The Hidden Butterfly Trade Nautilus (Micael T)
Gothic architecture made infinity imaginable.
10 marvels of Gothic design, from medieval cathedrals to modern skyscrapers (thread) 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Oded0ZlayX
— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 12, 2024
US ‘secretly’ seizes Venezuelan jumbo jet RT (Robin K)
Ebola vaccine can save some who are already sick, per new study STAT (furzy)
Does Your Community Have a Personality Type? FAU. Paul R: “Distribution of personality types varies by city. Actual study is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666622724000017”
#COVID-19
‘Robodebt of medicine’: Patients are catching COVID and dying in hospitals, doctors say ABC Australia (ma)
Hospitals Deny Immunocompromised Patients’ ADA Requests For Masks Forbes. We are surrounded by monsters.
Millions of people have long Covid, including children and pregnant people, studies show CNN (Paul R)
Climate/Environment
The Six Months That Short-Circuited the Electric-Vehicle Revolution Wall Street Journal
Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet Guardian (Kevin W)
Does recycling actually help the climate? Yale Climate Connections
China?
Trump’s China trade war threat already roiling markets Asia Times
China’s graduates pursue vocational training as firms eye practical, technical skills from problem solvers over academics South China Morning Post
India
India farmers march: What are their demands? Why is gov’t blocking roads? Aljazeera
Farmers Protest LIVE Updates: Arjun Munda says ‘efforts to hold positive discussions with farmers’ union will continue’ Mint
Modi government unleashes massive police-military crackdown against farmers’ protest WSWS
Old Blighty
Labour suspends second parliamentary candidate after recording emerges BBC
Three guilty of terror offence over paraglider images at UK Palestine march Guardian (Kevin W)
European Disunion
Growing up in France I was always surrounded with people of North African or Levant origins but it took me living in other countries during my adulthood – countries actually respectful of the diversity of cultures in their midst – to realize just how uniquely intolerant France… https://t.co/dxRo8h4gMS
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) February 13, 2024
Calls Grow in Europe For Continental Nuclear Arsenals Aimed at Russia Military Watch
Tractor blockade disrupts operations at Belgian port of Antwerp Guardian
Former general Prabowo Subianto takes early lead in Indonesia election Financial Times
South of the Border
Washington Promotes Venezuelan Opposition Candidate Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Gaza
Gaza | Burning & destroying food warehouses
Israeli soldiers post a video on social media showing the destruction & burning of food warehouses in western Gaza City 3 days ago. This comes after a severe famine affecting North Gaza, where people are struggling for survival 1/2 pic.twitter.com/x5FSO61pW1
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) February 13, 2024
A substantial crowd of extremist Israelis are heading to the Nitzana Border Crossing with Egypt to prevent aid trucks from entering Gaza. I don’t know the extent of evil and sickness in a person who tries to starve another human being and finds joy in watching them die. pic.twitter.com/hJELiQoDc2
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) February 12, 2024
Risk of famine in Gaza ‘alarming’: Türkiye’s UN envoy Anadolu Agency
UN warns Israel: Rafah invasion could ‘lead to slaughter’ Arab News
ZOMG not only the substance but King Abdullah’s English. He is way better spoken than Biden and pretty much everyone in American public life:
The King of Jordan really pulled something out of the bag on pathetic Biden.
Absolutely bloody brilliant 👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/USLMG532co
— 💐🍂🍁Socialist🍁🍂💐 (@SocialistBella) February 13, 2024
The situation in Middle East is yeasty! Egypt will suspend the peace treaty with Israel if it launches an operation in Rafah Πενταπόσταγμα (BC)
South Africa Tries to Stop Israeli Assault on Rafah; Nicaragua Warns Britain and Germany Institute for Public Accuracy
Syraqistan
🇮🇷 BREAKING: Huge explosion of a gas pipeline between the cities of Shahrekord and Borujen in Iran
The explosion and its aftermath are so large that they could be seen from a distance as far away as 60km.
Firefighters and local media confirm that a section of pipeline 65, the… pic.twitter.com/gXeUbrWseJ
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) February 13, 2024
Iran Says Attacks Hit Part of Gas Pipeline Network Bloomberg
Polls close in Indonesia’s high stakes election BBC
US seizes plane that Iran sold to Venezuela Al Jazeera (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
SITREP 2/13/24: Avdeevka Turns Critical as Iskander Strike Devastates AFU Staging Area Simplicius the Thinker. This is major. A reader pointed it out in comments yesterday based on a report from Telegram in Moon of Alabama’s comment section, soon confirmed by another reader via Big Serge. A big practical and psychological blow.
SnowStorm | Iskander Strike At Selydove | Chasiv Yar Is Collapsing | Military Summary For 2024.02.13 Military Summary. Dima spends a lot of time trying to sort through the info on the attack. Dima speculates that the unit destroyed was Azovite and key to Zaluzhny’s and Poroshenko’s plans to remove Zelensky. Thus Dima contends that this was a betrayal designed to short up Zelensky’s and Syrsky’s position versus the Banderites. Supporting Dima’s theory (Dima can get out over his skis) is a point Scott Ritter called out on his new Danny Hapiphong show (BTW before this strike). While Zelensky was trying to get Zaluzhny to leave, Zaluzhny gave an award to an Azovite, in Zaluznhy’s office, with all the Nazi paraphernalia prominent in the press photos. Ritter said that was a deliberate reminder that Zaluzhny has Banderite muscle behind him. Not so much any more, it seems.
Things Are Going Badly for Ukraine — Really Badly Business Insider (furzy)
Take with a fistful of salt. The one thing making this report plausible is Macron was to go to Odessa, not Kiev, which seemed pretty odd:
🚨 BREAKING
According to French media, the Kiev regime tried to lure French President Emmanuel Macron to Ukraine in order to murder him and then blame his death on Russia in order to bring media attention back to Ukraine and increase financial and military aid from the west.… pic.twitter.com/VqrH3Uph2w
— Gabe (@GabeZZOZZ) February 13, 2024
Ukraine SitRep: A Collapse Is Coming – And Then? Moon of Alabama. Several shout outs.
Western Values
Canada refuses to extradite wanted Nazi RT (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Age of Zugzwang Big Serge (Don D)
The new B-52: How the Air Force is prepping to fly century-old bombers Defense News
Trump
CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team, Triggering Russia Collusion Hoax, Sources Say Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag (Chuck L)
John Bolton: Trump’s Just Totally Making Stuff Up Now New Republic (furzy)
GOP Clown Car
The Santos stench: 6 takeaways from the New York special election Politico
Democrats flip George Santos’s New York House seat in high-stakes special election The Hill
Democrats en déshabillé
US House votes to impeach Biden’s immigration chief DW
This effort to depict political opponents as inferior or defective is only different in degree from what we are seeing from Zionists:
Why are Republicans more likely to suffer hearing loss? Washington Post (Dr. Kevin)
Drowning in code: The ever-growing problem of ever-growing codebases The Register (Kevin W)
FTC Chair Khan: Stop Monopolies Before They Happen Axios
The Bezzle
Bitcoin trades above $50K again — but it’s very different this time CoinTelegraph (furzy)
Sam Altman’s $7 Trillion Chip Dreams Are Way Off the Mark, Says Nvidia CEO Business Insider
Major new study to identify Kleptocratic “red flags” and craft new anti-corruption rules University of Exeter. Paul R:
Professor Heathershaw said: “Lawyers, accountants, company service providers and other professionals often play essential roles in the movement of illicit wealth. They can be enormously powerful and effective at resisting both scrutiny and regulation. This influence, along with the complexity of this terrain, has led to a lack of consensus around what counts as “enabling” activity and what consequences should follow.
Good luck with that but it does sound interesting.
Waymo Recalls and Updates Robotaxi Software After Two Cars Crashed TechCrunch
CalPERS’ 787 Seventh loses $120M of pre-Covid value California Closets (Joseph R)
Guillotine Watch
The Tech Plutocrats Dreaming of a Right-Wing San Francisco New Republic. Paul R: “It begins to feel like a hostile takeover of a distressed company.”
Class Warfare
Men Used to Have Wives. Now They Have Stylists. Wall Street Journal
Antidote du jour:
A bonus:
Valentine’s Day Cow Artpic.twitter.com/WwfrsUapWy
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 14, 2024
And a different sort of bonus (Dr. Kevin):
pic.twitter.com/l0LrNQsE9U
— ﮼سعود ﮼الحربي🇸🇦 (@saud5040) October 18, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
