Cunk On Britain - With Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan)
Oct 18, 2022
Overheard
It's appalling to think millions of Americans are OK with the prospect of living under Daddy State rule as long as they can save 50 cents-a-gallon on gasoline.
Today's Geopolitics
It's a poker game where everybody's cheating,
and everybody knows everybody's cheating,
so everybody has to cheat to stay in the game.
"We're gonna do this deal with Russia - what's it worth to ya to get us not to do it?"
It's so fucking infuriating to hear these assholes say they don't care about the outcome - and they're not taking sides - outa one side of their mouths, and then "we want an end to the crisis through diplomatic means" outa the other side.
Its also not unreasonable to think Iran is doing this really shitty thing as a way to distract from the borderline revolution they have on the their hands, while demonstrating to "the west", and to their own people, that they're just as murderously capable as anyone else to rain fire and death on their enemies.
The world is a really fucked up place.
Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.
A deal was agreed on Oct. 6 when Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.
"The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family," said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip.
A Western official briefed on the matter confirmed it, saying there was an agreement in place between Iran and Russia to provide surface-to-surface short range ballistic missiles, including the Zolfaghar.
The Iranian diplomat rejected assertions by Western officials that such transfers breach a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution.
"Where they are being used is not the seller's issue. We do not take sides in the Ukraine crisis like the West. We want an end to the crisis through diplomatic means," the diplomat said.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin on Tuesday denied its forces had used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Asked if Russia had used Iranian drones in its campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any information about their use.
"Russian equipment with Russian nomenclature is used," he said. "All further questions should be directed to the Defence Ministry."
The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The appearance of Iranian missiles in addition to drones in Moscow's arsenal in the war with Ukraine would raise tensions between Iran and the United States and other Western powers.
SHIPMENT 'SOON, VERY SOON'
The U.S. State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on Monday in a morning rush hour attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a U.S. official said. White House spokesperson Karinne Jean-Pierre also accused Tehran of lying when it said Iranian drones are not being used by Russia in Ukraine.
A European diplomat said it was his country's assessment that Russia was finding it more difficult to produce weaponry for itself given the sanctions on its industrial sector and so was turning to imports from partners like Iran and North Korea.
"Drones and missiles are a logical next step," said the European diplomat.
Asked about sales of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles to Russia, a senior U.S. military official said: "I don't have anything to provide at this time in terms of whether or not that is accurate at this point."
Chafing under Western economic sanctions, Iran's rulers are keen to strengthen strategic ties to Russia against an emerging, U.S.-backed Gulf Arab-Israeli bloc that could shift the Middle East balance of power further away from the Islamic Republic.
The U.S. State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on Monday in a morning rush hour attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a U.S. official said. White House spokesperson Karinne Jean-Pierre also accused Tehran of lying when it said Iranian drones are not being used by Russia in Ukraine.
A European diplomat said it was his country's assessment that Russia was finding it more difficult to produce weaponry for itself given the sanctions on its industrial sector and so was turning to imports from partners like Iran and North Korea.
"Drones and missiles are a logical next step," said the European diplomat.
Asked about sales of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles to Russia, a senior U.S. military official said: "I don't have anything to provide at this time in terms of whether or not that is accurate at this point."
Chafing under Western economic sanctions, Iran's rulers are keen to strengthen strategic ties to Russia against an emerging, U.S.-backed Gulf Arab-Israeli bloc that could shift the Middle East balance of power further away from the Islamic Republic.
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Iran's rulers are also under pressure from nationwide demonstrations which were ignited by the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman detained for "inappropriate attire".
Several European Union states on Monday called for sanctions on Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, as the bloc agreed a separate set of sanctions over Tehran's crackdown on unrest.
"They (Russians) wanted to buy hundreds of our missiles, even mid-range ones, but we told them that we can ship soon a few hundred of their demanded Zolfaghar and Fateh 110 short-range, surface to surface missiles," said one of the security officials.
"I cannot give you the exact time, but soon, very soon those will be shipped in 2 to three shipments."
An Eastern European official tracking Russia's weapons activity said it was their understanding that this arms deal was happening, although he had no specific evidence to back it up. The official said that a decision had been taken by the Iranian and Russian leaders to proceed with the transfer.
Moscow had specifically asked for surface to surface short-range Fateh 110 and Zolfaghar missiles, and the shipment will happen in a maximum of 10 days, said another Iranian diplomat.
ATTACK DRONES
The stakes are high for Iran, which has been negotiating with Western states to revive a 2015 deal that would ease sanctions on Tehran in return for limits on its nuclear work.
The talks have deadlocked, and any disputes between Tehran and Western powers over arms sales to Russia or Iran's crackdown on the unrest could weaken efforts to seal an accord.
The United States agrees with British and French assessments that Iran supplying drones to Russia would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the 2015 deal, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Monday.
The Western official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the matter, said that like the drones, missile transfers would also violate U.N. resolution 2231.
Several senior Iranian officials are outraged about "unjust" planned sanctions on Iran over its arms shipments to Russia, said the second diplomat.
In September, Tehran had refused a request by President Vladimir Putin for the supply of Iran's sophisticated Arash 2 long-range attack drones, three Iranian officials told Reuters.
When asked the reason for the refusal, one of the officials cited several issues including "some technical problems".
"Also the (Revolutionary) Guards' commanders were worried that if Russia uses this Arash 2 drone in Ukraine, Americans may have access to our technology."
Oct 17, 2022
Because We Don't Pay Attention
In our defense, pay attention to what exactly?
Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals
Huge scale of human-driven loss of species demands urgent action, say world’s leading scientists
Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale.
From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report. Two years ago, the figure stood at 68%, four years ago, it was at 60%.
Many scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction – the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs – and that it is being driven by humans. The report’s 89 authors are urging world leaders to reach an ambitious agreement at the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Canada this December and to slash carbon emissions to limit global heating to below 1.5C this decade to halt the rampant destruction of nature.
The Living Planet Index combines global analysis of 32,000 populations of 5,230 animal species to measure changes in the abundance of wildlife across continents and taxa, producing a graph akin to a stock index of life on Earth.
Latin America and the Caribbean region – including the Amazon – has seen the steepest decline in average wildlife population size, with a 94% drop in 48 years. Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF-UK, said: “This report tells us that the worst declines are in the Latin America region, home to the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Deforestation rates there are accelerating, stripping this unique ecosystem not just of trees but of the wildlife that depends on them and of the Amazon’s ability to act as one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change.”
Africa had the second largest fall at 66%, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 55% and North America at 20%. Europe and Central Asia experienced an 18% fall. The total loss is akin to the human population of Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and China disappearing, according to the report.
“Despite the science, the catastrophic projections, the impassioned speeches and promises, the burning forests, submerged countries, record temperatures and displaced millions, world leaders continue to sit back and watch our world burn in front of our eyes,” said Steele. “The climate and nature crises, their fates entwined, are not some faraway threat our grandchildren will solve with still-to-be-discovered technology.”
She added: “We need our new prime minister to show the UK is serious about helping people, nature and the economy to thrive, by ensuring every promise for our world is kept. Falling short will be neither forgotten nor forgiven.”
Leading nature charities have accused Liz Truss of putting the economy before nature protection and the environment, and are concerned rare animals and plants could lose their protections when her promise of a “bonfire” of EU red tape happens later this year.
The report points out that not all countries have the same starting points with nature decline and that the UK has only 50% of its biodiversity richness compared with historical levels, according to the biodiversity intactness index, making it one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
Land use change is still the most important driver of biodiversity loss across the planet, according to the report. Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF-UK, said: “At a global level, primarily the declines we are seeing are driven by the loss and fragmentation of habitat driven by the global agricultural system and its expansion into intact habitat converting it to produce food.”
The researchers underscore the increased difficulty animals are having moving through terrestrial landscapes as they are blocked by infrastructure and farmland. Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000km (600 miles) remain free-flowing along their entire length, while just 10% of the world’s protected areas on land are connected.
Future declines are not inevitable, say the authors, who pinpoint the Himalayas, south-east Asia, the east coast of Australia, the Albertine Rift and Eastern Arc mountains in eastern Africa, and the Amazon basin among priority areas.
The IUCN is also developing a standard to measure the conservation potential of an animal, known as its green status, which will allow researchers to plot a path to recovery for some of the one million species threatened with extinction on Earth. The pink pigeon, burrowing bettong and Sumatran rhino were highlighted as species with good conservation potential in a study last year.
Robin Freeman, head of the indicators and assessments unit at ZSL, said it was clear that humanity is eroding the very foundations of life, and urgent action is needed. “In order to see any bending of the curve of biodiversity loss … it’s not just about conservation it’s about changing production and consumption – and the only way that we are going to be able to legislate or call for that is to have these clear measurable targets that ask for recovery of abundance, reduction of extinction risk and the ceasing of extinctions at Cop15 in December.”
And if we do, how do we know what we're seeing?
How do we know Adam Conover (eg) isn't pulling our leg too?
See where all that Radical Skepticism gets us?
And that's pretty much the point. The Daddy State needs us to be so uncertain that we'll glom onto anything that sounds like it carries real authority.
(get it - authority - authoritarian? Yeah OK never mind)
Adam Conover - 501(c)(3) vs 501(c)(4) and how the behavior of "good billionaires" is just as shitty as all the other power-hungry assholes - they're just a lot better at PR.
BTW - in the last 50 years, animal populations have decreased by almost 70%, while biodiversity in the Caribbean & Latin American Region is down 94%.
⚠️
-94%
🫣
Huge scale of human-driven loss of species demands urgent action, say world’s leading scientists
Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale.
From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report. Two years ago, the figure stood at 68%, four years ago, it was at 60%.
Many scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction – the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs – and that it is being driven by humans. The report’s 89 authors are urging world leaders to reach an ambitious agreement at the Cop15 biodiversity summit in Canada this December and to slash carbon emissions to limit global heating to below 1.5C this decade to halt the rampant destruction of nature.
The Living Planet Index combines global analysis of 32,000 populations of 5,230 animal species to measure changes in the abundance of wildlife across continents and taxa, producing a graph akin to a stock index of life on Earth.
Latin America and the Caribbean region – including the Amazon – has seen the steepest decline in average wildlife population size, with a 94% drop in 48 years. Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF-UK, said: “This report tells us that the worst declines are in the Latin America region, home to the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Deforestation rates there are accelerating, stripping this unique ecosystem not just of trees but of the wildlife that depends on them and of the Amazon’s ability to act as one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change.”
Africa had the second largest fall at 66%, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 55% and North America at 20%. Europe and Central Asia experienced an 18% fall. The total loss is akin to the human population of Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and China disappearing, according to the report.
“Despite the science, the catastrophic projections, the impassioned speeches and promises, the burning forests, submerged countries, record temperatures and displaced millions, world leaders continue to sit back and watch our world burn in front of our eyes,” said Steele. “The climate and nature crises, their fates entwined, are not some faraway threat our grandchildren will solve with still-to-be-discovered technology.”
She added: “We need our new prime minister to show the UK is serious about helping people, nature and the economy to thrive, by ensuring every promise for our world is kept. Falling short will be neither forgotten nor forgiven.”
Leading nature charities have accused Liz Truss of putting the economy before nature protection and the environment, and are concerned rare animals and plants could lose their protections when her promise of a “bonfire” of EU red tape happens later this year.
The report points out that not all countries have the same starting points with nature decline and that the UK has only 50% of its biodiversity richness compared with historical levels, according to the biodiversity intactness index, making it one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
Land use change is still the most important driver of biodiversity loss across the planet, according to the report. Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF-UK, said: “At a global level, primarily the declines we are seeing are driven by the loss and fragmentation of habitat driven by the global agricultural system and its expansion into intact habitat converting it to produce food.”
The researchers underscore the increased difficulty animals are having moving through terrestrial landscapes as they are blocked by infrastructure and farmland. Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000km (600 miles) remain free-flowing along their entire length, while just 10% of the world’s protected areas on land are connected.
Future declines are not inevitable, say the authors, who pinpoint the Himalayas, south-east Asia, the east coast of Australia, the Albertine Rift and Eastern Arc mountains in eastern Africa, and the Amazon basin among priority areas.
The IUCN is also developing a standard to measure the conservation potential of an animal, known as its green status, which will allow researchers to plot a path to recovery for some of the one million species threatened with extinction on Earth. The pink pigeon, burrowing bettong and Sumatran rhino were highlighted as species with good conservation potential in a study last year.
Robin Freeman, head of the indicators and assessments unit at ZSL, said it was clear that humanity is eroding the very foundations of life, and urgent action is needed. “In order to see any bending of the curve of biodiversity loss … it’s not just about conservation it’s about changing production and consumption – and the only way that we are going to be able to legislate or call for that is to have these clear measurable targets that ask for recovery of abundance, reduction of extinction risk and the ceasing of extinctions at Cop15 in December.”
Ukraine
Every military - every large organization of any kind - is going to have problems with incompetence, and the arrogance on the part of incompetent people who will eventually start looking out only for themselves, which leads to the lack of respect among team members that comes from the kind of fuckups that won't stay hidden for very long - which, taken together, explains the inevitability of the collapse of morale in the Russian forces.
It's easy to go negative about things.
And it's really hard to get your guys pumped up enough to throw themselves into the fight with reckless abandon, the way these Ukrainians are doing.
Stay lucky, you magnificent bastards.
Mark Hertling
What Hath Fox Wrought
She makes the point that we all have to understand, and internalize, and get used to: The rubes will line up - by the millions - and vote the way they're told to vote.
Desi Lydic - The Daily Show on Comedy Central
Oct 16, 2022
The Elon Shuffle
If you're a billionaire, you must be the smartest guy in the room, and whatever capability you possess must apply to every other endeavor.
So he asked me, "You're smart - why ain't you rich?"
And I asked him, "You're rich - why ain't you smart?"
I think maybe someone is in Elon Musk's ear telling him he should be using his economic and social power to remake the world in the image of his businesses, and he's perfectly able to do whatever he wants simply by virtue of his bank balance.
I get the feeling someone else - someone who actually knows what the fuck they're doing - got in his other ear and told him to stop fuckin' with things he doesn't understand.
Elon Musk blocked Ukraine from using Starlink in Crimea over concern that Putin could use nuclear weapons, political analyst says
Elon Musk personally rejected a Ukrainian request to extend his satellite internet service to Crimea, fearing that an effort to retake the peninsula from Russian forces could lead to a nuclear war, the influential political analyst Ian Bremmer said in a newsletter published on Monday.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Musk — and the US government — provided Kyiv with thousands of Starlink systems, enabling Ukrainian forces to communicate in what had previously been dead zones. The low energy requirements of the service's satellite receivers have enabled connection to reconnaissance drones, providing valuable real-time intelligence on Russian movements and the ability to target them, Yahoo News reported in August.
But recently there have been problems. Last week, a senior Ukrainian government official told the Financial Times reported that the service was suffering "catastrophic" outages on the front lines, prompting speculation that it had been shut off in areas controlled by Russia — perhaps to prevent the Kremlin from exploiting the network.
On Twitter, Musk said he could not comment on battlefield conditions, saying, "That's classified." But Bremmer, the founder and president of the political-risk research firm Eurasia Group, said on Monday that in a conversation with Musk in late September, Musk appeared to confirm that the satellite service was being intentionally disabled.
Neither SpaceX nor Ukraine's ministry of defense immediately responded to requests for comment.
Bremmer said Musk told him he'd been asked by Ukraine's defense ministry to activate Starlink in Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014. Bremmer said Musk "refused given the potential for escalation."
According to Bremmer, Musk claimed to have recently spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asserting that he was "prepared to negotiate." (Musk this month proposed a Ukraine peace plan seen as aligning with Russian interests.) Bremmer said Musk told him that in that conversation, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine tried to retake the Crimean peninsula, which serves as the base for Russia's naval forces on the Black Sea.
On Twitter, however, Musk flatly denied having any recent conversation with the Russian leader, writing on Tuesday that he had "spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago." The subject, he said, "was space." Bremmer was likewise adamant, tweeting that Musk "told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine."
Russian forces have been losing ground in Ukraine's south and have lost huge swaths in Ukraine's east as they've pressed into regions Russia declared it had annexed, sparking concern among arms-control experts about whether Putin and his top advisers may contemplate an attack with a nuke from their vast arsenal in an attempt to stanch their losses.
But then -
‘The hell with it’: Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will ‘keep funding Ukraine govt for free’ amid Starlink controversy
Elon Musk said in a tweet Saturday that his company SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink satellite internet terminals for the Ukrainian government as it battles invading Russian forces.
“The hell with it,” the billionaire tweeted, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
It was not immediately clear whether Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla was being sarcastic. In response to a tweet about the move, Musk said, “we should still do good deeds.” Responding to another tweet saying that Musk had already paid taxes that are funding Ukraine’s defense, he said, “Fate loves irony.”
The tweets follow a statement from Musk on Friday in which he said that SpaceX cannot continue fund Starlink terminals in Ukraine “indefinitely,” after a report suggested his space company had asked the Pentagon to cover the costs.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a letter from SpaceX to the Pentagon, the company said that the use of Starlink in Ukraine could cost close to $400 million over the next 12 months, according to a report by CNN. SpaceX has signed several contracts with the U.S. government.
SpaceX’s donated Starlink internet terminals have been crucial in keeping Ukraine’s military online during the war against Russia, even as communication infrastructure gets destroyed. Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Musk drew criticism from Ukrainian officials earlier this month when he posted a Twitter poll gauging support for what he claimed was a likely outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He appeared to confirm that SpaceX was planning to leave Ukraine in some capacity Friday, replying to a Twitter post that referenced the Ukrainian ambassador telling Musk to “fuck off.”
“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk said.
The SpaceX founder is also in the middle of a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, which he had tried to get out of. A judge ruled that he has until Oct. 28 to close the acquisition if he hopes to avoid a trial.
And there's the rub. I can sit here and spout off to my 1-or-200 daily visitors*, and nobody has to worry that a million Ukrainians and Russians are going to get blown to bits because of some stupid notion that managed to creep across the axonal gap inside my little brain pan, making me think I know more than the people who've made solid careers out of getting us all through this kinda shit more or less intact.
That's not to say the smart guys always get it right - fake lord knows we've listened to assholes like Kissinger and Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the world has suffered because of it. But the good guys still outnumber the assholes - good guys like Carter and Blinken and Kerry and Albright and Hillary - and the world spins madly on as we muddle through and stumble forward.
*Note: A very big Thank You to everybody who drops by to pick up a few of my brain droppings. (hat tip - George Carlin)
Ukraine
Putin won't survive this war, but details are (as usual) a real booger:
- How long will it take him to fall?
- Who takes him down - who takes his place?
- Will Putin's demise lessen or intensify the Russian war effort?
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