sense of doubt

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.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1217 (SoD #2132) - The Endless Torture of Being Santa - Hodge Podge for 2012.19

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1217 (SoD #2132) - The Endless Torture of Being Santa - Hodge Podge for 2012.19

INAUGURATION COUNTDOWN

32 DAYS to inauguration

original link - images broken

MURDER SANTAS - https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/13-craziest-interpretations-of-santa-claus-to-ever-slide-down-a-chimney/

also

https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3373411/comprehensive-look-history-murder-santas/

Hi Mom,

Here we are again. Hey Mom #1217 and Sense of Doubt post #2132. I have not done a Hey Mom post since Thanksgiving, but now I am going to have three in short order. The next HEY MOM post will mark a milestone: 2000 days since you died. This number seems worth acknowledging lest anyone forget that I returned to daily blogging two days after you died and ran HEY MOM consecutively for three years. And then, Christmas, which I tend to always make a HEY MOM post.

It seems like I just wrote one of these introductions because I did, just two days ago for SoD #2129, which was delayed to Wednesday because of GRADING HELL. These blog posts take time, especially these WEEKLY HODGE POSTS, and yet these weeklies are my most popular posts!

Though Wednesday’s only has 21 views so far that’s the lowest. I usually average between 40-80, though some tank, such as #2104 with just 30 views. Not as many people were as thankful as I for “TRUTH, diversity, and rational good sense.” Okay, granted, not one of my better themes.

But some HODGE PODGES are hits like the Halloween edition (#2084) with 117 views so far; #2034, which themed as “Justice is what love looks like,” with 139 views, and #1963 on how BLM is not a symbol of hate = 87 views. I think my hash tags, especially on Twitter, help the traffic.

I am proud of my blog, but especially the WEEKLY HODGE PODGE and its themes. Not that it is all that original or creative to cobble together dozens of articles, images, and tidbits from the week. And I could probably do better with variety adding more videos and less of the things I read every day, like WONKETTE. And yet, when I scroll through the list, I am proud of what I see.

I wasn’t always doing themes, but right around June, I hit my stride with “How many bad apples in the police pie?” on June 13th, followed by “Darwin Among the Machines,” “Wanna Be Loved,” “A Symbol of Hate?” and “Changed Priorities Ahead.” And then, I really broke it open with “You don’t vote for Kings!” “Exterminate The Brutes,” “Scheduling Time For Outrage,” “Zero Fucks Were Given,” “Your 2020 Personal Protection Equipment,” “We will heal, recover, and rebuild,” “The Fifth Column Cometh,” and then “It’s Time for a More Perfect Union.”

There’s more. I may do a full list recap near the end of the year but not now.

In fact, I am going into low power mode to put some time and energy into other things, some of which are some longer entries that must be composed and revised like good essays.

Also, because of Blogger’s stupid new system, it saves drafts with virtually every change, and when these HODGE PODGES grow huge, then my computer cannot keep up with the needs of the web blog and it stalls out, mid-sentence. So, I have taken to writing this in a word processor offline as it does not experience the lag from the constant saving of the post.

In the ongoing search for themes, I hit on the video from Cracked about the “Endless Torture of Being Santa,” even though the image up top is from Murder Santas.

I thought this would make a good theme, even though it’s based on the Tim Allen movie The Santa Clause. Clearly, for Santa to deliver presents all around the world in a single night to maybe as many as a billion people, he would need time bending powers and as the movie showed clearly, the “single night” lasts 1474 years factoring 1.3 billion children in 1984 and adjusting for naughty and nice. Could one man deliver presents for 1474 years straight without break and subsist solely on cookies and milk? Of course not. It’s a funny premise, but why couldn’t Santa use magic to duplicate himself, to speed his movements, to serve more than one house at a time, to work remotely, or even to bend time in a such a way that 1474 years just takes at most 14 hours and maybe fewer.

But in the movie version, it would be torture. Kind of like the torture of this year, the last year of the Trump presidency, the pandemic, the crashing economy, food lines, fascist use of force by the government, and the last straw (again) of those who suffer racial injustice and those who care about the racism that does and always has plagued our country, like e genetic virus all its own.

And so, hey Mom, another HODGE PODGE.

I like to front load things of great interest that I do not want to get lost in the deluge of material that follows. The first of these things is a great op-ed from the Washington Post extolling the bright idea that if Trump has the temerity to pardon himself (or resign for an hour so Pence can do it) that Biden should unpardon him with his first act as the newly inducted president.

“That might sound strange, even extra-constitutional. Certainly, there’s nothing in the words of the Constitution or in historical precedent that speaks of undoing a self-pardon — but that’s because there’s nothing that authorizes a self-pardon in the first place. The Constitution’s text, its original meaning and historical precedent all point strongly against the validity of a self-pardon.

In part because it’s unlikely that the legitimacy of such an audacious act would be determined in court, it’s important for the new president, with the advice of his Justice Department, to take a stand against this dangerous precedent.”

A Trump self-pardon would put America in uncharted waters, and so a reversal of that pardon would be just as unprecedented and perhaps the right neutralizer to the arguments about self-pardon. The pardon is also seen as a confession, admitting guilt and a self-pardon even more so.

Or as the kids like to day, “shit’s about to get real.”

So, Mom, we cannot just languish in the potential for more outrage, even though as I am preparing to “go to press” with this blog post, after the posted date and time, the news media broke the story that in a heated Oval Office meeting today, Saturday, someone proposed the idea (IE. Trump) that the government use MARTIAL LAW to overturn the election, falsely believed to be fraudulent. That threat of turning the military against Americans for how they voted evokes more outrage in me than anything else in this post. It’s heinous and vile. Trump’s wheelhouse. He’s a fascist, which is why he’s so scared of Antifa. Thankfully, there are voices of reason even among his group of nipple-sucking toadies, and so no one wanted to belly up to that totalitarian all-you-can-eat buffet. And even if they did, Trump’s threats to veto the military budget, affecting the pay of military personnel, and thus, they may well defy such orders if they were given just for that reason, let alone how Nazi Germany they sound.

But I said, we need to turn away from the outrage producing news and focus on some good things, such as two stories featured before the sectioned-heart of the content in the post. The Supreme Court does not want to consider a case that questions the legality of marriage equality for all, and it also rejected a transphobic case. But before that, a reminder of the awesomeness of CHUCK WAGON. And then, the northern lights followed by Stevie Van Zandt telling someone to fuck off on Twitter.

But then, school boys kidnapped in Nigeria, and Kaitlin Collins praising the great reporting of the Alexy Nalvany poisoning. Macho Putin can claim all he wants that if Russia wanted Nalvany dead that he’d be dead, but I think someone screwed up, and Putin is covering.

And then, we get to the sections, Mom. I am not sure if you have noticed, but I have been sectioning the WEEKLY HODGE PODGE to keep like content together, so typically that’s THE PANDEMIC, BLACK LIVES MATTER, THE ELECTION, and RANDOM STUFF, the latter of which is usually all about space and science not related to the pandemic and other stuff that catches my eye, like this week’s French case of a local government fined for having too many women in office and an article on how VR can promote lucid dreaming.

But before all that, I invented another category called “No Home Like Place” (get it, Mom?) about how Trump signed agreements to turn Mar-a-Lago into a private club and so no one, including him, can make it their primary residence and must limit the total annual stay there to twenty-one days and only seven consecutive days at a time. AND he signed it. The agreement specifically binds him to this action. Also, he agreed to a deal with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to “forever relinquish rights to develop” the property for anything but club use. And so, it can neither be his private and permanent residence nor can it be developed to be a MAGA Network compound. Will Trump be homeless after he leaves our house, the People’s House?

I hope not because I want his new home to be Ryker’s Penitentiary.

As usual, there’s tons of great stories and tidbits, such as Russia declaring war on the U.S. with its major hacking operation that Trump doesn’t think involves Russia even though all the experts believe it is TOTALLY Russia.

The pandemic is out of control because we have no national leadership (at least for another 32 days and people are selfish assholes, like this gym owner in Jersey who stays open defying orders and lets the state fine him and makes taunting videos about how he’s a “free man.” Yeah, free to create a Covid hot spot that will infect hundreds and maybe kill dozens.

The Trumpian “do nothing” strategy (“People will die; it is what it is”) might have actually been the unofficial but actually official policy. Let the virus run wild, and we eventually develop herd immunity once five million or so people have died. Great idea. Let’s do that one!

Did you know that Trump has sent 729 tweets since the election? I wasn’t counting but that’s a shit-ton of terrified, crazed spew of vomit about election fraud because once he’s no longer president and has to face his debt and possible criminal indictment. He’s twittering like a rabid dog, and yet he has not once mentioned the Covid death toll.

But wait, Mom, it gets better!

The BLACK LIVES MATTER stuff this week is particularly horrible with racist Zoom bombing, some camera footage of the initial questioning of the McMichaels who murdered Ahmaud Arberry, and then footage from Chicago of police humiliating a naked woman.

Not to mention the Proud Boys and their MAGA march destroying a BLACK LIVES MATTER sign at a church.

But there’s good news, like Biden’s cabinet picks.

And some great science news, such as the fragments of energy as the building block of the universe, super highways for fast travel through the solar system, the failure of NASA to to launch Orion more than once, and the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

So, Mom, this is my last Hodge Podge of a couple of weeks. I am ceasing most time consuming preparations of this blog and going into low power mode as I mentioned earlier so as to write some good entries (Trumpism is a Virus) and write some fiction, that is not typically part of the blog.

Anyway, Thank you for reading, Mom, even if you are not interested in everything included here.

And dear readers, not Mom, thanks for checking in. Enjoy the last WEEKLY HODGE PODGE for a few weeks.

If Trump pardons himself, Biden should un-pardon him

Opinion ● By Ken Gormley ● Read more »

https://www.cracked.com/article_29140_being-santa-would-be-endless-torture.html

The Santa Clause is the heartwarming family tale of Tim Allen murdering Santa Claus which seems like a pretty good deal until you do some math and realize that single night of delivering presents lasts thousands of years thanks to Santa's magical time-stopping powers. Which makes us wonder, did Tim Allen actually kill Santa, or did Santa fake his death to escape from the endless torture of being Big Man Christmas? We investigate with Movie Math!

Before Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit there was Chuck Wagon

Of all the Chuck Wagon dog food commercials, this one from 1976 is my favorite. It starts with a dog peacefully resting on a living room rug. Suddenly a tiny horse-drawn covered wagon charges out of the television set and heads straight for the dining room table, skidding across the slippery wooden floor, bumping into chair legs. — Read the rest

Yay!! Something Good!

https://www.wonkette.com/scotus-win-for-trans-rights

Supreme Court Does Good Thing For Trans Kids, So ... Surprise!

Jamie Lynn Crofts

December 08, 2020 03:41 PM

Our fascist Supreme Court did something good?!

We're as surprised as you are, but yes, yes they did. (Well, technically, they did nothing, but in this case nothing was a good thing!)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Parents for Privacy v. Barr, rejecting an appeal from transphobic parents in Dallas School District No. 2 in Oregon. The parents were challenging a school district policy intended to accommodate and protect the civil rights of trans students.

The Court's dismissal of the appeal leaves in place the western Oregon school district's policy that allowed a male transgender student to use the bathroom and locker room that corresponded with his gender identity.

Yay! Something good!

Dallas, Oregon, is a small agricultural town near Salem with a population of about 15,000. In 2015, a student who had been assigned female at birth came out as trans and requested to use the boys' bathroom. In response, the local school district came up with a plan that allowed him to use private stalls within the boys' restrooms and locker rooms.

The student used the facilities corresponding with his gender identity without incident until he graduated in 2018. But terrible people just can't help but be terrible people and a group of parents sued.

The bigoted pieces of shit who seeking to force a boy to use girls' facilities in a public school argued — with no irony — that accommodating transgender students violated students' rights to privacy and resulted in sexual harassment and discrimination.

Because SCOTUS refused to hear the case, a Ninth Circuit decision upholding the policy remains in place. In that opinion, the west coast federal appellate court noted the school district's policy was intended to "avoid discrimination and ensure the safety and well-being of transgender students."

And, as the Ninth Circuit held,

"A policy that allows transgender students to use school bathroom and locker facilities that match their self-identified gender in the same manner that cisgender students utilize those facilities does not infringe Fourteenth Amendment privacy or parental rights or First Amendment free exercise rights, nor does it create actionable sex harassment[.]

The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit relied heavily on a shockingly great case SCOTUS gave us less than six months ago (even though it feels like it was about 200 years ago, or at least three Bearimies).

Last summer, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County that, for the first time, recognized that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is, in fact, discrimination "on the basis of sex" and violates federal civil rights law. Although Bostock was about employment discrimination and not bathrooms, a lot of the legal analysis around the issues remains the same.

Just as the Fourth Circuit noted when it ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm (If you need a Wonk-reminder on that case, click here):

"After the Supreme Court's recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, we have little difficulty holding that a bathroom policy precluding [Gavin] Grimm from using the boys restrooms discriminated against him 'on the basis of sex.' Although Bostock interprets Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it guides our evaluation of claims under Title IX. That is because the discriminator is necessarily referring to the individual's sex to determine incongruence between sex and gender, making sex a but-for cause for the discriminator's actions."

Surprisingly, none of the bigots and religious zealots on the Court penned an angry dissent or even noted a dissent for the record.

The ACLU, which intervened in the suit to defend the school district's policy, celebrated the decision as a message that "transgender youth are not a threat to other students." Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, said:

"The Supreme Court has once again said that transgender youth are not a threat to other students. As we look towards state legislative sessions that will likely continue the attacks on trans youth, the decision not to take this case is an important and powerful message to trans and non-binary youth that they deserve to share space with and enjoy the benefits of school alongside their non-transgender peers. We will continue to fight in courts, in legislatures, and in our families and communities to ensure that all trans people feel safe and belong."

That SCOTUS left the lower court's decision in place means that it remains binding precedent for all of the states within the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit, the largest of our federal appellate courts: California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. This should mean good things for trans students in all those states!

It's really weird for us to be saying this right now, but hell, let's just go for it: Thanks, SCOTUS!

[ SCOTUS / 9th. Cir. ]

https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/even-with-three-trump-appointed-justices-on-the-bench-scotus-declines-to-roll-back-marriage-equality/

#SCOTUS ruled on this issue twice already, in #Obergefell in 2015 & even more expressly in Pavan v Smith in 2017. We represented a lesbian couple from TN in Obergefell & two couples from Arkansas in Pavan. Thankfully, there seems to be no appetite to revisit marriage equality. https://t.co/d3UcSrlqSH
— Shannon Minter (@shannonminter5) December 14, 2020

Big news: The Supreme Court has declined to hear Box v. Henderson, turning away Indiana's request to roll back equal rights for same-sex parents. No noted dissents.

Background: https://t.co/5bVwUMNygc
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) December 14, 2020

This is cool...

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/northern-lights-forecast-december-2020-aurora-borealis

Hank! Guess what? I don’t give a fuck about you or anybody else that doesn’t believe in democracy or equality or science or taking care of people during a pandemic or the constitution of the USA. It’s assholes like you that are fucking up my country. So stick my cds up your ass. https://t.co/DJLEuxkm9Q
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) December 13, 2020

The parents of missing students in Kankara, Nigeria.Sunday Alamba/Associated Press

The terror group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 300 boys from a boarding school in Nigeria to punish them for “un-Islamic practices,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Six years ago, an abduction of schoolgirls prompted the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Adding my voice to those praising this stunning reporting by @clarissaward, @TimListerCNN and @sebshukla on Alexey Navalny's poisoning. The Kremlin canceled its daily press briefing today and tomorrow after it was published. pic.twitter.com/4WOLAtzJXa
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 15, 2020

NO HOME LIKE PLACE

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/trump-mar-a-lago-palm-beach-florida-deal-agreement-development-club-residence.html

Trump Is Trying to Wriggle Out of Past Deals That Prohibit Him From Residing at Mar-a-Lago

By ELLIOT HANNON

DEC 16, 20206:30 AM

President Donald Trump’s life’s work consists of signing lucrative deals and then wriggling out of them when the details no longer suit his immediate self-interest. It’s an ethical Ponzi scheme that Trump has managed to pull off for 74 years now, but that’s a streak residents of Palm Beach, Florida, are trying to put an end to. The community that surrounds Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property put its foot down Tuesday in an attempt to block the future ex-president from moving into his private club full time after he leaves office. The Washington Post reports residents delivered a demand letter to the town of Palm Beach Tuesday morning stating that Trump signed away his right to live at the property as part of the terms of a three-decade-old agreement, signed by Trump himself, which allowed him to convert Mar-a-Lago from a private residence to a private club.

The terms of the agreement allowed Trump to develop the historical estate with significant limitations on how the property could be used. Now, Trump is essentially disregarding those agreements as he plots his post-presidential life at Mar-a-Lago. From the Post:

The current residency controversy tracks back to a deal Trump cut in 1993 when his finances were foundering, and the cost of maintaining Mar-a-Lago was soaring into the multimillions each year. Under the agreement, club members are banned from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites and cannot stay there for any longer than seven consecutive days. Before the arrangement was sealed, an attorney for Trump assured the town council in a public meeting that he would not live at Mar-a-Lago.

At the time, the town’s leaders were wary of Trump because he had sued them after they blocked his attempt to subdivide the historic Mar-a-Lago property into multiple housing lots. Placing the limitations on lengths of stays assured that Trump’s property would remain a private club, as he had promised, rather than a residential hotel.

In short, Trump agreed to a slew of development concessions in order to try to boost Mar-a-Lago’s bottom line. In the years since, Trump’s angered local residents with his willingness to skirt even the most basic principles of the agreement. Once he became president, the town allowed for some exceptions to the deal for security purposes, such as a helipad, but even then Trump tried to use the White House to wring out new concessions. In 2018, Trump tried to get Palm Beach to allow him to build a dock at the club on the basis that it was a Secret Service security requirement, before shifting the rationale to say that it was for private use. In addition to the 1993 agreement with Palm Beach, Trump “also signed a document deeding development rights for Mar-a-Lago to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based, privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save historic sites around the country,” according to the Post. “As part of the National Trust deal, Trump agreed to ‘forever’ relinquish his rights to develop Mar-a-Lago or to use it for ‘any purpose other than club use.’ ”

Trump, like he’s always done, is poised to try to bulldoze his way out of these previous agreements and relocate to the club. In fact, Trump switched his official domicile in September 2019 from Trump Tower in Manhattan to Mar-a-Lago, a move that could technically be illegal. The demand letter delivered by the club’s Palm Beach neighbors is an attempt to get out ahead of the coming standoff and, the letter says, to “avoid an embarrassing situation” of having to evict a former president.

WAR WITH RUSSIA

"Trump silent as massive cyber hack poses grave risk to US." Well no shit, CNN, what do you want him to do, say don't do that Russia?

Oh Nothing, Just Russia Literally Declaring War On America While Trump Beats Off To OANN

Evan Hurst

December 18, 2020 08:57 AM

Giphy

Donald Trump has one more gift for Vladimir Putin, and quite appropriately, it's that he's going to let Russia literally declare war on America without saying a word about it. What has America ever done for Trump? It sure didn't vote to give him a second term. (Didn't vote to give him a first term either, but Putin did.) Trump doesn't love America, he thinks our troops are suckers and losers, and his foreign policy goals have pretty much always been the same as Putin's, from biggies like skullfucking NATO and supporting the Russian war on Ukraine, to smaller weird things like hating on Montenegro.

You might have heard there's been a big Russian hack. Like, a REALLY big and scary one, the endgame of which we still don't know. Maybe it's just spying, maybe it's more than that. Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) chief Chris Krebs did his job a little bit too well, which made the election really hard for Russia to hack and steal for Trump. (Don't worry, he got fired for that!) But wouldn't you know it, Putin's boys have been getting into a lot of other shit to hurt America.

News started to break on Sunday that Russia had hacked the Commerce and Treasury departments, specifically its SVR intelligence service. (SVR is more or less analogous to our CIA. It's the big boys.) Then we learned it was the Department of Homeland Security too, and also the National Institutes of Health and the State Department. As of yesterday, it was also the Pentagon and the US Postal Service. And then came the biggie in the late afternoon yesterday: They also got into the Energy Department, annnnnnnnd also the National Nuclear Security Administration. In other words, our nukes.

Awesome.

They think we're going to find out about more, plus a bunch of companies. (As many as 425 Fortune 500 companies may have also already fallen victim.) The Russians got in through networking software used by these agencies, made by a company called SolarWinds, in what's called a "supply chain" hack, which according to people in the know is a sign of a really well-planned and extensive hacking op. In other words, you use the third party software, it downloads an update, and it also downloads the Russians. SolarWinds isn't the only "supply chain" company they hit either, as a cybersecurity company called FireEye, which discovered the hack in the first place, also got hit.

As the Washington Post notes, DHS is the organization that's supposed to be busy protecting everybody from this sort of thing. CISA, which is part of DHS, got hacked. So this is a big fucking deal.

How long has this been going on? Since at least March or so. The Post reminds us of what sorts of things have been happening the last nine months:

That's a nine-month stretch that included — to name just a few of the important events that would have created computer files interesting to spies — the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, the historically fast development of vaccines using novel technology, and the U.S. presidential and congressional elections.

Probably no big.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin called this "virtually a declaration of war by Russia." Sen. Richard Blumenthal was even more shaken:

Glenn Greenwald is trying to cover for the Russians, so you know it's a big deal:

The Russians deny it, after all! They believe very strongly that it wasn't them, to paraphrase Donald Trump with his proverbial mouth around Putin's balls in Helsinki!

Glenn Gerstell, the NSA's general counsel until recently, told NPR this is like waking up and finding out your house has been burglarized every night for the last six months.

Meanwhile, Tom Bossert, who was Donald Trump's Homeland Security adviser, published an op-ed in the New York Times explaining just how grave this is, and what it really means. "The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate," says his sub-headline. Not only are we in the middle of a global pandemic, we're in the middle of a presidential transition where the loser candidate is refusing to accept reality and throwing up roadblocks to the new team at every turn.

The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months. The Russian S.V.R. will surely have used its access to further exploit and gain administrative control over the networks it considered priority targets. [...]

While the Russians did not have the time to gain complete control over every network they hacked, they most certainly did gain it over hundreds of them. It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy. [...]

The logical conclusion is that we must act as if the Russian government has control of all the networks it has penetrated. But it is unclear what the Russians intend to do next. The access the Russians now enjoy could be used for far more than simply spying.

Awesome.

Bossert concludes with advice for what we must do to fight back, including this advice for his former boss:

President Trump must get past his grievances about the election and govern for the remainder of his term. This moment requires unity, purpose and discipline. An intrusion so brazen and of this size and scope cannot be tolerated by any sovereign nation.

We are sick, distracted, and now under cyberattack. Leadership is essential.

Fat chance, friend. Donald Trump's feelings are hurt and that is the most important crisis facing the whole planet right now. Obviously, Trump has said and done nothing about this, just like he said and did nothing when he found out Russia was paying bounties for severed American troops' heads. Besides deciding which members of the crime family get pardons, he's not doing any other work. He's just jacking off to OANN and Newsmax.

As for other action by the Trump administration, ain't nobody home but these chickens. Wait, we forgot, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien decided to cut short his romantic winter tour of Europe on the taxpayers' dime to come home and see what the Russians did. That's comforting hashtag best people.

Aaron Blake writes in the Washington Post about how Trump has always told us that nobody has ever been tougher on Russia than him, and also argued that because he and Putin kiss all the time with tongue, Russia will obviously be much nicer to us. It's a kinder, gentler kind of deterrence, you see! Saner minds have always responded that this has been like Christmas for Putin, who's free to destroy America any way he wants, because his traitor is in the White House.

So yeah. This is happening. President Russian Asset is leaving the entire US government compromised by Russia. It was always going to end this way.

Welcome to your presidency, Joe Biden. Just add this to your list of disaster shitshows you get to pull us out of. Mazel tov!

[Washington Post / New York Times]

THE PANDEMIC

Down over there. Up over here.

It’s happening again: For the second time this year, the United States has fallen behind nearly every other country in combating the virus.

The U.S. was not alone in suffering a resurgence this fall. Much of the world did. But many other countries responded to that surge with targeted new restrictions and, in a few cases, with an increase in rapid-result testing.

Those measures seem to be working. Worldwide, the number of new cases has fallen over the past week.

In some countries, the declines are large: more than 50 percent over the past month in Belgium, France, Italy, Kenya and Saudi Arabia; more than 40 percent in Argentina and Morocco; more than 30 percent in India and Norway.

And in the U.S.? The number of new cases has risen 51 percent over the past month.

The causes are not a mystery. The U.S. still lacks a coherent testing strategy, and large parts of the country continue to defy basic health advice. One example is Mitchell, a small South Dakota city, where deaths have spiked recently — including the loss of a beloved high school coach. Yet anti-mask protesters continue to undermine the local response.

Among their messages at a recent City Council meeting, as Annie Gowen of The Washington Post reported: “Positivity defeats the virus.”

By The New York Times | Sources: Local health agencies and World Bank

Europe offers a telling contrast. Several European countries put new restrictions in place over the past month, and they made a difference, as you can see in the chart above. Still, the leaders of those countries remained unsatisfied with the progress — and announced further measures in recent days.

London closed pubs and restaurants today. The Netherlands has shut gyms, cinemas, schools and nonessential shops until Jan. 19. Germany — a country that loves its Christmas rituals — is locking down for Christmas.

Parts of the U.S. have taken some measures, like requiring masks and limiting indoor dining. And cases here have leveled off in recent days. If anything, though, that’s further evidence that people are not powerless in the face of the virus. Reducing its spread — and the widespread death that will otherwise occur in coming months — is entirely possible.

“America’s outbreaks, reaching from California to Florida, are the result of the public and the country’s leaders never taking the virus seriously enough and, to the extent they did, letting their guard down prematurely,” German Lopez of Vox recently wrote. As Jaime Slaughter-Acey, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said, “It’s a situation that didn’t have to be.”

For more: Full shutdowns are often not necessary, The Times’s Yaryna Serkez explains. Sharply reducing the number of people in indoor spaces can have a huge effect.

Dr. Kizzmekiah Corbett, the young African-American scientist who helped lead the way on your coronavaccine! (ABC)

The nation's ambitious COVID-19 vaccination roll-out began Monday. I'm usually a pretty cynical SOB, so let me pause her to say this is quite an achievement. Now wear your masks, stay home for the holidays, and don't screw this up. (The New York Times)

COVID-19 vaccines have just arrived in Oregon, as well. I'm gonna live forever, bitch! No, seriously, I plan to wait my turn. (The Oregonian)

https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/12/13/0417228/americas-covid-19-hospitalizations-hit-a-record-high-for-the-7th-straight-day

America's Covid-19 Hospitalizations Hit a Record High For the 7th Straight Day (cnn.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 13, 2020 @07:34AM from the sick-beds dept.

CNN reports:U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record high for the seventh day in a row Saturday with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

And the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the United States reached more than 16 million after the country added 1 million cases in just four days, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

It took the nation more than eight months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that, as the number of new cases continues to soar... On Friday, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, the U.S. recorded more than 3,300 Covid-19 deaths — the most ever in one day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 231,700 new cases were reported, another pandemic high... The average of daily cases over the last week was 210,764, another pandemic high, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
Another statistic from CNN: There have been more than 100,000 Covid-19 patients in America's hospitals every day since December 2.

Well, have some cries. What ICU nurses wish people would understand about COVID-19. (Washington Post)

Have some anger. In Gove County, Kansas, one out of 132 people have died, for the highest death toll in the nation. And mask wearing is still "controversial." — USA Today

Obviously we're all *reasonably concerned* that the CDC under Trump might have fucked off proper oversight on the vaccine, and we want to take it as long as proper people tell us it's safe, but the difference is WE'RE NOT RUSSIAN BOT TROLLS ABOUT IT. How to combat coronavirus disinfo, Melissa Ryan at Medium

oel Miles, the mayor of Wiggins, Mississippi, died Sunday after a long battle with COVID-19. He'd begged his resistant constituents to wear masks. Because she's a Republican, his widow, Mary Miles, now realizes the coronavirus is real. (Mississippi Free Press)

"When COVID-19 first appeared, I, myself, said some very ignorant things concerning this awful disease. But I have learned the hard way this is not a hoax," she wrote [on Facebook]. "It is real! … If you don't agree with me, it's okay but just remember this. This is my post and I'm doing EVERYTHING I know how to do to help someone else."

Business owners in Fresno, California, claim that COVID-19 is a luxury they can't afford to acknowledge. Meanwhile, more people die every day. (LA Times)

This is literally all Mitch McConnell's fault.(Time)

Big Tough Gym Guy Reenacts 'Love Actually' Scene To Protest COVID Restrictions

Robyn Pennacchia

December 13, 2020 02:00 PM

If you had a million dollars, what would you spend it on? I would buy me a green dress (but not a real green dress, that's cruel). Also, your love. And probably other things, too, I don't really know, and I can't remember the rest of the lyrics to that song. I do really want these rhinestone combat boots and have yet to find a way to justify purchasing them when I can't even go anywhere, so maybe that?

I can tell you what I would not spend it on, though — fines for keeping a gym open during a pandemic. That is far less useful than rhinestone combat boots, if you ask me.

And yet, over the past year, New Jersey gym owners Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti have incurred over $1.2 million in fines for remaining open during the pandemic. While we all obviously feel for people who can't keep their businesses open right now and are quite furious at the fact that our government can't get it together to get money to people so that they can survive this shit, I am also pretty sure that a gym in New Jersey — even in non-COVID times — probably does not make enough to cover that comfortably. So odds are they are spending way more than they are taking in, in order to be dicks about the lockdown orders.

It's also not just that they're staying open in spite of the lockdowns, but also that they're not requiring people to wear masks while inside or following any other safety protocols either, because of how super tough they are. Also, because they are super tough, co-owner Ian Smith went viral this weekend — among right-wing trolls and the kind of people who comment on TheDonald.win, anyway — by doing the world's worst Love Actually reenactment in order to drum up support for his gym.

It was real awkward and involved a lot of finger licking.

Here are his various slides, which I have written out for you like a lovely poem:

Welcome to the Atillis Gym Bellmawr
We have over $1 million in fines
We have had our business license stripped
We have had our doors locked and barricaded
We have been arrested and have over 60 citations
Today we will pass 84,000 visits to our facility
We don't mandate masks. We never will.
Gov. Murphy will see this video and fine us $15K for it
But … free men don't ask permission
Or for forgiveness
No science. No shutdown.

It seems fair to wonder what else Ian Smith applies this "free men don't ask permission" philosophy to. Because it seems like there are a lot of things "free men" might have to ask permission for.

He's not kidding about that $15K fine, though. The state is actually pretty goddamned sick of Ian Smith and his social media shenanigans and will be fining them $15K for every day they stay open in defiance of orders.

Via Law 360:

In a letter brief Thursday, Deputy New Jersey Attorney General Stephen Slocum detailed 13 videos and one photo posted online by Atilis Gym co-owner Ian Smith throughout November in which he and patrons appeared to be eschewing masks, social distancing and other safety protocols. Smith frequently stated his intention to defy the orders in the videos, one of which was titled "Freedom Doesn't Require Permission" in all capital letters.

The postings came in the wake of an October court order to adhere to modified business operations, such as outfitting the Bellmawr gym with plastic dividers and 6-foot demarcations to facilitate social distancing. The state wants to enforce the roughly $15,500-a-day fine provision of the order for each of the eight days it claims the gym defied the order in November.

The social media posts depict Atilis and Smith "affirmatively and openly mocking this court's authority, engaging in wanton contempt, and encouraging others to undermine this court's authority, demonstrating willful and intentional contempt," Slocum wrote in the letter brief.

At this point, what Smith is doing is making a mockery of the financial hardship that other small businesses are dealing with right now. I'm sure a lot of them would love to be open and making money (in a way that is safe!), I'm sure a lot of owners are scared, but they're not out there incurring fines up the wazoo because they don't actually give a shit about anything other than the adulation of angry Trump voters on the internets.

Also, he is a douchebag and his beard looks like it probably smells terrible.

[Law 360]

Sure,Top HHS Aide Urged Infecting Everyone, But It's Not Like That Was Actually The Policy

Doktor Zoom

December 17, 2020 09:05 AM

'Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. Ha, ha.'

When the history of the coronavirus pandemic (2020-20__?) eventually becomes an academic discipline, we bet there will be more than a few dissertations written about how much of the disaster can be blamed on Paul Alexander, the part-time assistant professor from Canada who somehow got a job as science advisor to then-spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo. Alexander, we've previously learned, tried to boss around Anthony Fauci and demanded that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention change its scientific publications to better conform with Donald Trump's opinions on the coronavirus. Was Alexander one of the instigators of the Trump administration's inaction on COVID-19, or more of an ineffectual cheerleader?

Politico brings us a new installment in the still-developing scholarship on Dr. Alexander (PhD in health research methods, not an MD), revealing emails Alexander sent during the summer in which he urged the administration to get its act together and get lots of people infected with the virus. That way, the survivors would develop immunity and the pandemic would be forgotten as the economy came roaring back. And while the administration has denied it was pursuing a strategy of "herd immunity" through locking up Nana safely and letting the virus run wild, that was essentially what Trump's refusal to make any serious effort to control the virus resulted in. Like, apart from actually keeping Nana safe.

And here we are, with another grim round death toll of more than 300,000 Americans dead.

In a July 4 email to Caputo and other officials, Alexander wrote,

There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD.

The subject line reads, in part, "we need infected people."

Alexander also explained that in order to make sure plenty of people develop antibodies to the virus, it was absolutely necessary to get everyone out into public so they can share the virus (while protecting the most vulnerable through saying "Protect the vulnerable" a lot).

Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected… and recovered... with antibodies.... [ellipses in original, bold added by us -- Dok]

Elsewhere in the email, Alexander urged again that people be encouraged to let the virus spread, "kind of like measles parties," and lamented that Anthony Fauci, in telling people to wear masks and socially distance, was needlessly scaring people so they wouldn't do the sensible thing and get infected. In fact, he insisted, Fauci's appearances on TV were "undercutting" the administration's goals by "thwarting all efforts to deal with the virus in a positive way." By literally hugging it, or at least plenty of infected folks.

In a July 27 email to CDC Director Robert Redfield, Alexander bemoaned the fact that colleges and universities had remained closed after spring break, because

we essentially took off the battlefield the most potent weapon we had...younger healthy people, children, teens, young people who we needed to fastly [sic] infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread.

Dang, talk about a missed opportunity! Far too many people didn't get the long-term heart and lung damage that would have been the building blocks of a robust economy. While Alexander was shitcanned from HHS on Sept. 16, the same day Caputo left the agency after some kind of mental health crisis, we're sure Alexander must be positively giddy at all the infections in this fall's surge, though perhaps a bit sad that vaccines are being rolled out, because that will muddy the waters when it comes to determining whether making everyone sick was a great victory.

And let's take a look at one more email, this one from July 3, which seems to channel what became Donald Trump's own attitude toward the virus: Let healthy people get it, because that's fine, they'll live. Alexander wrote,

So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests.

And yes, even at that late point in the pandemic, by which 129,000 Americans had died, the fucker insisted that, other than the old and weak (who need to be protected somehow!) "we have more to fear from seasonal influenza" and even from Ebola, which Alexander reminds was all Obama's fault. What a great mind.

What's still not clear is whether Alexander's cheerleading for the virus actually had much influence on policy. The other big booster of herd immunity, radiologist Scott Atlas, went from Fox News to more or less overshadowing the real experts on the White House coronavirus task force, despite having no background in epidemiology or infectious disease. Unlike Atlas, who was able to whisper sweet do-nothings into Donald Trump's ear, Alexander may or may not have actually had any real ability to shape policy.

Politico's Dan Diamond notes that since Caputo was Trump's personal pick for HHS comms chief, officials said that

they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House.

"It was understood that he spoke for Michael Caputo, who spoke for the White House," said Kyle McGowan, a Trump appointee who was CDC chief of staff before leaving this summer. "That's how they wanted it to be perceived."

That said, others at HHS said Alexander had spent six months sending a lot of badly written emails into the void.

"His rants had zero impact on policy and communications," a senior administration official insisted. "Caputo enabled him to opine, but people pushed back and it even got to a point where Caputo told him to stop sending the emails."

Mind you, that comment comes well after Alexander and Caputo are gone, in the middle of a new wave of infections, deaths, and overburdened hospitals. An HHS spokesperson gave Diamond the usual anodyne statement about how Alexander had a top position in the department without actually doing anything, saying Alexander's calls for herd immunity

"absolutely did not" shape department strategy.

"Dr. Paul Alexander previously served as a temporary Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and is no longer employed at the Department," the spokesperson said.

Apparently he just got coffee for people now and then, like so many other unpersons who held high rank but turned into an embarrassment.

The latest batch of emails was released by the House Oversight Committee's subcommittee on the government's coronavirus response, chaired by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina). Clyburn said the emails "show a pernicious pattern of political interference by Administration officials," and added that the administration continues to drag its feet on releasing documents his committee has requested. The Alexander emails, for instance, were only delivered after the election, some two months after Clyburn requested them. Sounds like it's well past time for some subpoenas.

And for that matter, we need a Truth Commission, too, a full 9/11 style independent panel with subpoena power. There's so much more we need to know about how the administration decided a few hundred thousand lives were expendable.

And perhaps the words "we want them infected" and "who cares?" can be inscribed on a monument of shame somewhere.

[Politico]

THE WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT

Photo of flu patients during the First World War

If you prefer your data in a visual format, here's the current map from COVID Exit Strategy, using data from the CDC and the COVID Tracking Project.

I want to add this link to the weekly report. It's important to remember:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1983 - Is Coronavirus more contagious and more deadly than the flu? YES.

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.

Data can be found here, as always:

COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

This is also a good data site:

Worldometer - Coronavirus info

Last updated: December 19, 2020, 16:13 GMT

United States

Coronavirus Cases:

17,899,267

Deaths:

321,025

Recovered:

10,399,339

Projections

About Worldometer

Worldometer manually analyzes, validates, and aggregates data from thousands of sources in real time and provides global COVID-19 live statistics for a wide audience of caring people around the world.

Our data is also trusted and used by the UK Government, Johns Hopkins CSSE, the Government of Thailand, the Government of Vietnam, the Government of Pakistan, Financial Times, The New York Times, Business Insider, BBC, and many others.

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.

Worldometer is cited as a source in over 10,000 published books and in more than 6,000 professional journal articles and was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world.

THE CORONAVIRUS IS MUTATING NOW WHAT?

Coronavirus Is No 1918 Pandemic - The Atlantic

A Red Cross worker in the United States, 1918

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/spanish-flu-the-virus-that-changed-the-world/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/covid-relief-package-contains-a-120-billion-gift-to-the-superwealthy/

COVID Relief Package Contains a $120 Billion Gift to the Superwealthy

Forgiven loans, combined with a tax break, mean a windfall for rich business owners.

Back in July, I wrote about how lawmakers from both parties were backing a COVID relief provision that, in effect, is a massive, unnecessary bailout for America’s richest business owners. Congress never managed to come together on that particular bill, so the effort was tabled for a while, but guess what: It’s back, and even better for the big fish.

The bipartisan provision, which is opposed by the IRS and also, oddly enough, by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, is known as a “double-dip” benefit. It allows businesses that get PPP loans—which the new COVID bill aims to expand—to not only have those loans forgiven, but to be able to deduct the loan amount spent on business expenses from their taxable income.

Getting one benefit or the other seems reasonable, but allowing both would be a major departure from accepted policy and an unprecedented waste of taxpayer money, critics say, that would primarily benefit wealthy law firms, accounting practices, and other well-to-do “pass through” businesses that have dominated the process.

Trump Has Sent 729 Tweets Since the Election. Not a Single One Was About the COVID Death Toll.

https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/12/trump-tweets-coronavirus-deaths-election/

DAVE GILSON

Deputy Editor (Magazine)Bio | Follow

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

On Wednesday, as the United States hit new records for the number of daily deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, President Donald Trump was, as usual, tweeting about the election he lost more than a month ago. While he was typing a flurry of false claims about “massive FRAUD,” the country’s total death toll was passing 300,000.

Reading Trump’s recent tweets, you would never know the United States is in the midst of a surging pandemic that is killing more than 2,000 people a day. Of his 729 tweets between November 3 and December 16, more than two-thirds were about his attempts to reverse his election loss through baseless claims of voter fraud and far-fetched lawsuits. The pandemic was just a blip: Four percent of his tweets were about vaccines and just two percent mentioned the coronavirus at all—without ever acknowledging its human cost or encouraging Americans to take precautions to protect themselves or others from getting sick.

November 16 was typical: After nearly a dozen tweets about his recent defeat (“I won the election!”), he bragged that news of the Moderna vaccine’s efficacy had boosted the stock market. “For those great ‘historians’, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!” he gushed. That was followed by a quick dunk on the nation’s allies: “European Countries are sadly getting clobbered by the China Virus.” Then it was back to normally scheduled programming: more angry tweets about the effort to undo President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Since December 1, as the pandemic has entered its most deadly period in the United States, Trump has mentioned the coronavirus just three times on Twitter. Two tweets were about getting kids back to in-person school. The other was an announcement that his lawyer Rudy Giuliani—”who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA”—had tested positive for “the China Virus.”

Of course, Trump’s efforts to downplay the pandemic are nothing new, from his initial denial of its risks to his suggestion earlier this fall that deaths in Democratic states shouldn’t be counted. In the past six weeks, the closest Trump’s tweets have come to noting the virus’ impact in the US was an attempt to downplay the death toll in a November 21 message in which he defensively accused the media of not mentioning “that far fewer people are dying when they get Covid.” Within less than a month, Biden’s election victory would be confirmed (again) and another 50,000 Americans would be dead from COVID-19. So far, Trump hasn’t acknowledged either.

On December 2, the New York Times reported that about one-quarter of all the PPP money went to just 1 percent of the recipients, including highly profitable businesses, including white-shoe law firms run by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, and celebrity lawyer David Boies.

Steven Rosenthal, a tax attorney and senior fellow at the nonprofit Tax Policy Center had calculated that the earlier version of the double-dip proposal would have amounted to a stealth break of $100 billion to $150 billion, skewed heavily toward the nation’s wealthiest business owners. Martin Sullivan, an expert in federal tax law and former staff economist for both the Treasury Department and Congress’ bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, estimated the cost, back of the napkin, at roughly $100 billion.

The latest package is expected to expand the PPP program and make the loans more flexible—and thus more easily forgiven. In a blog post, Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, points out that “for the relevant group of pass-through business owners, about 70 percent of business income is earned by the top 1 percent of taxpayers. Hence, most of those deductions would be used by high income-taxpayers and save them $0.37 to $0.396 in taxes for each dollar they deduct. He continues…

The bipartisan proposal—the final bill that comes to the floor may be different—provides about $268 billion more in PPP funds. If we assume the total PPP funding will come to $700 billion and the average tax rate of business owners is 29 percent, that is a tax windfall of $203 billion. Even if only 60 percent of this goes to the top 1 percent, that’s a $120 billion windfall for well-off business owners.

“It’s hard to imagine a tax cut that is so large in magnitude and still so targeted to those who need it least,” Looney says in an email.

My earlier piece cites Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College who specializes in trade and taxation, and who had taken to Twitter to explain why the double-dip makes little sense. (I changed the numbers, but same idea.)

Suppose your small business has $1.5 million in sales and $1 million in payroll and other allowable costs. The pandemic hits and sales drop to $500,000. Damn! Your $500K profit just turned into a $500K shortfall. So you land a $1 million PPP loan. You follow the rules and your loan is forgiven. Clausing offers three scenarios:
Scenario 1: The IRS treats your loan as taxable income, so your overall income is now $1.5 million, as before. But the tax agency lets you deduct the payroll and other expenses covered by your $1 million loan. You are left with $500,000. “This reflects the true profitability of the firm,” she writes.
Scenario 2: The IRS lets you exclude your forgiven loan from taxable income, but it does not allow you to then deduct the covered business expenses. The outcome is the same. You still end up with taxable income of $500,000, and your employees get paid. This is the scenario the IRS favors.
Scenario 3: Here’s the double-dip scenario. The IRS lets you exclude the forgiven loan from your taxable income and lets you deduct those business expenses. Now you have $500,000 in income and $1 million in deductible expenses. You report a $500,000 loss on your taxes, even though you actually made $500,000. This is a giveaway to business owners and the wealthiest investors—who own, according to a 2019 Goldman Sachs analysis, 56 percent of the total value of all equities, public and private, held by U.S. households—none of whom would be under any obligation to pass that money along to the workers.
“The wage deduction should not be allowed if loan forgiveness is not included as income,” Clausing tweeted. “Doing otherwise is both very expensive and unnecessary. It also sets a bad precedent for tax policy in the future.”

Some businesses are in desperate straits, of course, and need our help. But if Congress wants to bail out independently owned bars and restaurant and so forth, there are better ways, Rosenthal says. They could means-test the double-dip, or cap the size of the companies allowed to apply. (In the first round, famously, big restaurant chains owned by private equity firms raked in PPP cash.) But to allow a double-dip across the board is bad financial stewardship, he says, not only from the Party of Trump, but also the Democrats—who are equally on board. (House Dems passed a double-dip provision in their doomed HEROES Act.)

One prominent Democrat who questioned the arrangement is Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett. “Allowing a deduction for an expense never incurred is unjustifiable,” he told Mother Jones in July, adding, “This approach provides the most for the insiders who got the biggest and quickest PPP loans.”

But the lobbying has been intense. “There are a lot of wealthy business owners who are applying very heavy pressure in every congressional district in the country. We can’t even get the usual champions to stand up on this one,” Rosenthal says. “We’re going to lose.”

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Louisville, Kentucky, cops broke into Breonna Taylor's home and fatally shot her and now one of those scumbags, Jonathan Mattingly, is suing her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who watched them kill her, for “assault and emotional distress." Actual human being Tyler Perry has donated $100,000 to Walker's legal defense fund, which should not have to exist if more honorable people entered law enforcement. (Variety)

https://www.theroot.com/virtual-talent-show-at-sacramento-state-university-zoom-1845889276

A virtual talent show held for students at Sacramento State University was Zoom-bombed by two people who felt the need to drop racial slurs.

According to ABC 10, earlier this month, towards the end of an event called “Sac State’s Got Talent,” two unknown individuals managed to get into the chat and fill it with racial slurs. Screenshots acquired by the school’s newspaper, the State Hornet, show that someone with the username “David Winley” left a giant block of text that repeatedly said: “I HATE NIGGERS KILL ALL NIGGERS.” A second user, with the name “Mike Nicholas” wrote, “Just going to be honest fuck Black Lives Matter, George Floyd od on drugs.”

This is one of those stories that make ask “What the fuck are people doing with their time?” I simply don’t understand the desire to be an inflammatory asshole. What is gained here? You only have a finite amount of time on this planet and this is how you decide to spend it?

https://www.theroot.com/newly-released-body-camera-footage-shows-police-questio-1845889958

Newly Released Body Camera Footage Shows Police Questioning the McMichaels After Ahmaud Arbery Shooting

Newly released body camera footage has provided details regarding the moments following the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Ga., on Feb. 23. The video shows officers questioning Greg and Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan directly after the shooting. Of course, all the body-cam footage really shows us is a thing Black people have known for some time: White people always assume they’re in charge.

WSB-TV 2 obtained and reviewed the footage, which shows Greg on the phone with 911 dispatch. He can be heard saying, “Travis, Roddie’s got it on film,” before officers approach him.

From Channel 2:

“You have any other weapons or anything on you?” an officer asks Greg McMichael.

“Just that one. If he would stop. this wouldn’t have happened,” he responds.

“You a passerby coming through?” another officer asks Bryan in a different body camera video. “Not necessarily,” Bryan replies.

Greg and Travis McMichael both told police they chased Arbery believing he had been breaking into a nearby construction site. Bryan admitted to following Arbery, blocking him in and recording the shooting on his cellphone.

Prosecutors charged all three men with murder. The defense claims the shooting was self-defense.

“I mean we were just this close to him. And he keeps on running,” Greg McMichael said. “So I grab my 357 magnum, Glynn County PD issued by the way.”

Imagine being so confident in your nonexistent authority that you believe a citizen has an obligation to stop for you just because you happen to be chasing him.

(Note: Georgia actually has a citizen’s arrest law, which critics want to be repealed in light of Arbery’s death. Still, no one with a working brain would think that the McMichaels’ suspicion that Arbery was involved in a string of burglaries in the neighborhood—which was apparently based solely on the fact that they spotted him at a vacant construction site—justifies an armed chase by regular-ass citizens playing redneck Batman.)

Greg is a retired investigator with the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, but that didn’t stop him from mentioning where he got his gun as if that makes his retired ass any more official.

In fact, according to Channel 2, Greg was recognized by at least one of the officers on the scene.

Pentagon Cancels Biden Transition Meetings For Totally Normal Reasons, Not Suspicious At All

Liz Dye

December 18, 2020 11:52 AM

Giphy

We're in the middle of a Russian cyberhack on half the federal government and a global pandemic, but the Defense Department just decided to shitcan transition briefings with the Biden team because, LOL WHATEVER.

Axios reports that (acting) Defense Secretary Christopher Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to transition briefings until the New Year.

"These same senior leaders needed to do their day jobs and were being consumed by transition activities," an anonymous senior leader told Axios, because Trumpland doesn't do on the record briefings. "The DoD staff working the meetings were overwhelmed by the number of meetings," he added later.

Golly, how many meetings were we talking about? Like seventy-five? Fifty?

NOPE.

"We had fewer than two dozen remaining meetings on the schedule today and next week," Mr. Anonymous told Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan.

"With the holidays we are taking a knee for two weeks. We are still committed to a productive transition."

Oh, now they like taking a knee? We were under the impression that meant you hated the troops and apple pie. Guess that's just when it's Black Americans being killed by cops. When you're protesting the loss of an election, it's "a simple delay of the last few scheduled meetings until after the new year."

Lest we forget, Trump and his minions already delayed the transition so the president could work through his feelings about losing the election. Just a few days to let him come to grips with it, they said, what's the harm?

It was disgraceful six weeks ago, and it's a shocking act of sabotage today.

In the interest of fairness, Defense One reporter Katie Bo Williams says that this is just an early Christmas break, synchronizing the transition schedule with DOD's planned holiday shutdown.

Sure, who doesn't take the week before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Year's when you're the military and the country is falling apart! Don't you? Rebecca informs me that Wonkette, a mommyblog and recipe web site, is planning on taking an entire day!

The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe is getting word that this was because the Pentagon was just overwhelmed with constant meetings.

Whether this is the DOD trying to spin a bad story or the Biden team really did agree to just go home for the holidays and quit trying to prepare to take over the federal government is ... unclear. What is clear, however, is that this process wouldn't be a mad scramble over the holidays if President Pisspants hadn't delayed the ascertainment for three weeks after the election, with specific defense agencies holding out even longer. Two weeks ago, the DOD wasn't letting Biden's people meet with the NSA or the Defense Intelligence Agency. So you can miss us with the whining about the volume of meetings.

Oh, and here comes more dirt. This administration leaks like a GD sieve, and they're mad at Biden's guys for blabbing?

Michael Jordan wants you to STOP IT, Chris Miller, GET SOME HELP. (And BTW, anyone with half a brain cell would realize this ploy to fuck the Biden defense team was going to leak out in the time it took to shoot a text to Jonathan Swan.)

The Defense Department is theoretically about to make an announcement explaining that this is all just a big misunderstanding, heh heh. We'll drop it in here when they figure out what they want to say to make themselves look less like assholes who'd rather give the finger to the incoming president and fuck off early for the holiday than serve the American people. Can't hardly wait!

[Axios]

Nothing like the “pro-life” party eliminating healthcare during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

California will survive without this $$ for now -- but their frail, pathetic patriarchal system they are so desperate to protect won’t. https://t.co/FNDbqpOhEy
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 17, 2020

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is Joe Biden's pick for DOE. (Politico) This is fabulous news that makes me feel like his Cabinet process is getting back on track. Here's her TED talk on clean energy jobs as a race to the top.

https://twitter.com/JenGranholm/status/1299221454538506240

Marcy Wheeler SPITTING FIRE comparing Fox News's Eric Swalwell Chinese spy freakout (when approached by the FBI, Swalwell cut off contact with the spy/campaign volunteer) with the other men (Page, Papadopoulos, Manfort, Trump, Flynn) who hid, lied about, and welcomed their spy contacts. This is so fucked up. (Emptywheel)

A suspected Russian hack of US government agencies went undetected for months. Man, if this were antifa or a Black Lives Matter rally, Donald Trump would send in the troops! (Wall Street Journal)

Trump took a break from his failed coup to complain that the Cleveland baseball team was changing its name. (Yahoo! Sports)

Here is Trump in 1993 saying racist stuff about “Indians" during a congressional hearing.

Read this op-ed piece explaining why Ms. Stacey Abrams is nothing like that rotten Halloween pumpkin, Donald Trump. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

CNN's parent company, AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia, refused to air Trump's lying-ass ads claiming the 2020 election was rigged. Good for them. (Bloomberg)

Watch Michigan GOP try to enter Michigan Capitol to submit phony electoral votes

Apparently unwilling to accept that Michigan voters chose Biden for president, a group of Republicans unsuccessfully tried to enter the Capitol with a batch of fake electoral votes for Trump. In the video, you can see their leader employ crude sophistry and legal jargon in an attempt to intimidate a police officer blocking their path.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tell supporters to watch inauguration from home, don't travel

• "The PIC is urging the public to refrain from any travel and participate in the inaugural activities from home"

The Presidential Inauguration Committee of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris released a statement today telling their supporters to please watch the inauguration from home, and please don't travel, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen in America. — Read the rest

Look, Shiny WONDERFUL Thing! Rep. Deb Haaland Is Biden Pick For Interior Secretary!

Doktor Zoom

December 17, 2020 04:37 PM

MSNBC screenshot

You want a story that should end your Thursday with a big old grin, as long as nothing too terribly 2020 happens the rest of the day? Well go read the Washington Post's very happy story about Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico), Joe Biden's nominee to be secretary of the Interior. We were pretty darn excited when, as part of the 2018 blue wave, Haaland and Sharice Davids of Kansas became the first two Native American women elected to Congress. If confirmed, Haaland would make some more history, as the Post 'splains:

A member of Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland, 60, would become the first descendant of the original people to populate North America to serve as a Cabinet secretary. It marks a turning point for a 171-year-old institution that has often had a fraught relationship with 574 federally recognized tribes.

We will now pause zero seconds for Tucker Carlson to be outraged that anyone would see that as historic.

And while New Mexico is one of the country's top producers of oil and natural gas, Haaland has pledged to make some big changes at Interior, which for too long has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry. Haaland wants to shift the department's focus to promoting green energy and mitigation of climate change. As part of that transformation, Biden has promised to stop issuing new permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands. Phasing out fossil fuel production wherever possible is key to decarbonizing; as the Post points out, "extraction of oil, gas and coal in these areas account for nearly a quarter of the nation's annual carbon output."

Yep, that's gonna piss off people who have a lot of money, and Haaland is likely to face flak not only from extractive industries but also from the assorted lunatics in the West whose magic copies of the Constitution tell them the federal government isn't allowed to own any land outside the District of Columbia and military bases.

Haaland told the Post that, coming from New Mexico, she certainly cares about energy jobs, but added, "We don't want to go back to normal, right? We don't want to go back to where we were because that economy wasn't working for a lot of people." Lots of sun and wind in New Mexico, that's for sure.

Hey, how about an antidote to that awful jerk at National Review who mocked people who think they can better themselves? Look at your new Interior secretary-designate:

Born in Arizona to a Native American mother who served in the Navy and a Norwegian American father who was an active-duty Marine, Haaland bounced between 13 public schools as the family moved between military bases. She spent summers with her grandparents in a house without running water in Mesita, one of Laguna Pueblo's small villages in New Mexico.

"As kids we moved a lot because my dad was in the service, but no matter where we were he would take us outside," she recalled. "In New Mexico we would hike in Jemez during a rainstorm, or at other military bases we would visit the ocean."

She earned her law degree from the University of New Mexico while raising a daughter, getting by on student loans, food stamps and money from a salsa-making business she started. During her run for Congress in 2018, she endeared herself to voters by noting she was still paying off student debt.

In the House, she's served as the vice chair of the Natural Resources Committee, and has introduced bills addressing the national tragedy of murdered and missing women in tribal areas. She's also introduced, with Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, the Honoring Promises to Native Nations Act, which among other measures would make funding for a number of programs touching Indigenous people guaranteed from year to year with dedicated revenues — a bit like Social Security — and not subject to the whims of the annual appropriations process, which can lead to yo-yo-ing budgets.

As the Post points out, Interior has a long history of often lousy treatment of Indigenous people, including removing them from their lands, as happened when Yellowstone became the first national park. And then there was that wonderful icon of good government, fucking racist James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Interior secretary, who infamously blamed Native American culture for poverty on the reservations:

"If you want an example of the failure of socialism," Watt said in an interview on a satellite radio show based in Tulsa, "don't go to Russia. Come to America and go to the Indian reservations."

Charming fellow. By contrast, Haaland is looking forward to fixing the federal government's relations with tribes, which got pretty bad under Trump:

"The Trump administration has not been kind to Indian country," Haaland said. "He has thrown tribal consultation essentially out the window."

And now, we can look forward to things getting not back to normal, but to way better than that.

Trump Has Third New Shiny Reason To Veto Defense Bill, It's Getting Really Weird!

Liz Dye

December 17, 2020 03:47 PM

Giphy

Trump is leaving, but he's going to break a whole lot of shit on the way out the door. And some of that shit might just be the GOP!

The president has not backed off his threat to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the $740 billion defense spending bill. In normal times, no Congress would ever fail to pass a defense bill, and no president would ever threaten to veto it because failing to "support the troops" is the kiss of death in politics. That's why they call it "must pass" legislation. But these are not normal times.

Leave aside for the moment your own feelings about military spending, Wonkers. Because whatever objections you have to the size of the defense allocation, Donald Trump's reasons for threatening a veto are NOT THAT. Two and a half weeks ago, Trump tweetsplained ... this.

This morning he repeated the claim, tweeting, "I will Veto the Defense Bill, which will make China very unhappy. They love it. Must have Section 230 termination, protect our National Monuments and allow for removal of military from far away, and very unappreciative, lands. Thank you!"

Well. It's a lot.

First of all, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the provision that shields media companies from liability for user-generated content on their sites, has nothing whatsoever to do with the NDAA. And it's got nothing whatsoever to do with conservatives getting "censored" by tech platforms either, much as Senators Hawley and Cruz enjoy lying about it. In fact, the only thing Republicans and Democrats agree on is that Section 230 repeal should in no wise be attached to the defense bill.

"The president knows that I agree with him 100 percent on the need for a full repeal of Section 230. I've made that clear publically [sic] as well," Senate Armed Services Chair Jim Inhofe said. "It's unfortunate that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle disagree with the need for a full repeal – but, because of that, it is impossible to add a repeal of Section 230 to the defense authorization bill. The only other option would mean that for the first time in 60 years, we would not have an NDAA. Without an NDAA, our troops would not get flight pay. They wouldn't get hazard pay or any other specialty pay that requires annual authorization for our service members overseas get what they need."

So, why is Trump going on about it? Who the hell even knows!

As for the "National Monuments," President Addlepate is referring to a commission to consider rechristening military bases that currently bear the names of traitorous Confederate generals.

Presumably he thinks this stance will appeal to his racist base? But, again, who the hell even knows!

As for the business about China, who the ... well, you know. Perhaps Xi Jinping harbors a deep-seated loathing of Braxton Bragg, and renaming the base in North Carolina will be seen as a great victory for the Asian superpower. But that seems unlikely.

Vox made a valiant effort to retcon a logical explanation, although trying to work out a rational basis for the nonsense that falls out of Trump's mouth is always a dicey proposition. It's possible that the president is exercised because the US will still be allowed to buy Chinese-made drones under the new law. But it's equally likely that he really does believe that China benefits from Section 230 because some wingnut on OANN shoved that little nugget into his skull cavity.

The Daily Beast has an interesting column suggesting that the real reason Trump wants to torpedo the NDAA is because of a specific anti-money laundering provision that might hurt him and his cronies. But that would require the president to have actually read and understood the NDAA — and no one should ever bet on the president reading anything. There's also the minor matter that there will be a defense bill eventually, come hell or high water, so objecting to one section in order to get a wholly different section excised seems like a stupid strategy, even for Trump.

We'll probably never know why the president is so adamantly opposed to the bill. But it passed in the House 335-78, and the Senate by a margin of 84-13, setting up a veto fight if he actually makes good on his threat. Two-thirds of both chambers would have to vote to override a veto, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says his members won't do it. But House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney has voiced support for the override, while simultaneously calling Rand Paul a tiny asshole.

Uhhhh ...

The Senate is hoping like hell to dodge that bullet, with Republican Whip John Thune telling reporters that his members won't be voting if McCarthy manages to keep his members on-side. "If the House overrides, we will come back. If they sustain it with their vote, we won't," he said.

Meanwhile, no one knows when Trump will actually do what he's promised — he has 10 days to act on the legislation — so Congress has no idea if or when the members will have to come back to DC to deal with this bullshit. And, not for nothing, but Christmas is next week.

Will Republicans finally grow a pair in the last few minutes of the Trump presidency and say no to the Lunatic in Chief's manic sabotaging of the government? That really would be a Christmas miracle! But Kevin McCarthy is no Santa Claus, so safe money is on those spineless sumbitches kowtowing to the Dear Leader, safe in the knowledge that Joe Biden will be behind "the very beautiful Resolute Desk" in a month, acting like a goddamn adult.

Happy Holidays, ya bunch of craven eunuchs.

[CNN / CBS / Vox / Beast]

Follow Liz Dye on Twitter RIGHT HERE!

RANDOM AND SUNDRIES OF SLASHDOTTERY AND SCIENCE

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/city-of-paris-fined-mayor-anne-hidalgo-appointed-too-many-women.html

Paris City Government Fined for Appointing Too Many Women to Senior Positions

The city of Paris was levied a $109,000 (90,000 euros) fine Tuesday by the national government because the city’s female mayor, Anne Hidalgo, appointed too many women to senior positions at city hall. The fine was imposed by the ministry of public service after more than two-thirds of Hidalgo’s 2018 appointments were women; 11 women and five men were given senior staff roles. The appointments technically ran afoul of French public sector employment law, passed in 2013, which stipulates that each gender should maintain a presence of at least 40 percent in government positions. “I am happy to announce we have been fined,” Hidalgo, who was elected in 2014 and reelected last year, said. “The management of the city hall has, all of a sudden, become far too feminist.”

Last year, the French law was updated for a pretty obvious reason: It was self-defeating, ultimately making it harder to increase representation of women in government roles. The 2019 waiver allows new hires to exceed the 60-40 gender balance, as long as they don’t lead to an overall gender imbalance beyond that threshold in the government workforce. Under the updated legislation, Le Monde reports, the city of Paris is in the clear, as women make up 47 percent of city hall’s senior ranks, where they happen to be paid 6 percent less than their male colleagues. “Yes, we must promote women with determination and vigor, because the delay everywhere in France is still very great,” Hidalgo told the city council. “So yes, to promote and one day achieve parity, we must speed up the tempo and ensure that in the nominations there are more women than men.”

Even France’s public service minister, Amélie de Montchalin, called the penalty “absurd.” “I want the fine paid by Paris for 2018 to finance concrete actions to promote women in the public service. I invite you to the ministry to discuss them,” Montchalin tweeted. Hidalgo said the city would pay the fine and she would deliver the check herself, along with all the women working for her in city hall. “So there will be many of us,” she said.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/12/13/0553208/are-fragments-of-energy-the-fundamental-building-blocks-of-the-universe

Are Fragments of Energy the Fundamental Building Blocks of the Universe? (theconversation.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 13, 2020 @04:04AM from the speaking-relativity-ly dept.

hcs_$reboot shares a remarkable new theory from Larry M. Silverberg, an aerospace engineering professor at North Carolina State University (with colleague Jeffrey Eischen). They're proposing that matter is not made of particles (or even waves), as was long thought, but fragments of energy.

[W]hile the theories and math of waves and particles allow scientists to make incredibly accurate predictions about the universe, the rules break down at the largest and tiniest scales. Einstein proposed a remedy in his theory of general relativity. Using the mathematical tools available to him at the time, Einstein was able to better explain certain physical phenomena and also resolve a longstanding paradox relating to inertia and gravity. But instead of improving on particles or waves, he eliminated them as he proposed the warping of space and time.Using newer mathematical tools, my colleague and I have demonstrated a new theory that may accurately describe the universe... Instead of basing the theory on the warping of space and time, we considered that there could be a building block that is more fundamental than the particle and the wave....

Much to our surprise, we discovered that there were only a limited number of ways to describe a concentration of energy that flows. Of those, we found just one that works in accordance with our mathematical definition of flow. We named it a fragment of energy... Using the fragment of energy as a building block of matter, we then constructed the math necessary to solve physics problems... More than 100 [years] ago, Einstein had turned to two legendary problems in physics to validate general relativity: the ever-so-slight yearly shift — or precession — in Mercury's orbit, and the tiny bending of light as it passes the Sun... In both problems, we calculated the trajectories of the moving fragments and got the same answers as those predicted by the theory of general relativity. We were stunned.

Our initial work demonstrated how a new building block is capable of accurately modeling bodies from the enormous to the minuscule. Where particles and waves break down, the fragment of energy building block held strong. The fragment could be a single potentially universal building block from which to model reality mathematically — and update the way people think about the building blocks of the universe.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/12/13/0012217/here-comes-the-google-chrome-change-that-worries-ad-blocker-creators

Here Comes the Google Chrome Change that Worries Ad-Blocker Creators (cnet.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 13, 2020 @09:34AM from the braking-rules dept.

CNET reports:With the next version of Chrome, Google is moving ahead with a plan to improve privacy and security by reining in some abilities of extensions used to customize the browser. The move had angered some developers who expected earlier it would cripple ad blockers. Manifest v3, the programming interface behind Google's security plans, will arrive with Chrome 88 in mid-January, Google said Wednesday at the Chrome Dev Summit. Extensions using the earlier Manifest v2 will still work for at least a year...

Among other things, Manifest v3 limits the number of "rules" that extensions may apply to a web page as it loads. Rules are used, for example, to check if a website element comes from an advertiser's server and should therefore be blocked. Google announced the changes two years ago. Reducing the number of rules allowed angered creators of extensions like the uBlock Origin ad blocker and the Ghostery tracking blocker. They said the rules limits will stop their extensions from running their full lists of actions to screen ads or block tracking. That could let websites bypass extensions — and the preferences of people who installed them...

The shift brought on by Manifest V3 will spread to all browsers, to the detriment of ad blocking software, predicted Andrey Meshkov, co-founder and chief technology officer of AdGuard, an ad-blocking extension... Ghostery is working to update its extension for Manifest V3 but would rather spend its time on "real privacy innovations," President Jeremy Tillman said in a statement Wednesday. "We still have real misgivings that these changes have more to do with Google protecting its bottom line than it does with improving security for Chrome users...."

The importance of the Chrome team's choices are magnified by the fact that other browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi , Opera and Brave, are built on its Chromium open-source foundation. Microsoft said it will embrace Manifest v3, too.
"Another Manifest v3 change is that extensions no longer may update their abilities by downloading code from third-party sites.

"The entire extension now must be distributed through the Chrome Web Store, a measure Google says improves security screens and speeds reviews."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/12/14/2335204/astronomers-discover-cosmic-superhighways-for-fast-travel-through-the-solar-system

Astronomers Discover Cosmic 'Superhighways' For Fast Travel Through the Solar System (sciencealert.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @02:00AM from the celestial-autobahn dept.

Invisible structures generated by gravitational interactions in the Solar System have created a "space superhighway" network, astronomers have discovered. ScienceAlert reports:By applying analyses to both observational and simulation data, a team of researchers led by Natasa Todorovic of Belgrade Astronomical Observatory in Serbia observed that these superhighways consist of a series of connected arches inside these invisible structures, called space manifolds -- and each planet generates its own manifolds, together creating what the researchers have called "a true celestial autobahn." This network can transport objects from Jupiter to Neptune in a matter of decades, rather than the much longer timescales, on the order of hundreds of thousands to millions of years, normally found in the Solar System.

Finding hidden structures in space isn't always easy, but looking at the way things move around can provide helpful clues. In particular, comets and asteroids. [...] "More detailed quantitative studies of the discovered phase-space structures ... could provide deeper insight into the transport between the two belts of minor bodies and the terrestrial planet region," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Combining observations, theory, and simulation will improve our current understanding of this short-term mechanism acting on the TNO, Centaur, comet, and asteroid populations and merge this knowledge with the traditional picture of the long-term chaotic diffusion through orbital resonances; a formidable task for the large range of energies considered."The research has been published in Science Advances.

Virtual reality is effective training for lucid dreaming, according to scientific study

A lucid dream is one in which you're aware of the fact that you're dreaming and can often control what happens. It's a powerful skill to develop for the sake of fun but also as a way to enhance creativity and manage the psychological stressors of waking life. — Read the rest

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/12/17/014253/the-orion-spacecraft-is-now-15-years-old-and-has-flown-into-space-just-once

The Orion Spacecraft Is Now 15 Years Old and Has Flown Into Space Just Once (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday December 17, 2020 @05:00AM from the compare-and-contrast dept.

schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica:Since that time, according to The Planetary Society's Casey Dreier, NASA has spent $23.7 billion developing the Orion spacecraft. This does not include primary costs for the vehicle's Service Module, which provides power and propulsion, as it is being provided by the European Space Agency. For this money, NASA has gotten a bare-bones version of Orion that flew during the Exploration Flight Test-1 mission in 2014. The agency has also gotten the construction of an Orion capsule -- which also does not have a full life support system -- that will be used during the uncrewed Artemis I mission due to be flown in 12 to 24 months. So over its lifetime, and for $23.7 billion, the Orion program has produced:

- Development of Orion spacecraft
- Exploration Flight Test-1 basic vehicle
- The Orion capsule to be used for another test flight
- Work on capsules for subsequent missions

Obviously, that is not nothing. But it is far from a lot, even for a big government program. To see how efficiently this money could theoretically have been spent, let's use an extreme example. SpaceX is generally considered one of the most efficient space companies. Founded in 2002, the company has received funding from NASA, the Department of Defense, and private investors. Over its history, we can reliably estimate that SpaceX has expended a total of $16 billion to $20 billion on all of its spaceflight endeavors. Consider what that money has bought:

- Development of Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy rockets
- Development of Cargo Dragon, Crew Dragon, and Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft
- Development of Merlin, Kestrel, and Raptor rocket engines
- Build-out of launch sites at Vandenberg (twice), Kwajalein Atoll, Cape Canaveral, and Kennedy Space Center
- 105 successful launches to orbit
- 20 missions to supply International Space Station, two crewed flights
- Development of vertical take off, vertical landing, rapid reuse for first stages
- Starship and Super Heavy rocket development program
- Starlink Internet program (with 955 satellites on orbit, SpaceX is largest satellite operator in the world)

To sum up, SpaceX delivered all of that for billions of dollars less than what NASA has spent on the Orion program since its inception.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/12/18/0010222/a-successful-experiment-gets-us-one-step-closer-to-a-quantum-internet

A Successful Experiment Gets Us One Step Closer To a Quantum Internet (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday December 18, 2020 @02:00AM from the sci-fi-to-reality dept.

Earlier this week, a team of researchers announced that they successfully teleported qubits of photons across approximately 27 miles of fiber-optic cable. Engadget reports:While other scientists have worked on similar projects, this group is the first to beam quantum information across such a great distance. What's more, they did so across two separate networks and with a fidelity greater than 90 percent. One of the researchers on the team told Motherboard they built the networks using "off-the-shelf" components, and that their tech is compatible with existing telecommunications equipment.

In PRX Quantum, where the team published its findings, they say their work provides "a realistic foundation for a high-fidelity quantum Internet with practical devices." They added, "this is a key achievement on the way to building a technology that will redefine how we conduct global communication." Experts believe a quantum internet could revolutionize a variety of computing fields, including cryptography and search. [...] With two 13-mile networks under their belts, the Caltech and Fermilab teams plan to build a city-scale network called the Illinois Express Quantum Network in Chicago next.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/12/19/0032212/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn

The 'Great' Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (nasa.gov)

Posted by BeauHD on Saturday December 19, 2020 @02:00AM from the end-of-year-treat dept.

On Monday, December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky in an astronomical event known as a "Great Conjunction," appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileo's time in the 17th century. NASA reports:The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years. What makes this year's spectacle so rare, then? It's been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this "great conjunction."

The closest alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and last for a few days. On the 21st, they will appear so close that a pinkie finger at arm's length will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the unaided eye by looking toward the southwest just after sunset. From our vantage point on Earth the huge gas giants will appear very close together, but they will remain hundreds of millions of miles apart in space. And while the conjunction is happening on the same day as the winter solstice, the timing is merely a coincidence, based on the orbits of the planets and the tilt of the Earth.

For those who would like to see this phenomenon for themselves, here's what to do:

- Find a spot with an unobstructed view of the sky, such as a field or park. Jupiter and Saturn are bright, so they can be seen even from most cities.
- An hour after sunset, look to the southwestern sky. Jupiter will look like a bright star and be easily visible. Saturn will be slightly fainter and will appear slightly above and to the left of Jupiter until December 21, when Jupiter will overtake it and they will reverse positions in the sky.
- The planets can be seen with the unaided eye, but if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to see Jupiter's four large moons orbiting the giant planet.

AND THIS, which is worthy of its own post.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/black-professor-colleague-called-cops-david-moore-sacramento-state-racial-bias-academia/

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you soon, Mom.

- Days ago = 1996 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2012.19 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27 and 1907.04) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. Dropped "Talk to you tomorrow, Mom" in the sign off on 1907.04. Should have done it sooner as this feature is no longer daily.

No comments:

SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

sense of doubt

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1217 (SoD #2132) - The Endless Torture of Being Santa - Hodge Podge for 2012.19

If Trump pardons himself, Biden should un-pardon him

Before Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit there was Chuck Wagon

Supreme Court Does Good Thing For Trans Kids, So ... Surprise!

Yay! Something good!

Trump Is Trying to Wriggle Out of Past Deals That Prohibit Him From Residing at Mar-a-Lago

Oh Nothing, Just Russia Literally Declaring War On America While Trump Beats Off To OANN

Down over there. Up over here.

America's Covid-19 Hospitalizations Hit a Record High For the 7th Straight Day (cnn.com)

Big Tough Gym Guy Reenacts 'Love Actually' Scene To Protest COVID Restrictions

Sure,Top HHS Aide Urged Infecting Everyone, But It's Not Like That Was Actually The Policy

United States

Coronavirus Cases:

Deaths:

Recovered:

Projections

COVID Relief Package Contains a $120 Billion Gift to the Superwealthy

Forgiven loans, combined with a tax break, mean a windfall for rich business owners.

MICHAEL MECHANIC

Trump Has Sent 729 Tweets Since the Election. Not a Single One Was About the COVID Death Toll.

DAVE GILSON

Newly Released Body Camera Footage Shows Police Questioning the McMichaels After Ahmaud Arbery Shooting

Pentagon Cancels Biden Transition Meetings For Totally Normal Reasons, Not Suspicious At All

Watch Michigan GOP try to enter Michigan Capitol to submit phony electoral votes

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tell supporters to watch inauguration from home, don't travel

Look, Shiny WONDERFUL Thing! Rep. Deb Haaland Is Biden Pick For Interior Secretary!

Trump Has Third New Shiny Reason To Veto Defense Bill, It's Getting Really Weird!

Paris City Government Fined for Appointing Too Many Women to Senior Positions

Are Fragments of Energy the Fundamental Building Blocks of the Universe? (theconversation.com)

Here Comes the Google Chrome Change that Worries Ad-Blocker Creators (cnet.com)

Astronomers Discover Cosmic 'Superhighways' For Fast Travel Through the Solar System (sciencealert.com)

Virtual reality is effective training for lucid dreaming, according to scientific study

The Orion Spacecraft Is Now 15 Years Old and Has Flown Into Space Just Once (arstechnica.com)

A Successful Experiment Gets Us One Step Closer To a Quantum Internet (engadget.com)

The 'Great' Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (nasa.gov)

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