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Links 1/7/2021

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Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century Live Science

Liquid glass discovered as new state of matter New Atlas

#COVID19

Eureka! Two Vaccines Work — But What About the Also-Rans in the Pharma Arms Race? KHN

Los Angeles hospitals take drastic steps to grapple with Covid-19 crisis FT

What’s Behind the Ivermectin-for-COVID Buzz? MedPage Today

Vaccine distribution’s information mess Axios

China?

Chinese Communist Party introduces new rules on what members can say as it ‘boosts internal democracy’ South China Morning Post

Covid: WHO team investigating virus origins denied entry to China BBC

A Different Story about the Origin and Development of Alternative Protein in China The Pig Site

Japan declares state of emergency for Tokyo area as COVID-19 cases surge Reuters

The Koreas

South Korea Needs More Babies and Immigrants Bloomberg

Coronavirus: China’s Sinovac shots readied for mass roll-out in Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand South China Morning Post. Contracts are signed, but efficacy trials are not complete. “Coronavac” is an inactivated virus vaccine.

Nearly Half in Philippines Don’t Want Covid Vaccine, Survey Says Bloomberg

Indonesians unknowingly fund hardline group behind Bali bombings Al Jazeera

Exclusive: Vietnam buys Indian rice for first time in decades – industry officials Reuters

Vietnam’s Coming Leadership Change The Diplomat

India

In Narendra Modi’s condemnation of US Capitol siege lies coded message for India Firstpost

‘It was as if the entire country was walking’ People’s Archive of Rural India

East Africa braces for a return of the locusts Deutsche Welle

Syraqistan

Iran sends warning to US friends with South Korea tanker seizure Nikkei Asian Review. “Seoul weighs using frozen assets to purchase vaccines for Tehran.”

UK/EU

Grenfell Tower inquiry suspended because of Covid Guardian

Leading French political scientist Duhamel accused of sexually abusing stepson France24

Humanitarian aid workers who fathered children abroad tracked down using DNA Euronews

Venezuela crisis: Maduro loyalists take control of parliament BBC

Capitol Seizure

Carnage at the Capitol: Four dead, pipe bombs, guns and Molotov cocktails are found and Senators return to the chamber under armed guard – as DC Mayor Muriel Bowser imposes 15 days of emergency measures until Joe Biden’s inauguration Daily Mail. Quite the Daily Mail headline. This seems like the best timeline; Yves used it too, in her post.

‘Hold the Line’: Inside the House Chamber as a Pro-Trump Mob Stormed In Bloomberg. Read all the way to the end.

How a sparse protest became a Capitol Hill riot Politico

Explosive device found at RNC; DNC evacuated: report The Hill

Man seen in viral photo in Nancy Pelosi’s office is from Northwest Arkansas 5 News. There’s a lot to unpack here.

MEGATHREAD: Archiving the Capitol Hill Riots Reddit

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WATCH: Mitch McConnell Give Speech Opposing Effort to Overturn Election New York Magazine

Dimon Condemns Trump Mobs as Wall Street Looks On in Horror Bloomberg

‘Double standard’: Black lawmakers and activists decry police response to attack on US Capitol USA Today

The Plot To Storm The Capitol Was Brewing For Days In Pro-Trump Online Media HuffPo

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Historical parallels (1):

Parallel at least in the imagery.

Historical parallels (2):

Historical parallels (3): Brooks Brothers Riot Jacobin. From 2016, still germane. Of course, Bush had better lawyers.

Learned nothing, forgotten nothing:

PMCs gotta PMC:

The IT aspect, a thread:

* * *

Was it a coup? No, but siege on US Capitol was the election violence of a fragile democracy The Conversation

My Statement: When Order is Restored at the Capitol, Congress Needs to Quickly Count the Electoral College Votes Confirming Biden Victory and Trump Needs to Be Immediately Removed from Office Election Law Blog

Japanese lessons for the American coup Noahpinion. Whatever this was, it wasn’t a coup. The dude in the Viking costume at the Senate Rostrum wasn’t proclaiming a new republic; he was posing for photos.

Serbia Deploys Peacekeeping Forces To U.S. The Onion. From 2000. Naturally.

Biden Transition

Biden’s Electoral College victory certified — hours after Capitol chaos FOX

Trump agrees to ‘orderly transition’ of power Politico

Biden pledges further stimulus as Democrats win control of Senate FT

Biden to tap more Obama vets to fill key national security roles Politico. Nuland among them.

Open-source developer and manager David Recordon named White House Director of Technology ZDNet. Facebook’s engineer director.

Why the politicisation of the US census really counts FT

Live Not By Lies: The Right-Wing Version The American Conservative

TK Newsletter: 2021 Has to Be Better Edition Matt Taibbi, TK News. For some definition of “better.”

Antidote du jour (via):

Not Baron Harkonnen, a Cambodian bullfrog.

Bonus antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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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.