Why elephants, otters and whales are nature’s secret weapons against climate breakdown Guardian (furzy)
Nong Nooch Pattaya welcomes 2nd baby elephant of 2023 Pattaya Mail (furzy)
Demons be gone: inside the American spiritual warfare movement Guardian (resilc)
New Zealand ships its last livestock as ban takes effect Reuters. Resilc:
I was on a screw worm inspection team for sheep imported to Bahrain from Australia for ramadan during my Peace Corps days. Unreal nightmare and smell. I think I have PTSD from screw worm damage on fat tailed sheep.
NOW OUT @ScienceMagazine 🧬🐾🤓
“The evolution of two transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils”
A 🧵 on our deep DNA sequencing dive into the startling genetic history of contagious tumours (1/n)
👇https://t.co/XuV9LctJ4f pic.twitter.com/UYvBxUFHWb
— Max Stammnitz (@DevilsAdvoMax) April 20, 2023
COVID-19
Kaiser hospital returns to masking amid COVID-19 outbreak Becker’s Hospital Review
Military Pilots Reported 1,700% More Medical Incidents During the Pandemic. The Pentagon Says They Just Had COVID Military.com (guurst)
Climate/Environment
Historic Asia heat breaks hundreds of records; extremes in Thailand and China Washington Post (resilc)
Every breath a struggle in country’s toxic air Bangkok Post (furzy). Rice field burning season.
#copper Antofagasta churned out 145,900 tonnes of copper in the three months to March 31, down 25.4% from the fourth quarter of last year on lower water availability at its flagship Los Pelambres mine and lower grades at Centinela. https://t.co/uFGbVvmq7Y
— StockShaman ⚒ #PeakCopper AKA Greg Shafransky 🍌 (@StockShaman) April 19, 2023
They cleaned up BP’s massive oil spill. Now they’re sick – and want justice Guardian. Kevin W: “Grab a coffee.”
China?
Janet Yellen warns US decoupling from China would be ‘disastrous’ Financial Times. I had wanted to write about this last night, as yet another example of American delusion, but estate duties intervened. A report at the pink paper the day before depicted Yellen as intending to extend an olive branch to China, when the only sort that would have fallen for her presentation is the victim in an abusive co-dependent relationship. There’s no new substantive action. The US continues to escalate on Taiwan and is planning more economic nasties. Her remarks contain so many points unfriendly to China that it might as well have been written by Anthony Blinken. Oh, and “constructive and fair” is the rebranding of “rules-based order”.
U.S. Cuts Itself Off From Future Chinese Profits Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Per above, MoA got there before I did. When you’ve lost Ed Luce….
China’s push to hijack enemy satellites could be ‘game over’ for US, national security expert warns Yahoo (furzy). Note our 2022 post: Is the US Underestimating China’s Space and Counterspace Capabilities?
They claim that constantly simulating war, and forecasting how the US would be best equipped to wage this war, is actually meant to prevent and “deter” the war in question, rather than gradually reify its presumed inevitability https://t.co/91b5qtzAGb
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 20, 2023
Um, as I recall it was Japan that invaded and controlled part of China for a while and Japan is now a military protectorate of the US. So please explain how either of those relate to Poland’s relationship to Russia, beyond neocon fevered brain analogies:
This is how Tokyo sees it: “China is like Russia. Taiwan is like Ukraine. Japan is like Poland.”
Major General Joel Vowell, commander of the U.S. Army in Japan @USARJ_PAO, pressed the point that “The real problem today and tomorrow is protecting the sovereignty of Japan”,… 1/3 pic.twitter.com/P5BrVuvGP2— Klaus Bardenhagen (@taiwanreporter) April 20, 2023
China’s 4th Industrial Revolution rattles US tech stocks Asia Times (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
Companies desert CBI after second rape allegation Financial Times. Lead story.
Dominic Raab resigns over bullying report BBC. Resilc: “Too funny. Tory excellence.”
New Not-So-Cold War
Stoltenberg reaffirms Ukraine should eventually join NATO DW (resilc)
Relations with West won’t improve – Putin’s special representative Sputnik
Guided and glide bombs: new feature in Ukraine war Asia Times
L’affaire Leaker
FBI closes in on TWO DOZEN gamers in Pentagon leaker’s Discord group – including RUSSIANS – as it emerges disgraced airman, 21, ‘had been sharing files since Ukraine War started Daily Mail. Note the a new theory, per Scott Ritter on Judge Napolitano earlier this week, is that (I kid you not) doing the visuals for top top presentations had been tasked to Teixeira’s unit. This is so stupid as to almost be plausible but I will again run it by contacts. Note I have been getting unsolicited communiques from supposed intel types asserting that things are so loosely run that Teixeira could have gotten the records, ignoring that they are way way above clearances normally given to people w/o many years of experience, and most of the higher-level clearances are also compartmentalized. Given that network supervision was tightened in the DoD and three letter agencies, bad task allocation does seem more plausible than no one minding the store (when that store has lots of eyes and alerts).
Syraqistan
US military prepares for possible Sudan embassy evacuation Associated Press. Kevin W: “Hopefully not like Mogadishu.”
Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ‘satisfied’ with oil cuts Middle East Eye
Assange
Don’t Extradite Assange (Ann M). Please sign. I did.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Replenishing Controversy: The US Navy’s New Tanker Program QCaptain (guurst)
Learning From Vlad the Impaler American Conservative (resilc)
Pentagon shares first footage of a UFO over a conflict zone Express (furzy)
Footage of UFOs over conflict zones seen for first time: ‘This is devastating’ Fox (furzy)
GOP Clown Car
The Threat of Civil Breakdown Is Real Politico. Resilc: “I worry more about ticks.”
Leaked Audio: Ex-Trump Adviser Blamed Sidney Powell for Failure to Overturn Election Rolling Stone (furzy)
My Pillow boss Mike Lindell to pay $5m to man over bogus election claim BBC
Woke Watch
Rightwing extremists defeated by Democrats in US school board elections Guardian. Resilc: “Do nothing DNC vs evil GOP…..USA USA as a failed state.”
Wife of Florida drag ban sponsor to host ‘sultry’ performance to benefit kids’ charity NBC
Police State Watch
Boston Police Shoot 2 Dogs, 1 Fatally, After Officer Bitten NECN. Resilc: “Serving a warrant against a man for … driving without a license.”
‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’: FBI Sends Terrorism Warning Rolling Stone (furzy)
Florida to allow death penalty with 8-4 jury vote instead of unanimously Reuters
Gunz
Ralph Yarl, Kaylin Gillis and other senseless shootings rattle US BBC (resilc)
EDITORIAL: Succumbing to NRA and gun industry hysteria is killing us Sentinel Colorado
Our No Longer Free Press
Here’s the segment I did last night at the top of @TuckerCarlson‘s show about the Biden DOJ’s dangerous indictment of 4 radical black leftists.
Half the segment is Carlson denouncing this and (as Glenn Beck did) defending their free speech rights:https://t.co/SE8JAnm1Pp https://t.co/Ycv2fwgst9
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 21, 2023
Facebook downgrades Hersh’s report to ‘partly false’ RT (Robin K)
AI
Who Will You Be After ChatGPT Takes Your Job? WIRED (Dr. Kevin)
‘I’ve Never Hired A Writer Better Than ChatGPT’: How AI Is Upending The Freelance World Forbes (Paul R). Notice the featured boss in the piece reveals herself to be stingy. $22 an hour? I paid my cleaning woman in NYC more on an hourly basis in 2019, and I pay the blue-collar helpers here in low cost of Alabama more too.
Credit Suisse investors sue after facing billions in losses ABC (Kevin W)
US regional banks’ stability comes at a price after SVB’s collapse Financial Times (Kevin W)
Most Americans Are Not Completely Sold on Electric Vehicles Gallup (resilc)
The economics of dating during high inflation The Hustle. Resilc: “The cheapest tiny McDonald’s burger is $3.39.”
The Bezzle
Taylor Swift sidestepped FTX lawsuit by asking a simple question—investors can use the same strategy to avoid potential scams CNBC (Kevin W)
Tesla Insurance Really Doesn’t Want You To Drive At Night Jalopnik (resilc)
Class Warfare
Outrage after CEO applauds worker for selling dog to return to the office Independent (Kevin W)
Child labor returns to the United States: A society moving in reverse WSWS
Antidote du jour. mgl: “Common chaffinch singing in Queenstown (NZ) Gardens, January 2023.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
