Your humble blogger got very close to an EV battery fire on the Grand Central Parkway (as in skirted a fire truck next to the utterly fried smallish delivery vehicle, I have no idea if its driver got out). They are every bit as ferocious as they look on video. The smoke is intensely dark and billows upward quickly, as opposed to fanning out, I assume to the fierce heat of the blaze funneling it upward.
Daniel Ellsberg Is Dead
Read Ellsberg’s book Secrets, if you haven’t yet. One of its many striking vignettes: Henry Kissinger sought out Daniel Ellsberg as one of his top priority meetings as a new government official. Ellsberg was highly respected as a world-reknown decision theorist, and as one of the most insightful people on Vietnam, having spent substantial time on the ground (as opposed to cloistered in Saigon) on behalf of the DoD and State. Ellsberg’s description of that encounter from Secrets:
“Henry, there’s something I would like to tell you, for what it’s worth, something I wish I had been told years ago. You’ve been a consultant for a long time, and you’ve dealt a great deal with top secret information. But you’re about to receive a whole slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty of them, that are higher than top secret.
“I’ve had a number of these myself, and I’ve known other people who have just acquired them, and I have a pretty good sense of what the effects of receiving these clearances are on a person who didn’t previously know they even existed. And the effects of reading the information that they will make available to you.
“First, you’ll be exhilarated by some of this new information, and by having it all — so much! incredible! — suddenly available to you. But second, almost as fast, you will feel like a fool for having studied, written, talked about these subjects, criticized and analyzed decisions made by presidents for years without having known of the existence of all this information, which presidents and others had and you didn’t, and which must have influenced their decisions in ways you couldn’t even guess. In particular, you’ll feel foolish for having literally rubbed shoulders for over a decade with some officials and consultants who did have access to all this information you didn’t know about and didn’t know they had, and you’ll be stunned that they kept that secret from you so well.
“You will feel like a fool, and that will last for about two weeks. Then, after you’ve started reading all this daily intelligence input and become used to using what amounts to whole libraries of hidden information, which is much more closely held than mere top secret data, you will forget there ever was a time when you didn’t have it, and you’ll be aware only of the fact that you have it now and most others don’t….and that all those other people are fools.
“Over a longer period of time — not too long, but a matter of two or three years — you’ll eventually become aware of the limitations of this information. There is a great deal that it doesn’t tell you, it’s often inaccurate, and it can lead you astray just as much as the New York Times can. But that takes a while to learn.
“In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to learn from anybody who doesn’t have these clearances. Because you’ll be thinking as you listen to them: ‘What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations?’ And that mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. I’ve seen this with my superiors, my colleagues….and with myself.
“You will deal with a person who doesn’t have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with, since you’ll have to lie carefully to him about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him. You’ll give up trying to assess what he has to say. The danger is, you’ll become something like a moron. You’ll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours.”
Ellsberg describes how Kissinger later starts acting in precisely that moronic fashion.
Daniel Ellsberg, Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Dead at 92 New York Times
MY FIFTY YEARS WITH DAN ELLSBERG Seymour Hersh
DANIEL ELLSBERG WANTED AMERICANS TO SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT WAR Intercept
Why Do Cats Hold Such Mythic Power in Japan? New York Times (resilc). From last month.
‘Really exciting’: ‘Extinct’ animal spotted in state for second time in a century 9News (Kevin W). From last week, still newswothy
Elephant in the Room: Thailand’s National Animal Is Pushing Back against Habitat Loss DW
Humans Actually Have Secret Stripes And Other Strange Markings Science Alert (Chuck L)
Man ‘faked his death before arriving to his funeral in a helicopter to teach family a lesson’ Independent (resilc)
Hyperdimensional Computing Reimagines Artificial Intelligence Wired (Dr. Kevin)
Why it won’t be so easy for medicine to displace BMI STAT. See also New Tape Test: Here’s How the Army Is Measuring Body Fat Now Military.com (resilc)
Why are men seemingly always naked in ancient Greek art? aeon (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Panic and neglect; panic and neglect Your Local Epidemiologist (Kevin W). Important.
“A month after Japan downgraded COVID-19 to a status on par with that of seasonal flu, the nation may be on the cusp of a ninth COVID-19 wave…”
You all know the line by now.https://t.co/HVvijAe9I7
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) June 16, 2023
Climate/Environment
It isn’t arson: untangling climate misinformation around Canada’s raging wildfires The Narwhal (guurst)
Gas stations are leaking underground Grist (resilc). Not news. They are often Superfund sites.
Hosepipe ban 2023: The rules explained uk.news (furzy)
China?
China Is Quickly Becoming The World’s Largest Refiner OilPrice
China gives green light to nuclear reactor that burns thorium – a fuel that could power the country for 20,000 years South China Morning Post
First on CNN: Janet Yellen tells top CEOs the US wants to work with China to tackle urgent global challenges CNN (Kevin W). Lordie, the arrogance and misdirection. Yellen is trying to position the US as a good guy v China with a supposedly private audience that does not have the ear of Chinese leadership. The Chinese have made clear they aren’t willing to talk (beyond the bare minimum) with the US, much the less collaborate, while the US is loudly depicting China as its top strategic threat that must be cut down to size and has been eyepoking ever since Biden took office, starting with being astonishingly abusive at a summit the US called in Alaska. China only voiced long-term aspirations (Xi’s target was 2049) for Taiwan reunification and started bristling militarily only fairly recently. Yes, China has been aggressive regarding using fake islands to advance its claims to the South China Sea. But we did nothing while China was chugging along with this program.
China’s Solution for a Growing Senior Care Crisis: Millions of Robots SixthTone (resilc)
European Disunion
Swiss capital city wants to test controlled sale of cocaine SWI. Resilc: “A play to bring in more i bankers?”
Ifo: Residential construction to shrink sharply in coming years Market Screener
New Not-So-Cold War
NATO must prepare for intervention to safeguard ZNPP Asia Times. Maxwell J:
A fun romp through the parallel universe of the neocons. It’s useful to know that people out there actually believe this stuff. Yikes.
US Sends F-22s to Mideast to Counter Russian Forces Acting ‘Unsafely’ in Syria Sputnik (guurst)
* * * Russians now have the best army in the world – former Trump adviser, US Army Colonel Douglas McGregor
“Washington knows that Ukraine is close to collapse beyond any doubt. The country is destroyed, the army is weakened to the point of impossibility. These are people who are… pic.twitter.com/dn8BihIxDR
— Sprinter (@Sprinter99880) June 17, 2023
The New Atlas LIVE: Mark Sleboda Explains Ukraine’s Offensive as it Enters Week 3 YouTube. You can listen at 1.5x 🙂
On The Failure Of The Ukrainian Counterattack Moon of Alabama
The next wave of the counteroffensive w/Scott Ritter (Live) YouTube. From earlier this week, but many of you may have been daunted by the length. Key sections are on the F-16 (starting at 1:21:50) which segues into the Patriot (at 1:27:00) and the hoped-for political end game in Ukraine (1:45:45).
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has rejected calls for peace talks with Russia while meeting with a delegation of African leaders.
He questioned their decision to travel to Moscow next.https://t.co/0yfJ5NpntX
— DW News (@dwnews) June 16, 2023
* * * Ukraine war: Putin confirms first nuclear weapons moved to Belarus BBC
Russian church mediates Ukraine prisoner release RT. Kevin W: “But with a twist.”
The Ukraine Lobby’s Latest Targets American Conservative (resilc)
High point of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum: Putin on stage Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)
Battle for Aluminum Stocks Is Draining LME of Non-Russian Metal Bloomberg (resilc)
Syraqistan
‘Not even cats can survive’: Outrage after Israeli gunfire kills cat during West Bank raid New Arab
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Amazon shuts down customer’s smart home devices after delivery driver’s false racism claim New York Post
Carnival uses marijuana detection dogs on some cruises WPTX (resilc)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Fort Sill Commander Fired After Allegedly Violating Base Hunting Rules Military.com
Dreadnoughts and Virginias: why is Australia paying more than twice the price for submarines? MichaelWestMedia (guurst). Recall AUKUS is an anti-China deal. Here because US looting subject states. The question is why Australia plays ball.
You hear about how bad San Francisco is. I was filming a shot of my father , Shelby Steele, and in the ten minutes we were gone our SUV was broken into and nearly $15k of cameras stolen. Called 911 & they hung up twice. pic.twitter.com/g0X71Raw4X
— Eli Steele (@Hebro_Steele) June 14, 2023
Biden
A major lawsuit challenging Biden’s student-loan forgiveness might have just been undermined by a new ruling from conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett Business Insider (Kevin W)
Biden goes quiet on killing off the debt ceiling Politico (David R)
Wellie, now he can’t testify:
Burisma Energy Accountant, Who Blew Whistle on Biden Bribery Scheme, Found Dead.https://t.co/KfVeJaylSZ
— Mike Sperrazza (@MikeASperrazza) June 15, 2023
A bit late to this, so many of you have likely already seen this. The one bit that may give Team Biden some cheer is that the views are much lower than at comparable times for Tucker’s earlier talks….at a mere 25 million or so views.
Ep. 4 Wannabe Dictator pic.twitter.com/MDcs5g0gxB
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 15, 2023
Trump
Why federal prosecutors may have handed Trump a huge gift Politico. Yes, but he still needs some good lawyers to capitalize on it.
Prosecutors in Mar-a-Lago case want to keep evidence secret so it won’t compromise other ‘ongoing investigations’ Business Insider (resilc)
BIG: Halderman Report Reveals Georgia’s Dominion Voting Machines Can be Hacked, Votes Can Be Changed, Elections Can Be Altered! – SOS Raffensperger Hid the Report and Now Will Not Install Security Patches for 2024 Election Gateway Pundit (Chuck L). Note Gateway Pundit is hard core right wing but not of the cray cray sort:
Police State Watch
Singapore to put more police robots on the streets Bangkok Post (resilc)
The FBI Has Found A New Threat: “Pro-Abortion Terrorism” Intercept
The Binge Purge New York Magazine. Hubert Horan:
Very good overview of the TV streaming debacle and how it threatens to destroy much of the entertainment industry
Includes a very appropriate comparison with Uber, including the collective industry/media/Wall Street madness that caused everyone to abandon any interest in profitability while pursuing corporate valuation narratives based on the next big thing, while making it impossible to do anything to undo the damage even after the failure of the business model had become obvious
The Bezzle
Received by e-mail:
IM Doc commented:
This is what concerns me having had a baptism by fire in telemedicine the past few years.
There are so many subtle things a good clinician is trained to notice spontaneously. How someone acts, smells, talks, walks, breathes, laughs……it is one thing to do telemedicine on patients you have known for years. It would be downright negligent to do this on NEW patients completely unknown to you. And if you notice, that is literally all they are doing, one stranger after another. This is just beyond gonzo that this is being allowed.
Guillotine Watch
Pharma giant delays payment in $1.7B opioid settlement as deal risks falling apart New York Post (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
To fill offices, Google issues ultimatum while Salesforce tries charity Washington Post (Kevin W)
Here’s the note Reddit sent to moderators threatening them if they don’t reopen The Verge
Reddit’s golden geese foul up its IPO plans Reuters. Paul R: “I am not sure but it looks like the reddit blackout is screwing up the planned IPO. That delights me of course.”
Antidote du jour (LaRuse, whose candidate I embarrassingly missed years ago!):
And a bonus:
Play time 🥰
pic.twitter.com/fftAdCb85S— why you should have an animal (@shouldhaveanima) June 11, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
