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.
The claim: Scientists at CERN are communicating with demonic entities and opening a portal to hell USA Today. Good news!
U.S. Economy Transitions to Slower Growth as Inflation Weighs on Consumers WSJ. The URL shows how the editors rewrote the headline: us-employers-labor-costs-inflation-q2-2022. On “transitions,” commentary:
But, those living paycheck to paycheck, by definition, are destroyed by losing their paycheck. They will suffer the most from the Fed’s “unconditional” focus on inflation, recession or not. (Note, the Fed has two obligations, not one as he says.) The ones at the bottom go first. pic.twitter.com/Av1LrJ9GTu
— Claudia Sahm (@Claudia_Sahm) July 29, 2022
GDP Report May Have Showed a Decline, but It’s Not a Recession MorningStar
Signs of Softening Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture.
The Last Days of Sound Finance Phenomenal World
Climate
Drought Threatens Major Rivers in the U.S. and Europe Maritime Executive and Rhine level in Germany falls again, vessels only part-loaded Hellenic Shipping News
China?
A Taiwanese contrarian on China’s rhetoric, thread:
A short thread on China’s #rhetoric on @SpeakerPelosi‘s rumored plan to visit Taiwan. So far Beijing’s wording has been far below the threshold of the kinds of words & phrases that China historically used for signaling impending war/brinkmanship. /1
— Wen-Ti Sung (@wentisung) July 27, 2022
Somebody who knows Mandarin might have a go.
Debate deepens over Wuhan wet market’s role in kickstarting the pandemic National Geographic. Not a photo-essay, a review.
Would a nuclear-armed Taiwan deter China? Australian Strategic Policy Institute. From 2020, a happy thought that’s still germane!
The Koreas
Minimum Wage and How South Korea Avoided Japanization The Blue Roof
#COVID19
Oz:
COVID-19: Time to put people ahead of politics Insight. Australian Medical Association. Austrialian visits New York: “[T[t was striking how much more sophisticated their response was than ours” [bangs head on desk].
Three myths about COVID-19 — and the biggest challenge that lies ahead ABC Australia (KatieBird). “As an immunologist with four decades of research on antibodies under my belt, I always felt like I had a pretty good handle on COVID-19. But when I caught the virus in May, my hubris quickly turned into humility. COVID-19 left me with a serious heart complication that occurs in 2 per cent of infected people, with the risk not diminished by immunisation or prior infection.” The myths: “Myth #1: It’s just a cold now so let’s get it over with”; “Myth #2: Being fully immunised stops infection”; “Myth #3: Variant-specific vaccines are the answer.” Lots and lots of charts. Well worth a read.
Hope, denial and Covid-19 The Saturday Paper
Queensland records more than 18,000 COVID-19 cases after software issue ABC Australia (Skippy).
* * * Why these two East Vancouver residents are distributing thousands of N95 masks for free CBC (MR). Being Canadian, the two residents characterize BC’s mask policy as “neglectful.” What “neglectful” means is that Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s Provincial Health Officer, is a malevolent droplet goon.
Los Angeles County avoids new mask rule as COVID stabilizes LA Times. I think I’ve seen this movie before….
Life expectancy in Japan sees first decline in 10 years amid pandemic Japan Times
Pandemic Inspires A New Crop Of Farmers Texas Observer. Being a peasant is not in the least romantic.
Monkeypox
America Should Have Been Able to Handle Monkeypox Katherine Wu, The Atlantic. The deck: “Has COVID taught us nothing?”
Clinical features and novel presentations of human monkeypox in a central London centre during the 2022 outbreak: descriptive case series BMJ. n = 197. Conclusions: “These findings confirm the ongoing unprecedented community transmission of monkeypox virus among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men seen in the UK and many other non-endemic countries.” The sampling comes from HCID (High consequence infectious diseases) Centres in London. Gruesome photos.
Syraqistan
Is open Saudi airspace really a big deal? – analysis Jerusalem Post
UK/EU
West London faces new homes ban as electricity grid hits capacity FT. Because of data centers. There’s gonna be a lot of excess capacity if the City of London dwindles to a regional player.
Analysis from Italy: A political crisis that nobody wanted Euro News
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelenskyy visits port as Ukraine prepares to ship out grain AP
* * * The rouble is soaring and Putin is stronger than ever – our sanctions have backfired Simon Jenkins, Guardian (KLG).
Actually, the Russian Economy Is Imploding Foreign Policy
* * * Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash: ‘Putin will go further. What will Europe do then?’ FT
Europe’s fight to stay united over war in Ukraine FT
Ukraine Won’t Save Democracy Foreign Affairs
London’s High Court rules against Venezuela’s Maduro in $1 billion gold battle Reuters
Biden Administration
Pelosi Visit Sets Up No-Win Situation on Taiwan Foreign Policy. Pelosi’s district is 31.9% Asian. Of course, Asian is not the same as Chinese. Nevertheless, I would not be surprised to learn that high-value Chinese donors have strong views on Taiwan policy, and were greatly concerned to share them with Pelosi. So, 冰淇淋 (if I have translated aright).
The Wisdom of Stepping Back From the Edge Eunomia
Climate experts experience an odd sensation after the Manchin budget deal: optimism NPR
Joe Biden and the Disappearing Elephant: How to Make a Full-Sized Scandal Vanish in Front of an Audience of Millions Jonathan Turley. Dear Hunter. How is he holding up?
2024
Trump Just Told Us His Master Plan David Frum, The Atlantic. The deck: “If he gets in next time, he won’t be dislodged by any means.” Seems legit. After all, we haven’t even been able to “dislodge” Bush era
war criminalflack David Frum.
The Bezzle
Tiger Global-backed Missfresh stops paying salaries as it runs out of cash FT. “An executive at the Tiger Global-backed company told employees on a hastily arranged call that an expected investment from a coal mining group had not materialised, and that it could not pay overdue June salaries.” So the Shanghai PMCs whinging about not being able to get food deliveries during lockdowns were really whinging about not being able to cash in their tiny subsidies from the billionaires who funded loss-making operations. Just like here. And the “essential workers” are left holding the bag. Just like here. It’s a funny old world, as Maggie Thatcher once remarked.
The Crypto Collapse Has Flooded the Market With Rolex and Patek Bloomberg
Web3 darling Helium has bragged about Lime being a client for years. Lime says it isn’t true. Mashable
The right to never be forgotten The Pull Request. I have yet to encounter anyone saying “You have to use this Web3 app, it’s amazing.” And I do try to keep track, even the shills and crooks. Have any readers had a different experience?
Elon Musk Tesla’s new $10000 home for sustainable living. Queen Stories. Entertaining, because AI that emitted it needs some work. This is the only link I can find on Musk’s putative newest project. The rest is on YouTube, Pinterest, and Reddit, so organic, totally. Nevertheless, I am filing this adjacent to “The Bezzle,” not in it, because today is my day to be kind.
Healthcare
Stringent measles, other vaccine rules for N.Y. schoolchildren upheld Reuters
Sports Desk
Hurry home early Indignity. On the Baltimore Orioles and the economics of baseball.
Zeitgeist Watch
“I’m just going to the heart of the inferno”: Interviewing Alex Moyer, Director of “Alex’s War.” Matt Taibbi, TK News. A must-read. Chris Arnade covered similar territory in Dignity.
The Dirtbag Is Back The Atlantic
A real-life Lord of the Flies: the troubling legacy of the Robbers Cave experiment Guardian. But “Middle Grove” is just as important.
Why Are There So Many Mass Shootings in the United States? Foreign Affairs
Imperial Collapse Watch
How it started:
🎉Today, Amtrak resumed service between Burlington VT and New York City. It’s been 69 years since the last passenger train left Union Station in 1953. pic.twitter.com/RRbOJS4Hw7
— Vermont Clean Cities (@VTCleanCities) July 29, 2022
How it’s going:
Well, some guy’s warehouse is crumbling onto the tracks north of Albany, so we’re getting off the train and taking a bus from Saratoga to Albany instead. https://t.co/QaDs0DaObO
— Andrea Suozzo (@asuozzo) July 29, 2022
Back in the day, I occasionally glanced at the newspaper of the Albanian Communist Party (gray newsprint, very). I vividly remember a triumphant story about Albania…. building a boat. “Renewing” a single-track line from New York to Burlington reminds me of that, somehow.
Guillotine Watch
Boston Consulting in ‘nepotism’ row over work experience for children of top staff FT
Families With Young Children Led Exodus from Major Cities During COVID Economic Innovation Group. EIG Atlantic Council-adjacent.
Class Warfare
On Economics And Democracy In The Long Run
Newsom 2024!
California is exporting the poor and importing the rich pic.twitter.com/Z0T3xinkVt
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) July 29, 2022
Is Australian rhyming slang in a bit of froth and bubble? Let’s take a Captain Cook (spoiler: the billy lids may hold the key) The Conversation. Useful to communicate en claire. Eh?
Antidote du jour (via):
Anti-antidote:
Groundhog steals farmer’s crop and eats it in front of his security camera.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) July 28, 2022
I’m pretty mild-mannered about critters generally, but when the groundhogs threatened to invade — they didn’t — I was looking into potato guns.
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
