Politico interviews a political scientist:

«Ward: So if the conflict is essentially about tactics and the real energies behind the far right are cultural, why do people like Gaetz still lean so heavily on the language of fiscal conservatism?

….

Skocpol: It sells with the Washington press corps. Why anybody believes this is beyond me. Did you see what Donald Trump did when he was office? Did you see what Republicans did when they controlled the entire Congress? They don’t cut anything, except taxes.

….

Ward: So what does all this mean for the future of the Republican Party? ….

Skocpol: Well, everything depends on whether Donald Trump is reelected president, and I don’t think that’s impossible. I really don’t. ….

Ward: Based on the traditional tea party playbook, though, what do you think the endgame here is for the far-right faction in the House?

Skocpol: …. I don’t think we know how this is going to come out. If you’ve got people in power who are backed by a large number of voters who are angry, fearful, limited in the information they get about what’s going on and thinking that it would be better to blow America up than to save it — I think you’re in uncharted territory. We are in uncharted territory.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/05/mcarthy-tea-party-theda-skocpol-00120009

This is the nature of Business, which usually shows up in a military context (but not here): stretch things to the breaking point in the name of efficiency. Use the smallest number of people possible, shave corners as much as possible, deliver with the least possible cost. Do just enough to achieve the goal. Any attempt by (govt) oversight bodies to regulate for safety or basic fairness is labelled “govt interference” and decried as costing jobs (as they shave as many jobs as possible). This is the same mentality that says the jobs of companies is solely to benefit shareholders.

Eventually, the system is stretched so thin that any perturbation breaks it.

«The disruption is adding pressure to an already stretched maintenance and repair supply chain. Overhaul firms, battling with staffing and spare-part shortages, are struggling to supply sufficient capacity to keep pace with the recovery in air travel after the pandemic.»

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/dodgy-jet-parts-ge-boeing-plane-engines-a3fcbcfd?st=sl4mpdkmqxg1w1e&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink (gift link)

(Don’t get me wrong, I love capitalism (and democracy), but capitalism needs regulation.)

Well….

«A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a venture capital fund from moving forward with a program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women in a case by the anti-affirmative action activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote granted a request by Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights to temporarily block Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women.»

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-blocks-venture-capital-funds-grant-program-black-women-2023-09-30/

«As things stand, for all his dubious and impressive achievements, Murdoch seems destined to be remembered as the man who made another fortune from igniting a culture war in America, but who had no idea – short of the unthinkable step of losing money – how to put it out.»

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/02/the-fall-the-end-of-the-rupert-murdoch-empire-by-michael-wolff-review-succession-without-a-sense-of-humour

I.e.: “set fire to America for profit.”

Interesting phrasing:

«…the events in China will change Xi and the CCP, who will prefer to be in power in a China that is not a superpower rather than out of power in Superpower China.

Having said this, the fact is that China remains a mighty nation. Its leaders believe that they can still conquer the sun.»

https://www.eurasiantimes.com/chinas-100-year-marathon-towards-global-domination-out/

Seems like a pretty cogent essay by a retired Indian general who is now an aerospace prof at IIT, India’s analogue of MIT.

This is what happens when democracy doesn’t give the right wing what they want: they want to end democracy. Everybody on the fringes (and sometimes not the fringes?) wants a hero on a white horse to ride in and “save us”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/01/red-caesar-authoritarianism-republicans-extreme-right

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/technology/ukraine-russia-war-drones-china.html?unlocked_article_code=3LueJpq6MN5WWr8BXg2LLmPdqQRGeZfhI4ekeD-8HfuifQfXXF6yfXk5BcxaEzM226TAkR4CUPTA-F_EQ-02D1ZvcbB9fUVf4JKTOuEOHfeWGzwWSs2YRfMKDpNw7RYDPunqfKPaignPc7w_2OpLfR6JGKQqSspKvdlh0CDhyqPYTjqSEFPJL9IAD9mTCElmw4szN4ABaBAdDPMYiEvPQ9ufyila7rd5JBMcDFQTLH2UUhgY_0xUEPZdrDgBAp4FYIc7dexSyxhT6S85IsVx7KgwSv_yuaJyTlbHi7wb5tAwE5S9eta7JrIsqw7eR-nj-TaZX_mP6nx2muA_Src4yGqRkiM6aAmGoWz-tg&smid=url-share

Drone pilots not necessarily so safe.

«Russian and Ukrainian soldiers also began using non-drone DJI products, including one called AeroScope. An antenna-studded box, it can be set up on the ground to track drone locations by detecting the signals they send. The system’s more dangerous feature is its ability to find the pilots who remotely fly DJI drones.»

War of supply chains;

«“Even when you see labels like America or Australia on a component, it’s still all manufactured in China,” he said. “To make something that could effectively replace China, it’s really close to impossible.”»

«Ukrainians compete with Russians to buy F.P.V.s from Chinese firms that are willing to sell directly. Russians often have the advantage because they can bid higher and order larger batches. Selling to Russians is also politically safer for Chinese companies.»

«Ukrspecsystems, a company in Kyiv that makes fixed-wing reconnaissance drones, said in a statement that supply chain issues with China had led it to look beyond the country.

“Today, we virtually do not use any Chinese components because we see and feel how China deliberately delays the delivery of any goods to Ukraine,” it said.»

I remember having argument with a (“conservative”) internet stranger around the time of the ’08 financial crisis. His position was that bleeding-heart liberal Congress had mandated subprime loans, and that’s why we were in that mess.

«An analysis conducted for the Wall Street Journal in 2007 showed that the majority of subprime loans were going to people who could have qualified for less expensive prime loans.

….

The public policy justification for allowing subprime loans was that they made the American Dream of homeownership possible for people who did not meet the credit standards to get a cheaper prime mortgage. But the subprime loans we started to see in the early 2000s were primarily marketed to existing homeowners, not people looking to buy—and they usually left the borrower worse off than before the loan. Instead of getting striving people into homeownership, the loans often wound up pushing existing homeowners out.»

#theSumOfUs

So… one of my favorite hymns, which has one of those turn-of-the-century sounds, has its melody from an African-American spiritual. Words written in 1913 (with the 3rd stanza inserted in 1987 from Galatians 3:28 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal+3%3A28&version=NRSVUE)) , according to the fine print at the bottom of the page.