Peeing Is Socially Contagious In Chimps 404media
General Dwight D. Eisenhower had the foresight to realize that Holocaust denial would occur.
Eisenhower said, “Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” pic.twitter.com/lzLswBdeAW
— Rabbi David Schlusselberg (@RavSchluss) January 27, 2025
Stanford Researchers Produce Ammonia Fuel From Thin Air IEEE Spectrum (Chuck L)
High and Dry: Sobriety and transcendence at Bonnaroo Harper’s (Anthony L)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Please note that almost 1000 people died from Covid in the US last week alone. I presume testing and surveillance is lacking, so the death toll is likely higher. The Covid pandemic isn’t over.
— Dr Elisa Perego (@elisaperego78) January 27, 2025
More TV doctors avoiding the elephant in the room. 1 in 8 people in the UK feel fatigued – no mention of viral causes at all. No mention of why it’s now 1 in 8.
You (most probably) have Long Covid folks. pic.twitter.com/g7jRQ9YLdl
— Lara Crowther – Covid is Airborne (@fillthewhole) January 27, 2025
This is bad news. It suggests reassortment of circulating H5N1 viruses with viruses containing N9 NA.
Although this indicates reassortment with avian viruses, it’s still bad. Reassortment makes pandemics. The last 3/4 flu pandemics (and maybe 1918 too) were reassortant viruses. https://t.co/PE320lx8g1
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) January 27, 2025
Climate/Environment
Finally, an answer to why Earth’s oceans have been on a record-hot streak Grist
Opinion: The Uncertain Multigenerational Implications of PFAS Undark
China?
China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in January, official data showed on Monday Financial Times
Bloom and gloom: China’s Spring Festival flower sales hit by weak demand, warm weather South China Morning Post. Further confirmation of my take from the sex capital of Asia re the flagging state of China’s economy.
Tesla, BMW Sue EU After China-Made EVs Hit by Tariffs Bloomberg
NZ’s relationship with Kiribati strained — aid fund under review 1News. Mark Todd: “China has won the hearts and minds of a tiny sinking island nation by providing crayons to school children. It’s not in the text. Watch the videoclip to the end.”
Africa
‘Blood in the oil’: Nigeria’s delta drilling plan sparks fury Financial Times
‘Trapped miners ‘resort to cannibalism’ after police fail to ‘smoke them out’ Telegraph
European Disunion
‘It Cannot Go On Like This’: Voices From Europe’s Swing to the Right New York Times
The postwar European idea of peace is gone. Europe is a divided, subordinated, and militaristic American frontline. No debate about how we ended up here or how to resolve it. Either join the militaristic cult that communicates in slogans and clichés, or be smeared as a traitor pic.twitter.com/VWC7xS6mQx
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) January 26, 2025
CORDON SANITAIRE ON LIFE SUPPORT: Merz bows to pressure, pledges to bring anti-migration legislation to the Bundestag on Friday and hopes to pass it with AfD support eugyppius (Micael T)
Germany’s immigration meltdown: The AfD has everything to gain Wolfgang Munchau, Unherd
Italy resumes policy of sending its unwanted migrants to Albania EuroNews
Austrian far-right victory foreshadows dystopia for Muslim population Middle East Eye
Old Blighty
Recession fears grow as companies prepare to ramp up staff cuts Telegraph
Israel v. The Resistance
Arab League says any plan to uproot Palestinians from Gaza would be ‘ethnic cleansing’ Arab News
Trump can’t ‘clean out’ Gaza without destabilizing entire region Responsible Statecraft
Lebanon reports 6 new Israeli breaches of ceasefire deal Anadolu Agency
Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight DropSite
New Not-So-Cold War
The Resource Curse: How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth Sputnik
Exchange bullets for money Russia in Global Affairs via machine translation (Micael T). Interesting to see the discounting of Trump’s bluster
Europe braces for ‘most extreme’ military scenario as Trump-Putin 2.0 begins NBC. Losing their minds…
Ukraine – Organizational Chaos, Commanders Fired Moon of Alabama
Syraqistan
Taliban ambassador warns Rubio against bounty threat over Americans in Afghanistan South China Morning Post. Hoo boy.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
FBI’s Warrantless Search Ruled Unconstitutional in a Blow to Government Spying Intercept
Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity TechCrunch (Kevin W). OpenAI can’t implode fast enough. Please China, out-innovate faster!
Russia to Launch Nationwide Biometric Payment System by 2025 Reclaim the Net. Micael T: “This seems really stupid. Ukraine is an elite digital crime country with which Russia is at war. How long will it take for Ukraine to publish all biometric data and use it to screw up the lives of ordinary citizens?”
Stop the Government from spying on all of our bank accounts 38Degrees
Imperial Collapse Watch
Farting whale behind ‘Russian’ submarine false alarm – media RT (Kevin W)
Trump Goes on the Offensive against Russia, China, and Iran | Alastair Crooke Interview Larry Johnson. There’s an important part in the interview where Crooke politely refutes, apparently based on some inside information, the notion that Russia has checked either Iran’s nuclear development or its overdue retaliation against Israel. Your truly indicated in comments that I was never keen about theories that had Russia seeking to influence Iran’s actions with respect to Israel or its nuclear enrichment program. IMHO it smacked of Orientialism.
1/6
January 6 rioter pardoned by Trump is killed by police in traffic stop Guardian (Micael T)
Trump 2.0
Trump administration orders sweeping freeze of federal aid Politico. This will knock at least a half point off GDP if really executed in full:
In a two-page memo obtained by POLITICO, the Office of Management and Budget announced all federal agencies would be forced to suspend payments — with the exception of Social Security and Medicare.
Money quote from the Journal article on the same edict:
The memo’s broad language prompted some federal officials to wonder whether it halted the vast array of federal assistance programs, from small-business loans to highway funding, said the person. Footnotes to the memo exempted Medicare, Social Security benefits and assistance provided directly to individuals—but gave few other clues as to what it covered or didn’t cover. Federal administrators sought advice from their internal counsel on Monday evening, the person said.
To Clarify: M-25-13, the memo from OMB pausing all federal assistance disbursements as of COB (5pm) tomorrow is defining “federal assistance” as outlined in 2 CFR 200.1 paragraph 1 and 2. In actuality, it’s everything listed under paragraphs 1,2,3, and 5. Grants, Food, and Loans pic.twitter.com/ICm80aISv4
— Solomon Grundy Stan Account (@Aetreiythe) January 28, 2025
🚨OMB sent a memo to federal agencies this evening, requiring all federal loans and grants be paused by 5pm tomorrow.
Financial assistance is defined to include all federal grants/loans except those that provide direct assistance to individuals. pic.twitter.com/25AvhA5cad
— Diane Yentel (@dianeyentel) January 28, 2025
Memos posted publicly to government websites claiming to be from the acting directors of OPM and OMB have metadata showing that the original authors are affiliated with Project 2025. pic.twitter.com/oASyw3NFSH
— Gray Kimbrough (@graykimbrough) January 27, 2025
Trump’s new trade war may prove far more disruptive than his first Washington Post
‘We just can’t take the hit’: businesses worldwide brace as Trump threatens tariffs Guardian
Donald Trump risks tax war with global minimum tax pull-out. The Times. This is typical and very poor reporting. There was NO “OECD tax deal”. The OECD’s scheme was merely a recommendation, albeit very detailed. The EU adopted it because they were upset about US tech and pharma giants putting their intellectual property in low-tax jurisdictions, which enabled them to recognize significant profits there and lower their tax rates in countries in which they have operations. The Trump Administration is correct in saying the US never adopted the OECD recommendation and is therefore not obligated to move forward with it. However, the US retaliating under existing law could cause a big mess.
Trump expected to sign executive orders to reshape the military, including banning transgender troops CNN (Kevin W)
Immigration
‘You’re Dr. Phil.’ TV personality says he joined immigration raids in Chicago for ‘transparency.’ Chicago Tribune
Mexico refuses to accept a U.S. deportation flight NBC
Brazil to demand explanations on ‘degrading treatment’ of deportees Reuters
Our No Longer Free Press
I’m free! I wrote this on the plane and I’m posting it just after landing at Istanbul. On Monday evening I was brought to Zurich airport in handcuffs, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van and led all the way to the plane by police. This is after three days and two… pic.twitter.com/S4BF2eEYYQ
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) January 27, 2025
Klaus Schwab Labels “Misinformation” a “Critical Challenge,” Urges Elites to Develop Solutions Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
AI
AI Is Too Unpredictable To Behave According To Human Goals Scientific American
OpenAI’s Altman vows ‘better models’ as China’s DeepSeek disrupts global race Financial Times
DeepSeek hit with large-scale cyberattack, says it’s limiting registrations CNBC (Kevin W). So much easier than developing better models!
DeepSeek just proved Lina Khan right DropSite
Class Warfare
Wall Street Is Jacking Up The Cost Of Your Doctor Visits The Lever
When professional class liberals abandoned universalism Catherine Liu
“Anarchism Means That You Should Be Free.” On the Literature of Liberation Literary Hub (Anthony L)
Whole Foods Workers in Philadelphia Form Grocer’s First Union in Decades Wall Street Journal
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Terrifying reminder that if you think you can outclimb a bear on a steep cliff, no you can’t pic.twitter.com/6DMGeWPjLI
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) January 27, 2025
A second bonus. One of my mother’s cats, Michael, a tabby with a white bib and feet who grew to be 27 lbs, was raised with a neighbor’s puppy. They often slept together. When my parents traveled, they would leave Michael at the local dog pound, where he wandered freely, much to the consternation of the caged dogs.
Puppies meeting kittens for the first time.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/osReXzwh8A
— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) January 27, 2025
And a third:
— contents that ll heal your depression 🌻 (@Catshealdeprsn) January 26, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
