Lambert apologizes profusely for missing Water Cooler Monday, a time-slip – in his mind, it was Sunday. He is mortified and attributes it to a 100 year flood-level disturbance in the force. As you can see from the too-often unhinged behavior of what passes for our elites, there’s a lot of upset out there. It’s hard not to have it affect you if you wind up watching it regularly.
I wonder if some voodoo-using PMC members (the same sort that shut down Lambert’s Twitter account) put a hex on him, since this unprecedented lapse was particularly ill timed.
Lambert had just launched his Water Cooler fundraiser on Saturday. It now stands at 160 donors (42.6%) of goal, despite Lambert’s absence. Admittedly a weekend start would tend to draw out the responses, but Lambert needs those of you who have not yet responded to his appeal to act.
If you have not yet donated but read Water Cooler regularly, please do your part to keep Lambert’s hamster wheel turning! The Tip Jar is here. Thanks so much!
* * *
Scientists film deepest ever fish on seabed off Japan CNN (Kevin W)
Are Ancient Phallic Objects … Exactly What They Look Like? Atlantic (Anthony L)
Physicists Created ‘Slits In Time’ and Discovered ‘Unexpected Physics’ Vice
Room-temperature superconductors could revolutionize electronics – an electrical engineer explains the materials’ potential The Conversation. Userfriendly: “Huge if it pans out.”
Bayer sues four Missouri farmers for illegally spraying dicamba, saving and replanting seeds from the company’s genetically-engineered crops Investigate Midwest (Robin K)
Xanax and Adderall Access Is Being Blocked by Secret Drug Limits Bloomberg
What Did Aspasia Really Look Like? Antigone Journal (Anthony L)
Remembering Rumpole Quillette (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
The Dana Farber institute writes that T cell exhaustion is seen in SARS Cov 2
It’s accepted that there is T cell exhaustion from Covid
So that certain person messaging people that I was wrong… is wrong
Add it to the T cell harm that is now acceptedhttps://t.co/6uM4SpGlFU pic.twitter.com/nei3jKT5c6
— Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) April 3, 2023
Silently, with no media discussion, people keep dying at rates far higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For every one person who officially dies from COVID-19, 2-4 more die from other, unnamed causes who would not have died before 2020.
Welcome to the perpetual pandemic. pic.twitter.com/HpZu94ZaMo
— Andre Damon (@Andre__Damon) April 1, 2023
Concerns regarding a suggested long COVID paradigm The Lancet
From the new FOIA release by @JamesCTobias. State Department approval for NIH grant by @EcoHealthNYC
🔴Humanized mice🔴5-6 Novel SARS-related coronaviruses🔴”All work involving samples and viral isolates from batswill be performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology” https://t.co/anXSVlIXdY pic.twitter.com/fnudV4XaYJ
— Louis R Nemzer (@BiophysicsFL) April 2, 2023
Climate/Environment
Climate change: Catalonia in grip of worst drought in decades BBC
California Salmon Stocks Are Crashing. A Fishing Ban Looks Certain. New York Times (resilc)
Chemicals Banned From Air Conditioners and Refrigerators Are Making a Comeback The Verge
Global warming can aggravate multiple sclerosis symptoms. Here’s what you can do. Yale Climate Connections
The Land Ethic and Politics of Technology Joe Costello (Randy K)
China?
US cranking pressure on China in South China Sea Asia Times (Kevin W)
Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence on US military sites NBC News Reuters (furzy)
Macron and von der Leyen to talk Ukraine on China visit DW. This muscling is very unattractive. As Alexander Mercouris pointed out the day before yesterday (starting at 1:05:40), the Spanish prime minister Sanchez also just visited China to try to persuade China to distance itself from Russia, particularly with respect to Ukraine. The readout strongly indicated Xi did not entertain this line of discussion.
Pentagon fake news about Chinese fast breeder reactors Asia Times (Kevin W)
China’s battery king faces scrutiny over EV market dominance Financial Times
La belle France
French students denounce fraud of union “mediation” with Macron WSWS
Patrick Lawrence: French Streets and American Sofas ScheerPost
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia accuses Ukraine of blowing up war blogger Tatarsky, arrests woman Reuters (furzy)
We had highlighted statements by Japanese officials, quoted in the Financial Times, very clearly saying that they would not be able to comply with a price cap. So this is no surprise, even if not a good look for the US:
“Japan breaks with U.S. allies, buys Russian oil at prices above cap”
They still asked Washington for permission. “Japan got the U.S. to agree to the exception”😂😂😂 https://t.co/pvqwNI7oyn
— Richard (@ricwe123) April 3, 2023
Erdogan weighs up Russia, dares Biden Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
German arms manufacturer builds maintenance center in Romania for tanks donated to Ukraine Anadolu Agengy
Syraqistan
Saudi crown prince pushing hard to realign Mideast dynamics Middle East Online
Imperial Collapse Watch
Astounding statement from White House official talking head Karine Jean-Pierre:
“We are deeply concerned about the transition of Brazil and China to national currencies when conducting mutual settlements. This is a violation of the rights of our citizens who rely on a stable… pic.twitter.com/P6e7WvWTG6
— Spriter (@Spriter99880) April 3, 2023
US hypersonic failure reveals a glaring weakness Asia Times (UserFriendly)
The BBC presenter asks the American university professor and economist Jeffrey Sachs and mentions China’s human rights violations, and the latter replies:
I don’t know why you should start this interview with human rights violations in China! What about the US violations of… pic.twitter.com/RPT4cRPOva
— Spriter (@Spriter99880) April 3, 2023
Pandemic pounds push 10,000 U.S. Army soldiers into obesity Associated Press (resilc)
If you read the thread below, one thing Pilkington misses is banks have never much been in the business of HOLDING, as opposed to making, loans to private equity portfolio companies. They are syndicated, with the syndicator retaining little to none. The loans are sold to junk credit funds (the kind you can buy as a retail investor), sometimes to CLOs (which are better structures than CDOs) and those CLOs are then often sold to institutional investors….with private equity credit funds playing a much bigger role over time.
2/ One area that @RanaForoohar does not discuss is private credit. The industry is something of a black box but there’s some suggestions that they’re dipping their beak into the real estate market. They’re also lending to private equity firms that may be in the sector. pic.twitter.com/TSQK2yL4Qx
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) April 3, 2023
Trump
Trump flies to New York for court surrender, opposes TV coverage Reuters. Resilc: “Because Trump will be wearing a gopro and will sell the footage.”
Trump’s Legal “Super Tuesday”: The Trump Arrest Will Start One of the Most Bizarre Presidential Elections in History Jonathan Turley
‘He’ll be our next president’: Florida protesters stay faithful to Trump BBC (resilc)
Trump indictment pulls DeSantis-leaning Republicans back to MAGA fold Reuters (furzy). Ken
Biden
Biden’s Lackluster Diplomatic Record Daniel Larison. “Lockluster” is remarkably charitable.
Why Renee DiResta Leads The Censorship Industry Michael Shellenberger (Li)
Abortion
This New Abortion Ban Could Wipe Out Abortion Access in the South Vice
Planned Parenthood and ACLU sue Utah over abortion clinic ban Axios
Gunz
Firearms are the Leading Cause of Death for Children in the United States But Rank No Higher Than Fifth in Other Industrialized Nations KFF (resilc)
No charges for Texas man who tracked down and executed man who stole his truck Boing Boing. Resilc: “Waste of money to try him in Texass.”
Rotten Banks
Silicon Valley Bank’s risk model flashed red. So its executives changed it. Washington Post (ma)
It’s Not Just an SVB Problem: the Systemic Nature of the Bank Regulation Failure Adam Levitin. From last week, still germane.
Signature Bank Insiders Sold $100 Million in Stock During Crypto Surge Wall Street Journal
Pentagon Tries to Cast Bank Runs as National Security Threat Intercept
Bank failure fallout is far from over, lawmakers say The Hill
AI
A conversation with LaMDA,, Google’s “sentient” AI. Blake Lemoine (Glenn F)
The Bezzle
Why is Bitcoin (BTC) Liquidity Declining in 2023? Liquidity Problem Offers Clues Bloomberg (furzy)
Dogecoin Soars After Twitter Replaces Its Blue Bird Logo With the Token’s Dog CoinDesk
Hong Kong’s Crypto Ambitions Get a Boost From US Crackdown Wall Street Journal
Branson’s Rocket-Launch Firm Virgin Orbit Files for Bankruptcy Bloomberg
Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman rings the recession alarm and says commercial real estate is next in the crosshairs of global banking turmoil Business Insider
Class Warfare
up to 15 million people were casually thrown off medicaid this week and basically no one in TV media noticed or cared. I wrote about how bipartisan gutting of “pandemic-era” aid barely gets a mention in US media because its victims are obscure and poor. https://t.co/vUdmUpTaH4
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 3, 2023
Fiscal policy can always protect employment, incomes and business solvency if there is political will Bill Mitchell
Antidote du jour. Timotheus: “A Minnesota backyard April 1.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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