What Matters To The Media

A couple of minutes after Liz made her statement, we found all the major media in the world - as our exhausted spokeswoman put it, “CNN, NYT, pretty much everyone” – glowing with schadenfreude, as they lined up for official feedback from RT. There were also those who had ignored the news of the Ashton-Paet talks, as if they didn’t happen. A rival media anchor’s resignation is certainly much more important and sensational and more closely connected to the Ukraine crisis than two European leaders saying some of their henchmen may have been killing people.

More here.

"… SLS cost is almost two-thirds of NASA’s entire annual budget …"

Robbing NASA blind: 

Notice that [in this scenario] the Falcon XX launch cost for this operation is comparable to the current cost of paying the Russians to ferry our crews to the space station each year, while the low SLS cost is almost two-thirds of NASA’s entire annual budget, and the high estimate exceeds its budget by over $4 billion. We cannot know the actual cost of an SLS operation since no launch cost has been posted. The only comparable costs would be if we were using a fleet of expendable cargo aircraft, which were thrown away after each cargo flight to a distant shore due to lack of aviation fuel at the destination.

Been There, Done That, Got In A Knot

Clouding the Moral Issue

In February 1961, Schlesinger was first told of the "Cuba operation" that would eventually become the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He opposed the plan in a memorandum to the President, stating that "at one stroke you would dissipate all the extraordinary good will which has been rising toward the new Administration through the world. It would fix a malevolent image of the new Administration in the minds of millions". He did, however, suggest,

Would it not be possible to induce Castro to take offensive action first? He has already launched expeditions against Panama and against the Dominican Republic. One can conceive a black operation in, say, Haiti which might in time lure Castro into sending a few boatloads of men on to a Haitian beach in what could be portrayed as an effort to overthrow the Haitian regime. If only Castro could be induced to commit an offensive act, then the moral issue would be clouded, and the anti-US campaign would be hobbled from the start.

Marseille "La Joliette" And The "Hangar J4" Before The Gentrification

Marseille, La Joliette, Hangars J1 to J4, in 1980s or 1990s

Recently I had to realize that I witnessed in September 1997 the last days of a part of Marseille before its irrecoverable change: The so called "Hangar J4", at that time a ferry terminal in Marseille's harbour at the J4 mole/quay. That part of the harbour was located in the La Joliette neighbourhood (hence the J in the name), and most of the buildings of that ferry terminal were about to be demolished over the coming years.

I have neither taken any images there, nor have I been able to keep any of my images from that holiday in France (both of which I highly regret), so I searched for what was available on the Web: Unfortunately images and information are scarce, all the more astonishing as the new (and beautiful) buildings have retained the "J4" name. That area of Marseille must have been a bit of sore site for the people of Marseille, yet now that it is gone they seem to hold the name in fond memory. The only remaining building seems to be J1, and even its future is uncertain today – the other building have been destroyed, with the Hangar J4 being the first to vanish in 1997 without much fanfare.

Old Chums

How Bank of England 'helped Nazis sell gold stolen from Czechs'

The Thing Keeping The USA Together? Pork Barrels.

Oh my:

… Earlier this year, lawmakers set aside $436 million for the construction and maintenance of the mighty M-1 Abrams tank, of which the Army currently has more than 2,300—with another 3,000 in storage.

That might sound like enough tanks for the American military, and sure enough the Army agrees. “If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, told the Associated Press in April.

So why build more tanks? General Dynamics, the tank’s manufacturer, has aggressively lobbied to keep the M-1 in production. There’s also just one factory in the whole country that manufactures the Abrams: the Lima Army Tank Plant in Ohio. Such a seemingly precious facility is sure to inspire a fierce defense by backers against any attempt to shut it down. …

Once the money stream to "defence" contractors and to the banks from the state starts to dry up, you will see "interesting times".

In other news: CIA claims release of "Bay of Pigs" files would "confuse the public"