One day, multiple seasons

The temperature has climbed quickly all morning at Inner Drive Technology World HQ. (The temperature/dewpoint split happened when I took the thermometer out of its rain shelter to air out.) From a low of 8.2°C this morning, it has already reached 23.2°C and might hit 26° before a massive squall line hits around 8pm. (The forecast predicts 24°C; we'll see.)

I've also completed a few annoying tasks for my move, which involved a mercifully short hold time with my homeowner's insurance carrier and a very easy 5-minute process with the electric utility. I hope the cable transfer goes as well, but I'm putting that off until next week. I'm moving in 18 days.

Outside my little bubble, this is going on:

• Julia Ioffe proffers "the real lesson for Democrats in Viktor Orbán's defeat."
• Paul Krugman can't figure out why consumer sentiment is at an all-time low because, despite the OAFPOTUS's little excursion in Iran, fundamentals remain generally good.
• On the same point, Josh Marshall wonders, "what does inflation mean in electoral terms?"
• Jeff Maurer puzzles over "AI job losses," locating most of them in...call centers?
• The Atlantic's Will Gottsegen also wonders about Allbirds' pivot to AI, wondering if it's just "an escape hatch for a company with nothing to lose."

Finally, I want to call out French senator Claude Malhuret's speech to Parliament on March 25th for it's delicious takedown of the OAFPOTUS. If you were wondering what the French center-left thinks of him, wonder no more:

Il y a un an, ici même, je comparais la présidence de Trump à la cour de Néron. Je me trompais, c'est la cour des miracles. Un antivax, ancien héroïnomane, est ministre de la Santé. Un climatosceptique, ministre de l'Écologie. Un animateur télé alcoolique, ministre des Armées. Une ancienne agent du Qatar, ministre de la Justice. Une groupie de Poutine, ministre de la Sécurité nationale.

Un proverbe turc dit : "Quand un clown s'installe dans un palais, il ne devient pas roi, c'est le palais qui devient un cirque ". Cette fine équipe a décidé de créer un concurrent de l'ONU. Depuis que son Conseil de la paix existe, Trump a déclenché plus de frappes militaires que Biden durant tout son mandat. Chaque fois que l'affaire Epstein ressurgit, les bombes explosent quelque part dans le monde et font diversion. Bombarder plus pour gagner plus.

Trump, le seul éléphant au monde qui se promène avec son propre magasin de porcelaine, n'a plus le choix qu'entre deux solutions, aussi mauvaises l'une que l'autre.

Translation (mine):

A year ago, right here, I compared Trump's presidency to the Court of Nero. I made a mistake, it's a court of miracles. An anti-Vaxxer, former heroin addict, is the minister of health. A climate skeptic, minister of ecology. An alcoholic TV host, minister of the armed forces. A former agent of Qatar, minister of justice. A groupie of Putin, minister of national intelligence.

A Turkish proverb says, "When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become king; it's the palace that becomes a circus." This rag-tag team has decided to create a rival to the UN. Since his peace council came into existence, Trump has launched more military attacks than Biden during his entire term. Every time the Epstein Affair resurfaces, bombs explode in some part of the world to create a diversion. Bomb more to win more.

Trump, the first elephant in the world to walk around with his own China shop, now has only two choices, each as bad as the other.

I fear Trump may have lost the French. Tant pis. (Seriously, read the whole speech. Google Translate will give you the meaning even if it misses the subtleties.)