The Smoke Eater For May 18, 2020
"Biblical proportions," Tom Wolfe started it, and "Man On Wire."
Photo by Dominic Gwinn
Good afternoon, this is The Smoke Eater for Monday, May 18, 2020, and there's no turning back.
Quick Hit
* It's the end of the world as we know it * Dictators just can't get things to go their way * China used to be cool * Cape Town's "gang pastor" * Murdering unicorns * Journalists start a drunken pissing contest in the op-ed pages of the New York Times because the all bars are still closed *
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Everybody Wants To Rule The Post-COVID World
In the post-Covid19 world, global cooperation might be dead, Nick Wadhams explains (at length) in Bloomberg. Pouring salt on that wound is the U.N. , which warned on Thursday that the coronavirus creates the risk of famines of "biblical proportion," and widespread conflicts if members of the Security Council don't stop their petty, incompetent bickering. Thomas R. Pickering and Atman M. Trivedi write in Foreign Affairs that both the U.S. and China bear responsibility for individual and collective failures that have only exacerbated existing problems, and killed hundreds of thousands. "With the pandemic fanning the flames of nationalism, protectionism, and xenophobia," Pickering and Trivedi write, "The world needs well-functioning international institutions more than ever."
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise appearance during an annual World Health Organization summit to brag about China's outreach efforts, and voice support for a popular EU proposal to "identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts." China has been under mounting pressure over its initial attempt to cover up the severity of the virus, as well as Xi's failed effort at "face-mask diplomacy" -- much of which has been roundly rejected by recipients, and called useless. The testy issue of whether Taiwan could participate as an observer was side-stepped after Taiwan withdrew.
Brazil's right-wing authoritarian president Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged his supporters to ignore physical distancing recommendations from top health officials and continued to hold large rallies even as the country's infection rate tracks higher than Italy. Two health ministers have already left from Bolsonaro's administration over disagreements with his chaotic response. Hospitals in São Paulo are "near collapse," according to the city's mayor, but Bolsonaro is bemoaning the cratering economy as paramount to Brazil's survival (and he's getting support from crackpots). Bolsonaro and members of his administration have now decided to pick a Trumpian fight with China, Oliver Stuenkel writes in Foreign Policy, encouraging supporters to regurgitate xenophobic shitposts against his country's most important trading partner. All of that, coupled with an effort to consolidate power, has led to a growing calls to impeach Bolsonaro in recent weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be using the coronavirus as an excuse to tighten his grip. A recent public opinion poll from Levada showed Putin's approval numbers in the toilet, but that hasn't stopped the installation of 200,000 security cameras throughout Moscow, the use of drones to enforce quarantines, or new facial recognition systems. Civil rights and foreign policy nerds are worried that these moves will be kept in place after quarantine measures are lifted. Additionally, on Saturday Russia reported 290,678 cases of infections, making it second only to the U.S. The Russian government has been criticized for trying to hide its infection and death rates, as well as the curious number of doctors falling out of windows.
Does Not Compute
The U.K. has delayed the rollout of that Google/Apple coronavirus app that was supposed to track people's interactions. The tech companies have pushed back against government efforts to track users, potentially creating a nightmare scenario for user privacy. The whole situation is rather ironic: European countries want access to more data from big tech, but they passed a law (the GDPR) that limits data collection.
The DOJ and state attorneys general might file antitrust lawsuits against Google as early as this summer, Brent Kendall and John McKinnon report for the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times adds that a potential case could set a benchmark for future antitrust litigation against other big tech companies, like Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.
The White House took another swipe at China in announcing new rules that would bar the Chinese telecom giant, Huawei, from using U.S.-made hardware and software. The move would likely stifle China's ability to manufacture semiconductors, the secret sauce of most modern gizmos and tech.
For Your Radar
Jack Ma has resigned from the board of SoftBank. The sudden departure of Ma, co-founder of Alibaba (China's big tech copy cat), comes as the unicorn hunters at Soft Bank's Vision Fund reported a staggering $17.7 billion loss. The big red hole is being blamed on the implosion of WeWork, and the coronavirus. The Wall Street Journal is reporting SoftBank is now in talks to sell a bunch of T-Mobile shares to Deutsche Telekom to cauterize some wounds.
Pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong were arrested on the floor of their legislature following a clash with pro-China legislators, the AP reports. The pro-democracy legislators notched a win with the election of of Starry Lee as the chair of the legislature's all important House Committee. Writing in the New York Times, Tiffany May explains the latest fight is over a bill that would make it a crime to poo-poo the Chinese national anthem. Booing the Chinese national anthem has become a thing among many pro-democracy Hong Kongers. FUN FACT: It's been over a year since Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement began in earnest on March 15, 2019. Protests began after pro-China members of Hong Kong's legislature attempted to pass a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China.
Gerald Imray reports for the AP about how some of Cape Town, South Africa's gangs have formed an uneasy truce to bring food to poor families struggling to survive their quarantine. The idea to get gangs to come together and distribute food came from Andie Steele-Smith, an Australian known as the "gang pastor." The idea has unnerved some local leaders and victims gang violence.
It should come as no surprise that Iran is still frantically waving its sabers at every windmill.
Ben Smith opines in the New York Times that Ronan Farrow might dress up some of his stories, and skip the tedious fact-checking that more seasoned and surly reporters put into their big stories. Smith argues Farrow crafts stories around a narrative -- some of which the reporter becomes a part of -- and then uses C.Y.A. legalize in the event some evidence doesn't pan out. In a tweet storm, Michael Lou, an editor at the New Yorker, defended Farrow's work, and called Smith a hypocrite. Farrow weighed in later to take issue with some of Smith's claims.
I.M.O There's a lot of unnecessary butthurt from people who've never studied journalism. Smith is throwing a Journalism 101 textbook at Farrow and telling him to learn the fundamentals. Lawyers, armchair philosophers, and wannabes (all of whom are too cheap to buy a subscription to a local newspaper, let alone Netflix) are arguing that traditional journalism died in 2016. This is the same bullshit journalists were arguing about in the 1960s.
One More Thing...
In August of 1974, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit was arrested in Manhattan after connecting a wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Petit walked, danced, and goofed off to cheers from New Yorkers. The 2008 multi-award winning documentary by James Marsh, "Man on Wire," uses found footage and re-enactments to tell the story of Petit's stunt. (via Youtube)
OK, here's a cute critter video: HAMSTER ADVENTURES!
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