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Hear the laughter?
Photo: John Kerry Solutions Ltd.
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Roger's got a message.
GPS antenna included
Photo: Flickr
Photo: La Scala/Marco Brescia
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Photo: Olivier Cleynen
Just like this, only smaller.
Photo: Reuters/Bader
Photo: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino
Illustration
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
"Nathalie", Carnevale di Venezia 2014, by Erich Reindl [click photo to enlarge]
Mr Reindl (our Vienna correspondent), has been coming to the Carnival of Venice each year since 1985, both as a photographer and as a maschera. He is author of some of the best photos of the Carnevale that have ever been taken.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Amount a Texas safari club raised in January for the protection of black rhinos by selling a permit to hunt a black rhino : $350,000"
This and more in this week's Harper's Index from Harper's.
Saturday, 15 March 2014
This says it all Equation: Wikipedia
A team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reports having detected the elusive gravitational waves representing an echo of the cosmic inflation, an unimaginably rapid expansion of the nascent Universe 10-34 seconds after the Big Bang.
If the finding survives the scrutiny it's bound to receive in the coming weeks and months, it will represent a dramatic confirmation of the hitherto untested predictions of the General Theory of Relativity.
Friday, 14 March 2014
Looking empty these days Photo: Reuters/Konstantin Chernichkin
No one knows to whom belongs the palatial dacha on the outskirts of Kiev until recently occupied by Viktor Yanukovych, the thuggish ex-president of Ukraine, though it is a safe bet his name will eventually pop up from under a mountain of mail boxes, entries on computer disks, and filing folders in one-man legal offices in those famous offshore locations which are London and Vienna.
Le Monde refers to the "outrageous luxury and uncertain taste" of the place, adding that when asked, Yanukovych used to say he was but a tenant, and that the owners were foreigners who occasionally visited Ukraine.
Sergey Leshchenko of the Ukrainska Pravda has been sniffing around the dacha since 2009. He discovered the beneficial owner, a fake outfit called Tantalit, 99.97% owned by an Austrian entity Euro East Beteiligungs, and by one Pavlo Litovchenko, to the inaudible tune of 0.03%. Litovchenko, however, is linked to Yanukovych's eldest son, Oleksander, so those 0.03% might end up being a majority stake.
65% of Euro East Beteiligungs, it turns out, is owned by the EuroEast Bank, and the remaining 35% by Blythe, a letter box in Harley Street, which harbours also a company owning the ample forest surrounding the domicile, Yanukovych's hunting grounds.
Blythe suddenly took on importance when the EuroEast Bank vanished in a puff of smoke, and it became the sole owner of the Euro East Beteiligung. At the head of Blythe one finds one Dr Reinhard Proksch and his trust, P & A Corporate Services of Vaduz, Liechtenstein...
We are sure that there is no need to say more dear Reader. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph “Jay” Morse, the U.S. Army’s top sexual-assault prose- cutor, was suspended for allegedly groping a colleague at a conference on sexual assault".
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 10 March 2014
The shadows are closing Photo: AFP/Clemens Bilan
We had described earlier how the swarms of sarkozystes at Place Beauvau would eventually catapult François Hollande clear out of the Elysée and into the pasture, where better to ruminate upon the failure to clear and fumigate said premises after Sarko's ousting in May 2012. The revelation of the Gayet affair provided an amuse-guele.
It now seems that Sarko himself will be an early catapultee into the dock from where to better answer some tough questions from the magistrates about corruption. Good bye hopes for another presidency, goodbye Carlita.
Several articles in the French press, mainly in this weekend's Le Monde, recount a jaw-dropping intrigue at the heart of the French power, which is bound to leave dead and mutilated bodies on the ground, one of which, this time, is going to be Zoltan's. Here's the story.
It began on 19 April 2013 when magistrates launched an enquiry into the financing of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign by Libya. The judges took a drastic decision to put in place surveillance of Sarkozy and his two ministers of the interior, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux. In December 2013 several conversations between Hortefeux and an ex-chief of the judiciary police in Paris leak to Le Monde, revealing an embarrassing proximity of the agents conducting the investigation to the politicians they investigated, resulting in a dismissal of a top policeman.
Fear grips the Sarkozy camp. Sarko himself becomes laconic on his official cellphone. But when the judges enquire, they discover he has another cellphone, registered under a false name. They bug that one too. Subsequent surveillance reveals frequent conversations with another cellphone, also obtained under a false flag, subsequently traced to Sarko's lawyer, the formidable Maître Thierry Herzog, phone obtained expressly for the purpose of establishing a discrete communication channel with Sarkozy.
But it wasn't discrete, and surveillance revealed that both Sarkozy and Me Herzog were unusually well-informed about another affair being investigated by the magistrates, and which involved both Sarko and his lawyer. That affair concerned Liliane Bettencourt, from whom Sarko was alleged to extract bundles of cash for the same 2007 campaign, and the Affair Tapie, concerning acquisition by the oligarch Bernard Tapie of the bank Crédit Lyonnais, on which deal la République had lost half-a-billion euros, subsequently revealed to have been pocketed by Bernie.
No skin off Nico's nose. Having Bernie for a chum was more important. And isn't La République there to be milked in the first place?
So the question was how Nico and his lawyer were able to be so minutely and timely informed about what was happening at the Cour de Cassation, France's court of highest instance, where the magistrates were headquartered.
Southern Comfort
The answer was Gilbert Azibert, general counsel at the Cour de Cassation (pictured here working in his cubicle on Place Vendôme), to which he had been nominated by Sarko, with a Légion d'Honneur thrown in for a good measure. A firebrand of the right-wing and old royalist (anyone remember liberté, égaalité, fraternité?), Azibert was a natural ally, and, having access to the court's intranet, a perfectly placed agent to keep one abreast of the goings on.
He was approaching retirement. To further sweeten his already sweet packet of a high fonctionnaire, he thought to land himself a sinecure by becoming a conseil d'état to His Highness Prince Albert II of the sunny Monaco, a post carrying a tax-free €18,000 a month salary and other perks.
Sarko was the needy man of the moment, with the muscle to pull it off. Azibert rolled up his starched sleeves in front of the computer screen at the Cour de Cassation.
The snag was that he was watched too.
Coincidence
The Sarkozys had spent the last week of February vacationing in Monaco, where Nico was taking rejuvenating baths at the Hôtel de Paris. (Alain Ducasse has a restaurant on the premises, in case someone got hungry.) Thierry Herzog arrived soon after to stay at the hotel for the balance of the week, though he's got a house in Nice, a spitting distance away from Monaco.
Suspicious minds might think they came to press Azibert's case. Oh, come on!
The Hungarian goulash is stewing.
Postscriptum. As we were going to press, Le Point reported that Azibert tried to commit suicide, and that he was at a hospital in Bordeaux. The information was confirmed by the French Magistrate's Union. Azibert's son, however, has said that dad, poor lamb, had fallen from the stairs. DD smells the aftershave of the ubiquitous Me Herzog.
Bodies are beginning to drop sooner than we'd expected.
Friday, 7 March 2014
She saw it coming from her window Photo: Reuters
Move over Zbig, a new monster brain bursts onto the geostrategy stage.
Six years ago, Sarah Palin spoke of Putin's invading Ukraine. The unfolding Russian aggression seems to dramatically validate the prophecy. It would be laughable, of course, to assume it was in any way her idea, since it's unlikely she had been aware of the country's existence before the cramming all-nighters with Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering, hired in panic by McCain for the occasion. Unlike Eliza Doolittle's, however, Sarah's thought-unclouded eyes had only got clouded with confusion. The momentous pronouncement itself is a bushism:
Yes, and Africa is a country, North Korea is an ally, and the dinosaurs roamed the earth with the humans.
It's America's great tragedy that it allows monkeys to speak into the microphone as if they were real persons, while shunting thoughtful people into obscurity or letting them not participate. This points to an absence of a self-preservation instinct. The effects are there for all to see.
So, maybe not a cigar, but surely a banana for Sarah.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Retail politics in Paris Photo: Le Monde/SIPA
Campaigning for the mayorship of Paris, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Sarko's minister for the environment, stops by to have a clope with the clochards. Given that the poor nowadays vote against their own interests, she may even get their votes.
One can't but wonder what a photo of a candidate smoking a ciggy in public would do to his prospects stateside.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Vice President Joe Biden encouraged a Canadian woman to sign up for health insu- rance under the Affordable Care Act. “I didn’t know if I should just say ‘I’m sorry — Canadian,’ ” said the woman."
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Piff...!! Photo: Egitaniense
It's been a year since we've launched Daily Detox.
It was with a essay on Beppe Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle. 156 essays, 400 Aperçus later, and a dash of evolutionary process, we've made it to here.
We hope to continue to do our little part detoxifying the intoxicated, decoding the encoded, and shining light on the hidden and the censored.
We thank our Readers worldwide for reading, and wish for their many returns. Special thanks go to our Correspondents for their contributions.
Ande Rychter,
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Image: Blackphone
A clapperproof smartphone has been unveiled at a geekfest in Barcelona. The phone, jointly developed by GeekPhone and Silent Circle, uses a modified version of the Android operating system called PrivatOS as a platform, which is overlaid with several layers of additional code making the phone impenetrable to the curious. Serious geeks are involved, among them Phil Zimmermann, who invented the PGP.
The Anglo-Saxon press seems to be protecting the readers from the information. A cursory search of the BBC and the New York Times sites for "Blackphone" drew a blank. So did a search of The Guardian, but in their case we think it's sloppiness.
Blackphone has a video worth seeing.
Spread this information generously to counter the timidity of the press.
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Chevron delivered gift certificates for a large pizza and a two-liter bottle of soda to 100 households in Bobtown, Pennsylvania, following an explosion and five-day-long fire at a fracking well in neighboring Dunkard Township. “We are committed to taking action,” said a letter accompanying the certificates."
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Behold love, truth, and beauty Painting by Mark Rothko, Tate Gallery, London
It's been reported that a cleaner at an art gallery in Bari, mistaking an exhibition item for rubbish, relegated it to the rubbish bin, and that on other occasions, a similar thing happened to the artists Gustav Metzker and Damien Hirst. DD is sorry for them, but not overly.
Someone once asked Ruskin to explain what art was. He replied that he didn't know, but that he knew what it was that a work absolutely required in order to qualify as art. They were, he said, love, truth, and beauty, and that absence of any one of them disqualified the piece as art.
On a rainy London morning some 20 years ago, the Editor went to the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) to satisfy his curiosity. At one point he found himself before a vast unframed canvas, entirely white, at the bottom corner of which, near the floor, a sign proclaimed it to be the œuvre of a Mark Rothko. A smaller print indicated that the item had been actually purchased.
Clearly something didn't jibe—the money changed hands, the cart was there, but not the goods.
Tintoretto, who was also a fan of the XXXL format, filled his canvas with universes of glory, enough for a dozen doctoral dissertations of conflicting conclusions. Here, nada, zip, zero, niente, no detectable love, truth, or beauty. At least by one measure, the painting didn't belong to an art gallery.
If things have changed since, it's for the worse: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, for example, saw it fit to dedicate a room to a complex machine laying huge plastic turds, continually removed by a conveyer belt through an opening in a wall into another room. At the (annual) Biennale di Venezia, national pavilions compete for the palme d'or in ugliness of their exhibits, and for the golden globes in banality. "Save the whales", and "No nukes!" seem to be the perennially popular themes; ashen grays and body parts dominate the artistic landscape. The spiritual Buchenwald of the nearby François Pineault Collection makes one grope for Prozac.
DD would like to table a modest proposal: instead of press previews, why not use the time to let cleaners roam new art exhibits with the mandate to clear all they deem rubbish? Egos would be pricked, but art would benefit.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
During a trip to announce federal relief measures for California, which is suffering its worst drought on record, U.S. president Barack Obama pledged to include a $1 billion fund to fight climate change in his 2015 budget and played golf at two of Coachella Valley’s 124 courses, which collectively consume 17 percent of the region’s water."
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Way too cheap and effective USAF/Kenn Mann
Writing* in the February issue of Harper's, Andrew Cockburn describes how the US Air Force shot itself in the foot with depleted uranium. Here's the opening salvo.
On the other end was a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), a specialist whose job is to assign and direct air strikes. The JTAC was reporting Troops in Contact (TIC) — meaning that American soldiers were under fire. Although the entire, acronym-sprinkled transmission was on a secure “strike frequency,” such communications can enjoy a wider audience, not only among the crews of other planes in the neighborhood but at various headquarters across the theater and beyond. Such was the case with this particular mission, making it possible to piece together an account of the ensuing tragedy.
After reporting the TIC, the controller, who was inside a base headquarters somewhere in eastern Afghanistan, informed the pilots that the enemy force was a large one and read out a grid coordinate. Reaching the designated spot, however, the pilots reported “no joy” — i.e., no sign of action. They were directed to another grid, and then to a third, with the same result. At the fourth location, the flight leader reported the presence of a farm building. People and animals were visible, he said, but no one with a weapon, nor was there any sign of military activity.
The JTAC refused to accept this conclusion. According to one listener, he told the pilots that the ground commander, who was most likely sitting in the same room, “has determined that everybody down there is hostile.” He then ordered them to prepare for a bombing or strafing run for the A-10, whose 30mm cannon is capable of firing 4,200 rounds per minute.
The pilots continued to insist that they could see nothing out of the ordinary, reporting “normal patterns of life.” The JTAC had at least a rough means of confirming this situation: like many other aircraft, the A-10 carries a “targeting pod” under one wing, which in daylight transmits video images of the ground below, and infrared images at night. This video feed is displayed on the plane’s instrument panel and is relayed to the JTAC’s array of LCD screens in his operations center, and frequently to other intelligence centers around the globe.
The pilots, who could fly low and slow close to the target and study it through binoculars, had a much more detailed view. Circling above the mud-brick farm building, they affirmed it to be a “bad target.” Now, however, there was a new voice on the frequency. A B-1 bomber, cruising high above the clouds, was checking in and reporting its position to the JTAC. Originally developed to deliver nuclear bombs to Moscow at supersonic speeds, the 150-ton plane with its four-man crew lacks the A-10’s low-level maneuverability and detailed views from the cockpit. It relies instead on what I am told are crude video displays and instructions from the ground to hit its targets. Yet it is now commonly employed for the same purpose as the A-10: close air support.
As the B-1 broke in with offers to take over the mission, the controller’s voice grew increasingly frustrated. He continued to insist that the farm was a hostile target. Finally, his patience snapped, and as other listeners recall, he again asked the A-10 flight leader if he was willing to prepare for an attack.
“No,” replied the pilot. “No, we’re not.”
The controller addressed the same question to the B-1, which had been privy to the A-10’s ongoing reports.
“Ready to copy,” came the quick, affirmative reply.
Down below, the unwitting objects of all this potent dialogue, a farmer named Shafiullah and his family, were settling in for the night. They would not have understood what it meant when the whine of the A-10s was replaced by the deeper rumble of the huge bomber, which was meanwhile confirming that it had “weaponeered” a mixture of large and small satellite-guided bombs. A few minutes later, the farm building was torn apart by three huge explosions that killed Shafiullah, his wife, and five of their seven children, the youngest of the victims only ten months old. Two other children were wounded but somehow managed to survive.
USAF is planning to retire the A-10, which Cockburn call's "its most effective weapon", and replace it with other, unsuitable aircraft, among them the hero of the above story, the B-1.
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Percentage change in the past five years in the portion of Republicans who believe in evolution : –26" (See also.)
This and more in this week's Harper's Index from Harper's.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Liseuse by Greg Kawczynski Pastel on paper
Mr Kawczynski is a sculptor, painter, and a graphics artist whose works can be seen in Europe and North America. He, and his wife Ewa (whose work we have presented earlier) both live in Vancouver.
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Vice President Joe Biden compared New York City’s La Guardia Airport to “some third world country,”
While at it, DD suggests Biden visit the JFK airport as well, and try to eat a decent dinner. Judged by its airports, New York is a third-world city.
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Prepare for pain, totalitarian Image: firstlook.org
Normally, Essential Reading proposes an article we think essential to read. This time we propose a whole new publication which promises to rattle the totalitarians who have insinuated themselves into the power structure in the United States and else- where. The names of Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill at the editorial helm promise a rough ride for those individuals and their organizations.
We wish The Intercept a long, fruitful, and happy roto-rooting.
Monday, 3 February 2014
"C'est beau, place Beauvau !" Photo: Le Monde
Question: Which ministry would you wish to run before running for the French presidency?
Yes, the correct answer is the interior ministry.
Question: in which ministry would you wish to leave your people after you've left the office?
Yes, your are right again.
The first salvo of the 2017 battle for the French presidency was fired a month ago when a photo of a behelmeted François Hollande bestraddling a scooter appeared in the tabloid Closer, whose photographers, as it were, got closer than those of the other tabs to the rue de Cirque apartment of the comédienne Julie Gayet, in the swank 8th arrondissement of Paris.
To think the Closer people found themselves in an expensive apartment overlooking the action by accident would be naïve, they were tipped off by Place Beauvau, which is the address of the Interior Ministry, nominally reporting to M. Hollande, but in reality to the former president Nicolas Sarkozy. (see the answer to the second question above.)
François Hollande's first fatal error upon arriving at the Élysée in May of 2012 was not purging Place Beauvau of sarkozistes and fumigating the premises. It will now cost him his presidency. That is not to say that this is necessarily bad. The bad thing is it would be Sarko who replaces him.
Sarkozy's nomination to the ministry of the interior by Jacques Chirac was also a monumental error, unless he had no choice, given the murkiness of his dealings, of which the clever Sarko no doubt had been aware. The fact that Chirac hated Sarkozy lends credence to the supposition of blackmail.
Once at Beauvau, Sarko had access to a treasure-trove of information on everybody and his brother and his brother's dog. In other words, he held the real power. Since Beauvau swarms with his people to this day, he still holds this power.
The UMP stands firmly behind him. It is less certain where stands the French public, but judging by the recent warm receptions, they have already forgot how much they hated him not quite two years ago. The auspices are therefore good. It will suffice to keep Hollande crippled until the election in 2017, which shouldn't be too difficult having your agents where it matters.
The question which poses itself is whether it is too late for Hollande to clean the Augean stables at Place Beauvau? The answer is that it probably isn't, as it probably isn't too late to cast light on some of Sarko's more interesting exploits. Holland's spies should have by now accumulated some goods on Nico too.
All that if it is worth keeping Hollande beyond 2017.
The sad truth is that it probably makes no difference, since Hollande's 'Socialist' Party has long ago become indistinguishable from Sarko's own UMP.
Is there something Hollande can do in the meantime?
Yes! Purge Place Beauvau of sarkozistes, fumigate as described above, and make the humorist Stéphane Guillon minister of the interior. The very thought of this would make Sarkozy abandon Carlita and flee Paris for a remote tribal region of Chad, and to remain there in hiding for the balance of Guillon's mandate*.
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Fast, reliable, discrete Image: Wm T. Coleman & Co.
Last August we reported on the mugging Lavabit had received from the totalitarians. Here's an update, and here's background information.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Haemorrhoids, Mr Netanyahu, or something more serious? Photo: AP/D. Buimovitch
There are signs Bibi is beginning to notice things aren't as they used to be, and it makes him anxious.
The Germans, traditionally reliable allies, have said they won't finance any Israeli high-tech ventures located in the Occupied Territories. The future of a scientific cooperation with the EU looks shaky, and the Dutch are making serious noises about boycotting Israel. Several European pension funds follow suit, and even a number of the American universities refuse to cooperate with the Israeli academics based in the Occupied Palestine.
The Israelis say this is manageable. Perhaps, provided the contagion doesn't spread farther. The boycott of South Africa had begun slowly but then accelerated, finally strangling the apartheid regime, Israel with it to the end.
For the religious nationalist Naftali Bennett, Bibi's minister of the economy, sanctions don't matter. In his words, "Better an economic boycott than a Palestinian state."
Not all share this sanguine outlook. The left-of-the-centre parties in the Knesset sound alarm comparing Netanyahu to the captain of the Titanic who ignored a warning about the icebergs. They see a diplomatic disaster in the making.
Circumstances aren't favourable to Bibi. America is disengaging, first, because it sees (wrongly) a future independent of the Arab oil, second, because it's tired of seeing itself unable to shape the Middle East to its liking.
Netanyahu should pay attention, haemorrhoids may seem like a pleasant memory compared to what's coming.
29 January 2014
Lutte des classes (Class War), by Daniel Mermet (ink on paper)
We think this satirical drawing is an apt illustration to the Tragicomic Relief, and the piece on Davos, below.
Mr Mermet is a renowned French journalist, broadcaster, and author, whose Public Radio program, Là bas si j'y suis, consistently ranks top among the audience. The program lives by the forgotten values of the French national motto, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, to which Mermet throws in Solidarité. For this it has received scorn of the Sarkozy administration, which had tried to suppress it but retreated fearing mass demonstrations. The direction of Radio France had partially succumbed to the pres- sure from Sarkozy and moved the programme from prime time to the 3 to 4 PM slot, where it remains to this day, irrespective of the arrival of a 'socialist' government of François Hollande. Recently, in a volley of austerity measures, Là bas's Friday's broadcast has been eliminated.
As all honest commentators on the war waged by Israel on Palestine, Daniel Mermet has been treated to anti-Semite by the ultra-Zionist elements in France and dragged to courts. In 2006 he was cleared of all charges by France's high appellate court. Attacks on him continue.
A high-resolution version of the drawing, which accompanies a program dedicated to a book by Olivier Besancenot The Conspiracy of the Unequal, has been kindly forwar- ded to us by Mr Mermet's office.
29 January 2014
OccupyWallSt.org released sample dialogues provided by Walmart to its store managers in order to help them deal with employee inquiries about labor unions. “Well that’s a good question LaTonya,” says a fictional employee in one of the dialogues. “Our company doesn’t feel that associates should have to spend their hard earned money to have someone represent them.”
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
24 January 2014
"We will do our best to keep their heads down, sir." Photo: WEF
The owners of the world converged on Davos for the annual shindig. On the agenda, how to tighten the grip, and mutual adoration. Ticket prices have been set to discoura- ge the undesirables. A front-row seat goes for €389k, while a no-press-allowed one (you mustn't know too much of what's going on behind the closed door) for a mere €115k.
Once you've got the tickets, count on spending $15k to $200k more, depending on the lavishness of your entertainment, and whether you come on a private jet or rough it out in business class.
Some oligarchs prefer to send minions rather than participate in person. Warren Buffett, 83, who has never set his foot in Davos, opted for Omahaw, NE, to profit from a mo- ment of peace to make a few extra billion, a handy thing to have in your pocket when the Almighty finally calls.
Other skeptics include the French, always the spoilsports, only 75 of whom are expe- cted to mingle among the 2,500 participants. Boris Johnson, out in Davos pimping London to the Malaysians, for his part, described the Forum as "a constellation of egos involved in orgies of adulation".
Bankers will be aplenty, but not the heavyweights from the Silicon Valley.
One of the themes on the agenda will be inequality, which is cynical, given that orga- nizers have been assiduously soliciting participation of the "fiscal optimization industry".
Gentlemen have been encouraged to come with ladies in order to "diversify the invitee list", thus, to the delight of the local retail community, heralding the arrival of a second Christmas in so many months.
What a jolly good show.
17 January 2014
Lord's own Inside Cable News/Spud
The Reza Aslan debacle (see below) flushed out Christian jihadists other than Lauren Green at Fox News. One is Brent Bozell, who's 'first to stand up and defend Lauren Green', and who's offended by "Moslem faith's belief that Jesus Christ did not have a divine nature", which, as everyone knows, he did. His rant begins at 5'28" into the footage.
Another is Megyn Kelly, here badly roughed up by the atheist Michael Newdow, and again here by another son of the Lucifer, David Silverman. Note the mysterious "Crucifiction" (sic) sign persisting in the lower right corner of the screen. Might it be Megyn's? Or is it a not so subliminal subliminal message referring to the evil works of the A, whose number is 6 6 and 6?
The stuff is painful to watch.
But if you thought this was about religion, you would be wrong. This is about controver- sy. Because controversy attracts viewers, and viewers the ratings. And ratings, the advertisers, and advertisers boost the revenue stream.
And the revenue stream is the truest of all true gods.
13 January 2014
Wicked Muslim slays righteous Christian Mediæval miniature
Diarmaid MacCulloch's review* of Reza Aslan's new book** on Jesus commences thusly,
Video of the encounter between the two incompatible species here.
7 January 2014
Front end for the hive, rear end for the HIV Photo: Louise Docker
Our Munich correspondent forwards a link to an article outlining a breakthrough in the fight against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. The research team not only describes the weapon, but also the exact technique, which is to selectively deliver to the virus melittin, the principal toxin of the bee venom, on the surface of nanoparticles without poisoning the cells of the human tissue. DD reckons this achievement to be extraordinary, and the technique remarkably elegant.
5 January 2014
"Do it for Bibi, my boy." Photo: Olivier Fitoussi
All Kerry's recent visits to Israel have been greeted with, or preceded by a snub of one kind or another, orchestrated by Bibi. Secretary's present foray into the Middle East peacemaking didn't disappoint in that respect.
Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders had been muted by both sides before the trip (apparently without anyone's face twitching as they tried to suppress laughter), so a visit by the Israeli vice-foreign minister Zeev Elkin to a remote settlement in the Jor- dan Valley to dedicate a new neighbourhood, and to declare that the "1967 borders were Auschwitz borders", just a few hours before Kerry's plane touched down at the Ben Gurion airport achieved the desired effect. The clear message was, "your land is our land, and we've got the firepower, and the support of the American politicians, to prove it."
So as to make sure the point wasn't lost on anyone, Bibi had arrived to a meeting with Kerry in a state of extreme agitation, and then kept on ranting for an hour before letting anyone say a word. Poor Kerry just sat there blinking his eyes.
Secretary of State Kerry is wasting time and taxpayer's jet fuel on futile expeditions. He should turn his attention to more important matters, of which there is no shortage.
31 December 2013
The Xenoturbella bocki “paradox” worm was confirmed to be the progenitor of human- kind"
This and more in this year's Review from Harper's.
DD's Paleobiology Department notes that not all X. bocki had launched themselves at the same time or with the same enthusiasm into the evolutionary process, as evidenced by the existence today of such movements as the Tea Party, and such organizations as Fox News.
We wish all our Readers and Collaborators a happy New Year.
29 December 2013
Michèle Mercier as Marquise des Anges in a 1966 Bernard Borderie film Angélique et le roi.
Photo: Rue des Archives/Collection CSFF
25 December 2013
The arch-antitotalitarian Photo: AFP/Getty
Our Person of the Year is Edward Snowden, who singlehandedly took on the dragon.
21 December 2013
A particularly dark moment Photo: NASA
Winter solstice in Northern Hemisphere arrives today, 21 December, at 17:11 Univer- sal Time. Daily Detox advocates moving New Year's Day to coincide with the solsti- ce, rather than with the feast of Circumcision of the Lord.
18 December 2013
The Facebook community. "And now to the right everybody." Photo: Scot Campbell
The American totalitarian machine has another trick up its sleeve: Facebook can now read what you'd written, but then decided not to publish. And if Zuckerberg knows, than Keith knows. and no doubt appreciates, because those self-censored thoughts might be the most interesting.
17 December 2013
North Korea executed an uncle of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and accused him of distributing pornography, failing to clap with sufficient enthusiasm, and sabotaging a monument by having it erected in the shade. “Jang pretended to uphold the party and leader,” said the state-run Korean Central News Agency, “but was engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams.”"
This and more in this week's Review from Harper's.
13 December 2013
One of them after all? Photo: Edgar Jiménez
We are re-thinking our thinking about Pope Bergoglio.
What may have been true and possibly unseemly about the Father Superior of the Argentine Jesuits, may no longer hold for the Pope. Personal transformations are rare, but do happen, and there are now signs Bergoglio has undergone one.
The good tidings come as an apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, brought to our attention by Michael Kratzer, our Munich correspondent, specifically its paragra- ph 54,
Potent stuff from comrade Francis. (Paragraphs 52 through 60 equally don't disap- point.)
It's hard to say exactly what is happening here, and what will ensue, but the Pope is listened to by many people, and they may begin asking the same questions and making the same demands. Politicians and oligarchs should pay attention.
It's ironic and encouraging that liberation theology, which Jorge Bergoglio had fought back in the '80s, be returning to become the mainstay of his social philosophy.
8 December 2013
An early Palestinian surface-to-surface missile and its launch system
Back in the late '80s, the way to deal with the recalcitrant Palestinians who for some reason didn't want to relinquish their land to Israel, was to "crush their bones". Many bones were crushed, including a great deal of children's. On 9 December 1987, however, the IDF slightly overdid it, running a heavy truck over a Palestinian car, crushing to death four civilians inside. This lit the fuse under the First Intifada, which lasted until the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Outcome? As always, 2160 Palestinians dead, 160 Israelis. Political casualties, America and Israel advance to the rogue nation league. The gyrations at the UN illustrate the point.
5 December 2013
Iran's atomic test Photo: Doron
Back in the early '90s, the Undersecretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs George Ball made an observation* to the effect that America's Middle-East policy was made in Tel Aviv, thus signaling for the first time that America had ceded part of its sove- reignty over foreign affairs to another country. A look at the events in the Middle East over the last two decades confirms Ball's remark to be right, not only then, but to continue to be valid to this day.
The latest spat over the Iranian nukes provides a good example. While Bibi hadn't quite managed to scupper the deal, he came close. And he left maimed bodies on the ground, among them those of President Obama, and the Secretary of State Kerry. And that's not all. His agents are swarming the Capitol Hill where, with a mixture of cajoling and threats, they try to sabotage any rapprochement between the US and Iran that my be vaguely looming on the distant horizon. Their main source of ammunition is Ayatollah's atomic bomb, which happens not to exist, and whose prospects of mater- ializing are nil, since no work on it is in progress.
And that's before considering the delivery systems. As the Americans now say, "if you haven't got a stealthy launch platform, you haven't got a nuke." Practically no one, aside from the US, has such platforms, since Uncle Sam can now track all submari- nes, hence destroy them if needed. (France and Britain, which used to be on a more or less equal footing with the US in this respect, already have, or are in the process of losing this footing, as they have no reciprocal capability to track the American ballistic missile submarines.)
Andrew Cockburn's recent blog at Harper's provides excellent insight into what is going on in Washington with respect to Iran, while his article in the December issue of the magazine presents a broader panorama. Let us quote Uri Avnery's description (quoted by Cockburn) of AIPAC's 2008 annual conference as a sample.
27 November 2013
Served daily de chez Bibi Image adopted from a painting by Pablo Picasso
As Bibi returns from Geneva to Tel Aviv beaten up and livid, Rouhani returns from Geneva to Tehran upbeat and radiant: he can keep his budding atomic workshop, while the sanctions against his country are poised to be loosened up. In contrast, all Bibi brings home is a renewed (and unwelcome) interest in his own vast and very much existing nuclear arsenal.which 'may or may not exist', wink wink nudge nudge. That's assuredly not what he hoped to achieve in Geneva.
But to assume that Bibi's bitter tears have much to do with his inability to foil Iran's nuclear bricolage would be to make a mistake, or to presume it had to do with the lifting of the sanctions.
No, the reason for his discontent is the distinct possibility that Iran might replace Israel as Uncle Sam's best friend-and-ally in the region, with the collateral inflow of cash and a boost to the country's political and strategic importance. That thought is enough to give him nightmares at night and heebie-jeebies during the day.
But why would this happen, you may ask?
The answer is that a friendship with Iran would offer hugely more than one with Israel. Iran is a big and populous country with considerable natural resources, such as oil and uranium. Israel is a tiny country with a small population and no natural riches to speak of. Iran is an ideal beachhead where to pre-position the forward-leaning boots-on-the-ground against the crouching Tiger and the hidden Dragon. Israel, by contrast, has a few good beaches upon the shimmering waters of the blue Mediterranean, which is nice, but not quite the same thing for the straight-faced chaps at the Pentagon.
Don't expect Bibi and his Fifth Column to abandon the field. The false-flag operations will probably intensify from their current intense level both in America and in Europe, under the pretext of the Iranian 'nuclear threat' to the world. Obama may already lean toward Iran, but not so the Congress, subjugated into unconditional obedience by the relentless circling of the Great White.
It's not perfect, but Bibi's best weapon against the 'threat' of Iran's becoming America's chum is to keep presenting nuclear mushroom clouds as a consequence of such a rapprochement.
25 November 2013
Le vrai chef Photo: AFP/Frédérick Florin
Georges Lautner, the director of the immortal classic, "Les Tontons flingueurs", died the other day aged 87. Here, the unforgettable scene where the boys drink "le vitriol".
Let us join in saluting him.
23 November 2013
Peter Pomerantsev explains Ukraine's about-face on joining the EU, courtesy London Review of Books.
When the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, was a young hoodlum on the make in late 1960s Soviet Donetsk – or so the story goes – he made his first money through the following ruse: he would lurk in a cubicle in a public toilet in winter. When a man came into the cubicle next door, he would wait for the opportune moment, then lean over, grab the man’s expensive fur hat and make a run for it: the victim, caught with his pants down, mid-crap, was in no state to give chase... MORE
20 November 2013
Exit Kerry Photo: AP/Jason Reed
Watching Benyamin Netanyahu's political manoeuvering is an ever amusing pass- time. The other day, for example, he declared François Hollande a 'close friend', which is strange, given that the two had met for the first time only a few months ago, and that no great flux of billets doux between Tel Aviv and Paris has come to evidence since. Monsieur Bloch Sr famously 'knew' the Duke of Guermantes 'without knowing him'. Hollande has thus become Bibi's chum without knowing it.
What's behind these amourous advances?
Bloody necessity, of course. Under pressure from Obama, he had to abandon a fresh- ly-minted plan to build 20,000 new homes for settlers in the occupied Palestine. Pre- viously, he had failed to trick Obama into attacking Iran on his behalf, in spite of a strong bi-partisan support from the Likud faction in Congress. He had switched to plan B, which was to do it himself, but it was just posturing, since everybody knew it was beyond the bungling capability of the IDF, moreover, Obama had threatened to withhold the necessary intelligence.
To these insults add a threat from Abbas to take Israel before the UN and the interna- tional tribunals (to do which Palestine is eligible having become a UN observer), for stealing land and constant harassment of the Palestinians. In normal times Bibi woul- dn't care. But these aren't normal times.
So, he unrolled a freshly dry-cleaned red carpet to welcome his 'close friend'.
Contrary to Bibi's propaganda, Hollande's was but a routine state visit of the type heads of states pay to each other every now and then, and not an expression of support for Israel's policy vis à vis Iran. Superficially, the positions of the two countries coincide. But France's opposition to Iran is not ideologically but commercially based. A closer look would reveal that France has great expectations about weapons deals with the Arab world, all Sunni, and all avowed enemies of Iran. No such contracts to sign are on the horizon with Iran, not only because it would look bad, but also because Iran is subject to a strict embargo on military materiel. Being against Iran nowadays is cheap.
But there's plenty of business to do in Israel, with which France transacts only 2.2 percent of its foreign trade (vs. Germany's 6.6 percent). Hollande's main objective for coming to Israel was not to give support to Bibi's sabre rattling against Tehran's (non-existent) nukes, but to help French companies do more business with Israel.
Nor are the Iranian nukes Israel's main preoccupation, notwithstanding the propaganda which has been blaring out of Tel Aviv for years.
But on this next time.
15 November 2013
Best ratings money can buy Image: Agencies/Daily Detox
A week ago we scornfully commented on the downgrading by S&P of France's credit rating. This was followed three days later by Paul Krugman who fired a salvo at S&P quoting the same delinquency on their part which justified our own jab.
Now Glen Newey at LRB asks, "Who rates the rating agencies?", and, seeing void where there ought to be a suitable body, takes it upon himself to demolish their edifice. A gratifying reading.
11 November 2013
Exploring the Northern Patagonian Icefield, by Jaroslaw Wieczorek.
Mr Wieczorek is an explorer and photographer presently based in Iquique, Chile. He directs Antofaya Expeditions.
8 November 2013
The Facebook community Photo: Scot Campbell
Si c'est gratuit, c'est vous le produit !*, say the French. Facebook, masquerading as a social network, wants to know your every move, predi- lection, and buying habit, so as to be better able to pimp your derrière to the markete- ers. It's been gathering behavioural information on the sheep for a long time, but now the goal is to reach a new level of sophistication. Wall Street Journal explains.
DD calls on all to sever their relationship with this totalitarian outfit, delete the Face- book cookies from their browser, and to block their return.
Statistically Significant
Big Bang
Tiny Waves
Southern Comfort
High On The Hog In Kiev
Tragicomic Relief
Le Carré
The Spy Who Bugged Me
Geostrategy
The Oracle Of Wasilla
On The Campaign Trail
Voter Outreach
Tragicomic Relief
Anniversary
Daily Detox At One
Editor
Pretty Good Privacy
Pretty Good Phone
Tragicomic Relief
Contemporary Art
Rubbish Removal
Tragicomic Relief
Essential Reading
Through A Soda Straw, Darkly
*) Tunnel Vision. Will the Air Force kill its most effective weapon?Statistically Significant
Illustration
Tragicomic Relief
Essential Reading
The Intercept
2017
Niccolò Sarkozy
*) For the benefit of the readers who are unfamiliar with Stéphane Guillon, we would just like to say that Guillon's merciless satire drove Sarkozy to desperation, if not to losing to Hollande. His final stunt, just before the 2012 presidential elections, was to post placards all over the Parisian metro depicting himself in deep bow. The caption read, "In May 2012, Stéphane Guillon goes too...". We cheerfully reproduce the poster here. Two years on, Guillon never misses a chance to take a potshot at Sarkozy, who should be careful about what he wishes.Pretty Good Privacy
Sorry, No Privacy
Your Land Is Our Land
Disinvestment And Boycott. Sanctions Next
Illustration
Tragicomic Relief*
Debit Suisse*
Davos 2014
Faux News
Fox For Jesus
Faux News
He Didn't Disclose
*) London Review of Books, vol. 35 No. 19, 10 October 2013, p. 9
**) Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Westbourne, August 2013Tales From The Beehive
Bees 1, HIV 0?
Your Land Is Our Land
Snub Of The Week
Tragicomic Relief
Illustration
Person Of The Year
Edward Snowden
Music Of The Spheres
2013 Winter Solstice
Nineteen Eighty Four
Zuck Knows What You Wanted To Say
Tragicomic Relief
Chevalier Sans Foy
Habemus Right Papam?
Your Land Is Our Land
First Intifada at 25
Photo: AFP/Esaias BaitelFriends-And-Allies
Busy In The Knesset-West
*) The Passionate Attachment, America's Involvement with Israel, 1947 to the Present. W W Norton & Co Inc, 382 pp, 1992
The Art Of Saying A To Say Z
The Great Red Herring
Touche Pas Aux Tontons
Georges Lautner, 1926 – 2013
Tales From The Land Of The Absurd
Moscow Calling
In Search Of A Friend
Enter Hollande
Credit Rating Agencies
To No Credit
Illustration
GAFA
Open Facebook
*) The GAFA entry has recently vanished from the Wikipedia. We want to help. It stands for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, four leading collaborators with the snoops.
*) If it's free, it's you who's the merchandise
