An underground network of wildlife lovers are illegally ‘beaver bombing’ local rivers The Cool Down (David L)

‘Bird killing machines’: New Zealand cools on cats to protect native wildlife Guardian (Kevin W)

Scientists Witnessed The Birth Of A New Accent In Antarctica IFLScience (Dr. Kevin)

Artists have forgotten how to draw Unherd (Kevin W)

Meditation: The Joy Trap The Taoist (David L)

#COVID-19

Climate/Environment

China?

Evil, Scary China Refuses To Passively Let Us Encircle It Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)

Niger

BREAKING: A Russian plane has landed in Niger capital, Niamey, carrying hundreds of Wagner fighters it allegedly picked up from Syria. Wagner has recruited thousands of veterans of the Syrian civil war, mostly men who fought on behalf of the Syrian government and defeated ISIS,… pic.twitter.com/jvuYCtz7Y3 — J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) August 20, 2023 Rumors of War in West Africa Wayward Rabbler (Kevin W)

European Disunion

New Not-So-Cold War

Syraqistan

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

X Blue users will need to send selfie, data to Israeli software company Al Jazeera (Kevin W)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Trump

Biden

George Bush was mauled for merely flying over New Orleans as citizens drowned during Katrina. Ted Cruz was mocked in a week-long news cycle for leaving Texas during its electricity crisis. Not only hasn't Biden visited Maui, but twice vacationed and has barely spoken on it. https://t.co/t3BJ0DhKUe — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 21, 2023 Biden says "Jill and I have a little sense of what it's like to lose a home" and then tells the story of when lightning struck his house in 2004 and says "I almost lost my '67 corvette and my cat." According to a report from the time, the lighting strike caused "a small fire… pic.twitter.com/V8IBfoZuEW — Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 22, 2023 Democrats aren’t laughing about the Hunter Biden debacle anymore New York Post

2024

‘I can’t get into people’s heads’: Kamala Harris tries to reshape her public image ahead of 2024 Politico. Userfriendly: “Fucking clueless. You can tell how badly they want to blame everyone hating Kamala on racism and sexism ,but know it will fall flat so only hint at it.” Moi: If Kamala got into my head, I would need a lobotomy.

Hardline conservatives dial up pressure on McCarthy amid shutdown threat The Hill

Our No Longer Free Press

Tracking Orwellian Change: The Aristocratic Takeover of “Transparency” Matt Taibbi. Also featured in Water Cooler yesterday, but important not to miss.

Internet of Shit

AI

Wells Fargo defeats shareholder lawsuit over fake job interviews Yahoo! Finance (Kevin W)

Doctors Must Pay for Privilege of Getting Paid Newser (Dr. Kevin)

New York and California each lost $ 1 TRILLION after major financial firms moved to Texas and Florida Daily Mail (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

Tech’s broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap. Business Insider (Paul R). And you are surprised? We warned you about Uber and the cloud.

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (embarrassingly having languished in my inbox). Upstater:

My son Matt and I were in Bonaire recently for 10 days of snorkeling and sun. Matt has an underwater camera and snapped this coral with 2 sea urchins and a pair of eyes peering out at him from the center of the coral! We think its a baby puffer fish, but maybe a reef expert can comment?

And a bonus:

I stayed in the mountains for a week. Poor cow hurt its leg. Swiss ambulance to the rescue 💪. pic.twitter.com/cnN4bwH9jJ — Severin Alex Bühler 🇨🇭 (@SeverinAlexB) August 19, 2023

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.