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Do you see blue or green? This viral test plays with color perception Guardian (Kevin W)
How odd Christian beliefs about sex shape the world Economist (Dr. Kevin)
Gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean Was The Most Extreme ‘Rogue Wave’ on Record ScienceAlert
We need to start telling women how pregnancy changes their brain New Scientist (Dr. Kevin)
#COVID-19
“The US reported an average 1500 COVID-19 deaths a week for 2023 – comparable to fentanyl or firearm deaths.”
This wasn’t from health officials but insurance actuaries.🤯
Covid-19 may lead to longest period of peacetime excess mortality, says new report https://t.co/Ag3RkGZHn4.
— Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) September 17, 2024
According to wastewater, the U.S. would be reporting over 9.1 MILLION new Covid cases each week if we were testing & reporting data.
Since we’re not, we’re told there’s only around 150,000 new cases each week.
We can be certain the deaths are a dramatic undercount too. https://t.co/NKOY3BRq87
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) September 16, 2024
Climate/Environment
Central Europe braces for further flooding ‘apocalypse’ as death toll rises Reuters
Everything is stuck! That partly explains the 20” of rain along the Carolina Coast and extreme rains and snows in Central Europe. Take a look at the jet stream in the US and Europe. Rex blocks (high over top of low) abound with an extremely wavy jet stream! pic.twitter.com/R8B8PUoCRE
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) September 16, 2024
India’s milk industry struggles as the climate changes Dialogue Earth
Poor harvest leaves UK bakers dependent on wheat imports to meet demand Bakery Info
China?
Chinese Refineries Go Bankrupt Amid Plummeting Margins OilPrice
Down Under
Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans says Australia won’t have sovereignty over Aukus submarines Guardian (Kevin W)
European Disunion
Macron’s Impeachment Clears First Hurdle in Left-Dominated National Assembly Sputnik
Unusually, roughly half, and it’s the first half, of Politico’s EU morning newsletter is devoted to a single topic, admittedly with lots of supporting examples. Major header: DRIVING THE DAY: BUYER’S REMORSE over the re-election of Queen von der Leyen. Some bits:
VON DER LEYEN’S VISION CONFRONTS REALITY: “The whole College is committed to competitiveness!” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared as she presented her new team on Tuesday. But now that their actual responsibilities are becoming more clear, we’re left asking: competitiveness, or competition — with each other?
Team Ursula: At first, von der Leyen seemed to come up with a magic solution to the jigsaw puzzle: a (relatively) balanced Commission devoted to both climate and industry, with enough snazzy executive VP slots to satisfy Pedro Sánchez and his stung Socialists; goodies for capitals that ditched their dude nominees; and a team of people she generally liked and trusted.
Or is it “Queen Ursula’s” court? But now that they’ve read the fine print — i.e. the so-called mission letters laying out the actual jobs attached to each title — capitals are starting to feel buyer’s remorse. A picture emerges of a relatively weak slate of commissioners, with overlapping portfolios that make it hard for any individual to wield major influence. (POLITICO’s Lucia Mackenzie made this organigram for you.)…..
PARIS PARANOID ABOUT BAIT AND SWITCH:…..
Not just Paris: Von der Leyen appeared to reward Romania for swapping out its male nominee by giving Roxana Mînzatu, a former minister of European funds and a first-term MEP, the title of executive VP for people, skills and preparedness. That has a lot of Socialist buzzwords, but in reality, Mînzatu’s mandate is mushy and her only exclusive report is Malta’s Glenn Micallef…..
ALIENATING ANOTHER KEY CONSTITUENCY: Parliament wrote new rules this cycle to try to force von der Leyen to clue lawmakers in first about the new Commission. She rebelled on Tuesday morning, describing the structure of the new Commission to top MEPs, but demurring on names. She then walked into the press briefing room and delivered a PowerPoint with each commissioner-designate’s photo and proposed title.
Apoplectic: It was an “illustration of her contempt for our Parliament,” Left leader Manon Aubry fumed to Eddy Wax, and we heard similar complaints from people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Von der Leyen’s team said she was just trying to avoid leaks and chaos.
The Truth About Matthew Perry European Conservative (Micael T)
HUNGER STRIKE AT THE SWEDISH CASINO COMPANY IN GEORGIA – THEN THE EMBASSY PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE COMPANY Proletaren via machine translation (Micael T)
US/EU $50B Rus Asset Ukr Loan Plan Fails; Ukr Officers Flee Vuhledar; Rus Encircles Ukr Troops Kursk Alexander Mercours, YouTube. Mecrousi gives Conor a very detailed shout-out over his Draghi economic plan post.
Gaza
Hundreds of Hezbollah members reportedly injured by exploding pagers BBC
September 17, 2024 – Hezbollah vows retaliation against Israel for deadly pager explosions CNN. Confirms that Israel was behind the attack.
New Details in Hezbollah Pager Attack Point to Supply-Chain Breach by Israel Wall Street Journal. Sadly WSJ is now blocking archiving. Similar: Israel’s Mossad planted explosives in 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanon’s Hezbollah: sources South China Morning Post
The pagers Israel exploded were made by Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. The pagers were reportedly imported 5 months ago (mid-April 2024), which lines up closely with a Knesset delegation visit to Taiwan during which Tsai pledged to “deepen” partnership between the 2 countries. https://t.co/ig6Nk2TN09 pic.twitter.com/PRBZpcY8UF
— 𝙂𝙐𝙈𝘽𝙔 (@gumby4christ) September 17, 2024
The founder of the Taiwanese company Gold Appolo Hsu Ching-Kuang told journalists that his company did not produce this particular batch of pagers.
Gold Apollo intends to file a billion-dollar lawsuit against the Israeli government after it admitted that Mossad activated… pic.twitter.com/NZ3Dtf24q4
— Nothing to see (@Wagnersfamily) September 18, 2024
The moment Hezbollah pagers exploded throughout Lebanon pic.twitter.com/CwEQCSwFlh
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) September 17, 2024
Lebanese health minister holding presser on pager attacks across Arab country on Tuesday PressTV. This was live just before 6 AM EDT. If that link takes you to a fresher live video (this appears to be the PressTV live feed), try clicking through from this tweet.
Hezbollah vows retaliation after blaming Israel for pager blasts Aljazeera
This man is a Democrat. Calling a blatant violation of the Geneva convention’s Protocol on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices “innovative.” The Dems are the party of Dick Cheney and torture. There is no wrong US-Israel cannot do in their eyes. And they want people’s votes?! https://t.co/zoE2qbTBON
— 🍉 Dr. Thrasher still cares about Covid & Gaza🔻 (@thrasherxy) September 18, 2024
What Israel has just done is, via *any* method, reckless. They blew up countless numbers of people who were driving (meaning cars out of control), shopping (your children are in the stroller standing behind him in the checkout line), et cetera. Indistinguishable from terrorism. https://t.co/th4fYwa0jr
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2024
Slashdot is concerned, linked to another Snowden tweet:
BREAKING🚨
Israeli media have reported the terrorist attack on Lebanon was an MOSSAD Operation that involved planting 20 grams of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) into Motorola pagers in Tel Aviv.
The MOSSAD Operation installed them 5 months ago then sent the devices to… pic.twitter.com/G1gaW8qjz2
— Pelham (@Resist_05) September 18, 2024
Exploding pagers join long history of killer communications devices Financial Times
Israel’s Threat To Wage War On Hizbullah Is Getting More Serious Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Closing hatches before rains founder the Western Vessel Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)
To the Israeli Soldier Who Murdered Aysenur Ezgi Eygi Chris Hedges (Dr. Kevin)
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukrainian drones successfully struck a massive Russian ammunition dump belonging to the 107th arsenal GRAU tonight in Tver Oblast, Russia.
Seen here, a large series of secondary explosions rock the burning Russian base. pic.twitter.com/ikHK8Vzz2E
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 18, 2024
Please note I have seen videos of explosions in Ukraine before that produced nuke blast looking clouds. Please do not get out over your skis, or evidence.
🇺🇦 Ukraine attack on Russian missile depot triggers mini earthquake
Explosions measure 2.8 on Richter scale as large plumes of smoke from the fires are seen from space
Read more ⬇️https://t.co/2yyLW6d1rp pic.twitter.com/uuRC9brlo4
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 18, 2024
What do we know about the Ukrainian attack in Russia’s Tver region? AlArabiya. Looks like the Russians were relying on the facility being sufficiently hardened v. attack, which was not the case. so they did not move all this ammo out of long-range strike range, as they did (per Lloyd Austin) with planes. So corruption when the facility was built = not meeting specs?
💥 Russia: The blast wave from explosions of tens of thousands of tons of missiles and explosives warehoused at a military base in Tver region caused this resident’s ears to bleed.
For reference:
Iskander missile weighs 4 tons.
North Korean KN-23 missile weighs 3 tons. https://t.co/mutY2eF0o0 pic.twitter.com/2nqDgfn9An— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) September 18, 2024
NATO’s Destruction of Ukraine Under the Guise of “Helping” Glenn Diesen (Robin K)
Information and disinformation Gilbert Doctorow (guurst). On RT and Ritter.
Syraqistan
Hundreds of ‘Ukrainian experts’ training Syria-based extremists in drone warfare: Report The Cradle (Kevin W)
Second Trump Assassination Attempt
Harris condemns Trump’s rhetoric, says voters should make sure he ‘can’t have that microphone again’ Associated Press (Kevin W). Wowsers.
Age of Rage: 26 Million Americans Believe Political Violence is Justified Jonathan Turley
CNN Worries That Trump Assassination Attempts Are HELPING Him Politically Modernity
Kamala
Kamala Safe And In Stable Condition After Attempted Interview Babylon Bee
Our No Longer Free Press
Free Speech on the Internet: The Crisis of Epistemic Authority Daedalus (Anthony L)
Meta Platforms and YouTube ban RT worldwide WSWS
RT editor-in-chief proclaimed ‘expert troller’ RT. Kevin W: “Key line – ‘Christiane Amanpour interviewed her ex-husband about our perfidy and called me an ‘expert troller’.’”
Scenes From The Literary Blacklist Persuasion (Micael T)
Woke Watch
Unexceptional Sex Philosophers’ Magazine (Anthony L)
10 Delta passengers receive medical attention following emergency landing in Salt Lake City CBS (Kevin W). WTF with Delta’s maintenance?
Mr. Market Gets What He Wants. Note rate cut story is a big banner headline at the Wall Street Journal, not the pager terrorism.
The Fed’s biggest interest rate call in years happens Wednesday. Here’s what to expect CNBC
AI
China wants red flags on all AI-generated content posted online The Register
Google Will Begin Labeling AI-Generated Images In Search Digital Trends
Ellison Declares Oracle ‘All In’ On AI Mass Surveillance The Register
Class Warfare
Boeing not taking strike talks seriously, union says Hurriyet
Antidote du jour:
A bonus (Chuck L):
This is the best thing i’ve seen today!! pic.twitter.com/LRjVsunTRm
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 15, 2024
A second bonus (Robin K):
When you hear all your favorite words.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/O7Fd4LMPhZ
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 16, 2024
And a third bonus (Robin K):
Yoga time.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/6b1Zv9ZWom
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 17, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
