
Thune responds to Leavitt quip that Trump’s patience with him ‘running out’ over SAVE America Act
...“Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right? It’s 50 around here,” Thune shot back when asked about Leavitt’s statement to reporters at a press briefing earlier Thursday.
“Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats,” the senator added, appearing somewhat irritated by the critical comment. “And if there are Republicans they think are gettable, get on the phone.”
...“As I’ve said before, you got to get to 50, and I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution”...
Raise the tax rate two points, split between employer and employee, and raise the full retirement age from 67 to 69. Phase both in same as was done starting in the 1980s. That process concluded, by the way, only just this year.
It was going on all along and you never even noticed.
Doing this again will make Social Security solvent until 2100.
AARP to Congress: ‘We strongly object to fast-tracking Social Security changes’
BAM transits fell in JMIC Update 075 to 10.0/day since the Houthi Rebels announced on July 20 a blockade of Saudi shipping through the chokepoint. SE traffic fell to 4.0/day.
A product tanker is at anchor in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia after it was attacked by the Houthis on July 22.
Professional observers report some tankers abandoning their runs SE and turning back NW while Chinese VLCCs apparently are being green-lighted through despite loading with Saudi oil at Yanbu.
VLCCs fully laden cannot transit the Suez Canal due to size constraints and must partially off-load before transiting and then re-load on the Mediterranean side of the canal.
From JMIC Update 074:
... According to regional reporting, Iran has instructed the Houthis to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route should the United States strike Iranian power infrastructure. Sources close to the group stated that the Houthis have completed preparations to attack shipping, including the deployment of missiles and drones positioned near Bab el-Mandeb. ...
