By Lambert Strether of Corrente.<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n
Sadly, Cornell Ornithology Lab\u2019s \u201cplanned outage\u201d continue through tomorrow. No bird song today. Here, however, is one of their cams, for Red-tailed Hawks:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
(1) John Barnett\u2019s stepson (possibly) speaks.<\/p>\n
(2) Hitchhiking<\/p>\n
(3) Trump to unload Trump Tower?<\/p>\n
Politics<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The Constitutional Order (Insurrection)<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump, GOP-led states argue presidential immunity claim to Supreme Court\u201d [NC Newsline]. \u201cAs a deadline loomed for briefs in the case, 18 Republican-led states filed an amicus brief Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to reverse the lower courts and grant Trump blanket immunity. Oral arguments before the high court on the immunity question are scheduled for April 25, and federal district court proceedings have been halted until the Supreme Court issues a ruling. Trump\u2019s lawyers, led by D. John Sauer of St. Louis, in a 52-page brief argued that a strong executive with virtually no criminal liability from the judicial system was intended by the framers of the Constitution and part of a \u2018234-year unbroken tradition\u2019 of not prosecuting presidents for action taken while in office\u2026. \u2018The President cannot function, and the Presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the President faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office,\u2019 the attorneys wrote in the brief\u2019s opening paragraph. That view is in line with how framers of the Constitution saw the presidency, they said. \u2018Even if some level of Presidential malfeasance, not present in this case at all, were to escape punishment, that risk is inherent in the Constitution\u2019s design,\u2019 Trump\u2019s attorneys wrote. \u2018The Founders viewed protecting the independence of the Presidency as well worth the risk that some Presidents might evade punishment in marginal cases. They were unwilling to burn the Presidency itself to the ground to get at every single alleged malefactor.\u2019 The only exception to absolute immunity is a president who is impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate, Trump\u2019s lawyers said.\u201d And: \u201cThey asked the court to reject an argument that another exception to presidential immunity could be made for criminal charges stemming from a president\u2019s desire to stay in power. \u2018Because virtually all first-term Presidents\u2019 official actions carry some, at least partial, motivation to be re-elected, this exception to immunity would swiftly engulf the rule,\u2019 they wrote. Prosecuting or not prosecuting a president is inherently a political act, Trump\u2019s attorneys said. \u2018This observation applies to former Presidents as well \u2014 and it applies most of all to a former President who is the leading candidate to replace the incumbent who is prosecuting him,\u2019 they wrote.\u201d \u2022 Leave it to Trump to find the edge case for any system he\u2019s involved with.<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
Less than a year to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cDonald Trump may not pay bond \u2014 and instead let Letitia James seize Trump Tower: insiders\u201d [New York Post]. \u201cAs Donald Trump faces a Monday deadline to post a $454 million bond in the civil fraud case against him in New York, insiders said he may be weighing a little-discussed option: Doing nothing\u2026. While some reports have raised speculation that Trump may \u2018go nuclear\u2019 with a Chapter 11 filing to protect his prize real estate assets across Manhattan, experts said bankruptcy would create unwelcome complications as the 2024 election season comes to a head. A third possibility, however, is to let the deadline pass, leaving it to New York Attorney General Letitia James to seize Trump\u2019s bank accounts or buildings \u2014 including Trump Tower, from which he declared his 2016 presidential run, and which famously includes his personal penthouse. It\u2019s an option Trump appears to have considered \u2013 partly because he believes the chances are good that he could recover the assets on appeal, even if he is forced to take his case to the US Supreme Court, according to friends. \u2018Even if there is a taking, it doesn\u2019t mean he can\u2019t take it back later,\u2019 a source close to Trump told The Post. A decision to do nothing poses risks of its own \u2014 among them that the New York AG\u2019s Office has the right to sell off any properties it confiscates in order to recover the cash penalties it is owed.\u201d \u2022 No mention, however, of the Eighth Amendment.<\/p>\n
BREAKING: Judge Scott McAfee Grants Trump and Co-Defendants Immediate Review Certificate, Enabling Appeal of Order Denying Disqualification of Fulton County DA Fani Willis. pic.twitter.com\/luQdHQgdUe<\/p>\n
\u2014 Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 20, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cTrump suggests 15-week abortion ban is \u2018very reasonable’\u201d [Axios]. \u201cTrump during an interview with conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg on WABC Tuesday repeated his boasts about helping to overturn Roe v. Wade by nominating three conservative Supreme Court justices. The court\u2019s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling in 2022 made abortion policy a state-level issue. \u2018The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15, and I\u2019m thinking in terms of that, and it\u2019ll come out to something that\u2019s very reasonable,\u2019 Trump said. He added that he would make an announcement on what limits he officially supports \u2018at the appropriate time.\u2019 He called views that have led Republicans to lose at the ballot box \u2018impractical.\u2019 After tentatively supporting the idea of a federal ban, Trump claimed that \u2018everybody agrees\u2019 that it should be a state issue. \u2018It shouldn\u2019t be a federal issue, it\u2019s a state issue,\u2019 he said.\u201d And: \u201cHe emphasized during a radio interview on Tuesday that he supports \u201cexceptions,\u201d increasingly part of the GOP playbook, for rape, incest or life of the mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cLet the Presidential Election Mudslinging Begin!\u201d [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. \u201cAnalysis suggests that the first order of business for Biden is to return Trump to his former status as the most unpopular figure in American politics. In other words: Let the mudslinging begin. Biden and those around him seem to have drawn this obvious lesson. A recent New Yorker report on the Biden White House quoted Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Like many, Whitehouse is supporting Biden more out of resignation than enthusiasm. Whitehouse told The New Yorker that while Biden was \u2018not the only option that we had\u2026once he\u2019d made the decision to go, he became the only option that we have.\u2019 Given this reality, Whitehouse advocates a \u2018Biden plus offense\u2019 based on the fact that when people are \u2018frightened or angry, you need to convince them that you, too, are equally concerned and you\u2019re willing to throw punches and pick fights. Whitehouse added, \u2018If you\u2019ve got your sleeves rolled up and you\u2019re waist-deep fighting alligators in the swamp, then nobody\u2019s really thinking about your age.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump (R): Missed this one:<\/p>\n
Judge Napolitano: “I told Trump, ‘you promised you would release the records of the JFK assassination.’ He said to me ‘If they showed you what they showed me, you wouldn’t have released it either.’ I said ‘Who’s they? What did they show you?’ Trump said “Someday when we’re not on\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Z4I8jkknDX<\/p>\n
\u2014 COMBATE |\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf7 (@upholdreality) March 15, 2024<\/p>\n
And see Kennedy below.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Biden (D): \u201cBiden ices a controversial donor\u201d [Politico]. \u201cThe Biden campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are freezing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations made by a businessman accused of fraudulently pretending to be associated with the CIA. A Biden campaign official told West Wing Playbook they were putting a $50,000 donation made to the Biden Victory Fund last April by GAURAV SRIVASTAVA into escrow after concerns were raised about the source and legality of the donation. A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which received almost $290,000 last year from a man identifying as Srivastava, said that group, too, has set aside the money for the \u2018foreseeable future\u2019 out of an abundance of caution. The decisions to freeze the money come in the wake of recent reporting around Srivastava\u2019s business dealings and philanthropic giving. A Los Angeles-based businessman, he has been involved in a variety of causes through a family foundation. But he was also the subject of an unflattering profile by Project Brazen, a news outlet founded by two former Wall Street Journal reporters, that suggested misconduct on his part, including fake ties to the CIA. POLITICO Influence reported last month that the Atlantic Council had terminated its donor relationship with Srivastava after they couldn\u2019t confirm important details of his background.\u201d And this glorious sentence: \u201cAll of it has raised the question of who, exactly, Srivastava is.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Kennedy (I): <\/p>\n
What about this epochal event in American history is so shocking that they don\u2019t trust the American public to know about it? I will be the most transparent president this country has ever seen. We deserve to know the truth. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) March 15, 2024<\/p>\n
West (I):<\/p>\n
My Independent campaign for President is a spill over of a great tradition of a great people into politics, focused on who Sly Stone calls “everyday people”. Help us shake up the corrupt two party system and offer a better choice for America. Donate at pic.twitter.com\/2CCVNO3Z2n<\/p>\n
\u2014 Cornel West (@CornelWest) March 17, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Democrats en D\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats are hemorrhaging support with voters of color\u201d [Nate Silver]. [John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times] \u201cnotes that the problems are particularly bad for Democrats among working-class voters of color, and younger ones.\u201d Controversy ensued. But: \u201cAdam Carlson has been performing an invaluable service by aggregating the results of different polls together, which at least solves the sample size problem. And he\u2019s finding that Joe Biden\u2019s share of the vote has dropped dramatically among Black and Hispanic voters as compared with an average reliable estimates of the 2020 vote.\u201d Handy chart:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/carlson_silver.png\")
<\/p>\n
More: \u201cAs you can see, Biden\u2019s margin against Donald Trump has basically not moved an inch among white voters; he\u2019s losing them by 12 percentage points, as he did in 2020. However, Biden is now only winning Hispanics by 7 percentage points \u2014 down from 24 points in 2020 \u2014 and Black voters by \u201conly\u201d 55 points, as compared with 83 points in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMystery among the vines: Why is the FBI probing some of Napa Valley\u2019s fanciest wineries?\u201d [LA Times]. This is very detailed and dense, and gets wilder as it goes in, culminating in a landfill scandal (\u201cAn Odor of Mendacity\u201d). \u201cWhy have so many of the fancy wineries along this road \u2014 and their rich and powerful owners \u2014 been named in federal subpoenas that were served late last year on Napa County?\u2026. The subpoena seeking records on the wineries and their owners, dated Dec. 14, 2023, is filed under the name of Patrick Robbins, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. It also references an FBI agent, Katherine Ferrato, who has experience working on complex financial crimes.\u201d Oddly, however, the names in the article are all locals. Not A-listers. Not Black female executives. Not Gavin Newsom or his Getty friends. And certainly not Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n
\u201cRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Partners With Anti-Porn Lobby NCOSE\u201d [XBIZ]. \u201d Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a press statement last week prominently highlighting her partnership with religiously-inspired anti-porn lobby NCOSE, an organization that seeks to criminalize all sex work and eradicate adult content, and that has an extensive, well-documented history of championing state censorship and opposing LGBTQ+ rights. The statement released by Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office celebrates her introduction of the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act), which proposes to create a federal civil right of action for victims of deepfakes\u2026. XBIZ contacted Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office and her Communications Director Sidney Johnson, for comment on whether the congressperson is aware of NCOSE\u2019s history, past stances against free speech, promotion of censorship and opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. XBIZ also asked Ocasio-Cortez to comment on her partnership with Hawkins, a religious conservative activist who has spoken extensively about the Mormon roots of her War on Porn crusades and her efforts to rebrand Morality in Media as the more secular-sounding NCOSE. After this story\u2019s publication, Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s chief of staff, Mike Casca, contacted XBIZ via X offering as the office\u2019s official statement the following: \u2018Bullshit. It\u2019s not a partnership. She has a bipartisan bill to stop nonconsensual deepfake pornography that centers survivors\u2019 civil right of action. Orgs left, right and center support it. Bipartisanship is how bills become law in a divided congress.’\u201d And: \u201cEarlier this week, Christopher Kane from LGBTQ+ politics site the Washington Blade also noted the peculiar alliance between NCOSE \u2014 which generally partners with religious Republicans for its campaigns \u2014 and Ocasio-Cortez, a notably progressive [snort] New York representative and member of \u2018The Squad.’\u201d <\/p>\n
Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Right to Vote\u201d [Teri Kanefield]. \u201cYou don\u2019t have an affirmative Constitutional right to vote. (Did you know that?) The right to vote was not (affirmatively) included in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, or any of the other Amendments\u2026. None of this gives anyone an affirmative right to vote. The Supreme Court views the omission of an affirmative right to vote from the Constitution to mean that voting is a privilege that states may administer or infringe as they see fit\u2014as long as the limits and infringement does not discriminate based on race, color, or gender\u2026. So if a state wants to deny the right to vote to anyone who has been convicted of a felony, the state can do so. If a state wants to deny the right to vote by mail, the state can do that as well. The only thing states can\u2019t do (under the law as it now stands) is pass laws that deny the vote based on race, gender, or a suspect classification like religion or national origin. A government \u2018of the people, by the people, and for the people\u2019 raises a question: Who is included? Who are the people? It is obvious that if you can\u2019t vote, you are not one of the \u2018people\u2019 in \u201cWe the People.’\u201d<\/p>\n
#COVID19<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n
Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); \u201cIowa COVID-19 Tracker\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201cInfection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n
Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d\u2019Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux us\u00e9es); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).<\/p>\n
Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3). <\/p>\n
Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Testing and Tracking<\/p>\n
Yesterday, New York. Today, Philly:<\/p>\n
As @HNimanFC has been sharing consistently, samples of these highly evolved JN. 1s have been picked up across surveillance networks in major US airports. They announced an expansion of this program last week. Clearly, because they could see what was incoming.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Michael (@mrmickme) March 19, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
LEGEND<\/p>\n
1) \u2605 for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n
2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTES<\/p>\n
[1] (Biobot) Our curve has now flattened out at the level of previous Trump peaks. Not a great victory. Note also the area \u201cunder the curve,\u201d besides looking at peaks. That area is larger under Biden than under Trump, and it seems to be rising steadily if unevenly.<\/p>\n
[2] (Biobot) Midwest ticks up.<\/p>\n
[3] (CDC Variants) As of May 11, genomic surveillance data will be reported biweekly, based on the availability of positive test specimens.\u201d \u201cBiweeekly: 1. occurring every two weeks. 2. occurring twice a week; semiweekly.\u201d Looks like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they\u2019re telling us variants are nothing to worry about. Time will tell.<\/p>\n
[4] (ER) \u201cCharts and data provided by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the past year, using a rolling 52-week period.\u201d<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Looks like a very gradual leveling off to a non-zero baseline, to me.<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Still down. \u201cMaps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updates weekly for the previous MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Department Visits, Test Positivity) and weekly the following Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET\u2020\u201d. <\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Flattening.<\/p>\n
[9] (Travelers: Posivitity) Now up, albeit in the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
[10] (Travelers: Variants) JN.1 dominates utterly.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
There are no official statistics of interest today.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cGoogle\u2019s Woke AI Wasn\u2019t a Mistake. We Know. We Were There\u201d [The Free Press]. \u201cThese ex-Googlers, as they\u2019re called, said that they were discouraged from hiring white, male employees; that DEI \u2018is part of every single thing\u2019 in the company; and that engineers even had to list the \u2018DEI impact\u2019 for the tiniest of software fixes. All of them agreed that the Silicon Valley giant entered the artificial intelligence race with an upper hand but has squandered it by cowing to an activist faction in the company that\u2019s more committed to advancing social justice than making world-class products.\u201d \u2022 Like the 1619 Project, except completely out in the open and a million times worse:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/gemini.png\")
<\/p>\n
Dudes (dudettes (duderinos)), come on. Although I suppose it\u2019s re-assuring, in a way, to know that anybody can grow up to be a Nazi. NOTE The caption to the photo doesn\u2019t show the prompt. But I\u2019ve seen plenty of other examples.<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cAnother Boeing emergency: Delta Airlines 737 plane makes emergency landing after one of the engines caught fire moments after taking off in Aruba\u201d [Daily Mail]. \u201cA Boeing-made Delta Airlines flight out of Aruba and bound for Atlanta was forced to turn back and make an emergency landing after an engine blow out on take-off.\u201d \u2022 Whoops.<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cBoeing burns more cash than expected as it limits 737 production\u201d [Reuters]. \u201cBoeing opens new tab\u2019s MAX safety crisis is causing it to burn more cash than expected, its finance chief said on Wednesday, meaning the U.S. planemaker will need more time to hit a key financial target for coming years. The company is trying to get control of safety issues following a Jan. 5 mid-flight panel blowout on a 737 MAX 9 aircraft that has placed it under the watchful eye of U.S. regulators \u2013 and frustrated airlines already struggling with delivery delays from both Boeing and its rival Airbus. CFO Brian West told a Bank of America conference that Boeing\u2019s cash burn in the first quarter will be somewhere between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, higher than they planned back in January. The order backlogs are frustrating airline executives, who have started to cut routes and are trying to acquire additional aircraft to meet demand. Michael O\u2019Leary, CEO of key European Boeing customer Ryanair (RYA.I), opens new tab, told Reuters he is meeting with senior company executives on Wednesday in Dublin to discuss prolonged delivery delays. Boeing declined comment on the visit.<\/p>\n
U.S. regulators have limited Boeing\u2019s 737 production to 38 a month \u2013 but West said Boeing is producing fewer than that allowable amount, though did not elaborate.\u201d \u2022 Whoops.<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: I wouldn\u2019t call this exactly authenticated, but:<\/p>\n
On @WilkowMajority
“This whole thing was absolutely a hit.” A man claiming to the stepson of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett does not believe his stepfather\u2019s death was a suicide and says he was planning a camping trip in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u2014 SiriusXM Patriot (@SiriusXMPatriot) March 19, 2024<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cUnderstanding the Boeing Mess\u201d [Wall Street Journal]. \u201cRather than surfacing Boeing\u2019s deeply hidden problems, it seems the second [737 MCAS] crash gave birth to them. The subsequent 20-month grounding and production shutdown, combined with Covid, cost Boeing thousands of skilled workers. The pressure of its duopoly competition with Airbus plus customers clamoring for their backordered planes made management unwisely desperate to restart production. January\u2019s nonfatal door-plug blowout of an Alaska Airlines 737 appears to have been a one-off when Boeing workers failed to reinstall the plug properly after removing it to fix faulty fuselage rivets. Not a one-off, apparently, are faulty rivets as Boeing has strained to hire new staff and resume production of half-finished planes. Boeing will sort out its troubles eventually by applying the oldest of manufacturing insights: Training, repetition, standardization and careful documentation are the way to error-free complex manufacturing.\u201d I bet this guy thinks that the biggest problem with the pandemic was being deprived of the Mozzarella sticks at Applebee\u2019s; he\u2019s certainly capable of that level of denial and cope. Stoller\u2019s perspective is IMNSHO correct:<\/p>\n
Murdering whistleblowers should be subjected to the rule of reason.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 20, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cTSMC, Intel suppliers delay U.S. plants on surging costs, labor crunch\u201d [Nikkei Asia]. \u201cChemical and material makers LCY Chemical, Solvay, Chang Chun Group, KPPC Advanced Chemicals (Kanto-PPC) and Topco Scientific all announced plans and bought land to build facilities in Arizona after the world\u2019s two top chipmakers, TSMC and Intel, rolled out their own multi-billion-dollar investments in the state. But construction of these facilities \u2014 which are vital for building a complete chip supply chain \u2014 has been put on hold or significantly scaled back, multiple chip industry executives briefed on the matter told Nikkei Asia. In some cases the delays are expected to be temporary, while in others the projects will be subject to later review, with no clear timeframe on when they might be reactivated. Most of those affected attribute the postponements to surging costs for building materials and labor, as well as a shortage of construction workers. A flood of investment into the state for a wide range of sectors, including chips and automobiles, has squeezed the building sector. The suppliers also cited slower-than-expected progress on Intel\u2019s and TSMC\u2019s expansions for the postponements.<\/p>\n
The fact that multiple suppliers are slowing their projects indicates the issue is not down to one or two individual companies but is more structural.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 70 Greed (previous close: 70 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 69 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Mar 20 at 1:23:00 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Class Warfare<\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
\u201cUnited States of America\u201d [HitchWiki]. Overview of hitchhiking laws by state:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hitching_united-states-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Relative Ease of Hitchhiking Each State of America (based on a survey of hitchhikers with 114,000 miles cumulative experience.).<\/p>\n
Green: Easy<\/p>\n
Yellow: Average<\/p>\n
Red: Difficult<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From RH:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/peeper.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
RH writes: \u201cSpring peeper in the mint.\u201d Mint is invasive! So I like mint.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\")
<\/p>\n
If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n
![\"Print](\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n