In Praise of the Paranormal Curiosity of Charles Fort, Patron Saint of Cranks Literary Hub (Anthony L)
The danger of decadence is also its value. We need more of it aeon (Anthony L)
Are you a precrastinator? The opposite of procrastinating has its downsides Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
The $100 Million Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Golf Ball Wall Street Journal
The Daily Heller: The Little-Known Legacy of the EP Print Magazine. Anthony L: “For (us) old farts.”
Dementia Breakthrough: Brain Scans Predict Disease Up to 9 Years Early ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? Quanta (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines Reuters (Paul R, neutrino)
Sooner than anticipated: “Novavax intends to have doses in the U.S. for distribution by mid-July.”
Also love that they’re planning pre-filled syringes. 🤗https://t.co/du9hXN3cvm pic.twitter.com/YuY9XhlXW6
— Noha Aboelata, MD (@NohaAboelataMD) June 15, 2024
Climate/Environment
Hail! Again! https://t.co/erHBEBroak
— chinahand (@chinahand) June 11, 2024
Uranium Price Surge Reveals a World Returning to Nuclear Power Bloomberg
Fascinating way to compare solar companies with big oil, found in this Bloomberg article by @davidfickling: https://t.co/aWQUIVyQYY
If you look at solar companies’ annual output figures and multiply them by 22, which is the average operating life of a solar panel, and compare… pic.twitter.com/97CVDwxokR
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 14, 2024
China?
What Western mainstream media won’t tell us about China MR Online (Anthony L)
DJI to the rescue? U.S. police want China drones despite Washington clampdown Nikkei
Europe risks trade war with China by hiking tariffs on its electric cars CNN
Why China is without doubt the most cost-effective place to study a degree!
I made this table based on my experience studying in the UK and China, and info from US was found online. Meant to be an average cost, ofcourse depends on location. Although in China the costs are… pic.twitter.com/YZ9ULvuCAH
— livinlavidaluke (@96Stats) June 11, 2024
How Washington makes up a fake genocide but enables a real one South China Morning Post (Tom H)
Africa
South Africa’s Ramaphosa secures ruling coalition, but allies hold veto Al Jazeera (Kevin W)
Sudan’s army says it has killed US-sanctioned RSF Darfur commander Arab News
European Disunion
The rise of the far right alarms German business leaders Economist
Old Blighty
Nigel Farage says he is ‘leader of the opposition’ after Reform UK poll boost Guardian (Kevin W)
Farage is absolutely killing it on TikTok. So many fan edits of him, and his actual account has 662k followers, more than double the combined total for Labour (198k), Tories (61k), Greens (40k), and LibDems (21k).
Something is definitely happening out there… pic.twitter.com/4OjFHEybXF
— Mike Diplockre (@MikeDiplockre) June 14, 2024
Gaza
The international criminal court should investigate Israel’s hostage rescue raid Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Afterlives of Lies Consortium News (Anthony L)
Listen to her voice https://t.co/D2RUgsqRUl
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) June 14, 2024
The story of the U.S. ‘floating dock’ built from the rubble of Gaza’s homes Mondoweiss
Yahya Sinwar’s Impossible Resolve Jospeh Jordan (Chuck L). Must read background. Note the one-para discussion of the Israel slaughter at the peaceful Right of Return protest. Norman Finkelstein has discussed the 253 UN report on that attack at length. Among the details are that Israel snipers targeted children and handicapped men 300 yards away, shooting (successfully) at their knees or below so as to inflict “life altering injuries.”
BREAKING: The UN just released its first actual investigation into October 7 and ongoing Gaza genocide by Israel. It concludes that though there was violence against women (SVGB), there is no proof of any rape, let alone “mass rape”, or that it was “ordered by Hamas”. It’s over pic.twitter.com/Vx3vE03QRY
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) June 12, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
Vladimir Putin’s Peace Proposal for Ukraine and Reengagement with Europe – June 2024 – ENG Subtitles Michael Ross, YouTube. Zach K: “Doc Rossi thoughtfully provides an index of topics and timestamps in the video description I watched about the first 15 then skipped to the ‘peace proposal.’”
Vladimir Putin sets out Ukraine ceasefire conditions Financial Times. Thin coverage in the Western media.
Denmark becomes first NATO member to invest in weapons production in Ukraine Anadolu Agency
US reporter Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on espionage charge France24
Nazi NMR is classified as a terrorist by the USA aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T:
In spite of the Swedish Security Service not having any investigations going on against these three individuals. The Swedish vassal-government doesn’t even try to defend its citizens against unilateral terrorist-listing. Sure enough, NMR are unsavoury characters, they are Nazis after all, but when even the Swedish Security Services do not investigate them as terrorists, shouldn’t that lead to protests?
The real reason for the terrorist-listing is that NMR are strongly against NATO, Swedish NATO-membership and the Swedish-US Defence Cooperation Agreement (which is more like an occupation or surrender treaty for Sweden).
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Wells Fargo fires employees for ‘faking’ keyboard activity The Register. Lambert ran the FT’s version of this story yesterday. Chuck L: “As The Register subhead noted, ‘Homer Simpson was ahead of his time.’”
How Data-Fueled Neurotargeting Could Kill Democracy MIT Reader. Paul R:
This is a good article. It says what Cambridge Analytica was doing with all that facebook data. Classifying people’s personality types, picking out the neurotics (who were likely to be susceptible to emotional manipulation) and spewing tailored misinformation at them, supposedly to help the Trump campaign. It’s only been getting worse since then. It demystifies stuff that I think a lot of us had picked up on but not quite understood.
The Caucuses
Georgia’s protesters vow to stay on streets until government falls VOA
Immigration
Mexico’s tactic to cut immigration to the U.S.? Wear out migrants Los Angeles Times
Conflicts drive number of forcibly displaced people to record high Guardian
Imperial Collapse Watch
Crude propaganda? Rumours abound that Saudi Arabia is set to drop the petrodollar for the Chinese yuan New Arab. We said in comments yesterday that this was fake news. We alerted the Duran duo. Alexander Mercouris wrote back and said he’d spent hours trying to run this down and concluded it was baseless. He also concurred that the frequent claims made about the early 1970s US-Saudi petrodollar recycling arrangement were typically all wet. Alex Christoforu gave a short discussion in his talk today.
Trump
‘Brazen corruption’: Donald Trump is selling policies for a second term to the highest bidders Independent (furzy)
Biden. I am suddenly seeing non-stop Biden fundraising ads by Biden and Obama on the YouTubes by the Duran duo. Heretofore I was getting a huge number of “fix your slice”, generate your own power, home fitness, and in Thai, many many consumer product ads. Wonder if the Biden takeover extend to my other YT faves.
Biden campaign spokesman Adrienne Elrod tries to spin the viral video of Biden wandering aimlessly across Italy as “disinformation” — and demands “social media platforms” censor it. pic.twitter.com/hfMuZpMkwU
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 14, 2024
What triggered Joe Biden to lose his temper at TikTok star and threaten to ‘throw his phone’ at a White House party as the president scrambles to earn love from influencers Daily Mail (Li). Anger and lack of impulse control are signs of dementia.
Kamala Harris is Biden’s secret weapon in North Carolina The Hill
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump Makes Last Pitch to Keep the Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive Jonathan Turley
GOP Clown Car
DOJ says it won’t prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after House contempt vote CNN (Kevin W). Recall Peter Navarro is sitting in prison now for refusing to testify on the same basis, assertion of executive privilege.
Men-Only, Christian-Only Secret Society Gets More Secret TPM (Paul R)
Gunz
The NBA Is Monetizing A Public Health Crisis The Lever
Falling Apart Boeing Airplanes
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max goes into “Dutch roll” during Phoenix-to-Oakland flight CBS
AI
AI candidate running for Parliament in the U.K. says AI can humanize politics NBC
Class Warfare
The Costco of Housing is…Costco? Urban Proxima. Paul R:
Costco wants to bypass the prevailing wage requirement for a housing co-development (or whatever it’s called) by installing prefab housing from low-wage-place instead of building on site.
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “Here’s a Canadian goose who looks very pleased that there’s green blades of grass, and perhaps edibles that hide within same.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
