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Daisy had other plans Radley Balko, The Watch

Once-abandoned dogs are now trained to sniff out environmental clues WaPo

Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food Science

In Antitrust Trial, Former Google Employee Details History of Search Deals NYT. Anti-trust mavens in their element:

Climate

Earth outside ‘safe operating zone’ for humans in crucial areas, scientists find FT

How trees influence cloud formation Paul Scherrer Institut

Water

When The Water Runs Brown, Start Your Own Water Company.  The Brockovich Report

Ohio Injection Wells Suspended Over ‘Imminent Danger’ to Drinking Water Inside Climate News

#COVID19

Novavax dealt setback as FDA, CDC approve Moderna, Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines Washington Business Journal

The CDC has approved updated XBB-strain COVID boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older. They’re expected to hit clinics later this week Fortune

Should I get a COVID-19 booster? Science

China?

Commentary: What’s going on with China’s surprise military shake-up? Channel News Asia

Beijing outlines ‘interconnected living’ plan for Taiwan and Fujian South China Morning Post

Billionaire Divorces Spur Crackdown by China’s Market Regulator Bloomberg

The ‘Global South’ is a pernicious term that needs to be retired FT

Rush for rare earth minerals in Southeast Asia compounding dangers for region’s environmental defenders: Report Channel News Asia

Myanmar

Myanmar Junta Attempts Charm Offensive in Ethnic States The Irrawaddy

Myanmar junta orders all workers abroad to remit 25% Bangkok Post (Furzy Mouse).

Dear Old Blighty

The plot to smash the Conservative party FT

New Not-So-Cold War

Russian warships hit in attack on Crimean navy yard NBC

Russian air strike hits Ukrainian port infrastructure on Danube Reuters

“”Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles”” Shows the Transformations of Life in Ukraine The New Yorker. The lead: “During the Maidan uprising, which began in 2013, when Ukrainian protests led to the overthrow of the Kremlin-backed President….” Note liberal normalization of fascism.

The Times on bomb disposal experts near Robotyne: They clear passages through minefields on their knees Ukrainska Pravda

Von der Leyen invokes ‘call of history’ as she backs EU membership for Ukraine Politico but EU commissioner filmed knitting during von der Leyen’s speech Anadolu Agency

Will the West Abandon Ukraine? Foreign Affairs. The deck: “Kyiv Must Prepare for a Possible Change of Heart in America and Europe.”

Putin Doesn’t Think US Foreign Policy Will Change If Trump Is Re-Elected (And He’s Probably Right) Caitlin Johnstone

Ukraine sues Western arms dealers who’ve failed to deliver promised military equipment NY Post

Now is the time for businesses to look at Ukraine The Atlantic Council

Futures of the World’s Largest F-16 Operators: Why These Six Fleets All Field Close to 200 Falcons Military Watch

Pratt Engine Flaw to Idle Hundreds of A320 Planes for Years Bloomberg (Glen).

South of the Border

The highlights from AMLO’s trip to Colombia and Chile Mexico News Daily

Trials begin in Brazil for pro-Bolsonaro rioters who stormed capital Al Jazeera

Biden Administration

The House Budget chair says the GOP won’t touch Social Security or Medicare in their forthcoming budget Politico

2024

Too Much of Not A Lot Aurelian, Trying to Understand the World

Spook Country

Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat The Intercept. Any mention of neurological damage from Covid? ***crickets*** (ha ha).

Our Famously Free Press

USA Today is now hiring a Beyoncé reporter after posting a Taylor Swift job Bloomberg

Jill Duggar Tells Her Side of the Story Vanity Fair

Digital Watch

Tech Bigwigs Zuckerberg, Musk, Altman and Others Hold Private Meeting With Congress on Regulating AI SFist

Elon Musk warns of ‘civilizational risk’ posed by AI in meeting with tech CEOs and senators NBC. Commentary:

Brandon Hunter useless at 42 MSN. Hilariously bad AI emission.

The A.V. Club’s AI-Generated Articles Are Copying Directly From IMDb Futurism

The Bezzle

CEO out at embattled Binance US Banking Dive

Credit card debt collection Bits About Money

The Final Frontier

Scientists Say You’re Looking for Alien Civilizations All Wrong Wired

Scientists unveil pair of ‘mummified alien’ corpses to Mexico Congress ABC7. I’ve never understood why “aliens” have bilateral symmetry but wev.

Healthcare

A Doctrine in Name Only — Strengthening Prohibitions against the Corporate Practice of Medicine NEJM

B.C.’s health-care crisis: First look at massive markups by ‘parasitic’ staffing industry CTV

Zeitgeist Watch

Parents Keep Missing Daughter’s Cage Exactly How She Left It When She Escaped The Onion

Groves of Academe

How Columbia Ignored Women, Undermined Prosecutors and Protected a Predator For More Than 20 Years Pro Publica

Imperial Collapse Watch

The September 11 Legacy of Forever Wars, the Patriot Act, and Loss of Legal Rights Black Agenda Report

Black Injustice Tipping Point

Peter Faneuil: Boston benefactor, merchant, slave trader The Boston Globe

Class Warfare

UAW prepares to strike at Detroit Three automakers, rejects new offers Reuters

UAW Workers Explain Why They’re Ready to Strike The Real News

‘Abandoned by the Democratic Party’: Behind the UAW’s frustrations with Biden Politico

Starbucks Workers Back a Strike The Tyee. Canada.

In Search of Lost Time Harpers

2023 Fall Foliage Map & Nationwide Peak Leaf Forecast Smoky Mountains

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on by Lambert Strether.

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.