See the Largest Flower Ever Found Encased in Amber Scientific American
Skeleton of man who dreaded becoming a museum exhibit will finally be removed from display CNN
Maine gets 1st Mega Millions jackpot with $1.35B grand prize AP
Climate
Newsom proposes cuts to climate change programs amid cloudy economic outlook LA Times. Attaboy. That’s the kind of liberal we like.
Mass Climate Migration Is Coming Wired
Water
Upstream dams are drowning Cambodia’s protected flooded forest The Third Pole
#COVID19
Kraken, Elon Musk and dead Canadian doctors: Disinformation surges 3 years into the pandemic Global News
We Convinced Our School to Bring Back Masks OK Doomer (MN).
China?
China reports 60,000 COVID-related deaths, says peak passed AP. If deaths in China are small, then the press should be asking why our own death count was so much larger. If deaths in China are large, then the press should self-reflect on its own responsibility for them by pressing for an end to China’s NPIs. Neither alternative is palatable, and so the press will temporize with demands for data. As if the United States had any standing on data.
Covid “Hammering” Rural Areas in China, While Wheat, Soybean, Rice Variables in Focus Farm Policy News
The Koreas
International Press Shines in Itaewon Disaster Coverage The Blue Roof
European Disunion
Nicola Gratteri: The man on the kill list of Italy’s most powerful mafia BBC
TikTok slapped with a €5 million fine by French regulators over its handling of users’ cookies EuroNews
Dear Old Blighty
Ex-Corbyn staff court case could dent Labour election fund BBC. That’s a damn shame. Can’t the spooks give Labour a backhander out of the reptile fund?
Latin America
Peru declares state of emergency amid protests in Lima Al Mayadeen
Washington, Guaidó and the Billion-Dollar Circus Venezuelanalysis
Why the CIA attempted a ‘Maidan uprising’ in Brazil Pepe Escobar, The Cradle. Single-sourced. It is, however, impossible for me to believe that the US didn’t greenlight Bolsonaro (especially after Lava Jato). Escobar also mentions this interesting source–
Tesla’s External Auditors, PwC, May Be Investigated in Brazil Due to Accounting Scandal AutoEvolution
New Not-So-Cold War
Military briefing: Soledar victory could cost Russia dear FT. Plot twist!
Russian missiles strike vital infrastructure in Kyiv and Kharkiv Reuters
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief is an Open Banderite Fascist Mark Sleboda, The Real Politik
NAFO Just Discredited Itself After A Top Fella Threatened To Shoot A Pro-Kiev German Journalist Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter. Korybko.
Whisper it, but Europe is winning the energy war with Putin Politico. Big if true. Plus, erasing the massive transfer of power and money to the imperial hegemon. Client states don’t win wars, energy wars or not.
Kazakhstan to deliver 300,000 tons of oil to Germany through Russia Andalou Agency
Russia Using Chinese Supertankers to Ship Oil to Asia gCaptain
Russian fertiliser export revenue surged 70% in 2022 as prices jumped FT
The Long War in Ukraine Foreign Affairs
Ankara says time running out to ratify Sweden, Finland NATO bids Al Jazeera
How Ukraine became a laboratory for western weapons and battlefield innovation CNN. Conditions are different in Asia, so we’ll need a lab there, too.
War and Commodity Encumbrance (PDF) Zoltan Pozsar, Credit Suisse. G7 v. BRICS. Worth a download, although evaluating the thesis is above my paygrade.
The C-17A Has Been Cleared To Transport B61-12 Nuclear Bomb To Europe Federation of American Scientists
Biden Administration
‘Playing chicken’: Republicans draw battle lines over US debt ceiling FT. Which Democrats never abolished, showing they want whatever horrid “Grand Bargain”-style “compromise” emerges from the sausage-making….
Yellen warns of ‘irreparable harm’ if debt ceiling not raised in letter to Congress Yahoo
This Is How the Trillion Dollar Coin Could End Debt Ceiling Fights for Good (podcast) Odd Lots
Key Covid-19 Official David Kessler to Depart Biden Administration WSJ. Hmm.
FAA says computer failure that grounded thousands of flights was caused by 2 contractors who introduced data errors into NOTAM system Fortune
2024
DOJ Held Biden Document News Until After Midterms The Spectator. Well, obviously. This is a 2024 scandal, not a 2022 scandal. Which does make one wonder which hand wields the dagger–
Kamala Harris Assures Public No One Has Given Her Single Classified Document The Onion
4 more Fairfax County schools failed to tell students about national merit awards ABC. Nationalizing “our schools” as an issue is just waiting for Youngkin (who has the advantage over short-bodied DeSantis that he doesn’t look like a vicious small-town auto dealer).
Police State Watch
Former Louisiana police chief faces 2nd degree murder charge KHQA and Video shows NYPD van hitting and killing pedestrian on busy Brooklyn street Gothamist and Head of New York’s Irish American police group suspended after failed drugs test Sunday World. Meanwhile:
Dozens of Illinois sheriff’s departments say they will not enforce a new state law banning assault weapons. The sheriffs say they believe the ban is unconstitutional.
Here’s a thread of their statements. Adams, Bond, Brown and Bureau Counties first: pic.twitter.com/1XuPQhlTHR
— Jake Sheridan (@JakeSheridan_) January 14, 2023
A Chicago Attorney Is Getting Justice For Hundreds Of Wrongfully Convicted People All At Once Buzzfeed
Oakland’s “Riders” Scandal and the Fraught Road to Police Reform Bolts
How Police Actually Cracked the Idaho Killings Case Slate. Forensic geneaology. “Forensic genealogy leaders at the FBI and beyond have directed police departments to omit all references to the technique, numerous people involved in these investigations told me.” That’s a confidence builder!
Democrats en Déshabillé
The wonderful world of NGOs (unions are quite different). A thread:
Within a month of leaving prison, I was accepted into @UCBerkeley and received my bachelors with a 4.0. My felony record prevented me from finding work, even at my alma mater. A thread.
— Matthew Hahn (@hahnscratch) January 14, 2023
Our Famously Free Press
NYT Moves to ‘Stack the Deck of Justice’ Against Its Subscribers FAIR
The Intelligence Community
The New “Church” Committee and the Torturous History of Gov. Ron DeSantis (podcast interview) John Kiriakou, Jesse Ventura’s Die First Then Quit. Interesting to see Kiriakou in this venue.
Tech
BookTok London Review of Books. I support the tropes!
Class Warfare
The Deep State Awards Matt Stoller, BIG. Despite the horrid meme in the title, this is a very acute analysis of how business is done in Washington. Well worth a careful read, especially in conjunction with this by Thomas Frank. (I do think Stoller misses the subtle point that one of the purposes of such ceremonies is to signal that the awards-givers have the power to give awards; they control the, as it were, process of consecration in their field. This dynamic precedes and is a necessity for the influence-peddling that Stoller describes in such rich detail.)
“We” Eschaton. Somebody else noticed! A sign, I would say, that the PMC is circling the wagons; intensifying their class solidarity and consequent embubblement, instead of interrogating them.
Sectional Industrialization (interview) Richard Bensel, Phenomenal World. Should tie in with Ferguson et al.’s industrial model.
Human consciousness: a tragic misstep Institute of Art and Ideas
Can gratitude save humanity? Unherd
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
