Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.
And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.
–Yves
P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:
Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.
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Faithful Dog Refuses To Leave Side Of Friend Being Taken To The Hospital The Dodo (Li)
Can Animals Have Wealth Inequality? RealClearScience (Dr. Kevin)
Bird populations in eastern Canada declining due to forest ‘degradation,’ research shows Oregon State University Resilc: “I used to see more bird transits here in Vermont, heading north…..”
Goodwill Sold a Bust for $34.99. It’s an Ancient Roman Relic. dnyuz (J-LS)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
WHO says 15 million deaths linked to Covid-19, almost three times the official toll France24
34 Volunteers Chose to Get Covid. Here’s What Scientists Learned Bloomberg. Did they correct the sample for IQ deficiency?
Durability of the immune response to a third BNT162b2 dose; five months follow-up
“Live-neutralization of Omicron VOC was lower compared to previous strains and demonstrated waning from 111 to 26 within 4 months” https://t.co/EAvylDgX2k
— Gabriel Hébert-Mysterious™ 😎 (@Gab_H_R) May 6, 2022
Asia
How WHO report on excess COVID deaths has become a political row in India FirstPost (J-LS)
US
White House documents detail a looming squeeze on Covid-19 boosters STAT
Scientist GM notes: “The usual reminder that the Third world is the future for the US and the pandemic is accelerating the transition. The first country to lead the way towards by stopping reporting was Tanzania back in May 2020, and Turkmenistan (one of the craziest dictatorships in the world) never admitted to having any cases at all.”
Washington, D.C. appears to have stopped reporting COVID-19 data: No updates since April 27
— BNO|Medriva Newsroom (@medriva) May 7, 2022
Finance/Economy
Wow, China exists to serve the West. Glad we have that clear:
Ships waiting to dock because of China’s insane COVID strategy. This is intentional. pic.twitter.com/iQwMksetaE
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) May 3, 2022
Tesla targets pre-lockdown output in Shanghai by mid-May Reuters (resilc)
Climate/Environment
Resurrecting a ‘lost’ coral species PhysOrg (Kevin W)
India and Pakistan’s brutal heat wave poised to resurge Yale Climate Connections
Huge Groundwater System Discovered Under Antarctica Gizmodo (Kevin W)
The Emerald Isle
Sinn Fein on course for ‘seismic’ N. Ireland win, topping first preference vote France24 (guurst)
Sinn Fein Is Winning in Northern Ireland New York Times. Resilc: “Why anyone would choose UK over EU is beyond me.”
Irish government to provide millions in subsidies to developers Independent. John B:
The Irish government’s response to the housing crisis here, looks more and more like open/unhidden embezzlement of public funds, coupled with maximizing the severity of the crisis – and there aren’t notable protests happening, it looks like society has been successfully divided between haves/homeowners and have-nots/renters.
Sinn Féin set to be largest party in Northern Ireland assembly Guardian (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
I’m walking out. You just lost $90 trying to line your pocket with an extra $1. No chance in hell that money goes beyond the owner’s pocket, and that’s theft. If bank workers can be charged for taking the fraction of a penny from currency transfers, sure as shit this is theft.
— Alexanthros Galenos Vrykolakas 🧛🏻♂️👨🏻🔬 ☭ (@AlexVrykolakas) May 6, 2022
Who is Alina Kabaeva, Putin’s alleged girlfriend? BBC. Resilc: “Without a doubt this WILL stop the war. Do you have to go to Harvard, Yale or Oxford to come up with this bullshit?”
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How Putin’s invasion returned Nato to the centre stage | Thomas Meaney https://t.co/h2jW7yCf9M
Excellent critical text, rare for the Guardian. Gutless left Labour MPs should hide in their toilets to try and read it…
— Tariq Ali (@TariqAli_News) May 5, 2022
Putin’s Brothers: Tensions Mount in the Balkans as Bosnia and Herzegovina Threatens to Fracture Der Spiegel (resilc)
Another company (remnants thereof) of 79th Ukrainian Brigade refuses to continue fighting, declaring loss of confidence in the army command, decrying failure to provide adequate supplies and failure of command & lack of guidance. These are not POWs, but active insubordination. pic.twitter.com/KyUwDAXvdp
— Gleb Bazov (@gbazov) May 6, 2022
From Peaceniks To Hawks?: Germany’s Greens Have Transformed in the Face of Russia’s War Der Spiegel (resilc). They didn’t get the memo that wars are very energy intensive, even before allowing for reconstruction.
Because of Ukraine, America’s arsenal of democracy is depleting Economist (Kevin W)
American progressives join the War Party Asia Times (Kevin W)
Finland Braces For Russian Gas Cut-Off Ahead Of NATO Decision OilPrice (resilc)
Russia-Ukraine live news: Hungary slams EU’s Russian oil ban move Al Jazeera (resilc)
United States seeks to provoke Russia into escalation in Ukraine Defend Democracy
The Deadly Illusion of “Victory” Nation (britzklieg)
EU calls for confiscation of frozen Russian assets RT (Kevin W)
We’d predicted that housing all those refugees would become a problem:
I know we’re not allowed to say these things but at some stage we’re going to have to have this conversation
Hotels full of refugees in rural Ireland is having a catastrophic affect on tourism. We are filling hotels, cutting supply, driving up prices resulting in a disaster
— Paul Treyvaud (@PaulTreyvaud) May 6, 2022
Syraqistan
US’ coercive diplomacy with Saudi Arabia Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Terror from Balochistan: a menacing tool to disrupt Sino-Pakistani economics Cradle (Chick L)
Beyond the fact that this is a cruel decision that could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, this rationale denying that the prohibition on forced transfer is customary law is nothing less than an embarrassing legal error. So basic that it can be said that its equivalent
/4— Michael Sfard מיכאל ספרד (@sfardm) May 5, 2022
i’m not sure if it’s a good look for the guy who was good friends with jeffrey epstein to encourage harvard to take a morally indefensible position on israeli apartheid & occupation pic.twitter.com/d3iQECctHG
— saeen (@SaeenDiddyCombs) May 4, 2022
‘Pay the price’: Israel hunts attackers who hacked 3 to death Al Jazeera (resilc)
Why Arab schoolboys are getting trounced by girls Economist (Kevin W)
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Apple, Google, and Microsoft want to kill the password with “Passkey” standard ars technica (Kevin W). The only problem this is solving is allowing them to better snoop. There’s no user demand for this. This will assure that I will eventually move to Linux (and please don’t tell me to do it now, I have no time, loathe complexity and a transfer is complex, and hate learning new software with the burning passion of a thousand suns).
Imperial Collapse Watch
California says it needs more power to keep the lights on Yahoo (Kevin W)
US senate committee passes bill to revoke sovereign immunity of OPEC members The Cradle (guurst)
Trump
Mark Esper Waited Two Years to Tell Us Trump Wanted Troops to Shoot George Floyd Protesters Intercept (David L)
Video: Former defense secretary says Trump proposed bombing Mexico CNN (furzy)
Supremes
Today’s “nonposition” of the White House on the targeting of justices at their homes is one of the lowest moments in American politics. We have finally hit the bedrock of rage in American politics…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 6, 2022
A severe chilling effect’: abortion bans will inhibit doctors’ advice to patients, experts fear Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Quotes Infamous Witch Trial Judge With Long-Discredited Ideas on Rape ProPublica
A friend asks an interesting question: Post-Roe, could Native Americans set up abortion clinics on tribal lands for anyone to use, much like they do with casinos, regardless of state law?
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) May 5, 2022
Why hundreds of scientists are weighing in on a high-stakes US abortion case Nature
‘I had an abortion on tour’: celebrities share their stories in backlash to Roe v Wade leak Guardian (Kevin W)
Louisiana Bill Aims to Charge Women Who Get Abortions With Murder Rolling Stone (furzy)
New ruling threatens Coast Guard’s high seas counter-drug mission Military Times (Kevin W)
Oregon law requires menstrual products in boys bathrooms New York Post (furzy)
Our No Longer Free Press
‘Mistaken’ PayPal Email Means CN Is Permanently Banned Consortium News (guurst). The big commonality between Consortium News and MintPress is they’ve both featured a lot of Scott Ritter, who just wrote a piece (again) for RT.
Democrats’ most undemocratic disinformation debacle Washington Examiner
Five Steps to Save Free Speech on Twitter: A Musk Roadmap Jonathan Turley (Chuck L)
Florida pension fund sues Elon Musk and Twitter to stop buyout Guardian (furzy). Let me stress that that there may be case law that supports the argument of the plaintiff, so I could be all wet. However, voting shares in support of a merger (and here a specific one) is only one of the rights of ownership, which include being able to sell the stock and receive dividends. So unless the agreements granted other rights to Must, like requiring the owners not to sell their shares at all save to Musk in a tender offer, this sounds pretty iffy.
Column: U.S. gas prices soar as Europe and Asia scramble for LNG Reuters (resilc)
US stocks suffer longest streak of weekly losses in over a decade Financial Times
Class Warfare
“Let Me Go Get My Big White Man”: The Clientelist Foundation of Contemporary Antiracist Politics Adolph Reed
Antidote du jour (Chet V):
And a bonus (furzy):
See yesterday’s Antidote du Jour and Links here.
