13 billionaires ...

Billionaires and loyalists will provide Trump with muscle during his second term
^{— Daniel Drache, Marc D Froese · York University · Jan 13, 2025}

The distance between rich and poorer has increased, though I'll note that people like Gates, Buffett, Swift have donated/contributed considerably to various causes. The Clown administration seems to favor the rich.

I'm still at a loss as to why RFK Jr was picked as head of Health.

More saltwater...

Climate-Induced Saltwater Intrusion in 2100: Recharge-Driven Severity, Sea Level-Driven Prevalence (study)
^{— Adams, Reager, Buzzanga, David, Sawyer, Hamlington · Geophysical Research Letters · Nov 22, 2024}
Saltwater Could Contaminate 75% of Coastal Freshwater by 2100
^{— Margherita Bassi · GIZMODO · Dec 15, 2024}

More longer larger droughts...

Global increase in the occurrence and impact of multiyear droughts (study)
^{— Karger, Chen, Brun, Buri, Fatichi, Gessler, McCarthy, Pelliciotti, Stocker · Science/AAAS · Jan 16, 2025}
Mega-droughts are becoming more frequent and intense worldwide
^{— Beate Kittl · Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research · Jan 16, 2025}

The usual findings. Might be worthwhile preparing some.

Brief note in a New Zealand newspaper from some 113 years ago:

Journalist Samuel Rachlin (at newspaper Berlingske) writes of "The Buffet of the Cannibals".

The topic, or one topic at least, is whether or not the Clown will follow Putin's example, and snack on things that aren't theirs.

Things might be looking up in the Middle East at the moment, yet, the current climate leaves a lot to be desired — warring, dis/mal/misinformation, post-truth, political rhetoric (and tirades), tariffs, cancellation of international rules or disregard thereof, anti-democratic forces, instability, moves to divide (and polarize), extremism, ...

More cannibalism would be a signal to the autocrats of the world (or would-be autocrats): help yourselves to the buffet. Something NATO can help deter, by the way.

By Rachlin, backsliding has been much too frequent in our time, of which Putin's Russia is an example.

Europe might want to get together, build sufficient deterrence, stand up for civilized democracy, build strong relationships with, say, Australia, Japan, South Korea, others.


Ukrainian tragedies

(I'm using "tragedy" somewhat broadly; also, there are no utopias here.)

The war kicked off by the Kremlin is a tragedy — destruction, bombing, killing.

Then there are possible future tragic turns:

Ukraine falls back under the Kremlin's thumb, dragged thither by Putin's regressive Russia.
Ukraine becomes a tense border in another cold war.
Ukraine's supporters throw them under the bus, (cowardly) abandoning promises, appeasing Putin.
Ukraine becomes a nation of bitterness, hate, mass production of weaponry.

I suppose there are more possible tragedies, but there are also less tragic possible future turns:

Ukraine continuing to develop democracy, political reforms compatible with the EU, wouldn't be tragic (if Belarus were to follow a similar path, then that would be a bonus).
Ukraine leaves Kursk, Russia leaves Ukraine, handshakes and signatures, Russia shall not be attacked from Ukraine, ease up on sanctions, no more sabotage, GPS jamming, downing passenger planes — peace.

A bit more fatigue after infection it seems:

Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Report from the Observational RECOVER-Adult Study
^{— Suzanne D Vernon, Tianyu Zheng, Hyungrok Do, et al · NIH · Jan 13, 2025}

I guess this stuff wasn't mentioned explicitly in the thread, so I'll toss something in.

Political philosophers envisioned the masses transcending countries (or any such partitioning I suppose). The masses could find common ground and solidarity, like refuse being sent to wars against each other. With the advent of mass communication, discussions + organizing should be technically possible more or less worldwide; well, except that having sessions where all of the masses attended isn't feasible, so representatives would be needed. The likes of ideologies, religions, cultures, traditions, distrust, certain ambitions, greed, extremism, whatever, might get in the way of such efforts, yet, surely the masses + commoners + whatnot, if in voluntary agreement, could force an agenda across large regions, across multiple countries. After all, if they all (or most of them) plainly said "No" to go to war killing each other, or perhaps sanctioning each other, then it would be less likely to happen. Conversely, the more people, the more diversity can be expected. (And what of personal relationships?)

The top honchos of the old USSR didn't follow the philosophers, but instead forced themselves on others, right off the Russian revolution. They didn't seek out voluntary solidarity, but instead replaced old with new honchos that became ruthless dictators, and rolled over other countries regardless of what any masses might have to say there. (Is it easier to force involuntary compliance than for voluntary cooperation to come about?) Would-be communism that wasn't.

The UN doesn't have that much power, and there's plenty of globalization-phobia to come by, though one could sometimes wish otherwise. Well, centralization and concentration of broad and wide powers are known to carry inherent dangers, balances and limits are warranted. Conversely, cooperation can and does achieve markedly more than any individual.

Why have these ideas not caught on?

On a smaller scale, unions are around though, in part going by similar objectives, with top honchos of their own by the way.

The world has an unholy mix of dictatorships, theocracies, authoritarianism, corruption, semi-democracies, civilized democracies, ... It only takes one, for others to be threatened.

Anyway, I remain skeptical that communism is feasible/realistic; don't see anything particularly better than democracy, and that takes work to maintain.

(I'd quote a variety of people, fiction and non-fiction, but have already babbled long enough here.)

Hmm... Is there an answer that does not admit questions (even in principle)? Other than "Unknown" perhaps? :chin: :zip:

iep
wikipedia
fact-index

Moore using sign language before a deaf audience could emphasize the point.

I'm not sure it's needed though. Denial of an extra-self world seems like a philosophical (maybe psychological) problem alone, a Cartesian curse. Should we expect a purely deductive dis/proof?

For a brief moment, this is what a photographer saw:



But the recording is not the recorded.

, would "abstraction realist" work? Hm Also comes through odd (to me anyway).

It's like objective idealism, in some sense. — Arcane Sandwich

In typical philosophical parlance, I find "objective idealism" pretty close to a contradiction in terms.

• Subjective   ≈   existentially mind-dependent
· Objective is not

• Idealism   ≈   mental monism
· Realism is not
· An analysis of the rationale leads toward solipsism

But, hey, in the rabbit hole of metaphysics, one can come up with whatever. :)
Never mind me, carry on.

:D

Being very busy at work is not a valid reason, but a lame excuse. You can engage in procreation during breaks, because life flies by too quickly. — Yevgeny Shestopalov (Health Minister)

Typically, offices have rules concerning sexual harassment, not so much about having sex there, let alone promoting it. (Can always grab some children from Ukraine I suppose.)

Not a Merry Christmas for some :/

Azerbaijani airliner crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38 with 29 survivors, officials say
^{— Katie Marie Davies, Dasha Litvinova et al · AP · Dec 25, 2024}
Exclusive: Preliminary investigation confirms Russian missile caused Azerbaijan Airlines crash
^{— Euronews · Dec 26, 2024}
Russian air-defense system downed Azerbaijan plane, sources say
^{— Nailia Bagirova, Gleb Stolyarov et al · Reuters · Dec 26, 2024}

, another demonstration of their unity with Ukraine, their brothers and sisters.

, I'm reminded of a sitcom with a studio audience. :D

... seems to belong in this thread.

The Clown talks about grabbing the Panama Canal and Greenland to cheers in the background.

The non god alternative is that these manifestations of intelligence occurred through dumb luck, which is not possible. It’s like 10,000 monkeys randomly typing on a keyboard and creating the complete works of Shakespeare. Just not possible. — kindred

In terms of probability, it's as unlikely as any other character sequence of that length.
Equally unlikely, equally possible.
By the way, something similar applies to other (long) event sequences.
Favoritism looks like bias.

Health Insurance CEO Reveals Key To Company’s Success Is Not Paying For Customers’ Medical Care
^{— The Onion · Mar 5, 2018}

Well that sucks

Long COVID: SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Accumulation Linked to Long-Lasting Brain Effects
^{— Helmholtz Munich · Nov 29, 2024}
Persistence of spike protein at the skull-meninges-brain axis may contribute to the neurological sequelae of COVID-19
^{— Rong, Mai, Ebert, Kapoor et al · Helmholtz Munich & Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität · Dec 11, 2024}

Animation (— Ali Max Erturk · Nov 29, 2024 · 1m:33s)

, talking $s doesn't mean that all else is BS (also known as a non sequitur).
I suppose you might check the tragedy of the commons.
Say, up-and-coming countries aren't all that likely to go all green from the get-go when they can industrialize using fossil fuels. "Why should we be denied development when everyone else did this?"
And so it goes. Or whatever. "Shit where the grandkids eat."

For Russia to keep Ukraine out of NATO it wasn't necessary to invade Ukraine. A show of force on the border would have done that.

Yet for Russia to gain the territories of Novorossiya, to annex Crimea and the Donbas, it was necessary to attack Ukraine.

That's it. That's the line that you should understand. But for you it's The US/NATO made Russia to do it, as "offence is the best defence", and thus legitimizing imperialism. — ssu

:up:

If their rationale was just NATOphobia, then what would the land grabbing accomplish anyway?

Bring alerts to the world (including NATO) with aggression/warring? Cause Russophobic reactions in Europe like another application of Putin's own NATOphobic argument/logic? Extend right up to NATO members instead of keeping (the dangerous) NATO at a distance? ...?

Something's not quite right, or something's missing.

Either way, annexations, invasion, destruction, killing, Russification, remain facts in action.

The Ukrainians asserting their sovereignty, independence, self-governance, going their own way (accompanying Kremlin loss of control) was the background-factor in the first place, perhaps going back to 1991 in certain heads. Hence annexations, expansion, Russification, etc, as if Russia somehow wasn't large enough already.

, well, now and then I get a notice, a way to keep tabs on what's going on.
Becoming informed is not the same as taking the notices/stories seriously.
I'm guessing those propagandists/influencers are having an impact, but it's unclear how much.

Canada has so much wide open space, it can take even more than the US. — Metaphysician Undercover

Well, I don't think that many immigrants are headed out in the wilderness (or build residences etc), be it in the US or Canada. :) Typical destinations are metropolitan centers or larger to medium urban areas. They need a foothold before they can start living and doing stuff.

A pretty face, and some 634K followers on x/twitter as of typing, networked.
An example of what mad dis/mal/misinformation/bullshit campaigning can look like:

Liz Churchill

At a glance, it looks like noisy satire, except a couple of classes below The Onion.
I wouldn't want to impede their right to post nonsense, though some accountability would be great.

Does it work, are they making a difference?

^{2023Aug21 | 2023Oct20 | 2023Dec18 | vatniksoup | vaxopedia}

Amazon or the like doing test runs?
At least the areas seem right, but maybe not that plausible, you'd think someone would speak up.

Amazon successfully tests using delivery drones in Italy (— Reuters · Dec 5, 2024)

Amazon's drone delivery program takes flight (— CNBC · Dec 10, 2024 · 2m:4s)


Amazon poised to launch European drone delivery service after Italy flight tests (— Aerospace Testing · Dec 13, 2024)

, regardless of the murderous rampage, with unaddressed injustices, don't expect the problem to go away.
Putin's Russia employs industrialized suppression, Russification, propaganda, manufactured events/threats, whatever, to preempt eventualities (which is harder in more transparent democracies).
Anyway, the environments differ some.

Do Arabs accept Israel? As a state? (Which / how many do/don't, and how reliable is this?)
As an aside, would any of this change if, say, Israel exited the Golan Heights entirely?
Might as well get down to it: Should an Israeli state exist henceforth? And safe and with actual borders?
Your take, please. (←↑ addressed to everyone)

3-year-old data from the UK remains consistent with US data from 2022

Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021
^{— Charlotte Bermingham, Jasper Morgan, Vahé Nafilyan · Office for National Statistics · Sep 13, 2021}



The Vaccination Effect on Covid-19 Deaths
^{— Martin Armstrong · Statista · Sep 13, 2021}

Russia and Iran abandon Syria, low on resources, can't keep it up, due to other crap.
Ripple effects related to Ukraine and the Middle East (Israel).
Russia apparently also needs North Koreans, maybe for Kursk in particular.
Might China take advantage of a weaker Russia? (Vladivostok/海參崴 came to mind.)

212,000 lives, $105 billion ...

Universal healthcare as pandemic preparedness: The lives and costs that could have been saved during the COVID-19 pandemic
^{— Alison P Galvani, Alyssa S Parpia, Abhishek Pandey, Meagan C Fitzpatrick · PNAS · Jun 13, 2022}

Study: More Than 335,000 Lives Could Have Been Saved During Pandemic if U.S. Had Universal Health Care
^{— Jenny Blair · Yale School of Medicine · Jun 20, 2022}

So, lower clouds ...

Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo
^{— Helge F Goessling · Science · Dec 5, 2024}

In 2023, the global mean temperature soared to almost 1.5K above the pre-industrial level, surpassing the previous record by about 0.17K. Previous best-guess estimates of known drivers including anthropogenic warming and the El Niño onset fall short by about 0.2K in explaining the temperature rise. Utilizing satellite and reanalysis data, we identify a record-low planetary albedo as the primary factor bridging this gap. The decline is apparently caused largely by a reduced low-cloud cover in the northern mid-latitudes and tropics, in continuation of a multi-annual trend. Further exploring the low-cloud trend and understanding how much of it is due to internal variability, reduced aerosol concentrations, or a possibly emerging low-cloud feedback will be crucial for assessing the current and expected future warming.

Summaries at ... phys, abc

: Scandalous.

: Yeah. In some ways at least, it can go further than conspiracy theorists and such, when (otherwise seemingly well-meaning) intellectuals have no concept of what battles to fight (and when), and stoke the same fires, (again) to the silent cheers of other/larger adversaries. That's not to say they shouldn't (or shouldn't be allowed to), but "careful what you (appear to) wish for" remains applicable.

Well, that's too bad , I guess you go by own firsthand accounts. :D If you don't (or can't) evaluate more to add more context, then that's too bad as well. (Or just the usual cop-out.) :shrug:
So, did you think that those ▸ items were to be expected? (By the way, has the Kremlin somehow managed to purge NATO from their vicinity? No? But they have accomplished something.)
As mentioned sometime, continuing to bring up "NATO is in a proxy war with Russia", is about as helpful/useful as saying "North Korea and Iran are in a proxy war with Ukraine", hence it's brought up out of bias, potentially questionable preconception, whatever, maybe an agenda.

Exclusive› Medvedev on NATO ‘direct war’ with Russia and escalation risks amid Ukraine conflict
^{— Dmitry Medvedev (interview) · AlArabiya News · Nov 27, 2024 · 20m:10s}

Notice the (silovik style) talking points, propaganda lines, incidentally having made their way to certain others (thoroughly).

I think we have to face up to the fact that the Russians think they're in a state of war with us. Donald Tusk has referred to it as a pre-war situation. I think he's wrong. I think it's an actual war. We've seen already quite clearly some very aggressive moves on the part of the Russians in various European countries. I think we're in a very difficult situation, and Russia is probably better to have some sort of dialogue with them, than no contact at all. So I don't rule that out. But I think at the moment, I'm not sure Russia is in a mood or a situation where it's going to be very easy to talk to Putin. — Richard Dearlove (interview) · Sky News · Nov 27, 2024 · 1m:4s

Either way, that sure is what the Kremlin circle wants others to hear (perhaps domestically in particular), something like "Russia is at war with NATO, the US, the West", which is just nonsense.

But I think it may also be Zelensky's attempt to, in effect, call the West’s bluff. Actually getting all Nato’s 32 members to agree to a quick membership would be very difficult, but in effect he is asking, ‘If not the Article 5 security guarantee, what else could be offered?’ — Mark Galeotti (via Andy Gregory) · The Independent · Dec 1, 2024

No particular prospect of Ukrainian NATO membership according to Galeotti. Others have come to similar conclusions.

If he would be given the FBI, the end result would be that FBI likely would be less functioning and worse performing institution. — ssu

He'll just cripple the effectiveness of the department and sink it's morale. — ssu

... to the silent cheers of a few that don't have the US' best interest at heart.
All their "deep state" "swamp" enemies ... crap sells, especially to a certain demographic, again to the silent cheers of...
Well, maybe they can turn the cheers into discouragement or indifference, we'll see.

I guess most are familiar with this stuff, unification, when things get really small they get weird, ...

Space-Time: The Biggest Problem in Physics (— Quanta Magazine · Sep 25, 2024 · 19m:41s)



Innovative ...

‹Nature Communications› Snail-inspired robotic swarms (— Robotics & AI Lab - CUHK Shenzhen · Apr 29, 2024 · 8m:28s)

, well, whatever anyone might expect, some of what happened (or is happening) in the name of peace and a neutral Ukraine:

▸ Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-2022-)
▸ "On conducting a special military operation" (2022)
▸ Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
▸ Atrocity crimes during the Russo-Ukrainian War
▸ Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation (2014) (Kharkiv Pact ditched)
▸ Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts (2022)
▸ Russification of Ukraine » Modern-day Ukraine
▸ Larger Wheat Harvest in Ukraine Than Expected (— NASA · Dec 4, 2022) → Exclusive: Crimea showers Syria with wheat, Ukraine cries foul (— Reuters · Dec 19, 2022)

• What the Ukrainians wanted (or want): 2013-4, 2014, 2014-
• What has come out of the UN: 68/262, 2623, 11th session, ES-11/1, ES-11/2, ES-11/3, ES-11/4, ES-11/5, 77/229, ES-11/6

Elsewhere:

▸ Kabelmysteriene (The cable mysteries) (— NRK · Jun 26, 2022)
▸ Hybrid CoE Paper 18: The Arctic after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: The increased risk of conflict and hybrid threats (— Hybrid CoE · May 10, 2023)
▸ Unprecedented GPS jamming attack affects 1600 aircraft over Europe (— New Scientist · Mar 29, 2024)
▸ GPS jamming traced to Russia after flights over Europe suspended (— New Scientist · May 1, 2024)
▸ Innovation: Recent GPS jamming in regions of geopolitical conflict (— GPS World · May 24, 2024)
▸ Newest NATO Member Sweden Says Russia Disrupting Its Satellite Networks (— Bloomberg · Jun 20, 2024)
▸ Nordic satellites targeted by Russia after Sweden’s NATO accession (— Telecoms Tech News · Jun 21, 2024)
▸ European nations denounce Russian hybrid attacks, cable cut probes launched (— Reuters · Nov 19, 2024)
▸ Russian attacks on undersea cables 'most serious threat' to our infrastructure' - NATO (— euronews · Nov 28, 2024 · 12m)

Squaring it so narrowly is off.

Besides, you've been given sufficient evidence + arguments that repeating your lines as if you hadn't seems disingenuous.

What say you?

European nations denounce Russian hybrid attacks, cable cut probes launched
^{— Andrius Sytas, Barbara Erling, Johan Ahlander, et al · Reuters · Nov 19, 2024}

Russian attacks on undersea cables 'most serious threat' to our infrastructure' - NATO
^{— Shona Murray · euronews · Nov 28, 2024 · 12m}

Lies, fear- and war-mongering? Either way, there are prior examples, not unheard of.

A Japanese minister brought up an Asian defense alliance:

Ishiba's 'Asian NATO' dead on arrival as new PM set for diplomatic debut
^{— Kathleen Benoza, Jesse Johnson · The Japan Times · Oct 8, 2024}
Japan: Deciphering Prime Minister Ishiba’s Strategic Vision. Toward an Asian version of NATO?
^{— Céline Pajon · Ifri · Oct 10, 2024}
Japan’s prime minister vows military buildup and deeper ties with the US as regional tension rises
^{— Mari Yamaguchi, Mayuko Ono · AP · Nov 9, 2024}

Little interest.
Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, perhaps others, share some interests, though.
Not much by way of nuclear deterrence, unlike a bunch of neighbors.

EDITED

The unfortunate thing for you is that the Russians have told us exactly in word and in deed what they want for over a decade - a neutral Ukraine. — Tzeentch

They went ahead with the opposite. Started a war and whatnot. Supplied the Ukrainians (+ others) with more reasons for wanting to join NATO, or whatever sufficiently resourceful defense.
Not just neutral, by the way (has come up before). Besides, if Ukraine was neutral, then they might still kick Russia out of Sevastopol where they've been for a good while, put up a wall to prevent illegal Russian "migrants", look to the EU for trade/cooperation, go their own way.
Adding something like "Russia Shall Not Be Attacked From Ukraine" to Ukraine's constitution is a bit late now, not impossible though.

But, if that's what the Kremlin wants, then peace should be achievable:
Add something to the effect of "No Ukrainian NATO-Membership" and "Russia Shall Not Be Attacked From Ukraine" to the Ukrainian constitution (without any of those special external vetos or backdoors). Ukraine butts out of Kursk. Russia butts out of Ukraine.
Additionally, Ukraine could sign the usual minority protections, due process in the justice system, anti-corruption, some further democratic reforms and humanitarianism (things incidentally part of their path towards the EU, that Russia incidentally isn't currently expected to meet).
Do you think the Kremlin would be on board with that peace proposal? (Lots of resources freed up, too, and I'm guessing a few sanctions would be lifted.)

Some theorizing, FYI, though from memory this stuff has come up in the thread already:
Why Russia Started War in Ukraine (— The Military Show · Sep 7, 2024 · 18m:55s)

Or it might become reasonable to start making those items at home instead of importing them. — frank

I suppose, if the tariffs were high enough, then the imports would be canceled, which would be bad for the exporter (compare with sanctions).
The importers aren't likely to swallow the tariffs, they increase the cost of goods for the population.
So, instead of the tariff stuff, how about pressuring capitalists to increasingly bring production/manufacturing home (and perhaps take a wage cut)?
Well, that might decrease support among the capitalists, less $s for campaigning, fewer votes, ... (worse self-image for The Clown).
Capitalism isn't patriotism, it's about maximizing profits, cheaper labor (lower wages) + less environmental regulations + less health and safety protection + ...

It's quite popular among the mainstream media to repeat the idea that this is 'Putin's war', but it's been known since prior to the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit that NATO expansion into Ukraine is a red line for much if not all of the Russian political establishment. — Tzeentch

It was about Ukraine's (established) independence, sovereignty, all that, and that the Ukrainians might assert it sooner or later.
"Fortunately" for the Kremlin circle, Ukraine's anticipated NATO aspirations came to the fore, giving them the excuse to cross Ukraine's established red lines (land grabbing).
Well, their (ongoing) destruction, regress, activities, whatever, engendered hate, further distrust, degraded chances of talks, it's how they roll.

One of the better takes I’ve read:

https://apple.news/AEToGjqpLR4aQxsRScVmgVA — Mikie

:up:

Also, Fox and friends are entertaining, like The Jerry Springer Show. Has been referred to as entertainment, for that matter.^{(thedispatch, logicallyfacts)} Compare to more sober, boring, ordinary news channels.

The source-memes and whatever it all is (plus the amount of that stuff around), begs the question of where they came from and who wrote them. Determining (and perhaps poking at) their murky origins might be worthwhile.