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.

Cops: Cat Used As Weapon In Domestic Battery The Smoking Gun (resilc)

Mild dust devil in Yukon, Canada pic.twitter.com/48v6skhC72

— Gabriel Hébert-Mild™ ? (@Gab_H_R) April 10, 2022

Mushrooms Have Their Own Language With Up to 50 “Words” My Modern Met (David L)

Psilocybin for depression could help brain break out of a rut, scientists say Guardian (Kevin W)

How the Battle Over a Pesticide Led to Scientific Skepticism Wired (Robert M)

Scepticism is a way of life that allows democracy to flourish Aeon (resilc)

#COVID-19

Science/Medicine

Recent pre-print using data on hospital admissions from the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program from April 2020–May 2021 shows severity of illness among children admitted to hospital has increased with each wave. https://t.co/HljTvflxMN pic.twitter.com/XBXJvGt6ZN

— Diego Bassani, PhD (@DGBassani) April 11, 2022

An experimental COVID drug was so successful that they’re shutting down trials early Fortune (David L)

Why Are People with Allergic Asthma Less Susceptible to Severe COVID? UNC (resilc). I assume that they must use inhalers and whatever is in those inhalers….My mother with not very bad COPD was on a daily inhaler.

Asia

Shanghai Cases Exceed 26,000 Again as Covid Zero Resolve Holds Bloomberg

The rest of the world should watch what is happening in Shanghai Financial Times (David L)

US

IM Doc has an entire large-ish very vaxxed family (3-4 shots each) that went to the Star Trek convention and all now have Covid. He adds that George Takei had been putting up hateful tweets about the unvaxed and he was at this convention:

A couple of reports of folks testing positive after coming home from #StarTrekCHI. I was isolating already JIC, and will test in a few days, but if you were there make sure to get tested.

— Ambassador Kael (@AmbassadorKael) April 12, 2022

Climate/Environment

Hydrogen 11 times worse than CO2 for climate, says new report New Atlas (David L)

You’ve heard of water droughts. Could ‘energy’ droughts be next? TechXplore (Robert M)

Climate Change Is Hurting Penguins Unevenly in Antarctica New York Times (resilc)

Stripe, Alphabet, Meta Join to Fund Carbon Removal Bloomberg (furzy). Hate to be a knee-jerk skeptic, but the identities of the backers pretty much assure that this initiative is somewhere between empty PR and a scam.

Chemours Claims PFAS Chemical GenX Protects Climate Intercept (resilc)

As Climate Fears Mount, Some Are Relocating Within the US Wired

Chile announces unprecedented plan to ration water as drought enters 13th year Guardian (Chuck L)

Colorado’s First Legally Composted Human Remains Laid to Rest Treehugger (resilc)

New Not-So-Cold War

FRENCH JOURNALIST DESCRIBES TIME IN UKRAINE Bitchute (Chuck L). Journalist says a story is running this week in Le Figaro (not clear if just about this or this account is a tidbit).

US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr. NATO adviser Aaron Mate, YouTube. Important. Jacques Baud.

Sitrep Z The Saker. Also important. Latest of his periodic updates. Many developments and rumors, most important being a big uptick in Ukrainian captures/surrenders/deaths in the field. See also the summary towards the end of a West Point presentation on Russian capabilities.

* * *

Le Canada a formé des éléments d’un régiment ukrainien lié à l’extrême droite Radio-Canada. Translation: Canada trained elements of a Ukrainian regiment linked to the far right

Pentagon looks to vastly expand weapons for Ukraine Washington Post (furzy). How do you spell “pork” in Ukrainian?

Biden says Putin committing ‘genocide’ The Hill. Contrast with Jacques Baud above starting at 35:00.

Is the Biden Administration Trying to Prolong the Ukraine War? Antiwar.com (resilc). We need to ask?

Zelensky Says He’s ‘No Longer Interested’ in NATO’s Diplomacy Antiwar (resilc). Recall Clare Daly. “NATO diplomacy” seems to be an oxymoron.

The Savage Art of Learning Nothing American Conservative (resilc)

Indian PM may be dropped from G7 meeting – media RT. More high school antics. Serious people maintain relations in the face of differences.

* * *

NUMBER OF GAS STATIONS IN UKRAINE DECREASES 3 TIMES SINCE BEGINNING OF WAR – DIRECTOR OF “A-95” Ukraine Open for Business

Kremlin will take legal action if Russia pushed into default, minister threatens Guardian (Kevin W). Cyprus, maybe? They run English law courts. Or Hong Kong, which similar English law courts and no doubt some afflicted investors? This is more for optics since the US will still get S&P/Moody’s/Fitch to declare a default. But Russia and its state-owned enterprises aren’t going to borrow in dollars or euros again, so this is largely academic in terms of impact on Russia.

China’s Jan-March overall trade with Russia rises 28 percent to $38.2 bln Al Arabiya

Which Giant Oil Stands To Lose The Most In The Exodus From Russia? OilPrice

* * *

Why is a Russian Intelligence General in Moscow Lefortovo Prison? Moscow Times

Is Putin Conducting A “Stalinist” Purge of Russia’s Intelligence Service? Ian Welsh (Randy K)

Head of Ukraine’s largest opposition party arrested, handcuffed, humiliating photograph publicly shared by Ukraine’s president. All signs of a healthy European democracy.https://t.co/8QIRgVeEwh

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 12, 2022

Contrast Ames with this: Pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician thought to be Putin’s pick for puppet leader arrested, Zelenskyy announced Business Insider. I have yet to see any suggestion that Medvedchuk has done anything bad beyond being a personal friend of Putin. In addition, I have yet to find a story on this capture that acknowledges that on March 20, the National Security and Defense Council halted the activities of all opposition parties in Ukraine.

* * *

This is amusing (hat tip furzy) but it also proves Russia is no good at propaganda. No glam, no clever visuals, just a spoken rejoinder face on to the camera:

Trump

Why did the Saudis invest $2 bn with Jared Kushner? Juan Cole (resilc)

Gov. DeSantis signs bill addressing ‘fatherhood crisis’ WLRN (resilc)

Democrats Bail On Promise To Shed Light On Corporate Political Spending Lever

Oklahoma governor signs bill making nearly all abortions illegal Axios (Kevin W)

Our Famously Free Press

If you are wondering how the launch of CNN+ is going, Jake Tapper’s Book Club (@TapperBookClub) just broke the 430 follower mark

— It wasn’t in my district (@DoctorFishbones) April 12, 2022

Take out your credit card so you can pay to see life-long agents of the US security state on CNN’s payroll lie to you:https://t.co/6YgJDDoii9

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 12, 2022

Brooklyn subway shooting Live Updates: 23 people injured after gunman fired 33 bullets; shooter at large Indian Express. Includes many secondary stories.

2. Let’s start with Apple, which systematically transferred technology to Chinese firms after Tim Cook in 2016 made a $275 billion investment pledge to invest in China. https://t.co/BRRr5gh91y

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) April 12, 2022

Facebook is making employees read Chinese propaganda to impress Beijing Quartz (Kevin W)

Supply Chain

China Port Congestion Strands Ship Cargos From Grains to Metals Bloomberg (resilc)

Elon Musk accused of breaking law while buying Twitter stock Associated Press

Lumber falls to fresh 2022 lows as spike in mortgage rates cools housing demand and inflation puts dent in home renovations Business Insider

Dark personalities and Bitcoin(R): The influence of the Dark Tetrad on cryptocurrency attitude and buying intention ScienceDirect (furzy). As you know, we are not fans, but this sort of armchair psychologizing needs to get its own DSM category.

Why American Teens Are So Sad Atlantic (resilc)

Class Warfare

Watch: Melk Talks How Established Unions Could Blow “Amazon Moment” in 30 Min Segment w/ RJ Eskow Mike Elk (ma)

Starbucks Just Fired Yet Another Union Organizer Vice (resilc)

Antidote du jour (CV):

An anti-antidote, unless you really like bats or homely animals (guurst):

Hammer Headed Bat pic.twitter.com/oBB2mBknph

— Nature Is Metal (@NatureIs_Metal) April 11, 2022

And a more typical bonus, again from guurst:

? Graellsia isabellae pic.twitter.com/jZaQhtyrGf

— Nature Is Metal (@NatureIs_Metal) April 6, 2022

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.