Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2022 - New Sevdaliza album: Shabrang! Musical Monday 2008.31
My posts have been content heavy lately and tie consuming to create both because of the main subject and its complexity and the YEAR IN NUMBER feature in which the numbers of the blog posts corresponded to the years of my life, a feature what is now ended as I have passed the current year.
I have other more complex Musical Monday posts in the works, but they are not ready yet.
So here is a simple and quick one, focusing on the artist Sevdaliza, who just released a new album, which I just bought.
I have included Sevdaliza's music many times in several of my mixes, and back when I discovered ISON, I created a MUSICAL MONDAY about the album and Sevdaliza.
evdaliza approaches her sophomore album Shabrang like a lounge singer fresh off a marathon reading of Paradise Lost, the complexities of a fallen state of grace heavy on her mind. The record’s title comes from a mythical Persian horse, Shabrang Behzād, the “night-colored purebred” of the hero Siyâvash, and its project is in part a reflex to the impossibility of translation. To demonstrate the depth of meaning contained in the Farsi phrase “shabrang,” Sevdaliza names as many shades of night that she can. What results is a work of emotional maximalism, an album that grades exclusively from dark to darker through parable-like songs populated with devils and tangerine-selling women, whose opening word “evil” proves to be not only a condemnation but the concept at its heart.
As with her 2018 debut Ison and her most recent EP The Calling, Sevdaliza co-produced Shabrang with Netherlands-based Mucky and enlisted Mihai Puscoiu to construct the album’s spine of film noir strings. The album maintains the spare economy of its predecessors. Apart from the strings (a dulcimer melody on opener “Joanna” starts the album off on an epic course), each track consists mostly of music box piano riffs, gothic synths, and the rogue leaden beat. Trip-hop, the label used to classify her music in the past, feels less than helpful now. The straightforward Farsi ballad “Gole Bi Goldoon,” apocalyptic club track “Darkest Hour,” and cyborgian grunge “Rhode,” all linked by Sevdaliza’s dextrous voice, feel essential over the course of the record. Her carnivorous approach bears resemblance to that of another album based around the concept of darkness: Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene, whose songs were held together less by genre than the strength of a singular creative vision.
Shabrang’s fifteen tracks are preoccupied with emotional extremes and the prospect of self-understanding gained through testing those extremes, territory not new to Sevdaliza’s writing. The possibilities and limitations of self-construction loosely framed Ison. On “Human,” she dissected herself over little more than a skittish beat, turning her humanity into a list of essential parts: skin, bones, veins, sweat, scars, and soul. On Shabrang, Sevdaliza aims to identify exactly where she ends and everything else begins; to do so, she refracts herself through pain like white light through quartz, separating out knots of dependency and power. Despite its runtime of over an hour, the album feels lithe in a way Ison does not.
Seductive evil requires an opposite state like purity or goodness, a definite binary suggested in the pleading “Joanna.” But Sevdaliza quickly proves herself more interested in the inseparability of evil from good. On the title track, she allows herself the melodrama of divinity to speak to someone who’s harmed her: “I refer to you as my holy suffering.” Throughout the album, love and hate are one, with pain showing itself to be preordained and innocence shading quickly into culpability. Sevdaliza’s incisive use of Auto-Tune helps her straddle those emotional and moral divides. On “Habibi” (the Arabic word for “my love”), she achieves a startling bleakness by warping the question “is there anyone out there to get me out of my head?”; this skillful manipulation transforms a request into a moment of surrender and makes the song’s sampled crack of thunder seem understated.
Even the album’s lightest moments position themselves as opportunities for existential meditation. “All Rivers At Once” is a song like a slow walk, underpinned by reverbed acoustic guitar. A mundane image of romance beside a river expands into an address to “children of the light” and the desperate refrain “I don’t want to feel pain” over rolling drums and probing synths. At its best, Sevdaliza’s all-in commitment to philosophical musing lends a parable-like quality to her writing, with essential questions of being and form couched in spare images. Other tracks, like “Wallflower,” with its spoken word chorus about whispered melodies and the promise that “all is meant to be,” don’t quite escape the feeling of smoked-out corniness.
The racing “Eden” folds Sevdaliza’s interest in subjugation as it relates to self-formation into one phrase. “I want to be your secret, or at least its keeper,” she sings, then repeats herself, replacing the central word pairing each time. Secret and keeper become pearl and shell, army and trojan horse, well and source, muse and mistress, bible and witness. Selfhood, the song implies, is a process based at its core on capitulation, so long as it means getting closer to your object of desire. The song also holds one of the album’s most memorable hooks. “If I can’t be the song/At least have mercy/Let me hear her.” Self-referential, it refocuses Shabrang’s mission. The album is not solely about darkness, but also what we’re willing to give up trying to escape it.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.31 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1886 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2021 - Saturday 8/29 Portland Protests - one dead
I am postponing the usual COMIC BOOK SUNDAY post to bring you this important news about what's going on in my new home. Though I do not live in Portland, OR, it's about as close as Kalamazoo, Michigan when I lived in Richland, and then I told people I lived in Kalamazoo.
I hope COMIC BOOK SUNDAY will return on September Sixth as there are no more important events (like protestors murdered on the streets of our nation) to share.
Here we are in 2021. That is post #2021 because the year 2020 is not over yet. What this means for me is that my THE YEAR IN NUMBER feature is over as I have surpassed the current year.
Over a thousand Trump supporters with their loudness and big flags and their special brand of crazy were only going to drive around Portland on the HIGHWAYS so as not to enflame tensions with the current protestors of THE STATE OF THE HATE NATION -- Black Lives Matter, Trump is still President, no leadership in the pandemic, etc. -- who have been for the most part peacefully protesting in Portland since the beginning of June except when Federal agents who will not identify themselves as such play Gestapo on the streets, "arrest" (abduct) peaceful citizens exercising their First Amendment rights without due process, and in general make things worse with shows of force that only escalate violence.
But get a few cases of beer in them and some chew, and the right-wing vanguard of the Commander and Chief of the Hate and Fear nation decide it would be a lot more fun to cause some ruckus by driving through downtown Portland, shooting protestors with paint ball guns and pepper spray while being hateful and trying to incite violence.
And so that's what happened. Big surprise.
And someone was shot and killed. It appears that this person was a Trump supporter and an adherent to a FAR right extremist group called Patriot Prayer.
I am not happy that anyone was killed, even someone whose beliefs I strongly disagree with. Life is something we must protect. It's sad that this young man was killed.
The blame is surely with the person who pulled the trigger, whomever that may be.
Yet, surely, it seems reasonable to assert that had these Trump supporters not incite violence by shooting protestors with paint balls guns and pepper spray, this shooting and death would not have happened.
And let's be clear. If a pick up truck with some good old boys is driving past where I am peacefully protesting and someone raises what very much looks like a gun and aims at me, I am afraid for my life. Because if I don't know it's a paint ball gun, and it's all happening very fast, and it looks like a gun because IT IS A GUN, then that's FELONIOUS ASSAULT. That is a case of felony assault for which those who committed those crimes should be prosecuted.
They are not as the President called them "great patriots." They are not all peacefully protesting. Those who shot at protestors are criminals.
“Portland has been burning for many years, for decades it’s been burning,” he said.
(This is a lie.)
Just remember in 63 days when it is time to vote that these acts of violence are happening in our nation under Donald Trump's presidency not because a democratic mayor and governor in Portland and Oregon will not use excessive force to be fascists but because DONALD TRUMP IS A FASCIST and a failed leader and a bully.
One person was shot dead in Portland in a clash between rival protesters. Police, however, did not immediately link the shooting death to the protests https://t.co/ystK7rnNq8pic.twitter.com/HEzwg2Ui7H
WARNING: Graphic images here, and I'm only including some lower-res images in the tweet.@SmileItsNathan was on scene when the fatal Portland shooting happened. Here are some images. More in the link and (warning again) they are higher resolution there.https://t.co/ziLgT3SI0Bpic.twitter.com/meX5TGXs9k
This isn't the official route of the Trump rally, but there is still an endless stream of Trump vehicles coming in to downtown Portland. pic.twitter.com/h0zg8WMVtg
With the usual caveat that I'm terrible at crowd estimates, I'd say about 1,000 people are here throughout the parking lot right now and maybe like 1 million flags.
Meanwhile, a crowd is chanting anti-Wheeler and anti-Trump messages outside a building where Wheeler supposedly lives. Three people have chained themselves together inside the lobby of the condo building. https://t.co/H7dtajp68Lpic.twitter.com/FbTzkKBQCL
WAKE UP! President Trump is inciting this violence so that he can implement the Insurrection Act right before the election and send the military into Democratic cities to tear-gas voters who he will refer to as “ANTIFA.” #TrumpRiots
A little research pulled this up: "The Insurrection Act...10U.S.C.§§331-335. Section331 authorizes the President to use the military to suppress an insurrection at the request of a state government..." In other words, no sitting President can act without the State's invite.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.30 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1885 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2020 - The Fifth Column Cometh - Weekly Hodge Podge for 2008.29
Welcome to the WEEKLY HODGE PODGE, the collection of whatever I find interesting over the last week, including the weekly pandemic report, and the final installment in the YEAR IN NUMBER feature in the last year of the 2010s.
“You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way…to get in the way.”
– Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020)
Lots of goodies in this edition, and not all about the political nightmare that is the prelude to the 2020 election and the state of the union in which Trump actually thinks that the White House is his house (judged by how he acted and how he hosted s a campaign rally there in defiance of the Hatch Act not what he paid lip service to).
There's some cool stuff on BOOKS and a GIF of a Collie reading a book. As always, there's some science stuff -- 50 new planets!! -- and there's a report from Iowa State University about a professor forced to change language in her syllabus against hate speech, which breaks with the 1915 Declaration of Academic Freedom.
Because Jacob Blake was shot and nearly killed but is instead paralyzed with his legs chained to the hospital bed (how is that for stupidity?), there's some outrage in here from his brothers and sisters in the NBA and Kamala Harris. Lots of LeBron James. An interview with Chris Paul and some truly inspirational comments (stark contrast to the occupant in chief) from soon to be VP Kamala Harris.
But first, this week's theme... we are the FIFTH COLUMN.
The banner image is for the Fifth Column podcast.
There's also an "adversarial" journalist called Beau of the Fifth Column.
It's a hot button term to be sure given its history. Here's the WIKI definition:
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.
The podcast and Beau are here to subvert and undermine the hegemony. They both lean left. They both hate Trump. They both want to see change in our world.
And it's time for change.
We must band together in a Fifth Column and take down the fear mongering, dishonest, criminal organization that the Republican party has fully embraced in itself, more hateful and vicious than ever, under Trump.
From their enclave in midtown Manhattan, Michael Moynihan (Vice), Matt Welch (Reason), and Kmele Foster (Freethink) dissect the news, interrogate guests, and question just about everything. The topics are broad, the insights are deep, and the jokes are off color. Reform the system, or burn it to the ground? They discuss... @wethefifth www.wethefifth.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This image below shows what the Fifth Column in America was originally associated with.
My hope is that this is actually true to some extent. Maybe there is a secret cabal of toady Republicans who just silently ride the shit show of hate that is Donald Trump's America, and if he loses (when he loses?), they will flee the sinking ship, his petty temper tantrum to have an election that does not go his way over-turned will have no support from nearly everyone in the government, though I am still hoping he has to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House, which is not his or Melania's.
Another way to see the Fifth Column is the "foreign interference" aspect, though with our digital world "outside agitators" can stay in Russia or China and interfere with our elections and due process, with our very information, from afar.
I see the modern Fifth Column as progressives armed with the truth, with critical thinking, with science, with the political analysis of experts, with facts and data, with historical reference to combat the Republican party who has hitched its wagons to the demon spawn of stupidity and hate and has tried to weaponize the government against its own people.
We fight back with sabotage in the form of standing up for what's right, being outspoken for the good of all the people in our communities, fighting hate and bigotry with all that we have.
This video is buried so I am presenting it twice in this post:
We must be BETTER.
Also, we must be FREE THINKERS.
Fight the propaganda.
Use your brain for critical thinking. Corroborate supposed "facts" from multiple sources. Check in with trusted news networks with a high rating of factual accuracy, like Reuters and NPR, with less bias than most others.
Of course, I had to dig into what this guy is about. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far.
His real name is Justin King. He’s what’s called an adversarial journalist. He’s also an ex-private military contractor. He comes from a military family, born in Japan. He’s spent time in jail as a result of some of his military “work.”
He’s an activist and an anarchist. He’s left-leaning (I think) but as opposed to many left-leaning activists of the Democratic Socialist ilk who are agitating for more government involvement and caretaking, he’s looking for less. He’s more of a survivalist.
He’s also heavy into conservation – especially of wolves.
I’m still baffled as to exactly what he’s about. But for anyone who is curious about politics – both global and domestic – and who is skeptical about current news (from all sources and political leanings), this is an intriguing new voice to add to the mix.
I was not expecting to hear what I heard him say based on how he looks and sounds (and he often references that disconnect).
Please watch his videos (below) – I’ll be extremely curious to know what you think
The
Fifth Column provides you with insights that aren’t available on other news
outlets. With a focus on long-form journalism and exclusive reports, The Column
strives for excellence in adversarial journalism. Our exclusive reports find
their way into one of our unique sections.
The Fifth Column
The
flagship section of
the outlet contains articles that you won’t find anywhere else. The Fifth
Column is filled with original investigative reporting, exclusive interviews,
and unique submissions.
JACOB BLAKE AND REACTIONS OF NBA PLAYERS (now a political organization according to Trump)
Asked Friday night about how leagues and their players have reacted in the wake of the Blake shooting, President Donald Trump directed much of his response at the NBA, saying he believes what has unfolded is "very bad" for the league.
"It's terrible," Trump told reporters. "I think what they're doing to the NBA in particular is going to destroy basketball. I can't -- I don't even watch it. ... You know when you watch sports, you want to sort of relax, but this is a different world. ... You don't want to stay in politics. You want to relax."
"The shootings that continue to happen, it creates a lot of unrest. A whole lot of unrest," Paul said. "For us, to have a predominantly African American league, to see our Black brothers being shot and killed on a daily basis, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to us. Everyone expects us to go out and play. I get it. But we needed some time. All of us.
"We needed some time to refocus and understand that we can do that. We're human, at the end of the day. A lot of times people pass a lot of judgment about what we should do or what we shouldn't do, but I give our guys a lot of credit because they've been doing a hell of a job. A hell of a job down here performing and speaking on the different social injustices going on day in and day out. While trying to be a great athlete. While trying to be a great husband. While trying to be a great father."
One of Paul's focuses has been on voting. He says players are pushing NBA franchises and team owners to open arenas and practice facilities as voting locations, among other ideas to promote it. The NBA and NBPA released a joint statement Friday detailing a set of initiatives, including using arenas as polling sites.
While players discussed a myriad of things in their meetings with regard to continuing the season, Paul said the opportunity to remain at the forefront as visible voices for change was the biggest motivating factor to play on.
"We understand how strong our voice is, how powerful our voice is, and ultimately we decided if we go away from this stage we don't necessarily have that same platform," Paul said. "We stood in solidarity. We're going to continue to play, but we're also going to continue to make sure our voices are heard.
"The other thing is, not just making sure our voices are heard, we're about action. That's what our meeting was about, is the real action. Guys said, 'We've been saying this, we've been saying that, but what's the action?' So we had a big meeting with all the players and then we had a smaller meeting where two players from every team came. I think that was very informational and we got to talk to the different [team] governors and we told them the action that we wanted to see in place."
Paul said he spoke with Blake's father (who shares a hometown connection to Paul, having attended college in North Carolina at Winston-Salem State), reaffirming a call to action.
"I think for the young guys in our league, to get a chance to see how guys are really coming together and speaking and see real change, real action. Because guys are tired. Like, I mean, tired. When I say 'tired,' we're not physically tired, we're just tired of seeing the same thing over and over again, right?" Paul said.
"It's emotional, especially when you're a Black man and you know that, when [Milwaukee's] George Hill spoke, he talked about being a Black man and he was hurt. He was hurt. We're all hurt. We're all tired of just seeing the same thing over and over again, and everybody just expects us to be OK, just because we get paid great money. You know, we're human. We have real feelings. And I'm glad that we got the chance to get in a room together to talk with one another and not just cross paths and say, 'Good luck in your game today.'"
Asked what he hopes people understand from the perspective of players, Paul reiterated that it's not about them.
"Just understand that you got a league here that understands that it's not just about any one of us. Our WNBA ladies stood with us. All the other leagues -- whether it be baseball, whether it be hockey, whatever it is -- we're human, just like anybody else," Paul said. "We don't always do everything right.
"But I'll tell you, for me, it's been really tough. It's been really tough just for the simple fact that when things like this happen, I like to talk to my kids about it. I'm a long way from my kids. I can't explain to them why this video [of Blake being shot] is going all over the internet. I have an 11-year-old Black son. Black. Son. Who is witnessing this stuff day in and day out. And we're just trying. And once again I want to go back and just tell our players, 'Great job.' Great job. Keep doing what you're doing and we're going to continue to make change with action."
While the emotions were raw, Paul said maintaining a unified front toward achieving the same goal was always the objective for the players, and something that will stick with him.
"Fifteen years in this league and I've never seen anything like it," Paul said. "But the voices that were heard, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it."
THE NEAR MURDER OF JACOB BLAKE
KAMALA HARRIS FOLLOWS UP
PORTLAND VIOLENCE
Violence erupted in downtown Portland when demonstrators from anti-fascist and alt-right groups clashed on Saturday. Members of the alt-right came armed with handguns and baseball bats. Portland Police sent only 30 officers to the demonstrations, which began with fighting earlier in the day between the two factions of protestors. Later in the evening, 14 arrests were issued. Police said they did not engage “because those involved ‘willingly’ engaged, its forces were stretched too thin from policing 80+ nights of protests, and the bureau didn’t feel the clashes would last that long.” (OPB)
As the Rev. Al Sharpton took the podium, an area kept socially distanced since 7 a.m. became crowded with protesters who held up their phones to record his speech.
Martin Luther King III followed his young daughter by saying that while this march marks the anniversary of his father’s famous American Dream, “We must never forget the American nightmare.”
The memory of late civil rights icon John Lewis loomed large, his influence palpable in almost every corner of the demonstration. It was rare for a speech to end without an ode to the late congressman or a reference to his iconic quote about “good trouble.”
Joined by other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans police officers from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants. The bill has already passed the House.
LeBron James says Black community 'terrified' of police conduct
Dave McMenaminESPN Staff Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- In the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James said that the way the police conduct themselves makes him afraid to be a Black man in America.
"I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America," James said following the Lakers' Game 4 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. "Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified."
Blake, a Black man, was shot by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as he tried to enter the driver's side door of his vehicle. Officers were responding to a domestic disturbance. Blake's father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he was told his son was shot eight times and is paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors do not know if the paralysis will be permanent.
Video of the incident, taken from a window across the street, was distributed on social media and shared by Blake's attorney, Ben Crump.
"If you're sitting here and telling me that there was no way to subdue that gentleman or detain him or just before the firing of guns, then you're sitting here and lying to not only me, but you're lying to every African American, every Black person in the community," James said. "Because we see it over and over and over.
"If you watch the video, there were multiple moments where if they wanted to, they could've tackled him. They could've grabbed him. You know? They could've done that. And why, why does it always have to get to a point where we see the guns firing?"
James mentioned that Blake's three children -- ages 3, 5 and 8 -- were in the car, a fact corroborated by Crump.
"It's in broad daylight," James said.
James wondered aloud whether the shooting would have received national attention if not for the citizen filming the encounter, and he pointed out the lack of body camera footage from the responding officers. Kenosha mayor John Antaramian told reporters that Kenosha police were budgeted to add body camera equipment in 2022. Antaramian was unsure whether the dash camera on the police car was recording at the time of the shooting.
"Quite frankly, it's just f---ed up in our community," James said.
James' former teammate, George Hill of the Milwaukee Bucks, questioned Monday whether it was a prudent decision to restart the NBA season in Orlando, Florida, amid the social unrest that became a national conversation after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, in May.
"We shouldn't have even came to this damn place, to be honest. I think coming just here took all the focal points off what the issues are. But we're here, so it is what it is," Hill said, referring to the NBA bubble. "We can't do anything from right here, but I think definitely, when it's all settled, some things have to be done."
James said he "didn't have any reaction" to Hill's statement. "Everyone has their opinion and reaction to what happened," James said. But he made it clear that he believes he can both compete in the NBA playoffs and be an agent for positive social change.
"I still have a job to do because I'm here. Because I committed. And when I commit to something, I feel like I have to come through. That's just who I am," James said. "But that does not mean that I don't see what's going on and I won't say anything or continue to use my platform, continue to use my voice and continue to uplift all of the other athletes to let them know that they can say and do what's right and not fear what other people's opinions are."
James mentioned the nonprofit organization More Than a Vote -- which he launched in June with a collection of Black athletes and entertainers in order to energize Black votes and thwart voter suppression -- as an example of the work that can be done while fulfilling his day job as a basketball player in NBA bubble.
The New York Times reported Monday that More Than a Vote is raising millions of dollars, in collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to pay more poll workers to facilitate voting in Black electoral districts in November's general election. The hope is to identify and incentivize young people to work at the polls so as to not put elderly poll workers at risk while the COVID-19 pandemic persists.
"I hope I can continue to uplift my community, uplift communities all over America, uplift the Black community," James said. "It's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. But being organized and having a plan and keeping our feet on the gas pedal is something that we've got to do."
James' teammates echoed his sentiment, devoting postgame remarks to the broader issues that served as a backdrop to Blake's shooting.
"Our main focus is on social justice, and we are lucky to have a ton of guys who are public figures like Bron, [Chris Paul], all these guys who are always on the forefront and speaking out and able to kind of guide the younger guys and stand up in the right direction and kind of follow their lead," Lakers big man Anthony Davis said. "We are fortunate as an organization to have one on our team who loves to go out there and put his foot forward, and we kind of just follow his footsteps and kind of make sure we're doing the right things as well."
Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma turned his attention to the tactics used by the Wisconsin police officers.
"Quite frankly, it's disgusting to have multiple cops around and not even thinking about [using] a Taser. And forget about the Taser, [not thinking about] just simple combat and taking a man down instead of trying to shoot him," Kuzma said.
James said that fear exists in the Black community because of the seeming pattern of excessive force by the police.
"You have no idea how that cop that day left the house," James said. "You don't know if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, you don't know if he had an argument at home with his significant other, you don't know if one of his kids said something to him and he left the house steaming. Or maybe he just left the house saying that, 'Today is going to be the end for one of these Black people.' That's what it feels like. That's what it feels like. It just hurts. It hurts."
Blake is in critical condition. James and others on the Lakers wished him a full recovery. After the spate of violent incidents involving the police and Black citizens -- Blake, Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others -- Lakers players also wished for better police training and gun control.
"I think firearms are a huge issue in America," James said. "I don't know how you clean that up. I'm not saying that I've got all the answers, but guns are -- they are a huge issue in America, and they're not used for just hunting that a lot of people do for sport. Right now for Black people, right now when you're hunting, we think you're hunting us."
James mentioned the video of a 10-year-old Black child, Elijah Pierre-Louis, hiding behind a car in his driveway when a police car drove down his street. The video went viral in June as an example of the pervasive fear that police presence causes in the Black community.
"The kid was in his [driveway] shooting baskets," James said. "And as soon as the damn cop was about to ride by, the kid walked behind his dad's truck and waited for the cop to go by. That s--- is sad. No kid should have to feel that threatened that he has to hide at his own house. That is sad, but I know what he's going through because I was one of those kids when I lived in the projects. When we saw a cop rolling, we went behind a brick wall and waited for it to roll out. And if we saw the cops lights come on, we ran ... even if we didn't do nothing wrong.
University forces professor to change syllabus that threatened to dismiss students who argue against BLM, abortion or same-sex marriage
By Alaa Elassar, CNN
Updated 1:22 PM ET, Sun August 23, 2020
(CNN)A professor at Iowa State University has come under fire for threatening to discipline students who submit projects or papers opposing abortion, the Black Lives Matter movement or same-sex marriage.
The threat was made in the professor's English 250 syllabus, which was posted online and released by the Young America's Foundation (YAF) on Monday. The conservative group said a "whistleblower" tipped them off about the threat.
In the syllabus, the professor says the course's goal is to help students "develop skills in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication."
It also includes a "GIANT WARNING" for students: "Any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom," the syllabus read
"The same goes for any papers/projects: you cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn't deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously."
The syllabus published by the professor.
Spencer Brown, YAF spokesman, characterized the warning as "profoundly anti-intellectual as well as unconstitutional."
"Higher learning ought to be about diversity of thought and the free and open exchange of ideas, not an echo chamber where those who engage in subjectively-defined 'wrong think' are dismissed from class," he said.
In a statement to CNN, the university said it took immediate "corrective action" and amended the syllabus. It did not name the professor.
"Iowa State University is committed to a learning environment where ideas and perspectives can be freely expressed and debated. The syllabus as originally written did not comply with the university's policies or values. Corrective action to revise the syllabus was taken on Monday, August 17, which was the first day of the fall semester, as soon as this issue came to our attention," the statement said.
The university added that it has since provided faculty members with "guidance on First Amendment protections for student expression in the classroom."
What the fuck. University of Alabama tells faculty not to let students know if they've come in contact with anyone infected in the 500-goddamn-person outbreak. (Daily Beast)
Thank you Mitch McConnell for standing firm on liability protection for businesses if they infect their students we mean customers.
RNC Beat! We read other people who watch the convention so we don't have to so you don't have to!
Lol, Harold Meyerson says this was the greatest disconnect between a convention and the outside world that he'd ever seen. Until now.
The first convention I attended, the notorious 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, never did get itself turned around. Planned as a renomination celebration for Lyndon Johnson, it then shifted after Johnson dropped out to a nomination celebration for his vice president Hubert Humphrey. Away from the podium on the convention floor, however, antiwar delegates (in the minority) and Humphrey's legions (in the majority) raged at each other, while outside, in the parks and the streets, Chicago's cops were caught on television beating the hell out of protesters and random pedestrians.
At that point, the convention did go off script. Making a seconding speech for McGovern, Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (a former member of JFK's Cabinet) said, "If George McGovern were president, we wouldn't have these Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago." A handheld camera on the convention floor then captured a furious Chicago Mayor Richard Daley shouting at Ribicoff. There was no mic, but lip-readers could plainly see what he was saying: "Fuck you, you motherfucking Jew, you!"
How about an Old Handsome Joe statement on Mike Pence somehow blaming Joe Biden for violence in Donald Trump's America? Sure, here you go.
[Two nights ago], Vice President Mike Pence stood before America and with a straight face said, "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America."
His proof?
The violence you're seeing in Donald Trump's America.
Did Mike Pence forget Donald Trump is president? Is Donald Trump even aware he's president? These are not images from some imagined "Joe Biden's America" in the future. These are images from Donald Trump's America today. The violence we're witnessing is happening under Donald Trump. Not me. It's getting worse, and we know why.
Donald Trump refuses to even acknowledge there is a racial justice problem in America. To solve this problem, first we have to honestly admit the problem. But he won't do it. Instead of looking to calm the waters, he adds fuel to every fire. Violence isn't a problem in his eyes – it's a political strategy. And the more of it, the better for him.
One of his top White House advisors said it flat out earlier today. "The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who's best on public safety and law and order." The better it is.
Kenosha sheriff had some thoughts two years ago. If you get too many ladies pregnant, he will warehouse you in some sort of camp where you can concentrate better.
And here's their police chief this week.
They wouldn't have been conflict-resolved with a firearm if they hadn't been out after curfew!
Meanwhile, according to his father, Jacob Blake is currently handcuffed to his hospital bed, where he lies paralyzed. — Business Insider
Save the schools, save the youth, save the world. — Gizmodo
Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman accused of voter suppression robocall? SURELY NOT OUR JACOB WOHL AND JACK BURKMAN??? (Yahoo)
Here's some more official voter suppression: 50,000 absentee ballot requests invalidated in ONE COUNTY after Trump campaign sued. The election commissioner had prefilled the forms with a voter ID number. Fuck the whole world, this is unconscionable. — AP
Putin ready to send some troops to Belarus to help its dictator better control its people, who rose up after he stole the latest election. Do you think Putin will help us too? — Washington Post
For the "things we already knew but it's always good to have more reports reminding us" file: White supremacists are in every law enforcement agency in the country probably. — Brennan Center
Tell us more, James Comey's best friend:
Throughout the Mueller investigation, many commentators—myself included—had assumed that the probe had both criminal and counterintelligence elements. The assumption made sense and jibed with what we knew about the history of the Russia investigation. The FBI had opened both a criminal and counterintelligence probe of Trump, after all, and the original Crossfire Hurricane investigation had been a counterintelligence investigation. Given that Mueller's probe had subsumed the FBI's existing investigation, it made sense that there were counterintelligence elements of his investigation.
But the assumption turned out to be wrong.
Sigh, okay, yeah, I had assumed that too. ANYWAY, Adam Schiff news on it, delivered in the most stentorian tones by Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare!
David Corn got some hot Trump mic action (gross). This from his Trump University fraud suit depositions. (Mother Jones)
Trump Hotel handbook. Okeydokey.
The Trump hotel's ethics rules are not the only area where its owner isn't exactly leading by example. The handbook forbids "immoral or indecent behavior that has the potential to publicly embarrass the Hotel" and bans "profane, discourteous, abusive, or rude language or action."
— Mother Jones
Today I learned that parents do this. Parents. A Message To TikTok Parents Who Use My Face To Make Their Kids Cry. (Refinery 29)
Smoke, heat, and COVID-19. Californians are caught between health crises. — Grist
Hey look, turns out there were highly qualified non-white-non-bro-non-men available to be Bon Appetit's editor in chief! (Conde Nast)
I had all these things, so Fennel Beet One Pan Roasted Chicken, minus the butter and with olive oil, and minus the chili powder and with some Penzey's "Forward" thrown on top. We will see! Update! It was really good! But 450 is ridiculous, all your sauce burns up. Ohhh that's why, because it said 400.
In the beginning, Mary Trump did not reveal her source on the information that Trump had someone take his SATs for him — she simply said it was simply "somebody who would have absolutely no reason to make it up."
Turns out, that's true — the source of that information was none other than Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump's older sister. The tape of Barry telling this story to Mary Trump, along with several other anecdotes, was obtained by the Washington Post, which published a report on Saturday night.
Let's take a look at some of the dishier parts, shall we?
Here's what she said about his whole "putting kids in cages at the border" thing:
"All he wants to do is appeal to his base," Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. "He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this."
Of course, there are lots of very religious people who don't want to help anyone at all, and many non-religious people who do (Hi!). But no, Donald Trump, regardless of his beliefs about the supernatural, does not want to help anyone.
Barry also does not much care for all of his tweeting and lying:
Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. "His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God," she said. "I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit."
More interesting, however, are her anedotes about what a little snot he was and how she did his homework for him.
Barry told how she tried to help her brother get into college. "He was a brat," Barry said, explaining that "I did his homework for him" and "I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college."
And how he is phony and cruel.
At one point Barry said to her niece, "It's the phoniness of it all. It's the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel."
And, of course, the story of how someone took his exams for him.
Then Barry dropped what Mary considered a bombshell: "He went to Fordham for one year [actually two years] and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams."
"No way!" Mary responded. "He had somebody take his entrance exams?"
"SATs or whatever. . . . That's what I believe," Barry said. "I even remember the name." That person was Joe Shapiro, Barry said.
Donald Trump was friends with a person at Penn named Joe Shapiro, who is deceased. Shapiro's widow and sister told The Post last month that he never took a test for anybody, including Trump. Mary Trump has said it was a different Joe Shapiro, but that person has not surfaced.
Of course, while this may be very satisfying and carthartic for us ... the Trumpists over on the AskTrumpSupporters subreddit, at least, do not give a flying shit. Either they don't believe her, or they do believe her and they do not care.
Reddit
I believe the claims, always thought there's no way he had any education, based off of how he speaks and rich people going to fancy colleges barely ever is legit.
It doesn't change my opinion of him since I already presumed what his sister has been saying about him.
A particularly hilarious defense read:
She clearly does not know her brother and hasn't been in his inner circle for years. Therefore is worth about as much to me as any given outsider's opinion. Many families are like that. President Trump is a voracious reader and everyone in his inner circle knows that.
Absolutely no one says this. And yet this person believes it. Probably believes it with their whole heart and soul.
It's hard, I think, to believe that people are either stupid enough to believe that Trump is a "voracious reader" or that they would not care that he is, very obviously, quite stupid.
The fact is — anyone who would not vote for Trump because he is cruel or phony or a bad person or very stupid is already not voting for him. As satisfying as it is for us to read these things, they don't care and they're not going to care. They don't care about his character, they don't care that he is not sincerely religious, they don't care that he is not particularly smart. If anything, not being smart helps him, because America hates smart people.
For whatever reason, Trump is basically immune to the effects of negative publicity, so if we want to win this, we've got to focus on how life will be better for everyone without him.
Anyway! This is now your open thread! Enjoy!
[Washington Post] Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons.
This morning, at 7:22 AM, Donald Trump decided to get a bug up his ass about how the evil, God-hating Democrats at the evil, God-hating Democratic National Convention omitted the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. "Decided" is the operative word here, as it is just as unlikely that he sincerely gives a shit about this as it is that he actually knows the words to the Pledge. No, no. He just figured that this would be a good way to get evangelicals worked up and excited to vote for him in order to keep Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, from forcing everyone in America to be an atheist. I guess.
It should come as no surprise that this did not actually happen. When the pledge was recited on the national stage, the "under God" part was there. When it was recited in other instances, it was there. The only time it wasn't there was during two caucus meetings — the LGBTQ caucus meeting and the Muslim Delegates Assembly, both of which decided to omit that part.
This statement is misleading at best. The DNC did not omit "under God" from the pledge, nor did they forbid its use. In fact, during every recitation of the pledge before each night's events — the 2020 DNC lasted four nights — the phrase "under God" was included. [...]
Here are links to videos of "under God" being said during the pledge on nights one, two, and three.
Political conventions are sprawling events. In addition to the "main events" that take place during the nationally televised program each night, individual caucuses and councils also meet throughout the week.
On Aug. 17, for instance, the first day of the DNC, the Hispanic Caucus, the Labor Council, the AAPI Caucus, the Black Caucus, the Interfaith Council, the Ethnic Council, the Youth Council, and the Women's Caucus all held meetings prior to the night's nationally televised program. In at least two of these meetings of smaller individual caucuses — the LGBTQ caucus meeting and the Muslim Delegates Assembly on Aug. 18 — the phrase "under God" was omitted from the pledge.
The whole thing really is just absurd. There is no way in hell that the DNC would take a political risk like omitting "God" from the pledge, regardless of whether or not it was the right thing to do. Republicans can take risks, Republicans can say whatever they want and get away with it because they've decided they can and their voters have decided they can. They can alienate large groups of people and a decent chunk of those voters will still vote for them. It's a little different with the Dems.
I happen to find the whole Pledge thing a little creepy to begin with. I don't like the idea of pledging allegiance to anything, period. But if we're going to do it, we may as well be originalists, no?
It was not there originally, when it was written by the Reverend Francis Bellamy (who by the way was a socialist) — it was added in the 1950s to differentiate us, the good, God-fearing United States Americans from the "godless Communists" in the Soviet Union. It is some red scare bullshit, just like the nuns at my mom's schools telling her that the Communists in the Soviet Union enjoyed tossing babies into the air and shooting them. Not to mention the fact that there really is something very unseemly about requiring people, about requiring school children, to essentially pray to a God that they may not believe in. And that's a violation of the separation of church and state.
But Trump is smart to do this. Evangelicals are terrified of losing power, and they care a whole lot more about that than they do about Trump having to pay the legal fees of the porn star he cheated on his wife with.
Anyway! This is now your open thread! Have a lovely day!
[Snopes]
Hey! Guess what? We live in a country where the President of the United States has to cover the legal fees of the porn star he made sign an NDA after he slept with her, and that is not even close to the worst thing that has happened this week alone!
It's true. On Monday, a court ordered Trump to pay $44,100 to Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) to cover the expenses she incurred in her legal battles involving that NDA. The order was posted online by Clifford's attorneys on Friday.
This is exactly the kind of thing that would probably have destroyed any other candidate in the past, but is now no longer all that much of a thing. If Barack Obama had to pay $44,100 to a sex worker, evangelicals and loyal FOX viewers would be losing their minds right now. They would surely have more to say about this than I do.
Clifford, an adult-film actress who says she had an affair with Trump from 2006 to 2007, signed a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who represented a shell company and a "David Dennison," which Clifford contends is a pseudonym for Trump. Trump denies the affair occurred.Clifford sued Trump in 2018, seeking to be released from the NDA.
In response, Trump and his legal team agreed outside of court not to sue or otherwise enforce the NDA. The suit was dismissed and Clifford's claims ruled moot, as the NDA had been rendered unenforceable.
Monday's decision was a response to Clifford's efforts to be reimbursed for costs and attorney's fees related to the case.In his decision this week, Judge Robert Broadbelt III ruled that Clifford was entitled to legal fees, finding her the "prevailing party" under California law, despite the case having been dismissed.
Broadbelt also rejected an argument by Trump's attorneys that the President was not liable for the fees because he had not signed the NDA.
Well it sure would be weird of Trump to get so very involved in the affairs of this "David Dennison" person if he had no dog in this fight. Why would he be able to enforce an NDA he had nothing to do with? Is he just that charitable?
Yep, this sure would be a very big scandal if he were not Donald Trump. It might even be a scandal if he were another Republican. It would definitely be a scandal if he were a Democrat, because the people who would traditionally be most mad about such a thing are the exact people who support Donald Trump. All those holier than though evangelicals and born-agains who definitely will not have a single thing to say about this, because they never really cared about "immorality" and "marriage" anyway.
[CNN]
With the Senate on recess until Labor Day and Donald Trump busy pretending he wasn't seething at every moment of the Democratic National Convention, not to mention all the nice strangeness of the online DNC itself, you may have missed yesterday's weekly unemployment report. We're sure Trump and his pals hope you missed it, so we need to briefly call your attention to the thing: After a brief dip the week previous, the Department of Labor reported new unemployment claims for the week ending August 15 zigged up by 135,000, to over 1.1 million.
That means that for all Donald Trump's happy talk about the stock market, the economy is definitely not roaring back. The CARES Act's emergency unemployment benefits of $600 a week expired at the end of July, and with the Republican convention coming up next week, there's no reason to think Trump will return to talking to the Democrats until September, or even until Labor Day. Mandatory reminder: House Dems passed their stimmy bill IN FREAKING MAY, which would have renewed the emergency unemployment. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have repeatedly offered to negotiate down its $3 trillion total, but nah, Republicans would rather accuse Democrats of doing nothing, even though passing a new stimmy would probably help a lot of Republicans up for reelection.
And on top of all that, the New York Timesreports that Trump's shitty executive action to provide $300 a week in temporary help has yet to actually start reaching much of anyone. As of yesterday, only one state, Arizona, had actually started paying out the benefit. Oh, and you'll love this: Only three weeks of the (reduced by half) benefit have been approved initially, perhaps so FEMA can have some money left in the kitty for, you know, HURRICANE SEASON.
On the up side, Donald Trump has taken a strong stand against protecting sharks, and in favor of Jerusalem.
As economists soberly say, these latest numbers suggest the "recovery" is slowing, as employers either keep laying people off due to the continued coronavirus outbreaks, or hesitate to hire again because here comes cold weather in a few months and why even bother. Trump's stopgap executive action, which robbed $44 billion from FEMA disaster funds, is still spinning its wheels, as the Times details:
[By] Thursday, fewer than a quarter of the states had been approved for the program, and only Arizona had put it into action.
Florida, New York and Texas have held off on applying as they seek guidance on the program's rules and mull the technological needs for processing payments. Even states that intend to take part, like Pennsylvania, have raised doubts about whether it is workable.
Just how unworkable is that, Penny Ickes, spokesperson for Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry? "The president's convoluted, temporary, half-baked concept has left many states, including Pennsylvania, with more questions than a clear path forward." Gosh, how ungrateful!
Still, some states are jumping through a bunch of shit-covered hoops that could have been avoided if the GOP had considered a stimulus renewal sooner than two weeks before the CARES Act benefits expired.
While longer-term federal relief is in unresolved, FEMA has approved Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah for access to three weeks of funds for the $300 supplement. Officials from FEMA and the Labor Department said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday that FEMA had approved $2.4 billion in grants so far and that an additional eight states had applied for funds.
Arizona was the first state to make the so-called lost wages payments, sending $96 million to 320,000 people on Monday and Tuesday. But the timeline for payments "will be all over the map," potentially taking several weeks, said John Pallasch, the assistant secretary for employment and training at the Labor Department.
Several states had to update their computer systems just to handle the new weird benefit scheme that will soon run out.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Wednesday he was skeptical the Trump plan was even legal, saying,
If the states need to reinvent their unemployment insurance administration program, it will be weeks or months before anyone gets a check. [...]
I'd rather do business with the old-time bookie on the street corner than do business with FEMA.
The Times notes that the funds Trump shifted around for his unemployment scheme will only pay out $300 a week (down from the $400 he initially announced) and will only last four or five weeks at most. On the up side, they'll be retroactive to August 1, so those who qualify will get money for the month the GOP has been fucking around. But that also means the payments won't last much beyond the beginning of September, which might spur Republicans to negotiate in earnest, unless they decide dragging it out longer would hurt Dems more, or they simply stop giving a shit about appearances.
ALSO... I am seeing a big discrepancy between the Johns Hopkins data in death totals and WORLDOMETER data, which aggregates data from many more sources. Could this be the slow down due to the change in how the CDC obtains the data, having it filter first through Health and Human Services department.
WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT - JOHNS HOPKINS
Anyway, as usual, here's the weekly links to the data about cases (lower than reality) and deaths (lower than reality, also) due to COVID-19.
Worldometer manually analyzes, validates, and aggregates data from thousands of sources in real time and provides global COVID-19 live statisticsfor a wide audience of caring people around the world.
Over the past 15 years, our statistics have been requested by, and provided to Oxford University Press, Wiley, Pearson, CERN, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), The Atlantic, BBC, Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, Science Museum of Virginia, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Kaspersky, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Amazon Alexa, Google Translate, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the U2 concert, and many others.
Posted by BeauHD from the there's-a-first-for-everything dept.
A Nevada resident is thought to be the first person in the United States to be infected twice by the coronavirus, according to findings released this week. The New York Post reports:The 25-year-old man, of Reno, experienced a sore throat, cough, headache, nausea and diarrhea -- and first tested positive for the COVID-19 on April 18, according to a study published to the website SSRN Thursday, which has yet to be peer-reviewed. His symptoms had resolved by April 27, and he tested negative for the virus twice in May, the study says. Then on May 31, he sought treatment again for the same symptoms, in addition to a fever and dizziness, according to the study. The patient was hospitalized five days later as his symptoms worsened to include muscle aches, a cough and shortness of breath. He then tested positive for the coronavirus a second time. Another test revealed he had antibodies against the infection.A Hong Kong man was the first patient ever confirmed to be reinfected with the coronavirus. Two European cases of COVID-19 reinfection were reported one day later.
The Democratic and Republican conventions have been eating up most of our already frayed attention spans these last couple of weeks. And while the coronavirus pandemic and Donald Trump's failed response to it have been a central focus of the former and a matter of furious ass-covering and denial at the other, the politics and policy discussions sort of took our attention off the fact that the goddamn virus is still spreading in much of the country.
We're still losing about a thousand Americans a day, and good Christ we shouldn't let ourselves think there's anything normal about it. So let's briefly remind ourselves what's going on with the pandemic, which keeps taking lives and making American life as far from normal as can be.
South Dakota's state health department reported a record 343 new cases Thursday, the most reported in a single day in the state, according to the Rapid City Journal. That's a hell of a lot of cases for a state whose population is fewer than 900,000. There are 2,000 active cases in the state, which is also a new record.
South Dakota's state health secretary, Kim Malsam-Rysdon, offered an odd assessment of the new records, noting that the increase in new and active cases is only one of several metrics the state Department of Health tracks.
"We look at various metrics every single day and multiple times a day to have a sense of where we're at with our COVID-19 response," Malsam-Rysdon said, pointing to low rates of hospitalizations, ICU bed usage and ventilator usage in the state.
Well then that's a huge relief. A spokesperson for Gov. Kristi Noem, whose name is really "Ian Fury," took time from his side job as a comic book spy to explain "we expect cases" of the virus, adding, in effect, it is what it is:
"We can't stop this virus from spreading," Fury said. "That's why our focus continues to be on hospitalization rates and protecting our vulnerable population."
Well you sure can't stop it from spreading if you don't try. So is the health department going to change anything in how the state tries to limit the spread, at least? Malsam-Rydson simply said "the guidance to people who have COVID-19 remains the same." So no big, we guess. Hey, wonder if Noem will get her head carved into Mount Rushmore?
State epidemiologist Joshua Clayton also had an update on infections stemming from the excellent, nearly mask-free Sturgis motorcycle rally earlier in August, saying that 88 South Dakotans have tested positive since the rally — which ended only 12 days ago, still inside the normal two-week span before many start to show symptoms. The Journal did its own tally of out-of state residents who tested positive, finding 97 cases among visitors following the rally.
After Noem spoke at the RNC Wednesday, NPR asked her if perhaps the Sturgis rally should have been canceled in light of the number of infections, but she explained no, because America. If people are at risk or "fearful," she said, they should stay home. Otherwise, have fun with your Harley-Davidson Ultra-Spreader:
You know, I think it was an event that a lot of people came and enjoyed and exercised their freedoms. The local officials decided to host the rally. People made decisions to come and visit. We love South Dakota, think it's beautiful. And tourism is our No. 2 industry, so that is something that I am glad people came and participated in, enjoying our outdoors. And personal decisions they made while they were there certainly was up to them.
Also, Amity means "friendship." The beach is open!
Iowa: Bars Close After Colleges Open
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who allowed bars to resume business with occupancy limits in May, then with no limits in June, yesterday ordered the closure of all bars, taverns, nightclubs, brewpubs — and probably honky-tonks and juke joints too — in six counties, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. Three of the counties are where the state's three public universities are located, and Reynolds said the new infections were mostly among those aged 19 to 24.
Reynolds, who famously let meat packers do anything they wanted and arbitrarily withheld information on outbreaks in workplaces from the public, said it pained her to hurt any business, but you gotta do what you gotta do to protect the health and safety of college students, as opposed to immigrant laborers.
I don't make these decisions lightly, and it's not lost on me that every business forced to close, alter their hours and sales, even temporarily plays a role in the lives of Iowa workers and our small businesses. But these actions are absolutely necessary. [...] And I know today's decision is the right one.
The universities all opened for regular classes earlier this month, and at all three, students went out to bars because being young and stupid is a thing college students do. Nonetheless, Iowans seem astonished to learn that young people would crowd into bars without observing social distancing. Reynolds warned that if students move their partying from bars to private residences without taking health precautions, stricter measures may be ordered.
"Let's just focus on the goal. Let's focus on being responsible. Let's focus on flattening the curve," Reynolds said, although she refused to order a statewide mask mandate because that would be "unenforceable."
In unrelated news, a raging frat party at the White House last night drew at least a thousand people who set a terrible example for the young, who need to behave more responsibly.
Charlotte: Four Test Positive After This Week's RNC
While it may not have been the superspreader event Donald Trump had pined for, even the very limited slate of Republican Convention meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, have resulted in four people testing positive for COVID-19. Two support staff and two convention attendees tested positive; they and their close contacts have been advised to quarantine by Mecklenburg County health officials. Although Charlotte has a strict mask and social distancing order in place, the scaled-down RNC events saw little of either, for some reason.
Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris — Gibbie is a great name! — said there doesn't appear to be any significant risk to the general public, noting that there don't appear to have been any close contacts between any of the affected RNC folks and Charlottetonianites.
While attendees and support staff were tested at the start of the convention, many attendees at the Charlotte Convention Center didn't wear masks or maintain social distance, according to the Charlotte Observer.
When reporters in the room asked staff why public health requirements were not being enforced, staff said that they were enforcing them. Still, large numbers of delegates in the room were not wearing masks, gathering in small groups and milling about the room. [...]
Midway through Monday's events, Harris reached out to RNC organizers with concerns about adherence to public health guidelines. She said she was assured that RNC staff would enforce them.
Mercy. She should have known better than to believe Republican promises.
The Observer adds that, after Donald Trump spoke in the ballroom, maskless delegates crowded near the stage and "danced the YMCA — with many still not wearing face coverings."
Well hell, if the Village People could sing a song about hookups in youth hostels, we don't see any reason why Republicans should be held to a higher standard while bouncing and gesticulating arrhythmically to it.
There's been a lot of outrage and anger this week over those new COVID-19 testing guidelines that quietly went up Monday on the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Without any public announcement of the change, the CDC now says that, for people who have been in close contact with an infected person but aren't experiencing any symptoms themselves, "You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one." Before Monday, people who had been in close contact (within six feet, for more than 15 minutes) had been told they should get tested. But don't worry, we've been told, the changes were all approved by the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Except, nah, that's not so true. CNN reported in the wee hours of Thursday morning that Dr. Anthony Fauci had actually missed the task force meeting last Thursday where the change was discussed, because he'd been in surgery that day.
"I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations" at that meeting, Fauci told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Huh.
Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was
concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is.
Fauci's revelation that he wasn't included in the discussion last week directly contradicts
what Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration's Chief Poobah In Charge Of COVID-19 Testing Not That We Have A National Strategy Or Ever Will. Wednesday afternoon, Giroir told reporters on a conference call that the new guidelines had the full task force's love and affection and approval.
Asked whether Fauci signed off on the guidelines, Giroir said, "Yes, all the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level."
"We worked on this all together to make sure that there was absolute consensus that reflected the best possible evidence, and the best public health for the American people," Giroir also said earlier in the call, pushing back on the notion that the new guidelines were the result of political pressure. "I worked on them, Dr. Fauci worked on them, Dr. (Deborah) Birx worked on them. Dr. (Stephen) Hahn worked on them."
CNN had already reported that a "federal health official" had said the new guideline was "coming from the top down," meaning from higher ranks in the administration.
The whole mess reminds us of that time in 2004 when George W. Bush's White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and Chief of Staff Andrew Card went to George Washington Hospital in DC to try to get then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign off on the reauthorization of Bush's warrantless wiretaps program. Ashcroft, severely ill with pancreatitis, had actually been temporarily replaced by then-Deputy AG James Comey. But Gonzales knew Comey had said the program wasn't legal and that Comey wouldn't sign off on reauthorization. So Gonzales and Card made that late-night visit to the hospital to get a signature from Ashcroft, who was pretty out of it. Comey got wind of the plan and beat Gonzales and Card to the hospital, joined there by then-FBI director Robert Mueller.
So yeah, Republicans and hospitals, only Fauci didn't have anyone speaking up for him.
Donald Trump has long insisted, because his medical knowledge comes from his very scientific ass, that if only the US didn't test so much, there wouldn't be as many cases of the disease and everything would be fine. Perhaps he never learned object permanence as a baby.
Nonetheless, Giroir insisted there's been no pressure from the White House, because this was done all scientific-like, nice and legal, see?
This is evidence-based decisions that are driven by the scientists and physicians, both within the CDC with my office in the lab Task Force, and certainly among the task force members.
As of yet, the CDC isn't releasing any data at all that would support the decision, and most public health experts are alarmed — or for another GW Bush throwback, "hair on fire" — that the new language might lead to asymptomatic people spreading the disease because they feel fine and the CDC said no test was necessary.
CDC Director Robert Redfield pretended to "clarify" Thursday that the new guidelines didn't mean people who aren't experiencing symptoms shouldn't get tested, just that they don't have to, but testing certainly "may be considered" for asymptomatic people who have been exposed. Which is just about as weaselly as it sounds. Look at this asshole:
Testing is meant to drive actions and achieve specific public health objectives. Everyone who needs a COVID-19 test, can get a test. Everyone who wants a test does not necessarily need a test; the key is to engage the needed public health community in the decision with the appropriate follow-up action. [...] Testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.
If Redfield clarifies that any more, his head may fall right off. Already, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York have said their states' testing programs will continue to use the older CDC guidelines; Cuomo called the changes "indefensible."
We'll keep you updated on this cluisterfuck, especially if William Barr starts skulking around DC in a white lab coat.
[CNN / STAT / CNN / Salon]
British researchers have identified 50 new planets using artificial intelligence, marking a technological breakthrough in astronomy. CNN reports:Astronomers and computer scientists from the University of Warwick built a machine learning algorithm to dig through old NASA data containing thousands of potential planet candidates. It's not always clear, however, which of these candidates are genuine. When scientists search for exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), they look for dips in light that indicate a planet passing between the telescope and their star. But these dips could also be caused by other factors, like background interference or even errors in the camera. But the new AI can tell the difference.
The research team trained the algorithm by having it go through data collected by NASA's now-retired Kepler Space Telescope, which spent nine years in deep space on a world-hunting mission. Once the algorithm learned to accurately separate real planets from false positives, it was used to analyze old data sets that had not yet been confirmed -- which is where it found the 50 exoplanets. These 50 exoplanets, which orbit around other stars, range in size from as large as Neptune to smaller than Earth, the university said in a news release. Some of their orbits are as long as 200 days, and some as short as a single day. And now that astronomers know the planets are real, they can prioritize them for further observation.The findings have been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Posted by BeauHD from the testing-testing-1-2-3 dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NewAtlas:After an almost two-year shutdown for repairs and upgrades, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is beginning to fire back up for its next phase of probing the mysteries of physics. Its newest particle accelerator, Linac 4, completed its first test run over the past few weeks, with the potential to provide much more energetic beams than ever before. The LHC paused operations in December 2018, beginning a massive overhaul called the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). When it's fully finished and finally fired up in 2026, the upgraded facility will be seven times more powerful and will collect around 10 times more data in the following decade than it did during the previous run.
And now, the first incremental stage of this upgrade is coming online. The new linear accelerator, called Linac 4, has been installed and tested over the last few weeks. This device is the starting point for accelerating protons, which are then injected into the Proton Synchrotron (PS) Booster and onto the rest of the accelerator complex. Linac 4 replaces Linac 2, which was in operation at CERN for 40 years. As you might expect the new model is significantly more powerful, injecting particles into the PS Booster at energies up to 160 MeV -- much higher than Linac 2's 50 MeV. By the time these beams are boosted, they'll reach energies of 2 GeV, compared to the 1.4 GeV that Linac 2 was capable of. This extra energy is thanks to the fact that scientists can tweak Linac 4's beams in much more detail than its predecessor.
In the three weeks up to mid-August, Linac 4 was tested with low-energy beams of negative hydrogen ions, running only through the first part of the accelerator. On August 20, it was finally cranked right up to maximum energy, with beams accelerated through the whole machine. These were then sent into a "beam dump" at the end, a device that catches and absorbs the particles.
Researchers from the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG, CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, including one who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, determined that a type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite contains sufficient hydrogen to deliver at least three times the amount of water contained in the Earth's oceans, and probably much more. Enstatite chondrites are entirely composed of material from the inner solar system -- essentially the same stuff that made up the Earth originally. "Our discovery shows that the Earth's building blocks might have significantly contributed to the Earth's water," said lead author Laurette Piani, a researcher at CPRG. "Hydrogen-bearing material was present in the inner solar system at the time of the rocky planet formation, even though the temperatures were too high for water to condense."
AmiMoJo shares a report from CNN:A type of bacteria that is highly resistant to radiation and other environmental hazards survived outside of the International Space Station for three years, according to a new study. The Japanese Tanpopo mission involved including pellets of dried Deinococcus bacteria within aluminum plates that were placed in exposure panels outside of the space station. Deinococcus bacteria is found on Earth and has been nicknamed Conan the Bacterium by scientists for its ability to survive cold, dehydration and acid. It's known as the most radiant-resistant life form in the "Guinness Book of World Records." It can resist 3,000 times the amount of radiation that would kill a human and was first isolated in cans of meat subjected to sterilizing radiation. This mission was designed to test the "panspermia" theory, which suggests that microbes can pass from one planet to another and actually distribute life. Tanpopo means dandelion in Japanese.The study has been published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
For a few years now, conservatives have been on about wanting to remove Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which prevents social media companies from being treated like publishers. What this means is that while Rebecca could maybe [definitely] be sued if I wrote a whole article accusing Lindsey Graham of having an adult baby fetish, if I knew it wasn't true and wasn't writing a satire, if I were to write it in a Twitter rant, Jack Dorsey could not.
The conservatives' "logic" is that if Twitter and other social media companies are allowed to moderate their sites and kick people off for hate speech or harassment, instead of letting everyone do and say what they want "like a town square" then they should be considered publishers and held responsible for everything people post on their sites. This would most likely lead to social media sites no longer being able to exist, because it would be impossible to moderate them on that level. It's a threat. It's "Let us scream racial epithets on your site or we will destroy you."
Of course, if one were to actually go into the middle of a town square and start screaming racial epithets or harassing passerby, then hopefully that's a town where they'd make you stop for "disturbing the peace."
Today, Vanity Fair published an interview with Lindsey Graham — who, to our knowledge does not have an adult baby fetish — in which he officially denounced QAnon as "batshit crazy." We are supposed to give him credit for acknowledging this, but denouncing a bizarre conspiracy theory about Donald Trump fighting a secret war against satanic pedophile elites is honestly the bare minimum. Granted, Trump can't do it, but he can't do a lot of things one might consider "the bare minimum."
Well, QAnon is batshit crazy. Crazy stuff. Inspiring people to violence. I think it is a platform that plays off people's fears, that compels them to do things they normally wouldn't do. And it's very much a threat. But there are a lot of websites out there. How do you live in this world? So under Section 230 of our law [the Communications Decency Act], a social media company can't be sued for the content that they carry. I get slandered all the time on Twitter and other outlets. If the New York Times printed an article, I could sue them. If CNN said something about me that wasn't true, I could sue them. But Twitter and all these other sites can pass on the most scandalous information, you have no recourse. So how to fix this? I would like to remove Section 230 liability. That if you're going to have a social media site like QAnon or anything else, you spread this stuff at your own peril. So when this guy went into the pizza restaurant in Washington, because they alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza place in Washington. This guy took it seriously, went in with an AR-15 and started shooting up the place. Thank God nobody got killed. But the pizza owner under my theory, could sue QAnon for passing along garbage. That's a pretty dramatic step. But the only way I know to make people more responsible who run these websites is allow lawsuits when they go too far.
Really? Is that the only way?
I certainly don't think it is. QAnon isn't a social media site, it's a conspiracy theory. It would make more sense to sue those who spread this information than it would to sue social media sites themselves.
But Lindsey Graham is not gonna do that.
The point is that CNN is held to certain standards. You can't libel or slander somebody. You can't incite people. The First Amendment allows you to speak your mind, but it doesn't allow to yell fire in a movie theater. So these websites that we're talking about, hate-filled websites, some of the neo-Nazi websites, if somebody is hurt because of the actions these websites inspired, sue the hell out of them. Freedom of speech is one thing. Being able to attack each other's ideas is part of America. But what's the line? When you inspire people to commit acts of violence and turn on one another in a violent fashion, that's not free speech, that's criminality.
Yes, it's horrifying that people are committing acts of violence based on QAnon bullshit, and have been doing that for quite some time now. Unfortunately, this won't stop if Q is taken off of 8chan, because all of this crap now has a life of its own. There are people who believe fervently in it without ever having read a "Q drop" or even knowing what QAnon is.
If one really, really wanted to put an end to this, the best plan would really be to take it absolutely seriously. Because if Trump is allowing a Department of Energy employee (the DOE being the only department that offers a "Q Clearance") in his "inner circle" to spread state secrets on an unreliable image board where (perhaps ironically) people have been known to share child pornography then that's gotta be some kind of treason, right? According to the QAnon lore, all of this is being done with Trump's permission. So if Trump doesn't want to firmly denounce it, which he hasn't, he should be tried for treason.
This isn't about Lindsey Graham wanting to stop QAnon believers from shooting up pizza places. This is about using this QAnon shit — which Graham knows the Left is horrified by — to get conservatives something they have been desperately wanting for some time now. It's a smart gambit. Evil, but smart. He's hoping the Left will trade in something they have not budged on for years in hopes of getting to shut down QAnon. Hopefully we're smarter than he is.
Looking for something to add to your reading list?
Your fellow Bridgeliner readers have got you covered. We asked last week about your favorite books by Portland authors, and you all really delivered. Here’s what we heard:
Angel Unfolding by Bettie Lennett Denny
Burying My Dead by Bettie Lennett Denny
The Change Code: A Practical Guide to Making a Difference in a Polarized World by Monica Bourgeau
The Chronology of Water: A Memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka
Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss (plus shout-outs for the author’s other works: Falling From Horses, Wild Life, and Unforeseen)
Kickdown by Rebecca Clarren
Moorchild by Rebecca Clarren
The More They Disappear by Jesse Donaldson Leave Me Alone by Vera Brosgol
Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten by Laura Veirs
Portland Red Guide by Mike Munk
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Koya
Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawaii by Liz Prato
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka
We also heard shout-outs to local bookstores Belmont Books and Broadway Books.
Stephen Curry, through Underrated, brings forth stories of people who have defied the odds to become more than what others thought they were destined to be. In addition, Curry seeks to identify and spotlight authors with incredible talent but few opportunities. Through this lens, Underrated is composed of powerful stories that range from faith and family to sports and social justice.
Stephen Curry is an American professional basketball player for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Once overlooked as an undersized high school basketball player, Curry ascended to the top of the NBA to become a two-time MVP and three-time champion. He’s an avid reader and has a deep passion for promoting literacy in communities across the world.
Posted by EditorDavid from the games-of-monopoly dept.
Blogger/science fiction writer Cory Doctorow (also a former EFF staffer and activist) has just published How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism — a new book which he's publishing free online.
In a world swamped with misinformation and monopolies, Doctorow says he's knows what's missing from our proposed solutions:If we're going to break Big Tech's death grip on our digital lives, we're going to have to fight monopolies. That may sound pretty mundane and old-fashioned, something out of the New Deal era, while ending the use of automated behavioral modification feels like the plotline of a really cool cyberpunk novel... But trustbusters once strode the nation, brandishing law books, terrorizing robber barons, and shattering the illusion of monopolies' all-powerful grip on our society. The trustbusting era could not begin until we found the political will — until the people convinced politicians they'd have their backs when they went up against the richest, most powerful men in the world. Could we find that political will again...?
That's the good news: With a little bit of work and a little bit of coalition building, we have more than enough political will to break up Big Tech and every other concentrated industry besides. First we take Facebook, then we take AT&T/WarnerMedia. But here's the bad news: Much of what we're doing to tame Big Tech instead of breaking up the big companies also forecloses on the possibility of breaking them up later... Allowing the platforms to grow to their present size has given them a dominance that is nearly insurmountable — deputizing them with public duties to redress the pathologies created by their size makes it virtually impossible to reduce that size. Lather, rinse, repeat: If the platforms don't get smaller, they will get larger, and as they get larger, they will create more problems, which will give rise to more public duties for the companies, which will make them bigger still.
We can work to fix the internet by breaking up Big Tech and depriving them of monopoly profits, or we can work to fix Big Tech by making them spend their monopoly profits on governance. But we can't do both. We have to choose between a vibrant, open internet or a dominated, monopolized internet commanded by Big Tech giants that we struggle with constantly to get them to behave themselves...
Big Tech wired together a planetary, species-wide nervous system that, with the proper reforms and course corrections, is capable of seeing us through the existential challenge of our species and planet. Now it's up to us to seize the means of computation, putting that electronic nervous system under democratic, accountable control.
With "free, fair, and open tech" we could then tackle our other urgent problems "from climate change to social change" — all with collective action, Doctorow argues. And "The internet is how we will recruit people to fight those fights, and how we will coordinate their labor.
"Tech is not a substitute for democratic accountability, the rule of law, fairness, or stability — but it's a means to achieve these things."
So, we are now at the end of the series. This is the last year of the 2010s. It's this year.
It's been a really historic year: the worst global pandemic in our lifetimes (in over 100 years), pervasive protests against racism and police brutality more violent, large in size, and ongoing (Three months now) since the 1960s, and the 2020 election with more manipulations, crimes, hoaxes, lies, vitriol, malfeasance, and posturing than any other election that I know of, possibly mre than ever in history.
Some would call it a shit show.
Though I am frequently outraged, I see it as a historic year, the most significant from a historical perspective in my lifetime.
Even though the year is not over, here's a selection of the posts thus far that I feel are significant or demonstrative of my pandemic life.
Confronting predatory behavior by established professionals in our industry never going to be an easy conversation. It’s messy & uncomfortable, especially when the people we’ve looked up to, worked with or trusted are the predators. And we have a long road ahead of us.
So I started this feature in which I added content to each post from a year of my life because I have now reached a point at which the numbers of the blog posts match the years of my life...
Like several of the school related posts I added to this year review, I am especially proud of this one. Because I have had a lot of time to write. And I didn't even add all the posts I am very proud of because it's a lot of them.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2008.29 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1884 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
