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Windsock

Best of the Web: Why Macron wants off the Israel bandwagon

NetMac
© Kamil Zihnioglu/APIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu • French President Emmanuel Macron
The attack on Lebanon interferes in France's sphere of influence, but Paris can't do anything about it without Washington.

French President Emmanuel Macron would like Israel to slow its roll now, please. Because it's acting like a spoiled brat who has been given a Ferrari by the West, and now behaves like the rules of the road don't exist, blowing past every exit ramp en route to escalation with its neighbors.

And now the inevitable has happened: a head-on collision between Israeli and French interests. Because that's the thing with spoiled brats - the day you say "No," you, too, become a problem.

All this is happening now because Israel has crossed a red line for France in subjecting Lebanon to what the Western establishment would be blatantly calling an "invasion," if Lebanon were Ukraine and Israel were Russia. French is spoken by about half of the Lebanese population and France considers the country to be within its sphere of influence, both linguistic and economic.

Star of David

Best of the Web: War on Gaza: Israel wants to finish the job Washington started after 9/11

IDF artillery shell lebanon
© ReutersAn Israeli soldier carries a shell, amid cross-border hostilities between Lebanon and Israel on 7 October, 2024
As the conflict expands across the Middle East, western leaders refuse to implement any red lines for Tel Aviv

Nearly a decade ago, a leading Israeli human rights activist divulged to me a private conversation he'd had a short time earlier with one of Europe's ambassadors to Israel. He had clearly been shaken by the exchange.

The ambassador's country was then widely seen as one of the most sympathetic in the West to the Palestinian people. The Israeli activist had expressed concerns about Europe's inaction in the face of relentless Israeli attacks on Palestinian rights and systematic violations of international law.

At the time, Israel was enforcing a lengthy siege on Gaza that had deprived more than two million people there of the essentials of life, and it had repeatedly bombed urban areas, killing hundreds of civilians.

In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel had intensified its expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, leading to a surge in violence from settler militias and the Israeli army. Palestinians were being killed and driven off their land.

Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Tornadoes, floods as Hurricane Milton carves path of destruction in Florida - 3 million without power - at least 21 dead, 45 tornadoes reported (UPDATE)

A car is stranded after Hurricane Milton
© Miguel J Rodriguez Carrillo/AFPA car is stranded after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Brandon, Florida, on October 9, 2024
Hurricane Milton has left a trail of destruction in Florida as it whipped up tornadoes and brought torrential rains and raging winds that destroyed homes and knocked out power for millions of people in the US state.

While the National Hurricane Center said on Thursday that the storm, which made landfall on the state's western coast hours earlier, had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, it was still hurtling through Florida with wind speeds of 150 km/h (93mph).

Milton made landfall at about 8:30pm (00:30 GMT) on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 195km/h (121mph) near Siesta Key, Florida.

The storm is expected to maintain hurricane strength as it crosses the Florida peninsula and emerges into the Atlantic on Thursday, forecasters said, despite it running out of steam.

At least 19 tornadoes ripped across the southern part of Florida, hundreds of miles from the centre of the storm, as it neared land.

More than 3 million people in Florida were left without power power as of 3:58am (07:58 GMT), according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks supplies, with the state's west coast worst affected.


Comment: Update

NDTV.com reports:
Hurricane Milton plowed into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after cutting a destructive path across Florida that spawned tornados, killed at least 10 people and left millions without power, but the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the "worst-case scenario," though he cautioned the damage was still significant. The Tampa Bay area appeared to sidestep the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing the government had reports of at least 10 deaths from Milton, adding it appeared they were caused by tornados.

In St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast, a spate of tornados killed five people, including at least two in the senior-living Spanish Lakes Communities, county spokesperson Erick Gill said. Search-and-rescue teams there are combing through hard-hit areas, including a mobile-home park.

There were 19 confirmed tornados in Florida as of 8 pm Wednesday, about the time Milton made landfall, DeSantis said. Some 45 tornados were reported throughout the day, mostly in the central and eastern parts of the state, the National Weather Service said.
Update October 13

Reuters reports:
The death toll in Florida from Hurricane Milton climbed to 21 on Saturday, days after the monstrous Category 3 storm ravaged the state with over 100 miles per hour winds, a near-record storm surge and a historic tornado outbreak.

According to Fox Weather, the deadly hurricane left nearly four million people without power in the coastal state of the United States, where normalcy still eludes much of the state amid continued recovery efforts.

The deaths mainly resulted from strong tornadoes that swept through the state ahead of Milton's landfall.

At least two were killed by falling trees and another by stepping on an active downed power line in the storm's aftermath, officials said, according to Fox Weather.

As communities assess and clean up the damage in the aftermath of the recent back-to-back major hurricanes on both coasts, extensive power outages continue to exacerbate the situation.



USA

Best of the Web: Free Speech 101: Americans need a refresher course on our most fundamental right

Bill of Rights
© Associated PressThe Bill of Rights is printed in Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump's "God Bless the USA" Bible in Washington on Oct. 8, 2024.
The most consequential issue on the ballot this November is the fate of free speech.

At Donald Trump's campaign rally Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaped on the stage and urged the nation to support the former president as the free-speech candidate.

It's "the bedrock of democracy," Musk proclaimed — as he warned that "the other side wants to take away your freedom of speech."

That's true: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want government and its proxies to muzzle us, limiting what we can post on social media and censoring whatever government functionaries deem "misinformation" or "hate" — and a disturbingly large number of Americans say they agree.

Star of David

Best of the Web: Israel: Simply no red lines at all

Nasser hospital gaza
Nasser Hospital's maternity ward, Khan Younis, was bombed in December 2023
There is literally no act so vile that the UK, US and Germany will not support if perpetrated by the terrorist state of Israel.

Yesterday Israel:
  • deliberately attacked UN peacekeepers in three separate bases;
  • bombed residential central Beirut killing and maiming hundreds;
  • abducted, beat up and held an American journalist;
  • slaughtered 30 Palestinian refugees in an UNRWA school;
  • was found by an official UN Commission Report to be guilty of the crime against humanity of "extermination" in Gaza.
Any single one of these outrages would be roundly condemned if committed by any country at all except Israel, and would lead to repercussions.

But Israel can commit them all in a single day and suffer not one word of obloquy from the leading Western powers (although it does appear that the attack on UN peacekeepers may have snapped Macron's subservience - whether it's just a blip remains to be seen).

Star of David

Best of the Web: Washington spent at least $23bn in ONE YEAR to 'assist' Israel: Report

A GBU-31 Version 3 america bomb
© U.S. ArmyA GBU-31 Version 3 munition lays on a munition assembly conveyor at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho,.
The historic figure does not include details of hundreds of arms deals that US officials obscured by keeping them below the threshold that would have required Congress approval

The US government spent at least $22.76 billion between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2024 to support Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and fuel the raging regional war, according to a report published by Brown University's Costs of War project.

Since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Hamas one year ago, Washington provided Israel with $17.9 billion in military aid alone, the highest amount in the two countries' histories, adjusted for inflation. Nevertheless, the report highlights that "this figure represents only a partial picture of total US support for the Israeli [army] over that time period."

A large portion of Washington's "security assistance" for Israel consists of munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bombs that have been dropped over residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon.

Explosion

Best of the Web: Danish media reports US Navy was spotted near Nord Stream blasts

Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge sweden
© Getty Images / Reinaldo UbillaWasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge at the harbour in Stockholm, Sweden, ahead of the 'Baltops 22' exercise.
American warships were operating in the area with their transponders switched off, Politiken has reported

US Navy vessels were operating near the Nord Stream pipelines shortly before the explosions that crippled the connectors in the Baltic Sea, Danish newspaper Politiken has reported, citing a local harbormaster. The newspaper added that their transponders - used to locate vessels for safety purposes - had been switched off.

The crucial energy infrastructure, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, was ruptured by underwater blasts in September 2022.

The piece by Politiken was published on September 26 but largely went unnoticed. However, it resurfaced on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, with claims being reposted by Glenn Greenwald and other prominent journalists.

Comment: Practically a freaking confession. You know you live in a vassal state when your leader submits to having your entire economy wrecked in pursuit of his master's goals:




Eye 2

Best of the Web: American music industry giant 'Diddy' accused of abusing 9yo boy and spiking drinks with horse tranquilizer as 120 victims come forward with shocking claims

trial of diddy
In bombshell allegations, an additional 120 victims have come forward to accuse rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs of sex abuse over a span of 25 years, with several underage victims, including a 9-year-old, among them.

The claims where made by Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee who announced he's representing 120 new victims who he believes have legitimate cases against the rapper turned media mogul.

Of the 120 new victims, 25 were underage when the alleged abuse happened between 1991 and as recently as this year, Buzbee revealed.

The youngest victims were 9, 14, 15 when they were victimized, the high-profile lawyer announced at a press conference in Houston Tuesday.

'This individual, who was 9 years old at the time, was taken to an audition in New York City with Bad Boy Records,' the attorney disclosed.

Comment: Previously:


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: The reprehensible audacity Of FEMA being broke

mayorkas Fema
© Associated PressMayorkas three months ago: “FEMA is tremendously prepared for hurricane season”
We don't even have the decency to fake as though we care about our own citizens anymore.

Part of what I love about having this blog is that it is cathartic for me when I want to be heard, understood, or otherwise just bitch and moan about things in the world of finance, the economy, and politics that I find askew.

From the jump, one of the things I have written about is how dead wrong both sides of the political aisle have our fiscal and monetary policy. With monetary policy, both parties have quietly fallen in line under the mutated breed of Keynesian economics our Federal Reserve implements, which rests on the sole idea of printing money and praying that either hyperinflation doesn't occur or the economy doesn't collapse.

Republicans occasionally criticize the Federal Reserve and pepper in objections here and there about our abuse of the dollar, but when all is said and done, they fall in line behind monetary policy as it stands today. Democrats have gone full non sequitur and, through the miracle of faux-intellectual academic bullshit squared, have somehow convinced themselves that none of the basic rules of economics — such as debits and credits and supply and demand — exist anymore.

Comment:




Tsunami

Best of the Web: Heavy rain triggers floods, landslides in Nepal: 241 dead, 29 missing - foot of rainfall in 24 hours (UPDATES)

Security force members use an inflatable raft to bring residents to safety from a flooded area near the bank of the overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
© ReutersSecurity force members use an inflatable raft to bring residents to safety from a flooded area near the bank of the overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Floods and landslides triggered by heavy downpours in Nepal killed at least 59 people across the Himalayan country, with rescue teams searching for 44 missing, police said Saturday.

"So far, there are 59 dead, 36 wounded and 44 missing," Nepal police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.

Earlier in the day, reports suggested that the majority of the fatalities occurred in the Kathmandu Valley, home to four million people and the nation's capital. In some areas of Kathmandu, up to 322.2 mm of rain fell in the past 24 hours, stranding residents on rooftops and elevated areas.


Comment: Update September 29

The Economic Times reports:
Floods and landslides in Nepal have resulted in 129 deaths over the past 24 hours, according to data from the Armed Police Force (APF) and Nepal Police on Sunday. Additionally, 62 people are missing, and at least 100 others have sustained injuries. Nepal has also had to close down its schools for three days. Authorities reported significant damage to university and school buildings, making repairs necessary.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," said Lakshmi Bhattarai, spokesperson for the education ministry told Reuters.

The heavy rains disrupted traffic and daily life in the Kathmandu valley, which has a population of 4 million.

Some areas of the capital experienced up to 322.2 mm (12.7 inches) of rainfall, raising the Bagmati river 2.2 meters (7 feet) above the danger mark. However, Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster, noted that the intensity of rain had decreased by Sunday morning, with only isolated showers expected.

Rescue efforts are ongoing, with police teams clearing mud and recovering bodies from two buses caught in a landslide on a key route into Kathmandu.
Update September 30

AP reports:
The number of people killed by flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall over the weekend in Nepal reached 193 while recovery and rescue work stepped up Monday.

Many of the deaths were in the capital, Kathmandu, which got heavy rainfall, and much of southern part of the city was flooded. Police said in a statement that 31 people were still reported missing and 96 people were injured across the Himalayan nation.
Update October 1

AP reports:
Rescuers on Tuesday searched for people still missing and tried to recover bodies of those killed in weekend flooding and landslides in Nepal that killed more than 200 people.

Weather continued to improve, and workers were clearing the highways that were blocked by landslides. Sections of several highways next to raging rivers were washed away, however, and those repairs will likely take longer.

The disaster came just ahead of the country's biggest festival Dasain, which begins on Thursday when people return home to celebrate with their families. The damage to roads is likely to hamper festival travel plans for many.

The government has said it was focusing on helping people who were stranded and who have lost their homes in the flooding and landslides.

Nepal police said the death toll by Tuesday had reached 217 while 143 people had been injured. There were still 28 people who were reported missing and searches were continuing for them.
Update October 4

ANI reports:
The death toll from the rain-induced disaster, which began last Saturday, has risen to 241, with 29 still missing, according to the Armed Police Force (APF).

According to the hydrology department's readings on September 28, three weather stations in Kavrepalanchowk recorded record-high rainfall. Khopasi weather station recorded 331.6mm, Panchkhal recorded 232.5mm, and Dhulikhel recorded 224.6mm of rain.

On the same day, 22 other weather stations across Nepal also recorded record rainfall, despite earlier projections that the country would receive above-average rainfall this year.