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Links 2/13/2025

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Scientists Simulated a Quantum Apocalypse. Then the Universe Disappeared. Popular Mechanics

Climate

DOGE plans for NOAA, FEMA could have big climate impacts Axios

Should people be told? Arctic News

Syndemics

Revenge of the Covid Conspiracy Theorists Wired

Facing egg shortage, Americans bring chickens home to roost Straits Times

China?

China’s rust-belt regions at risk of being left behind as coastal economies surge South China Morning Post. Commentary:

China hedges its energy bets as Russia pipeline plan remains on hold South China Morning Post

India

Why India fails to protect its domestic workers despite decades of abuse BBC

Syraqistan

Ex-AIPAC Staffer: ‘I Woke Up to What Israel Was’ Zeteo

Egyptian source: Some of the issues threatening Gaza cease-fire have been resolved Haaretz

Rebuilding Gaza: What it would take to win this uphill battle Al Jazerra

Inside the Israeli movement to recolonize Gaza +972 Magazine. Commentary:

European Disunion

Sicily’s gangsters complain they can’t get the staff BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

Double-Decker Special: Hysteria Ignites as Trump Throws Ukraine on the Third Rail Simplicius the Thinker

Return to pre-2014 Ukraine borders ‘unrealistic’, says US defence secretary FT. Commentary:

Putin uncommitted to any compromises in talks to end war – ISW Ukrainska Pravda. On negotiations, if any:

Trump refuses to call Ukraine an equal participant in peace talks Ukrainska Pravda

Russia experts decode Trump-Putin dynamics The Stanford Daily

Zelenskyy: Europe cannot guarantee Ukraine’s security without America Guardian

The Global South, Not Europe, Should Play Peacekeeper in Ukraine Foreign Policy

Trump Administration

Stephanie Kelton on the Disastrous Republican Economic Agenda Hamilton Nolan, How Things Work. The deck: “We don’t have two years. You won’t be able to pick up the pieces.”

Day Thirteen of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Bombshell Court Filings Confirm Wired & Notes on the Crises Reporting & Raise Alarms About BFS-Based Impoundment Nathan Tankus, Notes on the Crises

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Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as US director of national intelligence Al Jazeera

Trump Suspends Funding to the National Endowment for Democracy Antiwar.com

Almost $500 million in food is at risk of spoilage after USAID pause, report says CBS

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White House says it’s the judges — not Trump — causing a ‘constitutional crisis’ AP

Trump hasn’t created a ‘constitutional crisis’ — he’s teaching Dems a lesson NY Post

What Marbury v. Madison means for the Supreme Court — and America AP

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Trump’s Envoy Lets Loose on the Panama Canal and ‘Imminent’ Change in Cuba Politco

How Trump’s Tariff Policy Will Shape the World (interview) Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy

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DOGE to examine NASA payments SpaceNews. No conflicts there!

“Armored Tesla” forecast to win $400 million State Department contract after Trump’s election, government document shows Dropsite News

Anduril Takes Over $22 Billion Contract to Build Technomancers for U.S. Army Core Memory. From Microsoft.

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CFPB Lays Off Dozens of Employees as Headquarters Remains Closed PYMENTS.COM/ Commentary:

More:

$711,586,678/334,900,000 = $2.1247736. Creating divisiveness!

SEC’s Peirce Says ‘Many’ Memecoins Likely Fall Outside Regulator’s Jurisdiction CoinDesk

Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit Pluralistic

Digital Watch

JD Vance warns against ‘excessive regulation’ of AI at Paris summit France24. Commentary

Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case in the US Wired

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AI summaries turn real news into nonsense, BBC finds The Register

Larry Ellison wants to put all America’s data, including DNA, in one big Oracle system for AI to study The Register

AI Misalignment: Google Gemini Flash Tried to Charge a User $500 (video) AI News & Strategy Daily, YouTube

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Uneven Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Tools Among U.S. Teachers and Principals in the 2023–2024 School Year RAND

Police State Watch

New York state prison placed on lockdown after inmates take over, injure three corrections officers FOX

Hackers leak cop manuals for departments nationwide after breaching major provider Daily Dot

Healthcare

Somatic mutation as an explanation for epigenetic aging Nature

Democrats en déshabillé

Anti-Monopoly Is the Path Forward Democracy

MMT

The Rise of the Modern Monetary System: An Integration of the Credit and State Money Approaches L. Randall Wray, Levy Institute

Imperial Collapse Watch

Human Rights on the Edge The Ideas Letter

Far more top-cited US scientists have papers retracted than peers in China: paper South China Morning Post

Class Warfare

The impending AI-driven jobless economy: Who will pay taxes? FOX

GigSlave Goes Public With $84 Billion Valuation (video) Onion News Network, YouTube

Antidote du jour (Bernard DUPONT):

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.