Links 9/16/2023 | naked capitalism

[ad_1]

This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 903 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card or PayPal or our new payment processor, Clover. Read about why we’re doing this fundraiser, what we’ve accomplished in the last year,, and our current goal, karōshi prevention.

S.Korea, US agree to make N.Korea, Russia ‘pay price’ for military cooperation Anadolu Agency. Let me know how that goes. Will be interesting to see how Russian foreign ministry responds. One line could be, “If you hadn’t imposed illegal sanctions, we might not have to make as many friends as possible” but that would seem to make the NKorea move look like weakness (plus a diss to NKorea), as opposed to lateral escalation.

Note this is an unconfirmed rumor but seems to be widely discussed, per Alex Christaforu yesterday:

‼️ 🇺🇦 Ukrainian authorities announced the forced EVACUATION of civilians along the entire bank of the Dnieper

Probably tired of eating airstrikes because people keep leaking their positions to Russians while they try to accumulate forces to cross the river pic.twitter.com/yVrUHUVVPT

— What the media hides. (@narrative_hole) September 15, 2023

The hard lessons from Ukraine’s summer offensive Financial Times. Lambert featured yesterday but worth a gander if you missed it. archive.ph is your friend.

UN aid to Ukraine exceeds assistance to Afghanistan by one billion US dollars — diplomat TASS (guurst)

House GOP grows skeptical on Ukraine: ‘It’s not just the Freedom Caucus’ The Hill (Li). Hence Zelensky visiting to try lobbying in person.

Who can be so crazy and suicidal? The Russians, of course! Unparalleled misinformation and obscene reportage in the West exposed. Eastern Angle (Micael T). Just because a post is unabashedly partisan does not mean its point is invalid.

German Journalist Udo Ulfkotte explains how Western Corporate journalists are Bought and Paid for by the CIA, he was senior political journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

He predicted War on Russia but was dismissed as a “Conspiracy Theorist” by the Media and died… pic.twitter.com/gORdHKH6pB

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) September 14, 2023

Key Putin Ally Ramzan Kadyrov Is Critically Ill: Ukrainian Report Newsweek (furzy). Note Newsweek is not great on reliability and neither are Ukraine sources, but word should get out in Russian sources if true.

Growing discontent in Poland over Ukraine and its ideology. A lot of similar posts lately: pic.twitter.com/GvOXEPmp7E

— Nina 🐙 Byzantina (@NinaByzantina) September 12, 2023

Freedom Caucus won’t support Ukraine ‘blank check.’ What’s that mean? Responsible Statescraft

Syraqistan

Libyan authorities say floods may have killed 20,000 people PressTV (Anthony L)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

California Legislature Passes Delete Act Regulating Data Brokers Association of Privacy Professionals

Google To Pay $155 Million In Settlements Over Location Tracking Reuters Reuters. This is couch lint for Google.

Lina Khan Got Stuck in the Fallout of the MGM Hack at Las Vegas Bloomberg

How Google Authenticator Made One Company’s Network Breach Much, Much Worse ars technica

Imperial Collapse Watch

Patrick Lawrence: Unsweet Dreams Patrick Lawrence, ScheerPost (Anthony L)

Is NATO Learning About Its Future in Ukraine? Stephen Bryen (Micael T)

What could be the reasons for the Western delay in hypersonic weapons? Cf2R (via machine translation, original here, guurst)

1/6

UNSEEN FOOTAGE: DC cops retreat from position on upper west terrace around 2:30 on January 6. They had been attacking the crowd with gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets for over an hour.

They left that door unprotected.

Moments later, it was opened from inside… pic.twitter.com/GaZS2QWzIJ

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 13, 2023

Trump

I notice below a dearth of supporting clips showing Trump behaving as if he is having issues, as opposed to talking heads assertions. On the one hand, videos of the young Trump show him using complex sentences routinely in press interviews. On the other hand, he spent 14 years as a TV show host, which is astonishing longevity in that business. His current manner of speaking strikes me as a shtick that has become his default. People who are expert in public speaking who have been to Trump rallies (admittedly a few years back) disagreed with the trope that he is disorganized. He riffs on a topic, using a lot of emotive phrases, looks for crowd reactions and piles on the riff, then moves on to the next topic. It is extremely unconventional but it is effective. I watched the recent Tucker interview. The times when Trump’s response seemed wobbly (not many) was when he was trying to figure out how to shunt a question. Trump does not resort to the conventional trick of ducking a question by hammering on unrelated talking points. He feigns a response and then tries to segue.

This is a long winded way of saying Trump may be declining but I see much of the criticism below as a mischaracterization of his eccentric yet effective dumbed down speaking style.

We’ve all watched Donald Trump’s mental decline for years. It’s time for Fox News to tell the truth: he’s too old to run for President. pic.twitter.com/lz0PJa0k1N

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 14, 2023

Prosecutors’ Request for a Gag Order on Trump New York Times (furzy)

Biden

Conservatives’ 2nd amendment push could help Hunter Biden Los Angeles Times (furzy)

The Gun Charges Against Hunter Biden Are Unusual. Here’s Why. New York Times (Kevin W). Help me. Story sets up Hunter as victim for supposedly harsh gun charges. The selection of charges was designed to create the appearance of having done something about Hunter’s serial bad conduct w/o going after money laundering and more serious tax fraud charges, which would have implicated Joe and other Bidens.

BIDEN: “I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory…”

Biden was paid $1 million, but he never taught a single class. pic.twitter.com/UBhmJJRMOP

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 14, 2023

PENTAGON-FUNDED STUDY WARNS DEMENTIA AMONG U.S. OFFICIALS POSES NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT Intercept (Dr. Kevin). So Biden should not feel so bad, he’s on the receiving end of the Blob’s war against the senile? But this also amounts to the Blob saying its assessment of security risks takes precedence over democratic processes.

Gretchen Whitmer: Three men cleared of plotting to kidnap governor BBC (Kevin W)

GOP Clown Car

New Video of Lauren Boebert at Beetlejuice Captures More Horrifying Behavior New Republic (furzy). I get that this was an offensive display of misplaced entitlement, but “horrifying”?

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert called pregnant woman ‘miserable’ before being tossed from ‘Beetlejuice’: report New York Post (furzy)

Immigration

AOC HECKLED by furious New Yorkers over migrant crisis Daily Mail (Li)

🚨BREAKING: Rep. Jerry Nadler, AOC and other Democratic congress members press conference in New York City doesn’t go as planned as people shout “Close the Border” and demand action.

pic.twitter.com/PFRBX8S8rA

— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) September 15, 2023

Lampedusa migrant crisis: 7,000 people arrive on Italian island of 6,000 CNN (furzy)

Lampedusa, Italy, shows America the future of lawless immigration New York Post (furzy)

Abortion

In Poland, Testing Women for Abortion Drugs Is a Reality. It Could Happen Here. New York Times (Paul R)

Our No Longer Free Press

EXCLUSIVE: Homeland Security awards $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to help identify Americans as potential ‘extremists’ Leo Hohmann (Li). A swampy source but looks like a valid sighting. The good news is that $20 million is the functional equivalent of zero. This looks like minimally indulging a demand by Someone. However, the bad news is more could follow.

The rise of surge pricing: ‘It will eventually be everywhere’ Financial Times. This may be the salvation of retail stores. In the US, retail store licenses require that fixed prices of goods be visible to the buyer.

Reality minus minus James Ladyman, Professor of Philosophy, YouTube (Anthony L). Important.

Three in Four Americans Believe AI Will Reduce Jobs Gallup

MSN Retracts Insane AI-Generated Obit Calling Dead NBA Player ‘Useless’ Daily Beast

Class Warfare

Wow, the poverty rate in the US increased by nearly 60% between 2021 and 2022 (from 7.8% to 12.4%) and the child poverty rate by more than 100% (i.e. it more than doubled) https://t.co/YxLCSIrIqc

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) September 13, 2023

GM CEO Mary Barra can’t answer if it’s fair that workers make peanuts compared to her $30 million (video) BoingBoing

‘Are you out of your f—ing minds?’: Dems recoil at Biden’s approach to labor standoff Politico

Former Wells Fargo executive avoids prison time for her role in fake-accounts fraud CNN. Kevin W: “‘Prison sentences for such high-level executives are rare.’ So how has that worked out for the economy?” Moi: This woman not only stole (her bonuses reflected the success of her account plundering scheme), she was running an internal racketeering operation.

Antidote du jour: