Hundreds of invaders have taken over the Isle of Man. They’re wallabies Adventure.com
Investment companies running RV parks ‘into the ground’ RV Travel
Climate
Hazmat cleanup of fiery wreck with ion batteries closes the 15 to Las Vegas, jamming freeways LA Times
South Africa’s power utility Eskom advances plans for small modular nuclear reactors BNE Intellinews
Capitalism’s New Age of Plagues, Part 8: Deadly Heat Climate & Capitalism
US carbon capture tax credits to persist no matter who wins elections: experts S&P Global
The evidence is mounting: Humans were responsible for the extinction of large mammals Phys.org
Biology Lessons In Degrowth George Tsakraklides
How Pennsylvania’s oil industry quietly dumped waste across the state Grist
Syndemics
US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths JAMA. From the Abstract: “If all states had imposed restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year analysis period; conversely, the estimates suggest counterfactual increases of 13% to 17% if all states had restrictions similar to those in the 10 least-restrictive states. The estimated strong vs weak state restriction difference was 271 000 to 447 000 deaths, with behavior changes associated with 49% to 79% of the overall disparity.”
* * * San Francisco health officials advise indoor masking amid summer COVID wave San Francisco Chronicle
The latest wave of COVID-19 and Biden’s destruction of public health WSWS
* * * How to read the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative models (part 1) Closed Form
SARS-CoV-2 dynamics in New York City during March 2020–August 2023 (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “Here, we leverage extensive surveillance data available in New York City (NYC) and a comprehensive model-inference system to reconstruct SARS-CoV-2 dynamics therein from the pandemic onset in March 2020 to August 2023, and further validate the estimates using independent wastewater surveillance data.”
* * * Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Persistent Infectious Epithelial Syndrome (SPIES) as a Novel Disease Entity using Clinical, Histologic, and RNA Programmatic Data (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “Our findings establish a syndrome mediated by persistent viral infection (SARS-CoV2 Persistent Intestinal Epithelial Syndrome (SPIES)). We hypothesize that persistent sparse infection drives ongoing immune signaling altering movement and function, creating epithelial and movement effects overlapping with [Disorder of Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBI)] and [Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)].”
China?
China’s crippling debt levels seen worsening as government measures focus on ‘buying time’ South Cnina Morning Post. Commentary:
3/6
In fact there is no way Beijing can rein in the surge in debt as long as it insists on GDP growth targets that are higher than the real economy can sustainably deliver (perhaps 2-3% at best).— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) July 28, 2024
The Intensifying Impacts of Upstream Dams on the Mekong The Diplomat
US Secretary of State warns China about consequences of supporting Russian military industrial complex Ukrainska Pravda
China’s Malaise Spreads to Luxury Industry WSJ
Commentary: Chinese e-commerce platforms are poised to rival Amazon’s empire Channel News Asia
Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Israel army says readying ‘decisive offensive’ against Lebanon’s Hezbollah France24
Has Houthi-orchestrated chaos become the new normal in the Red Sea? The New Arab
Olympics
Bernard Arnault has been dubbed the Olympics’ godfather. Here’s how he built LVMH’s fortune AP
European Disunion
Barcelona wants to get rid of short-term rental units. Will other tourist destinations do the same? AP
New Not-So-Cold War
‘I know we will win – and how’: Ukraine’s top general on turning the tables against Russia Luke Harding, Guardian
SITREP 7/24/24: General Syrsky Shocks With News of Russian Armor and Troop Surges Simplicius the Thinker
Confused Ukrainian Troops Jam Their Own Drones—And Russian Forces Advance Toward Pokrovsk Forbes
Russia, adapting tactics, advances in Donetsk and takes more Ukrainian land WaPo
* * * Putin is convinced he can outlast the West and win in Ukraine The Atlantic Council
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister says there is clear sign that China is working to end war in Ukraine Ukrainska Pravda
Is Ukraine ready for negotiations with Russia? A view from Baku JAM News
How the full-scale war has changed Ukrainians and what Ukraine’s “new normal” is like Ukrainska Pravda
* * * Ill-Suited to Reality London Review of Books. NATO.
A Mysterious Plot Prompts a Rare Call From Russia to the Pentagon NYT
Pentagon Again Applies Budget Lies To Deliver More Weapons To Ukraine Moon of Alabama
2024
Harris signs forms to officially declare candidacy The Hill
Bill Gates on Kamala Harris’s US presidential bid: ‘It’s great to have somebody younger’ France24
Trump to hold rally in Butler where he was shot Anadolu Agency
RFK Jr. certified for Nebraska’s fall ballot, overcoming challenge from state Democratic Party Nebraska Examiner
Americans Deserve More Debates and Transparency in This Election Editorial Board, NYT
Healthcare
Structural Determinants of Health: Hospitals’ Unequal Capital Investments Drive Health Inequities Center for Economic and Policy Research
Digital Watch
Regulations Targeting Large Language Models Warrant Strict Scrutiny Under the First Amendment Lawfare
Zeitgeist Watch
Never never never never never:
These are “ad walkers”
That’s right, they move around with a screen above their head, with ads
Never cease to innovate pic.twitter.com/0k1LiqSYzg
— gaut (@0xgaut) July 27, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
The history of the West is not quite what you learned in school The Economist
Love Me or I Shoot You London Review of Books
Housing
COVID outbreak at Charlottesville’s only overnight homeless shelter Daily Progress
Can tech help solve the Los Angeles homeless crisis? Finding shelter may someday be a click away APs
End Single Family Zoning by Overturning Euclid V Ambler Maximum Progress
Class Warfare
Uber, Lyft and Others Win California Ruling to Treat Drivers as Contractors WSJ
Apple reaches its first contract agreement with a US retail union TechCrunch
Why we might never know the truth about ultra-processed foods BBC
Ohio Supreme Court says boneless chicken wings can have bones Columbus Dispatch
Antidote du jour (Marek Szczepanek):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
ANIMAL HOUSE
Our Dachsund is like most weiners
His rap sheet’s all small misdemeanors
We bathe and we rinse him
But cannot convince him
To not murder all vacuum cleaners
Our parrots are happy to chew
Their cage and our cupboards clean through
There’ll be damage to find
Of the very worst kind
When we find wood chips mixed in their poo
A Siamese cat isn’t feline
They’re born and bred different by design
In Thailand it’s said
That a Seal Point’s head
Is so beautiful it’s simply divine
Our other dog’s pure Boston Terror
Our adoption of him was an error
When he panics he bites
And starts stupid fights
To find him at peace is much rarer
Five feral cats live in our shed
Twice a day they demand to be fed
We got them all spayed
Because we’re afraid
Of where breeding close cousins has led
We’re nursing a wild horny toad
Who was cooking herself in the road
Some regular meals
Has improved how she feels
Would be nice if her gratitude showed
Nicely done. So one presumes all the above are being housed or sheltered…sounds like a big daily operation to care for critters and furry friends!
On the line for we’re afraid… breeding close cousins…as it so happens I was a mood to watch some older episodes of the X-Files last evening…Season 4 has a few entertaining episodes but there is an episode that features a theme of family breeding practices. The episode was rather controversial and unlikely to appeal to anyone not familiar with the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_(The_X-Files)
Taibbi is on fire this morning:
https://www.racket.news/p/meet-the-new-lies-same-as-the-old
Another way that the press are covering up Kamala’s failed history is to deny that she was ever the Border Czar, even though that was exactly what she was called about two years ago by the press themselves. They are beyond redemption.
Trying to interpret from the point of view of the subjects of discussion, KDH is “not Trump” and she’s “not Biden”. (Of course, RFK Jr was also both of these things, but it didn’t do him much good; funny that).
It’s sort of a kind of “apophatic political hagiography.”
I think this accounts for a considerable amount of the current giddiness. Perhaps a lot of the political class are currently in a kind of mystical trance state. One suspects that it will eventually wear off.
Gaslight extravaganza.
I got that in an email last night, I tried to post a link to that picture (my eyes, my eyes, they burn…) but the link wouldn’t fly.
As I am wont to say, never underestimate the Bernay’s sauce.
Now there is Kamalove! Oh Fer Chrissake, we are so !@#$ed.
It’s a wonder that they have not gone with Kamelot to describe a Kamala Harris White House.
Kamelot: a used Camel dealer’s camel lot? Low low prices! Today’s special! / ;)
They’ll get to it.
Curse you Rev Baron! You gave them the idea. You should have trademarked it first.
For people who can’t read the full paywalled article there’s this Main Stream Memoryhole compilation: / heh
The media did this in 2016 and 2020 and they’re doing it now in 2024 for Kamala Harris.
– Report on a true story that is bad for the Democrat candidate & say it’s false.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1816452521059303553
adding, this one para is too good. / ;)
This tiny moment launched a psychedlic propaganda trip. Teetering then, Biden was soon a vegetable the DC press strained to sell as “sharp as a tack” and “beyond cogent.” When the public wouldn’t buy, insiders pivoted, declared themselves “bamboozled” victims of a cover-up, demanded the vegetable step down (but only as a candidate, not the lesser post of president), then denounced him as Trumpian menace when he hesitated, especially after dingbat actor George Clooney’s “We need a new nominee” pronoucement, which was covered as a second appearance of the Burning Bush. When the vegetable tweeted its exit, they declared a triumph of democracy and the end of popular “disillusionment.” Attention shifted to the real candidate, Kamala Harris, who was not only MLK, Gandhi, and Captain America but a woman of color with a Jewish husband and hologram Chadwick Boseman’s endorsement: pure awesome, and definitely not a “border czar.”
Life is a terminal condition, and in the end I hope to laugh myself to death. That’s a start but for me personally, it’s still a bit early. I will save it for later, though, just in case.
Thanks for the excellent link. The media blitz painting KH as some kind of messiah is so beyond reason as to expose it as the bs narrative manufacture that it so obviously is. My question is “What’s so bad with having been the Border Czar?”. Is it that, by no longer having been Border Czar, KH is no longer in any way responsible for the past three and a half years of border management? I for one would like to vote for someone who takes responsibility rather than ducks it. Also, pretty sure that the public conceptions/misconceptions about border/immigration vis a vis teams blue and red is baked in. So, why all the noise? I guess it’s better to talk about what one hasn’t done than what one hasn’t accomplished.
I never saw Black Panther but I found Armond White’s review worth reading, and rereading.
Black Panther’s Circle of Hype – Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa
There’s much, much more.
Paris 2024 organisers apologised on Sunday to Catholics and other Christian groups angered by a kitsch tableau in the Olympic Games opening ceremony that parodied Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous ‘The Last Supper’ painting.
The segment, which recreated the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his apostles sharing a last meal before crucifixion, featured drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer made up as the Greek god of wine Dionysus, and drew dismay from the Catholic Church.
https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/paris-2024-apologises-any-offence-caused-by-last-supper-sketch-2024-07-28/?
Yeah, I am not buying their apology. They must have went with ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission.’ Their brief would have been simple. Create a spectacular show for the world which is not only family-friendly but also reflects France’s rich culture and heritage. So they went with a drag show which also insulted one of the world’s largest religions using obscure references in it. They did not do that show for the world – they did it to show off to other members of their own community. Reminds me of Hollywood which does not make films for the greater public but only to impress other people – that also live in Hollywood. I wonder if the closing show is also going to be along the same lines.
I’m hoping for a Blazing Saddles ending.
You mean ‘Blazing Saddles- The French Mistake?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMK6lzmSk2o (2:28 mins)
It certainly would have been an improvement on the opening show.
I am as religious as a potato….but when you say “respect diversity” but then pee in the face of one particular group, don’t be suprised for blowback.
Same people will be screeching “how can this happen again” if/when Trump wins 320 electoral votes
“Why we might never know the truth about ultra-processed foods.”
Classic Big Tobacco stratagem to sow doubts about the detrimental health effects of their products.
Bill Gates, an Epstein-paedophile, says it is nice to have somebody younger as a candidate. A paedophile would say so, wouldn’t they?
Also, if Harris’ knowledge about AI is enough we could all be presidents of the USA
Kamala Harris digs deep into the epistemology and ontology of AI:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHjXf0y-VRw&pp=ygUPSGFycmlzIGFib3V0IGFp
Makes me feel good that 60 is considered youthful.
innovative ad-walkers??
They’re just hi-tech sandwich board folks:
https://www.mediastorehouse.com/p/767/sandwich-board-men-oxford-street-21662415.jpg.webp
True that. I guess the sign spinners (youtube) could be called innovative, though.
Wikipedia says that the proper woke term is bumvertising:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumvertising
Something right out of a PK Dick work of futuristic science fiction…What can Ubik bring to your life today, consumer – citizen? Or as an alternate idea a “simple plan” to gather commerce to them and only to them from an evil, fictional corporation from the Alien film series, aka Weyland Corporation.
We can recall it for you wholesale. One step closer to Blade Runner even ?
“Israel army says readying ‘decisive offensive’ against Lebanon’s Hezbollah”
They’ll want to hurry up and get a move on them. So far, Hamas has destroyed or damaged some 500 armoured Israeli vehicles. That is going to thin out the number of vehicles which could be used against Hezbollah. And that is not eve going int the number of crew that have been killed or wounded. The IDF saying ‘Tis but a scratch!’ is not going to help things either-
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/500-israeli-armored-vehicles-damaged-by-palestinian-fighters-reports-israeli-media/
If they have not invaded Lebanon yet, the only real reason is that they have not been able to get the US to joining them in the fighting. Netanyahu may have been ranting about an Abraham Alliance but the only two countries that would join would be Israel and the US. No one else is interested.
The soccer field deaths smell like Israel “atrocities propaganda.” It doesn’t make sense.
It sounds like the dead are Druze Arabs. There is an allegation that the explosion is from a failed Iron Dome missile launch (which should mean the deaths were mostly caused a fragments). Supposedly an Iron Dome facility is on the other side of the mountain next to the field.
Not only my breath from the real story to come out.
Wallabies take over IOM, its like home, says the ‘expert’ except maybe colder and wetter, you think?
In order to go along with the times, all new Hollywood action movies will use big rigs carrying batteries instead of the old school petrol filled ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9GGDOUDLhc
Trump slides back into crypto pumping:
The former president also pledged to create a “bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council.”
During those “10 days in July”, I really thought he was going to put this sort of stuff aside. But he’s back in full heel mode, back to covering his crytpo flank from RFK Jr. This is loser-talk from Trump, IMO. If he’s wasting time back in the dirt with the other grifters, he’s toast*.
* 100 days is a long time, so I acknowledge he could still switch to face!
Sounds like Mayor Adams. There’s way, way too much money sloshing around at the top.
Wow, this must be doomed, but it’s surprising that it wasn’t shot down immediately.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/28/brazil-radical-plan-tax-global-super-rich-tackle-climate-crisis
Oy! Don’t give them ideas.
Blinken gave Chinese a good laugh, and he did not even have to bring a guitar for that.
“US Secretary of State warns China about consequences of supporting Russian military industrial complex”
Not the first time that Blinken has threatened the Chinese like this. Like I said in a previous comment, when the Ukraine collapses the west will blame China for this by saying it was caused by them supplying all that stuff to the Russians. And then they will use this accusation to sanction China in a big way.
I wait patiently for the wisdom of Treasury Secretary Yellen to opine once again, and this time with definite feeling. Warn the Chinese about their investment, manufacturing capacity and likewise production capacity…which she did on her last visit to the country just a few short months back.
Don’t make those attractive, affordable EV that are so much lower in price! You were warned before…heavy on the sarcasm. Blinken and Yellen alike, are actually supposed to be the more “competent members” at the top levels of this Administration.
RE: How Pennsylvania’s Oil Industry Quietly Dumped Wastewater Across the State
The article mentions a couple living in Warren County, in the northwest portion of Pennsylvania. My spouse’s cousin (deceased in 2019,) farmed, as had his parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, in Farmington Township, nestled against the New York State line. As a township supervisor, he proudly pointed out that all 45 miles of the township roads were gravel (or, dirt, as an outsider would call them). He became very upset when he discovered that the ‘water’ used to keep the dust down in summer, was fracking waste water.
The roads wind among the farms producing veggies, hay, oats, corn, for human and animal consumption. Dairy and beef cattle graze on adjacent fields all summer. Residents get their drinking water from wells; the Amish use springs.
We live just ‘over the border’ in New York State. In our rural neighborhood, there are about a dozen gas wells, dug in the 1990’s, plus a compressor station. And, of course, pipelines run along every road. Governor Cuomo, bless his heart, banned fracking in NY State. But I am sure there are natural gas (methane, really) industry lobbyists working feverishly in Albany.
The land we steward has a gas well, plus three gas company rights of way to wells on adjoining parcels. Again, all ‘developed’ in the 1990’s. Mostly with the promise of ‘free gas for life’ to the people who signed away the mineral rights as well as surface rights for access. These wells, and most others in the area, have been bought up by a company called PPP Future Development, owned, according to the internet, by a Charles Bugman. It’s the ‘Future’ in the name that gives me the chills. Historically, the methane wells in this area are neither deep nor large, and are mostly played out using the current drilling methods. However, if the New York State fracking ban were lifted. …..?