Yves here. Thanks to readers who read Lambert’s Water Cooler Special on NYC Mayor Adams telling businesses to have their patrons remove masks as a condition of entry and circulated his post or better yet, filed a complaint. It’s not too late to act if you haven’t yet had time!
Our experience with CalPERS showed that on the state level, it takes comparatively few messages from upset citizens to change the trajectory of policy.
I complained to the New York attorney general (link to be found in Lambert’s WC) without the benefit of his piece and it took only 15 minutes. I’m also a slow typist so it would likely take most of you less time.
That form asks for a short description of the civil rights violation. It’s not much more work to copy and paste that text and send it to your state Senator and Assemblyman.
In terms of enlisting allies, nurses and advocates for HIV and other immunocompromised groups would be prime candidates. And if you sent the post to anyone who tries telling you that a study shows masks don’t work, the simplest rebuttal is the Cochrane study was an obvious bad faith exercise: a metastudy based on 78 studies. Only 2 were on Covid and the 2 Covid studies found masks were beneficial.
Bumblebees’ puzzle-solving powers suggest a capacity for animal culture NPR (David L)
What hunter-gatherers demonstrate about work and satisfaction aeon (Anthony L)
The Ancient Boundaries of Classics Antigone (Anthony L)
How sugar substitutes sneak into foods and affect your health Washington Post (furzy)
Can Our Brains Be Taken Over? Quanta (Anthony L)
Los Angeles Is Burning: Ian Winwood on Rock Music in L.A. Los Angeles Review of Books (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) March 6, 2023
Frequent emergence of resistance mutations following complex intra-host genomic dynamics in SARS-CoV-2 patients receiving Sotrovimab
“Across all Omicron lineages, the acquisition of resistance delayed SARS-CoV-2 clearance (40.67 vs 19.5 days)”https://t.co/0Ebp3EBdsw
— Cassandra 🏺 (@Jul101Vie) March 5, 2023
China?
China’s Xi Jinping Takes Rare Direct Aim at U.S. in Speech Wall Street Journal
White House Backs Bill To Strengthen US Powers To Ban TikTok Reuters
Banning TikTok Bruce Schreier
Koreas
A supermajority of South Koreans want nukes: polls Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Forced Labour Victims Protest in Wheelchairs, Reject S.Korea Deal on Japan US News (Kevin W)
New government plan opens up possibility of 80.5-hour work week in Korea Hankyoreh (CH)
La belle France
Live: French roads, fuel deliveries blocked by protesters France24
New Not-So-Cold War
The coming spring offensives in Ukraine Asia Times (Kevin W)
What they are talking about on the Russian talk shows today: full war mobilization! Gilbert Doctorow (guurst)
Ukraine Hopes the New IRIS-T Weapon System Will Protect it From Suicide Drones Vice
Syraqistan
Syria Says Israeli Airstrike Halts Earthquake Aid Flights Into Aleppo Antiwar (Kevin W)
Biden’s Iran policy makes no sense Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Can American Jewish Support for Israel Survive This New Government? New Republic (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
FTC: BetterHelp pushed users to share mental health info then gave it to Facebook The Register (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Air Force Will Likely Miss Recruiting Goals, Service Secretary Says Military.com
1/6
Tucker Carlson releases exclusive Jan. 6 footage, says politicians, media lied about Sicknick, ‘QAnon Shaman’ Fox (resilc)
🚨BREAKING: Never before seen video of January 6 shows Jacob Chansley, the QAnon Shaman, being led through the Capitol by police the entire time that he was in the building. pic.twitter.com/rikoRMWezF
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 7, 2023
Republicans slam Fox News’ Tucker Carlson over Capitol riot clips BBC
Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 video blasted by Capitol Police Chief Manager USA Today
Rupert Murdoch predicted ‘riots like never before’ if 2020 US election was overturned Financial Times (Kevin W)
Biden
Deaths of US citizens put pressure on Biden over handling of Mexican cartels The Hill
The Incredible Shrinking Power of Joe Biden’s Welfare State Slate (Leroy R)
Biden FCC nominee withdraws, following bruising lobbying battle Washington Post
2024
Never, Ever, Ever Haley The American Conservative
Abortion
Mifepristone, misoprostol may be mailed to states with abortion bans Washington Post (furzy)
Police State Watch
Imagine your last moments being mocked and yelled at like this. https://t.co/c84sdJJXrM
— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) February 27, 2023
The U.S. Probation System Has Become a Quagmire Reason (guurst)
Norfolk Southern Chemical Bomb
The Democrats botched the Ohio disaster response – and handed Trump a victory Guardian (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
U.S. Special Ops Wants to Use Deepfakes for Psy-ops Intercept (resilc). “Wants to use”?
Florida Legislator Proposes a State Registry for Bloggers Jonathan Turley. Turley bizaarely fails to mention this law is not enforceable outside Florida.
NEW from me:
MSNBC analyst John Heilemann claimed to Bill Maher on Friday night that he “always” took the COVID lab leak theory seriously.
But in May 2020, he called it a “made-up” “conspiracy theory.”https://t.co/8t2ozsi79b
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) March 7, 2023
THE MORAL CASE AGAINST EQUITY LANGUAGE Atlantic (Anthony L)
Crapification
As Customer Problems Hit a Record High, More People Seek ‘Revenge’ Wall Street Journal. ZOMG, confirming my earlier comment about the woman who drove her SUV into a Popeyes over missing biscuits, there is a Customer Rage survey! BTW, the perception of quality of customer service is not based on the number of screwups but how the vendor handles a screw up. That is why horrible phone trees and tech companies that as a matter of policy allow no human contact are feeding this problem. Oh, and pro tip: archive.ph is you friend.
AI
Is the US government ready for the rise of artificial intelligence? Guardian (resilc)
The Bezzle
A Speculative Endeavor: Education has become an investment. But what are its returns? Lapham’s Quarterly (Anthony L)
California community colleges rely too much on part-time faculty; misspend funds Bakersfield (Paul R)
Mark Zuckerberg Quietly Buries the Metaverse The Street (Micael T)
Perth Mint sold diluted gold to China, got caught, and tried to cover it up ABC (Brian C)
How is brand Harry and Meghan faring in the US? News just in: not good Guardian (furzy)
As far as I’m concerned, “MMT” has been vindicated by the rate hikers as they have adopted their version of MMT per their own language & definitions, in that they are using govt deficits to “fund” their rate hikes. And nobody seems to give a flying f#%k.
— Charles Hayden (@CarlitosMMT) March 8, 2023
Class Warfare
Hamptons trailer park home sells for $3.75M FoxNY (furzy)
Antidote du jour. Celia C: “I attach a picture that might be useful as an antidote du jour. The mother sheep is named Platypus and lives in Ireland. She is shown here with her baby, just born in the last week or so.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
