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Links 12/6/2024 | naked capitalism

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The Secret of Orange Cats Finally Uncovered After 60-Year Search ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Archaeological dig at Notre-Dame unearths 2,000 years of history France24 (Kevin W)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Pardon Me, But This Is Bullshit Matt Taibbi. On a pardon for Fauci.

Unknown disease kills 143 in southwest Congo, local authorities say Reuters (Paul R). Our GM was already all over this. His message a full day before based on earlier accounts:

This looks potentially extremely bad.

Hopefully it is some bacteria that does not spread well, but if it is an efficiently spreading respiratory virus, especially if it is “blessed” with an asymptomatic transmission period, we are completely screwed in the post-COVID post-public health world.

Clearly it is not Ebola/Marburg — there are no hemorrhagic symptoms reported, and they know filoviruses there better than anyone.

Quite unlikely it is some new SARS-CoV-2 strain that gestated there, though the symptoms are consistent, and the DRC is precisely the kind of place where you expect something like this to spawn. Because the dead are young. And all respiratory coronaviruses have a skewed mortality distribution towards the old. It is possible some kind of self-destructive immune system freakout phenomenon does develop with a new coronavirus strain in the future, one that makes it more lethal for younger people, but then I would expect different symptoms in the severe cases. Which cannot be excluded based on the limited information provided, but still, more likely it is something else. And they would have known by now if it was a coronavirus given the ubiquity of testing resources.

A lethal flu strain, potentially even an efficient H2H-transmissible H5N1, would be quite possible in principle, but again, if it was that, they would have been able to identify it immediately as there are quick and readily available laboratory methods to figure that out.

But it looks like they have to do the metagenomics work from scratch here. Even taking that into account, it is extremely concerning that they are not saying what it is. It has been ~40 days since the first cases. That is more than enough time to do the sequencing and analysis, even in the DRC.

Meanwhile it is likely already spreading beyond that immediate area, and once it gets to Kinshasa, which is unfortunately quite close geographically, you can forget about containing it if it is efficient at H2H spread…

Access to PPE, a critical tool in fighting bird flu, is mixed across dairy-producing states, records show Investigate Midwest (Robin K)

Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started? Science

Climate/Environment

75 Years of Lead in Gasoline Caused 150 Million Mental Health Disorders, Study Finds USAToday

Study indicates “persistent, damaging” effects of glyphosate herbicide exposure on brain health New Lede

Earth Began Absorbing More Sunlight in 2023, Climate Researchers Find arstechnica

Balloon system can produce localized solar electricity for the ground below PhysOrg (Chuck L)

China?

From earlier in the week, still of note:

Koreas

South Korean president’s party leader calls for his suspension Nikkei

South Korea’s President Yoon backs out of plan to visit parliament amid chaos BBC

South Korea Coup Attempt Fails, Putin Erdogan Talk Syria; Kiev Demands NATO, Trump Mulls Plans Alexander Mercouris. A day late to this, but Mercouris’ theory of the short-lived South Korea coup, at the start of his presentation, is the only one I have heard that makes sense.

South Korea: The Deeper Story Behind the Unrest Zeteo. A more conventional account, not as persuasive. Provides useful background as to why the President was in trouble but not the coup attempt.

Yoon’s martial law stunt may cost Korea a lost decade Asia Times (Kevin W)

Africa

European Disunion

‘Macron is primarily responsible for France’s unprecedented and hazardous political situation’ Le Monde

If you click through, you can also get a translation:

Macron to appoint new prime minister ‘in coming days’ as he vows to finish term Euronews

Now the right wants to sprinkle landmines around Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “‘The problem? The only outsider in the expert group that produced the investigation is employed by the arms industry. More precisely, Saab’s vice president Christer Ahlström.’ – Sweden is sinking hard and fast into the neoliberal sewer of corruption at all levels.”

Old Blighty

UK premier pledges more police officers, 1.5M new homes, fixing NHS as part of ‘Plan for Change’ Anadolu Agency

Israel v. the Resistance

Amnesty International says there is ‘sufficient evidence’ to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza CNN (Kevin W)

‘Soaked in blood’: Israel hits Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital multiple times Aljzaeera

New Not-So-Cold War

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to Tucker Carlson, Moscow, December 6, 2024 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Transcript and video.

In Europe, if you’re sitting in the “slop bucket” – don’t gurgle! On the subject of triumphalism. Marat Khairullin Hoo boy:

They believed in the fairy tale about an all-powerful Europe. Recall here – NATO exercises recently resulted in frostbitten idiots and nothing more, and that’s without a real war.

Lavrov and Blinken trade blame for Ukraine war escalation at OSCE meeting in Malta Euronews

Warnings of alleged Russian terrorist acts in Europe are increasing Anti-Spiegel via machine translation

Putin’s pipeline: How the Kremlin outmaneuvered Western oil companies to wrest control of vast flows of Kazakhstan’s crude ICIJ (Robin K)

Syraqistan

Syrian Rebels Storm Hama as Government Forces Withdraw New York Times (Kevin W)

Syrian Crisis Analysis: SAA on Verge of Collapse? Or Have Jihadists Overplayed Their Hand? Simplicius

Report: US Offered To Withdraw Troops From Syria in Exchange for Assad Cutting Ties With Iran Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

Old feuds reignite between Turkish-backed extremists attacking Syria’s Aleppo The Cradle (Kevin W)

Greater Israel, Greater Turkey Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)

Comprador Nation New Left Review. Anthony L: “Pakistan”

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

What is an O.MG Cable? Industrial CT Uncovers Malicious Hardware YouTube

Imperial Collapse Watch

Schizophrenic in America Hal Freeman (Anthony L)

Trump 2.0

An Annotated Copy of the FBI Memo Recapping Charles Kushner’s Scheme to Hire a Prostitute to Seduce His Brother-in-Law and Send a Secretly-Recorded Video “That Captures Them Having Sex” to His Sister Ken Silverstein (Micael T)

Part 2: My Battle with Tulsi Gabbard’s Cult Followers in Hawaii Christine Gralow (Micael T)

Our No Longer Free Press

How the U.S. State Department spends millions of dollars to coordinate Western media and direct investigative journalism against its geopolitical rivals eugyppius (Micael T)

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber isn’t ruling out advertising TechCrunch (Kevin W)

AI

AWS says AI could disrupt everything – and hopes it will do just that to Windows The Register

Boeing

US judge blocks Boeing’s guilty plea in 737 MAX crashes case over fears diversity policies would drive ‘racial considerations’ ABC Australia (Anthony L)

Guillotine Watch

Bitter Americans React to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder: ‘My Empathy Is Out of Network’ Gizmodo

UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot, NY Post reports Reddit. Paul R: “Oh my gawrsh. A thread (deleted from the subreddit by reddit mods but still accessible through the direct url) full of actual doctors roasting that CEO. From a toxicology doc: ‘”He is lucky that it happened in December. Imagine how much it would cost when his out-of-pocket minimum reset in January!’”

Health Insurance Companies Erase Leadership Webpages – Pittsburgh Steelworkers Upset Over Trump Blocking US Steel Mike Elk

Class Warfare

There Is No Surplus Elite in America Yascha Mounck

Cradle and All; The devastating cost of Utah’s thriving adoption industry. Mother Jones (Paul R)

Antidote du jour (via):

Ands a bonus (Chuck L):

A second bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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