Links 3/19/2022 | naked capitalism

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Dear patient readers,

Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link- free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.

And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 electionwe are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

–Yves

PS Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

PPS One of our mods is on holiday till the end of the month, so comment liberation may take longer than usual. We are very sorry! Please be patient.

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Here’s how a videographer reimagines Hollywood blockbusters as cat videos NPR (David L)

Why Aren’t There More Dogs at the Doctor’s Office? JSTOR

How to Squeeze Twice as Much Energy Into Solid-State Batteries Popular Mechanics

Novel theory of entropy may solve materials design issues Phys.org (Kevin W)

Our universe may have a twin that runs backward in time Live Science (Chuck L)

Scientists See What People Picture in Their Mind’s Eye Neuroscience (David L)

Scientists Create RNA That Evolves on Its Own. This Could Be How Life on Earth Started ScienceAlert (Kevin W)

Cancer Cells’ Iron Addiction May Be an Achilles Heel SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Beyond Psilocybin: These Mushrooms May Offer Brain-Boosting Compounds, Too Discover Magazine (David L)

Against ‘han’, or why Koreans are not defined by sadness Aeon (Anthony L)

#COVID-19

Science/Medicine

Changes in cognitive functioning after COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis Alzheimer’s & Dementia

What We Know About the ‘Stealth’ BA.2 Omicron Variant New York Times (Kevin W). I am at a loss as to how to reconcile these statements:

The subvariant of Omicron is becoming more common in the United States but probably won’t cause another large spike….

It appears that these mutations speed up BA.2 by making it more transmissible, rather than better able to evade immunity. In Denmark, for example, scientists found that people infected with BA.2 were substantially more likely to infect people they shared a house with than those with BA.1.

In England, researchers found that it took less time on average for someone with BA.2 to infect another person, accelerating its spread through communities.

Um, this was obviously coming and foretold repeatedly by scientist GM:

Asia

Covid-19 cases are exploding in Asia. Here’s what it means for the rest of the world. Vox (David L)

Why Omicron Is So Deadly in Hong Kong New York Times (David L)

HK runs out of coffins as Covid deaths surge Asia Times Kevin W: “Obviously the people of Hong Kong were never told that the Pandemic is over. /sarc”

US

Why some Americans haven’t gotten COVID yet and why it’s not inevitable they ever will: Experts ABC. OMG so now it’s explicit. It’s reasonable to have been infected, as opposed to a total public health fail. They really do want to kill us. And conflates getting vaccinated with infection prevention, as opposed to severe outcome prevention, gah.

Murky case for fourth doses now with FDA as protection wanes, BA.2 looms ars technica. Kevin W: “Related article ‘Moderna seeks US permission for second COVID-19 booster shot’ at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/moderna-seeks-us-permission -for-second-covid-19-booster-shot/100922868″

Climate/Environment

Temperatures to spike 50 degrees above normal near North Pole Washington Post (resilc)

Great Barrier Reef Suffers Another Episode of Widespread Bleaching Weather (J-LS)

Race to the bottom: How big business took over Oregon’s first protected aquifer OPB (resilc)

Quaise’s ultra-deep geothermal drilling plans: Your questions answered New Atlas (furzy)

China?

US to build anti-China missile network along first island chain Nikkei (guurst)

New Not So Cold War

This is how the world ends Gilbert Doctorow. Important. Many nuggets, such as who Putin’s “fifth column” remarks on the 16th targeted.

The US arming of Ukraine and the preparations for war WSWS

US Public Views of Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Biden’s Response Pew (resilc)

WATCH: UN Security Council on Ukraine’s Bio Labs Consortium News

Russia Mod: Briefing on analysis of documents related to US military and biological activities in Ukraine Saker (Kevin W)

Roaming Charges: The Thoughts That Pulled the Trigger CounterPunch

Ukie War: Blackwater Mercenary Teams Eradicated in Precision Russian Strike on Luxury ‘Skivvy’ Hotel Veterans Today (Chuck L). From earlier in the week, still germane.

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Hillary Vows To Stop Importing Dossiers From Russia Babylon Bee (Li)

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Readout of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Call with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China White House

President Xi Jinping Has a Video Call with US President Joe Biden Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. Way way more detail than US version and released almost immediately after the call, unlike US version. I welcome reader input, but this looks for the US to have come out on the very bad end of plausible outcomes. Xi upped the ante re Taiwan, telling Biden the US was responsible for loose-lipped talk regarding Taiwan independence, with Biden reaffirmed that the US does not support. So it’s now on Biden’s desk to turn those, ahem, misperceptions around . Xi also made it clear that China will not intermediate among the US, NATO, Ukraine, and Russia (which the US has always meant to equate to “China muscles Russia to stand down.”).

Xi urges US, NATO to talk with Russia, opposes indiscriminate sanctions Global Times. The failed Jake Sullivan meeting followed by the Biden call request was clearly an escalation, and the Chinese are not at all happy with the US refusing to take “no” as an answer. I don’t read Global Times regularly but the tone seemed caustic. For instance:

Just hours before the meeting, China, in a rare move, sent tough signals, stating it will never accept US threats and coercion over the Ukraine issue and vowing to make a strong response if the US takes measures harming China’s legitimate interests…

China will never accept US threats and coercion, and if the US takes measures that harm China’s legitimate interests and the interests of Chinese enterprises and individuals, China will not sit idly by and will make a strong response, the official stressed, noting the US should stress not have any illusions or miscalculations about this.

Biden’s call with Xi underscores deepening bilateral deadlock Politico

Biden and Xi fail to bridge differences over Ukraine war Financial Times. More proof we have lost our minds:

US officials did not offer any details of the potential punishment for China following the call, or provide an assessment of whether Xi had already decided whether to support Russia.

But Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said the US had a “range of tools” at its disposal, including sanctions, and that the potential western response would probably be discussed when Biden travels to Europe next week for meetings with Nato, EU and G7 leaders.

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High energy costs trigger unrest in parts of Europe Associated Press

Infographic: How much of your country’s gas comes from Russia? Al Jazeera (Kevin W)

Belgium scraps plan to ditch nuclear power RT (Kevin W)

From pasta shortage to run on iodine pills, panic buying hits Europe again Financial Times

Brexit

Salad, fruit, cheese and wine could run out amid supply chain chaos after P&O Ferries – which handles 15% of UK freight – stopped ships while farmers warn breeding livestock could be slaughtered without a route across the Irish Sea Daily Mail

P&O Ferries sparks outrage by sacking 800 workers BBC (Kevin W)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Declassified Docs Show CIA Used Prisoner as a Torture Training Prop Antiwar

Biden

Hunter Biden scandal: CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC completely avoid NYT report verifying laptop emails from 2020 MSN (TF)

EXCLUSIVE: Senator Ron Johnson leads Republicans asking when the ‘corrupt’ media, Twitter and Facebook will be held to account for taking a YEAR to ‘acknowledge’ the Hunter fake laptop story after dismissing it as fake laptop story Daily Mail

California plan would give $100m to Indigenous leaders to buy ancestral lands Guardian (David L)

Police State Watch

LMPD Training Materials Portrayed Police As Avengers Who Carry Out God’s Wrath LEO Weekly (Dr. Kevin)

Our Famously Free Press

Most medical collection debt is about to fall off of consumer credit reports NBC

Toyota, major chip supplier suspend production due to earthquake in Japan CNBC (resilc)

Inside the Nickel Market Failure: Massive Trades the Exchange Didn’t See Wall Street Journal

International Energy Agency Says Nations Should Conserve Fuel as Global Energy Crisis Looms New York Times. Resilc: “Too funny. Yeh, and wear a mask.”

IEA calls for driving restrictions and air travel curbs to reduce oil demand Financial Times. Wowsers.

SEC takes its finger out of the dike with investigation of Big 4 auditors’ conflicts Francine McKenna

Class Warfare

A million new millionaires were created in US last year, and the richest got richer, report says CNBC

Antidote du jour. Alison L’s Daisy:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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