Friends by Robin Dunbar review – how important are your pals? Guardian

Cronkite signed off 40 years ago; it seems like an eon in news standards The Hill

The Dangers of Brain Science Overdetermining Legal Outcomes Literary Hub. Judge Jed Rakoff.

Originalism’s Original Sin Chronicle of Higher Education

Egypt’s el-Sisi visits Sudan for Nile dam talks Al Jazeera

‘Who would feel safe?’ Site C dam concerns build in downstream communities The Narwhal

#COVID-19

David Graeber: After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep Jacobin

Lucy Kellaway: what is the point of schools? FT. The always interesting Lucy Kellaway.

Schoolchildren Around the World Face a Steep Uphill Battle Der Spiegel

‘This isn’t done’: Experts warn that no matter what our Covid end goal is, we have a ways to go Stat

Coronavirus: Return to ‘test, track, treat’ strategy, Centre tells states reporting surge in cases Scroll

What People in Prison Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine The Marshall Project

Why comparing Covid-19 vaccine efficacy numbers can be misleading Vox

EU turns to US in scramble for Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine FT

A federal vaccine site in Jacksonville can handle 500 people a day. Only 29 got the shot Thursday News4JAX

Merck’s experimental antiviral drug is effective at quickly reducing the virus, new study shows, as it enters final phase of testing Daily Mail

The Pandemic’s Future Hangs in Suspense Atlantic

Coronavirus: German vaccine shortage ‘over soon’ Deutsche Welle

Iran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: The five years separated from her family BBC

Biden Administration

SenateBiden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty in defining move of presidency WaPo. Delusional headline. “Showers”, “sharply cutting poverty”. Really?

Louis DeJoy Is Killing It NY magazine

Tulsi Gabbard calls out the US dirty war on Syria that Biden, aides admit to Grayzone

Rand Paul Slams Biden Bombing of Syria: ‘We’ve gone to a liberal form of John Bolton’ Antiwar

Roaming Charges: No Neanderthal Ever Bombed Syria Counterpunch

White House signals coming antitrust push with Tim Wu appointment Ars Technica

The Goldilocks Stimulus Myth Project Syndicate. Yanis Varoufakis.

Democrat Katie Porter says to target Big Oil in new role as natural resources chair Reuters (Katiebird)

The post-Roe abortion fight has already begun The Week

Trump Transition

Trump orders the GOP’s three biggest fundraisers to STOP using his name on emails, branding and merchandise in fury over Republicans who voted to impeach him Daily Mail

The single worst political mistake in Mitch McConnell’s tenure as leader was blocking the $2000 checks that Trump wanted. McConnell lost not only the policy battle, but the Senate. https://t.co/Xqj1Ruwhgr

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 6, 2021

Democrats en déshabillé

This Is Who Democrats Are: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone

And if you actually pay attention to corporate power the Kyrsten Sinema’s make more sense. In Arizona a whole swath of progressive lifestyle brand progressive Democrats just did their utmost to support Apple and Google. And the GOP went the opposite way. https://t.co/M84dNh32q6

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 5, 2021

Cuomogate

Cuomo Is Facing a Political Extinction Event NY magazine

Cuomo’s behavior created ‘hostile, toxic’ workplace culture for decades, former aides say WaPo

State Assembly, Senate Pile Up Bills Aimed at Nursing Home Accountability Spectrum News

Kill Me Now

Films! Novels! Springsteen! The Obamas and Clintons seem to be having the time of their lives. WaPo

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you MIT Technology Review

Could The Simpsons replace its voice actors with AI deepfakes? Wired

Class Warfare

Gig companies fear a worker shortage, despite a recession Ars Technica

NYT Columnist David Brooks Resigns From Nonprofit After More Evidence Of Conflicts Emerges Buzzfeed

Please do not give billionaire Jack Dorsey money for his tweet Vox

A Rust Belt All-Hands On The Opioid Crisis American Conservative

Amazon Is Paying Consultants Nearly $10,000 a Day to Obstruct Union Drive Truthout

Italy’s Government Is Outsourcing Its Economic Strategy To Private Management Consultants McKinsey Jacobin

No, The PRO Act Wouldn’t “Kill” Freelancing Labor Law Lite

Our Famously Free Press

Fear and Celebration of Substack Are Both Misplaced FAIR

India

The fight for forests, the struggle for land rights People’s Archive of Rural India

India’s Government Focuses on Internal Migrants, At Last The Diplomat

Disengagement at LAC a Breakthrough, but What Can India Do To Make It Last? The Wire

Farm laws: Farmers block highway to mark 100 days of protest, call it ‘black day’  Scroll

India Threatens Jail for Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter Employees WSJ

Myanmar

Meet the Censored: Myanmar Writer Zaw Moe Shinn Matt Taibbi

Body of ‘Everything will be OK’ protester exhumed in Myanmar Reuters

China?

China’s ‘two sessions’ 2021: Beijing zeroes in on eight core areas for country to become manufacturing superpower SCMP

What interesting about seeing this “the Internet is a threat” stuff pumped out by a growing number of official American disinfo warriors is that for years the Chinese government has been basically saying the same exact thing for years and years. https://t.co/7Zsq465bwh

— Yasha Levine (@yashalevine) March 6, 2021

Antidote du Jour (via)

One a bonus video (via):

#EveningWalk
Today’s #ganggang …yep, munching Hawthorne berries again.@ParrotOfTheDay @UrbanBirdsOz pic.twitter.com/DjNumwE6od

— VickiTreadell (@VickiTreadell) March 6, 2021

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here