I'll avoid political hollering, this weekend. Especially as we're all staring with bemusement, terror -- and ideally popcorn -- at the bizarre displays of toddler-hysteria foaming from D.C. In fact, some wise heads propose that we respond by rebuilding our institutions - and confidence - from the ground up. And hence:
#1 I gave a series of lectures about National Resilience for the Naval Postgraduate School, that resulted in this interview about neglected and needed boosts to RESILIENCE.
#2 And in a related development: philanthropist Craig Newmark supports a program seeking to get modern citizens more involved in ‘resilience.’ A great endeavor, needed now more than ever.
#3 Also resilience related! As a member of CERT - the nationwide Community Emergency Response Team I urge folks to consider taking the training. As a bottom-level 'responder' at least you'll know some things to do, if needed. *
*The FEMA site has been experiencing... 'problems'... but I hope this link works. Fortunately the training is mostly done by local fire departments, but your badge and gear may come slower than normal.
#4 Giving blood regularly may not just be saving the lives of other people, it could also be improving your own blood's health at a genetic level, according to a new study. An international team of researchers compared samples from 217 men who had given blood more than 100 times in their lives, to samples from 212 men who had donated less than 10 times, to look for any variance in blood health. "Activities that put low levels of stress on blood cell production allow our blood stem cells to renew and we think this favors mutations that further promote stem cell growth rather than disease." (Well, I just gave my 104th pint, so…)
#5 Nothing prepares you for the future better than Science Fiction! I started an online org TASAT as a way for geeky SF readers to maybe someday save the world!
...And now let's get to science! After a couple of announcements...
== Yeah, you may have heard this already, but... ==
Okay it's just a puff piece...that I can't resist sharing with folks, about an honor from my alma mater, Caltech. It's seldom that I get Imposter's Syndrome. But in this case, well, innumerable classmates there were way smarter than me!
Also a couple of job announcements: First, Prof. Ted Parson and other friends at UCLA Law School are looking for a project director at UCLA’s new Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, with a focus on legal and social aspects of ‘geo-engineering’… the wide range of proposals (from absurd to plausibly helpful) to perhaps partially ease or palliate the effects of human-generated greenhouse pollution on the planet’s essential and life-giving balance.
To see some such proposals illustrated in fiction, look at Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry For the Future (spreading cooling atmospheric aerosols) or in my own novel Earth (ocean fertilization.)
And now… science forges ahead!
== Life… as we now know it… ==
Complexity can get… complicated and nowhere more so than in braaaains! For some years, the most intricate nervous systems ever modeled by science were varieties of worms or nematodes (e.g. C.elegans). But advances accelerate, and now a complete brain model – not just of neurons but their detectable connections (synapses) has been completed for the vastly larger brain of the Drosophila fruit fly! (Including discovery of several new types of neurons.)
And sure, I maintain that neurons and synapses aren’t enough. We’re gonna need to understand the murky, non-linear contributions of intra-cellular ‘computational’ elements. Still… amazing stuff. And the process will get a lot faster.
Meanwhile… Allorecognition in nature is an individual creature’s distinction between self and other. Most generally in immune response to invasion of the self-boundary by that which is non-self. Almost all Earthly life forms exhibit this trait, with stong tenacity. An exception, described in the early 20202, is Mnemiopsis or the “sea walnut,” a kind of comb jelly (‘jellyfish’) that can be divided arbitrarily and combine with other partial mnemiopses, merging into a new whole.
(And elsewhere I dive into how this allorecognition - or distinguishment of self - is utterly vital to incorportate into artificial intelligence! Because only in that way can we apply incentives for AI to incorporate notions of reciprocity that underlay both Nature and Civilization!)
How do tardigrades survive heat, cold, desiccation and even vacuum?
“LUCA, a common ancestor to all organisms and not the first life form, has been a controversial topic. Fossil evidence goes back as far as 3.4 billion years, yet this study proposes that LUCA might be close to being the same age as the Earth. The genetic code and DNA replication, which are two of the vital biological processes, might have developed almost immediately after the planet was formed.”
== Weird Earth life! ==
Sea Robins have the body of a fish, the wings of a bird, and multiple legs like a crab, in what appears to be another case of “carcinization” – life constantly re-inventing the crab body plan. Like the Qheuens in Brightness Reef. And yeah, it seems likely that the most common form of upper complex life we’ll find out there will look like crabs.
Marine biologists in Denmark discovered a solo male dolphin in the Baltic who appears to be talking to himself. They analyzed thousands of sounds made by the dolphin and what they learned.
In 1987, a group of killer whales off the northwestern coast of North America briefly donned salmon “hats,” carrying dead fish on their heads for weeks. Recently, a male orca known as J27, or “Blackberry,” was photographed in Washington’s Puget Sound wearing a salmon on his head.
(I’m tempted to cite Vladimir Sorokin’s chilling/terrific short scifi novel – in a league with Orwell – Day of The Oprichnik – in which the revived czarist Oprachina regime-enforcers go about town each day with a dog’s head on the roofs of their cars, and all traffic veers aside for them, as in olden times. (“That is your association, this time, Brin?” Hey, it’s the times. And a truly great - and terrifying - novel.)
Beyond life and death... Researchers found that skin cells extracted from deceased frog embryos were able to adapt to the new conditions of a petri dish in a lab, spontaneously reorganizing into multicellular organisms called xenobots. These organisms exhibited behaviors that extend far beyond their original biological roles. Specifically, these xenobots use their cilia – small, hair-like structures – to navigate and move through their surroundings, whereas in a living frog embryo, cilia are typically used to move mucus.
Two injured jellyfish can merge to make one healthy one? Sounds like a Sheckley story where this is the actual point of sex, trying to make a mighty beast with two backs.
== Even farther back! ==
3.2 billion years ago, life was just perking along on Earth and starved of nutrients… which were apparently provided in massive generosity by an asteroidal impact vastly bigger than the much-later dinosaur bane.
Analysis of 700 genomes of bacteria, archaea, and fungi -- excluding eukaryotes such as plants and animals that evolved later -- have found 57 gene families… though I think using modern genetic drift rates to converge those families backward may be a bit iffy. Still, if life started that early… and survived the Thea impact… then it implies that life starts very easily, and may be vastly pervasive in the universe.
And possibly even bigger news. Genes themselves may compete with each other like individual entities, in somewhat predictable ways: “…interactions between genes make aspects of evolution somewhat predictable and furthermore, we now have a tool that allows us to make those predictions…”.
== And maybe beef should be a... condiment? ==
“Today, almost half the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture. Of that, an astounding 80% is dedicated to livestock grazing and animal feed. This means 40% of the planet’s total habitable land is dedicated to animal products, despite the fact that meat, dairy and farmed fish combined provide just 17% of humanity’s calories. “Only a fraction of agricultural land (16%) is used to grow the crops that we eat directly, with an additional 4% for things like biofuels, textiles and tobacco. Just 38% of habitable land is forested, a slice of the pie that continues to shrink, primarily in diverse tropical regions where the greatest number of species live.”
Meanwhile.... This article talks about new ways to make food “from thin air.” Or, more accurately, ‘precision fermentation’ from hydrogen and human and agricultural waste.
== And finally...
An interesting interview with genetic paleontologist David Reich. 60,000 years ago the explosion of modern homo sapiens from Africa seemed to happen almost overnight.
As Reich points out, we had two new things. 1. Dogs and 2. an ability to reprogram ourselves culturally.
There followed - at an accelerating pace - a series of revolutions in our tool sets, cultural patterns and adaptability. Of course, I talked about this extensively in both Earth and Existence.
140 comments:
I wonder where Blackberry got his name. And here's fossil (poop) evidence of Butterflies that predate flowers (but not nectar):
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/236-million-year-old-poop-fossil-reveals-a-hidden-treasure-oldest-evidence
The FEMA CERT link appears to be broken.
The FEMA site has been experiencing... 'problems'... but I hope this link works. Fortunately the training is mostly done by local fire departments, but your badge and gear may come slower than normal.
Try this.
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communities/preparedness-activities-webinars/community-emergency-response-team
The 4.2 billion year estimate for LUCA is not necessarily when life started. That could have been a bit earlier.
But it does give us a better idea of what the conditions under which life formed might have been like.
The Late Heavy Bombardment is likely to have wiped out all life except for extremophiles living within the crust. They might have been quite different from LUCA.
Lots of interesting problems to be solved here.
I'm inclined to think that the biggest advantage that Homo Sapiens (what a misnomer) had, was not the two mentioned. It was the ability to form alliances based on abstract ideas. I think this allowed his connections to expand beyond the family based clan.
I think the political lamp is dimmed here, but I can't help but pass along Charles Pierce's evaluation of "Curtis Yarvin, the Caesarist Internet crank who has a grip on many members of the techno-Right, including the vice president of the United States of America, J. Divan Vance, and who also seems to be a dumb person’s idea of a smart person, if the dumb person is playing Dungeons & Dragons while watching Gladiator on mushrooms...."
Way too much of humanity's ecological footprint is caused by raising meat, but that's what a lot of us like, and I don't turn down hamburgers myself. Are we actually going to be able switch over to vat-grown meat? Maybe cricketburgers?
Pappenheimer
Pappenheimer I admit my carnivorality. But beef is kept below levels that encourage the world cattle market... a burger per month and a maybe one small filet mignon every 3 months. That's more a luscious condiment than an artery-harming and Earth-karmic engorgement.
As it happens, I know a narrow path out of ERM's hell, now hated by all sides. And it is NOT creating a new party. There's a judo move - at least surficially NONpartisan - that could restore (some, wary) hero status, even. A very few of you here - and likely nowhere else - might guess it. I guarantee none of his flatterers will. And no, I offer it not out of friendship, but love of civilization & country.
(Oh, and it has nothing to do with Bill Maher, though Maher's snarks are the best ones.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOxWkdUBeyw
Either philanthropy on an epic (Gandhi) scale, or drag all the skeletons out of all the closets he has access to, or maybe to finally take that 20 minute chat with scidata :)
scidate... close indeed.
Your entire agricultural argument is something of a logical fallacy, as you imply that land dedicated to meat production could be better utilized for crop & grain production.
This assertion is completely FALSE.
While your agricultural land use statistics are technically correct, it's important to realize that (1) only about 10% of Earth's total land mass is considered 'arable', (2) only arable land is considered suitable for farming & crop production and (3) over 2/3rds of all agricultural land qualifies as 'non-arable' land which is only suitable for ranching, livestock grazing & meat production.
Your 'Grain to Meat' conversion ratios are likewise irrelevant, as almost all grazing animals subsist on a diet of fodder, grass, weeds & scrub that humans can neither tolerate nor digest.
If not for meat production, it therefore follows that these non-arable lands would be of no agricultural use whatsoever and humanity would lose a precious source of dietary fats & protein.
Of course, we can still argue about the appropriate *amount, type & frequency* of dietary meat consumption or, even better yet, its relative *morality*, but the overall benefits of utilizing non-arable land for dietary meat production are very real & inarguable.
Best
This time a skim shows much of L's screed to be accurate stuff... aimed at a strawman, since I claimed no such claim. What CAN happen is that deforestation can be stopped and reversed and the VAST amount of farmland dedicated to LIVESTOCK FEED can be used in other ways. In other words... doofus.
Humans didn't need intelligence to become the alpha predator of Earth. Humans needed intelligence to kill other humans. Self-Uplift is a tale of murder and genocide
Pappehneimer:
Are we actually going to be able switch over to vat-grown meat?
I think the turning point will be when we can actually manufacture something that doesn't just taste (generically) like meat, but something that tastes like steak, or like pork or like lamb. When they can do taste tests and the person can't tell whether he's eating vat-grown or uterus-grown meat.
I'd love to hear a rabbi or two weigh in on whether Jews are forbidden to eat vat-grown ham or bacon which has never actually been part of a living pig.
Humans didn't need intelligence to become the alpha predator of Earth
I get the self-abnegating snark, but really? Without claws or fangs or cheetah-speed or gorilla-strength? How do you see that working?
Humans needed intelligence to kill other humans.
It can be two things.
Agreed re vat-meat. Hoping for it. As for intelligence in humans... well, there were bottlenecks when the population shrank, all through the long homo erectus era. Full humans (including Neanderthals) did much better and RAW intelligence must have been a major factor, or we'd not have inflicted huge-domed babies on birthing moms.
STill... we are PHYSICALLY amazing creatures, able to LOPE-run vastly farther - in noonday sun - than any prey animal. And THROWING is a stunning talent.
Anyway, we likely didn't get fully intelligent till... well... maybe 50 years from now?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/arts/television/late-night-trump-musk-feud.html
“So now Donald Trump is a Tesla owner who hates Elon Musk? He’s never been more relatable.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
How many generations removed from the original animal would it take for vegans to accept vat-grown meat, or people of Muslim or Jewish faith to be okay with pork-origin products? Sadly, I have yet to find a plant based 'meat' substitute that was close enough to pass, although many of them are tasty in their own way. I would be sad if I couldn't have an occasional steak or ham or roast chicken.
As is nearly always the case, Clarke got ahead of us and suggested that vat-meat tasting like humans might be very popular as long as it wasn't marketed as such.
Pappenheimer
P.S. full intelligence in 50 years? High optimism indeed. Re: throwing, some of our close kin are pretty good, as any leopard with a facefull of primate poop can attest.
Possibly because I am a Scotsman I find that I can't buy plant based meat until it is cheaper than normal meat
My brain just won't let me pay more!
For the outbreak of modern humans about 3K to 4K generations ago, my pet theory explaining it is they were the first who got past the xenophobic hurdle blocking trading with strangers.
Trade offers a considerable reproduction advantage for those who can manage it without getting killed or robbed and there is decent evidence that our more distant ancestors did NOT do it outside their tribe/bands.
I think the turning point will be when we can actually manufacture something that doesn't just taste (generically) like meat, but something that tastes like steak, or like pork or like lamb. When they can do taste tests and the person can't tell whether he's eating vat-grown or uterus-grown meat.
Monbiot surveys various agricultural techniques in 'Regenesis', and, while he was impressed with several, concludes that precision fermentation is the only one that scales to supporting the global population with a 'first world' level of nutrition. The biggest hurdle to its adoption, as he saw it at the time, was presenting 'bacterial protein' in an acceptably palatable form. A later encounter with a well textured vegetable steak persuaded him that the problem is not as intractable as he thought at the time of writing.
----
I know this is a science posting and it's the weekend, but the bat sign lit up: Trump has overridden the Governor and called out the California National Guard to put down rioters* in Los Angeles.
* He means the people non-violently objecting to ICE detainments. It remains to be seen whether the NG interprets it as the LAPD and ICE firing munitions at said objectors.
Yes - and he is simply wrong about crop to meat feedlots. Most meat is in supermarkets is crop fed, poultry and pigs almost exclusively.
You think so? I think there is evidence that apes do it, and I suspect Neanderthals also (tools using materials from distant locations would be enough). I think alliances is the key innovation.
While the anti-ICE riots in LA are important, the real question is when ICE will start raiding in rural Red States like Iowa?
Bigger question: How much grain, fruit, vegetables and meat will be left rotting because your workforce is too scared to show up for work?
Biggest question: What will this do to the price of groceries in the supermarkets, potential price increases of course hitting poorly educate White people (aka Trump voters) proportionally harder than anyone else?
Ultimate question: When your small family farm fails how little (pennies on the dollar?) will big ag have to pay to acquire your land - which is the whole point of the exercise?
Remember that the German people thought the Gestapo was just for Jews and other undesirables.
Turned out that the Gestapo was for everyone.
MAGA believe that ICE is just for Hispanic illegals and other undesirables.
ICE will be for everyone.
Its all about branding, it just needs a new name.
Hmmm.....
How about "Soylent Green"?
How about "Soylent Green"?
IIRC, we're just about at the right year too. The right decade, at least.
Farmers are losing their field workers, just as foreign customers are retaliatory-tariffing US crops.
Interesting to note that the 2k National Guard troops put in to California to put down the protests were not called up using the Insurrection Act, Miller's statements notwithstanding.
The National Guard troops are still subject to the Posse Comitatus Act. This means they cannot act as law enforcement legally.
Watch how this line gets moved and enforced. This is the test that the Trump admin are running right now. They are not probing the strength of resistance to their actions in LA (they know that like Portland, LA will RESIST), they are probing how far the courts will let them change the definition of "law enforcement."
Watch the law dockets in the weeks to come as this question gets litigated. That is the front line in the fight against fascism.
https://bsky.app/profile/rudepundit.bsky.social
Trump's memo sending 2000 Nat Guard to L.A. says, "To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." Which sounds a fuckton like January 6, 2021.
Just sayin'
Reason is also technically correct when he argues that supermarket "poultry and pigs (are) almost exclusively" crop fed, but then he falsely implies that these meat animals (who are all natural foragers) MUST BE crop fed.
Feed Conversion Ratios (FCR) for meat animals are based on INDUSTRIAL farming techniques rather than on traditional techniques, and the adoption of Industrial Farming techniques is driven largely by URBANIZATION & its required economies-of-scale.
The irony here is palpable, as City Dwellers demand the elimination of food production adaptions made necessary by their very own Urban Lifestyle preferences.
From agriculture to government & law enforcement, it's both tragedy AND comedy that the city dweller is invariably opposed to every adaption that makes city life possible, especially when these absurd conflicts can be resolved so very easily:
Stop eating meat if you're opposed to industrial farming;
Abstain from fossil fuels if you're opposed to climate change;
Invite the homeless into your home if you're opposed to homelessness;
Disarm yourselves if you're opposed to firearm ownership & self-defense; and
Choose anarchy if you're opposed to those officers who enforce our laws.
And, leave the rest of us alone OR we may respond in kind.
Best
Sorry, I know it's heresy! But I liked the Matthew Broderick Godzilla. She was fast and motivated and lovely... and vulnerable! And therefor reliant on her speed & wits and much more poignant when she died, and with her last gasp killed her enemy... a New York taxi.
So, the others breathe fire and nukes bounce off them? zzzz
If that's the choice locum is offering... based on zero-sum... no, NEGATIVE sum flatland thinking, then bring it, Kremlin traitor. We pay your bills with net tax gushers into confederate states and into the gaping maws of your oligarch lords. And most new gun owners the last 10 years have been Democrats.
Still. Please don't try to wage war against all of your fellow citizens who know cyber, nuclear, bio, nano and all the rest. Go masturbate in your incel corner instead and let us extend your lifespan and provide all the goodies you ingrates take for granted.
I'd suspect that most ICE/Gestapo raids are taking place in blue states and in blue cities, for maximum P.R. gain and minimum blowback from GQP voters. IIRC correctly, Himmler complained that he kept getting buttonholed by Nazi party members who all had a Jewish friend (a 'good Jew') they wanted kept out of the camps, so just as back in the Third Reich, a lot of Fascist supporters are down with anything that doesn't affect them personally. The Empire of Trump isn't cemented in place (yet) so there may be pressure on Reichskapo Miller to not stir up the rubes too much. My two pfennigs.
However, this iteration of the Reich seems even less functional than the last one, so who knows. The amount of wasted, self-serving and countervailing effort in Nazi Germany significantly shortened its existence; go Goering!
Pappenheimer
P.S. An American who interviewed Goering not long before the Reichsmarschall (senior to all other Feldmarschalls!) suicided considered him the smartest man he'd ever met, and that was AFTER years of drug abuse and dissolute life. Evil doesn't have to be stupid.
Best line from that movie (from memory):
"Eccchhh! You call this coffee?"
"I call this America."
Nobody snarks like the French.
Dr. Brin,
Not a fan of big lizard movies in general, but the Cloverfield movie intrigued me - I don't think you ever get to see the entire monster, though its parasites are bad enough. I did enjoy Scalzi's KPS book thoroughly.
Pappenheimer
Something to watch in the weeks of ICE instigation that are coming - ICE has threatened sweeps of Major League Soccer games.
Nashville supporters groups canceled pregame tailgating and rallies two weeks ago due to a tip that ICE was going to raid them. This was a test.
Watch for raids in blue cities before MLS matches or other sporting events with large immigrant fan bases (outside of soccer, Vegas Raiders spring to mind, as do the LA Dodgers).
ICE and Trump are trying to get violent responses that would support legal justification for the use of the Insurrection Act.
Watch LA, Austin, Portland, Seattle. Men's and women's events both.
Sports fan groups are some of the most organized anti-fascist groups in the US and they are some of the most militant. In particular, in soccer, there is a culture around anti-fascism from the "football hooligan" image problems imported from Europe. Trump's brownshirts have tried to start fights with supporters groups before, with support from local and national police. This will continue.
Keep an eye on what happens this summer.
When Trump wants a big show, this is one of the places that he'll break the law and try to get a big response in return.
Even as Larry_H admits that today's LA lefty progressive uprisings "sound a fuckton like (those of) January 6, 2021", our fine host implies severe consequences to all those who would "wage war against (their) fellow citizens who know cyber, nuclear, bio, nano" etc.
This is a funny-strange statement for him to make as 'waging war' is the farthest thing from our conservative little minds, especially when the city-dwelling progressive left is the Number#1 threat to the city-dwelling progressive left.
As illustrated by the 'Fiery But Mostly Peaceful' BLM riots of 2020, non-urban conservatives need only remain passive as city-dwelling progressives everywhere burn their own progressive cities to the ground.
This summer, we conservatives need only stock up on popcorn & not intervene in your most happy bacchanale.
Best
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, 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 greater danger."- Hermann Göring, and American politics since 9/11.
I am curious as to how many times cities like Seattle and Portland have to burn to the ground before their inhabitants notice. I myself had to inform my parents that, contrary to Fox News, Spokane in 2020 was (and remains) pretty arson-free. This whole meme very much follows the Stephenson novel where the internet breaks - the neofascists believe a nuclear weapon has destroyed a town in the PNW, to the point of putting up signs warning of radiation hazard, yet you could drive in and out of town and see the lack of damage.
With regards to the supposed nonviolence of the right, I am reminded of the voter in 2016 who plaintively asked a GQP politician, "When do we get to start shooting people?" "Free Helicopter Rides" T-shirts are not a liberal thing. As I read Dr Brin, his implication is "don't start something you won't like us finishing". This is a lot like, 'don't piss off those nice Canadians', and is good advice.
Going to try to bring a home-made 'No Truce With Kings' sign to the 6/16/ demonstration in town, though I don't know if anyone will get the reference.
Pappenheimer
P.S. "Sports fan groups are some of the most organized anti-fascist groups in the US" - shades of Byzantium! Back in the day, the Greens represented the populi, and the Blues the orthodox and elites. I think. When both Blues and Greens united against the Emperor, you had the Nike riots, which still echo in military SF.
During the time when "Portland was in flames!" I got messages from friends strolling one bloack away from the ONE burning car while they ate ice cream cones. That was about when I started demanding "wanna bet?" wagers over screeching rightist jeremiad yatterings. And they7 have always, always fled.
When you're in them, you're in them, but it's been my experience that disasters grow with distance, with an uncanny valley in their proximity.
Was in San Jose during the '93 earthquake, and didn't hear about it until that evening. Hastened to ensure worried wife and family all was well.
Similarly we flew into London early one morning, caught the tube, blearily checked into the hotel and shambled down to breakfast before registering that all the mayhem on the news was happening a mile or so down the road. Further reassuring calls that we didn't need evacuating ensued.
Incidentally, from my feeds, LA locals appear to be fully aware that a 'situation' is being provoked by the nice shirts.
Agree with Matthew that the legality of the President ordering NG over the state governor... isn't. So what does the NG think?
She kept changing size compared to the buildings
So what does the [National Guard] think?
I've been wondering about that myself. It could become another Kent State, or it could become another French Revolution. Or more to the point--this being California after all--the scene at the end of Zorro, the Gay Blade when thousands of peasants surround the Alcalde who is still ordering the handful of troops protecting him to fire into the crowd, and instead they turn around and point their rifles at him.
Within bands (up to about 200) I'm sure every hominid traded, but outside I suspect they did not. I don't know of any animal that does it at scale.
The usual counter example offered involves animals offering each other a temptation to cooperate in an activity. Shared hunts are known to be a cross-species thing. When a big whale presents itself at your boat to have the barnacles removed that is a similar temptation. I HAVE been seeing videos of some sea mammals bringing rewards to humans who do things for them. That is beginning to get close to the kind of trade I mean.
Our markets for goods and services come in four varieties. Two are gift-based with the distinction involving whether the reciprocal gift is expected and whether an indirect one suffices. (e.g. You save my baby from the fishing net, I bring your baby food to eat.) Two involve deliberate trade resolved by an exchange (e.g. bizarre often have both with one version mediated by 'money').
Look through human history for the invention of 'coinage' and you'll see it comes about from a need to shift the date of the resolution of trades. Coinage makes no sense in a world where traders are blocked by xenophobia. Somewhere in our recent history, a few managed to trade by being on the fringe of xenophobic range... and discovered a positive sum world that vastly improved their numbers.
"This is an inappropriate use of the National Guard and is not warranted.”
Of course, that's the opinion of the former NG chief. How far down the magarot's been injected remains to be seen.
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2025/06/donald-trumps-need-to-degrade-joe-biden.html
Of course, with Trump, weird shit always gets weirder and shittier. Over on his "social" media money-laundering operation, Truth Toilet, Trump re-flushed a post that declared, without a hint of irony, something that makes a bold claim about Joe Biden: "There is no #JoeBiden - executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. Democrats don't know the difference." You got that? The motherfucking president of the United States spread a ludicrous, extravagantly wrong conspiracy theory that the previous president was killed and replaced with clones and robots. And one can only say, "Why the fuck wouldn't they use a robot that could have kicked Trump's ass at the debate?"
Whatever you think about the Rude Pundit or this particular post, I'm liking the way he used "flushed" as the analogous verb for "tweeted" on Truth Social. I'll be stealing that.
I hope some of you actual SoCal residents can keep us here informed of the up to the minute situation with the protests in Los Angeles. The corporate media isn't.
I thought of St Pauli when reading your comment.
Also, in 2026, the next soccer championship finale tournament is hold in ... the US, Mexico, and Canada. It is not that hard to imagine that there might be chaos at the borders if thousands of fans try to travel between the various locations.
Altparkservices @altnps is giving good updates on Bluesky.
Trump also posted "Arrest the masked ones!!"
(Looks at ICE thugs)... umm, okay?
Bluesky is increasingly under attack (gee, what a suprise), and at the recent Web Summit in Vancouver, CEO Jay Graber described an interesting anti-troll defense: Human moderation for human trolls, and machine moderation for bots. Sort of along the lines of the Centaurs.
https://fastcompany.co.za/tech/2025-06-03-is-bluesky-really-dying-a-look-at-the-current-state-of-the-social-network/
Heard on Stephanie Miller's show:
"Los Angeles did not survive the fire only to be taken down by ice."
@Tony Fisk, thanks for the Altparkservices thread.
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
Reports and video show flash-bangs thrown into piles of debris just before a car caught fire, strongly suggesting it was law enforcement, not protesters, who sparked it. More details are coming. Don’t let them control the narrative. Thank you to everyone sharing footage, always record everything.
I am curious as to how many times cities like Seattle and Portland have to burn to the ground before their inhabitants notice
Though some may dismiss this as Survivorship Bias, Papp states that media reports of urban social unrest, death & decay are often 'greatly exaggerated'.
I agree with this assessment, especially since media outlets like CNN, MSNBC & Fox News have all self-identified as 'entertainment' rather than news for legal purposes.
Whether they're reporting on a 'mostly peaceful' 'Summer of Love' in 2020 that murders dozens of people, causes BILLIONS of dollars in property damage and injures over 2000 police offers, or whether they're describing the 'most deadly' 'insurrection' in US history that kills one protestor, causes 3+ million dollars of property damage & injures dozens of police officers, the US Media is simply NOT to be trusted.
But it's much much worse than you think, as the US Media has simply stopped reporting on urban social unrest, murder, death, kill & decay because it has become so commonplace that it's no longer considered 'news':
In Chicago alone, there have already been 65 largely unreported mass shooting in the first 6 months of this year -- and Chicago is not even in the 'Top 10 List' of US cities for gun violence -- while the Washington Post reports ZERO mass shootings in the entire USA for 2025.
The media is not to be trusted.
Best
Gotta love the snark, Russian edition:
https://newrepublic.com/post/196256/russia-offers-elon-musk-asylum-fight-trump-intensifies
Russian officials are gleefully offering Elon Musk asylum, a sarcastic gesture meant to sow further discord between the billionaire and President Trump as their alliance implodes.
“Elon @elonmusk, don’t be upset! You are respected in Russia. If you encounter insurmountable problems in the US, come to us and become one of us - a ‘Bars-Sarmat’ fighter. Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity,” wrote Dmitry Rogozin, who formerly rivaled Musk as the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. “We will, of course, resolve issues of citizenship and military ID. Please fill out the forms at this link. With respect to you.” Rogozin is now a senator in occupied Ukraine.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5337357-russia-trump-musk-peace-deal/
Russia’s former President Demitry Mendvedev said the country was willing to facilitate a peace deal between President Trump and Elon Musk amid their ongoing fight.
The two have been publicly feuding over Musk’s criticism of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” which the president and his allies have urged lawmakers to support.
“We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don’t fight, guys,” Mendvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, wrote in a mocking post on the social media platform X with a face screaming in fear emoji on Friday.
Musk responded with a laughing face emoji on the post.
"a sarcastic gesture meant to sow further discord between the billionaire and President Trump as their alliance implodes"
Nah it just sucks up to Trump. As for poor ditzyLocum...
"CNN, MSNBC & Fox News have all self-identified as 'entertainment' rather than news for legal purposes." Bullshit you lie. It was FOX who did that and that lies 50x as much and I demand now that weenies like you bet on that.
Or whether muder and every other turpitude is worse in rad run states (not Utah). You... screech masturbation incantations that are diametrically opposite to true.
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
Let this sink in.
Even the Los Angeles Police Chief, Jim McDonnell, made it clear: the people protesting immigration raids were not the ones causing violence.
During a Sunday evening press conference, McDonnell condemned the violence as “disgusting”
* * *
The LAPD had no reason to release that statement unless it was true. All the MAGAs screaming “fake” clearly don’t know the LAPD.
And in a shout out to the musical Hamilton :
Love you all. Raise a glass to freedom, something they can’t take away, no matter what they tell you.
I remember the "Jaws" riff:
Soldier: "We're going to need bigger guns!"
Whether they're reporting on a 'mostly peaceful' 'Summer of Love' in 2020 that murders dozens of people, causes BILLIONS of dollars in property damage and injures over 2000 police offers, or whether they're describing the 'most deadly' 'insurrection' in US history that kills one protestor, causes 3+ million dollars of property damage & injures dozens of police officers, the US Media is simply NOT to be trusted.
But then, neither are you. :)
Did you mention there were 8,700 protests that summer, but only 574 declared riots, with violence and "other criminal acts?" So only about 7% of the protests were violent, with an average of 3.5 injuries to police officers per riot, and 8,126 protests that had an average of 0 injuries to police officers.
https://www.policemag.com/patrol/news/15311242/more-than-2000-officers-injured-in-summers-protests-and-riots
Meanwhile, a couple of guys compiled Twitter images of over 830 images of police violence against protesters. Another guy documented over 140 incidents of police violence against reporters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_violence_incidents_during_George_Floyd_protests
And while you mention "dozens" of police officers injured during the Jan. 6 insurrection, the true number is 138, 15 of whom were hospitalized. That is just one riot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack#:~:text=Participants%20in%20the%20civil%20disorder,the%20hospital%20by%20January%2011.
So complain as much as you like against "the US Media," but you are no better a reporter than they are, and much worse than most.
https://www.threads.com/@vincedmonroy/post/DKsSlSoJ_la/media
Von Schitzenpantz: "What crime has he [Gavin Newsom] committed? I think his primary* crime is running for governor.
Also...
"What he's done to that state is like what Biden did to this country."
That's actually true, but not the way he meant it.
* He really said "his primarily crime"
Soldier: "We're going to need bigger guns!"
"There are some parts of Los Angeles, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade."
It's on the news over here... because why wouldn't it be. 8)
LA Country is huge, though. The LA region is even huger and spills into neighboring counties. LA is a city with 88 suburbs. About 13 million people.
What's going on over there sounds big in the news, but it's a blip in most everyone's lives. It's not that it is unimportant. It is important, but it is also small.
@Alfred Differ,
It's on our news too, but not up to the minute. Impressive looking Imperial Stormtroopers facing off a crowd of protesters. Trump on the side of law and order vs Newsom on the side of...well different laws and different order. Same pictures every hour. I want to know what's happening (, Reg)!
The failing continues. The ongoing mayhem and riot in LA requires another 2,000 national guard members (will they be doubling up in accommodation, I wonder?), to control the 'city of criminals', as pet mangler Kirsti Noem describes it.
Meanwhile, the line dancing proceeds peacefully.
Seems the 'hoods are all right (as is Bluesky)
... and the kids that DHS tried inappropriately accessing are all right as well
The Story So Far:
Musk: Trump's budget is a disaster.
Trump: Musk has TDS.
Musk: Trump would have lost in 2024 without me.
Trump: I'll cut off all of Musk's government contracts.
Musk: Trump is in the Epstein files.
Bannon: Deport Musk.
Musk: Impeach Trump.
Trump: I'm sending the National Guard to Los Angeles.
Newsom: Come and get me.
Stay tuned!
The National Guard was ALWAYS in Los Angeles. These units are composed of reservists who are Angelenos. BOTH the guardsmen and the protestors should be shouting "We're your neighbors!" And the only thing thrown at them should be flowers. Anyone hurling more is an agent provocateur.
To be precise, the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are based a little further South in San Diego. At present, 300 are deployed to 3 areas of the LA region.
Same tactics apply. Maybe even offer them a bed?
There's just too much fascism in the world right now.
It's forcing Canada to re-arm. Not nice, but not surprising.
Sounds like 'widespread icy conditions' are forecast.
Question:
Isn't the deployment of troops within California against the wishes of that states' administration plus the use of unlawful violent force against it's citizens "war", and every Californian aiding and abetting them comitting Treason against the state of California?
Note that this list of persons would include Stephen Miller.
My thoughts on the overall situation:
A national card game of ours is Skat, a trick-taking game with a complex bidding and scoring system.
In this analogy, Trump hast anounced his play and may have overbid his hand, played a stupid first card, and Newsom just shouted "Kontra!", doubling the points to be scored by this game. Other establishment democrats represented by Hakeem Jeffries aren't playing their hand well, though, probably wasting a card or two.
1) ICE: From what I gathered from footage, the agents are clearly untrained in Matters of crowd control. Tactical gear does not replace tactical training, and throwing tear gas in the wrong direction, not regarding the Wind, is probably a strong indicator.
2) Up to yesterday, LAPD and LASD seem to have done only absolutely what they Had to do, reacting with less violence than, say, during the George Floyd Protests.(since yesterday, there are Reports of some excesses, though.)
3)Troops employed without support, beds, food, toilets etc. are another level of incompetency of that administration.
4) The deployment is in it's way through the courts, which might decide either way.
5) Another side show seems to be the withholding of federal taxes.Trump hast threatened to arrest Newsom If he does, though I ask myself what the decision would do for the Bond Market (as well AS what happens to it if the whole state goes in a General Strike. Or what would happen If other blue states' joined this threat.
6) Speaking of, it might not have been a good idea to arrest an union leader.
7) Up to this point, both public and private Media over here were quite neutral. That shifts now, more and more depicting Trumps actions as an authoritarian takeover.
8) That all said, Trump seems to start to chicken out, describing the situation as being under control and quickly rambling about the railway line.
9) Overall, I have seen much less violence than in protests in France or even in Germany, every soccer Bundesliga day sees more rioting than these few days of protests.
Honestly I believe it to be naive to hope and Appeal to people that nothing will happen that will not serve as a pretext for further state-sponsored violence.
It will, and may be even fabricated.
It might be better to prepare for that event and preparing counter moves.
This is not migration management; at this scale, it is ethnic cleansing and thus a crime against humanity.
Union leader has been released.
Last I heard, only 300 out of the 4000 activated NG have been actually
deployed to protect ICE offices. The rest are drumming their heels in underequipped locations. Loyal to a man, I'm sure.
Actively targeting foreign journalists gets noticed by foreign authorities
Highly recommend this video explaining late stage capitalism using a bag of Doritos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkoUQHov2rI
Also highly recommend "White Rural Rage" as a concise explanation of Trump's supporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LsirfGPbok
TRANSCRIPT
gentlemen welcome to the news thanks great to be here thanks Matt
great to talk with you and I want to start with the fourfold threat that you say white rural Americans posed to
democracy talk about that if you would yeah let me take that one if uh you don't mind Matt this is what really set
off the controversy in our appearance on MSNBC and and I maybe could have been a little had a little better bedside
manner there we are not saying anywhere in the book that this applies to every rural white American nor are we saying
that these impulses and attitudes and beliefs are limited to either white people or rural Americans there are many
people who have strong authoritarian Tendencies there are white Christian Nationals who live in the cities and in
the suburbs there are people who have strongly xenophobic anti- sentiments All Over America of course
but what the
polling shows is and as we document in detail in chapter six that when you look at racial animosity whether it's
measured in terms of attitudes toward black lives matter or attitudes toward the cities when you look at
anti-immigrant sentiment when you look at attitudes toward gays the Trevor Project ask rural if it's accommodating
to be gay in Rural America and 50% of them said it's not that's the highest rate of any region in the country
basically when you look at xenophobia generally people who don't look think act or pray similarly to most most white
rural Americans uh rural whites rate the highest or the lowest depending on how you're measuring it
(cont.)
secondly whether
you're looking at election denialism whether you're looking at covid denialism and Vac vaccine skepticism
whether you're looking at Barack Obama birtherism the belief that he isn't a legitimate president because
he wasn't born in the United States were most you know frighteningly when you look at subscription to qanon belief
systems including that there's a national pedophile Network run by Hillary Clinton and John pedesta where they're kidnapping raping and then
killing and drinking the blood of children in some basement in Washington DC of a pizza shop that didn't even turn
out to have a basement conspiracism rates highest among rural white Americans and survey after survey
thirdly and we
draw a lot here on on our colleague Suzanne metler and her two fantastic PhD students Trevor Brown and Olivia psie up
at Cornell University who are studying at length urban and rural differences and attitudes in terms of support of an
independent media in terms of support of free speech in terms of belief in Christian nationalism or white
nationalism rural whites are at the Forefront and that we shouldn't be surprised by that 43% of rural Americans
are white Evangelical and only 76% of Rural America is white to begin with so that means more than one out of two
white people in rural America is a white Evangelical and 60% of them are self-described white Christian
nationalists according to all the white Christian National Scholars Andrew Whitehead Philip Gorski Sam Perry Sarah
Posner uh Katherine Stewart and of course Tim Alberta in his new book and people who subscribe to White Christian
nationalism basically believe one of five beliefs all of which are about essentially a theocracy where the Bible
should supersede our constitutional democracy or that you have to be Christian to be a true American these are antithetical belief systems to a
secular constitutional and plural democracy that has an establishment cause clearly stated in the Constitution
and then
last but not least the fourth threat is that uh white Americans exhibit high levels of not violent
activities but the defense or excusing of violence particularly violence committed by people like Donald Trump
and what happened on January 6 they're also most likely to agree to the statement that Joe Biden stole the election and that Trump should be
returned by force if necessary or that they may have to take up arms to protect the country
Book excerpt:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/White_Rural_Rage/zDvcEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA3&printsec=frontcover
https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social
Conditions are shifting. Expect icy fronts to spread well beyond Los Angeles by tomorrow. Initial efforts aimed to freeze traffic and attention in LA, but local crews appear to have salted the roads early.
* * *
Visibility may be clearer than expected there. Proceed with caution: this storm is unstable and fast-moving. Eyes to the sky, other regions may see sudden drops in temperature. Stay unpredictable.
When organized violence comes from the capital rather from across a border, then it's less 'war' than it's 'oppression' or 'tyranny'. In Revelations it's the horseman Conquest. You can also call it 'civil war'.
...less 'war' than it's 'oppression' or 'tyranny'.
For pretty much my entire life if not before, the right wing has defended unlimited weaponry for individuals on the grounds that they want to be able to resist a tyrannical government. Now, they're going to convince us (and themselves) that we don't have that right?
When organized violence comes from the capital rather from across a border, then it's less 'war' than it's 'oppression' or 'tyranny'. In Revelations it's the horseman Conquest. You can also call it 'civil war'.
Unfortunately, the section in question does not make a distinction between "domestic" and "foreign" soldiers.
But maybe there is a federal law or part of the constitution that supersedes the part of the mentioned code.
So only about 7% of the protests were violent, with an average of 3.5 injuries to police officers per riot, and 8,126 protests that had an average of 0 injuries to police officers.
As above, AFR tries to excuse the routinely violent behaviour of the progressive left by declaring that only about 7% of the protests were violent during the 2020 riots, even though inappropriate police-related violence occurs less than 1% of the time, proving only that progressive left violence is 7X more likely than police-related violence.
https://ivn.us/2017/04/17/cnn-president-admits-network-entertainment-journalism
https://culttture.com/2019/rachel-maddow-argument-against-oan-lawsuit-is-her-words-should-not-be-believed/
In addition to Fox News & despite the above links, a self-deluded Dr Brin continues to deny that both CNN & MSNBC have also admitted to being more about entertainment than news.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/californias-governor-unfazed-threats-arrest-trump-administratio-rcna211752
In addition, the Democrat Party continues its hypocrisy apace, as an increasingly secessionist Governor Newsom & an endless parade of California officials declare that they are all ABOVE THE LAW, while flouting federal immigration law, suborning open insurrection & treasonously rallying under foreign banners.
That Trump is now emulating the Great Emancipator's response to the Confederate Separatists, it's simultaneously hilarious & apropo, since California has reduced its majority population to TAX SLAVERY in order to preferentially support & enrich illegal immigrants instead of US citizenry, making 'Juneteenth' the new conservative rallying cry.
DE OPPRESSO LIBER.
Best
_______
Also hilariously, the US Supreme Court (in a rare unanimous decision) has now ruled that DEI, Affirmative Action & all forms of Reverse Discrimination constitute ILLEGAL CRIMINAL DISCRIMINATION, so much so that generations of discrimination against Whites, Christians, Males , Heterosexuals & US citizens are now ended. Hallelujah !!
Locum, you are ignoring responsible use of all of the above. People can raise their own meat and slaughter it humanely; are you going to come down on cultures that primarily subsist on hunting or fishing? We have yet to make aircraft widely available that don't use fossil fuels (for example, the water bombers that are used in wildfire fighting.) Some of your tweaks are just silly, but I'm fairly sure you're mostly 'here for an argument.' /MontyPython
Celt, while that excerpt contains some truths and important ones, it is also in other ways deeply harmful crap. Because the whole "Race race, race, RACE!!!!!" Thing is primarily... 90%... utter bullshit and sanctimonious folks falling for a sucker trap.
This... is... not... about...race. Mostly. And going on and on about "white people" is about the most counterproductive obsession you could possibly fall for. No one at all tabulates the amount of propaganda from Fox etc... with dozens of black faces onscreen and mixed race couples etc... how many race baiting messages there are, compared to relentless drumbeats against those in society who most stand in the way of fascist power.
These dopes NEVER ask the millions of Blacks/Hispanics who abandoned Harris WHY they did. But they'll come back after what we've seen on TV. In fact, Trump and Miller are making a BIG mistake catering so much to their KKK/Nazi wing...
...except that John Roberts loves this stuff! Watch. He will rule against Trump on racial matters, enraging Trump, but it will let JR claim to be fair and balanced... while he rules FOR the things that matter to oligarchs. Money and power.
Dr Brin:
In fact, Trump and Miller are making a BIG mistake catering so much to their KKK/Nazi wing...
I'm genuinely confused. You insist over and over that they're not about race, but you acknowledge that they're catering to the KKK/Nazi wing.
Money and power.
Isn't that tied to family wealth, sex and race?
As above, AFR tries to excuse the routinely violent behaviour of the progressive left by declaring that only about 7% of the protests were violent during the 2020 riots, even though inappropriate police-related violence occurs less than 1% of the time, proving only that progressive left violence is 7X more likely than police-related violence.
Apples and oranges. So what if police are non-violent for 99.999% of the traffic stops? The progressive left is non-violent for 99.999% of the time you pass them in the grocery store. :D If you want to compare police violence to protester violence, you'll have to do so during the riots.
But that's all beside the point. My main point was comparing the violence from those "horrible" progressive left to that of those "saintly" Trump supporters who were beating the police with poles and fire extinguishers during the Jan. 6 riot/insurrection. The progressive left is much less violent than you portray them, while the rioters at the Capitol were much more violent than any given BLM protest, and especially all of them put together.
Also hilariously, the US Supreme Court (in a rare unanimous decision) has now ruled that DEI, Affirmative Action & all forms of Reverse Discrimination constitute ILLEGAL CRIMINAL DISCRIMINATION, so much so that generations of discrimination against Whites, Christians, Males , Heterosexuals & US citizens are now ended. Hallelujah !!
Sigh. You need to get out more, locum. The Supreme Court did not such thing. And whoever told it did lied to your face.
The Supreme Court simply made sure that the majority race is held to the same standards for judging race discrimination as for minority races. Before, the standard of proof was higher for the majority race. Now it's the same. (In fact, the woman who brought the suit is still probably going to lose, since it is so hard to prove discrimination, either for whites or minorities.) It has no effect on DEI or reverse discrimination beyond that.
Yes, LH you are confused and I do not know what to do about it except try one more time.
There are three GOP constituencies
1. The masters don't give a crap about race, only power.
2. Regular republicans who DEEPLY resent YOU counterproductively shrieking "RACISTS!" at them, when they mostly don't FEEL racist. Are they variously racist deep down? Many are, but you... are... not... helping. In fact, millions of Blacks etc felt patronized by rich white libs crooning "let me protec' you!"
3. Racist assholes, incl the JAnuary 6 rioters.
In his fulminating hatge, Trump ignores #1 urging him to calm down and he has dived into the love of #3, risking losing many in #2, including all the blacks etc who are drifting back to the DP... if the sanctimony junkies don't drive them away again.
But I truly waste my time. You will never realize that YOU are enemy number one to the oligarchs. And this whole LA thing has one objective, culling and controlling the US armed forces.
I’m not following this story much, not being a news watcher, but I’d be curious to know to what extent these protests are being astroturfed by the same crowd that funds “color revolutions” abroad. There seem to be plenty of oligarchs, billionaires and inheritance brats who have nothing better to do than stir up trouble if they have convinced themselves that they’re saving the world in the process. No reason to think they limit themselves to foreign countries. When you’re at the top of the food chain, living in a world of comfort and abstraction, what better way to feel good about your status than to become your nation and the world’s self-appointed saviors?
My attitude toward this sort of thing is: if it’s organic, if it reflects a genuine movement of people where they live, I give it respect. But if it’s astoturfed, fake, a product of media and money, then to hell with it. Knowing the difference in a place as massively gaslit as America is the challenge though. Which brings to mind a joke I heard, about a Russian student who visits the USA to study propaganda. An American student asks him: “What propaganda?”, to which the Russian responds “Precisely”.
Jumping jujubes. Even when he's trying hard to be human, Treebeard is amazing. His notion of a vile billionaire oligarch is... George Soros!!
All.of the nations GS helped with his NGOs have prospered in freedom and skyrocketing wealth to exactly the degree they "went EU" and kept faith with democracy. And to that degree, Vlad Putin howled.
Do not even remotely think you can get any sane person to distract into "Soros!' when your masters are all the enemies of the West.
in order to not get into another flame war, I will self-censor.
Too much real shit to worry about at the moment.
I’d be curious to know to what extent these protests are being astroturfed by the same crowd that funds “color revolutions” abroad.
Simple.
If they're protesting against injustice and tyranny, then they're real.
If they're protesting for injustice and tyranny, then they're astroturf.
Also,...
If they're playing music and having a good time and chatting in a friendly manner with authorities, they they're real.
If they're engaging in vandalism and violence which is guaranteed to turn public opinion against the cause they're supposedly favoring, then there's a very good chance they've got a "hidden" agenda.
Finally,
If the "justice" they're obstructing is extralegal kidnapping, then they're real.
If the justice they're obstructing is the functioning of democracy itself, then they're traitorous insurrectionists.
This might be paywalled, but Malcolm Nance is apparently the one who suggested turning the L.A. riots into a dance party:
https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/surprise-trump-lies-terrorists-have
...
There must be a campaign to reframe the narrative around the deployment of the soldiers. Right now, Trump’s narrative is that he is using tough, lethal armed soldiers and marines to snatch a city from foreign invaders.
We must change that false narrative into harsh reality: A moron Presidrent and a drunk Secretary of Defense has taken good soldiers from training and has transformed them into a bunch of under equipped, under fed, hapless yutzes who have now been assigned to the stupidest duty in the world.
The best way to do that is to utilize former military personnel and retired veterans to take to the front line in Los Angeles and form Dumb Deployment Intervention Platoons (DDIPs). These DDIPs will use tried and tested techniques honed over hundreds of years of American soldiering to mock stupid decisions on and off the battlefield. And this one is a doozy.
...
I have already discussed this with groups such as Common Defense and Veterans for Responsible Leadership (VFRL) to find honorably retired Sergeant Majors and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs) to go directly to the line of confrontation with bullhorns and conduct a common-sense field intervention.
These DDIP field briefings must be serious, but then, as all good briefings do, must also become slightly amusing in the way soldiers and Marines understand.
What they inderstand best of all is “bullshit duty.”
The SNCOs can give the soldiers a “field briefing” of exactly how bullshit this duty will end up being.
Most importantly, our DDIP SNCOs will remind them of how they are going to face a wall of jokes and relentless derision from the rest of the US Army and Marines that did not get sent to Malibu Beach.
Especially when video emreges of marines standing with riot batons in front of half naked women twerking to the beat of In the Navy and Fuck Donald Trump".
...
#1 and #3 are first-order effects, #2 is a second-order effect at best, more likely 3rd or lower. If someone wants to get offended, they'll find a reason. If not, then the TV has an off switch, and the website has a little x in the upper-right corner.
Is there intelligent life on planet Earth? Monitoring its radio output has produced ambiguous results.
Not insane, just anti semitic
Soros is hated by the right because he's Jewish.
He's just the modern personification of the protocols of the elders of Zion conspiracy
As of latest word, the rumpT has switched several bases back to the names of the previous traitorous officers who fought to preserve slavery. Case in point, Ft. Liberty will again become Ft. Bragg, which I almost approve of, as Bragg was the most incompetent Confederate Officer ever given high command, and whose services to the United States by losing at least two key battles in the West are much appreciated. (iirc, It was said that if Bragg were ever locked in a room alone for any length of time, a return to the room would find Bragg quarrelling with himself.)* Ft Cavazos (named for the first Hispanic 4-star, a decent choice) will be renamed Ft Hood for the only officer in the war to destroy an entire army. His own. These are the 'winners' rumpT is referring to.
*Apparently DOD officially states that Ft Bragg is now named for a WWI Pfc of the same name. Riiiggghhht. (rumpT didn't get the word and still thinks Bragg is stil named after a Confederate.)
Pappenheimer
Here's a hint on the difference between 'organic' and 'astroturf':
-If it's organized by a sitting president on the day the vote to remove his *ss from office is being certified by Congress, it might be astroturf.
-If it's a direct reaction to the invasion of a Hispanic neighborhood by ICE rounding up people indiscriminately (they aren't looking for hardened criminals in Home Depot parking lots), it might be organic.
-If it's a bunch of rich boys in Brooks Brothers suits cosplaying local protestors of the 2000 vote count method, it's not even astroturf. It's Kabuki.
Pappenheimer
Oger,
Ja, that's where I part ways with OGH's analysis. There is a specific elite that the GQP is in service too, and it's 99.9% white and 90%+ male. They'll decorate their yard with picked minorities - there's a Patel in charge of the FBI, that's a first - but I think it remains deeply racist as well as being elitist. I used to go to school with some of the kids of the older generation. Maybe there's been a sea change, but I doubt.
What seems hopeful are desertions from the elite - new people more interested in science, art, knowledge, and/or equality than conserving power - but that has always been the case. Much of science was advanced in earlier centuries by escaped sons and daughters of wealth and privilege, but the core preserves itself.
Pappenheimer
Signing off for the night, but have to give Pres. Zelenskyy belated props. He was berated by rumpT and Vance in his White House interview, with Vance saying, "You have no cards," and sat there not saying a thing. Knowing about Operation Spider Web. Hella poker face.
Pappenheimer
Der Oger,
Prior to our Civil War, the 'war' you describe might have been read that way. For a while after the revolution, many still saw themselves as citizens of their state more than of the US as a whole.
Nowadays I'm not sure it is possible to commit treason against a state. One can still betray their state, but treason is a special crime.
So... the ICE folks showed up in our city (Oxnard) today and raided families of kids at my wife's elementary school. She's pissed off now and left to vent her anger at City Hall a little bit ago.
We aren't as big as the LA region, but there might be some extended protesting over here too. Might need to bail her out. 8)
AFR excuses the routinely violent behaviour of the progressive left as an inconsequential 7%, whereas I point out that criminal police misconduct amounts to an even less consequential 1%.
Dr Brin excuses the cynical manipulations of left progressive oligarchs while roundly condemning the cynical manipulations of right conservative oligarchs because he prefers the left to the right.
Larry_H excuses lefty progressive political violence as 'righteous moral justice' but condemns conservative political violence as immoral, tyrannical & unjust.
And all-of-the-above support and approve of religious, sexual, racial & gender discrimination that benefits a minority identity group over the majority, while simultaneously hating on any religious, sexual, racial & gender discrimination that benefits the majority identity group over a minority, even though SCOTUS (aka 'the highest court in the land') defines any & all discrimination by any identity group against any another as immoral, illegal & unacceptable.
Tit-for-Tat, hypocrites, as what's good for the goose is good for the gander, since what you do unto others will be done unto you. Tit-for-Tat is also what our fine host refers to as 'Reciprocal Accountability'.
Now, tell me again how a 7% rate of left progressive violence is both good & moral but how an equally negligible & equally peaceful occurrence of violence from the right is absolutely unacceptable & immoral.
Best
______
In LA alone, this very same progressive left has already engaged in criminal assault, property destruction, arson & looting -- as justified by their hatred of Trump -- and this 'tit' of a summer has just begun, the 'tat' being forthcoming.
Liar
Hmm... my choice of words is ambiguous. I do NOT mean they showed up at my wife's school. Kids are reporting to their teachers that raids are happening.
... as in "this very same progressive left has already engaged in criminal assault, property destruction, arson & looting" is a fallacy. No such things have, or are, occurring.
Not even skimming jibberman now.
The generals pulled a good one.Because Fts Bragg & Hood etc are now named after genuine heroes with the same last names. We'll see how the MAGAsphere reacts.
For protesters, I suggest refrain from burning cars, buildings and US Flags.
Instead, I suggest burning confederate, Nazi, Tesla, Palanthir and Soviet Flags; that will hurt them more.
Maybe with them draped around the shoulders of effegies of Trump, Musk, Thiel, Vance, Miller, Noemi and Hegseth.
Update:
ICE set up roadblocks through town and DID intercept folks coming to and from the schools. Our local police stood in defense of ICE.
Fire is generally a no-no.
What some are doing lately is hanging our flag upside-down.
Doing so produces a relatively well understood symbol over here.
I like that approach. I also recommend carnival style processions, with wagons like these ones:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/rosenmontag-narren-widmen-donald-trump-karnevals-wagen-14900329.html
Most of the fires are from flash bangs let off by the uniformed element.
... also there have been a few images 'drawn from the archives', shall we say?
No one Talks about Musk, Epstein, tariffs and the Big Bad Bill anymore. Such a coincidence.
Otoh, the Don might be getting nervous that protests could overshadow the birthday parade.
(Which of itself might be an indicator that the Army has already capitulated.)
.... or AI labs. I have also seen footage of a CNN reporter presenting a rubber bullet most likely of police origin as a strange explosive device used by protesters.
Pappenheimer:
There is a specific elite that the GQP is in service too, and it's 99.9% white and 90%+ male. They'll decorate their yard with picked minorities - there's a Patel in charge of the FBI, that's a first - but I think it remains deeply racist as well as being elitis
To the extent that the ones actually calling the shots are racist, I think it's a second order effect. The agenda of elite Republicans is always tax breaks, deregulation, and power for themselves. That last one is racist adjacent, but more nostalgia for a time when everyone had a place and everyone else's place was lower than theirs.
But tax breaks and deregulation is not popular enough to win elections with, and in order to cobble together a winning coalition, the Republican elite has pandered to the white nationalists and the evangelical Christianists who vote for Republicans in exchange for tacit support to those causes.
The elite at the top may not care about racism (I agree it's not much on their minds), but as Vonnegut said in Mother Night, "You are what you pretend to be."
Der Oger:
For protesters, I suggest refrain from burning cars, buildings and US Flags.
Much of the vandalism and violence is MAGAs trying to make the protesters look bad.
Instead, I suggest burning confederate, Nazi, Tesla, Palanthir and Soviet Flags; that will hurt them more.
Heh. It would be amusing to hear the arguments as to why burning a Confederate or Nazi flag is anti-American.
Alfred Differ:
Nowadays I'm not sure it is possible to commit treason against a state. One can still betray their state, but treason is a special crime.
Treason implies that there was an expected loyalty (implied or explicit) to begin with. Nowadays, we don't pledge allegiance to our state as a concept.
Although both you and I might soon consider doing so. Newsom is winning back some cred he lost palling around with stochastic terrorists, and J.B. Pritzker has been a hero for years.
Oh, they do. Much talk recently about there being no such thing as distractions in a war. (I know what they're talking about, but ... erm, feints and diversions?)
Fort Bragg was renamed back in February, and Roland Bragg was a decorated paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne, which is based there.
Pappenheimer:
Apparently DOD officially states that Ft Bragg is now named for a WWI Pfc of the same name.
From a 1980s proto-internet compilation of excerpts from actual history test essays:
"Homer was not written by Homer, but by someone else of that name."
Der Oger:
I have also seen footage of a CNN reporter presenting a rubber bullet most likely of police origin as a strange explosive device used by protesters.
When the Nuremberg trials for this era finally happen, CNN is high on the list of collaborationists.
Heard on Stephanie Miller, one of the late night comedians (I didn't catch who) coming up with names for DJT tripping up the stairs to Air Force One.
Benito Oops-olini
Adolf Trip-ler
Josef Fallin'
Kim Jung Oops
Not part of that list, but I'm partial to "TACO Fell".
Where's the in-depth journalism exposing the massive conspiracy to cover up this steep deterioration?
Bueller? Bueller? ...
There are three GOP constituencies
Fascists - no matter why they are it - can't be won back. They must be trampled into the dust, driven back under the stone, else they rise to eat anyone else. There is no other (legal) way. They only understand fear and power, so only give them the former and prevent them to gain the latter at all costs.
The oligarchs might - with Musk submitting himself to Trumps mercy - just have learned that money is less power now. He has cost them already tens of billions, and has made a violent uprising against them (or much harsher taxation) a possibility now. Some might desert him (albeit quietly, lest they face the fate of Musk* or the Russian oligarchs).
Workers will switch camps if a meaningful path is opened to better incomes and a way for upward mobility. This means living wages, healthcare, a social welfare net, affordable housing, and a stop on inflation. Also, some might (!) appreciate free education for their children. (This is the only road I see to address the problems with racism, to give everyone a fair chance.)
Rural people might appreciate infrastructure - roads, broadband, plus aid when disasters strike.
The Misinformed: Create a strong neutral public media and news environment.(ALL right-wingers go after them. As seen in the US, Russia and Hungary, private media corporations become propaganda factories. Not unlike the second estate of the pre-enlightment times, preaching to the commoners. ).
Alpha-Male Incel Cryptobros: See "Fascists". Though I believe that this segment will become more decent if it looses the coolness, they grew older and get laid.
Persons of Color: See workers. Also, thanks to the actions taken by the Trumpists, I could imagine that they switch back.
*I would not be too surprised if he shares Prighozins fate in the near future.
Von Hinternburg. (Hintern = the piece of human anatomy you sit on.)
LH you are dialing in! With: "The elite at the top may not care about racism (I agree it's not much on their minds), but as Vonnegut said in Mother Night, "You are what you pretend to be.""
@Dr Brin,
I've been trying to say that all along. Not that the puppet masters themselves are racist, but that in order to gin up support, they've campaigned on and enacted racist policies which a segment of Republicans are excited by.
Vonnegut nailed it, though.
I've been accused here (not by you) of only quoting other people's words to speak for me, but when good wordsmiths have said what I'm trying to say and said it more succinctly and understandably, why re-invent the wheel?
(Hintern = the piece of human anatomy you sit on.)
Even though "Von Schitzenpantz"* isn't real German, I still like it because Americans can understand it, and because during Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, it was actually made part of the Congressional record that the crew on The Apprentice referred to DJT in that way.
* I have to laugh every time I accidentally misspell "Von Schitzenpantz", and my autocorrect tells me how to fix it.
Der Oger:
Alpha-Male Incel Cryptobros: See "Fascists". Though I believe that this segment will become more decent if it looses the coolness, they grew older and get laid.
I was a nerd when that was the opposite of coolness.
When the movie Revenge of the Nerds came out in 1984, the obnoxious pranks the nerds finally played could be cheered as punching up. Today, I suspect it looks more like punching down against the poor debutantes and jocks who will never make more than $19,000 a year*.
* Adjusted for inflation since "Broadcast News"
Just came up with another, courtesy of rumors circulating:
Jengis Kha-theder
I see them less as "True Nerds" than as adolescents who have been brainwashed by Tic--Tocs and Twitter consumption of toxic masculinity and scamming channels. Gamergate (which is more or less ongoing) definitively plays a role, too. Some of this can be explained by a lack of perspective.
The solutions are "simple": Policy should create perspectives for young people, not profits for old ones. And keeping kids away from toxic channels unless they receive the proper trainingand education to not being captured by propaganda might help, too.
I was out for a walk just this morning soaking up the sun and cranking Beach Boys tunes. RIP Brian Wilson.
"Soak up the Sun" is Sheryl Crow. ;)
RIP Brian. You made some great music. :(
Losing Sly Stone and Brian Wilson back to back puts a serious dent in the number of music geniuses that made great, cheery, music in the 60s. (And weird, not so cheery, also great music in the 70s.)
Death better stay away from Sir Paul and Stevie.
"I'M JUST PUTTING TOGETHER A GREAT BAND. DON'T BOTHER ME. YOU'LL GET YOUR AUDITION SOON ENOUGH."
Thankfully, I'm not a genius songwriter, so I should be safe for a while.
RIP Sly and Brian.
Thanks for the immortal tunes, both of you.
Although I give him credit for enthusiasm, Tony_F's 'liar' accusation is completely false, as LA protestors have already engaged in & been arrested for the stoning of occupied moving police vehicles (aka 'criminal assault'), vandalizing said police vehicles (aka 'property destruction'), setting afire 3 Waymo vehicles (aka 'arson') and much videoed thievery from numerous store fronts (aka 'looting).
This whole 'Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protest' argument isn't fooling anyone any more either, which means that these protesters are 'accessories' (before, during & after the fact) to any & all protest-related violence.
This argument that a 7% rate of protest-related violence 'equals' a Mostly Peaceful 93% rate of non-violence is completely INANE, as if these progressive protesters would accept this very same 'mostly peaceful' argument on Gun Violence, especially when only about 41 thousand gun-related US fatalities occurred in 2024 in a country that has over 500 MILLION GUNS in private hands, giving a gun-related US fatality rate of LESS THAN 0.01%.
It follows that a US gun-related fatality rate of 'less than 0.01%' is more than 700 times more 'mostly peaceful' than the left's 'mostly peaceful' 7% rate of protest-related violence, but only if you're a numerically illiterate cretin.
Best
_______
Btw, you may as well stick your unilateral accusations of 'racism' where the sun don't shine, as SCOTUS has completely nullified the 'reverse racism' necessary for perpetuating this particular anti-white grift.
In the FOUNDATION season 3 trailer, what are those giant digging machines at 0:25?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C53xEOdxz70
From altnps:
"Investigations are now underway into officers and ICE agents who fired crowd-control munitions at dangerously close range. In case after case, the situation only escalated when force was used against peaceful protesters.
We want to remind everyone: stay disciplined, even when provoked. Darkness cannot drive out darkness.
The evidence is clear and growing. No one is above the law not officers, and not ICE. A senior Trump official said today, “We couldn’t have scripted it any better.” That’s exactly right because all signs point to them scripting the escalation. And this script ends in accountability.
We’ve been given footage of protesters being pinned by the neck and other disturbing incidents. If these officers and ICE agents aren’t trained for this work, they have no business being on the street.
There was a clear attempt to cover up some of these events but the videos are already circulating. America will see the truth. We’re making sure every clip gets to the right people.
Step one: the LAPD chief has opened an investigation. Step two: court cases will follow filed by the families and individuals impacted."
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