Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.
And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.
–Yves
P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:
Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.
William Shatner: My Trip To Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’ Variety
Slight shifts in magnetic field preceded California earthquakes PhysOrg (David L)
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, The World’s Largest Volcano, Is Starting To Rumble Forbes (David L)
The First Cricket Match Report: Goldwin’s In Certamen Pilae Antigone Journal (Anthony L)
Will the Wise Man Get Drunk? Antigone Journal (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
COVID cases rising in Europe point to a coming U.S. surge NPR (David L)
How the splintering of Omicron could shape Covid’s next phase STAT (Dr. Kevin)
Study suggests an immunological benefit of combining previous natural infection with vaccination against COVID-19 using a combination of different vaccine platforms News-medical.net (Kevin W)
Did California Just Ban Medical Misinformation? What We Know Healthline (J-LS). Here because this law is the result of Covid narrative control. IM Doc says three California doctors have just applied to his hospital in Flyover as a result.
BREAKING: From Florida Department of Health, “The State Surgeon General now recommends against the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for males ages 18-39 years old.” https://t.co/UOkAuAEqNn pic.twitter.com/wV6x1KsQTb
— Keith Wilson, K.C. (@ikwilson) October 8, 2022
Not a fan, but even more not a fan of Twitter doing this sort of thing:
Climate/Environment
Researchers Think a Key To Cooling Cities Lies in Naples’ Ancient Aqueducts NBC
Dancers’ moves help to power Glasgow music venue BBC (David L)
Electric vehicles are exploding from water damage after Hurricane Ian, Florida official warns Fox5 (resilc)
Tens of thousands of salmon found dead after Canada drought BBC (furzy)
Drought takes toll on country’s largest cotton producer Associated Press (resilc)
Florida’s insurance market was in crisis well before Hurricane Ian hit Grid (furzy)
China?
US ramps up curbs on chip sales to China BBC (Kevin W)
India
Gambia: India-made drugs may be linked to death of dozens of children DW. Resilc: “And little to no DA control of all the stuff India makes for USA USA.
Maiden Pharma, the Company Whose Syrup Killed Gambian Children, Is a Habitual Offender The Wire
New Not-So-Cold War
For the most part, Russia has steered clear of destroying dual-use (civilian and military) infrastructure. Looks like the time has come for Russia to take out most if not all of electrical grid and cell phones in Western Ukraine (its earlier strike on the grid deliberately hit parts that could be restored quickly). Lambert remarked that this was totally Ukraine: It would have been more strategically effective to have been done three weeks ago. Russia has already fortified Kherson and moved many of the partially mobilized men into Southern Ukraine for training. And they didn’t even do this on Putin’s birthday. This is a day late. But oh the dramatic photos!
It is too early to ascertain the method of attack and the range of implications of this attack on the Kerch Bridge. It is certainly a punch in the face for Putin on his birthday. A couple of thoughts however in this short (for me) thread. 1/9 🧵 https://t.co/h8C45CWI2K
— Mick Ryan, AM (@WarintheFuture) October 8, 2022
First CCTV Footage of the explosion on #Crimea Bridge.
A strong fire on the Crimean rail bridge in the city of #Kerch.
#Russian says is was a fuel tanker, some say it was Ukraine strike.#Crimea #Fire #Russia #Ukraine️
#news #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/24W1weFmS3— Top Disaster (@Top_Disaster) October 8, 2022
More detail in this thread. Apparently a suicide truck bomb:
cannot assess the damage to the bridge right now, as most of the photos & videos circulating seem to be old/fake. at least they’re not hiding that it was them, so the kremlin has no excuse https://t.co/HfETdc11fF
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) October 8, 2022
Even closer images of the Crimean Bridge, fire seems to have burnt itself out.#kerch #crimea #kerch #bridge pic.twitter.com/V7wfgVY4ef
— Stop War In Ukraine (@InterfereNot) October 8, 2022
Ukraine SitRep – Recent Incidents Of Concern For All Sides Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Moon is fast out of the box and argues Starlink is a much bigger deal than Kerch….but that’s militarily. Politically, Russia will have to Do Something.
Ukraine Latest: Putin Orders Probe Into Key Crimea Bridge Blast Bloomberg
* * * Opposing Armageddon To Trigger The Libs Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)
Biden’s Fearmongers About A Russian Nuclear Threat That No One Has Made Moon of Alabama. Yours truly is not happy about this, not that my vote matters, since this looks intended to paint Putin as an existential threat to justify a US/NATO extreme action. Shorter: WMD in Iraq 2.0.
Russians being prepared for nuclear war – Zelensky BBC
* * * Putin and Zelensky to attend G20 – Indonesia RT
Putin and M.B.S. Are Laughing at Us New York Times: Resilc: “‘And we have Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bernie Sanders, the House progressive caucus and the whole G.O.P. all working — deliberately or because they are dupes — to ensure that Putin has more oil revenue than ever to kill Ukrainians and freeze the Europeans this winter until they abandon Kyiv.’ Fuck you, asshole.”
No one told India to not buy oil from Russia: Hardeep Singh Puri Hindustan Times (J-LS)
* * * Michael Hudson: A roadmap to escape the west’s stranglehold. The Cradle. Interview with Pepe Escobar. While it’s easy to understand the desire to slip free of the dollar hegemony, setting up the needed institutions and infrastructure will take much longer than this discussion contemplates. For instance, I have to differ with Hudson on the idea that there is demand for yuan. Someone will be willing to hold yuan only 1. on a short term basis because they expect to buy goods and services in yuan soon; 2. there are liquid instruments in which they can invest in yuan. Despite its many many flaws, the dollar has deep and liquid capital markets and strong regulations as far as disclosure and transaction execution are concerned. It is still far and away the least bad of available choices. China has had capital controls. And those are applied on an every broader basis than sanctions. Similarly, Russia shut down its stock exchange so foreign investors in Russian ETFs face a total loss: https://www.ft.com/content/9c676afa-a14a-45cc-b1ec-c4e1f59e5fe0
* * * Ukraine Passes 2023 Budget in Secret, Expects US To Cover Deficit Antiwar
Americans Need a Say in How Far the US is Goes in Backing Ukraine CounterPunch. Resilc: “DeeCee could give a shit about what ‘merikinz think. It’s what the SP500 thinkzzzzzz”
⚠️❌🇩🇪🚆Long-distance rail services in northern Germany were suspended entirely this morning.
Two communications cables (GSM-R) had been cut at two different places. Security authorities speak of initial indications of possible sabotage,according to Spiegel.
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) October 8, 2022
AP PHOTOS: Backbreaking work for kids in Afghan brick kilns Associated Press (resilc)
Syraqistan
US strikes in Syria kill top ′IS′ leaders DW. Resilc: “Made up bullshit to justify staying there.”
US to strengthen penalties for joining Arab League’s Israel boycott Middle East Eye
Bad situation in Haiti getting worse as humanitarian orgs call for a “corridor”. Gangs are blocking the port which means fuel can’t get out. Gas costs $40/gallon on the black market. pic.twitter.com/iUkSKcQKCa
— Emily Troutman (@emilytroutman) October 6, 2022
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Twitter Knows You Took a Screenshot, Asks You To Share Instead arstechnica
Papa John’s Sued For ‘Wiretap’ Spying on Website Mouse Clicks, Keystrokes The Register
Imperial Collapse Watch
US hypersonic program back on a fast track Asia Times (resilc)
An Epidemic of Delusions Commonweal (resilc)
The most terrifying case of all is about to be heard by the US supreme court Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
We Had to Force the Constitution to Accommodate Democracy, and It Shows New York Times (David L)
Abortion
Arizona court halts enforcement of near-total abortion ban Washington Post (Kevin W)
The Election-Swinging, Facebook-Fueled, Get-Out-the-Vote Machine Wired. Resilc: “Now that Facebook is declining, why not.”
GOP Clown Car
Herschel Walker, Donald Trump, and the Christian right’s long, slow self-destruction Salon
Democrats en déshabille
Democrats are operating a series of 51 ‘fake news’ websites pushing left-wing stories in toss-up states in a bid to turn the midterms in their favor, shocking investigation finds Daily Mail
Newsom calls special session of Legislature to consider windfall tax on oil companies over high California gas prices Politico
New York City declares emergency over migrant ‘crisis’ BBC
Morgan Stanley-Led Banks Face $500 Million Loss on Twitter Debt Bloomberg
Unemployment rate falls to 3.5% in September, payrolls rise by 263,000 as job market stays strong CNBC
Fed on Track for Another Large Interest-Rate Hike After Jobs Report Wall Street Journal
Fears of a Housing Crash Threaten Life Savings of Tens of Millions in the US Truthout. Um, fears do not threaten savings. Crashes threaten savings.
Class Warfare
Boston Dynamics and five other tech firms pledge not to weaponize their robots NPR (David L). Just the way Google promised “Don’t be evil.”
A New Benefit for Hungry Troops Is at Risk of Failure Before It Even Starts Military.com
Antidote du jour. Ann M:
Some dogs like hunting jackets and some cats like napkins!! Emmett lay down on one, and then my son and husband put the others under his head and across his body. Surprised he tolerated it.
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Incredible rare deep sea jellyfish looks like firework pic.twitter.com/84XLVh8cva
— Oceanography (@Oceanographyy) October 7, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
