We Don’t Have to Anthropomorphize Animals to Care About Them The Revelator
Jobs and Hints of Recession Dollars & Sense
CPI report: Core inflation rises by most in six months, stoking tariff-driven price concerns Yahoo! Finance
Can I Eat Instant Noodles Every Day? Experts Break Down The Health Impact StudyFinds
Why these hairy caterpillars swarm every decade – then vanish without a trace EurekAlert!
Neoliberal Peace-Building: Profiting From Destruction and Reconstruction Green European Journal
Climate/Environment
Military diverting critical materials from renewables The Ecologist
Three killed in European wildfires as heatwave intensifies AFP
Much of the Northern Hemisphere gripped by heat Balanced Weather
Evacuations urged in Juneau as glacial outburst flooding appears imminent Anchorage Daily News
Sea Level Rise in the U.S.A. Open Mind
Coral skeletons show sea-level rise began accelerating earlier than previously thought National University of Singapore
Strategically bringing back beavers could support healthy and climate-resilient watersheds Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Pandemics
Study Shows that Mitochondrial Dysfunction
in Long COVID and ME/CFS
is a CONSEQUENCE or EFFECT.
and the ROOT CAUSE is at the Vascular Level,
which can be transmitted through the blood:https://t.co/hFnRW3HbOU
Findings support our statements from years ago:https://t.co/9J0OTs8Ka4 pic.twitter.com/xJxfYfrCqU— Dr. Gustavo Aguirre-Chang (@Aguirre1Gustavo) August 11, 2025
Work Impairment and Financial Outcomes Among Adults With vs Without Long COVID JAMA Network
Covid outbreak panic: Attorney warns of Covid surge in Florida’s infamous Alligator Alcatraz immigration jailEconomic Times
***
JAVMA: Companion Animals and H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Cause for Concern? Avian Flu Diary
***
Measles case confirmed on Air Canada flight from Newark to Toronto last month, officials say CBC
The Koreas
N. Korea holds firing drills ahead of planned S. Korea-U.S. joint military exercises Yonhap
India
Sanctions Choke Crude Shipments to Indian Refiner Nayara Bloomberg
In India, Trump’s tariffs spark calls to boycott American goods Reuters
After 5 years of no connectivity, India and China to resume direct flights as early as next month The Economic Times
China?
China’s push to promote its currency accelerates with landmark Fortescue loan South China Morning Post
The collision of Chinese destroyer DDG 164 w Chinese Coast Guard 3104 while chasing the Philippines Coast Guard ship shows that while China produces warships like dumplings, training enough qualified personnel will be a bottleneck pic.twitter.com/Nnu2XzMhWU
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) August 12, 2025
Old Blighty
UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought 404 Media
UK AI boom at risk as Digital Realty warns of power and planning gridlock Capacity
Syraqistan
Israeli Forces Kill 89 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours Antiwar
Time for Israel to take off the gloves Israel Hayom
Israel is in talks to possibly resettle Palestinians from Gaza in South Sudan AP News
Trump signals support for Israel plan, says Hamas ‘can’t stay’ in Gaza New Arab
BIG: Netanyahu told i24 he feels on a “historic and spiritual mission” and strongly identifies with the vision of “Greater Israel,” encompassing land beyond Israel’s current borders, including areas slated for a Palestinian state and parts of Jordan and Egypt.
He framed his… pic.twitter.com/zjNvqsTVoQ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 12, 2025
US FLEW SPY FLIGHTS FOR UK MONTHS BEFORE MOD ADMITTED IT Declassified UK
Recognizing a Palestinian State Is a Rebuke to Hamas Antony Blinken, WSJ. “But France, Canada and the U.K. are doing it too hastily. The plan won’t work without conditions.”
New Zealand opposition co-leader ejected from parliament for seeking support for bill to sanction Israel Anadolu Agency
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Damascus requests Russian patrols in south Syria to ‘limit’ Israeli incursions: Report The Cradle
***
Pezeshkian’s defense of diplomacy, fealty to Khamenei muddies waters in Iran Amwaj
Over 20,000 arrested in Iran on suspicion of espionage during war with Israel The Cradle
European Disunion
Far-right AfD overtakes CDU/CSU in latest German poll Turkiye Today
New Not-So-Cold War
The Collapse Begins: Russian Forces Spearhead Largest Single-Day Breakthrough of War Simplicius
Ukraine will not cede land that could be Russian springboard for new war, Zelenskyy says The Guardian
He won’t run away from the light… We reveal the secret calculations: Zelenskiy’s hose leads to the UAE! AydInlIk (machine translation)
Foreign Recruits Killed in Ukraine as Missile Hits Camp’s Mess Hall New York Times
“Men who illegally flee abroad damage Ukraine’s image, so we are increasing the number of border patrols and deploying drones and video cameras,” said State Border Guard Service spokesman Demchenko.
What actually damages Ukraine’s image is violent mobilization, when men are… pic.twitter.com/0srGnS55s2
— Marta Havryshko (@HavryshkoMarta) August 12, 2025
Ukraine plotting new provocation to sabotage Putin-Trump meeting – MOD RT
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russian Telegram channels are becoming increasingly more convinced that Ukraine may soon attempt an armoured incursion into the Russian Bryansk region, similar to what occurred in Kursk last year.
This belief is supported by troop and equipment movements in Ukraines… pic.twitter.com/amYFZ46me7
— Heyman_101 (@SU_57R) August 11, 2025
White House is already downplaying expectation for Trump-Putin meeting painting it as only a step toward peace The Independent
Everything we know as Trump meets with European leaders and Zelensky for emergency virtual summit The Independent
Europe overtakes US as main supplier of military aid to Ukraine Intellinews
From mistranslation to military gospel: the strange life of the ‘Gerasimov Doctrine’ Brian McDonald
Caucasus
Russia State Duma proposes ban on imports of goods from Azerbaijan News.am
Kremlin propagandist Solovyov threatens ‘special military operation’ against Azerbaijan OC Media
Armenia’s Pashinyan, Azerbaijan’s Aliyev are now his ‘good friends,’ Trump says News.am. A Kissinger quote comes to mind.
Iran’s president to visit Armenia next week amid Zangezur dispute – media Iran International
Spook Country
The Rise of the US Military’s Clandestine Foreign War Apparatus Wired
“Liberation Day”
Tariffs wiping out American farmers on all sides, and farm equipment manufacturers are laying off Kevin Walmsley
Trump 2.0
Police State Watch
Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest WaPo
Judge orders ICE to stop forcing detainees to sleep on dirty concrete floors Politico
“Unheard of and ominous”: Trump’s D.C. homelessness crackdown perplexes advocates Axios
Oh, they want to Gaza everything now. https://t.co/07nYixiRkM
— Laurie Kilmartin (@anylaurie16) August 13, 2025
Democrats en déshabillé
Nearly two years of unspeakable crimes against humanity and this is the best the Democratic party has to offer pic.twitter.com/Ia0tu2Upoj
— Rob (@robrousseau) August 10, 2025
Re: national guard on patrol in Washington
Adams and Hochul sent the national guard into the NYC subway system. You can see them at the major hubs either looking bored or on their phones. Washington, BTW with a falling crime rate, will be the same.— Margaret Kimberley (@freedomrideblog) August 11, 2025
Weimar Republic
Texas Republicans and Democrats, locked in redistricting battle, weaponize flood response Texas Tribune
L’affaire Epstein
RussiaGate
Classified Leaks Back in Focus in Russiagate Investigation Matt Taibbi
Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System New York Times
lol nytimes congratulates itself for timing this leak of alleged “partial Russian” hacks with the Trump-Putin summit.
No better way to distract from the Times’ daily Gaza journalistic malpractice than to revive the ol’ Russiagate glory https://t.co/04vPHKyvQX pic.twitter.com/5XloocoRaJ
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) August 12, 2025
Brave New World
China unveils bionic antelope robot to observe endangered Tibetan species Interesting Engineering
MAHA
Firm Tied to Trump Jr. Debuts Direct Sales Product for Pharma Bloomberg
NIH director: mRNA vaccine contracts were canceled because public lacks trust in technology STAT
Abortion
Texas DA once paid for abortion — then charged a woman who had one with murder, court filing claims Houston Chronicle
AI
A new gold rush? How AI is transforming San Francisco Los Angeles Times
Members of Congress Increasingly Take Jobs as AI Lobbyists Lee Fang
Musk threatens to sue Apple so Grok can get top App Store ranking Ars Technica
Sam Altman and Elon Musk Trade Barbs Over Who Is More Full of Shit Gizmodo
Eliza-pilled Internal exile
Groves of Academe
After crushing dissent, U.S. universities are deepening ties with Israeli academia 972 Magazine
Our Famously Free Press
The BBC helped kill Anas al-Sharif. Its reporting will kill more journalists Jonathan Cook
How Western Media Laid The Groundwork For A Holocaust Do Not Panic!
THREAD. Today’s orders by Trump federalizing D.C. police and deploying National Guard in D.C. in response to “out of control” crime are authoritarian. But I want to comment on something subtle lurking beneath the surface.
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) August 11, 2025
Are Bellingcat and the OCCRP ‘Independent’ Media? The Realist Review
Supply Chain
Lithium price jump exposes China’s chokehold on supply Asia Times
Healthcare?
Antitrust
America’s Largest Landlord to Stop Using RealPage Rent-Setting Software, Makes Deal With DOJ ProPublica
Class Warfare
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“N. Korea holds firing drills ahead of planned S. Korea-U.S. joint military exercises”
Yeah, entirely predictable this. Recently South Korea have been removing speakers from the contact line that play stuff like K-pop songs and news reports to ease off tensions between the two countries. Then in a reciprocal move, North Korea have removing their speakers that play weird noises and animals howling. Probably Washington did not like that so went ahead with military exercises so the North Koreans are doing the same. Left to their own devices, I bet both countries could work out an accommodation with each other-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2klzxldl6o
The US and South Korea always hold military exercises during sowing and harvest times to disrupt NK farmers who are then called into the defence forces in case the US and SK actually attempt to invade NK.
Evil is as evil does.
RE: antidote
Is that a goose-steppin’ lizard? I guess he or she has been hanging around the EU.
This strikes me as important, though we need a better source than a random X channel:
https://x.com/theinformation/status/1955426590818472334
The city streets are empty now
(The lights don’t shine no more)
And so the financials are way down low
(Turning, turning, turning)
A sound that flows into my mind
(The echoes of the daylight)
Of every loan that is alive
(In my blue world)
They turned to home, and now are gone
They turned to home
Returned to home, when you forfeiting loan?
This can’t go on
The dying loans of edifice wrecks
(A fire that slowly fades till dawn)
Still look down upon Wall*Street necks
(Turning, turning, turning)
The tired streets that hide away
(From here to everywhere they go)
Roll past my door into the day
In my blue world
They turned to home, and now are gone
They turned to home
Returned to home, when you forfeiting loan?
This can’t go on
Turned to home, after the pandemic was gone
They turned to home
Yes, I’m returning the loan ’cause you’re working at home
Why ain’t you working in the office, so I’m returning the loan
You’ve been gone for so long and I can’t carry on
Yes, I’m returnin’, I’m returnin’, I’m returnin’ the loan
Turn to Stone, by ELO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDhJU_cNCZE
US flew spy flights for UK // Declassified UK
Salient paragraphs: “Declassified can now reveal that a spy plane owned by a US contractor to whom the RAF is outsourcing its spy flights circled over Nuseirat refugee camp the night before the bombing.
“Publicly available flight-tracking data show that in the hours before the blast, and again afterwards, two surveillance aircraft operating from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s military base on Cyprus, circled close to or over Gaza.”
Che sorpresa! Akrotiri. Knock me over with a feather.
Channeling Marcus Porcius Cato: Akrotiri and Dhekelia must be destroyed.
“Foreign Recruits Killed in Ukraine as Missile Hits Camp’s Mess Hall”
‘Three soldiers, including one who witnessed the strike, described a harrowing assault that hit fresh recruits from the United States, Colombia, Taiwan, Denmark and other places.’
Columbia? So would they have been members of Cartel gangs that the Ukrainians have been recruiting to fight in their country? Maybe the Cartels in Mexico can make a deal with Trump. He doesn’t go after them in Mexico and in return they will send recruits to the Ukraine as fighters there. He might buy that.
The flooding originates in Suicide Basin, a mountainous bowl above Juneau formed by a receding glacier. Water accumulates in the basin until an ice dam gives way, sending billions of gallons of water across the Mendenhall Glacier and through the Mendenhall Valley, where most Juneau residents live.
On Tuesday, officials with the City and Borough of Juneau and Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska urged residents within a mapped inundation zone to evacuate — and for everyone to stay away from the increasingly dangerous river.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Juneau what i’d do?
Get the hell outta dodge…
Met a nice couple @ Saline hot springs from Willow Alaska, who’ve been there for over 25 years and they were relating that the state decided in 1976 to move the state capitol to Willow, but it didn’t take and nothing happened.
Willow has almost the same population base as Tiny Town here, a couple thousand peeps
We Don’t Have to Anthropomorphize Animals. Miriam Bahagijo.
Yes. And if I may remind everyone of Yves Smith’s excellent recent essay on conscientiousness, I’d argue that another aspect of the decline of conscientiousness has been this inability to deal with animals as animals.
I’m so old that I recall when dogs were dogs. Now I see dogs that are accessories, neuroses, medical cases bred into serious maladies (all of the pugs and other muzzle-less breeds), and not all that bright.
It also gives me the creeps to see videos of “baby goats in sweaters” — more neuroses, but with yarn.
For that matter, given the wonderful language and vocabulary about animals, I am taken back by the “baby” stuff. It’s a colt. It’s a heifer. It’s a chick. It’s a fox kit.
Indeed, from the author Miriam Bahagijo: “Instead of anthropomorphizing, we should try to understand animals based on how they experience the world with their own senses.”
Although for mere human beings, that would mean rethinking the whole world to take into serious consideration canines and their sense of smell and sense of hearing.
Ever think of it from a cat’s perspective?
Your skyscraper servants loom 6x higher than the top of your head living in the land of the giants and they could squash you dead with a misstep, and you have to also act as if you hear them calling you by the name they bestowed, back in the day.
My concern is more about us denying that we too are animals evolved on this planet. Once upon a time, as they say, we were content to find our food and water every day on our beneficent Earth, have babies and contemplate the cosmos in our more abundant than now spare time. The whales and dolphins of the sea and the elephants and apes of the land, intelligent animals all, are still content to live that way, still happy in their ecological niche. They talk and sing and blow their horn as we do, but they don’t seem to have this compulsion to build skyscrapers, fusion bombs and data centers. We need to zoomorphize humans rather than anthropomorphize animals.
I watched some excerpts from that famous interview of Pete Buttigieg from his man cave in Michigan. I got to see HasanAbi, Krystal Ball, Ryan Grim, and a couple of others as they alternated between eye rolls and head shaking.
I am currently finishing up the definitive biography of Antonio Gramsci by Angelo D’Orsi, in which Pete’s father John, a great scholar of Gramsci, is mentioned by name (and affectionately) by D’Orsi. Now, I know that scholarship isn’t genetic, but one wonders if Pete ever bothered to read his father’s work.
Young Pete is, errrrr, surprising flexible about genocide. And for someone who was in the military, he has no sense about what happens to weapons shipped to Israel, about which he has romantic rather than strategic ideas. In short, he’s no Gramsci.
Instead, I realize that Young Pete is purely a media creation (going back to when Frank Bruni invented him), much like Hillary “Looking for Fifth Columnists” Clinton and Matteo “Disastrous Labor Laws” Renzi here in Italy.
Nevertheless, if Pete Buttigieg is considered a serious politician and insightful analyst of the U.S. situation, then I am the god Jupiter. It’s a good thing that I am in the Undisclosed Region. But I am calibrating the voltages of some of the lightning bolts.
Mayo Pete has no chance of becoming President. He polled at zero among blacks, a key constituency among Dems. He just didn’t move us, according to that Stephen A. Smith interview on Bill Maher’s show. Other voter groups may object to his weasely wording and failure to take definitive stands. Another phony pol relying on focus groups to guide his, uh, vision.
He should go volunteer on a charging station construction crew to interact with people outside the Beltway and media studios.
I saw that NYT “Russian penetration” article. If I read that correctly the sources are anonymous “former federal law enforcement officials”, and what the actual evidence might be for Russian anything is never mentioned. Incident was apparently in 2021.
Russkiegate, as the original one was so successful for the Times? If only they could work in quotes from Schiff and Hillary! /s
‘Heyman_101
@SU_57R
Aug 11
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russian Telegram channels are becoming increasingly more convinced that Ukraine may soon attempt an armoured incursion into the Russian Bryansk region, similar to what occurred in Kursk last year.’
Obviously a hail Mary by Zelensky. The idea is that if the Ukraine can once again seize Russian territory, then they could trade it for a conflict freeze or maybe some parts of the Ukraine that the Russians have seized like part of Sumy region. I don’t think that it will happen though. The Russians kept Kursk open so that the Ukrainians could keep on sending their best troops in and then be destroyed piecemeal. The Ukrainians lost about 70,000 of their best troops there but I think that if the Ukrainians tried to invade Bryansk, that the Russians will just drop the hammer on them this time round. Destroying them means less troops to shore up the collapsing eastern front-line.
Lightning bolts would be a lot simpler than Bader Meinhof or the Weather Underground. So would a Gort more precisely directed at the source of the problem.
Oops. Meant as a reply to this portion of DJG’s comment above:
“Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest”
You have to give it to the Washington Post here. They wrote this really long article about Trump wanting to set up a military force to act as, oh I don’t know, troubleshooters and not once in that article do they mention the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act which restricts the use of the military for law enforcement work. Now why would that be?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
If I was the Prez, I would set up a permanent military force OK. But one that would be dedicated to helping out in natural disasters as they have the trained people, the equipment and the resources to do some good and with climate change already knocking at our door, such a force could really come in handy.