Why Do Dogs Bark? Madras Courier

What Lies Beneath bioGraphic. The deck: “With their astounding sense of smell and ability to find what humans can’t see, dogs are quickly becoming some of conservationists’ best friends.”

Climate

Scientists say they can now forecast El Niño Southern Oscillation years in advance Space.com

Experts see ‘mismatch’ between US utility planning cycles and data center builds S&P Global

California Grid Breezes Through Heat Wave due to Renewables, Batteries This Is Not Cool

Funds tapped, Florida stops taking new applications for home-hardening program Orlando Sentinel

California Faces a Brutal Wildfire Season, With More Land Burned to Date Than in Recent Years Smithsonian

Syndemics

COVID Levels ‘Very High’ In California As New Variant Spreads: CDC Banning-Beaumont Patch

England’s ongoing Covid wave and new Long Covid research Diving into Data & Decision Making

China?

Readying for war or being prepared for crises? China’s stockpiling of resources raises eyebrows and questions Channel News Asia

Going Postal at the Qiaopiju JSTOR Daily

The Philippines’ and Vietnam’s South China Sea Strategies Have Failed RAND

Commentary: Political upheaval in Vietnam is holding its economy back Channel News Asia

Myanmar

Ayeyarwady vice: Law and disorder in the Delta Frontier Myanmar

India

India is not destined to be the next China BNE Intellinews

Bangladesh TV news off air, communications disrupted as student protests spike Bangkok Post (Furzy Mouse).

Syraqistan

Mike Johnson Threatens to Arrest Lawmakers Who Disrupt Netanyahu’s Congress speech Haaretx

Biden expected to meet with Netanyahu next week, despite COVID diagnosis The HIll. Big if true:

Also big if true:

New health crisis unfolds in Gaza as poliovirus found in sewage Anadolu Agency

Yemen’s Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Port of Eilat Consortium Newws

Drone attack kills one person in Tel Aviv FT

The Great Game

“Debts must be repaid” – Expert on Azerbaijan-France relations JAM News

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukrainian defenders withdraw from Urozhaine, Donetsk Oblast Ukrainska Pravda

Ukrainians say it’s time for peace negotiations with Russia Deutsche Welle

Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine suspended transit of Lukoil oil Ukrainska Pravda

Dear Old Blighty

Private equity groups battle it out for $15bn schools group FT

Private equity firm behind Six Nations rugby considers bid for Telegraph Guardian

Biden Administration

Court halts Biden’s student loan repayment plan. How this affects California borrowers Sacramento Bee

Pentagon inspector general to put the microscope on hypersonic defenses, CJADC2 ‘strategy‘ Breaking Defense

2024

‘I’m not supposed to be here’: 5 key points from Donald Trump’s acceptance speech FT. Commentary:

I described this “riffing” behavior here at NC in 2016.

Trump comes out fighting after rally shooting: 5 takeaways from RNC’s last night The Hill. Commentary:

Donald Trump appears to a be a changed man. And that’s a big deal for both Republicans and Democrats FOX

Melania Trump watches husband’s convention speech in rare appearance BBC

Critic’s Notebook: Donald Trump Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope Hollywood Reporter

Can J.D. Vance’s Populist Crusade Succeed? Matt Stoller, BIG

What Trump picking Vance for VP means for the Senate Politico

O’Brien Speech Played into Republicans’ Phony Pro-Worker Rebrand Labor Notes

Inside the Trump Plan for 2025 The New Yorker

The political media’s fantasy of an “unified” America defies reality Dan Froomkin, Press Watch

‘He’s got a gun’: The 60 minutes leading up to Trump assassination attempt Al Jazeera

Whistleblowers come forward on Trump rally security, Judiciary Committee says Just the News. Commentary:

Via FaceBook.

Secret Service struggles to quash congressional fury over Trump assassination attempt Politico

How It Happens Here Nina Illingworth

Democrats en Déshabillé

Donald Trump is Democratic Failure Ross Barkan, Political Currents

Karma, Bitches Declassified with Julie Kelly. The deck: “The most powerful American institutions colluded in 2020 to steal the election for Joe Biden. Now those same interests are collaborating to get him off the 2024 ballot. Sit back and enjoy!”

Who Is Favored To Win The 2024 Presidential Election? FiveThirtyEight

The Supremes

What employers can expect following the end of Chevron deference Construction Dive

Digital Watch

Major Windows BSOD issue takes banks, airlines, and broadcasters offline The Verge. Commentary:

Human or AI robot? Who is fairer on the service organizational frontline (PDF) Journal of Business Research

ChatGPT Isn’t ‘Hallucinating’—It’s Bullshitting! Scientific American. AI = BS (Naked Capitalism, January 31, 2023).

5 ChatGPT Prompts To Start A Successful Business Forbes

Imperial Collapse Watch

For the Rest of the World, the U.S. President Has Always Been Above the Law Foreign Policy

The F-35 Urgently Needs a New Engine: The Engine Core Upgrade Program’s Design Review Highlights Why Military Watch. “A new engine for the F-35 is considered an urgent priority for multiple reasons, among them the aircraft’s perceived wholly insufficient range and flight performance for operations over the Pacific.”

Class Warfare

Average Japanese Wage Hikes Reach 33-Year High of 5.1% in 2024 Nippon.com

How gravity falls down on falling down Physics World

Antidote du jour (Wallace Keck):

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.