Links 2/18/2023 | naked capitalism

#COVID-19

Fluticasone propionate as a potential treatment for COVID-19 Drugs Today (resilc). May have missed this. May also explain why asthmatics seems less susceptible to Covid.

Muscle biopsy in-depth assessment in people with #LongCovid w/ exercise symptoms compared with 2 control groups shows microvascular abnormalities with reduced capillaries, immune cell dysregulation, distinct gene expression signaturehttps://t.co/ngv2vKhcLn @ChariteBerlin pic.twitter.com/ED8OJ2zNQ2

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 16, 2023

Climate/Environment

Mark Mills: The energy transition delusion: inescapable mineral realities YouTube (resilc)

How heat pumps of the 1800s are becoming the technology of the future Yale Climate Connection

MIT Team Makes a Case For Direct Carbon Capture From Seawater, Not Air New Atlas

China?

Biden’s low-key speech on balloon ‘not enough to fix ties with China’ Global Times

U.S. and China Vie in Hazy Zone Where Balloons, U.F.O.s and Missiles Fly New York Times. Lead story.

White House to hold secret talks with Taiwan officials in Washington Financial Times

California lawmaker leads delegation to Taiwan amid high U.S.-China tensions Los Angeles Times. Ro Khanna.

🇨🇳🇹🇼The official delegation of mainland China for the first time has arrived in Taiwan in the last 3years

The government delegation arrived to participate in the lantern festival and strengthen contacts with the Taipei City administration, island’s central news agency reported.

— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) February 18, 2023

China set to eclipse US air superiority in Pacific Asia Times (Kevin W)

At start of Congressional session, Tibet-China legislation reintroduced International Campaign for Tibet (furzy)

India

India Ups Its Game in the Middle East The Diplomat

New Not-So-Cold War

Rishi Sunak to call for new Nato charter to ensure ‘lasting peace’ for Ukraine Guardian (Kevin W)

Norway’s atonement for Nord Stream sabotage Indian Punchline (Kevin W)

I love Clare Daly but must note she seems to be the patron saint of lost causes:

“Then along comes Seymour Hersh, the world’s most acclaimed living investigative journalist, who produced a detailed claim that the US and Norway executed the Nord Stream gas explosion. And I find it jaw-dropping that the EU is still not asking questions.” pic.twitter.com/1dywcEjsTV

— sarah (@sahouraxo) February 16, 2023

Seymour Hersh’s Trinity of Truth Scott Ritter

Democrats, Republicans join up to urge Biden to send F-16s to Ukraine Politico. Scott Ritter has pointed out that pilots who have flow Soviet fighters simply cannot be retrained to operate Western jets; their reflexes are too deeply ingrained. So the US and NATO forces would have to operate them.

Wagner Group releases graphic video of corpses in desperate plea for more ammunition Telegraph. If I were Putin, Prigozhin would get a very big piece of my mind. Prigozhin has been depicting himself, and loudly too, as running his own war in Bakhmut, when his mercs get lots of support from the military. Dima at Military Summary deems this to be a matter of priorities, not supply. Regardless, mercs are not first in line.

US TO SUPPORT UKRAINIAN PENSIONSpic.twitter.com/S9VD5D8Ckj

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) February 17, 2023

So Ursula von der Leyen poses willingly with Oleksiy Honcharenko.
This Ukrainian politician participated in the burning of people in Odessa in 2014.

This lady has a real talent for getting along with all kinds of thugs .

Look how she is smiling….. pic.twitter.com/YQqFwSoFT9

— Richard (@ricwe123) February 17, 2023

Deputy Chairman of Russian Assembly debates French journalists war hawks. YouTube (Andrei Martyanov). In French with subtitles (Tolstoy, yes descended from the Tolstoy, is fluent). Have only seen the first few minutes but very pointed. Hope to have time to return.

India’s Russian oil imports surge to a record in January – trade Reuters

Gilbert Doctorow: The U.S. & Russia Are Testing Each Other’s Red Lines Geopolitics & Empire. guurst highlights:

tidbit on Patrick Armstrong:
For me the most depressing thing about the last 20 years is to find that everything that I disliked and I found so awful about the Soviet Union has now moved to the United States. The United States has not gone all the way, of course, and you are fortunate, in a way, to have had such limited deprivation of income compared to what was experienced by a close colleague in Canada, a retired Canadian diplomat who spent time and he had never seen Moscow and who had a very influential blog. He was visited by the Canadian Intelligence Services, they told him that if he kept this up, his pension would be terminated and his life savings would be confiscated. He very wisely threw in the towel. In Canada with all those Ukrainian Bandera kids, grandkids, it is much more difficult place to find freedom of speech than United States is. So in a sense, let us be fair to Uncle Sam in a period of relative repression, still freedom of speech manages to hold on in the States.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Virtual reality telemetry means you can virtually kiss goodbye to privacy The Register

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Insecure Superpower Counterpunch

Texas considers a bill banning people from 4 countries from buying real estate NPR (Kevin W)

Biden

Biden DOJ Backing Norfolk Southern’s Bid To Block Lawsuits The Lever.

Rudy Then and Rudy Now London Review of Books (resilc)

Culture Wars

Resilc: “So God hates Philly, Democrats I gather. Lost both World Series and Supah Bowl to Christian statezzz”:

“All glory to God” – Harrison Butker on his Super-Bowl winning kick. Love it https://t.co/JTV1iDa2EE

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 14, 2023

Wyoming Limiting Child Marriage Sparks Republican Outrage Newsweek (resilc)

Hillcrest High students say they were told to limit Black History Month program Associated Press (resilc)

David Crosby’s Final Wisdom: Singer Talks Trump, CSN, CSNY, and more Rolling Stone (furzy)

The Little Known History of World War II’s All-Black, All-Female Battalion Atlas Obscura (Chuck L)

Unimportant Flying Objects

Why spy balloons are still useful in era of drones and satellites BBC. Resilc: “I like the pigeon.”

AI

Kevin Roose’s Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot: Full Transcript New York Times (Dr. Kevin, furzy)

ChatGPT able to pass Theory of Mind Test at 9-year-old human level PhysOrg

The Bezzle

Binance Considers Pulling Back From US Partners as Crypto Crackdown Escalates Bloomberg

Data from New Jersey is a warning sign for young sports bettors The Conversation (resilc)

Tesla Drivers Worry About Charging Times Wall Street Journal

Wealthy Americans are racing to get the EU’s last remaining ‘golden passport’ before it’s gone Business Insider (Kevin W)

Average 401(k) balances dropped 20% in 2022 – despite 39% of Americans increasing their contributions – as stocks suffered one of the worst years ever and inflation soared Daily Mail

Goldman Sachs, BofA expect three more U.S. rate hikes this year Reuters

Wall Street Is Baffled by the Stock Market Bloomberg

Class Warfare

This company employed children to clean razor-sharp saws using hazardous chemicals CNN (Kevin W)

Starbucks Ordered to Stop Firing Union Activists Nationwide Bloomberg

Survival of the Richest Institute for New Economic Thinking

Bernie Sanders: Anti-Union Capitalism Is Wrecking America Nation (Kevin W)

Adams and Largest Municipal Union Reach Tentative Agreement, With 16.21% Raises Through 2026 The City

Antidote du jour:

And a bonus:

This is a jellyfish named Halitrephes Maasi😍 pic.twitter.com/rCPPpbMcNM

— PiE_r (@Megohelie1) February 7, 2023

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.