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.
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Anti-Covid nasal spray ready soon Bangkok Post (Furzy Mouse). The second after Bharat, linked to yesteday.
Policy stringency and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries The Lancet. metastudy. I find the death resuls more interesting than the mental health results, although those are important too. From the Results: “Because early and targeted action resulted in lower levels of virus circulation, average policy stringency was lower in countries that pursued elimination strategies than countries that pursued mitigation strategies in the 15-country sample… and the Nordic countries subset…. Countries pursuing an elimination strategy also had fewer daily deaths (per 100 000 population) in the 15-country sample…. and the Nordic subset…. Thus, …., .”
Modelling long-term COVID-19 hospital admission dynamics using immune protection waning data (preprint) medRxiv. Model study. The Abtract: “Immune waning is key to the timely anticipation of COVID-19 long-term dynamics. We assess the impact of periodic vaccination campaigns using a compartmental epidemiological model with multiple age structures and parameterised using empiric time-dependent vaccine protection data. Despite the inherent uncertainty, we show that .” Oopsie. Handy chart:
Look! Up in the sky! It’s an air taxi. They’re coming to Los Angeles LA Times
It’s Time to Consider the Broader Socioeconomic Impact of Air Taxis Aviation Today. From 2020, still germane.
Once-Spurned Superjumbos Return to Skies as Travel Roars Back Bloomberg. The A380.
NASA is worried SpaceX’s Starship could destroy its iconic launch pad 39A Interesting Engineering
China?
Bitcoin crashed, the wealth of the richest Chinese shrunk by 89 percent What China Reads
‘Mind-reading’ device to detect porn could speed China’s policing of illicit content, say researchers South China Morning Post
Indonesia Tunes Out the U.S. WSJ. #4 in world population, so Atlanticists, good job.
India
Thousands ransack railway station as protests intensify over India’s military hiring plan Guardian
The Bezzle
Bitcoin Teeters Around $20,000 Amid a Volatile Crypto Winter Storm Barron’s
The Coin That Could Wreck Crypto NYT. Tether. Commentary:
As a lawyer who served in the SEC Enforcement Division for 18 yrs, I see red flags when a financial firm like @Tether_to engages a 5-person shop in the Caymans for an “attestation,” and then shills it as a valid audit. And no SEC expert would dare disagree.https://t.co/4G8OWHOn8p
— John Reed Stark (@JohnReedStark) June 19, 2022
Miners as intermediaries: extractable value and market manipulation in crypto and DeFi Bank of International Settlements. “Since [validators or “miners”] can choose which transactions they add to the ledger and in which order, they can engage in activities that would be illegal in traditional markets such as front-running and sandwich trades. The resulting profit is termed ‘miner extractable value’ (MEV).” Regulatory arbitrage.
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia says eastern attack is going well, strikes Ukraine with missiles Reuters. About that missile strike:
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday it launched missile strikes during the past 24 hours, with one attack by Kalibr missiles on a top-level Ukrainian military meeting near the city of Dnipro killing “more than 50 generals and officers.”https://t.co/Zrb8Wf98h2
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) June 20, 2022
So how did Russia know where the meeting was?
Rumours that #Russia‘s strike on the command post in #Dnipropetrovsk (50 officers/generals killed) came as result of information passed to the Russia by high ranking #Ukraine officers. #Zelensky‘s position is fragile, many in #Ukraine realise that defeat is inevitable.
— Clive Dunn (@cliveldunn) June 19, 2022
Personally, I think it was was the command post cleaning crew, some of whom may have had relatives in Donetsk.
Hummus On The Front: Volunteers Feeding Ukraine’s Vegan Troops Agence France Presse. Scraping the bottom of the barrel on propaganda, here.
* * * China May oil imports from Russia soar to a record, surpass top supplier Saudi Reuters
Italy’s Eni joins giant Qatar gas project after Russian cuts France24
Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia turns down the gas Deutsche Welle
* * * West at inflection point in Ukraine war M. K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline
How the US Could Lose the New Cold War Project Syndicate
China ready to supply components for aircraft to Russia, says envoy Tass
Ukraine’s Possible EU Accession Not Universally Welcome Der Spiegel (Re Silc).
* * * St. Petersburg sets the stage for the War of Economic Corridors Pepe Escobar, The Cradle
The Return of Industrial Warfare Royal United Services Institute (Re Silc).
Colombia’s new leftist president Petro promises to fight inequality Reuters
Our Famously Free Press
Network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified Guardian. Commentary:
The Guardian’s latest piece of McCarthyite propaganda is a prime example of the malign tactic we exposed in concrete detail with our #masongate reporting: UK intel using cutouts to smear antiwar figures w/o evidence as Russian stooges.
Every outfit cited here is a UK/US asset. https://t.co/7wRddOWGBQ— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) June 19, 2022
Emails confirm pro-NATO warmonger Paul Mason works with intelligence agencies WSWS. From earlier this month. Commentary on this continuing controversy:
Yanis Varoufakis got to know Paul Mason very well during the Greece crisis – so I asked him about the controversy surrounding the British journalist.
Full interview here: https://t.co/vHNX7sHqys pic.twitter.com/1VOWM9XHAL
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) June 19, 2022
Listen all the way to the end.
What Makes Censors Tick? Los Angeles Review of Books
UK/EU
Britain set for biggest rail strike in decades France24
Northern Ireland Protocol: No off ramps, only cliff edges RTE
Assange
The UK’s Decision to Extradite Assange Shows Why The US/UK’s Freedom Lectures Are a Farce Glenn Greenwald. Commentary:
The prosecution of Assange is still indefensible! https://t.co/XnBnS5IMjI
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 18, 2022
Intelligence Community
What Spies Really Think About John le Carré Foreign Policy. “But what about the successes?”
Imperial Collapse Watch
As jurors deliberate in the Fat Leonard case, Navy culture that spawned the bribes is unchanged KPBS
Navy relieves itself of command Duffel Blog
UK troops filmed having orgy at barracks, barred from NATO deployment NY Post (Re Silc).
Guillotine Watch
Silicon Valley’s Horrible Bosses The Atlantic
Class Warfare
Americans Pawning Items to Buy Gas, Survive Inflation: Pawn Shop Owners Newsweek (Furzy Mouse).
Chasing Cicadas Emergence
65,000-year-old ‘stone Swiss Army knives’ show early humans had long-distance social networks The Conversation
Do we need a better understanding of ‘progress’? BBC
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
