Links 2/22/2023

Links 2/22/2023 1

A Wiser Sympathy Lapham’s Quarterly. Anthony L: “Plant intelligence.”

Stop Eating Poppy Seeds or You Might Fail a Drug Test, Pentagon Warns Military.com. News you can use!

Anaximander and the Nature of Science by Carlo Rovelli review – the ancient master of the universe Guardian. Anthony L: “Not quite right. To get science you also need Calabrian medicine, but still OK.”

The New Irrationalism Monthly Review (Chuck L)

#COVID-19

Climate/Environment

So-called ‘safe’ pesticides have surprisingly ill effects University of British Columbia

Trashion: The stealth export of waste plastic clothing to Kenya Changing Markets (Kevin W)

China?

The Global Security Initiative Concept Paper Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China

China’s Newest Weapon To Nab Western Technology – Its Courts Wall Street Journal

China, Japan square off at first security talks in four years Reuters

‘China is an exception’: India says it has good ties with all big powers – besides one South China Morning Post

European Disunion

EU Gas Demand Fell More Than Target OilPrice. Could be a sign of more severe demand destruction than widely acknowledged, as well as mild winter.

New investigation shows: This is how much the gaps have increased in 20 years Evening Paper (Sweden, Michael T)

Old Blighty

Rationing risk as tomato shortage hits UK supermarkets Sky News

Rishi Sunak weighs 5% public-sector pay offer to end waves of strikes Financial Times

The Lords are fighting back against fascism Richard Murphy

New Not-So-Cold War

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Where is Russia’s Winter Offensive + President Biden Empty-Handed in Kiev Brian Berletic

Ukrainians Dig Into Their Own Pockets to Fund Everything From Drones to Mortars Bloomberg

We just don’t have the money to send jets to Ukraine Telegraph. Surprising to see at this venue.

The Roundtable #47: Larry Johnson, Michael Vlahos Gonzalo Lira, YouTube. Starts off with the Putin speech. Note YouTube did not produce this as a result even when I searched for “Gonzalo Lira” and filtered for the last week. YouTube is increasingly suppressing material from off narrative sources.

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A year on, Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to redraw the map of world politics – and 2023 will be crucial The Converstion (Kevin W)

China’s top diplomat says relations with Russia ‘rock solid’ DW. So much for the Blinken, Borrell, and Stoltenberg trying to pressure Wang Yi.

* * *

Russia summons US ambassador over ‘aggressive course’ in Ukraine Press TV. Important.

US diplomat on what it’s like negotiating with Putin BBC. Curious revisionism. Before the war, the religiously-intoned claim from the US was that Russia refused to negotiate. Now the claim is that Russia had negotiated but was unreasonable. An obvious omission in this account is that Russia presented written proposals and wanted written counterproposals. This is bog standard, see Brexit. And for good reason. Using written texts is desirable because in the end any agreement will need to be reduced to text. Verbal discussions have a way of being heard in an overly favorable manner. That’s why things of any complexity are done with contracts. Russia learned with the US “Not one inch further east” of the danger of relying on handshakes. The very fact that the US is stooping to discuss this history looks defensive, as if they feel the need to prove the Collective West was not out to have this war.

Syraqistan

By caving to Israel, Biden opens the door to war Responsible Statecraft

Sanders calls for cutting U.S. ‘billions’ to Israel over ‘racist’ moves Mondoweiss

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Spy Balloons Are the Slow and Silent Future of Surveillance Bloomberg (furzy)

The Insecurity of Photo Cropping Bruce Schneier

Imperial Collapse Watch

Assessing the Economic Value of Military Materiel Philip Pilkington, American Affairs (guurst). Important. Also paging Andrei Martyanov.

US no longer attracts world’s rich – study RT. That’s a bad thing?

Russia And China Draw ‘Red Lines’ On Their Borders; US Draws Them On The Other Side Of The Planet Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)

Biden

Biden to replace Trump migration policy with Trump-esque asylum policy Politico

GOP Clown Car

Nikki Haley: Bernie Sanders is ‘exactly the reason’ mental competency tests are needed The Hill. Amateurish and gutless. She picks independent Sanders as opposed to the obviously cognitively challenged but powerful Dems Feinstein and Pelosi. And Sanders was and likely still is popular with young people.

DeSantis and Haley highlight 2024 chasm on Ukraine Washington Post

Supremes

The Supreme Court could throw the internet into chaos Washington Post (Kevin W)

Supremely confused! SCOTUS justices bamboozled in landmark suit to scrap sweeping legal protections for tech giants – as they admit they ‘are not the nine greatest experts on the internet’ Daily Mail

US Supreme Court will not hear challenge to Arkansas anti-BDS law Middle East Online

Texas Is Planning To Make a Huge Public Investment In Space ars technica. Will they start conducting their own foreign policy too?

California, There We Went City Journal (Kevin W). On public education.

Norfolk Southern Chemical Bomb

Explosion at Ohio metal factory 70 miles from East Palestine injures at least 14 people, showering surrounding area with molten debris Business Insider (Kevin W)

Investigation shows rail giant donated to Ohio GOP governor a month before toxic crash Salon

Our No Longer Free Press

Police State Watch

Malcolm X’s family plan to sue FBI, CIA, NYPD for his death BBC (furzy). Unless the plaintiffs have a documentary smoking gun in hand, this will be a very difficult case to win. In general, delay favors the defense because memories fade, so witnesses are easily impugned.

Woke Watch

Shakespeare flagged as ‘far right’ literature in UK – media RT (Anthony L)

AI

Vanderbilt apologizes for using ChatGPT to write MSU email to students Daily Mail (BC)

The Bezzle

I bet the whales aren’t getting royalties (Chuck L):

SEC’s Shadow Crypto Rule Taking Shape as Enforcement Cases Mount CoinDesk

How a depression test devised by a Zoloft marketer became a crutch for a failing mental health system STAT

Is This Painting a Raphael or Not? A Fortune Rides on the Answer Wall Street Journal (Anthony L)

Mortgage Rates Near 7% for Spring Selling Season: Prices of Existing Homes Fall 13% from Peak, on Lowest Sales since 2010 Wolf Richter. Not in my tiny market, which wasn’t bubbly in the good time and has a school district not only that is best in the state but in the top 1% in the US. We have a chronic shortage of inventory. Goes from terrible to moderately bad.

How Have Swings in Demand Affected Global Supply Chain Pressures? Liberty Street Economics

Class Warfare

2,100 rail workers to get paid leave in new deal with Union Pacific The Hill (Kevin W)

McKinsey will reportedly cut about 2,000 jobs amid restructuring MarketWatch

The average American tenant is rent-burdened. Here’s what that means for the economy. The Hill

Amazon employees express dismay, anger about sudden return-to-office policy CNBC

Four-day working week ‘more productive’: UK study PhysOrg

Wage theft report uncovers over $80 million in stolen wages National Tertiary Education Union (Australia, via Paul R)

Antidote du jour:

Links 2/22/2023 2

And a bonus (Dr. Kevin):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here. 

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