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Tuesday, October 3, 2023
AI Goes to War - TomDispatch.com
AI Goes to War - TomDispatch.com
William Hartung, The Future of Techno-War
October 3, 2023
Uh... gulp... you thought it was bad when that experienced pilot ejected from one of the Air Force's hottest "new" planes, the F-35 combat fighter, near -- no, not China or somewhere in the Middle East -- but Charleston, South Carolina. The plane then flew on its own for another 60 miles before crashing into an empty field. And that was without an enemy in sight.
Perhaps we should just be happy that an F-35 ever even made it into the air, given its endless problems in these years. After all, as Dan Grazier of the Center for Defense Information wrote, it's now "the largest and most expensive weapons program in history." Yet when it comes to something as significant as "mission availability," according to the Congressional Budget Office, only about 26% of all F-35s, each of which now costs an estimated $80 million to produce and $44,000 an hour to fly, are available at any moment. Not exactly thrilling, all in all.
As TomDispatch regular and Pentagon expert William Hartung makes clear today, if that's what happens with the Air Force's least intelligent fighter plane, what should we expect of its just arriving artificial-intelligence-driven fleet of drones or "robot wingmen" that could be deployed, as he suggests, in a future war with China? Given the history of the U.S. military's three-decade-old drone warfare program, which caused such havoc among civilian populations during this country's Global War on Terror, what could the future hold in store? After all, non-AI drones were “roughly thirty times more likely to result in a civilian fatality than an airstrike by a manned aircraft.” And remember, that fleet of aircraft was still, at least officially, run by human intelligence, not the artificial variety. Who knows what may occur when such drones, freed from the human brain, are let loose on this planet? While you're considering that possibility, let Hartung take you on a quick flight to the Pentagon and then to China. Tom
Bill Clinton Breaks With Democrats, Makes Concession on Illegal Immigrant Surge | The Epoch Times
Bill Clinton Breaks With Democrats, Makes Concession on Illegal Immigrant Surge | The Epoch Times: Former President Bill Clinton made a stark admission.
Slovakia may join two other NATO countries at odds with Zelensky - Responsible Statecraft
Slovakia may join two other NATO countries at odds with Zelensky - Responsible Statecraft
Slovakia has been a solid supporter of its neighbor, Ukraine. It has supported Kyiv diplomatically in the UN, EU, and NATO. They were one of the first countries to provide military aid to Ukraine.
Moreover, Slovakia has sent Ukraine ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, and helicopters. Along with Poland, they were the first country to transfer fighter jets — their entire fleet of retired MiG-29 fighters — and they were the first country to send an air defense system, the only S-300 air defense system they had.
But on September 30, Robert Fico and his leftist-populist Smer-SSD party won 23% of the vote in the parliamentary elections on a platform that included the promise that if his party “enters government, we will not send a single round of ammunition to Ukraine.”
Read more from Ted this morning:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/slovakia-robert-fico-ukraine/
Yen weakens past 150 per dollar despite intervention warnings - Nikkei Asia
Yen weakens past 150 per dollar despite intervention warnings - Nikkei Asia: TOKYO -- The yen fell past 150 against the dollar late Tuesday night despite the Japanese government's jawboning to tame the slide, as investors expec
China promises to make business, life in Shanghai easier for foreign companies | South China Morning Post
China promises to make business, life in Shanghai easier for foreign companies | South China Morning Post: To bolster the confidence of business leaders, Shanghai has announced it will take steps to make work and life easier for companies and employees stationed there.
This Proxy War Can't Be Both 'Unprovoked' AND A Great Strategic Investment by Caitlin Johnstone
This Proxy War Can't Be Both 'Unprovoked' AND A Great Strategic Investment - micheletkearney@gmail.com - Gmail
This Proxy War Can't Be Both 'Unprovoked' AND A Great Strategic Investment
Caitlin Johnstone
Oct 3
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
Listen now · 7:54
As opposition to funding the US proxy war in Ukraine increases on Capitol Hill, empire apologists have been frantically churning out think pieces about how much the war serves US strategic interests in order to manufacture support for its continued backing by Washington. Such arguments flatly contradict the propaganda messaging we were inundated with at the beginning of the war that this was an “unprovoked invasion”, but empire managers don’t seem particularly interested in defending that narrative anymore.
The latest appearance in this new “our Ukraine proxy warfare greatly advances US strategic interests” genre of op-ed comes to us courtesy of notorious war propagandist Max Boot via The Washington Post. Boot’s article was originally titled “Ukraine aid is a great investment. Don’t let MAGA Republicans end it.”, but the headline has since been revised to the slightly less creepy “This is what the U.S. is getting by aiding Ukraine.”
Claiming that funding the war is “the right thing to do strategically,” Boot argues that “it is hard to think of any U.S. foreign policy initiative since the end of the Cold War that has been more successful or more important than U.S. aid to Ukraine.”
https://twitter.com/MaxBoot/status/1708804664047603778
“Russia has lost an estimated 120,000 soldiers and 170,000 to 180,000 have been injured,” Boot writes. “Russia has also lost an estimated 2,329 tanks, 2,817 infantry fighting vehicles, 2,868 trucks and jeeps, 354 armored personnel carriers, 538 self-propelled artillery vehicles, 310 towed artillery pieces, 92 fixed-wing aircraft and 106 helicopters.”
“The Russian armed forces have been devastated, thereby reducing the risk to front-line NATO states such as Poland and the Baltic republics that the United States is treaty-bound to protect,” Boot continues. “And all of that has been accomplished without having to put a single U.S. soldier at risk on the front lines.”
“That’s an incredible investment,” gloats Boot.
At no time in his masturbatory gushing about how many Russians this war has helped kill does Boot make any mention of the immense toll this deliberately provoked and completely unnecessary war has taken on Ukrainian lives. Their deaths and dismemberments and displacement are the largest price being paid into this “investment” by far, but Boot doesn’t deem them worthy of even a footnote.
We’ve been seeing this “investment” line being promoted with increasing frequency by US empire managers and their apologists. In an article published in the Connecticut Post last month, Senator Richard Blumenthal assured Americans that “we’re getting our money’s worth on our Ukraine investment.” A few days prior to that Senator Mitt Romney had described the proxy war as “the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done,” because “We’re diminishing and devastating the Russian military for a very small amount of money… a weakened Russia is a good thing.” In December Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that funding the proxy war is “a direct investment in reducing Vladimir Putin’s future capabilities to menace America, threaten our allies and contest our core interests.” Last November the imperial war machine-funded think tank Center for European Policy Analysis published a report arguing that “US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment.”
We saw one of the most glaring examples of this new genre of empire apologia last week, when the Bill Kristol-led group “Republicans for Ukraine” put out a television ad explaining how much this war is a fantastic investment which serves US strategic interests.
“When America arms Ukraine, we get a lot for a little,” the ad said. “Putin is an enemy of America. We’ve used 5% of our defense budget to arm Ukraine, and with it, they’ve destroyed 50% of Putin’s Army. We’ve done all this by sending weapons from storage, not our troops. The more Ukraine weakens Russia, the more it also weakens Russia’s closest ally, China.”
We are asked to believe a lot of very stupid things by the propagandists of the US-centralized empire, but one of the very stupidest is the claim that this war simultaneously (A) was completely unprovoked, and (B) just coincidentally happens to massively advance US strategic interests.
It really cannot be both. If you accept that this war is a very low-cost, high-reward means for the US to advance its strategic interests overseas, then you’d have to have tapioca for brains to also believe that the US wouldn’t have gone out of its way to make sure the war happens. And indeed that’s exactly what occurred, which is why US intelligence operatives and western foreign policy analysts spent years saying that the actions of the US and its allies were going to provoke Russia to war.
The reason it matters so much that the war in Ukraine was provoked by the US-centralized empire is because that shows you where the path to peace lies. When empire simps object to criticisms of western proxy warfare in Ukraine with “Oh so you’re saying we should just ABANDON THE UKRAINIANS and let Putin take over the country???”, what they are missing is that this is not a war between only Russia and Ukraine, and Russia doesn’t see it as such. Russia believes it is fighting a war against the aggression and expansionism of the NATO alliance, which the head of NATO himself recently confirmed. What this means is that the NATO alliance can facilitate peace in Ukraine by agreeing to roll back the aggressions which led to this war in the first place.
NATO powers have always been fully aware that they could bring about peace in Ukraine in this way, but they choose not to move NATO war machinery away from Russia’s borders and grant Moscow the same freedom from military threats in its immediate surroundings that Washington insists on in its own immediate surroundings. The managers of the empire chose not to do this, and indeed actually sabotaged peace negotiations in the early days of the conflict, because they firmly believe that this war advances their interests.
This is what empire apologists are omitting from the story when they claim that Putin can end this war by withdrawing troops from Ukraine; they are leaving out their own government’s role in starting and perpetuating this war. To demand that Russia cease its aggressions, without the western empire ceasing the aggressions which provoked the war in the first place, is to demand that Russia lie down and submit itself to the dictates of the empire. People who call for an end to Russian aggressions but not the western aggressions Russia is reacting to don’t really want peace, they just want the empire to conquer and subjugate the insolent curs who dared to defy it.
It’s good to be clear on this, because it shows who the obstacles to peace really are. The longer we pretend the only people keeping this war going reside in Moscow, the longer any path toward peace will elude us.
__________________
Monday, October 2, 2023
US Office Market Is Poised for a Crash, Investors Say in Survey - Bloomberg
US Office Market Is Poised for a Crash, Investors Say in Survey - Bloomberg: Commercial real estate prices are seen declining until the second half of 2024 or longer.
SpaceX Wins First US Space Force Contract for Satellites - Bloomberg
SpaceX Wins First US Space Force Contract for Satellites - Bloomberg: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has received its first contract from the US Space Force to provide customized satellite communications for the military under the company’s new Starshield program, extending the provocative billionaire’s role as a defense contractor.
Notification to Christ’s Faithful (can. 212 § 3) Regarding Dubia Submitted to Pope Francis – Cardinal Raymond Burke
Notification to Christ’s Faithful (can. 212 § 3) Regarding Dubia Submitted to Pope Francis – Cardinal Raymond Burke
Notification to Christ’s Faithful (can. 212 § 3)
Regarding
Dubia Submitted to Pope Francis
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We, members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, in accord with the duty of all the faithful “to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church” (can. 212 § 3) and, above all, in accord with the responsibility of Cardinals “to assist the Roman Pontiff … individually … especially in the daily care of the universal Church” (can. 349), in view of various declarations of highly-placed Prelates, pertaining to the celebration of the next Synod of Bishops, that are openly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, and that have generated and continue to generate great confusion and the falling into error among the faithful and other persons of good will, have manifested our deepest concern to the Roman Pontiff. By our letter of July 10, 2023, employing the proven practice of the submission of dubia [questions] to a superior to provide the superior the occasion to make clear, by his responsa [responses], the doctrine and discipline of the Church, we have submitted five dubia to Pope Francis [select the link below to read them]. By his letter of July 11, 2023, Pope Francis responded to our letter.
Having studied his letter which did not follow the practice of responsa ad dubia [responses to questions], we reformulated the dubia to elicit a clear response based on the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church. By our letter of August 21, 2023, we submitted the reformulated dubia [select the link below to read them] to the Roman Pontiff. Up to the present, we have not received a response to the reformulated dubia.
Given the gravity of the matter of the dubia, especially in view of the imminent session of the Synod of Bishops, we judge it our duty to inform you, the faithful (can. 212 § 3), so that you may not be subject to confusion, error, and discouragement but rather may pray for the universal Church and, in particular, the Roman Pontiff, that the Gospel may be taught ever more clearly and followed ever more faithfully.
Yours in Christ,
Walter Cardinal Brandmüller
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke
Juan Cardinal Sandoval Íñiguez
Robert Cardinal Sarah
Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun
Rome, 2 October 2023
Read the Dubia and the Reformulated Dubia
https://www.cardinalburke.com/presentations/notification-to-christs-faithful
A real economic transformation is underway in Saudi Arabia - Nikkei Asia
A real economic transformation is underway in Saudi Arabia - Nikkei Asia: Tarek Fadlallah is managing director and CEO of Nomura Asset Management's Middle East branch. The views expressed herein are his own and not those of
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Out of Bounds - The Wire China
Out of Bounds - The Wire China: With its new outbound investment rule, the U.S. is hoping to stop American capital from facilitating China's rise.
The Slow-Motion Equivalent of a Nuclear War? - TomDispatch.com
The Slow-Motion Equivalent of a Nuclear War? - TomDispatch.com: Tell me, what planet are we actually on? All these decades later, are we really involved in a "second" or "new" Cold War? It's certainly true that, as late as the 1980s, the superpowers (or
Democrats’ Green Energy Agenda Behind Biden Family Influence-Peddling Racket
Democrats’ Green Energy Agenda Behind Biden Family Influence-Peddling Racket: The money Hunter Biden received from China, Russia, and Ukraine wasn’t random
Key Insights Into the Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter – 24/7 Wall St.
Key Insights Into the Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter – 24/7 Wall St.: The oldest living former president in U.S. history turns 99 today. He was diagnosed with cancer, subsequently cured, in 2015 and more recently suffered a brain bleed from a fall and a urinary tract infection, opted to spend his remaining time at home and not receive additional medical intervention. (These are the stories behind the […]
The Boston suburbs’ cynical ploy to keep poor families out: Use seniors as a shield - The Boston Globe
The Boston suburbs’ cynical ploy to keep poor families out: Use seniors as a shield - The Boston Globe: Leafy communities have steered subsidized housing away from parents with kids and toward elders for decades. It’s time for a rebalancing.
India’s not the China alternative Wall Street thinks - Asia Times
India’s not the China alternative Wall Street thinks - Asia Times: Financial bookmarks can be very illuminating in assessing a market’s readiness for global primetime. Such is the case with JPMorgan Chase & Co adding
The Mississippi is Mighty Parched
The Mississippi is Mighty Parched: In September, low water levels made it more challenging to ship goods down the river and allowed a wedge of saltwater to move upstream.
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