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.
California court rules that bees are a type of fish in order to protect them under the state’s endangered species act Business Insider (Dr. Kevin)
The aliens are all hanging out on Dyson spheres circling white dwarfs, physicist argues Live Science (furzy)
Volcanic eruptions are unpredictable, but these geologists cracked the code Popular Science (David L)
Great timing and supercomputer upgrade lead to successful forecast of volcanic eruption PhysOrg (Chuck L)
3D Printing: Scientists can now grow wood in a lab without cutting a single tree Interesting Engineering (resilc)
Qualitative humanities research is crucial to AI FastAI (dk)
In vitro gametogenesis: just another way to have a baby? Journal of Law and the Biosciences (Chuck L)
#COVID-19
The president of one of the main pharmaceutical companies in Spain, on the list of false vaccinated against the coronavirus EPE Original: El presidente de una de las principales empresas farmacéuticas de España, en la lista de falsos vacunados contra el coronavirus
Science/Medicine
As we said, and scientist GM even more so, almost from the beginning:
“we have a lot more cases for the same number of deaths now” = “we’re creating a lot more chronic health issues in the population for the same number of deaths”
We’re just ignoring the fact that our vaccines prevent death better than they prevent post acute sequelae of covid…
— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) June 1, 2022
Dogs found to be effective for mass screening people for COVID-19 PhysOrg. Chuck L: “I recall reading about dogs doing this nearly two years ago. Is it even now getting traction?”
Study explores if prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 increased sensitivity to a mitochondrial toxin known to induce Parkinsonism News-medical (Dr. Kevin)
4/ “There were populations of viral variants found in the brain that were not detected in the respiratory tract suggesting there is seeding of the virus in the brain and ongoing replication in the brain”
— Dr K Fearnley (@fearnley_k) June 2, 2022
[[thread]]
1. Pls stop sleeping on Long COVID + share this far & wide. As I head into neurosurgery 2 clear out the micro-clots in both jugulars from COVID, I meet other young patients who have suffered from strokes, hemorrhages, 1 aneurysm, pulmonary embolisms, brain clots & more— Nicole Bamber (@nicolebamber) June 1, 2022
Welcome to the Great Reinfection Wired (Dr. Kevin)
Monkeypox
What to make of the many mutations on the monkeypox genome STAT (Dr. Kevin)
We Should Have Seen Monkeypox Coming Atlantic (Mikel)
Climate/Environment
Countries expected to face large claims from fossil fuel investors in pursuit of decarbonization S&P Global (guurst). Wowsers.
Petroleum Wars in the Age of Climate Disaster: a Bridge Fuel Too Far CounterPunch (resilc)
Harris calls water security a foreign policy priority Associated Press (resilc)
Pacific Crest Trail may become unhikeable due to climate change SFChronicle (Paul R)
Think we need a new category for this sort of thing. Looting? Shocking: EU Commission exempts Big Pharma from competition rules Philsophia Perennis (Micael T)
New Not-So-Cold War
Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia exposes the hypocrisy of the imperialist war against Russia WSWS
Moscow’s (Pseudo)Intellectual Parnassus Gets A Clue Andrei Martyanov. Andrei is, if nothing else, not shy.
Ukraine Admits Heavy Losses in DONBAS HistoryLegends (Larry Johnson)
Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar at a security conference in Bratislava YouTube. Another clip of his is also getting notice: S Jaishankar teaches a very valuable, simple lesson to Europe
Gas traders rush to secure LNG tankers Financial Times:
Rates to charter an LNG tanker for a year are trading near their highest level in a decade at $120,000 per day, up more than 50 per cent on a year ago, according to Clarksons Platou Securities.
Ukraine Latest: Russia to Open Citizenship Centers in Kherson Bloomberg
“Everything is gone”: Russian business hit hard by tech sanctions ars technica. Chuck L: “If this isn’t an instance of PDS maybe the Rooskies could strike a deal – neon in exchange for SOTA chips.”
The President answered questions from Pavel Zarubin of Rossyia 1 TV channel. Kremlin (guurst). Running in part because individuals who are mortally ill do not do multiple in person business meetings in a day (see Meeting with African Union Chairperson, President of Senegal Macky Sall the same day, as well as http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68564
Syraqistan
Crossing Continents, What’s Killing Israel’s Arabs? BBC Radio 4. Resilc: “Good listen. Poverty, society breakdown, gangs, neglect. Sounds like USA USA. Israel is rotting within.”
Sympathy for Colonized Ireland in the US Gov’t Doesn’t Extent to Colonized Palestine Juan Cole
Imperial Collapse Watch
Every year, this is by far the most interesting study on democracy because it doesn’t rely on the opinion of “experts” but on people’s actual perceptions.
As such the results are often surprising and it raises profound questions of what democracy actually is.
A small 🧵 pic.twitter.com/xmksyPxmvn
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 2, 2022
It’s important for you to understand this story because this shows that the CIA or a private network that includes former high ranking CIA, FBI, 🇨🇴&🇪🇸 mil/intel officials was trafficking cocaine to the U.S. from at least January 2001-December 2019https://t.co/5qxechcBL5
— El Parece (@ElParece) June 3, 2022
1/6
Navarro lashes out at Jan. 6 investigations in court The Hill
Before Jan. 6, Aide Warned Secret Service of Security Risk to Pence New York Times (David L)
Trump
John Durham lost because he treated the FBI as a dupe — rather than a Clinton collaborator New York Post (Chuck L)
Biden
Americans Are Unusually Lukewarm About A Second Biden Term FiveThirtyEight (resilc). No shit, Sherlock.
One in Five US States Is 90% Out of Baby Formula Bloomberg (Mikel)
Abbott’s baby formula shortage reveals deep problems with the US industry Vox (resilc)
The abortion provider that Republicans are struggling to stop Vox (dk)
GOP Clown Car
Gov. Greg Abbott Is Leading Texas for Only a Sliver of Texans New York Times (resilc)
Republicans’ Anti-LGBTQ Conspiracy Theories Are Fueling Far-Right Threats to Pride Celebrations New Republic (resilc)
McCormick concedes to Oz in Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary The Hill
1/15 A thread: The LGBT share among young Americans tripled in the last decade to 21%. Trans & non-binary identification may be up as much as 1000%. My new @CSPICenterOrg report shows that this is, as @billmaher suggested, shaped by social trends: https://t.co/hgi90pPKBB
— Eric Kaufmann (@epkaufm) May 30, 2022
The jury verdict in the Depp-Heard case: A telling, deserved blow to the #MeToo witch-hunt WSWS (Dr. Kevin)
California officials install devices to limit water flow at homes that use too much UPI (David L)
Michigan prisons have banned Spanish and Swahili dictionaries. NPR (resilc)
Gunz
Mass shootings in the United States have almost become a news beat in itself Globe and Mail (Dr. Kevin)
Long version here, see particularly at 4:32 and 8:00 (dk). Mom is a farm worker.
The mom that ran in and saved her kids after being handcuffed in Uvalde finally spoke out. pic.twitter.com/wHNouRkCY7
— barbarism critic (luxury gay space communist arc) (@SxarletRed) June 3, 2022
3 injured in St. Louis County grocery store shootout KSDK (resilc)
Florida high school raffles off AK47, guns week after Uvalde shooting Tallahasse.com (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News Consortium News. I want to scream. Why did CN knuckle under? Max Blumenthal showed how it is done:
“Hey, we’re Newsguard & our 20-yr old “journalists” are here to ‘rate’ the likes of REAL journalists like those at The Grayzone. Watch as they spank us with the whipping we deserve for our chutzpah. Ouch!https://t.co/b9nYJl6cGy
— Maynard’sHighNotes (@AlwaysForward88) April 29, 2022
Supply Chain/Inflation
Shipping Chaos Is the Latest Sign that Capitalism Is Eating Itself Tribune Magazine (dk)
Microsoft introducing ways to detect people “leaving” the company, “sabotage”, “improper gifts”, and more! Reddit (Paul R)
Exclusive: Elon Musk wants to cut 10% of Tesla jobs Reuters. Resilc: “Going teats up.” Lotta people agreed: Tesla shares slide after Musk reportedly flags cutting 10% of staff Financial Times
Leaked transcript: What Mark Zuckerberg told Meta employees about Sheryl Sandberg’s exit Vox (resilc)
Class Warfare
‘Priced out’ Bay Area city council candidate to end campaign, relocate elsewhere SFGate (o4amuse)
Even the PMC is no longer safe! French diplomats on strike, say ‘professional diplomacy’ at risk France24 (resilc)
Antidote du jour (CV):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
A hen taking care of frightened kittens during a storm.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/f6osykKBnk
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 1, 2022
And a second bonus (furzy). Did those goats get enough to eat?
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
