“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. #mlkday2025 pic.twitter.com/gYIO4LKDHe
— Bill Garland (@BillGarlandSpkr) January 20, 2025
Argue Your Way to a Fuller Life Nautlius. Micael T: “Yes, nothing beats being sentenced to death by your fellow countrymen. I like her approach but the main hurdle in my experience is that people just want to believe, not know.”
Luca is the progenitor of all life on Earth. But its genesis has implications far beyond our planet Guardian (Kevin W)
Inside the world of medieval espionage Engelsberg Ideas (Micael T)
Spanish Flu Killed 50 Million. Terrorists Can Now Create Synthetic Version of the Virus. American Council on Science and Health (Dr. Kevin)
The Updated Red Meat Story Eric Topol (Robin K)
Climate/Environment
The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion, Explained Earth.org
Large-Scale US Solar Farms Brings ‘Solar Grazing’ Work for Sheep ABC
California Drops Its Pending Zero-Emission Truck Rules After Inaction by Biden EPA Los Angeles Times
China?
Economic alarm bells ring as Hong Kong bankruptcies skyrocket DimSum Daily. I can tell you here from the sex capital of Asia that China’s economy is in bad shape. And the evidence was in well Chinese started canceling trips due to the abduction of a Chinese actor caused a panic.
Why China probably isn’t panicking over Trump Asia Times (Kevin W)
As China wields rare earths in US trade war, weaning off that reliance could take time South China Morning Post
Koreas
Yoon supporters’ courthouse riot deepens South Korean political crisis Nikkei
North Korea condemns Japan’s opening of NATO mission as escalating regional military tension Korea Times
Africa
Why France Will Tolerate Insults from Africans Vzglyad via machine translation (Micael T)
Power outages hit army-controlled Sudan after drone attacks Reuters
Mozambique Weighs Restructuring Public Debt After Vote Unrest Bloomberg
European Disunion
Why Europe will struggle to buy more US gas Financial Times
Germany is main EU target of Trump tariffs, warns economy minister Politico
German city plans to make refugees work or lose their benefits The Times
Far-right Romanian party leads protests against cancelled presidential election EurActiv
Old Blighty
Wages stagnant since 2008 as economy faces downturn Telegraph
UK: Police chief tells pro-Israel group he imposed unprecedented restrictions on Gaza rally Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
Public inquiry into Southport attack announced BBC (Kevin W). Starmer is to address the nation over this?!?! It’s a horrific crime, but this was only three deaths. This looks to be more proof of how weak Starmer is right now.
Israel v. The Resistance
Smotrich: “We will wipe the smile from the Palestinians, but the screaming will remain” pic.twitter.com/VhdjnbYfWc
— Dr. Mustafa Elmasri (@Gaza_Psych) January 18, 2025
Israeli forces advance, blow up homes in south Lebanonhttps://t.co/CLk6rK9bqN
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) January 21, 2025
Yemeni Houthis to Limit Red Sea Attacks to Israeli-Linked Ships OilPrice
Yemeni rial hit by Houthi crisis despite Saudi bailout Yemen Online
Iran Reveals Deep Gulf Missile Base as Regional Tensions Mount Morocco World News
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian retaliatory strikes have begun to reduce Ukraine’s military potential Vzglyad via machine translation (Micael T)
UKRAINE Eastern Front in Danger of Collapse as Trump Takes Reigns Daniel Davis, YouTube. “Reins”
Sweden deploys troops near Russia’s border for a NATO mission AZ
Balkans
Professors, lawyers join students in anti-Vučić protests across Serbia EurActiv
Syraqistan
When Israel and Turkey go to war Asia Times (Kevin W)
Military escalation; 17 civilians killed and injured in Turkish airstrikes on Teshreen dam SOHR
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Europol Chief Says Big Tech Has ‘Responsibility’ To Unlock Encrypted Messages Financial Times
The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds 404Media (Randy K). Nowhere near as specific as the headline implies. But confirms my refusal to be photographed.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Accidents, Not Sabotage, Likely Damaged Baltic Undersea Cables, Say US and European Intelligence Officials Washington Post. Of course, announced when the Trump inauguration is starting and the Executive Order flurry is about to start
International Hierarchy Expert Survey: Wave III Report Russia in Global Affairs (Micael T). Small sample but still interesting.
Iran-Russia monetary agreement implemented, bank networks connected Tehran Times
Trump 2.0
Trump’s inauguration: In pictures BBC (Kevin W)
The press is awful. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to find a full list of the executive orders Trump signed and came up empty. If anyone finds something comprehensive, please pipe up in comments.
INITIAL RESCISSIONS OF HARMFUL EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND ACTIONS White House. Quite a few ugly items, like “Executive Order 13989 of January 20, 2021 (Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel).”
Trump to hold fire on immediate tariffs, call for trade deficit review Nikkei
Trump orders federal workers back to office full-time Reuters (Kevin W)
China ever-so slightly softens stance on possible US TikTok sale The Register
‘Everyone wants him out’: How Musk helped boot Ramaswamy from DOGE Politico Politico
Trump Off to a Fast Start, But Stumbles on Russia Larry Johnson
Gov’t Says ‘Never Heard’ of Trump’s Plan to Relocate Gaza Residents to Indonesia Jakarta Globe (Kevin W)
Trump versus the bond market: president-elect’s campaign rhetoric puts investors on edge Guardian
Trump Triggers a Crisis in Denmark—And Europe Atlantic
Junk Food Turns Public Villain as Power Shifts in Washington MedPage
Biden
Patrick Lawrence: Exeunt, the Man from Scranton Sheerpost (Anthony L)
Biden pardons Fauci, Cheney, Milley and Jan. 6 committee RT (Kevin W). Lambert has this in Water Cooler but too important to miss. IM Doc was keen to see a Fauci pardon, as in he is too old to be prosecuted effectively while a pardon signifies some odds of success of a criminal case. From the TCN News e-mailed morning note:
CROOKED: Biden Gives Fauci, Milley and Cheney Blanket Pardons
He really did it.
Joe Biden rang in Inauguration Day by pardoning some of permanent Washington’s most nefarious figures, including Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger.
The pardons are not for any specific crimes. They are blanket, preemptive orders to ensure the recipients are never held accountable for whatever federal offenses they may have committed during their times in the halls of power. Considering Fauci swore under oath that “The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Milley reportedly told the Chinese he’d tip them off if the president ordered a strike, and Cheney made unethical contact with a key J6 Committee witness without an attorney’s knowledge, there could be plenty of substance to look into.
Our No Longer Free Press
REPORT: In Israel’s Parliament (Knesset) earlier this month, ADL’s Chief @JGreenblattADL said:
“Capturing TikTok might seem less meaningful than holding onto Mount Hermon… but the next war will be decided based on how Israel and its allies perform online as much as offline.”… https://t.co/E4DZHYfVcZ pic.twitter.com/UH2gfNJZP8
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 19, 2025
AI
The Pentagon Says AI is Speeding Up Its ‘Kill Chain’ TechCrunch
AI Designs Computer Chips We Can’t Understand — But They Work Really Well ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin). So AI can readily start implementing SkyNet.
In AI Arms Race, America Needs Private Companies, Warns National Security Advisor Axios
The Bezzle
Trump’s promise to strike down the Basel Accords has the banking industry elated Le Monde
Elon Musk bet me $1 million the U.S. would not see 35,000 cases of Covid—then turned on me when it happened, says Sam Harris Fortune (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
Champagne demand slumped last year as consumers across the world felt there was little to celebrate This Is Money
After Forced Return-to-Office, Some Amazon Workers Find Not Enough Desks, No Parking New York Post
We Are on the Precipice of a Grievance-Based Society Time. They say it as if it is a bad thing. From Richard Kline’s Progressively Losing in 2011:
At best, progressives seek to convert. In the main, they name and shame—ineffectively. American ‘progressives’ distrust political power, period, are queasy about anyone having it, and suspicious toward anyone who actively seeks it, including other putative progressives. The contest as progressives conceive it is fundamentally a moral one: they believe they are right, and want their opposition to see the light and reform/conform. Thus, they don’t frame what they engage in as a fight but rather as a debate.
There has been another and more radical trend on the left-liberal end of the spectrum previously. That trend derived from radicalized, Continental European, immigrants, it sourced much of labor activism, and is largely extinct in America as of this date….
The key point is that the tradition of radical activism is integrally an economic one, and secondarily one of social justice. It was pursued by those both poor and ‘out castes,’ who often had communal solidarity as their only asset. It was resisted by force, and thus pursued by those inured to force who understood that power was necessary to victory, and that defeat entailed destitution, imprisonment, and being cut down by live fire from those acting under color of authority with impunity…
Critically, these are grievance-driven policies. One could say that the goal of radicals is to force an end to exploitation, particularly economic exploitation since most radicals come from those on the bitter end of such equations.
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus (Chuck L):
— فيديو🎥 (@3m__1) December 2, 2022
And a second bonus (Chuck L). Notice the cat’s action!
Dog moves security camera so he can secretly eat food on the table
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 19, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
