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#5 | Posted by jpw at 2024-03-27 03:53 PM
With Trump sinking his claws into the RNC and its funding functions, you can guarantee down ballot candidates are going to see their funding dry up or disappear.
And all that work to build majorities at state and local levels over most of my life will evaporate.

That's unlikely... or at least, very unlikely due to "RNC and its funding functions" and most of RNC haul going to Trump - it would be much more likely due to "Dobbs" decision.

First of all, most of local GOP apparatus, especially the ones who worked to build majorities at state and local levels, are funded and operate pretty independently from RNC... and as they and their donors realize that money and attention from RNC is not reaching them, they will stop relying on and donating to RNC and start funding and pay attention to state/local races.

Second, most big money donors can't stand Trump and just decide to maybe give some token donations to RNC / Trump campaign, so as not to be blacklisted in case he wins, i.e., "insurance" money, but concentrate on direct donations to Senate and House campaigns, and some local where they see either promise of gaining seat(s) or shoring up potential losses - again, "insurance" but against Biden win. IOW, they will take on some of the responsibilities of 'dysfunctional' Trump-owned RNC - it's not a lot of work to set up PACs where they see are needed, any more than they've done before - just a change in distribution of capital.

Wouldn't be surprised if RNC / Trump campaign is being "starved" of big donors' money while some Senate and House campaigns are "supersized" with PAC's dollars.

"Double haters," in particular, may decide to split their vote and donate to GOP down ballot, while voting for Biden.
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#6 | Posted by madbomber at 2024-03-27 04:06 PM | Reply |
In another country, "Republicans" would be being sent to the firing squad as communists or woke-ists or whatever, while being replaced by those whose loyalty to the premier superseded everything else.

Not even in another country/place, just in another time? Fast-forward a few hours, days, weeks, and we are not far from there already, minus "the firing squad" (for now?), courtesy of "America First" Il Duce and his family coterie:

'Bloodbath' at RNC as new leadership loyal to Trump purges staff | Lara Trump Promises to Use RNC to Complete MAGA Takeover of Party | Donald Trump's daughter-in-law made it clear that there's only one option going forward.

|------- Donald Trump is well on his way to replacing the conservative party with a "counterestablishment" of his own that, according to his family, has no room for dissenters.

41-year-old [Lara] Trump insisted that she was the only person loyal enough to the former president to be considered for the RNC job...

... Prospective RNC employees are being asked if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, constituting a "litmus test" as the 2024 election approaches. sources described the 2020 question "as unusual for a job interview" but saw it as a way of "questioning their loyalty to Donald Trump".
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IMO, these old-school republicans aren't really betraying the party...it's just that the party has changed dramatically.

Like Reagan's "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic party left me" - only now it's GOP?
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#73 | Posted by madbomber at 2024-03-27 04:44 PM
Did Trump defraud the people who loaned him money? Is the intent of this lawsuit to get the lenders the money they would have gotten if the evaluation of Trump's assets had been more accurate? ... And if the banks feel they've been defrauded, why not let them sue? Or is that what's happening in this case?

That's the obvious angle, which is what Trump and his lawyers tried to argue in court... and in public.

That was not the real issue in the case - there are actually several (at least, two) other issues that are not clearly obvious but inter-related, why the state was involved - lenders/banks may have been eventually paid back because they were not the "end target" of fraud:

Think of this as inflating the valuations and therefore value of the investments in "business case" of the pyramid/Ponzi scheme "in progress" where the people have not yet lost or don't yet think they lost the money because they are overpaying for something based on understanding that since a bank loaned him money (which he openly touted, and which was part of his defense), it's presumed to have done a due diligence and therefore effectively "certified" the valuation for other would-be investors, condo buyers and/or lessees. For example, Bernie Madoff (who, as Trump, was also employing his relatives in the firm - brother, sons, niece) was running his Ponzi scheme for more than 20 years until more / enough people needed to withdraw or sell their overinflated "on paper" assets.

The other aspect is money-laundering - by inflating the valuation of the assets for the purpose of the bank loan, he may have either collateralized these assets to get other loans at much higher valuations - or, for example, as actually happened, had foreign (mostly Russian) "investors" buying condos in his empty buildings during 2006-2008 GFC at double pre-crash prices, to keep his bankrupt "empire" afloat.

That's why he was most concerned about, and making threats, to make sure that Robert Muller's investigation was not looking into his business dealings - anything else he could shrug off as a "hoax."

It's pretty well known that most, if not all, of his [money-losing] golf courses in Scotland and elsewhere are financed, and are essentially owned, by Russian money. ***

Of course, the easiest way to launder and/or "gift" someone money through fraud is via the stock market... like boosting the value of otherwise worthless securities or assets, as in "pump-and-dump" scheme. Trump has transferred his personally guaranteed loans, which unloaded his debts unto shareholders in his listed company trading under DJT and TRMP symbols, which "died" / was delisted in bankruptcy in 2004 (and its remnants filed BK in 2009, and then in 2014), when Trump had only a small stake but was getting fat "management and name licensing" fees. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto "empire" actually blew up - because Binance didn't bail him out - and he has just been sentenced to 25 years in "criminal" fraud case... yet there is a good chance that his victims may get all their money back simply due to huge bull run in crypto, which is also similar to what happened with "frozen" Mt Gox accounts years ago.

These "Ponzi in progress" charges would be a lot more difficult to prove, let alone get required unanimous conviction, in criminal trial - that's the reason for civil case and Trump's decision not to request a jury trial, i.e., getting a bench trial, which may be easier to appeal due to "bias" and/or "conduct" of the judge, which he constantly tried to provoke.
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#7 | Posted by hamburglar at 2024-03-26 08:16 AM
Is it possible to raise animals in more sanitary conditions? It would affect food supply and prices.

Obviously - which is what California pols denied when they pushed Propositions 2 and 12 for "cage-free" chickens.

asmith.ucdavis.edu - Egg Prices are Still High, Especially in California - March 15, 2023

|------- That is what happens when a product most people buy quintuples in price.

The proximate cause of the price spike was avian flu, which caused millions of chickens to be killed, thereby reducing the supply of eggs. In the background, however, a massive transition is underway as the egg industry moves from caged to cage-free operation. What role did this play in the egg price spike?

Prior to 2015, California prices averaged about 60c per dozen higher than the Midwest, likely because most California eggs are produced in the Midwest and need to be shipped from there to here.

This requirement stemmed from Proposition 2, which California voters passed in 2008. Under the PFACA, California prices have been 85c above Midwest prices. It seems clear the PFACA raised the cost of producing eggs for California. ... In 2022 after Proposition 12 took effect, California wholesale egg prices averaged $1 higher than Midwest, up from a 85c gap in 2015-2021. ... Cage-free egg production is more expensive because hens that move more eat more and because disease spreads more easily. The price spread was more volatile in 2022 than before, perhaps indicating that the cage-free market is thin, i.e., more easily disrupted. ...

Proposition 12 also applies to hogs (which I wrote about here), but litigation has held up its implementation for pork products.
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Check out the charts in the document.
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Aren't antibiotics sometimes needed to treat sick animals? This seems much ado about nothing

- - - #4 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-03-25 08:44 PM
- - - This is about giving antibiotics to healthy animals.

This is about antibiotics that have been given to sick animals. Supply chains are sometimes disrupted, as we should all know by now, and recently there has been an outbreak of bird flu, which is why the prices of chicken eggs rose again sharply, after steady decline from the post-COVID peak.

www.cbsnews.com - Chick-fil-A will allow some antibiotics in its chicken, ditching its "No Antibiotics Ever" standard - CBS, Mar 25, 2024

|------- In 2014, Chick-fil-A said it would shift to a "No Antibiotics Ever," or NAE standard, meaning the company would not use any antibiotics-raised chickens. But now it is switching to a "No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine," or NAIHM standard. Under this label, antibiotics are used to treat animals if they are sick, but use of antibiotics that are important to human medicine and are commonly used to treat people is restricted.

The company blamed supply chain ... concerns about the company's ability to acquire antibiotic-free chicken.

Chick-fil-A promised to continue to only serve "real, white breast meat with no added fillers, artificial preservatives or steroids" and source chickens from farms that follow its Animal Wellbeing Standards, which includes US-hatched and raised animals that are provided nutritional food and live in temperature controlled barns. -------|
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#47 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2024-03-21 09:47 AM |
Dude you're boring...and uninformed. Too much unnecessary verbiage. You think it's impressive?

Putin's Russian IRA troll farm Kremlinbot - keep trolling for Putin and for rubles... while you are allowed, but:

We've already covered your comprehension level before - you don't need any because you just post the same script over and over, since it's # of rubles per post and response/"engagement," to turn any thread into "Ukraine" and "ZioNazis" - and agreed that my posts and "unnecessary verbiage" are not meant for you... to read or make empty comments on.

So "Dude," please try to remember this next time and spare me your ineffective propaganda script - I know its variants better than you do, whether you are drunk or not at the time.

Thank you.

BTW, your handlers may be experimenting with your "handle" - some of your posts have definite "AI" look-and-feel, different from your usual one - your days here may be numbered.

www.cnn.com - Wagner chief admits to founding Russian troll farm sanctioned for meddling in US elections

spyscape.com - Inside Russia's Notorious 'Internet Research Agency' Troll Farm

www.technologyreview.com - Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows

www.propublica.org - Infamous Russian Troll Farm Appears to Be Source of Anti-Ukraine Propaganda | Experts say a recent wave of pro-Putin disinformation is consistent with the work of Russia's Internet Research Agency, a network of paid trolls who attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election.
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#13 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-03-19 08:19 AM
Good article about the Jews trying to erase Al Aqsa from the face of the earth: aljazeera.com

Talk about Al-Jazeera cherry-picking a dying marginal movement of "the Jews" and usual, old Arab grievances: muse.jhu.edu - Temple Mount Faithful movement [PDF, 19p] or wiki: en.m.wikipedia.org

Grievances here: en.m.wikipedia.org - Excavations at the Temple Mount
here: www.jcpa.org - The destruction of the Temple Mount antiquities ...
and here: architexturez.net - Arabs continue destroying Jewish archaeology on the Temple Mount, and on, and on...

"The intention is to turn the entire 36-acre Temple Mount compound into an exclusively Muslim site by erasing every sign, memory of its Jewish past..."

en.m.wikipedia.org: |------- Temple Mount is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a holy site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for thousands of years.

... Some Arab-Muslim commentators and scholars attempt to deny Jewish connection with the Temple Mount...

The site, along with the whole of East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City), was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967 and has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Shortly after capturing the site, Israel handed its administration back to the Waqf under the Jordanian Hashemite custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control. The Israeli government enforces a ban on prayer by non-Muslims as part of an arrangement...

... On 28 September 2000, then-opposition leader of Israel Ariel Sharon and members of the Likud Party, along with 1,000 armed guards, visited the al-Aqsa compound. After Sharon and the Likud Party members left, a demonstration erupted and Palestinians on the grounds of the Haram al-Sharif began throwing stones and other projectiles at Israeli riot police. ... The visit sparked a five-year uprising by the Palestinians, commonly referred to as the al-Aqsa Intifada, though some commentators, citing subsequent speeches by Palestinian Authority officials, particularly Imad Falouji and Yasir Arafat, claim that the Intifada had been planned months in advance, as early as July upon Arafat's return from Camp David. -------|

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|------- In the immediate aftermath of these events, it was generally accepted... that Arafat had made a grave error in rejecting a deal that Barak accepted. However, not too long afterwards and in the years since, revisionist historians and journalists have endeavored to portray the events as far more ambiguous, inherently flawed and misunderstood, thereby absolving Arafat of fault. ...

The best review of the events at Camp David was written by chief U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross, published in 2004.[3] Broadly... and backed by Ross and numerous observers, Arafat and his team rejected all proposals... Arafat famously denied that a Jewish Temple existed on the Temple Mount and instead insisted that the real temple was built in Nablus. The fact that Arafat could not accept even the most basic Jewish history in the region was seen by both the Israelis and Clinton as an insult to their intelligence and a sign that Arafat was not negotiating in good faith. ... -------|

They complain about "the Jews" trying to "erase" al-Aqsa, while their own charter demands erasing Jews and entire nation from the face of the earth, just what Putin wants to do to Ukrainians. Bizarro World.
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#19 | Posted by madbomber at 2024-03-19 10:22 AM |
It just gets tricky because it gives states the ability to eliminate candidates based on little more than perception, or even opinion.

Some may say a "slippery slope," but you have something there, it can actually simplify and speed up elections. Instead of clear (state and federacy) standards on who can and cannot hold the state and federal offices, and therefore be on the ballot - like age limits, citizenship, legal status, criminal history, etc. - we can just let the Governors or "election commissions" or state courts decide.

The hell with "democracy," let's go for efficiency - states' "election commissions" (I presume appointed by governors) will kick out the candidates they don't want on the ballot (let's say Trump is "senile, insurrectionist - January 6! Pence! Russia! Twice impeached!" and Biden is "old, senile, corrupt - Big Guy! Hunter! Burisma! Ukraine! China!")

For most states, like Colorado or South Dakota it's not important because they already know who will win and can just "let the voters decide" by going through the process and concentrate on other / local issues, so it would be mostly up to about "swing" and/or "mixed" states, which is how it is now, except the decision will already be made for voters, unless they want to write in "ineligible" candidate, and there can be upfront rules about acceptance/non-acceptance of these "rogue" votes.

Then we'll just count the states' votes total and be done and will know who our President is right after they secured their party's nominations - easy-peasy, nothing "rigged" about it, and the citizens know that when they vote for Governor (or whoever decides the ballot inclusion/exclusion) which party President (the actual candidate TBD later) they are voting for.

We'll know which party will be in the White House and govern the Senate, maybe House, well before "general" elections - eliminates the uncertainty, simple, efficient, no drama, no trauma, Putin-style.

I mean, we are not that far from that already - about half-dozen "swing" states will decide elections outcome - Trump not being on Colorado ballot wouldn't change outcome of the general election, which is why it was politically so nakedly partisan and, therefore politically stupid.

If / while we do that, maybe we can do something that really matters, and can cut corruption significantly - have an amendment that denies a single person (President and Governor) power of pardon and/or commutation - which they can use to either pardon themselves (TBD by SCOTUS) or promise pardon to people who may commit crimes on their behalf / for their benefit. I think we've seen enough of that happening... but neither major party even brings this up, apparently just awaiting their turn at the helm/trough, to use the way they see fit.

"It's good to be the King!"
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**
www.newsweek.com - My Fellow Palestinians: It's Time to Get Rid of Our Leaders and Accept Israel's Offers for Peace - Bassem Eid, PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST - Jan 28, 2024

|------- There's been a lot of criticism of Israel recently for purportedly rejecting a two-state solution... The truth is more complex. As a Palestinian who genuinely yearns for a two-state solution and an improvement in living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, I believe this truth must be told: It is Israel - and the Zionist Jewish community preceding independence - that consistently offered compromise, dialogue, and a two-state solution. And it is Palestinian demagogues valuing personal power over the good of their people who have rejected these openhanded offers - in favor of endless strife and the desire that the Jewish community be completely destroyed.

It is the Palestinian Arab nationalist movement that has betrayed the Palestinian people and consistently opposed peace. ... -------|
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*** Bill Clinton tried "peace process" with Arafat who was only stringing everyone along while skimming billions of USDs for himself and associates, just before starting Second Intifada:

www.newsweek.com - Clinton To Arafat: It's All Your Fault - Jun 26, 2001
|------- ... Bill Clinton gave vent to his frustrations this week over the collapse of peace in the Mideast. And Clinton directed his ire at one man: Yasir Arafat. ... Clinton said he told Arafat that by turning down the best peace deal he was ever going to get - the one proffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and brokered by Clinton last July... . But Arafat didn't listen. ...

He described Arafat as an aging leader who relishes his own sense of victimhood and seems incapable of making a final peace deal....

Clinton said he bluntly contradicted Arafat when... the Palestinian leader expressed doubts that the ancient Jewish temple actually lay beneath the Islamic-run compound in Jerusalem containing the holy Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. -------|
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www.theguardian.com - Arafat didn't negotiate - he just kept saying no - The Guardian, May 22, 2002

|------- ... Clinton said: "... The true story of Camp David was that for the first time in the history of the conflict the American president put on the table a proposal, based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, very close to the Palestinian demands, and Arafat refused even to accept it as a basis for negotiations, walked out of the room, and deliberately turned to terrorism."

Clinton was speaking of the two-week-long Camp David conference in July 2000... and its failure, and the eruption at the end of September of the Palestinian intifada which has continued since.

Arafat said no. -------|
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honestreporting.com - In Depth: Arafat Rejected Peace in 2000 - July 11, 2021

|------- Recent peace agreements between Israel and UAE, Bahrain and Sudan have changed the face of the Arab-Israeli conflict and revealed a pent-up frustration among Arab nations with the long-standing Palestinian veto on their ability to normalize relations with Israel.

... Bandar... focusing on Palestinian leadership mistakes over the decades, capped off in the final part recounting the colossal error committed by Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat in rejecting a peace agreement with Israel in 2000-2001. -------|
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Thomas Friedman: Israel today is in grave danger. With enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran, Israel should be enjoying the sympathy of much of the world.

Friedman, as usual, looks in a political rear view mirror and sees the "future" - Israel had "enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran..." for decades - first through all the Soviet Union-supported Arabic states' genocidal wars since Day 1 of Israel's existence... and after decades of supporting Islamist terrorist organizations like PLO, PFLP and PIJ, and spreading disinformation by Soviet Union's KGB and GRU, using "Palestinians" as an issue... so it never was "enjoying the sympathy of much of the world"... because "Jooos."
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Our resident Russian troll Effeteposer is just one tiny cog in that old war machine, while former KGB/FSB Colonel Vladimir Putin is trying to reconstruct the "glorious" Federation of former Soviet Republics, and his partner Ayatollah of Iran is doing what he can to help.

www.ynetnews.com - The KGB Middle East files

|------- Chapter 2: Palestinian spies
Palestinians in service of Mother Russia

Secret KGB documents reveal just how deeply involved the Soviet Union was... The Russian spy agency provided Palestinian terror organizations with funds, training and arms, running agents like 'Krotov'/'Mole' Mahmoud Abbas, 'Aref' Yasser Arafat and 'Nationalist,' who was behind several plane hijackings long before 9/11. ...
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Egypt and Jordan have since been "living side by side" and trading with Israel, several Arab states just signed peace and trade treaties, and the big fish, Saudis were about to do the same. So Iran (not Arab country) pulled the trigger on one of "their" Palestinian terrorist groups to prevent the "peace process" from completion.

One of many serious articles from Arab and Palestinian authors: **
www.gatestoneinstitute.org - Why Arabs Are Fed up With the Palestinians - by Khaled Abu Toameh, July 12, 2022 (well before October 7, 2023)

|------- The Palestinians can only blame themselves for antagonizing their Arab brothers... The Palestinians have been spitting in the face of the Arab countries, while at the same time expecting these countries to continue funding them.

The Arabs are clearly not as nave as the Americans and Europeans, who are continuing to pour millions of dollars annually on the Palestinians...

Had the Palestinians welcomed the many peace accords between Israel and the Arab states instead of condemning them*** and bad-mouthing the Arab leaders, they would have been in a much better situation today...

The Palestinian leadership, by contrast, is happy to fail its people by indoctrinating generation after generation with bloodlust for Jews. ...

The truth is that most of the Arab countries long ago turned their backs on the Palestinians. ... It is ironic that while the European Union recently announced its decision to resume unconditional financial aid to the Palestinians, the Arab countries continue to completely ignore the Palestinians. It is also ironic that while the Biden administration continues to talk about providing financial aid to the Palestinians, the Arab countries do not seem to care at all about their Palestinian brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. ...

... prominent Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Al-Jarallah explained why he and many others are fed up with the Palestinians. "We are the only ones who rescued them [Palestinians] in 1970 when they launched their war on Jordan. The late Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah evacuated their leader Yasser Arafat from Amman..." -------|
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#1 | Posted by Corky at 2024-03-15 11:32 AM |
Odd that this news would publish while the voting is going on...

Maybe because this has not been "news" for weeks and has been anticipated for months.

After four tries of announcing reduction in oil production that resulted in initial spikes in oil futures price which rapidly came down due to supply glut and slower demand by world economies, as well as exit of Angola from OPEC, Saudi Arabia flipped the script and started negotiating volume supply agreements at a discount with Indian and Chinese oil / energy companies, now directly competing with Russian crude and refined oil products.

3 top Chinese banks, including Bank of China, stopped payments in rubles to local recipients, citing caution of secondary sanctions for aiding Russian wartime economy - Chinese government reluctantly followed the sanctions regime rules and ordered many of its largest financial institutes to do the same. Only 10% of Russian importers were able to pay suppliers this month for goods from China. Traders said that making ruble transactions was like "playing roulette" with their money, with funds delayed, held up indefinitely or simply vanishing into the "financial system" with no recourse.

BRICS is a nice geopolitical "concept" but anyone, who is not economically illiterate, understands it has no economical power because of very different objectives of members, and disparity in currencies which cannot be reconciled equitably.
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Asymmetrical war is a bitch:

Russia's Gas Prices Surge as Drone Strikes Paralyze Industry

|------- Crude oil prices jumped this week after Ukrainian UAVs again struck multiple Russian oil refining facilities, as Kyiv continues its long-range effort to limit Russian mobility in the Black Sea...

-- On Tuesday, a fire broke out at a Lukoil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod 280 miles from Moscow... and an energy facility in the city of Oryol... The next day, drones hit refineries in Ryazan and Rostov-on-Don... Other oil facilities in Volgograd and Tyapse as well as St Petersburg have also been targeted in recent weeks.

-- Russia's top oil execs keep #dying #suddenly. Vitaly Robertus, VP of Lukoil, was found "hanged" in his Moscow office in an apparent suicide... This is at least the fourth death of Lukoil's top executive since Russia's war in Ukraine began.

-- Russian government reintroduced on March 1 a six-month ban on gasoline exports...

-- Russian traders reel from China payment problems. Russian businesses face challenges in their dealings with cautious Chinese institutions.

-- China, Russia, Iran join forces for war games amid US-Houthi clashes.

-- UAF missiles destroy Russia's floating 'command center' used to carry EW equipment and launch drones.

-- Ukraine's new group of Russian fighters serving with UAF, "Siberian battalion" joins "Freedom of Russia Legion" and "Russian Volunteer Corps / RDK," launching incursions into Russian oblasts (counties) of Belgorod and Kursk.

-- Russian arms exports cut in half over the past five years, compared to the previous five. US arms companies' weapons exports soar while Europe rearms itself in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

-- Russia's program to produce missiles experienced technical problems and has fallen months behind schedule, according to documents obtained as a result of Ukraine's more than a year-long cyber operation. The documentation identifies Moscow's intermediaries for purchasing weapons components. "Every company whose products the enemy uses to produce weapons will be known to the public. Relevant authorities have the data to block proxy firms and extend sanctions," NRC said.
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#13 | Posted by TomSawyer_jr at 2024-03-15 11:23 PM |
... if the Jews (Zionists) and Muslims can not figure out how to live peacefully side by side...

But they do - less than 75% citizens in Israel are Jews (religious or secular), more than 21% citizens are Arabs and/or Muslims (who are not subject to mandatory military service, but volunteers are allowed to serve - must be "apartheid"!) and life expectancy in Israel is in top 10 of the world.

Israel proposed creation of Palestinian state "side by side with Israel" at least 4 times... (BTW, the first and only nation that would make "Palestine free from occupation" in 2000 years) but all have been rejected, twice with Intifada, because Palestinians would not accept the existence of state of Israel - "from the River to the sea Palestine must be free" - the code for taking the land after "driving Jews into the sea." Why else have Palestinian refugee camps in Palestine? The Palestinian economy, which has suffered greatly since then.

When given the chance, the Palestinians also tried to take over Jordan and other lands/countries, Egypt dumped their "undesirables" in Gaza and Egypt's military on Sinai fought for years against Islamic militants there. Sunni Muslims and Shi'a Muslims have been fighting each other for 14 centuries and so on...
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#2 | Posted by ClownShack at 2024-03-14 04:20 PM
Over 1 million children will need to be murdered by IDF for Israel to succeed.

According to Hamas itself, more than 30,000 "Gazan civilian women and children" were killed by IDF in 5 months. Nazi Germany was murdering 14,000-15,000 Jews every day in 1942. So, if Israel has only accomplished 2 days of "genocide," at best. At this pace, they won't ever catch up to Nazis.

Genocide is a bloody endeavor.

Sure is. When asked, one IDF Lt. Colonel said "If we wanted to commit genocide, we would have done it long ago. We have the means." They do have the means. So they are either doing a piss-poor job of "genocide" or really are concentrating on Hamas... and Hezbollah, and Iran puppet-masters. Because it's not about "Palestinians" or "Gazans."
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#8 | Posted by tres_flechas at 2024-03-15 08:19 PM
Real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid on Monday compared Israel to Nazi Germany and said that it was killing more children a day than Hitler did at Auschwitz.

"Congratulations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you beat him, you win, you win big time, you are the mightiest, you are Goliath," Hadid wrote on Instagram...

Apparently, the bankrupt father of the "celebrity models" Gigi and Bella doesn't do math and also reversed the outcome of the "legendary" battle between David, a Judean shepherd boy, and Goliath, Philistine warrior.

Makes sense coming from him: Mohamed Anwar Hadid was born into Palestinian Muslim family who fled Israel during the 1948 war, because his father "did not want the family to live under the Israeli occupation."

Hadid's financing source was the Saudi SAAR Foundation, which was a 50-50 partner in many of Hadid's ventures. In the late 1980s, he faced at least 30 lawsuits from creditors claiming he had not fulfilled various financial obligations. In 1992, a settlement was reached in a lawsuit by Riggs Bank against Hadid's partner in a construction project that involved a loan on which Hadid defaulted. Hadid closed his local office, lost his McLean home to foreclosure, and left the D.C. area.

In 2022 he has been hit with a wave of legal and financial troubles, including business bankruptcy and the demolition of his once-prized home. His half-built $100 million Bel Air mega-mansion was demolished, after a five-year fight with neighbors over safety concerns and lack of permits.
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#35 | Posted by oneironaut at 2024-03-11 02:33 PM
I read Dostoevsky about a year ago. Good stuff.
#36 | Posted by oneironaut at 2024-03-11 02:34 PM
war and peace, Tolstoy. Just this year.

You just made Madbomber's points.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - died February 9, 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

Lev / Leo Tolstoy - died November 20, 1910, Ryazan province, Russian Empire

Russia's Red October / October Revolution / Great October Socialist Revolution - born in October 1917, died in 1991...

The "Russian culture" happened way before Bolsheviks came to power - The original "War and Peace" book has a lot of French sub-notes in it - because French was the language of the "cultural elite" in Russia at the time, and many fled to France after Bolsheviks took over, with the help of Russian intelligentsia... who later paid the price being the main objects of the "purges."

Every Ukrainian I run into at work is bright, energetic, gives you a false impression of Ukraine they tell me.

A lot of "Ukrainians" (and "Russians") you meet at work are immigrants or are children of immigrants who have emigrated in several waves prior to 1981, and were mostly of Jewish origin or had Jewish relatives, often by marriage, in the USA, or by way of Israel - and later in several waves after USSR breakup was finalized in 1994 - mostly from Ukraine, Russia, Armenia and some other [former] Soviet Republics.

For example, Sergey Brin (cofounder of Google) was born in Moscow and "came to America in October 25, 1979 at the age of six with his two parents" - father, a math professor, and mother, a research scientist at NASA.

OpenAI's chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was born in Russian SFR, family emigrated to Israel when he was 5, studied in Open University of Israel, emigrated to Toronto where he studied under one of the "Fathers of AI" Geoffrey Hinton and co-invented AlexNet neural network with Hinton and Alex Krizhevsky (himself a Ukrainian-born AI/ML/DL Canadian scientist, and the first to use Nvidia's GPUs in ML) - he is currently Israeli and Canadian citizen.

Plenty of stories like this - the "brain drain," from Russia particularly, but not limited to it - look at how many Indians, Chinese, Israelis are founders, cofounders or at the top of the US most valuable and technologically advanced companies.

Sure, you can find some cases of single "talents" that are stuck in Russia, particularly in some sports, or some possible outstanding works of arts, but the overall "Russian culture" is not translating well to the world outside its borders.
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#62 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-03-08 01:50 AM
Legwork, please. The crew walked off the set because their safety concerns weren't being addressed.

When the camera crew walked off, they were not complaining about or justifying it as "safety"... at least not then, that came later. They walked off as they explained: "after filming began, the crews were told they instead would be required to make the 50-mile drive from Albuquerque each day, rather than stay overnight in nearby Santa Fe. That rankled crew members who worried that they might have an accident after spending 12 to 13 hours on the set."

www.motherjones.com - Stories of Terrible Conditions on "Rust" Set Were Emerging Even Before Fatal Shooting - Oct 22, 2021

|------- The events that prompted workers to walk off the set in New Mexico appear to have been detailed in a series of Facebook replies written before the shooting. A person who identified themselves as a member of the camera crew on Rust ... wrote a series of posts about how the crew was being treated like "Absolute dog s**t."

The posts were written in response to a video of Baldwin expressing his solidarity with Hollywood's blue-collar workforce, which is now deciding whether to ratify a labor agreement reached on Saturday between producers and the leaders of their union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. "I want to say to the people in IATSE, do what you need to do," Baldwin said about the upcoming vote. "You don't like that contract? You think the contract could be better? You want to go on strike? Go on strike."

Under the video, the crew member, whose Facebook page identifies them as a member of IATSE Local 600, highlights conditions...:

|--- At the moment I'm fighting to get my crew, on this movie, hotel rooms when we go long or are too tired to drive the hour back from location to Albuquerque. They either say no or offer a garbage roadside motel that's used as a homeless shelter. In fact the line producer on the flick complained the motel she booked charges her 10 bucks more per night than the homeless. They haven't even paid the crew a proper check. ---|
-------|

www.democracynow.org - IATSE Film Crew on "Rust" Walked Off to Protest Conditions - Oct 26, 2021

|------- All this happened after some of the unionized IATSE below-the-line crew members had walked off the set of "Rust" earlier on the day of the shooting to protest their housing, payment and working conditions. ...

DUTCH MERRICK (past President of I.A.T.S.E. Local 44, director, gun safety instructor): ... From what I've heard, the armorer was not present during this sequence. My guess is, I understand - from what I understand, they were coming back from lunch. There may have been a rush for them to get back to rehearsing. I imagine it was a pretty jarring day, having much of the crew walk off and other people come in to replace them, so there was likely a bit of mayhem. ... -------|
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Like I said in my previous post, other than "creating quite a bit of chaos, anxiety and rush on the set" (or as Dutch Merrick said, "a bit of mayhem" which may have been a contributory factor?), the union camera crew walkout (and their non-union replacements) had no other affect on set's safety conditions - which continued to be [very poorly] served by the same inexperienced, incompetent, unqualified IATSE-approved union personnel.
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#33 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-03-07 01:35 PM
"How would labor unions look at that solution?"
- - - This was a non-union crew, so...

My comment about unions was clearly not regarding this particular movie set, but about general, industry-wide automation of some safety aspects, so...

But if this part of safety inspection protocol was automated / robo-tasked instead of left to a human, who was also possibly "under the influence" quite then the accident in question wouldn't or would be extremely unlikely to happen. But that's something for industry and/or labor unions (?) to decide, which is exactly what I was referring to - www.latimes.com - Rules on how prop guns are used on film sets are about to change after 'Rust' shooting. Here's why - October 11, 2022

- - - This was a non-union crew, so...
They'd probably say hire union labor if you don't want anyone killed on set.
I'm surprised how little has been made of the union side of all this.
Like, f--- that Alec Baldwin piece of s--- for working with scabs.

"Hire union labor" seems like a conditioned Pavlovian response for some, in absence of facts.

Having "that union label" doesn't prevent you from being inexperienced or incompetent:
www.latimes.com - It was supposed to be their big break. Now two 24-year-olds are at the center of the 'Rust' shooting investigation - LAT, 2021 Nov 20

There have been 3 "misfires" / accidental discharges of the gun on set in the week prior to the accident. Both armorer and prop master should have taken a note and be more serious about their jobs.

|------- Prop master Sarah Zachary... recalled her experiences on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie "Rust." Zachary recalled the moment when she accidentally set off a dummy round when a hammer fell on it, causing an accidental misfire on set. She also claimed that she was not trained to work with the prop guns or load them, despite being asked to perform some of the tasks of the armorer. -------|

It appears that the IATSE Local 44 union camera crew of 6 people had to be replaced at the last moment that morning because they suddenly decided to go on strike and walk off the job that fateful day, so... I don't know what camera crew had to do with safety or the accident, except for this particular union labor action creating quite a bit of chaos, anxiety and rush on the set.

The low-budget shoot was scheduled to last only 21 days / 3 weeks... and the union camera crew couldn't handle it... because they kept objecting to and complaining about their "long hours," "long commute" from hotel in Albuquerque instead of closer Santa Fe (40-45 minutes vs 25 minutes on I-25), COVID protocols restrictions (required by unions) and "serious lack of safety meetings on this set."

Bonanza Creek Ranch, where the movie was being filmed, is not some new or shabby location, it has been a popular filming location for more than 60 years, including "The Man From Laramie (1955)" with Jimmy Stewart and "Blazing Saddles," "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," and several seasons of the "Longmire" TV series.
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