Music Of The Spheres*
Spring
Thursday, 20 March 2023
Half fullPhoto: NASA
Astronomical spring in Northern Hemisphere arrives on March 20 at 21:25 UTC. The meteorological spring came at the beginning of the month.
Tuesday, 20 December 2022
A dark moment with a bright outlookPhoto: NASA
Winter in Northern Hemisphere comes tomorrow, December 21, at 21:48 UTC, marking the shortest day of the year and the arrival of the astronomical winter. The meteorological winter came on December 1.
Daily Detox, which advocates moving New Year's Day from its present location—the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord—to the date of the Winter Solstice, wishes all a happy New Year.
Monday, 7 November 2022
Of course, I’ve thought about how I’d feel if he dies there. But my son and I already haven’t seen or heard from him in 12 years,” said a Russian woman who proffered the name of her ex-husband to draft officials. “So if they do kill him, it will even be good: the child will be compensated.””
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 20 September 2022
Half emptyPhoto: NASA
Astronomical autumn in Northern Hemisphere arrives on September 23, at 01:04 UTC. The meteorological autumn has been with us since the beginning of the month.
Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Millions across the world mourned the queen, who refused to apologize for the monarchy’s role in slavery and colonialism, shaped legislation to exempt herself from racial and sexual discrimination laws, renewable-energy laws, and police searches, and didn’t pay income or capital gains taxes for over 40 years despite having an estimated net worth of over $500 million. “Our values have remained and must remain constant,” said the new king, Charles III, who does not have to pay inheritance tax.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
A bright moment with a dark outlookPhoto: NASA
Calendar Summer in Northern Hemisphere arrived today, June 21, at 09:14 UTC. The meteorological summer has been with us since the beginning of the month.
Monday, 6 June 2022
Now I'm getting angry again. That to me is unbelievable,” said Dan Hils, the president of Cincinnati’s Fraternal Order of Police, of a painting at the Cincinnati Art Museum that depicts Piglet, dressed as a cop, pointing a gun at Winnie the Pooh, who is handcuffed and lying in a pool of blood. “I’m taking advantage of my freedom of speech and saying take that down.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 25 April 2022
A gunman shot six people at a birthday party in Indiana; New Orleans reported its bloodiest weekend in a decade; a shooter at a mall in South Carolina injured 10 people; two people died and 10 were injured after gunfire broke out in a nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; 10 people were shot in a subway in New York; and Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed a permitless carry bill, which allows people to carry concealed handguns in public without a license or background check, explaining that it was in the interest of public safety. “Now instead of throwing up the finger, they’re pulling out the gun and shooting,” the mayor of Houston said of a spate of road rage–inspired shootings. As part of the Save America Freedom Tour, a pastor in Tennessee told members of his congregation to use the Second Amendment against journalists who try to come to church."
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 18 April 2022
"I've got bad news for you"Image: Elisabeth Griffin
Sanctions crippling Putin will cripple the people he sponsors. Trump will be number one on the list. Don't expect him to run in 2024.
Friday, 18 March 2022
Half fullPhoto: NASA
Spring in Northern Hemisphere comes at 15:33 UTC on March 20, marking the moment of the fastest daily increase in the length of the daylight.
Monday, 7 March 2022
More like it used to beImage: BBC
This is the best of the BBC News in recent memory. Putin's assault on Ukraine is appalling but it engendered a number of positive developments elsewhere. This article is one of them. Sweden's and Finland's scrambling to join the NATO is another. Making Trump irrelevant yet another. Finally, and most significantly, consolidating the European Union.
Monday, 21 February 2022
Boris Johnson’s new communications director called his boss “not a complete clown” after the prime minister sang “I Will Survive” to him.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 28 January 2022
A former member of the Royal Protection Command alleged that Andrew Edward, whose mother took away some of his royal titles because he has been accused of serially sexually assaulting a teenager, required dozens of stuffed animals to be arranged nightly on his bed per a laminated diagram.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 20 December 2021
A dark moment with a bright outlookPhoto: NASA
Winter in Northern Hemisphere comes tomorrow, December 21, at 15:59 UTC, marking the shortest day of the year and the arrival of the astronomical winter. The meteorological winter has been with us since December 1.
Daily Detox, which advocates moving New Year's Day from its present location—the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord—to the date of the Winter Solstice, wishes all a happy New Year.
Thursday, 16 December 2021
What we want to make sure is that we have election integrity,” said Butch Miller, a Republican state senator in Georgia, after all black Democrats were purged from county election boards.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Saturday, 20 November 2021
US coal prices reached a 12-year high.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 1 October 2021
Cheese and butter inside, milk just behind, and Mönch farther outPhoto: Frank Amstutz
If you happen to find yourself on the trail from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen, just before Wengernalp, you will come across a shed with a fridge inside. The effect is the same as if on a mountain trail you suddenly bumped into Dr Who's red phone booth.
Inside, through a pane of glass, you will see vacuum sealed pieces of cheese and bars of butter wrapped in aluminum foil. Behind the shed, down on the alp, you will see the cows which provided the milk to make these products. Some of them will not be grazing, but rather ruminating with legs tucked under and the belashed eyes closed in a dreamy beatitude. This must lie at the origin of the expression "the happy Swiss cows".
Each piece has the price printed on the label. Money is dropped on a volunteer basis into a slot in a cylindrical piece of timber to the left of the fridge. It is not immediately obvious how it is extracted from the wood later on. Presumably it was meant to be that way.
The products on display come from the WengernAlp, a dairy enterprise operated by Frank Amstutz and his family of Mont-Tramelan, an hour's drive from Lauterbrunnen toward the Jura mountains. His Berneralpkäse is an excellent cheese with a strong character and a firm rind. The Alpbutter is the best butter you will ever eat. Melting makes it transparent, and there is no residue of buttermilk or anything else. Jamais-vu. But melting it for whatever reason is an error.
A zincked half-bucket butts against the shingles on the right. This is evidence that a woman had a say in setting up the shed. Earlier in the season flowers must spring out of it, but in September it's just some moss down inside.
Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Half emptyPhoto: NASA
Autumn in Northern Hemisphere arrives on September 22, at 19:21 UTC.
Friday, 27 August 2021
What Afghanistan has inherited from [the] U.S. is poverty, a rising unemployment rate, the destruction of social services, the unprecedented increase in class distinctions, a wealth gap, the destruction of the middle class, a vast economic mafia network, an underground economy, increased cultivation, production, and smuggling of drugs, addiction among more than four million young people, an ethnic war, the collapse of good values, the growth of a culture of corruption, money laundering, and lying.”
This and more in the August 18 Review from Harper's.
Monday, 5 July 2021
A nursing student delivered testimony to the Ohio state legislature in support of a proposed law limiting vaccine mandates in which she claimed that the shot had made her “magnetic,” and attempted to stick both a bobby pin and a key to her skin, neither of which adhered.
This and more in the June 15 Review from Harper's.
Saturday, 19 June 2021
A bright moment with a dark outlookPhoto: NASA
Astronomical Summer in Northern Hemisphere comes on June 21 at 03:32 UTC. The meteorological summer came on June 1.
Sunday, 13 June 2021
"The only good thing that will come out of this is a lot of stupid people will be killed off,” an anti-vax talk show host said of current efforts to vaccinate shortly before he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
This and more in last week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 1 June 2021
On the yellow brick roadPhoto: @MrTwisterChaser
Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that brought an end to 11 days of bombing and rocket attacks that killed at least 248 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, and destroyed 258 buildings in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, “We regret every loss of life, but I can tell you categorically, there is no army in the world that acts in a more moral fashion than the army of Israel.” Two days later, Israeli police beat and arrested Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 18 May 2021
State legislators in Texas proposed a bill mandating a minimum of $250 in annual fees for owners of electric cars.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 7 May 2021
In a Zoom meeting, former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton ex- pressed concern over the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and asserted the need to maintain counterterrorism programs in the region. “Condi Rice is like, ‘You know, we’re probably gonna have to go back,’ ” said one attendee.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 30 April 2021
Tulip fields foreverPhoto: naturephoto.tours
Humanity's ability to learn from the past doesn't impress.
Prophet Elon the other day put a billion-and-a-half into bitcoin, while his lemmings loudly disparaged fiat money, never noticing the economy of the United States stood behind the latter and the hope of the greater fool behind the former.
Current Affairs lists all the charms of owning cryptocurrency.
Sell while you still can.
Tuesday, 13 April 2021
The Australian government announced that it has given up its goal of vaccinating the entire population by the end of the year, and that legislators, judges, and public servants will no longer be exempt from rules against sexual harassment in the workplace.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Saturday, 10 April 2021
You will see more of himPhoto: European Parliament
Daily Detox was taken aback when it saw a tweet from Michel Barnier proclaiming undying fealty to Nicolas Sarkozy, freshly sent down for swindling.
DD had held Barnier in high regard following his stellar performance negotiating a Brexit deal with the English, and thought he would make a good president of France. The tweet had dented it.
But then we realized the tweet was not a love letter to Sarko but a dog whistle to his followers whose support Barnier will need to win the presidency. This relieved the pain and confirmed the speculation.
All is well in this, the best of all possible worlds.
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
A South Carolina senator inaccurately argued that the District of Columbia does not deserve statehood in part because of a lack of car dealerships, of which it has 91.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
Not your handImage: despair.com
You can count on The Economist to support the Rich in their fight against the poor.
Lately, it's been bemoaning the dark clouds of inflation gathering on the horizon. The genie, it says, has been released from the bottle by the Keynesians on the Biden team who have a nasty habit of showering helicopter money on the unwashed.
As every child knows, abundant money chasing scarce goods spells inflation.
Bad news, right?
It depends. If you are poor (anyone short of 250m to his name is poor, according to the book of the Gotha), it is advantageous because you are likely to be a borrower. If you were not careless, your loans are of the fixed rate type. This means the set amount you are paying is worth less every month than when you took the loan, while your income is likely to be adjusted for inflation. So this more expensive food you are buying now still costs about the same. And it gets better as the time passes because inflation is compounding.
The Rich are on the other side of the bank counter. The fixed amount they receive from you every month is not inflation adjusted (unless you were unwise enough to take a variable rate loan, whose level they control), so they get less every time. That, to them, is horror, because, as everyone knows, the Rich have a God-given right to gain, not to lose. Hence the media offensive to denounce the monster.
The propaganda wants you to fear inflation, because it's you who can exert grass root pressure on the elected officials to force them to cut the bacchanalia which are at the root of this calamity. Meantime, they lobby and bribe in mahogany-paneled milieus.
Friday, 19 March 2021
Half fullPhoto: NASA
Spring in Northern Hemisphere comes at 09:37 UTC on March 20, marking the moment of the fastest daily increase in the length of the daylight.
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill that would provide legal cover to motorists who run over protesters. “I simply want to make sure people on both sides of any issue are kept safe,” said Republican state representative Kevin McDugle, one of the bill’s co-authors.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Estimated number of undiscovered viruses infecting wildlife : 1,670,000
Estimated minimum portion of these viruses that could also infect humans : 2/5
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Thursday, 2 July 2020
A bright moment with a dark outlookPhoto: NASA
Summer in Northern Hemisphere came and went on June 20 at 21:43 UTC. Help is on the way to our Readers in the benighted Antipodes.
Wednesday, 29 April 2020
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton called to limit the number of Chinese students study- ing the sciences. “If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that’s what they need to learn from America,” Cotton said.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
The Environmental Protection Agency rolled back restrictions on power plants’ release of toxic materials including mercury, a heavy metal linked to brain damage.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Thursday, 9 April 2020
The government of Malaysia instructed women not to be sarcastic with their hus- bands during the lockdown.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Half fullPhoto: NASA
Spring in Northern Hemisphere came and went unnoticed to Daily Detox at 03:50 UTC on March 20, marking the moment of the fastest daily increase in the length of the daylight.
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Pcentage of 401(k) plans that have at least one fund committed to environmental, social, or governmental responsibility : 2.9
Average percentage by which a U.S. hedge fund run by a woman or person of color outperforms one run by a white man : 72
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Thursday, 19 March 2020
President Trump addressed the American people from the Oval Office and announ- ced that all travel from Europe to the United States would be suspended, as well as all “trade and cargo,” and that health insurers had pledged to waive the cost of coronavirus treatment, after which the White House clarified that the travel ban applied only to non-U.S. citizens, that trade would be unaffected by the new policy, and that some health insurers had agreed to waive the cost of COVID-19 testing rather than treatment.
The president then gave a press conference in the Rose Garden in which he declared a national emergency and claimed that Google was developing a website that would serve as a comprehensive guide to drive-through testing clinics, after which Google clarified that a related company, Verily, was developing a website for use exclusively by health-care workers in the Bay Area. “I don’t take responsibility at all,” said Trump, whose administration dismantled the White House’s pandemic response team in 2018 and shuttered a USAID program dedicated to studying zoonotic diseases last year, and who in the past weeks promised the American public that a vaccine was imminent; that the virus was “very well under control”; that the government had “pretty much shut it down coming in from China”; and that COVID-19 would “miraculously” disappear when “it gets a little warmer.”
Trump—who attended a Mar-a-Lago party for his oldest son’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at which attendees danced in a conga line and Trump interacted with three guests who later tested positive for the coronavirus—reportedly tested negative for the virus.
On Facebook, Jared Kushner’s brother’s father-in-law crowd-sourced advice for Trump about how to handle the crisis, and the House of Representatives—whose members receive unlimited paid sick leave—passed legislation to expand sick leave benefits, food aid, and virus testing. “If you’re sick, stay home. You’re not going to miss a paycheck,” said Vice President Mike Pence with regard to the legislation, which covers only about one fifth of American employees.
Amid professional recommendations to practice “social distancing,” Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, called the moment a “a great time” for healthy Americans to “just go out,” and Oklahoma governor Mike Stitt posted a photo of himself at a crowded Oklahoma City food hall captioned “It’s packed tonight!”; Stitt later deleted the tweet and declared a state of emergency.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 22 January 2020
The US Space Force debuted camouflage uniforms.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 15 January 2020, first published Thursday, 22 February 2018
A year after the event"Triumph of the Death" by Pieter Breugel (fragment)
In July 2017, we drew attention to an article in The Economist describing the nasty effect of electromagnetic storms launched by solar flares impinging upon the Earth's ionosphere, and the large scale and difficult to fix damage that the resulting current surges inflict on electric power grids.
It now turns out that this is a mild version of what humans can inflict on themselves without waiting for help from heavens. A good old hydrogen bomb exploded a few hundred kilometers out in space achieves an even greater effect, with the added convenience of being always available at a press of the big red button.
This, in all likelihood, not a missile launch (as assumed by Trump) is the red button Kim Jong-un had in mind when bragging about sending America back to the Dark Ages.
He can probably do it now, since North Korea already has two polar-orbit satellites overflying America several times a day, and it is a reasonable thing to assume that they carry the requisite devices.
What follows is the opening section of a recently-released Statement For The Record from a Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, addressed to the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Management. It is titled "Empty Threat or Serious Danger: Assessing North Korea's Risk to the Homeland".
During the Cold War, major efforts were undertaken by the Department of Defense to assure that the U.S. national command authority and U.S. strategic forces could survive and operate after an EMP attack. However, no major efforts were then thought necessary to protect critical national infrastructures, relying on nuclear deterrence to protect them. With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that
such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP.
By way of background, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack was established by Congress in 2001 to advise the Congress, the President, Department of Defense and other departments and agencies of the U.S. Government on the nuclear EMP threat to military systems and civilian critical infrastructures. The EMP Commission was re-established in 2015 with its charter broadened to include natural EMP from solar storms, all manmade EMP threats, cyber-attack, sabotage and Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare. The EMP Commission charter gives it access to all relevant classified and unclassified data and the power to levy analysis upon the Department of Defense.
On September 30, 2017, the Department of Defense, after withholding a significant part of the
monies allocated by Congress to support the work of the EMP Commission for the entirety of 2016, terminated funding the EMP Commission. In the same month, North Korea detonated an H-Bomb that it plausibly describes as capable of “super-powerful EMP” attack and released a technical report “The EMP Might of Nuclear Weapons” accurately describing what Russia and China call a “Super-EMP” weapon.
The full text of the document is available here.
Please let us know if you have heard a politician talk about the EMP threat.
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Average effective tax rate, as a percentage of income, paid by the richest 400 households in the United States in 2018 : 23
By the poorest half of American households : 24
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Two undercover Israeli police officers disguised as Palestinians were beaten and pepper-sprayed by teenage Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Sunday, 22 December 2019
A dark moment with a bright outlookPhoto: NASA
Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere came today, December 22, at 04:19 UTC, marking the shortest day of the year and the arrival of winter.
Daily Detox, which advocates moving New Year's Day from its present location—the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord—to the date of the Winter Solstice, wishes all a happy New Year.
Friday, 13 December 2019
Spot JohnsonPainting by François Topino-Lebrun
It seems the Brits won't be happy until they swim alone. For now they prefer not to notice the water is full of sharks.
A thought crossed our mind that this election was a ploy on the part of Johnson to put the Brexit monkey on somebody else's back, taking a hint from Cameron. But he won. And that's good news to Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu. The bad news to him is that he will have to govern, and in this he has shown little prowess.
And so, the rickety wagon of Brexit will continue down the dusty road until it hits a bump and crashes into the ditch.
We are already looking forward to the day the EU receives a British application for membership.
Monday, 2 December 2019
In Austria, heavy rain set off mudslides, which led to houses colliding with one ano- ther and killed several cows.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Vladimir Putin announced his intention to replace Wikipedia with a digital version of the Great Russian Encyclopedia to ensure the dissemination of “reliable information.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 23 September 2019
Half emptyPhoto: NASA
Autumn in Northern Hemisphere arrived today, 23 September, at 07:50 UTC.
Tuesday, 17 September 2019
The professional wrestler Chris Jericho’s championship belt was stolen during a dinner at a LongHorn Steakhouse, and was later discovered on the side of the road by a man on his way home from a scalloping trip. I think I said something like, ‘Whoa, it’s a huge wrestling belt, check this thing out!’ said the man.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Thursday, 22 August 2019
Scientists worried about the implications of an Israeli lunar lander accidentally letting thousands of tardigrades, microscopic animals that can survive for years without food or water, loose on the moon.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 21 June 2019
A bright moment with a dark outlookPhoto: NASA
Summer in Northern Hemisphere arrives on June 21 at 15:54 UTC. The moment marks the longest day of the year.
Help is on the way to our Readers in the benighted Antipodes.
Sunday, 24 March 2019
Small is beautifulPhoto: Teatro Verdi Trieste
Never underestimate an Italian provincial opera house.
This was again proven true last Saturday evening at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste which presented Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'Amore. The performance was of the kind that brings a smile to the face and a joy to the heart.
The star of the evening was Francesco Castoro, who sang Nemorino. His singing brought comparisons with Juan Diego Flórez. Adina was sung well by the pretty Claudia Pavone.
The sets blended commedia dell'arte with the art of Fernando Botero. I don't know how, but it worked.
The orchestra played very well under the direction of Simon Krečič and the chorus was impressive under its svelte master Francesca Tosi.
The audience gave the performers a long ovation. A few people stood up. That, in Italy, is a triumph.
Il Sole 24 Ore has a review which includes a few video clips from the spectacle.
One last observation. Because of the importance to this opera of the secondary and tertiary cast, it is my view that L'elisir cannot be properly performed outside of Italy. This is because its idiosyncrasies cannot be easily reproduced by non-Italians.
Thursday, 21 March 2019
Half fullPhoto: NASA
Spring in Northern Hemisphere arrives at 21:58 UTC on March 20, marking the moment of the fastest daily increase in the length of the daylight, and the non-Kazakh end of the winter in the Himalaya.
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
House Democratic leaders, who declined to censure [openly antisemitic] Representative Steve King, ensured the passage of a seven-page resolution against hate speech following a letter signed by pro-Israel groups that accused Representative Ilhan Omar of anti-Semitism and asked that she be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Omar, who told Elliott Abrams, “I fail to understand why members of this committee or the American people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful” during a House hearing on Venezuela, was criticized by Donald Trump, who tweeted that Monday, March 4 was “A dark day for Israel!” and the White House hosted a meeting with evangelical leaders on Thursday, March 7 to reassure them about the president’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
This and more in last week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Photo: @missie17
Friday, 8 January 2019
FamilyTreeDNA, which offers DNA-testing to consumers, has admitted to sharing its genetic database with the FBI.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Source: Private Eye
Friday, 1 February 2019
Drawing by Bruce MacKinnon
Monday, 21 January 2019
Drawing: EH Shepard
Monday, 24 December 2018
Jewish script, American stagingIllustration: grasscloth.net
Christmas is the time of the year to get entangled in Immaculate Conceptions, Blessed Virgins, and their offspring reposing in mangers.
An essay we posted in January 2017 offers help for those entrapped. The doctor is in and his name is Albert Einstein.
There is a bonus. Professor's treatment works equally well against the Miracles of the Fishes, Spontaneous Healings, and Resurrections. It actually covers all follies and all religions.
Saturday, 22 December 2017
A dark moment with a bright outlookPhoto: NASA
Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere came yesterday, December 21, at 22:23 UTC, marking the shortest day of the year and the arrival of winter. Today will be a few seconds longer.
Daily Detox, which advocates moving New Year's Day from its present location—the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord—to the date of the Winter Solstice, wishes all its Readers a happy New Year.
Saturday, 22 December 2018
Wells Griffith, a White House adviser on energy and climate, presented a defense of fossil fuels at the world’s biggest climate conference in Katowice, Poland, saying that “no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability,” over the laughter of the audience.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Saturday, 8 December 2018
Photo: Tweetosphere
Friday, 23 November 2018
Drawing: MP via Twitter
Friday, 26 October 2018
"There's no dirty money in Britain"Photo: ibtimes.co.uk
Clement Attlee, 1950:
Over and over again we have seen that there is another power than that which has its seat at Westminster. The City of London, a convenient term for a collection of financial interests is able to assert itself against the government of the country. Those who control money can pursue a policy at home and abroad contrary to that which if being decided by the people.
That power has decided that Britain should leave the European Union without regard to the devastation it will bring to the UK and the collateral damage to Europe. From its point of view damage to the EU is desirable; the City is eurohostile and Trump friendly noting his corruption, which it can exploit to its own ends.
David Cameron had launched Brexit. As luck would have it, his father is in the offshore business into which 'those 'unelected bureaucrats over in Brussels' are increasingly trying to stick their pointy noses. Brexit would chase them off like a stray dog. And then, one day, a trumpet will sound and Dave will take over the helm of dad's vessel.
Here is an exposé about the City, which we have discovered researching Brexit. It's essential viewing.
Saturday, 21 July 2018, re-posted Monday, 1 October 2018
Those unelected Brussels bureaucrats not welcome herePhoto: Wikipedia
Brexit strikes one as an exercise in self-harm.
From the first intimation it was afoot, we have been racking our brain to fathom the rationale for such an absurdity. Time and new evidence reinforce the original impres- sion.
But such a rank idiocy so prominently put on display demands scrutiny; that which seems idiotic to you and me may not be idiotic at all to another class of people.
Our first hypothesis was that Brexit was a neocon project to re-fragment the European Union. This remains in the picture as an opportunistic feature.
The real epiphany came the other day.
Yes, it is about freeing Britain from the yoke of Brussels, but not in the sense you were led to believe. And not quite Britain but rather the rich of Britain and the foreign oligarchs banking in London.
This is about maintaining Britain's status as a tax haven.
That's what the Brexiters mean when they invoke 'setting our own policies', and making 'our own decisions'. Somehow they never quite say what policies and what decisions they have in mind.
Trillions are at stake, and trillions are worth fighting for to the last drop of blood of the last proletarian.
Brexiters know that Brexit will do nothing for Britain's economy. But 'economy' stands mainly for the working classes, and who cares about the working classes, who, from the Brexiter point of view, are the enemy, the ones who stay poised to ransack the palace. So the tougher it is on them, the better. The loot after all isn't stashed in the palace.
But you can't just tell the proles you want to Brexit to better be able to game the system for the benefit of the rich. Something else must be invented and promoted. That something else turned out to be the old standby, the immigrant, for nothing succeeds better in derailing popular ire aimed at yourself than invoking1 the swarthy alien bent on taking your job, raping your sister, and stealing your money. Xenophobia endemic (and quietly encouraged) among the football classes makes this an obvious choice.
Brexit is about protecting Britain's status as a tax haven against the insolence of the European institutions seeking to clamp down on tax evasion. The enemy is referred to by the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail as 'those unelected bureaucrats over in Brussels'. What could be nastier that that?
Brexiters' initiative synergizes with the neocon ambition to bust the EU. The EU had unwisely interfered with Dubya's2 implementation of the neocon plan to sack Saddam, and later developed a nasty habit of launching those pesky Security Council resolutions condemning Israel for its bestiality in the Occupied Territories. An attentive reader may recall our note about Ted Malloch, a card-carrying neocon and an avowed enemy of Europe, whom Trump had sent to Brussels as an 'ambassador'.
Before we go we want to thank the comedian John Cleese for the aforementioned epiphany; Cleese announced the other day that he was leaving Britain to settle in the lush (and fiscally optimized) island of Nevis in the British overseas territories. Just before this revelation, we were shocked to find out that Cleese was also a Brexiter.
1) In preparation for rolling out Hermann Göring's teaching that, "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
2) Today Bush is parading as an elder statesman.
Sunday, 16 September 2018
Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist known for breaking the Watergate story, with Carl Bernstein during the Nixon Administration, published Fear: Trump in the White House today, which compiles documents and interviews with Trump Administration officials.1 In the book, Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, compares the president to a “fifth or sixth grader”; John Dowd, Trump’s former attorney, refuses Robert Mueller’s request to interview the president, fearing Trump would be seen as a “goddamn dumbbell”; Rex Tillerson, former US secretary of state, calls Trump a “fucking moron”; John F. Kelly, current White House chief of staff, complains “[Trump]’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had”; and Jared Kushner tells Steve Bannon that his father-in-law “doesn’t have a lot of cash.” At a rally in Billings, Montana, President Trump addressed the anonymous op-ed written by a senior administration official, which revealed that the author and his or her colleagues had “vowed to thwart” Trump’s agenda and had only decided not to invoke the 25th Amendment and have the president removed from office to avoid creating a constitutional crisis, by stating, “The latest act of resistance is the op-ed published in the failing New York Times by an anonymous—really an anonymous, gutless coward. You just look. He was—nobody knows who the hell he is, or she, although they put he, but probably that’s a little disguise. That means it’s she. But for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once.” The president mispronounced the word “anonymous” in both instances.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Thursday, 13 September 2018
Fading lightPhoto: NASA
The autumn in Northern Hemisphere arrives on 23 September at 01:54 UTC.
Monday, 9 July 2018
Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that he would be retiring, and it was reported that, as an executive at Deutsche Bank, Justice Kennedy’s son Justin Kennedy had presided over $1 billion in loans to President Trump, who has publicly referred to Justin as a “special guy.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 18 June 2018
A bright moment with a dark outlookPhoto: NASA
Summer solstice in Northern Hemisphere arrives on June 21 at 10:07 UTC, marking the longest day of the year and the beginning of a plunge toward winter.
Help is on the way to our Readers in the benighted Antipodes.
Sunday, 17 June 2018
The governments of Israel and Myanmar signed an “education agreement” that would allow each country to “mutually verify” how its history is taught by the other.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
US president Donald Trump wrote in a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that a scheduled summit between the two parties “will not take place,” and then said that the planned date for that summit “hasn’t changed.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 14 May 2018
Leaving voluntarily, can't you see?Photo: Fred Csasznik/Wikipedia
Some 80 years ago, a group of rich Jews paid up Winston Churchill's colossal card debts. In exchange, grateful Churchill gave them the fruited plain of the Palestine, which didn't belong to him. Thus Israel was born.
70 years ago, armed bands of Jews, some freshly from Auschwitz, staged a pogrom of the indigenous population in order to clear the said plain for Jewish settlers. Thus the term Naqba was born.
Today, Israel is the world's fourth military power. It is relentlessly settling any remai- ning desirable land in the Occupied Territories, while pushing the remaining Pale- stinians farther into the rocky hinterland. All to the roar of kibitzing and fascist propaganda saying the Palestinians had left voluntarily emanating from America.
We barely finished the last sentence, when the phone lit up with a notification from the BBC, reading,
Deadliest clashes in weeks as nine Palestinians killed by Israeli troops ahead of new US Jerusalem embassy ceremony.
Ten minutes later, this was upped to 16 dead, including one in a wheelchair. Photos from the scene show some Palestinians wielding sling shots, like David.
UPDATE: 24 hours later, there are 50 dead Palestinians and 3000 maimed. The fol- lowing action must be taken urgently: 1. Blocking all trade with Israel
UPDATE: As of 22 May, the Palestinian death toll stands at 62.
UPDATE: As of mid-June, the result of the Israeli rabbit shoot at the Gaza border amounts to approximately 150 dead and 4,000 injured Palestinian civilians, many of whom will be maimed for life.
Monday, 30 April 2018
Kris Kobach, Kansas’s secretary of state and the former head of the White House’s voter fraud commission, was held in contempt of court for not following an order to register voters.
This and more in last week's Review from Harper's.
Sunday, 29 April 2018
Rank of Disneyland among the happiest places on earth, according to Disneyland : 1
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Thursday, 29 March 2018
A federal election was held in Russia, where voting was encouraged through incen- tives including free tickets to a pop concert, cancer screenings, and bowls of skim- milk oatmeal with pine nuts; and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who did not participate in debates or release a campaign platform and whose main opponent was banned from running for office, was reelected to a fourth term.
This and more in last week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Sheer terrorPhoto: YouTube/BBC
Naftali Bennett, a knife-in-the-teeth likudnik known as "Benzina", who masquera- des as an education minister, opined that the two Palestinian girls, Ahed Tamimi and her sister Nour, deserved to "finish their lives in prison" for their 'terrorist' attack (see above) on an Israeli soldier*.
We, to the contrary, think it is Benzina who ought to be barred for life from setting foot in Europe and imprisoned if he did. We wanted to say "and in America", but America is beyond hope.
We have added BDS to the menu bar. A click will take you to the campaign's web site. We urge you to support it.
UPDATE: The military kangaroo court which will be judging Tamimi for her crime has announced the proceedings will take place behind closed doors. For her own pro- tection, you understand.
UPDATE: Tamimi got 8 months behind bars for the crime depicted above. Long live Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and a country that has the right to defend itself, n'est-ce-pas?
*) If you are interested in the background of Benzina's hooliganism, Uri Avnery has a couple of illuminating essays at the London Review of Books, here and here.
Saturday, 17 March 2018
The 50-50 momentPhoto: NASA
Spring in Northern Hemisphere arrives at 16:15 UTC on March 20, marking the the moment of the fastest daily increase in the length of daylight.
Monday, 12 March 2018
Estimated number of US private schools receiving public funding that teach a Chris- tian curriculum : 5,071
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Friday, 9 March 2018
You're a necessity but not for too longIllustration by W. Heisenberg
A surprising necessity arises from the Uncertainty Principle
The principle, introduced in 1927 by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, dicta- tes the emergence of virtual particles, ephemeral scintillations of energy, whenever a bit of nothing is created. These particles, which emerge in pairs, cancel each other out as soon as they appear. New ones pop up continually. Nothingness teems with them. Fortunately they have observable effects. These were demonstrated in 1948 by the Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
Generating virtual particles involves creating a volume of nothing, which is not easy, since it requires a good physics laboratory. Note that vacuum alone, however perfect, is not the same as nothingness, since it's full of electromagnetic radiation of all sorts. Radiation, being energy, is equivalent to mass according to m = E/c2, and mass is definitely something.
A friend of the family died recently. He was uncommonly handsome, half Roger Moore, half Charlton Heston before Heston's face got distorted by the NRA. Our friend ought to have been immortal like a Greek god. But he disappeared, and it prompted us to think that we are like those virtual particles, springing out of nothing and vanishing into nothing a short while later.
Wednesday, 28 February 2018
Source: Venezia Today
Wednesday, 28 February 2018
The shooter discarded his AR-15 semiautomatic weapon, the model used in six of America’s ten deadliest mass shootings and referred to by the NRA as “America’s rifle,” and then fled to a nearby Walmart, where customers can buy rifles and ammu- nition but cannot purchase music with lyrics that contain the word “fuck.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Thursday, 22 February 2018
A year after the event"Triumph of the Death" by Pieter Breugel (fragment)
Last July we drew attention to an article in The Economist describing the nasty effect of electromagnetic storms launched by solar flares impinging upon the Earth's ionosphere, and the large scale and difficult to fix damage that the resulting current surges inflict on electric power grids.
It now turns out that this is a mild version of what humans can inflict on themselves without waiting for help from heavens. A good old hydrogen bomb exploded a few hundred kilometers in space achieves an even greater effect, with the added convenience of being always available at a press of the big red button.
This, in all likelihood, not a missile launch (as assumed by Trump) is the red button Kim Jong-un had in mind when bragging about sending America back to the Dark Ages.
He can probably do it now, since North Korea already has two polar-orbit satellites overflying America several times a day, and it is a reasonable thing to assume that they carry the requisite devices.
What follows is the opening section of a recently-released Statement For The Record from a Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, addressed to the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Management. It is titled "Empty Threat or Serious Danger: Assessing North Korea's Risk to the Homeland".
During the Cold War, major efforts were undertaken by the Department of Defense to assure that the U.S. national command authority and U.S. strategic forces could survive and operate after an EMP attack. However, no major efforts were then thought necessary to protect critical national infrastructures, relying on nuclear deterrence to protect them. With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that
such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP.
By way of background, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack was established by Congress in 2001 to advise the Congress, the President, Department of Defense and other departments and agencies of the U.S. Government on the nuclear EMP threat to military systems and civilian critical infrastructures. The EMP Commission was re-established in 2015 with its charter broadened to include natural EMP from solar storms, all manmade EMP threats, cyber-attack, sabotage and Combined-Arms Cyber Warfare. The EMP Commission charter gives it access to all relevant classified and unclassified data and the power to levy analysis upon the Department of Defense.
On September 30, 2017, the Department of Defense, after withholding a significant part of the
monies allocated by Congress to support the work of the EMP Commission for the entirety of 2016, terminated funding the EMP Commission. In the same month, North Korea detonated an H-Bomb that it plausibly describes as capable of “super-powerful EMP” attack and released a technical report “The EMP Might of Nuclear Weapons” accurately describing what Russia and China call a “Super-EMP” weapon.
The full text of the document is available here.
Please let us know if you have heard a politician talk about the EMP threat.
Monday, 19 February 2018
A speechwriter for Trump resigned after he was accused of grabbing his wife by the hair, throwing her into a wall, putting a cigarette out on her hand, and driving a car over her foot. “Is there no such thing any longer as due process?” tweeted Trump, whose former Kentucky campaign manager and Oklahoma campaign chair were each convicted of child sex trafficking, who was himself accused in a divorce filing of pulling his first wife’s hair out and raping her because he was upset about a painful scalp surgery performed to conceal his hair loss, and who has refused to apologize for calling for the execution of five black and Latino teenagers wrongly convicted of rape.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Sunday, 11 February 2018
"Good, but not for whom you think"Photo: Le Monde
In the following excerpt, Thomas Piketty debunks the benefits of foreign investment to the supposed foreign beneficiary. It comes from the last page of Chapter 1, "Income and Output" of the Capital in the Twenty-First Century*.
Many studies also show that gains from free trade come mainly from the diffusion of knowledge and from the productivity gains made necessary by open borders, not from static gains associated with specialization, which appear to be fairly modest.
To sum up, historical experience suggests that the principal mechanism for convergence [the poor catching up with the rich] at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge. In other words, the poor catch up with the rich to the extent that they achieve the same level of technological know-how, skill, and education, not by becoming the property of the wealthy.
What he doesn't mention here but writes about elsewhere is that the income derived from a foreign investment is normally repatriated to the investor's country and thus rarely benefits the economy of the object of such an investment. The atmospherics in the media lead you into a false belief that the remote countries bask in the goodness of the foreign investment. Not so. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China have beco- me prosperous by investing their own capital, resources, and skill to build strong economies.
*) Harvard University Press, 2014.
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Percentage of Britons aged 18 to 25 who find it easier to express themselves in emoji than in words : 72
This and more in this month's Harper's Index.
Friday, 12 January 2018
Illustration: France Inter
Tuesday, 9 January 2018
The US ambassador to the United Nations announced that “no one questions” Trump’s mental stability; and the director of the CIA said that Trump, who requested “killer graphics” in his intelligence briefings, is able to read.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Friday, 5 January 2018
In a nutshellDrawing by Daniel Mermet
Two observations jump at you from the summary of the 2018 World Inequality Report, which has just been published by a team lead by Thomas Piketty*.
One is this,
Research has demonstrated that tax progressivity is an effective tool to combat inequality. Progressive tax rates do not only reduce post-tax inequality, they also diminish pre-tax inequality by giving top earners less
incentive to capture higher shares of growth via aggressive bargaining for pay rises and wealth accumulation. Tax progressivity was sharply reduced in rich and some emerging countries from the 1970s to the mid-2000s. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the downward trend has leveled off and even reversed in certain countries, but future evolutions remain uncertain and will depend on democratic deliberations. It is also worth noting that inheritance taxes are nonexistent
or near zero in high-inequality emerging countries, leaving space for important tax reforms in these countries.
The other is this,
Although the tax system is a crucial tool for tackling inequality, it also faces potential
obstacles. Tax evasion ranks high among these, as recently illustrated by the Paradise Papers revelations. The wealth held in tax havens has increased considerably since the 1970s and currently represents more than 10% of global GDP. The rise of tax havens makes it difficult to properly measure and tax wealth and capital income in a globalized world. While land and real-estate registries have existed for centuries, they miss a large fraction of the wealth held by households today, as wealth increasingly takes the form of financial securities. Several technical options exist for creating a global financial register,
which could be used by national tax authorities to effectively combat fraud.
*) Thomas Piketty is our Person of the Year 2014.
Friday, 22 December 2017
A dark moment with a bright outlookPhoto: NASA
Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere came yesterday, December 21, at 16:28 UTC, marking the shortest day of the year and the arrival of winter. Today will be a few seconds longer.
Daily Detox, which advocates moving New Year's Day from its present location—the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord—to the date of the Winter Solstice, wishes all its Readers a happy New Year.
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Role modelPhoto: AP
If anything comes close to the absolute truth, it is surely this:
...pretty much everyone with even a modicum of power is a fucking asshole. That’s the plain truth of the matter. There are a few good ones to be raked from the rubbish, I suppose, but this free market in awfulness eventually turns everyone into a monster — men, in particular.
The powerful are trash people almost to a man, and the attention paid to tabloids over the past century certainly isn’t owing to bullshit pablum like “Stars…they’re Just Like Us,” but rather because they aren’t anything like us; they steal, hoard, and abuse their power, and we hate them for it.
The excerpt comes from an article by Oliver Lee Bateman at Washington Babylon.
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
A jury in Arizona heard closing arguments in the trial of a Mesa police officer charged with the murder of Daniel Shaver, a twenty-six-year-old traveling pest exterminator who was staying at a La Quinta Inn when he was shot and killed by a response team after guests in a hot tub outside his window mistook for a rifle the pellet gun he’d used to eradicate birds from a local Walmart and reported him to the hotel staff. The prosecution told the jury that the officer, Philip Brailsford, was a “killer” for forcing Shaver, who was unarmed and intoxicated, into the hallway and then shooting him as he crawled on the floor crying and asking not to be shot; and Brailsford’s lawyer said Shaver was “not a bad person” but that “his actions” had gotten him killed, referring in part to the defendant’s claim that a hand movement of Shaver’s while he was on his knees made it appear as if he might have been reaching for a weapon in the waistband of his basketball shorts, which at that point had fallen down.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Thursday, 7 December 2017
"Let's see what's in your microwave"Image: donnersmarck.com
Angie wants to see full frontal nudity.
Saturday, 2 December 2017
Chart: bit.ly/-land
Friday, 1 December 2017
The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which since its creation after the 2008 financial crisis has provided victims of predatory banking practices with $11.8 billion in compensation and debt relief, resigned his office and appointed as deputy director Leandra English, a longtime federal employee who had previously served as the agency’s chief of staff. US president Donald Trump, who once said Americans could “opt out” of the recession by investing in a Trump-branded marketing company that sold multivitamins purportedly tailored to customers’ needs based on their urine, announced that he did not recognize English as the CFPB’s acting director, and instead appointed as the agency’s interim head the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, who once referred to the CFPB as a “joke” that he wanted to eliminate and whose former congressional chief of staff left his office to work as a lobbyist for the bank Santander, which was fined $10 million by the CFPB for “illegal overdraft practices” and is now reportedly facing another CFPB lawsuit, this time for overcharging customers.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 27 November 2017
A needle too farPhoto: Tiger Moth Productions
An alien from the land of the all-for-profit medicine runs into a soft pillow of socialized health care and human attitudes, still there in spite of the best efforts by the Tories.
Friday, 24 November 2017
Brand-name entertainmentImage: Wiener Staatsoper
Last week Daily Detox travelled to Vienna to hear Adriana Lecouvreur and Salome at the State Opera. The performances didn't disappoint.
But they didn't completely thrill either. In the first three acts of Adriana, the now corpulent Netrebko (we remember her in L'elisir d'amore in San Francisco) delivered a standard high-grade performance, though we were beginning to wonder if she wasn't entering the dusky autumn of her career. Fortunately in the fourth act she fired a broadside so compelling as to assuage the pain. None the less three acts of uncertainty was a bit too much for comfort. Opera doesn't tolerate doubts1.
Zhidkova's porcelain-faced princesse de Bouillon cut a stunning figure, and she sang well. Unfortunately her voice was marred by a touch of astringency (see 1 above), and she should avoid gratuitous eye flashes, even though they are effective at right moments (and could sink a man!)
The hero of the evening was Piotr Beczała who looked the part and sang like a devil, prompting us look at the ceiling to see if the stucco wasn't coming off.
Surprise was the baritone Roberto Frontali who sang Michonnet. He has a beautiful voice and uses it to best effect.
Evelino Pidò did well on the podium.
The one-act Salome opens with a pleasant set depicting the courtyard in King Herod's palace. An iron grill covering a cistern is the centrepiece. Later, less pleasantly, we discover it's under this grill that Johanaan is held prisoner.
Salome was sung by Lise Lindstrom. She was perfectly professional and looked the part, but her voice didn't quite convince (see 1 above). Herwig Pecoraro (Herod), had an awful voice and shouldn't sing in public. Johanaan (Alan Held) sang well and looked suitably haggard.
We couldn't figure out why the spotlight constantly shone on Herodias while the action was elsewhere. This suggested inattention on the part of the stage director.
The ancient Peter Schneider conducted superbly.
Erich Reindl, our correspondent (who, together with his svelte companion Elfe Fritz, accompanied us to the Opera), says he'd overheard some Russians at the exit complaining there was no Blue Danube in this Strauss opera. So now you know not all was perfect. (André Rieu didn't conduct either.)
In other opera news, we are happy to report that the Bitzinger stand in the back of the opera (where José Carreras once served sausages having lost a bet to Plácido Domingo) still serves perfect grilled sausages.
Late addendum: There is, in the French style, a delightful ballet scene in the third act of Adriana. A modest proposal: more operas should be so adorned, whether it's in the libretto or not.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
The lawyer for Samuel Clovis, a birther and former Trump campaign adviser with no scientific experience who has said that UFOs fly at 5,000 miles per hour and whom Trump has nominated as his chief scientist, said his client was an “Iowa gentleman” who was “just being polite” when he told Papadopoulos to “make the trip” to Russia himself; Trump tweeted that “few people knew” Papadopoulos.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
"Bye bye Jarey"Photo: YouTube
Washington is abuzz with rumours of interesting developments on Monday. This charming video gives preview of the expected attractions. Manafort meantime is said to be busy packing a toothbrush and a change of underwear.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
"It can't happen in England"Image: The Sunday Times
A thoughtful cartoon in Murdoch's pro-Brexit leaning Sunday Times.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
Strong" veterans don’t get PTSD", tweeted Trump.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Music Of The Spheres
Winter
Tragicomic Relief
Revenge Submission
Music Of The Spheres
Autumn
Tragicomic Relief
Constant Values
Music Of The Spheres
Summer
Tragicomic Relief
Fraternal Cop v Winnie the Pooh
Tragicomic Relief
The Daily Showdown In The OK Corral
Prediction
Putin's Misfortune Is Trump's Misfortune
Music Of The Spheres
Spring
Essential Reading
BBC News Redeems Itself
Tragicomic Relief
Imperfection
Tragicomic Relief
Back To The Womb
Music Of The Spheres
Winter
Tragicomic Relief
Election Purity
Tragicomic Relief
"Our Beautiful Coal"
Adulation
At Wengernalp
Music Of The Spheres
Autumn
Tragicomic Relief
What Israel Ordered And Then Some
Tragicomic Relief
Babe Magnet
Music Of The Spheres
Summer
Tragicomic Relief
Trump Science
Illustration
Dies Irae
Tragicomic Relief
Eyeless, Homeless, And Lifeless In Gaza
Tragicomic Relief
Behaviour Modification
Tragicomic Relief
Take Home Message
Coinage
In Search Of A Greater Fool
Tragicomic Relief
Hardship In Oz
Acumen
Michel Barnier
Tragicomic Relief
“Y’all, this country is crazy”
Economics
Love Your Inflation
Music Of The Spheres
2021 Spring Equinox
Tragicomic Relief
In Oklahoma Your Safety Is Job One
Statistically Significant
The Wild Wild Kingdom
Music Of The Spheres
Summer
Tragicomic Relief
If English Was Good Enough For Jesus, It's Good Enough For Me
Tragicomic Relief
Power Plants To Boost The GOP
Tragicomic Relief
Men Helping Men
Music Of The Spheres
2020 Spring Equinox
Statistically Significant
White Man's Bungle
Tragicomic Relief
The Art Of Retraction
Tragicomic Relief
Blending In With Space Junk
Apocalypse
The EMP
Statistically Significant
The Rich Have It
Tragicomic Relief
False Flag Op Gone Sour
Music Of The Spheres
The 2019 Winter Solstice
Brexit
Pyrrhus At Sparta
Tragicomic Relief
Rowdy Houses
Tragicomic Relief
Wickedpedia
Music Of The Spheres
Autumn
Tragicomic Relief
Road And Belt
Tragicomic Relief
Retardigrades
Music Of The Spheres
Summer
Review
L'elisir d'Amore In Trieste
Music Of The Spheres
2019 Spring Equinox
Tragicomic Relief
Wrong Pressure Point
Brexit
The Finale
Tragicomic Relief
Caring And Sharing
Brexit
May In Mental Health Boost
Brexit
A (Still) Warm Handshake
Brexit
Class Warfare
Christmas
A Remedy
Music Of The Spheres
The 2018 Winter Solstice
Tragicomic Relief
A Sycophant's Advice
Brexit
The Essential Scruff
Brexit
My Home Is My Castle
Brexit
It's The Money, Stupid, Part 2
Brexit
It's The Money, Stupid
Tragicomic Relief
The Adventures Of The Very Stable Genius
Music Of The Spheres
Autumn
Tragicomic Relief
Special People In Special Places
Music Of The Spheres
The 2018 Summer Solstice
Tragicomic Relief
Proofreading
Tragicomic Relief
North Korea? What Is North Korea?
Pogrom
Naqba At 70
2. Throwing Israel out of the UN
3. Isolating the Israeli academia from access to the civilized world.
4. Suing Israeli leadership for crimes against humanity.
5. Throwing out Israeli ambassadors and withdrawing ambassadors to Israel.Tragicomic Relief
A Voting Booth Too Far
Statistically Significant
Happy As A Clam
Percentage of Disneyland employees who worry about being evicted from their homes: 56
Tragicomic Relief
A Winning Platform
Crime And Punishment
Naftali Benzina
Music Of The Spheres
2018 Spring Equinox
Statistically Significant
Helping Hand
That teach an Islamic curriculum : 70
That teach a curriculum inspired by L. Ron Hubbard : 5
Rumination
Ashes To Ashes Dust To Dust
Ambience
Just Before Dawn
Tragicomic Relief
Walmart, NRA, And The America's Rifle
Apocalypse
The EMP
Tragicomic Relief
All Quiet In The West Wing
Piketty
Money From Elsewhere
Statistically Significant
Back to Lascaux
Aperçu
Now The Notary, My Love
Tragicomic Relief
No Child Left Behind
Piketty
2018 World Inequality Report
Music Of The Spheres
The 2017 Winter Solstice
Essential Reading
Your Elected Trash
Tragicomic Relief
The Son Of Arpaio
The Lives Of Others
How Do You Say 1984 In German?
Illustration
100 Years Of Peace Process
Tragicomic Relief
MAGA, One Scoundrel At A Time
Essential Reading
The American Patient
Review
Adriana Lecouvreur And Salome In Vienna
Tragicomic Relief
At The Nuthouse
Projection
Drumpferdämmerung, Act I
Schadenfreude
Cataloniexit
Tragicomic Relief*
They Just Brace Themselves Better