Interesting Links for 22-09-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Canada, Australia and UK recognize Palestinian statehood (France soon)

(tags:Palestine France UK Australia Canada )

2. Among UK Jews, opposition to Palestinian political autonomy is vanishing

(tags:UK Palestine Israel )

3. Examining overlap and homogeneity in ASD, ADHD, and OCD: a data-driven, diagnosis-agnostic approach

(tags:ADHD autism psychology )

4. South Korea's President Lee says U.S. investment demands would spark a financial crisis

(tags:usa korea economics doom )

Comments

[melchar]

In regards to #4 - 'Our' Orange Oligarch is making it impossible for other nations to make financial deals with the U.S. All of this is terrifying - as the US thrashes around like a dying behemoth - damaging everything it touches.

How much did Putin pay the Orangeman to ruin the US - and hence the world economy - or is he doing this just to salve his bloated ego?

[andrewducker]

I'm totally willing to believe that Trump is this awful on his own behalf.

[melchar]

I really [really!] want to think there is some reason for all of this chaos - but it seems to just be the random firing of neurons in the head of our wanna-be-is-actually-becoming-a-dictator. I'm in California & this is all terrible.

[azdak]

Leaving aside the question of whether he is or isn't, if Trump WERE a Kremlin asset, what would he do differently?

Meddling in foreign elections really pays :-(

[melchar]

Honestly? If he were an actual asset, I think he would be more selective with the tariffs, instead of the scattershot, mood-driven mess they are now. The current way tariffs are affecting global shipping is also inconveniencing Russia [as an example].

Also, since Putin is familiar with disease theory & wouldn't want to encourage additional pandemics [...on top of Covid* - which we will be lucky if it burns itself out by 2028 at this rate...] - interfering with vaccine production would be the LAST thing Putin would order.


*since Covid only has a roughly 1% mortality rate, even despite the myriad of side effects. H5N1 has a 40-50% mortality rate in the humans who have caught it thus far - and if it were to make the human-to-human jump, that's pretty much it for us.
reference = https:// www . cdc . gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7321e1.htm

[azdak]

Well, the Russians spread disinformation abroad about the safety of Western vaccines, encouraging vaccine deniers, while simultaneously promoting the use of their own Sputnik vaccine at home, so I wouldn't be so sure that Putin is entirely sensible about pandemics.

And the thing about assets is they're only as good as the person they're embodied in. Trump was never going to be anything other than scattershot and mood-driven, as you so aptly put it.