From hangry to chonky: Fat Bear Week is coming NPR (David L)
Ghostly Deep Sea Dumbo Octopus Delights Researchers In Wholesome Video IFLScience (furzy)
Oaks vs. squirrels: A battle is underway in some Minnesota trees, and it’s nuts MPR News (Chuck L)
Worm that jumps from rats to slugs to human brains has invaded Southeast US ars technica (David L)
‘Extraordinary’ structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record, scientists say CNN (Kevin W)
The Physics of Crowds Nautilus
#COVID-19
ma points out that the delay till November 1 is odd:
GREAT NEWS: Several counties in CA have reinstated their mask mandates for healthcare settings. They will be in effect from Nov 1 to Apr 30.
The counties include Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, and San Mateo. Several more Bay Area health depts are also expected to issue mandates. pic.twitter.com/tvQsgBG7lk
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) September 20, 2023
Feds to restart mail-order Covid test program Politico. ma:
“The president wanted to make sure that no one can go without tests,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.”
Totally, that’s totally what happened……
Testing for long COVID: Eye exam as a new approach MedicalXpress (Micael T)
Climate/Environment
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 Counterpunch (furance)
New battery recycling rules could be a game-changer in the EU’s search for EV minerals Grist
Indigenous people shed tears of joy and celebrated after Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled against an effort to restrict native peoples’ rights to protected reservations on their ancestral lands – a win for Indigenous and climate activists. pic.twitter.com/HYAvZzSg77
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 22, 2023
China?
Rahm Emmanuel in Japan, goes rogue on China Responsible Statecraft
Top Chinese university scraps English requirements – media RT (Chuck L)
China Keeps Trying to Crush Them. Their Movement Keeps Growing. New York Times (David L)
India
A Murder, a Diplomatic Dust-Up and the Risk of Impunity New York Times (David L)
Intelligence input on Sikh leader’s murder came from Canada’s Five Eyes ally, report says (Kevin W) Independent
Why Canada Is Having A Diplomatic Crisis With India Ian Welsh (Micael T)
European Disunion
The Culprit’s Law (II) German Foreign Policy (Micael T)
New Not So Cold War
Ukraine war: US to give Kyiv long-range ATACMS missiles – media reports BBC
>US Can’t Deal with Defeat Consortium News (Chuck L)
The dilemma over transferring Russian assets to Ukraine Gillian Tett, Financial Times (David L)
Biden UN speech: no Ukraine compromise, negotiation Asia Times (Kevin W)
UN Feedback Shows That While the West Is Hostile to Russia, the World Isn’t Russia in Global Affairs (Micael T)
“Ukraine, before and after.” The Floutist. Important. A speech by Scott Ritter.
Ukraine SitRep: The War By Numbers Of Humans Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). We get a shout out 🙂
Fields Fortified by Russia Become Pivotal to Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Wall Street Journal. The hopium, it burns.
Hoo boy. Admittedly the neocons have given plenty of grist for this point of views:
– Alexander Dugin, we increasingly hear the leaders of our country define modern western civilisation with the word ‘Satanism’. What do you think is meant by this?
– The statement that the West is a ‘satanic civilisation’ was uttered by the President in his keynote speech during… pic.twitter.com/JApI04lgqB
— Alexander Dugin (@Agdchan) September 18, 2023
Living conditions in Ukraine are resembling a new slavery, a triumph of Western ‘democracy’ in the 21st century AlMayadeen (Micael T). Consistent with our post yesterday on economic collapse.
Russia’s indefinite ban on diesel exports threatens to aggravate a global shortage CNBC (Kevin W). We have been intermittently putting up posts on the expectation that diesel supplies would come under stress. That is finally starting to happen. And now….
Collapse of Black Sea grain deal worsen increasing global food insecurity: Irish premier Anadolu Agency
European shame. In Europe they collect from Wikipedia any information for sanctions against Russia International Affairs (Micael T)
Syraqistan
Xi, Assad announce launch of China-Syria strategic partnership The Cradle (furnace)
Might Syria Become A Gateway Of The New Silk Road With Assad-Xi Summit? Canadian Patriot (Micael T)
🇮🇷The President of Iran met with Jewish anti-Zionist rabbis.
“We don’t have any problem with Judaism, our problem is Zionism,” Raisi said at the meeting.
“In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jews have always been free, Iran has always supported them. There has always been a… pic.twitter.com/83wMuQAcAE
— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) September 20, 2023
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
See-Through Sensors Hide Eye-Tracking in Plain Sight SpectrumIEEE (Chuck L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Hollow State (Global Guerrillas 2007):
The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (“leaders,” membership in international organizations, regulations, laws, and a bureaucracy), but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services, and control of its historical…
— John Robb (@johnrobb) September 19, 2023
We are in a new era: China is sending clear messages that it will not accept Washington’s constant attempts to overthrow sovereign foreign governments
The US has spent years waging war on Syria and Venezuela. In the past week, President Xi welcomed the leaders of both to Beijing https://t.co/T4pLyO9KDM pic.twitter.com/rdrqLAthIB
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 22, 2023
1/6
FBI Lost Track Of Paid Informants In Jan 6 Crowd Because They Had So Many, Former Washington Field Office Chief Says Trending Politics (Chuck L)
Trump
THE PATRIOT How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump Atlantic (David L). Douglas Macgregor has a particularly dim view of Milley and has also described long form how the military, and one assumes Milley had to have been involved, rejected properly papered up orders by Trump to pull out of Afghanistan in January, which Macgregor argues would have been much better than May, when it actually occurred, because tribes would be mainly in the hills, not cities.
Biden
>Republicans erupt after Pentagon exempts Ukraine aid from potential US government shutdown: ‘Says it all’ Fox (Micael T)
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Question About Biden Consortium News
From Chuck L. Click through for entire text:
.@Jim_Jordan: “The fix is in, even with a face-saving indictment last week of Hunter Biden, everyone knows the fix is in. For four and a half years, the Department of Justice has been investigating Mr. Biden.
An investigation run by David Weiss that limited the number of… pic.twitter.com/8ot9jv2dEM
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 20, 2023
Biden administration launches first-of-its-kind American Climate Corps program CNN (Li)
Democrats en deshabille
US Senator Bob Menendez and wife accused of taking cash, gold bribes to benefit Egypt government ABC Australia (Kevin W)
Wowzers. This Bob Menendez indictment includes gold bars, text messages, cash hanging in closets. It’s kind of nostalgic, actually, harkens back to a more innocent time when politicians took bribes instead of getting bullshit children’s book contracts. https://t.co/XFSSptC1OI
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) September 22, 2023
Immigration
Border Patrol Agents ARE BREAKING RANKS!! They Are Questioning Why Isn’t Leadership UPHOLDING THE CONSTITUTION ‼️
Border Patrol Chief “We stay focused we continue to do the job and the mission that we signed up for. We all signed up for it, we all raised our hand.”
BRAVE… pic.twitter.com/yLmzFqwKMg— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) September 21, 2023
Our No Longer Free Press
White House, States Try To Convince Supreme Court In Jawboning Case Techdirt. Mark G: “Techdirt goes full Blob. The use of pejorative language in this one is what really leaped out at me. Masnick’s not pretending to be objective anymore.”
Intel-Linked UK Official Pushing Censorship of Russell Brand ScheerPost (Micael T)
How scope of practice expansion efforts were defeated in New York AMA (Chuck L)
AI
The Unlikely World Leader Who Just Dispelled Musk’s Utopian AI Dreams The Atlantic (David L)
White House Could Force Cloud Companies To Disclose AI Customers Semafor
Weaponizing Intelligence: How AI is Revolutionizing Warfare, Ethics, and Global Defense Modern Diplomacy (Micael T)
Artificial Intelligence Could Finally Let Us Talk with Animals Scientific American (David L)
Class Warfare
Did you know this?
Billy Joel never sells tickets to the front rows of his concerts.
Aside from wanting to beat the scalpers, he got tired of all the bored rich people staring up at him.
“They don’t stand up, make noise, [they just] sit there,” he said.
So now, he sends… pic.twitter.com/C50PfnScYR
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) September 20, 2023
US auto strike expands to 38 GM and Stellantis facilities Financial Times
“Everything is becoming more expensive, only we should become cheaper.” NachDenkSeiten(Micael T, via machine translation)
Are we destined for a zero-sum future? Financial Times (David L)
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
A breathtaking eagle’s-eye view soaring through snow covered peaks.
📽: Justin Labattupic.twitter.com/4hcgHL90CO
— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) September 21, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
