I think it has even more impact in the BlueSky version.
Realize Im new here and have about two friends who even see my posts but if you haven’t heard of this guy @natogreen.bsky.social you must!
He’s brilliant
— Molly Secours (@mollys.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Maybe this would be a good time to share far and wide.
This Nato Green seems like a good guy to follow.
Open thread.
DC Stand Up for Science Rally, March 7, 2025
J
Kevin Drum has passed away–a great loss.
WaterGirl
@J: Agree, it’s a great loss. I let Cole know so that he can do a post if he wants to.
Baud
Radical leftist hippy Ruth Marcus has resigned from the Post.
Old School
Clever.
A lot of people are going to learn how politics affects their lives over the next few years. Now they just have learn who to blame for the damage done.
Splitting Image
@J:
I just saw that. Sad to hear. His series on leaded gasoline and violence was very informative.
MattF
@Baud: Also note that E. J. Dionne and Alexandra Petri haven’t been heard from lately. And Hugh Hewitt, even. Although I suppose Hewitt doesn’t really count.
Soprano2
The Dow seems to be heading for a 1,000 point loss today. According to FFOTUS’ own standards, he should be impeached for that! LOL
Yes, it’s tragic about Kevin Drum. I’ve read him on and off over the years. His writings about leaded gasoline and crime was thought provoking.
Belafon
@Old School: If you’re a Democrat, it’s mostly Democrats’ fault. If you’re a Republican is mostly blacks, Jews, atheists, gays, and Democrats’ fault.
dmsilev
@J: I saw the announcement his wife (widow, I guess) posted. A sad day.
dmsilev
@MattF: Like a cockroach, Marc Thiessen endures.
Old School
@Soprano2:
As an FYI, the 1,000 point impeachment tweet is fake.
French Onion Soup
@Old School:
It won’t matter. Cultural issues matter more than anything to both sides. And as long as anybody, right or wrong, is talking about cultural issues we cannot come together. No amount of pain, or loss, until the country is as screwed as Germany after WW2 and turned into rubble will change that.
You could rally around getting Trump and Musk out but the moment someone like the crowd here says trans or DEI you lose well more than half your support and Musk and Trump win. And someone will say it.
So buckle up! This won’t end until the nation shatters and then it will be an ocean of blood over who comes out on top. Because we won’t stop talking about cultural issues the issue we should worry about is not Trump or Musk they’ve won because we liberals cannot shut up about cultural issues. Even though shutting up is not giving up on them. So what we as liberals have to worry about is can we win the blood bath that happens after it cracks post Musk and Trump as a minority and a poorly armed and violence shy one at that. I’m guessing no. Which is why my ass is getting out of the country. We deserve everything that’s coming to us and I’m not going to be here for it.
MattF
@dmsilev: Thiessen had a column celebrating Trump’s glorious victory over Putin with the rare earths deal… Followed a few days later by a column attacking Zelenskyy. The man’s agile, I’ll admit.
Hildebrand
@Old School: And? They never let a little thing like truth get in the way of whacking Democrats. Sauce for the goose…
This is mostly snark. Mostly.
Elizabelle
Nato Green is cool. He is also a union organizer, married to an anthropologist.
Youtube of a 2020 TedX talk he did; he rolls out the joke above, but has a lot of interesting things to say about the intersection of comedy and culture. Very worth listening to.
Thank you for putting him on my radar screen.
dmsilev
@MattF: I think it’s less agility and more starting with the assumption “Donald Trump is always right about everything” and not caring about contradictions.
BritinChicago
As Pericles said, You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. Great to have the point made with such humor.
Professor Bigfoot
@Old School: That would involve introspection, and mirrors, and Americans are notoriously loathe to do that.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Alexandra Petri is on maternity leave with the new little guy in her life. Whether she will return, though? Open question.
The WaPost has been asking rightwing sites to help them recruit journalists.
That is going to work out well.
Professor Bigfoot
Could you please explain how Democrats are pushing “cultural issues?”
Other than insisting that people other than straight white Christian men have rights, that is.
Spanky
@MattF:
Petri is on maternity leave, though that’s due to be up soon, I think.
Dionne? A good question.
Betty
@BritinChicago: Walz was saying that to young people during the campaign. Not sure how many he was able to convince. They may be understanding it now.
artem1s
@Old School:
I really preferred the timeline when the wingnuts blamed everything on The Men in Black or alien abductions.
Canadian Shield
It’s just a small little youtube channel but I think he states it well – the anger happening up here in Canada. Perhaps its a good 6 minute video to share with someone in the US who’s on the fence?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSq6YkGKprM
Suzanne
@Elizabelle:
Way to light their business on fire. The readership of the WaPo and NYT is probably 2:1 Dems.
Whelp.
Elizabelle
Nato Green has a great suggestion in the Ted talk. Go to public hearings, and you are guaranteed 2 minutes to talk. Don’t have to stay on topic. Make fun of your opponents to their faces. Hmmm.
Old School
@Hildebrand:
No, I don’t mind. I appreciated a good J.D. Vance couch joke. I just like living in a fact-based world.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: I am amused by how many WaPost commenters (such as myself) are there slamming Trump and DOGE on all the articles, and we are there because we have already cancelled our subs, but prepaid — so they have months to run out.
The WaPost commenters are more fun than the articles, and more honest, too. I do appreciate Bezos/Lewis allowing the comments, as a form of engagement.
Meanwhile, Putz Sulzberger and his asshole editor Joe Kahn have greatly reduced reader comments at the Vichy Times. (But if you want to talk about food or a dead celebrity, they are there for you!)
Interestingly, the LA Times has just opened most stories to reader comments too, although that has not taken off too much.
So. WaPost for the win there.
Raoul Paste
@Elizabelle: It’s very annoying to watch Amazon Prime TV promote a documentary about Katharine Graham, and her courageous tenure at the Washington Post.
It’s like rubbing your nose in the turnabout of the paper
Elizabelle
@Raoul Paste: Bit of cognitive dissonance there. Although. We can praise Kay Graham. Cuz she dead. And in the past.
Jesus, I wish Bezos would sell that paper. To a nonprofit, or to someone serious about journalism.
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: We canceled our subscription, too, but it is funny to see how many people are calling them out.
These tech assholes don’t really understand markets, i.e. that they are differentiated. WaPo and NYT have a market — educated bougie urban liberals, mostly in the cities in which they operate — and it’s really, really difficult to change that effectively.
Gretchen
@Elizabelle: Me too. I tried to cancel WaPo, and it seems I paid for a year in December. So I still have months to comment.
@Suzanne: It’s hilarious that they think they can replace us with new subscribers attracted by their recruited Daily Caller columnists>
Kelly
Yesterday I calculated we’d need about $1.5 million in Vanguard Total Bond Market Admiral Fund to generate an income equivalent to what Mrs. Kelly and I will get from Social Security. I plan to start collecting mine next year when I turn 70. Mrs. Kelly will start the year after. Maximize Social Security checks as they are the most secure income steam available to middle income Americans. This has been our plan for a very long time. Really something to watch a decades old financial plan increase risk in a few weeks.
Sure hope the Social Security Administration is still functioning then. I’m probably underestimating the size of the nest egg since I didn’t try to model annual inflation adjustments
edited to add: I calculated a drawdown where the money’s all gone at age 100.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: Truly wonder if it’s actually destroying another form of accountability.
If Bezos wanted to do a good job with the WaPost, it is pocket change to that fucker. He does not.
Elizabelle
@Gretchen: Use them wisely!! Comment away!
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Enshittification isn’t future tense, nor present, it’s past tense having been applied everywhere. There is no thing a billionaire can’t wreck or at least make worse.
Ramalama
@Elizabelle: Excellent, thanks. Gonna catch up on all things Nato, but not NATO.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
TSLA is down over 15% today at the moment.
Even with that, it’s still up over 24% in the last year.
Stocks are crazy things. Especially when crazy people are running the companies.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eunicecycle
@Old School: sort of an update of Niemoller.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
@Suzanne:
It is truly strange not having a WaPo subscription anymore, after growing up reading it and then of course buying it on my own as soon as I had a decent job.
Even for the two decades we lived outside of NoVA, Mrs. Fro (also from there) and I would get a Sunday edition every weekend. When we moved back, we started right back up with regular delivery. Switched to the digital-only version several years ago, but still.
Things change. Time to build something new, I suppose. (Or as Elizabelle noted, hope that Herr Bezos sells it off soon and a responsible publisher steps in). Or both.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Musk should have been skipping like a dipshit for Biden.
ETA: It’s basically back to where it was before the election.
Let’s see if it keeps falling.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@MattF:
Tomato/Tohmahtoh.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Racism >> Economic Self Interest. And not just for the Apartheid (loving) American
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
Gotta a source for that?
It’s not as if they probably need to recruit per se. There’s tons of ‘journalists’ that have come up thru the right-wing mediasphere (just one example, Kaitlan Collins of CNN got her start working for The Daily Caller) that I’m sure are itching to work for the new and “improved” Wa(com)Post.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
To a point. Impoverish the tank and file enough, and some of them will temporarily give Dems a chance to set things right.
JoyceH
@dmsilev: “Donald Trump is always right about everything” is the New Gospel. The other day I heard a guy (on CNN) say that we need to get this Ukraine Russia deal now because Trump is the only person in the universe who can get this deal done. Swear to god – in the UNIVERSE. These guys are out Baghdad Bobbing Baghdad Bob! It’s embarrassing!
And BTW, one thing we need to push back on every time we hear it is the myth that Trump is this awesome deal maker. The truth is that Trump was always a shitty deal maker. He’d see a property he wants and goes after it hell or high water, usually overpaying to the point that it’s no longer possible to make a profit on it regardless of stiffing his contractors. None of his properties turned a profit until he got into politics and they could be used to launder bribes.
And the other noxious myth? That Musk is a visionary tech genius.
Gloria DryGarden
@French Onion Soup: could you tell me your main point, as if I were an eight year old?
and perhaps, do you have a suggestion, what we ought to do? For those of us without the means to get our asses out of here?
I understand the dominos are falling, the house of cards is falling, negative consequences are easily foreseen. Was there more than that in your post? I truly didn’t understand it.
Elizabelle
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Saw it today, but where? Will take a look.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@JoyceH:
Edolph is an Apartheid Princeling whose path to gigantic wealth has been buying a company with inherited wealth, then getting bought out for vastly more. Failing upward, only with Hype!
Several years back, Adam Silverman provided a great summary of Edolph:
Gloria DryGarden
@dmsilev: so is this where we apply “heighten the contradictions?”
See if humpty dumpty can fall from a great height?
Suzanne
@Jeffro: I don’t know if newspapers matter anymore. The more successful ones will become podcast and video clip networks. I don’t know anyone under 40, probably even older than that, who regularly consumes them.
I don’t know if I feel one way or the other about this. The desire for information will be met, of course. Something else will arise to fill that void, and it strikes me as lowercase-c conservative to assume that the new thing will be worse.
Old School
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
@Elizabelle:
Looks like it Oliver Darcy/Status.
From the New York Post:
Joey Maloney
Sad news about Kevin Drum.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Old School:
Example #Gazillion of reporters falling into right-wing framing on any given issue.
Elizabelle
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Aha. It was the NY Post. (Love checking them out for whatever has got the rightwing in poutrage, and no paywall.) Can confirm the item did appear in Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter.
Washington Post publisher looks to lure right-leaning journos as ex-politics reporter joins MSNBC: report
Hilbertsubspace
@French Onion Soup: I smell borscht.
Also, the phrase “we liberals” or “we as liberals” has no real meaning to actual liberals.
The proof of this is left to the reader.
Chief Oshkosh
Contact your Senators today and tomorrow. Tell them to not vote for the bogus “continuing resolution.” It is NOT a clean CR and will simply allow Musk and Trump to continue to break the law. Josh has an excellent primer on this:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-dems-pick-up-their-sword
As they say, read the whole piece. However, here is what I’ve sent my Senators:
Elizabelle
@Canadian Shield: That was very good. Thank you.
I wish to Gawd more Americans would pay attention. We are a nation of juveniles, apparently. Exceptionalism!
RevRick
Aristotle located politics as a category of ethics. It has to do with liberty, equality and justice, which, as Mortimer Adler points out, are the ideas we act on.
Politics is not just the stuff politicians and governments do. Politics are how we shape our world. In fact, the late Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder, wrote Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World. Yoder pointed out that baptism and Communion were originally radical political statements, the former about inclusion of all, and the latter rooted in the radical sharing exemplified in the feeding of the 5000. The others he listed were binding and loosing, multiplicity of gifts, and open meetings.
Politics is inescapable. The food you eat is politics. How you rear children is politics. Whether you have children is politics.
About the only thing that is not politics is farting. Except on a crowded elevator.
sentient ai from the future
@Suzanne: i’ve never seen it, but i hear the final scene of cabaret is relevant
Chief Oshkosh
@Suzanne: That’s as may be, but certainly Bezos, and probably Putzberger, are not running their newspapers to appeal to their readers. Not by a long shot. Nope, they are using their newspapers to influence their readership, to pull it to the right. And if profits go down? Well, that’s why god invented billionaires.
H.E.Wolf
@Hilbertsubspace:
And white, cis, straight, and male as well, or I miss my guess. :)
Gloria DryGarden
@Chief Oshkosh: I’m sure you’re correct.
But that’s horrid to take into consideration. Another appalling detail.
zhena gogolia
@Raoul Paste: I know! I had the same reaction!
Geminid .
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
@schrodingers_cat: I wonder if you saw the New Lines Magazine article about Elon Musk by Capetown-based reporter Joseph Dana. It was published February 19 with the title:
Dana’s article is long and in-depth and concludes:
Link (I hope):
https://www.newlinesmag.com/argument/the-worldview-of-the-afrikaner-diaspora-now-haunts-the-us/
Elizabelle
Good BBC explainer about Welsh tourist Becky Burke, now in immigration custody in Tacoma, Washington. Poor Becky entered the US under Biden’s administration in early January, and attempted to cross the Canadian border in late February — Trump Calvinball.
Becky is a cartoonist. She should get a good graphic novel out of this experience; she has been sharing stories with others also incarcerated by ICE.
Visa rule warning as tourist detained at US border
Her problem is having participated in a Workaway stay with a Portland, OR family (free room and board for unpaid help); Canadian authorities may have deemed that as “work” which was unauthorized under the terms of her tourist visa.
She is good and stuck now, and who knows how long until her case is heard (Trump fired a lot of the judges, whose numbers were already inadequate) and she can be released.
Workaway is covering its own corporate ass. I do wonder how much they explained the potential trouble with a tourist visa, and receiving room and board, which could be considered “compensation.” Although, Canada tightened up their border inspections recently, perhaps in reaction to Trump’s draconian measures.
...now I try to be amused
@Baud:
If he wanted to maximize his fortune, yes. But latching onto Trump is a bigger ego boost for him.
Suzanne
@Chief Oshkosh: Agreed. I just seriously doubt that they’re being really successful with that “pull to the right” goal. College-educated white people is their market, and they shifted leftward. So I think they are more likely to just run the thing into the ground, and some other form — TBD — will spring up to take its place.
Nelle
My neighbor’s son-in-law said yesterday, “This hasn’t affected me yet.” Granted, he has a lot on his plate, dealing with my neighbor’s dual diagnosis of Lewy Body Disease and cancer. But later, I texted him saying that we are all sustaining moral injuries by having those in power denigrate the truth and honor, by repudiating the Constitution and the laws of this nation. It is injurious to us all to have elected and unelected officials pillage the country and strip the government for parts. The ripples haven’t hit him in a big way yet. Yet.
Went to help teach English at the refugee center this morning. More layoffs. It is running on thin baling wire. Then I look at the refugees in the class. Mostly, from Afghanistan. They helped the Americans over there. And things are more precarious than ever here. I’m pissed off. Such lovely people who have lost everything and are trying desperately to build a life here. (I’m a daughter of a refugee who came in the 1920’s.)
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Good lord, the poor woman. Wonder how many times she’s heard “Why can’t you learn to speak English?”
Can anybody report on actually crossing the border from US to Canada these days? Do you literally swim against the fentanyl torrent?
Elizabelle
@Nelle: Good on you for working with the recently arrived Afghans.
What Trump is doing with refugees is a sin. I hope he is not able to expel those Ukrainian refugees already here.
He is a very small and impotent man, who has been given too much power.
Omnes Omnibus
@French Onion Soup: We will miss you, I am sure. Please send us a postcard.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Article says she gets to contact her family via a shared iPad at ICE facility; they cannot call in. Family has arranged for American friends to supply her with an inmate account, so she can get tea and other essentials. (Becky is a vegan.)
Family will have no idea when she is eventually sprung, although maybe they will find an attorney to help. So far the British consulate in San Francisco is not getting many answers from ICE.
Elizabelle
Becky’s situation has been interesting, because I remember looking at Workaway, and dreaming of helping out at a Chilean winery or organic farm, or teaching kids English in return for room and board.
Traveler beware.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, some of us collect stamps.
Elizabelle
Becky’s story via Comics Beat. And she is a talented artist. Here is her website.
Wondering what this will do to this year’s Small Press Expo for cartoonists in DC area in September. They have had trouble before getting visas for some international cartoonists.
Trump and Musk and DOGE are made for lampooning by cartoonists.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
Canada has always deemed “unpaid work” in exchange for room and board, to be “compensation”. The Visa application makes this very clear. Unfortunately, CBP is not policing the people who are scamming the Tourist visa applicants for free labour.
Because she was denied entry to Canada, the reason would be shared with the USCBP, where it is also a violation of the Tourist Visa.
If she had the funds for an overnight stay, (or longer) and a ticket for a return flight to Britain, from Canada, at a Supervisor’s discretion, the CBP could have offered her a short term Visa, (up to 30 days) with a Removal Order, which would have allowed her to stay, (with out working) on the undertaking she leaves Canada by the Removal Order date, which if she overstays or works, results in an immediate arrest, deportation and a ban of up to 5 years from Canada.
Generally, if you are polite, honest and apologetic, CBP Officers are usually sympathetic to people caught in these scams.
Elizabelle
@Jay: I wonder if Becky just caught a hostile or new immigration interviewer. Unclear whether she ever was offered just leaving, and had the funds to fly home from Canada. I would guess that she did have the $$, but more will come out.
Jackie
Won’t be watching.
Also Bezos’ Prime picked up The Apprentice series. Never watched it “when,” and won’t be watching ever.
MisterForkbeard
@Gretchen: I’m in the same boat. Had a year-long sub that refreshed in December. Ugh.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
There are countries where Work-Stay programs are legal on a Tourist Visa, Cultural Exchange, or Educational Visa, (New Zealand for example), others where it is not.
Some of these are still scams. There was a case last year of Indigenous teens, travelling to New Zealand to “learn Maori Culture” They did not learn Maori culture, living conditions were horrible, and instead they were put to work. The group running the “program” weren’t Maori and when the teens realized it was a scam, they reached out to the local Maori groups who “rescued” them.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: I saw that last night and was disgusted.
I have been thinking since last night that I will call Amazon – there is actually a phone number where you can talk to a real person – and demand that they remove the Apprentice from the shows they suggest to me.
If it works, I wonder if we – all of us who have Prime – could all call.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: I think you should call Amazon.
But: you can remove The Apprentice from your suggestions by clicking on it and giving a thumbs down. (I just did.) It will not show up again.
Fuck Trump. And Bezos for his toadiness.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
We have a show here called “Border Security”, pretty sure you guys have it too. I am always amazed by the dumb, the entitled, the aggressive.
Elizabelle
boing boing weighs in on Becky Burke’s incarceration:
British tourist discovers exciting new way to get jailed in hellworld America: walking a dog
Tourism offices all over the country have to be slapping their foreheads and drinking early tonight.
Just cannot buy publicity of the sort that Trumpworld provides.
Elizabelle
Breaking from WaPost:
NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake
The order covers about 80 awards to researchers seeking to understand why vaccine acceptance has declined.
rikyrah
Truth
Not just the Ukrainians. The betrayal of the Afghanis who helped us. And, others. It just enrages me.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Why wasn’t she just put on a flight to Wales?
Gloria DryGarden
@rikyrah: enrages me, too.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Exactly. No information on that.
Rusty
@Old School: I was watching people piling on Columbia University for having the Trump administration cut $400M in grants. Whatever you think of Columbia’s response, the people to be angry with and look to boycott are not the University and it’s faculty and students, it’s Trump and his minions. But that’s not what’s happening. JFC.
Jay
@rikyrah:
@Elizabelle:
Often, when they are just entering, they are “put on” the next flight out and their visa is cancelled. It’s because knowingly or unknowingly intending to violate your visa, the Border Officer has the authority to cancel your visa before if becomes valid.
If on the other hand, you violated the terms and conditions of your visa after it was validated, you have committed an “Immigration Crime”, and only an Immigration Judge can apply sanctions and revoke the visa.
If it is believed by the CBP Officer’s Supervisor that you won’t show up for your hearing, you are detained.
TBone
This seems like pretty explosive news
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/gsa-chat-doge-ai/681987/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0WRow-SjWKp8rC-Tiwb8OKU
WTF, OVER!
Jay
@Rusty:
Keep in mind, that a lot, probably the majority of what you see in “reactions” online are not authentic.
Jay
@TBone:
It was expected. Musk’s own Grok AI Chatbot, if you ask it, says that Felon Husk is the greatest threat to Democracy globally, and that he is a Nazi.
schrodingers_cat
Any guesses which party is being lambasted for what’s happening to Khalil?
TBone
@Jay: expected by us, maybe, but who else? Most normies don’t even know its happening. Or what the GSA does.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data.gov
Jay
@TBone:
They are also rolling it out for the TSA and the FAA.
On the bright side, the ” 6 Inauguration Billionaires Brat Pack” have lost a combined stock value of $209 billion dollars so far
Landing that 747 should become real fun when the aircraft needs to bear left because of the crosswind but the AI won’t say “left” because it a banned woke word.
TBone
@Jay: I’m guessing you didn’t read the original Atlantic article I posted or the follow up pointer to the GSA being in charge of Data.gov (where they are removing data sets as we speak) among many other important functions like government contracting & procurement, etc. (a very long list).
Jay
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-paranoid-style-in-maga-policy
Punchline,
Jay
@TBone:
I did, I also read the Atlantic article about what is happening at the FAA.
Keep in mind, most “normies” don’t even know about the separation of powers. Normies think that USAID is 20% of the US Budget, not 0.01%. They think that 20% of people are Trans, 40% are Black and 60% are gay. They can’t do basic math, and are by scholastic standards, functionally illiterate. They don’t know the difference between asylum as an immigration term and asylum as a mental health term.
TBone
@Jay: sadly yes indeed.
So not enough are gonna get scared or angry enough…soon enough
Geminid .
There was important news out of Syria. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement regarding integrating SDF forces into the national.
Pi tures show al-Sharaa and Abdi each signing a copy of the agreement and then shaking hands as they smile for the cameras. President al-Sharaa is wearing a sharp-looking blue jacket with a gray tie while Commander Abdi has on a dark coat and open-necked shirt. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Abdi out of his SDF uniform before, but the message of this agreement is transition.
The negotiations leading to this agreement commenced three months ago with the fall of the Assad regime. They have involved future arrangements for Turkiye’s civil governance as well as crucial security questions.
Turkish security analyst Levent Kemal has been monitoring these developments and commented:
Kemal referenced CENTCOM commander Michael Kurilla’s recent visit to Northeast Syria to confer with US commanders there, and presumably with commander Abdi as well.
The Amman summit referred to happened Sunday and was a working meeting of defense and intelligence chiefs and staff from Jordan, Turkiye, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also attended. They are working on a common approach to their neighborhood’s pressing security challenges including ISIS.
The agreement al-Sharaa and Abdi signed is potentially a big step forward for Syria. The area east of the Euphrates River that is under SDF control holds most of Syria’s oil resources and far Northeastern Hazaka(sp?) Governate produces much of Syria’s wheat.
This is important because right now Syria’s economy is trying to recover from almost 15 years of civil war and decades more of rule by the Assad family. Economically, an estimated 90 per cent of Syrians live at a level of poverty. Poverty has been a lesser but very real problem for much of the region, especially since we Yankees destabilized it in 2003.
The area in question also came out of the civil war with real tensions among its Arab, Kurdish and Turkman communities that have at times turned violent; also, ISIS still has not been suppressed. So this agreement could go a long way towards resolving Syria’s overall security challenge.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle:
Not so! I did that immediately. It’s still under “cool new stuff recently added” or whatever they call it. It’s right there in my face, even after the thumbs down.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Well that’s ghastly.
Fuck Bezos. Fuck Trump.
Jay
@Geminid .:
While it is good news on one hand, there was the bad news as well.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve already seen it here today.
Steve in the ATL
@TBone: you have to admire their dedication to the “break things” ethos
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
The reddit threads I’ve seen blame the right people.
Jay
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/in-affidavit-former-social-security
zhena gogolia
I hate to ask, but has Eolirin been around lately?
mrmoshpotato
Holy shit, Batman!
Well done on the stock market plunge to Putin’s bitch and the South African Nazi shitstain who no one voted for!
TBone
@Steve in the ATL: that’s one way of putting it politely!
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: I feel like I have seen Eolirin in the past 3 to 4 days. Although I have missed way more than I have read this week.
Geminid .
@Jay: I think this agreement can contribute to resolving conflicts that led to the fighting and bloodshed last week in northwest Syria, and easing tensions in the south as well.. We’ll see if it does.
The agreement at least leaves al-Sharaa better able to concentrate on those problems. And it’s important that Abdi and the SDF are working with al-Sharaa and Syria’s army instead of at cross purposes.
But I’m just glad the Trump administration hasn’t fucked this problem up. Yet.
Origuy
@Baud: Finally cancelled my WP subscription. That was the last straw.
TBone
@Jay: even more in that vein
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/destroying-social-security-from-within
Enshittify!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: On X and BSky the leftier-than-thous are blaming the Democrats.
Jay
Another day ending in “Y”, Felon Husk is lying again.
https://nitter.poast.org/wartranslated/status/1899217680709870061#m
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
Space Nazi’s site only contains Nazi’s, ruZZians and bots in the comments.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Ignore them. A lot of them are trolls and fakes.
Or terminally stupid.
Josie
@Jay:
One of the comments states that “actors” have already claimed to have done it. Do you know who that would be?
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/Tendar/status/1899202873096827181#m
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Plenty of them are real people. You see this on BJ and BSKy also.
Jay
@Josie:
“Dark Storm Team” has claimed the DDoS attack.
Apparently a pro-Palestinian globally distributed Hacker Group.
But we will see.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
On the internet, no one knows you are a dog.
Geminid .
@Jay: The German commentator Tendar does not comment that often about US matters as such, but he is an astute observer and is not prone to exaggeration.
Josie
@Jay:
Thanks.
Jay
@Josie:
Thing is, they could be almost anyone.
What is known, is they have pretty sophisticated tools, target NATO countries, Israel and pro-Israel countries and groups.
Sowing dissent and breaking things is something that anybody, (ruZZia, China, Sawdi Arabia, Serbia, various criminal groups) can do under a “false flag”. Could even be hackers for hire.
It’s not uncommon for black hat hackers to do ransom wear under one hat, bitcoin heists under another, scams under a third, and 4hire, political hits under a 4th.
Josie
@Jay:
Wow, this is all way above my pay grade. I’m glad to be on a blog with people (like you) who actually understand it.
Ruckus
@Kelly:
I’ve remarked here on another post that I’m an old and I live off Social Security, which may not be a gold mine, but unless one makes a lot of money and saves a fair bit of it, many/most might not live in any reasonable way without it. It isn’t the end all be all of retirement income in any way shape or form, but it is far, far better than nothing and for me it is enough to live on.