Taters the cat stars in NASA’s first video sent by laser from deep space Associated Press, YouTube (furzy)
View from the golden circle. The orange glow below northern lights is current volcano eruption #iceland pic.twitter.com/xGG9PbSNea
— Greg Lukosek (@lukos86) December 19, 2023
Tiny biobots surprise their creators by healing wound FreeThink (Dr. Kevin)
Andrew Crumey – Red Planet & Brown Trout Literary Review. Anthony L: “Because it is awesome”
#COVID-19
Woman with long Covid, 55, applies to be EUTHANIZED in Canada as condition leaves her bed-ridden and bankrupt: ‘My life with this illness is nonexistent’ Daily Mail. 🙁 Includes a short video interview.
Wearing a surgical mask to stop covid is like wearing a paper seatbelt.
— tern (@1goodtern) December 20, 2023
Climate/Environment
Here’s how experts graded US climate progress in 2023 Grist
How Big Oil is Taking Us for a Fossil-Fuelized Ride Juan Cole
Canada Lays Out Plan To Phase Out Sales of Gas-Powered Cars, Trucks By 2035 CBC
Hurricane Larry Dropped Over 100,000 Microplastics Per Square Meter Per Day, Study Finds Wired
UK To Introduce Carbon Tax on Steel Imports from 2027 Guardian
China?
China opens fire on Lockheed for arming up Taiwan Asia Times
Vietnam and the limits of Communist friend-shoring Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph. Vikas Santi: “Their minds are pathetically zero-sum.”
Narendra Modi responds to assassination claims Financial Times
Timbuktu: Mali’s ancient city defies jihadist siege to stage a festival BBC (furzy)
European Disunion
EU countries, lawmakers agree major reform of asylum system DW
Macron in crisis after immigration showdown Politico
How migration is pushing Europe to the right Financial Times
Old Blighty
Ministry of Justice plan to destroy historical wills is ‘insane’, say experts Guardian (Paul R)
Gaza
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 74: Hamas tells Israel it ‘arrived too late’ to tunnel; forces arrest doctors at Al-Awdeh Hospital Mondoweiss
This is beyond crazy, and hopefully can alert people to the indiscriminate nature of the killings that are occurring in Gaza.
In case you don’t know, since the time of Jesus the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem guards two of the holiest sites in the world for Christians: the site… https://t.co/E2pn8a4Wks
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 17, 2023
The Humanitarian Nightmare in Gaza Daniel Larison
Chris Hedges: The Death of Israel Scheerpost (Li)
Netanyahu, America & the Road to War in Gaza Frontline
The cost of US fighting Houthis in the Red Sea just went up Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
US Escalation in the Red Sea – A Lose/Lose Proposition Sputnik
RUSSIAN POLICY TOWARDS THE GAZA WAR & PALESTINE GENOCIDE IS MISTAKEN — JEWISH RELIGIOUS BELIEF, ZIONISM & ISRAELI STATE LAW DON’T ALLOW THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION – THEY VIOLATE RUSSIAN LAW John Helmer
When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.
The demolition of Gaza is…
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 20, 2023
New Channel 12 report reveals footage of Israeli tanks shelling homes filled with Israeli noncombatants inside Kibbutz Beeri while hundreds of soldiers waited outside doing nothing
The video compliments testimony of tanks killing many Israelis on 10/7 pic.twitter.com/kexS2H7OSo
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 19, 2023
BLOOD MONEY: THE TOP TEN POLITICIANS TAKING THE MOST ISRAEL LOBBY CASH MintPress (Chuck L). Some surprises, like the absence of Lindsay Graham. Guess he doesn’t need more funding since he never met an opportunity for belligerence he didn’t like.
New Not-So-Cold War
GOP says no Christmas deal for Ukraine, border The Hill. As if this were a surprise. I have no idea why Schumer pushed McConnell and held the Senate over. It calls more attention to the weakness of the Biden Administration.
Zelensky Can’t Eschew Responsibility For Rising Public Anger At Ukraine’s Conscription Crisis Andrew Korybko
UK to sign naval ‘security pact’ with Ukraine – Telegraph RT (Kevin W). Good luck with that. Turkiye is not letting military vessels into the Black Sea.
Ukraine joins NATO’s Arctic projects against Russia Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Give Russia’s Frozen Assets to Ukraine Now Anne Applebaum, Atlantic. Strikes me as revealing that The Atlantic could not find someone less rabid to argue this posiiton.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Behind the Shortage Keeping Cancer Patients From Chemo New York Times (Kevin W)
Trump
Trump Is Disqualified From 2024 Ballot, Colorado Court Says in Explosive Ruling New York Times. If the Supreme Court does not reverse this ruling, the US will find out what a real insurrection looks like. But it seems to me Trump could circumvent this ruling by getting a loyal R (Vivek?) to run and announce he will pledge his electors to Trump if he does not win the R nomination.
Trump Disqualified From 2024 Ballot by Colorado Supreme Court Rolling Stone
Senate Republicans recoil at Trump ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ remarks The Hill
Biden
Patrick Lawrence: Impeachment: Biden Under Formal Investigation ScheerPost (Chuck L)
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrat Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Stole School Teacher’s First Class Airline Ticket & Had Teacher Wiped From The System To Take Her Seat
“The airline passenger who says she was bumped from her seat to make room for a congresswoman is speaking exclusively to Inside… pic.twitter.com/zv4yz2TEwW
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) December 19, 2023
John Fetterman Exits the Progressive Coalition Ross Barkan (Userfriendly)
The Real Reason Why Clarence Thomas Started Accepting Gifts From Billionaires New Republic (furzy)
Regulators approve deal to pay for Georgia Power’s new nuclear reactors Associated Press (Kevin W)
L’affaire Jeffrey Epstein
List of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates named in lawsuit must be unsealed, judge rules. Here are details on the document release. CBS
AI
How to Prevent an AI Apocalypse Project Syndicate (David L)
Antitrust
Google agrees to pay $700m after antitrust settlement with consumers and US states Guardian
Google and Apple’s app stores are cash machines Financial Times
The FAA will convene a new panel to address air traffic controller fatigue following repeated close calls, sources say CNN. Kevin W: “I wonder if they will mention the ‘C’ word.”
Powell’s Pivot Sows Confusion Over When and How Fast Fed Will Cut Wall Street Journal
The Bezzle
Binance To Pay $2.7 Billion Fine To CFTC For Evading Federal Law CoinTelegraph
How GM’s $10-Billion Buyback May Ice Its EV Transition Institute for New Economic Thinking
Class Warfare
Gold Air Jordans Worth More Than $10,000 Found in a Donation Bin New York Times (furzy)
U.S. Bank fined $36 million for freezing unemployment debit cards during Covid-19 pandemic CNBC (Kevin W)
Have wages “really” increased since before the pandemic? Angry Bear
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
A holiday bonus. Lars Syll wrote: “This live performance remains unequalled to this day.”
And a sort of bonus (guurst):
pic.twitter.com/pfmAWMpOC5
— Nature Is Scary (@Nature1sScary) September 3, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
