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Links 9/10/2024

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Our political equinox will soon end. Whether it ends in light or shadow is our choice. Kansas Reflector (Robin K)

I … Am Herman Melville! Los Angeles Review of Books. Anthony L: “Ray Bradbury, Huston & Moby Dick.”

The Devouring Mind Dublin Review of Books. Anthony L: “Sontag & Steiner.”

Sacred Probabilities — Part I Philip Pilkington (Micael T)

#COVID-19

Pediatricians scale back on COVID shots KFF Health News (Robin K).

Climate/Environment

‘We’re living a Lie’: Astronaut reveals shock realization after viewing Earth from Space International Affairs (Micael T)

The Texas Billionaire Who Has Greenpeace USA on the Verge of Bankruptcy Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)

Extreme weather to strengthen rapidly over next two decades, research suggests PhysOrg

Kuwait Is Awash in Oil Money. But It Can’t Keep the Power On New York Times (Kevin W)

China?

China’s $6.5 Trillion Stock Rout Worsens Economic Peril for Xi Bloomberg

China and SpaceX envision reaching Mars in different ways Asia Times (Kevin W)

South of the Border

Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez seeks asylum in Spain amid election fallout RT. Kevin W: “This report says that he left on a Spanish Air Force jet. How on the nose is that?”

Africa

Kenya’s youth demand real democracy Jacobin. Micael T: “Wow! Western Values in practice in Kenya. Are they going to join EU and NATO too?”

European Disuion

Germany’s Lindner rejects Draghi’s common borrowing proposal Politico (Kevin W)

Wolfgang Streeck: “Sahra Wagenknecht is the only one asking the right questions — and offering the right answers” Thomas Fazi (Anthony L). Translation of an interview.

Germany and the EU Abandon Reason Glenn Diesen (Robin K). Video embedded in post.

The minister: “It’s a swamp – needs to be cleaned up” Aftonbladet. Micael T:

This would be comedy gold full of incompetence and non-action action, if it wasn’t for all the destroyed lives. “The interest rate ceiling is lowered from 40 to 20 percentage points in addition the reference rate”. 40% is shocking. 20% is still usury.

“The interest deduction is abolished for all unsecured loans” – one must keep the rich from paying taxes but the poor that need these debts to make ends meet must be punished.

How the public sector is abolishing cash Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

Old Blighty

PM defends ‘tough decision’ over winter fuel cut BBC

Ministers facing pressure from unions over winter fuel payment cut Guardian (Kevin W)

Watching Two Labour Parties Destroy Themselves Steve Keen (Chuck L). Australia’s Labour Party on the same trajectory as the UK’s

Gaza

Zionists Are Calling For More War And May Well Get It Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 339: Israel winds down West Bank operation, continues blockade Mondoweiss

New school year begins in West Bank as Gaza enters 2nd year without education due to Israeli war Anadolu Agency

‘Psychologically broken,’ 8-year-old Sama loses her hair NBC (ma)

New Not-So-Cold War

US Senator Graham says openly that the US is only interested in raw materials in Ukraine Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (Micael T)

Mapping Ukraine’s Resources Meaning in History (Micael T)

Dumb as they come: Scholz and Pistorius on procurement of new missile defense systems Gilbert Doctorow (Michael T)

Ukrainian politician calls for ban on kids leaving country RT (Kevin W)

Small nations are forced to make historical mistakes Vzglyad (Micael T)

Caucusus

Through whose fault Armenia is losing its statehood and whether its sovereignty can be saved Eastern Angle (Micael T)

Imperial Collapse Watch

What I Got Wrong About “Shock Therapy” Matt Taibbi, DropSite

The Enduring Myth of ‘Isolationism’ Daniel Larison

Kamala

PATRICK LAWRENCE: ‘Vote Joy’ — a Delusion of Nostalgia Consortium News (Chuck L)

Kamala Harris is Baerbock 2.0 Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (Micael T)

Trump

Some additional detail:

Our No Longer Free Press

Foreign election influence campaigns have bark but questionable bite NBC

Woke Watch

Don’t Take Advice From a Habsburg The Dial (Anthony L)

AI

Anyone who says “AI” has already been fooled Jacobin (Micael T)

Elon Musk files new lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman CNN (Bob H)

More Bands Hit With AI-Generated Songs On Streaming Services Metal Injection (Micael T)

Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have ‘hobby’ apps become the new social networks? Guardian (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

EU top court rules Apple must pay €13bn in back taxes Financial Times. We’ve written about Apple’s Ireland tax deal before. It was nuts. It had the effect that Apple had to pay no taxes anywhere in the world.

The QE theory of everything New Statesman (furzy)

Class Warfare

Red lines of the counter-elite Neoliberal Feudalism (Micael T)

What Is to Be Done? Wisdom of Crowds (Robin K). On populism.

Trouble down on the farm Bleeding Heartland (Robin K)

Antidote du jour. A happy family! Tim H: “I offer siblings Gorgeous George (rear) and Sir Munchkin Scruffles (front), resting those weary bones.”

And a bonus (Robin K):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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40 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Kamala Harris is Baerbock 2.0”

    The mind does boggle. The thought that in a few months time that we may very well see Madame President Kamala Harris negotiating with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a televised session. I’m trying to imagine it but my mind won’t go there. They will both of them drive their handlers nuts.

    Reply ↓
    1. timbers

      It would be fun to watch a brianiac like William Buckly or Gore Vidal intrview (or try to) the both of them. It might frazzle every ounce of patience they have. As a finale, the both of them could stand up and do 720 degree turns over and over as strob lights are turned and as the they sing Kamalalalalalalala….and play the whole episode on Saturday Night Live (is that still running)?

      Reply ↓
  2. Mr. Woo

    Apple tax case
    Not being a a lawyer at all but i remember reading the verdict from the EU General Court and iirc the problem was not that there was a tax deal, but that it was not exclusive to Apple and therefore did not provide them with an unfair advantage. Also the Commission back then seemed to provide absolutely no proof otherwise in the words of the court. Interesting to see the new verdict.

    Also interesting that the EC can force the Irish Government to collect taxes it doesn’t want.

    Reply ↓
    1. Trees&Trunks

      Another silly symbolic action from EU and the Vestager team.
      Wake me up when they duct tape a plastic tax, market abuse and crappification bag over the legal persons Apple’s and Google’s heads and their faces turn dark-blue.
      €13bn in back-taxes vs. 290bn in net profit 2020-2022 only
      https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/net-income

      Even more ridiculous level of fines for Google
      https://apnews.com/article/google-european-union-antitrust-shopping-court-a281e4e4722efa816e929a52a9939d86
      1.43bn vs 209 bn in net profit 2020-2022 only
      https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GOOG/alphabet/net-income

      Reply ↓
    2. Mikel

      All around, it’s the Digital Con Era.
      And that’s the big beef with so many alleged “innovations” these days.
      People are against being rip-offed, conned, and all manner of attempts on the invasion of one’s space.
      Not a damn thing “anti-technology” about any of that.

      Reply ↓
  4. Mikel

    What I Got Wrong About “Shock Therapy” – Matt Taibbi, DropSite

    Tragic road for Russia, however, if BRICS works out it is probably so much better for the country than some alleged Marshall-like plan with IMF loans.

    Reply ↓
  5. .Tom

    Patrick Lawrence “Vote Joy”

    Yesterday the domestic symposium’s topic was the similarities and differences between the stories, belief systems, and charismatic leadership required in the formation of a political movement and those of religious groupings. One thing I noted was that American politics has reached the point where there’s no policy left in its stories at all. It’s all gone. We are to be satisfied with other considerations, principally aesthetic. The radical weirdness of Lambert’s recent detailed analyses is because there’s nothing there to analyze except its functional properties as group think.

    Hence these days you’ll likely make more progress in a dialectical discussion of theology with a true believer than in one of policy with a partisan.

    As Patrick Lawrence shows, the 2024 DNC was a megachurch in ecstatic, rapturous worship and Harris was its Billy Graham.

    When the political cartel refuses the voters’ requests to discuss policy their next question should be, Where then does the policy come from?

    Reply ↓
  6. Zagonostra

    >‘We’re living a Lie’: Astronaut reveals shock realization after viewing Earth from Space International Affairs (Micael T)

    “We keep trying to deal with issues such as global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss as stand alone issues when in reality they’re just symptoms of the underlying root problem and the problem is, that we don’t see ourselves as planetary.

    No, I’m afraid NASA astronaut Ron Garan is wrong, woefully wrong. The problem is not that we “don’t see ourselves as planetary,” it’s that we don’t see life, all human life as sacred. Palestinians, to the Israelis’ are cattle, to be slaughtered as foretold by Amalek. Ukrainian young men are nothing but geopolitical cannon fodder for the hegemon. Starmer’s cutting of heating oil to freezing pensioners takes a back seat to support for Zionist genocide. And so on and so on…

    Until each human being is seen as holding/carrying within in him/her the spark/potential of divinity and held as sacred, the planet will have to watch out for itself. And, I think it will be fine, even if it’s beautiful blue turns red as the Martian Sky or is enveloped in noxious gas as Venus.

    Reply ↓
    2. .Tom

      The problem is that we allowed hierarchical power systems to develop in which the most ambitious domineering psychopaths get to exercise the power of life and death over all of biology. We are nothing but statistics to these systems. Just for example, I do not trust them to not exercise the MAD nuclear option rather than accept a new arrangement of strategic power in Europe. It’s the same in the private sector with anything that reduces the rate of return, e.g. reducing consumption, off the table.

      We are doomed to follow these maniacs to hell unless we take their power away by withdrawing consent to be ruled by them. Revolution.

      Reply ↓
  7. griffen

    Regarding candidate Trump and tariffs…just this morning on CNBC former Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher calls his shot and labels that approach to be inflationary. Fisher chooses his words carefully but he also can be highly consistent in his views on the economy, the machinations at or within the Fed.

    Third world country status, there are a few salient examples the slide has begun or been ongoing as it stands…but I digress. Rural hospitals closing, rampant segments of homeless in large cities, a few extra US billions always to spend for this and also for that on MIC activities.

    Reply ↓
  8. Mikel

    Anyone who says “AI” has already been fooled – Jacobin

    That’s also been my belief all along.
    And it’s an example of what gives me pause about the direction of the alleged multi-polar world to be.

    Reply ↓
  9. Zagonostra

    >Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez seeks asylum in Spain amid election fallout-RT

    Makes me wonder about Spain. I wonder if the autopsy of John McAfee, who certainly didn’t die by suicide as his Spanish prison jailers reported, was ever published. Spain like Canada and much, if not all of Europe, New Zealand, Australia seem to all part of that big club, at least the elites that control the polity.

    Reply ↓
  10. Mikel

    More Bands Hit With AI-Generated Songs On Streaming Services – Metal Injection

    And the next scam from these vile SillyConmen is saying people need to verify they are human on online.
    @%!& – the bots need to labeled as bots. Problem solved.

    Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    “What I Got Wrong About “Shock Therapy”’

    This whole episode has to be one of the greatest missed opportunities of the past century. They could have gone in, helped modernize Russia, demilitarize it as a measure for peace, integrated it with Europe so that the EU had a solid stream of resources to buy to build themselves up with, made ordinary Russians feel part of the west and over time use it to counter balance the rise of China. Instead what happened was that they took one look at the place and said, ‘Nah, let’s just loot the place for all that they are worth.’ If the US & NATO had not got diverted by the sandboxes of Afghanistan and the Middle east, they might have been able to finish what they started, Instead, a new leader arose who put all this to a stop over many years and by the time attention was turned back to them, Russia was back again and all those ideas about integrating Russia with the west had been burned to the ground.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      “…They could have gone in, helped modernize Russia, demilitarize it as a measure for peace, integrated it with Europe so that the EU had a solid stream of resources to buy to build themselves up with, made ordinary Russians feel part of the west and over time use it to counter balance the rise of China…”

      No, “they” could not have. Even if one buys the post-WW II diplomatic glory days of the West narrative, by the 90s, “they” were too far down the neoliberal economics rabbit hole for those dreamy reforms.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        True. All too true. And isn’t neoliberalism all about looting the middle and lower classes on behalf of the wealthy after all?

        Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev

      And in a bit of serendipity, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu was giving an interview and said-

      ‘If at that point they fast-tracked us into the European Union… I believe we would have lost our sovereignty by today. The resources and natural deposits that our country has would have been largely redistributed and snatched.’

      ‘They’ve made a mistake. They should have gotten us into the EU as soon as possible. And we would be like the EU members: just a command from across the ocean, we would be folding our paws and getting ready to jump through a hoop’

      https://www.rt.com/russia/603754-shoigu-russia-eu-membership/

      Could never have happened of course. If the EU cannot absorb the Ukraine without causing chaos and wrecking their system, then how could they absorb a far greater country in size like Russia?

      Reply ↓
  12. Steve H.

    > Trouble down on the farm Bleeding Heartland (Robin K)

    >> While urban sprawl steadily reduces America’s cultivatable acres, deforestation can allow Brazil to add more farmland and enhance the gains it has made in developing its internal transportation infrastructure to match the traditional logistical advantage enjoyed by the U.S.

    This assumes agency will drive deforestation. That’s optimistic:

    > Intense fires burning in several South American countries draped large swaths of smoke across the continent throughout August and early September 2024… NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite captured this view of smoke billowing from the blazes on September 3, 2024.

    Reply ↓
  13. The Rev Kev

    ‘Jalal #CeasefireNow
    @JalalAK_jojo
    Israeli “police” and “soldiers” provide protection to settlers as they steal goats from Zanuta, Masafter Yatta.’

    In their defence, it’s a lonely lifestyle for those settlers in their hilltop settlements at night…

    Reply ↓
  15. Milton

    Noticing more instances from “trusted sources” where the term “Covid vaccine” is being replaced by “Covid shot”. I wonder if marketing research has determined this to be less frightening to people and more akin to the flu shot where it can be part of an annual fall regimen.

    Reply ↓
  16. Burritonomics

    Incorrect link alert:

    The New Yorks Times article “Kuwait is awash in oil money” links to a baseball reference page of the 1920 Norfolk Mary James team.

    Reply ↓
  18. mrsyk

    Cats are really good at expressing contentment. Gorgeous George and Sir Munchkin Scruffle are making me smile. What a lovely pair of bed hogs.

    Reply ↓
  19. BillK

    Re: Watching Two Labour Parties Destroy Themselves, Steve Keen
    It may be of bad economics, as Steve Keen suggests, or is it really? The current estimate is that c.4000 UK pensioners might die this winter after stopping the winter fuel grant. But from an “economics” point of view, these pensioners are “useless-eaters”. So, sorry about that, but hard decisions must be taken, etc……
    Rather like releasing COVID-19 infected patients from hospitals into care homes. That got rid of a lot more pensioners.
    The really hard political decisions are to look after all the people, not just the bankers playing with numbers in computers.

    Reply ↓
  21. The Rev Kev

    “Mapping Ukraine’s Resources”

    In a way, I can understand Lindsay Graham drooling over the mineral wealth of the Ukraine. That is where the fast bucks are. You go in, rip all those minerals out of the ground, and leave behind a toxic wasteland for the natives to deal with and to pay for. And I note that like in most countries, the capital is sitting on one of the most worthless parts of the country. But that map is only telling a narrow slice of that country’s wealth. It is a power house for agriculture as well with most of it in the Russian-speaking areas. And in terms of GDP, I believe that about 90% of the wealth of that country was being generated by the Donbass and associated areas. So as the Ukraine has now lost the Donbass for good, what long-term revenue can they generate in the remaining parts of the country?

    Reply ↓

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