Links 10/10/2024

One thousand sausage dogs invade beach for meet-up BBC

Severe solar storm could supercharge auroras across US, impact power grids, NOAA warns Space.com

Is a repeat of the 2019 repo crisis brewing? FT. The deck: “Pain and SOFRing.”

Climate

Hurricane Milton’s Paradise Lost: Multiple casualties as ferocious ‘once in a century’ storm rips through Florida causing catastrophic floods, plunging millions into darkness, spawning dozens of tornadoes and carving deadly path to Orlando Daily Mail

Tracking map: Here’s the latest forecast track of Hurricane Milton Orlando Sentinel

Milton threatens to trigger flood insurance reckoning for Congress Politico

No, Hurricane Milton was not ‘engineered’ BBC

* * *

Rockdale County soil and water supervisor collapses, dies shortly after speaking about BioLab chemical plume: Officials 11 Alive

Wildlife numbers plummet 73 percent over past half-century, report finds Al Jazeera

Water

What’s in Floodwaters? Scientific American

2023 ‘driest year’ for global rivers in 33 years: World weather agency Anadolu Agency

Syndemics

All eyes on XEC: Why COVID sleuths are paying attention to this variant Salon

Opinion: Is it time for an ACT-UP for Long COVID? 48Hills

China?

China launches US$70 billion swap tool to enhance stock market liquidity South China Morning Post

How the US Lost the Solar Power Race to China Bloomberg

China Builds A New Eurasia Noema

China’s Golden Week travel surges but spending lags pre-pandemic numbers Channel News Asia

Upgrade to ASEAN-China free trade agreement almost completed, important in time of growing protectionism: PM Wong​ Channlel News Asia

Commentary: US not walking the talk in Southeast Asia as Biden skips ASEAN Summit again Channel News Asia

The Reality of Afghanistan’s Land Link With China The Diplomat

Syraqistan

On the Brink New Left Review

* * *

Biden speaks with Netanyahu, pledges ‘ironclad’ support for Israel Al Jazeera

Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel The White House

US sway over Netanyahu tested as Israel vows ‘deadly’ Iran hit South China Morning Post

* * *

Israeli troops move away from Irish forces in Lebanon BBC. Meanwhile:

Israeli army orders Beirut’s southern suburb residents to evacuate Anadolu Agency

How long will Israel’s war in Lebanon last? FT

* * *

As Israel Launches Massive Attack in Northern Gaza, Hospital Director Defies Israeli Evacuation Order Drop Site

The Killings They Tweeted Airwars

* * *

Smotrich Forgets to Mention One Thing About His Plans for Israel: The Cost Haaretz. Smotrich, 2016:

* * *

Yemen’s Houthis to play bigger role in Middle East conflict? Deutsche Welle

Protesters assaulted as illegal Palestinian land sales continue in New York and New Jersey MR Online

The Sermon Every Jew But Me Heard Every Week The Debate Link

The New Great Game

Is proposal that “international consortium” should build Kazakhstan’s nuclear plant merely cosmetic? BNE Intellinews

European Disunion

France’s minority government set to present make-or-break austerity budget France24

Pelicot trial: French court hears how mass rape went undetected for years France24

Dear Old Blighty

Labour’s new deal for workers: A fight postponed? BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

Erik Andersson’s informative Nord Stream update Bud’s Offshore Energy (BOE)

* * *

Russia’s Air Force Is ‘Dropping Like Flies’ in the Skies Above Ukraine The National Interest

New Batch of Russian Su-34 Strike Fighters Delivered to Air Force: Intensive Strikes on Kursk Continue Military Watch

* * *

NATO chief warns of Ukraine’s toughest winter as Russia intensifies strikes Anadolu Agency

Ukraine can get through winter without power cuts – Ukraine’s energy minister Ukrainska Pravda. “[I]f the Russians do not succeed in destroying the critical energy infrastructure that survived the previous attacks.”

* * *

America’s NATO Ally Warns Ukraine Membership May Trigger World War III Newsweek. Hungary.

Boychukgate Bandera Lobby Blog

After Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s Enduring Impact War on the Rocks

Biden Administration

Lina Khan Is Just Getting Started (She Hopes) Bloomberg

2024

Donald Trump pledges to end double taxation for expat Americans FT

Book Nook

From Beowulf to Foucault: On the Literary Influences of Cormac McCarthy Literary Hub

Police State Watch

Cops love facial recognition, and withholding info on its use from the courts The Register

Japanese Researchers Feature Regularly Among Ig Nobel Prizewinners Nippon.com

Groves of Academe

Rashid Khalidi, America’s foremost scholar of Palestine, is retiring: ‘I don’t want to be a cog in the machine any more’​ Guardian. From Columbia.

Class Warfare

Handy chart:

I was captain of a ship much like the New Zealand one that just sank. Mine almost sank too The Telegraph

Researchers Think Throwing Boeing 777 Parts In The Sea Will Track Down MH3700 Jalopnik

Antidote du Jour (Wendy Rathey);

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

27 comments

  1. Antifa

    ISRAEL

    Children torn up burned and crushed
    Cities knocked down turned to dust
    Homes ravaged none escape
    Girls savaged grown men raped
    Settlers steal with great zeal
    Shrapnel steel wounds won’t heal
    Hiding spots sniper shots
    Tents and cots food that rots
    Columnists journalists
    Can’t exist you have lists
    Clinics bombed medics slain
    Wells blown up we drink rain
    Polio sewage flow
    Lying low fireworks show
    Leaflets dropped moments prior
    Everything turns to fire
    Blast wave hits bodies tossed
    Blood and gore Holocaust
    War on kids by the West
    Israel delenda est

    Israel delenda est

    Reply
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘What the media hides.
    @narrative_hole
    BREAKING
    White House advisor Matthew Brodsky suspended from X after calling for Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon to be burned alive’

    Going by his biography, I’m calling out this guy as a Zionist. He even lived and worked in Israel for four years so he probably picked up their values and he is probably one of those people behind the scenes who make American foreign policy what it is today-

    https://matthewrjbrodsky.com/about/

    Maybe the Irish government should call in the US Ambassador to Ireland for a please explain session. Twitter may have suspended him but is he still working in the White House?

    Reply
    1. Pilar

      Funny I used to chat with this guy in my old newsroom which included many Palestinians and he seemed perfectly normal. Crazy how this past year has brought out the absolutely insane in people

      Reply
      1. Christopher Fay

        Perhaps he is a deeply burrowed mole whether by plan or temperament and his true self only now is apparent 。

        Reply
    2. CA

      “White House advisor Matthew Brodsky suspended from X…”

      That such an immoral person could be working in the White House, and still working after advising the killing of Irish peacekeepers tells us that we have a uniquely shameful and dangerous President and administration.

      When Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers in Ossetia along the Russian border, President Bush did not intervene when Russia responded in defense and the Georgian people soon removed the offending president. When security adviser John Bolton interfered with President Trump’s negotiations on a possible peace in Korea, Bolton was shortly dismissed by Trump and removed from the White House by the Secret Service.

      Reply
    3. BrianH

      I was curious about this and looked at several articles to get his background and current responsibilities. Every article in a cursory search describes home as a former Trump WH advisor and currently a consultant to Republican candidates. He would certainly fit right in with the Biden WH, but that claim seems inaccurate.

      Reply
    4. Mikel

      The Irish peacekeepers are toast if they stay there. The war is only heating up.
      And Israel wouldn’t be entering Lebanon if it wasn’t already divided.

      Reply
  3. Alan Sutton

    Do we have hurricane Milton in Florida today after Helene in North Carolina last week?

    This level of storms and destruction is not normal. Except that now it is.

    Only one thing telling us to look out.

    Reply
    1. Mikel

      Doesn’t help that there are more people and things in the path of turbulent weather.
      The planet hasn’t stopped changing and evolving.

      Reply
  4. Cervantes

    > White House advisor Matthew Brodsky suspended from X after calling for Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon to be burned alive.

    Isn’t this the problem with all those State Department people resigning over Israel’s conduct in Gaza in the first 3-6 months? Are people like Brodsky the only ones left in the administration?

    Reply
  5. Zagonostra

    >No, Hurricane Milton was not ‘engineered’ BBC

    But on platforms like X and TikTok, posts alleging – without evidence – that the US government is secretly controlling the weather have been viewed millions of times.

    Many were published by accounts known for spreading conspiracy theories, as well as misinformation about Covid-19 or vaccines.

    Is this the same “news” organization that has been reporting on Gaza for the last year. Yeah, they’re just the right source for setting me straight on “misinformation.”

    Reply
    1. Ignacio

      My first impression reading the headline was. Was this article necessary? For what reason was it written? The only one that came to mind is when you have a censorship agenda and want to pile up motives for its implementation.

      Reply
      1. lyman alpha blob

        Same here. Supposedly this “misinformation” was read by millions. My guess is it was subsequently believed by only Kyrie Irving.

        If these corporate media types are really so concerned about people believing incorrect things, perhaps they could use their enormous influence to push for higher education budgets and an end to bloated military budgets to fuel wars of choice. This schoolmarm/hall monitor mentality doesn’t appeal to anyone, except maybe Hillary Clinton, who I heard from some dude on the internet was actually an alien lizard in disguise.

        Reply
  6. Zagonostra

    >Rockdale County soil and water supervisor collapses, dies shortly after speaking about BioLab chemical plume: Officials

    Sketchy on details. Maybe the BBC can get in front of this one before conspiracy theories start to swirl on social media.

    According to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, Johnson died at Grady Memorial Hospital. The ME said that due to the circumstances of the incident, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has agreed to accept the case.

    A cause of death is still pending, as an autopsy needs to be completed.

    Reply
  7. Zagonostra

    >On the Brink New Left Review

    Following this setback, the Israeli military resorted to one of its tried and tested tactics, prosecuting an indiscriminate bombing campaign (with US-supplied F-35s) against the densely populated districts of Beiru

    The most moral army in the world, sic, sick…

    Reply
  8. The Rev Kev

    “Commentary: US not walking the talk in Southeast Asia as Biden skips ASEAN Summit again”

    I never had the impression that Biden was ever really interested in Asia. His focus – his obsession really – remains with the Ukraine and he is willing to let US interests in other parts of the world flounder as he is wrapped around the axle of the Ukraine. Even Gaza represents nothing more than an unwelcome distraction for him as he has no say in what is happening there. The only reason why he cancelled his trip to Ramstein to meet Zelensky is that images of him hugging Zelensky while Floridians are treading water would not go down so well. I think too that the only interest that he has in Asia is AUKUS as that is a tool aimed at China. ASEAN countries then would only interest him in those who would join AUKUS against China.

    Reply
    1. CA

      From the beginning, members of this administration have made clear the intent to contain, control and undermine the economy of a benign 5,000 year old civilization of 1.4 billion. This intent reversing presidential policy in place since 1972. The “problem” has been that containing and undermining China has proven quite impossible.

      What then remains for the Presidential policy reversal on China, as a benign China continues to develop and thrive?

      Reply
  9. timbers

    “It is written that future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.” I doubt it. Because why would God only allow them just up to Damascus? Just as Mormons conveniently experienced divine Godly communications at just the right moment to adjust the direction of the wind sails after too many noticed their ship was sailing towards Crazy Land, my expectations are the Zionists too will find ways to ever expand the land God told them is rightfully “their’s”. With The West having no reverse gear, at some point the Israeli escalations might become too great for the US to fund. Or someone strong enough will put an end to it. Interesting times we live in.

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Looks like Israel sees all this as their greatest chance to get Greater Israel going and not just Netanyahu either. In some western countries you can be punished for the saying “From the River to the Sea” as that is a Palestinian saying but Zionists have their own saying “From the River to the River”

      https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-israel-from-the-euphrates-to-the-nile/

      With ultra-orthodox families popping out six or seven kids each, they are going to need Lebensraum and they know where that means. And I still reckon that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the two rivers.

      Reply
      1. Buzz Meeks

        It should become clearer to people as to who was really behind the Sept 11 World Trade Center and the false flag implications. I have always called it America’s Reichstag fire.
        It gave the Bush Vulcans, most of whom are Zionist, the ability to start trying to clear out the Middle East for Israeli expansion using US goyim blood and money to do their dirty work for them on their attempted Eastern expansion.
        I seem to recall hearing Gen Wesley Clark who is half Jewish, boasting about removing five countries in seven years.
        I still wonder who REALLY engineered the ‘73 oil embargo. With friends like Israel you don’t need enemies.

        Reply
  10. eg

    Whatever is Jacob Dreyer aiming at in that Noema article, “China Builds a New Eurasia “?

    To describe it as incoherent would be charitable.

    Reply
  11. The Rev Kev

    “Russia’s Air Force Is ‘Dropping Like Flies’ in the Skies Above Ukraine”

    Strange article this as the clickbait title is not supported anywhere in the body text. In one part it says-

    ‘Airpower is a fundamental aspect of modern warfare. Yet, Russia’s airpower has failed to achieve total air dominance, even though its force is more advanced, better equipped, and far more numerous than the opposing Ukrainian Air Force.’

    But I think that that is part of Russian doctrine. To not dominate the airspace of an entire country but only that airspace over the fighting itself. No point in losing pilots and planes in pointless battles but instead having the enemy fly all the way over to where you are based. This is kind what the RAF did to the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. And where he say-

    ‘The constant deployment of mostly older warplanes, in many cases from the Soviet era, indicates that Russia is accelerating the age of these systems due to constant wear-and-tear and shoddy maintenance practices.’

    Sounds like the Russians are using up their old gear first so their new gear is ready in case NATO does something stupid.

    Reply
    1. mrsyk

      Strange article this as the clickbait title is not supported anywhere in the body text Agreed. I dislike the formatting as well, with an analysis of the article preceding the text to guide one along I guess. I’d rather do my own thinking.

      Reply
  12. DJG, Reality Czar

    John Russell is a very appealing journalist at More Perfect Union. Here he is at a county fair in Michigan, among the deplorables and fifth columnists. He also gives Oliver Anthony his due. Much plain-spoken eloquence:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_sVwib2rdE&t=612s

    Russell also has a report on Elliott Country, Kentucky, that explains all too well the current U.S. distemper:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfxvHqTCy2w&t=27s

    I find it interesting that John Russell goes in and announces he is leftist, and his interview subjects out-left him. (Or are they all sneaky fascists trying to take him in?)

    Reply

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