Links 9/14/2020
‘I’ve never seen or heard of attacks’: scientists baffled by orcas harassing boats Guardian (Re Silc).
Mosquito Clouds Killing Deer, Cattle In Southwest Louisiana HuffPo. Aftermatch of Hurricane Laura.
‘Hundreds of thousands, if not millions’: New Mexico sees massive migratory bird deaths USA Today (dk). Citizen science:
UPDATE (13 Sept 2020): We’ve created an @inaturalist Project where you can submit photos of dead birds. We can use this data to fully understand the extent of this mass mortality. More info here: https://t.co/6phHxipCRL#SouthwestAvianMortalityProject #communityscience
— Allison Salas (@salasphorus) September 14, 2020
More than 400 sealed ‘craters’ are ticking time bombs from a total 7000+ Arctic permafrost mounds Siberian Times
Bank of England tells insurers to step up climate change preparations Reuters
The appallingly bad neoclassical economics of climate change Steve Keen, Globalization (KF).
A Secret Recording Reveals Oil Executives’ Private Views on Climate Change NYT
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled NPR
Oracle wins bidding war for TikTok’s US operations FT (Furzy Mouse).
The V-Shaped Recovery Marches On Project Syndicate
Wildfires
Wildfires Can’t Hide from Earth Observing Satellites NASA. From the FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) mapping system, fires worldwide in the last 24 hours:
Thousands of wildfire evacuees present a public health challenge amid pandemic Los Angeles Times
#COVID19
Christine Lagarde: Economic, financial and monetary impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and post-crisis options for policies and tools (PDF) Bank of International Settlements
Not enough Covid vaccine for all until 2024, says biggest producer FT
Trump officials race against time to build massive vaccine tracking system Politico. Most software projects fail. OTOH, it’s hard to have much confidence in state systems, either. Rebuilding the airplane while it’s in the air is never fun.
US hospitals turn down remdesivir, limit use to sickest COVID-19 patients Channel News Asia
COVID Is Turning Out To Be Very Good For Bad Businesses DC Report
Understanding COVID-19 risks and vulnerabilities among black communities in America: the lethal force of syndemics Annals of Epidemiology
Snack, scratch in safety: New COVID-19 helmet brings comfort to frontline workers Channel News Asia
Q&A with Richard Horton (video) C-SPAN. Horton is editor of The Lancet.
China?
Clarity welcome on Cultural Revolution South China Morning Post
China’s ‘purification’ of classrooms: A new law erases history, silences teachers and rewrites books Bloomberg
Hong Kong says will not interfere with Chinese law enforcement arrest of 12 residents at sea Reuters. Cutting off the escape routes.
India
Employer chews off man’s finger during scuffle over work in Delhi Times of India
Was health official Lav Agarwal right in saying India’s Covid-19 peak may never come? The Scroll
Syraqistan
U.S. is in Middle East ‘to protect Israel’ not for oil, Trump says Mondoweiss
La messe est dite L’Express (Colonel Smithers). Google translation.
UK/EU
New Cold War
Belarus: Opposition protesters maintain pressure on Lukashenko Euronews
How America Plans To Sink Russian Submarines – Part I Awful Avalanche (part II).
Russia’s peasant history, once submerged, is brought back into the light Christian Science Monitor
RussiaGate
A Hacker Said He Had Proof the CIA Caused the Anthrax Attacks. They Had Him Arrested for Child Porn. Daily Beast
Trump Transition
Donald Trump’s conversations with Bob Woodward about coronavirus, Black Lives Matter and nuclear war CBS
With Executive Powers, Trump Can Legally Unleash Global Chaos The Nation. Absolutely deathless head: “Congress must never again assume presidents will be fundamentally decent folks.” Folks. If that’s the lesson liberal Democrats are learning, they’re starting from a pretty low baseline. Anyhow, if a Biden administration rolls back any executive powers, I’ll be very surprised. Obama certainly didn’t.
2020
Competence is the test for populists Editorial Board, FT. This assumes, however, that the administrative apparatus of the State is a neutral force. It is not.
Here’s how Joe Biden would combat the pandemic if he wins the election WaPo. “Joe Biden has created a war-cabinet-in-waiting on the coronavirus pandemic, with major figures from the Obama, Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations drafting plans for distributing vaccines and personal protective gear, dramatically ramping up testing, reopening schools and addressing health-care disparities.” Maybe. I do note that apparently there was no plan the Obama administration left in a drawer somewhere for the Trump administration to adopt, since this is all new:
Pressed on why Biden did not call for a travel ban, social distancing or masks in Jan. or Feb., Symone Sanders tells @GStephanopoulos Biden wasn’t “briefed by national security experts” as Trump was, but would have taken “proper precautions” as president. https://t.co/Mb6g1oQ7FV pic.twitter.com/hXBneB5Ifa
— ABC News (@ABC) September 13, 2020
Let’s Be Real: President Biden Would Probably Be More Hawkish Than Trump Caitlin Johnstone
Realignment and Legitimacy
Article Analysis: Law and (the Fascist) Order Nina Illingworth
Mouths gaping, conspiracy theorists rise up against… something Il Manifesto
Is This the Decline and Fall of the Kardashian Empire? Buzzfeed
Imperial Collapse Watch
The normal course of empire The Bellows. Comment:
an effective polity depends upon a pervasive willingness by citizens at every level to altruistically punish those who deviate from the norms that render the polity effective.
excellent, by @ryanavent ht @dvdbllrd https://t.co/DpP0g51jSh
— Steve Randy Waldman (@interfluidity) September 13, 2020
U.S. Hegemony Could End In A Swarm Of Cheap Chinese Missiles The American Conservative
Army chief says service doing great, has ‘pretty much no problems’ Duffel Blog. Obviously not:
The Army National Guard’s twitch bio now includes a rule banning viewers from discussing politics in the chat pic.twitter.com/lXgiKldRPL
— Timmy (@tjotimmy8) September 12, 2020
Robot dogs join US Air Force exercise giving glimpse at potential battlefield of the future CNN
Police State Watch
$100,000 reward offered in brazen ambush shooting of 2 Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies Los Angeles Times. We really need to wait for the full story, though; there’s a history here, and not just in Compton, though Compton’s history is bad enough:
There are now four whistleblowers with similar stories of alleged deputy gang activity by so-called “Executioners” at the Compton sheriff’s station, according to attorney Alan Romero.
They are all in fear for their lives, especially after one found a dead rat on his doorstep. pic.twitter.com/bdPbBLQjxp
— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) September 8, 2020
KPCC Journalist Tackled, Arrested While Trying To Cover L.A. Protest NPR
How video chat fuels the American deportation machine The Verge. ICE detention centers.
Class Warfare
I have to pay back nearly $11K in unemployment benefits. How could this happen? NJ.com
Homeless family’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance frozen due to lack of residential address NBC
Target’s Delivery App Workers to Be Paid by a Blackbox Algorithm Nationwide Vice
How tech billionaires’ visions of human nature shape our world The Conversation. “The ancient Greeks had a name for someone with the courage to tell truths that could put them in danger – the parrhesiast. But the parrhesiast needed a listener who promised to not to react with anger. This parrhesiastic contract allowed dangerous truth-telling. We have shredded this contract.”
A pain reliever that alters perceptions of risk Science Daily (LN).
Wisconsin Farmer Plants 2 Million Sunflowers To Make People Smile Patch
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
