Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is EVERYWHERE! Photo by Dominic Gwinn
Good morning, this is The Smoke Eater for Tuesday, March 31, 2020, and LOOK, IT'S SPRINGTIME!
Quick Hit
* A new craft project for the kids * Populist strongmen make their move * Maybe turn off location tracking * Jared's side-hustle * Cyber stalking (for your health) * Essential snake-oils * I'm love with Wellington *
NOTE: It's the end of the month, and I got bills to pay. Just remember that The Smoker Eater is mobile friendly, ad-free and supported by super awesome readers. If you can help me pay some bills, you too would be super awesome! You can tip me on Ko-Fi, or subscribe to my Patreon!
Mask-Up
U.S. health officials are considering encouraging people to cover their faces in addition to "social distancing" if they absolutely have to leave the house. There's debate about the message this may send to the general public, as well as the effectiveness of some DIY masks, but the hope is that masks can help mitigate the spread of the virus. Health officials say DIY masks could limit the exposure risks infected persons pose to non-infected persons. Farhad Manjoo has a op-ed in The New York Times highlighting some of the ways you can make a mask at home.
The Chewbacca Defense
Populist leaders are increasingly using the corona-crisis as a method of seizing control of state governments, Dusan Stojanovic writes for the AP. In Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Israel, India, leaders are declaring new authorities to crack down on dissent and track civilians. Human rights advocates argue that while some of these draconian measures may be useful on controlling the spread of the coronavirus, there's concern that these are simply opportunistic power grabs.
Mattia Ferraresi writes in Foreign Policy that China is using its propaganda efforts to white wash the origins of the coronavirus by simultaneously blaming Italy, and selling it scores of medical supplies under the false premise of donations. The Five Star Party, Italy's increasingly far-right populist government, has been cozying up to China while and voicing skepticism and dissent for its E.U. and NATO allies. Nerds theorize that China sees Five Star as "useful idiots" thanks to its conspiracy peddling and euroskepticism, as well as the U.S.'s retrenchment policies under the current administration.
Elisabeth Braw adds that China's propaganda, coupled with Russia's "totally useless" military aid package, are part of broad efforts by authoritarian states to destabilize the existing geo-political order, and establish mistrust of the U.S. and its allies. Braw argues Russia and China's soft power overtures to multiple EU members and aspiring members should be very concerning to Western powers. "The biblical good Samaritan gives to strangers in need while expecting nothing in return," Braw writes. "China and Russia have introduced a new category in humanitarian aid: the bad Samaritan. The Chinese and Russians may be offering a helping hand, but unlike in the Scriptures, they expect something in return. True good Samaritans must prove to the needy—and to the world—that they still exist."
Writing for the Daily Beast, Asawin Suebsaeng reports this effort is even being felt in Washington China's President Xi Jinping flatters Trump. The move may already be paying dividends: Trump's xenophobic shitposts, be they televised or by tweet, are now devoid of the racist rhetoric blaming China for the coronavirus. U.S. officials appear to have also backed off their earlier blame games, and are now seeking aid from Beijing even as senior White House officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill press the administration to counter China's disinfo campaign.
FUN FACT: Moscow is now on lockdown, but its infection rates remain curiously low. The AP reports that Russia is suddenly racing to build 16 hospitals around the country, and engaging in large scale military drills "to disinfect and quarantine broad areas." Andrew Roth reports for The Guardian that the hasty rollout may have caught Muscovites off guard as people in one neighborhood were out shopping despite draconian curfews and state monitoring. Officials have told citizens to think of the quarentine as a vacation, though they've urged people NOT to travel to posh resort areas, like Sochi. There's been some speculation among foreign policy nerds and Russophiles that the Kremlin's response to the pandemic has been to cover up the extent of the outbreak, drawing allusions to the Chernobyl incident. Most interesting is the Kremlin has postponed a vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to maintain power through 2036.
We Are Watching You
Robinson Meyer writes for The Atlantic that a now-scrapped website touted by Trump as a coronavirus resource was cobbled together by a firm owned by Jared Kushner's brother. The source code was posted to Github and appears designed to help Americans self-diagnose COVID-19 symptoms, and locate drive-thru testing facilities which have yet to fully materialize. The company maintains nothing illegal went on, but ethics watchdogs are adding this their long list of possible violations.
The coronavirus tool that was actually developed by Google is raising its own privacy questions, Faine Greenwood reports. The tool developed by Google forces people to use a Google account to asses their health status, a major boon for a company that's been trying to merge health data with existing AI systems. All the major players in Silicon Valley have been clamoring for public health data for some time; yesterday Apple even launched a similar app and website intended to screen people before seeking medical help. Privacy advocates warn that tying all this deeply personal data has had unintended consequences in other countries that range from petty trolling and violent reprisals, to state spying.
Over the weekend, Byron Tau reported for the Wall Street Journal that the federal and local governments were tapping digital advertising companies for anonymized location data to find out "which retail establishments, parks and other public spaces are still drawing crowds," as well as, "general levels of compliance with stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders." Some officials hope that this data can also be used to measure economic fallout. Additionally, last week Casey Newtown had a round-up of all the countries that have decided to toss civil rights in the gutter like a soiled nitrile glove in order to harvest cellphone data and monitor who was "social distancing."
BONUS: One of the biggest grifters in the corona-crisis has been Zoom, the teleconferencing app that's been used for happy hours, sobriety support groups, and (my personal favorite) cabinet meetings between heads of state, Violet Blue writes for Endgadget. For more, Robert Evans' Behind the Bastard's podcast has an entire episode about all the snake-oil salesmen hoping to cash-in. As one might expect, the list includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Alex Jones, a televangelist, and more!
One More Thing...
OK, here's a cute critter video: PUPPIES!
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