More great assorted links

I'm a fan of history especially history that helps explain the world I live in today. One piece I got to see personally was the science-led ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). I did independent study on the issue while in college in the late 70s, and it's fascinating to look back. Back then, science was more respected and not just a ping pong ball in adversarial politics. 

A great, passionate talk about race relations in the US. Insight after insight. Watch and learn so much that you need to learn. 

Unusual mail-in ballot numbers in Wisconsin. Probably some fraud, but not huge amounts. And during covid, nursing homes were making sure residents got to vote. But that makes sense because residents weren't getting visits. 

Explanation of US oil production and the effects of covid. Demand cratered, pumping didn't slow, the market was over saturated, prices cratered, producers went bankrupt, production dropped sharply. 

The view from Twitter employees on the Musk takeover. Nervous. (Funny, this one fell apart, but here's a historical record.)

Fact-checking the 'blockbuster' expose movie about voter fraud. The premise is very weak--the Dems supposedly had 2000 ballot harvesters, based on cell phone tower ping data. 

The military has a problem with white supremacists. But according to some conservatives, the military is actually trying to censor conservatives. Here are some cases. 

Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense, describes how Trump was unfit to be president. Maybe compare that with Rick Scott's reasons for calling Biden unfit. 

How were voting rights for black people secured? It was a long process, where the federal government ignored the problem for years despite having the mandate right in the 14th amendment to enforce those rights. 

A pilot project sent mental health teams to respond to minor police calls in Denver. It was successful, so maybe we'll see more diverse response teams become more common rather than relying so much on police. 

An software engineer at Google has been suspended for sharing private information. It concerns his opinion that an artificial intelligence (AI) application has achieved sentience. That puts the engineer into an ethical dilemma.

Image: abcnews.go.com

Links from months ago

Charlie Munger, a billionaire investor who is also associated with Warren Buffett, is 97 years old and throwing money into a social experiment in student housing. His idea: students don't need windows to the outside in their dorm rooms. The results aren't good, but he's on his second project in this dream. The first was a dorm for 600 grad students at U Michigan. The second is for 4500 students at UC Santa Barbara. 

A NYT article about how the Biden administration can fight misinformation.. 

The president of Belarus is weaponizing migrants--flying them into Belarus, then dumping them across the borders at the neighbors he doesn't like. 

Ethnic studies will be required for graduation in California high schools. Sounds like a good idea! Not so different from having mandatory health education.

The fast, unorganized withdrawal from Afghanistan happened in part because the Taliban weren't going to extend the ceasefire into September. 

A different kind of misinformation. An anti-BLM claim that Irish slaves were treated worse than African slaves. The story is tracked down, debunked, and shown as the propaganda it is. 

Image: youtube/kobeissi

The future of the GOP

(I've been neglectful of my blog. Catching up with some posts I wrote. This one is from early November 2021.)

I asked what Qanon is going to do. I have to ask the same about the GOP. Not that most of the GOP is as crazy as Qanon folks, but they are in a bind. Trump said the election was stolen from him, but the evidence is so paltry that the claims are frankly embarrassing. So what will the GOP do? In Virginia, the winning governor candidate went along with the charade during the primary, and has now pivoted away from it. 

There's also the problem of the Jan. 6 riots/attempted coup/insurrection/tourist visit to the Capitol. Will Congress be able to set up a commission to investigate and report on it? Uh, it's certainly past time when the commission should have been formed. However, Republicans want to block it without being caught blocking it. Lots of them are in this bind, but probably none more than Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the House. He was on the phone with Trump on Jan. 6, so his testimony is extremely important, and perhaps extremely embarrassing. Yes, what a bind. 

Politico: Headaches of Trump running again. The Politico article is over 6 months old, but so much of it still applies. Trump did squander a lot of political capital, and other senior GOP leaders don't know what to do about him. They are flailing in their response because Trump is frankly more popular than the established leadership. There is no old dean or statesman who has the stature to talk sense to the party base. So the situation is frozen until primaries show which view is stronger. 

Image: businessinsider.com

Is another wave of covid coming for the unvaccinated?

(Originally July 30) It's been predicted that covid would surge. More than once, this didn't happen, and sometimes it did. When Texas dropped its mask mandate, covid was supposed to surge but didn't. Now maybe we're seeing signs that there is somewhat of a surge in Missouri and Arkansas in areas where there is high resistance to getting the vaccine. Health officials in Missouri are alarmed at the rise of covid cases, but they can't get the governor to take it seriously. Because of the partisan divide, and conservatives have to be against vaccines since libs/progs are for them. This is such stupidity.<---I wrote this originally on 7/10. Now we've had nearly three more weeks of the surge, and it's definitely happening. 

Currently the death toll isn't rising, but it has stopped dropping, which indicates that up is the next direction. Cases are up 400% in the US since July 1. Hospitals are filling up with covid patients.

Not only the unvaccinated are affected. An outbreak centered in Provincetown MA included over 800 vaccinated people. The delta variant is known to been more transmissible. It became the dominant variant in the UK, and has becoming dominant in the US too. The CDC is recommending masks again indoors. 

Republicans are split on whether to encourage vaccination or remain defiant. Too bad for them that even reality of overflowing hospitals doesn't open their eyes. 

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So how did this turn out? Big waves of hospitalizations and deaths in southern states. Much less in the midwest, west, northeast and mid-Atlantic. 

For a long time, the 6 states with the highest deaths per capita were: New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Louisiana. These states were hit hard early on before the lockdown and social distancing responses. 

With the high death tolls from July-September '21, (and still substantial in early November), the 12 states with the highest death rates are Mississippi, Alabama, NJ, Louisiana, NY, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, MA, Georgia, RI, Oklahoma. That's such a different geography from before, and all because of low vaccination rates when the delta variant arrived. 

What happened with the Provincetown, MA outbreak? Not much. Massachusetts was affected by delta, too, but it increased death rates from very low into a low range. Many southern states, on the other hand, had their biggest waves yet since delta was more infectious than the earlier variant. Due to the partisan-tinged anti-vax stubbornness, over 100K Americans died who would be alive today. 

And the divide over how to respond to covid remains bitterly ideological. The conservatives are sticking with their anti-vax stance even with the known visible results from the various US states. Doubling-down unto death is happening too often, which demonstrates the bitterness of the divide. 

Image: worldometer

The end of Liz Cheney, a morality tale.

 (Originally May 7) Liz Cheney is soon to be removed from her leadership position in the GOP hierarch in the House. Her unforgivable error was to vote for Trump's impeachment and be vocal about it. She was trying to hold Trump accountable for his part in the failed coup on Jan. 6. 

She survived one vote shortly after the impeachment by over 2-to-1. Now it looks like Kevin McCarthy has thrown her under the bus and will let others run her over repeatedly. 

Why the change? I don't know. Maybe it's jockeying in the deep GOP circles, as people have to swear loyalty to Trump (and his lies) or they get dumped. I can believe Trump-support is that strong in some places. However, in general I think Trump will get weaker and he'll continue to get weaker. He doesn't have much of podium, and his program of whining about the election will look more and more immature as time goes on. I think this will shrink the GOP because a lot of people in the US are smarter than that, and will want some results instead of just resentment whines 24/7. 

But with people who remain in the Republican party, Trump may be a post you latch on to. Rally around him.... in the absence of actual policy and issues. This should cost the GOP in the midterms, but that's not a certainly at all. It depends on what the Dems are doing. Are they have their own crazy moments, or is sanity holding sway?

It looks like Cheney will be replace by another token woman, Elise Stefanik from upstate New York. She's been a good GOP barbie, repeating all the requisite lies. I doubt she'll be able to lead in anything other than continuing to sell out and cash in. Liz Cheney cashed in on being a GOP woman in Congress, so why not someone else. It's not like Cheney got the position because she was well known for her scruples. 

Image: glitternight.com

Extras. Mitt Romney was booed at a convention in Utah. When he came to the podium to speak, there was lots of clapping and warm response, but the boos were in that background and didn't stop until a party leader admonished the crowd. Not good Mormon behavior folks. 

Update 6/30/22. Liz Cheney is getting some very thorough revenge. She's doing great in the hearings about Jan. 6. Very poised and on-point, without grandstanding. June 28 was particularly devastating with a top aide of Mark Meadows spilling a lot of stories not heard before. GOPers wanted to relegate Cheney to the ash heap, but she's not going there. 

Links, for the few other things happening

This is many months of links, perhaps since the election in November 2020. 

The GOP decides no post-mortem needed on the election. Let's trade farfetched theories instead. Dems are worried at the gains Republicans made. And, naturally, the GOP wants to make it harder to vote again. Not exactly pro-republic values. 

The Kansas City Star newspaper apologized for decades of racist and biased coverage of black folks. Yes, of course it happened. If this is seen as white guilt or pandering, I want to shoot someone. 

Texas had a deep cold snap that devastated its power grid and its water pipes (in houses and the mains). A lot of conservatives were blaming green energy (because they want them as a scapegoat), but the governor placed blame on the failure of their regulations. 

Witty column about CPAC, the conservative convention. This year it's 99.99% Trump fealty. 

Cuomo's sexual harassment, teasing, and pressure is similar to what is still found in many companies. 

Racial discrimination against black tribal members in American Indian nations.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Qanon nutcase who won a House seat, may not have much of role in current events within a few months. However, she is getting a lot of attention now for some of her bizarre beliefs, prior statements, and current political antics. 

How big an impact did slavery have on the US economic system? Are claims by black Americans that they built the US true? I hope to find out more about this important question. It's certainly possible because cottom made up (by dollar) more than half of US exports during some periods in US history. 

Big Pharma is trying to get closer to Dems because they looked like they would win the lion's share of power in the 2020 election. 

Voting rights and Texas.

Russian hackers. Maybe the Biden administration will make some progress. 

China. Xi Jinping and his consolidation of power. 

The condo collapse in Florida. It's being carefully investigated, but there were known structural problems, but the condo board wasn't able to raise the money for the repairs. 

Image: geology.com

Is covid natural or engineered? Plus other covid topics.

This question is a political football, but it shouldn't be since it's a question about fact and any answer will be based on scientific information. 

As a layman, I'm not going to be able to contribute much to resolving this question. I'm not doing any of the first-hand research. I don't know what kind of equipment is involved in such research. I might be able to understand of the evidence and reasoning, but some of it might be outside the scope of my knowledge. 

So if I decide on this question, it will be based on me reading what biology experts have to say, and they don't always agree. 

Some here are three articles about the question of the origin of covid-19. Robert Redfield, former head of the CDC, opined that the virus escaped from the virology lab in Wuhan. However he said it was just his opinion. Their opinions are supposed to be based on scientist fact and extensive knowledge and experience. By not citing his reasons, Redfield reduces his opinion to the worth of a layman's opinion, which is nothing.  That's a big cop-out for a scientist, and it isn't at all clear why he does that. 

This article states that certain aspects of covid show that it wasn't engineered. I don't find it particularly clear or convincing. Something about the backbone and some change to a protein. There was some huge article in Nature or one of the premiere medical journals that was (I infer) categorical about a natural origin for covid. 

Others aren't so sure. Some report that dissent on the origin has been quashed. Wait, that isn't supposed to happen in the sciences, but it probably does. Then there is a piece of cyberpunk happening with the melding of genetics scientists with computer researchers and hackers. 

From what I've gleaned, there are three major theories about the origin of covid:

1. It started with bats in a different province. Spread to one or more humans or an intermediate animal. Got to Wuhan where it could spread much more. It also become more optimized to humans somewhere along the way. 
2. It was a naturally occurring virus and was sampled and set to the Wuhan virology lab, where it possibly changed, and accidentally escaped.
3. It was experimented on in the Wuhan virology lab to improve its capabilities, perhaps as a bioweapon. Probably escaped. 
4. (Nutty) It was made in the US and transferred secretly so that the whole world would blame China. 

The claims it couldn't be engineered are (my attempt at interpretation) that the backbone isn't one a virologist would choose. Nor would they make the changes in the spike protein because virologists are better at copying nature than making successful wild guesses at what might work. 

I'll repeat that I don't know. The natural origin narrative sounds somewhat stronger because of the number of bats available in the wild and all the mutations they could support by passing around viruses. Kind of like what humans are doing now, and we are seeing the variants pop up. 

Image: theparisreview.org

Extras. Biden and the Dems passed a covid relief bill in early March without support of Republicans. Repubs look like shit because of it. Keeping a link to a great article about the effectiveness of masks. I hate those stupid anti-maskers. Just wear it, damn it. It won't hurt you and it seems to help. Turf wars between Inspectors General including a covid IG. People leaving the Mormon church because too many Mormons are acting like angry Trumpers and not listening to the church leadership or medical experts who are urging care and compassion. 

India is having a huge outbreak. This video shows what it's like for someone who runs a traditional Hindu crematorium when covid hits. 

I read this on a private site, so no linking. However there was an explanation for why Michigan had a large surge in March: the return of snowbirds. A lot of Michiganders go south for the winter to places like Florida. There they picked up covid, many were asymptomatic, and they brought it back to Michigan to a less-exposed population. And, presto, a surge. 

Image: clickondetroit.com

Update 5/10/21. Covid is causing significant increases in type 1 diabetes. This isn't a complete surprise because viral infections have long been suspected. But it's been noted among practices and now the information is being tracked. 

More updates, mixed. Timeline of revelations about the Wuhan lab. Important related article. And some fact-checking. More focused on gain-of-function.

Update 6/25/21. A scientist has uncovered hints that several covid-like viruses were circulating in Wuhan and were sampled, and some sequences published and then withdrawn. This might indicate a natural evolution. But there's also a detailed discussion of the evidence of poor lab practices in the past and recently and also involving Wuhan that implicates a lab leak. 

Update 7/18/21. Covid and Politics.....and Facebook. The Biden administrator announced or revealed taht it's telling Facebook when it finds disinformation about covid and the vaccines. Outrage meter spins. I guess the government shouldn't be countering disinformation, huh?