Links 3/6/2021
Yves here. One of our aides’ 29 year old daughter in on a respirator for Covid. No pre-existing conditions. She’s a police officer, so she has health insurance and was getting regular medical exams. So don’t perpetuate the myth that only old people are at risk. This aide and her significant other have already had 3 people in their families under 40 die of Covid.
The man who saves forgotten cats in Fukushima’s nuclear zone Reuters
Tearing Apart the Universe American Scientist (UserFriendly)
Sand shortage: The world is running out of a crucial commodity CNBC (resilc)
The Dark Side of Bill Gates’s Climate Techno-Optimism New Republic (resilc). Of course he has to be an optimist. Computers eat a lot of power.
Scientific communication in a post-truth society PNAS (Dr. Kevin)
Why is Electroshock Therapy Still a Mainstay of Psychiatry? Aeon (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
a href=”https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/05/1020304/reopening-us-schools-complicated/” rel=”nofollow”>Zombie Preparedness Centers for Disease Control (Dr. Kevin)
After record COVID-19 deaths, Bolsonaro tells Brazilians to stop ‘whining’ Reuters
Israel postpones roll-out of COVID vaccine to Palestinian workers AlJazeera
UK/Europe
Speedy variants power virus surge sweeping Europe Associated Press
Wolfgang Streeck, Vaccine Debacle New Left Review. Anthony L: “A wonderful opening sentence I’m certain is much better in the original German: ‘Whatever else you may think about Angela Merkel, one thing you must allow her: she knows a hot potato when she sees one, and she can pass it on to someone else in no time.’”
US
Fauci warns of COVID-19 spike in coming weeks, even though more vaccines are being administered The Hill
Reopening US schools is complicated. MIT Technology Review
Finance/Economy
Democrats break COVID impasse with deal on jobless benefits The Hill
China?
US Pacific Commander Defends $27 Billion Plan to Confront China Antiwar (resilc)
Exclusive: U.S. blocked Myanmar junta attempt to empty $1 billion New York Fed account – sources Reuters (resilc)
Brexit
UK-EU trade falls sharply as Brexit disruption starts to bite Financial Times
Northern Irish loyalist paramilitaries withdraw support for 1998 peace deal Reuters (resilc)
SNP
Scottish government discounted legal advice to give up fight with Salmond Guardian (Kevin W)
Mediterranean pipe dream founders on global gas glut Asia Times (resilc)
Syraquistan
Anonymous US Officials Blame ‘Iranian-Backed’ Militia For Latest Iraq Rocket Attack Antiwar (resilc)
Israel Updating Plans to Attack Iran Antiwar
The pope and the ayatollah: Francis meets Iraq’s Sistani Washington Post (furzy)
Funny how Twitter hasn’t banned the Israeli journalist advocating murder:
Israeli journalist: The International Criminal Court investigating Israel for war crimes amounts to “legal terrorism”; therefore Israel’s secret spy agency should spend the next 20 years assassinating the ICC prosecutor and judges – in an “elegant” manner, without leaving traces pic.twitter.com/outghcr9Ye
— David Sheen (@davidsheen) March 3, 2021
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
China-Linked Hack Hits Tens of Thousands of U.S. Microsoft Customers Wall Street Journal. Don’t blame me for the headline.
White House warns of ‘large number’ of victims in Microsoft hack Financial Times (David L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
US exceptionalism surges again: Will it fly? Asia Times
Capitol Seizure
Biden
Biden’s climate plan has a nuclear solution Asia Times (Kevin W)
Biden tells NASA engineer Indian Americans are ‘taking over the country’ New York Post
Senior diplomatic security official removed from Afghanistan role after posting racist comments about Kamala Harris Mercury News
In Republican House races, viral-ad donations offer big payoff for consultants Washington Post (UserFriendly)
Texas Deep Freeze Aftermath
Goldman Made $200 Million Off the U.S. Deep Freeze, at Least on Paper Bloomberg
Federal judge says states acted too late to ratify Equal Rights Amendment NBC (furzy)
Cuomogate
Andrew Cuomo’s Endgame Political Currents by Ross Barkan (UserFriendly)
Socialist Legislators Want to Impeach Cuomo for Harassment Intercept (resilc)
Black Injustice Tipping Point
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Talk of Reparations: Pie in the Sky Pushed by Democrat Bamboozlers Ghion Journal
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Storm Brewing Over Trump’s Anti-Money Laundering Push Bloomberg
John McAfee, antivirus software creator, charged with cheating investors over cryptocurrency scheme ABC (Australia). Furzy: “Bitcoin = Prosecution futures…..”
Bitcoin could prevent society from functioning and is an ‘extreme form of libertarian anarchism,’ warns this fund manager MarketWatch. Curiously overwrought.
What Happens When a Publisher Becomes a Megapublisher? New York Times (Anthony L)
High-priced tech stocks sink further into bear market territory Financial Times
No, we don’t need to ‘balance the books’ Thomas Fazi
Class Warfare
Caring by the Dollar: Nursing Homes, Private Equity, and Covid-19 Dollars & Sense
The eight Democrats who voted ‘no’ on $15 minimum wage The Hill (Kevin W)
Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema compared to Marie Antoinette for voting against minimum wage hike Yahoo
Actual video of Senator Sinema voting no to the minimum wage amendment: pic.twitter.com/930vltqK2n
— 🌻The Official New York Socialist ✡️ (@TheNYSocialist) March 5, 2021
One reason I became disillusioned with progressives is because the progressive infrastructure cultivated and trained Kyrsten Sinema, and candidates like her, for years. Sinema in the mid-2000s was a bisexual punk cheerleader and organizer against Bush. Lifestyle branding.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 5, 2021
How some people can end up living at airports for months – even years – at a time The Conversation (resilc)
Sidewalk robots get legal rights as “pedestrians” Axios (Chuck L)
Is evil a matter of personality or a condition of society? Times Literary Supplement (Anthony L)
Antidote du jour (furzy):
And a bonus:
Lowland gorilla at Miami Zoo uses sign language to tell someone that he’s not allowed to be fed by visitors.. pic.twitter.com/JkfTHwiR8O
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) March 5, 2021
Another bonus, from Chuck L:
One of these dogs has this game figured out… pic.twitter.com/vrzEq8FPJW
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) March 4, 2021
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
