eightpix

They know that Israel is at the eye of the global shit storm. Iran might close the strait of Hormuz, and the Yemenis are definitely going to take shots at ships heading for Bab-el-Mandeb (Gate of Grief). Iran may start boarding ships as well.

This is a business decision.

The rest of this post is bullshit. If it comes true, well, then, I’m an unprofitable prophet.

Goodness knows how this is going to go once the NATO-backed EU sanctions on Israel hit in mid-July. US will try to sanction/tariff their way around that, an attempt to support their pals, but, surprise! Domestic unrest will force the felon’s hand.

That frees up some space for more integrated transport across Europe, Canada, and emerging markets across north and west Africa, quelling some of the decolonial “unrest” in Mali, Burkina Faso with offers of “trade.”

The wedge in the anglosphere will widen, and the US will be more isolated. They’ll either attack Canada or suffer Civil War by November, about the time people start to realize they can’t pay for their heating this winter and can’t even afford “2 dolls instead of 30” this Xmas.

I look forward to Netanyahu making his case in court and watching every argument evaporate under the sheer gravity of reality. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, standing beside him, defiant. Gallant gave up.

I’ve read Dante’s Inferno. Two things are true:

1. In envisioning Hell, this is beyond even him.

Though, the ninth circle — betrayal — is where many politicians, pundits, and the president of Israel belong. Frozen in the ice at the center of Hell.

2. Many people deserve to be sent to Hell for this. Perhaps all of us who did not do more to stop it.

I agree with funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works. Running cover for despotic regimes seems to be a pattern that 20th and 21st century American history is shot full of.

Please keep in mind that America backed Pol Pot as the head of state through that 1975 to 1979 genocide and for over a decade after.

“Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink,” Guterres said. “The United Nations stands ready to support any initiative that promotes de-escalation, diplomacy, and a renewed commitment to peace.”

I feel like I’ve heard this before…

"It is time for restraint, reason and de-escalation.

"There is no place for actions and statements that would take this dangerous situation over the abyss.

“It is time to establish a ceasefire and return to the path of dialogue and negotiations to save the people in Ukraine and beyond from the scourge of war.”

~ Antonio Guterres, 23 February 2022.

UNSG must be one of the most frustrating jobs on Earth.

Literally ignore them. They are no more than tourists. No official interactions. No preferential treatment.

Via UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

Article 4(2)© of the Statute provides that genocide can be committed by “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.[1]

When you blow up a cancer hospital, you’re the baddies, now.

As captioned by Euronews:

Prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. El Salvador presidential press office via AP

Photo credit emphasis is mine.

I’d add to this list:

That’s too expensive! Cash price? Stop here! Speak slowly, please.

And any words you might need to relate a dietary restriction: no meat, no dairy, no shellfish, no gluten.

Read Chomsky’s Understanding Power (2002) and Manufacturing Consent (1988). It’s been an oligarchy since at least the 1980s. It’s Reagan’s fault. Jimmy Carter — rest in power —was the last, best hope for the kind of America that humanity wanted.

Read the Fred J. Cook’s The Warfare State (1962).

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was right about the Military-Industrial complex. It used to just be weapons, technology, energy, and heavy industries. The associated industries have metastasized to include entertainment, finance, housing, and education.

USA: 25

Iran: 883? (I’ve seen numbers between 743 and 798)

China: unkown

Saudi Arabia: 330

Singapore: 9

Bottom line, though, is ANY executions are repugnant.

Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, an aid worker will get shot, or a truckload of humanitarians will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan”. But when I say that one little old CEO will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

According to Article 27 of the Rome Statute, all wanted persons are equal before the court, including heads of a state or government. No immunities under international law may bar the court from exercising its jurisdiction.

“No international court has ever found that a head of state or high ranking individual has immunity before it, and Article 27 was meant to codify that principle,” [says] “Leila Sadat, a leading expert on immunities and former ICC special advisor on crimes against humanity[.]”

The immunity loophole found in Article 98 (1), according to the judgement, must be read in context and interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the object and purpose of the Rome Statute, meaning that it should not be read to carve out an exception to Article 27’s clear provisions.

… the reference to state immunity under Article 98 (1) is related to the immunity of a state and its property, not its leaders or officials.

What do rank and file military realize they have to start refusing certain orders?

When do the Americans cut off the supply of certain weapons?

When does the Israeli populace see that a radically new direction is needed to secure peaceful relations “from the river to the sea”?

An indiscriminate attack on an unsuspecting population using planted explosives and does not differentiate between civilians and enemy combatants isn’t a “terrorist attack.”

What is it then? A “police action”? “Self-defense”?

From AP

A booby trap is defined as “any device designed or adapted to kill or injure, and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object,” according to Article 7 of a 1996 adaptation of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which Israel has adopted.

The protocol prohibits booby traps “or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects which are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.”

Now, as far as a legal distinction, the jury is still out. But, morally, this is indefensible to the point of being state-sanctioned terrorism.

You should read a few good books as well. Might I suggest:

On Palestine by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and Frank Barat

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon

Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman

Actual journalists like Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo and Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! are doing excellent work on this issue.

1000 Days. 19 November 2024.

No accusation intended. Related my experience and seeking yours. Thanks for sharing what you have read about it.

Then, help me out if you feel inclined. Point me in the direction of some solid sci-fi, written in another language, with good translation to English. I’m always looking for the next read. I could Google it. But, instead, I’m looking for a recommendation from a strong critical eye. As guidance, I’m a pretty big fan of space epics, political intrigue, and/or social

Also, thanks for the language on attenuation. I’ve done a bit more reading on it, and I’ve seen the math. What I’ve learned is that most regulated radio transmissions in the Western hemisphere are capped at 50 kW. There are several transmitters that are in the 150 kW range, and, back in the 30s, there was that one titanic tower in Florida that kicked out 500 000 kW.

I guess we are going to have to disagree. The writing style and, as I perceived it, motivations within the text were clearly not of the Western tradition. It’s true, in lending the benefit of doubt, I may have enjoyed it more precisely because I disregarded standard writing mores, tropes, and conventions because it was a translated work.

I’m curious: Did you also try Murakami’s 1Q84? I found that I had to suspend expectations there in much the same manner.

I think I’d agree with you wrt. short species lifespans after developing telecommunications, space flight, and highly concentrated energy sources. The leap in capacity for attendant social distortion — and extortion — has brought us to the brink of global destruction many times since Signal Hill in 1901. The Kardashev Scale comes to mind here. The leap from about Type 0.73, ostensibly where we are now, to Type 1.0 is fraught.

As for the communications we have sent, the early ones were low-power and, over a distance of 100 ly, would significantly degrade against background EM radiation. At a range of 50 ly, where our first, more powerful and higher fidelity digital transmissions have reached, there are relatively few star systems — about 1300 (source). This source uses data from 1991, so there may be more, but not many, that are magnitude 6.5 or brighter.