Links 8/23/2020 – Church Security

Jerry Falwell Jr. and the Evangelical Redemption Story New York Review of Books

Charles Darwin’s famous Galapagos Islands threatened by huge Chinese fishing fleet Mirror. Perhaps Ecuador should consider what Indonesia does. Seize the vessel, offload its crew, and sink the illegal fishing boat.

Is the Almighty Dollar Slipping? Project Syndicate. Nouriel Roubini.

Did they even hang bears? London Review of Books. Wha made the Vikings tick.

What to Stream: “Alexandria: Again and Forever,” a Masterpiece Hiding on Netflix New Yorker. I spied this review as I was compiling today’s links and will watch the film after I upload my post for today. My brain is turning to mush during this lockdown; I need to give some more mental stimulus.

Hurricane Alley

Taken at the flood Times Literary Supplement. Hurricane Katrina, fifteen years on. I remember being riveted to the TV in an Istanbul hotel room, mesmerised by an awful disaster and ineffectual response that appears quaint a mere 15 years later.

Marco, Laura approach US packing double threat to Gulf Coast AccuWeather

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

Donald Trump Should Pardon Edward Snowden American Conservative

#COVID-19

“Helpless Means You Can’t Do Anything. There’s a Lot We Can Do.” Der Spiegel

Outdoor Dining Is a Hit, but Restaurants Face ‘Apocalyptic’ Times NYT

Trump Pressures the FDA, Claiming ‘Deep State’ Slowing Vaccine Bloomberg

Drug makers rebut Trump tweet that FDA ‘deep state’ is delaying Covid-19 vaccines and drugs Stat

The race to collect the pandemic’s history—as it unfolds Ars Technica

Miss Manners: Here’s the email I sent to explain why I hid from my guests Mercury News. I cop to being an agony aunt addict. Well, not so much so as to seek them out, but enough so I rarely skip over their columns if I spot them during my reading of a dead tree paper.

Only Medicare For All Can Beat Covid Counterpunch

Coronavirus: Germany puts on crowded concerts to study risks BBC

Science/Medicine

What to Know About Covid-19 and Frozen Foods Gizmodo

COVID-19-associated hyperinflammation and escalation of patient care: a retrospective longitudinal cohort study Lancet

Class Warfare

Meatpacking Companies Dismissed Years of Warnings but Now Say Nobody Could Have Prepared for COVID-19 ProPublica

Monopolization as a Challenge for Both Parties American Compass. Matt Stoller.

Even With a Strong Crop This Year, U.S. Farmers Are Suffering WSJ

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance. MIT Technology Review

Exclusive: Cyprus sold passports to criminals and fugitives Al Jazeera

California Burning

Northern California ‘drastically short’ of firefighters while an onslaught of blazes rages San Fran Chronicle

Hey, California: With wildfires, blackouts, bloody protests, pandemic, could 2020 get any worse? Mercury News

In just a week, wildfires burn 1 million acres in California AP

Syraqistan

It may have nearly been forgotten – but Syria’s war is not over Independent. Robert Fisk.

US Sanctions Starve Syria Grayzone. Aaron Maté.

‘A choice between bread and masks’: Syrians face calamity as Trump’s new sanctions combine with surging coronavirus Independent. Patrick Cockburn.

Media Show Little Interest in Israeli Bombing of Gaza FAIR.

China?

Could Russia side with the US and India against China? SCMP

China planning high-speed rail freight network to help e-commerce sector SCMP

India

India’s Thar desert is turning green. That isn’t a good thing Scroll

The Coronavirus Lockdown Has Been a War on India’s Informal Labour The Wire

Cornering the Kiranas economic Times. I read this piece in a Sunday a.m. edition of the dead tree paper. Interesting for what it says about India’s kiranas, e.g, small Mom and Pop stores, resisting the blandishments of the technofix fairy, here tying to solve a non-existent problem. Worth either trying to see if there is w ay around the paywall – maybe registration? – or paying for the content. Although it’s trying to do so, Amazon has yet to bulldoze its way through the Indian small retail sector.

Fort Modi is impregnable despite China, Covid, job losses. Only one leader can defeat him The Print

The pandemic has thrown metro rail projects into disarray Economic Times

Russiagate

Carter Page: ‘I was a pawn in the Democrat crusade to bring down Trump’ New York Post. I’m of an age and sensibility that I reflexively distrust things that appear in the Post. And yes, I am well aware I should apply that skepticism to all that I read. Still, with the caveat that to link is not necessarily to endorse, I offer this up to the commentariat to chew over.

RAY McGOVERN: Catapulting Russian-Meddling Propaganda Consortium News

Trump Transition

Battered by Democrats, Trump fires back against ‘total anarchy, madness and chaos’ Reuters

2020

FARM BANKRUPTCIES AND TAINTED WELLS IN THE DAIRY STATE Capital & Main

Aaron Coleman, the 19-Year-Old Progressive Who Won His Kansas Primary, Speaks About His Troubled Past and Promising Present Intercept. Glenn Greenwald.

United States Postal Service

Mnuchin Paved Way for Postal Service Shake-Up NYT

House passes bill to reverse changes blamed for mail delays AP

Inside the Democratic Party’s plan to prevent vote-by-mail disaster Politico

Mauritius

Naufrage du Wakashio: de la drogue à bord ? L’express.mu (Colonel Smithers).

Wakashio, quand tu nous tiens ! L’express.mu (Colonel Smithers).

Antidote du Jour (via): The photo is a bit deceptive, given I expect readers will view it in the current California context. It’s an image of a controlled burn in Kazirango National Park (Assam, India) and one of the winners in this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY award).