‘The troubling thing is this. America’s not asking the question. It’s not on the lips of pundits. Ezra Klein is still busy pretending fascism didn’t happen, and Chris Hayes is right back to obsessing over political minutiae. American pundits have never been good with either the big picture or the truth. And the average American and politicians take their cues from them. So the whole question of “what does it take to recover from fascism” is going entirely unasked. And in that way, America isn’t learning anything from the Trump Years. So will it? Can it?…’
'A man walks into a bar and says:
Take my wife–-please.
So you do.
You take her out into the rain and you fall in love with her
and she leaves you and you’re desolate.
You’re on your back in your undershirt, a broken man
on an ugly bedspread, staring at the water stains
on the ceiling.
And you can hear the man in the apartment above you
taking off his shoes.
You hear the first boot hit the floor and you’re looking up,
you’re waiting
because you thought it would follow, you thought there would be
some logic, perhaps, something to pull it all together
but here we are in the weeds again,
here we are
in the bowels of the thing: your world doesn’t make sense.
And then the second boot falls.
And then a third, a fourth, a fifth.
A man walks into a bar and says:
Take my wife–-please.
But you take him instead.
You take him home, and you make him a cheese sandwich,
and you try to get his shoes off, but he kicks you
and he keeps kicking you.
You swallow a bottle of sleeping pills but they don’t work.
Boots continue to fall to the floor
in the apartment above you.
You go to work the next day pretending nothing happened.
Your co-workers ask
if everything’s okay and you tell them
you’re just tired.
And you’re trying to smile. And they’re trying to smile.
A man walks into a bar, you this time, and says:
Make it a double.
A man walks into a bar, you this time, and says:
Walk a mile in my shoes.
A man walks into a convenience store, still you, saying:
I only wanted something simple, something generic…
But the clerk tells you to buy something or get out.
A man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river
but then he’s still left
with the river. A man takes his sadness and throws it away
but then he’s still left with his hands....'
‘…[James Cawley, an Elvis impersonator and] Star Trek fan …used the blueprints to the sets of the original Star Trek Enterprise to lovingly re-create those sets in a former supermarket in upstate New York. “Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour” is located in downtown Ticonderoga, New York….’
Wired reported on this in 2016. It just so happens that my family and I were passing through Ticonderoga this past Thanksgiving weekend and discovered this. However, I don’t think Cawley, whom we met during our visit, just recreated the sets from the blueprints. As we were told, he spent what he referred to as an “astronomical” sum buying up original set dressings, props and furnishings from Desilu Studios and shipped them cross-country to set them up in Ticonderoga. We also learned that William Shatner toured the set and had a load of fun. Cawley and friends filmed and released their own versions of the Original Series online as well.
‘Cawley starred as Kirk early on; later, professional actors got involved, including George Takei and Walter Koenig. They made 11 episodes before CBS, the rights holder, instituted new guidelines prohibiting that kind of fan-film. But the company granted Cawley permission to open his set to the public…’
Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Plotted to Oust Acting AG After He Refused to Use DOJ to Overturn GA Election Results:
(Jeffrey Clark, who led the Justice Department’s civil division)
‘The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.
The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?
The answer was unanimous. They would resign.
Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. trump’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis….’
‘I have two asks of every American: Give Joe Biden a chance to surprise you on the upside and challenge yourself to surprise him.
American businesses need to surprise us by telling Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch that their network fueled the Big Lie that led to the ransacking of the Capitol and that they are no longer going to advertise on any show that spreads conspiracy theories. The best news I heard this week is that My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell — an avid Trump backer and advertiser on Fox, who has pressed debunked claims that the 2020 election was rigged — said Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Wayfair and other retailers were dropping his products. Good for them.
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have to surprise us by once and for all stopping the elevation — for profit — of news that divides and enrages over more authoritative, evenhanded news sources.
There is no equivalent on the left to the right-wing white supremacists and other extremists who just ransacked the Capitol. Not even remotely. But liberals would surprise a lot of people on the right, and maybe even get a few to support Biden, if they forcefully rejected political correctness when it stifles dissent and called out not only violence by the police — a huge priority — but also the sources of violence in minority neighborhoods that are terrorizing Black, brown and white residents alike. I see it in my hometown, Minneapolis, every day.
And now that the threat of Trump is gone, all of us in the news business need to get back to separating news from opinions. We need more places where Americans of all political stripes can feel that they’re getting their news straight — without being enraged, divided or woke; leave that for the opinion sections.
Finally, as I said, before we tear Biden apart, how about everybody give him a few months to surprise us on the upside? Give him a chance to put country before party and fulfill his oath of office…’
‘Trying to pick the most notable lies from Donald Trump’s presidency is like trying to pick the most notable pieces of junk from the town dump.
There’s just so much ugly garbage to sift through before you can make a decision. But I’m qualified for the dirty job. I fact checked every word uttered by this President from his inauguration day in January 2017 until September 2020…’
There’s this anonymous reader, about whom I wrote here in the past, who’s continuing to rate every post even remotely critical or contemptuous of trump with 1 star.
I had considered dispensing with the ratings system. Any cogent reaction to a post ought to result in a comment rather than just a click on a star, since my followers are by and large articulate and intelligent readers. But I thinkI have decided to keep the ratings widget because I am kind of enjoying seeing that I get under at least one person’s skin that much. I personally am a fan of righteous anger (as if that wasn’t already obvious to my readers) even if misguided. So my critic should keep it up! I promise the negative posts about the Twice-Impeached Molester-in-Chief will continue.
So so sorry there is no way to arrange for you to indicate a ‘0’ star rating, since that would probably suit you more.
Someone suggested facetiously that the shitposter might be trump himself. If you’re reading this, now that your social media access has been largely axed, rest assured that you still have access to FmH. Keep ’em comin’!
Or you can even expand your activity here. For instance, the obituary below is about a person of color. That get under your skin too? Why not downrate it as well?
(Howard Johnson, Tuba Man With The Band, Taj Mahal, Dies | Best Classic Bands)
‘Howard Johnson, perhaps the best-known tuba player in contemporary jazz for the past several decades, died January 11, 2021, at his New York home, following a long, unspecified illness….’
Somehow I had missed his passing, but thanks to abby for bringing it to my attention. Johnson’s funky dynamism drove some of the best tunes of a couple of my longest-term mainstays Taj Mahal and The Band over the top.
Mike Pence publicly defied the president once in four years, and for that solitary show of independence, his own political future could be all but finished.
(Is Mike Pence’s Political Career Over? – The Atlantic)
‘Pence’s rise and fall is emblematic of that of so many people who tethered themselves to Trump with disastrous results. When he agreed to become Trump’s running mate, his career was in peril. He was an obscure governor facing a difficult reelection campaign. At the time, his national profile centered on a bill he’d signed that critics feared could be used to discriminate against the LGBTQ community on religious grounds. By putting him on the ticket in 2016, Trump rescued him from a potentially career-ending loss—a point that Trump hasn’t hesitated to make in private discussions with White House aides.
From the first, Pence worried about alienating a thin-skinned president in constant need of validation. He stayed on message even when there was no message. James Melville, a former U.S. ambassador to Estonia, told me about a visit Pence made to that nation in July 2017. When Pence would huddle privately with aides, he’d invariably ask: “Were there any tweets? Did I miss anything?” Melville recalled. “I thought it was shocking and amusing” that Pence would be engaged in so much “hand-wringing over what the boss was saying.” Working under Trump, Melville said, was akin to “living with an alcoholic. You’re always waiting for the next disaster.”…’
‘In the menagerie of right-wing populist groups, the boogaloo bois stand out for their fashion, for their great love of memes, and, to put it plainly, for the incoherence of their ideology. Which is saying a lot, considering that the riot at the Capitol last Wednesday featured partisans of the long-gone country of South Vietnam, Falun Gong adherents, end-times Christians, neo-Nazis, QAnon believers, a handful of Orthodox Jews, and Daniel Boone impersonators.
The boogaloos weren’t a huge presence in that mob. But according to federal officials, the attack on the Capitol has galvanized them and could inspire boogaloo violence in D.C. and around the country between now and Inauguration Day. The FBI warned earlier that boogaloos could launch attacks in state capitols this Sunday, January 17.
The boogaloos don’t appear interested in fighting for Donald Trump—they tend to despise him, mostly because they think he panders to the police. But for the past year, boogaloo bois all over the United States have been cheering on the country’s breakdown, waiting for the moment when their nihilistic memes would come to life and the country would devolve into bloody chaos.
It’s hard to know how seriously to take the boogaloo threat. Some are likely just joking when they “shit-post” about shooting cops or “yeeting alphabet boys”—killing government law-enforcement agents. But others seem serious. They’ve already shown up heavily armed (and in their signature Hawaiian shirts) at protests and at state capitols. They’ve allegedly killed law-enforcement officers, talked about throwing Molotov cocktails at cops during the racial-justice protests this summer, and plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. They say they want a total reset of society, even if they haven’t thought very hard about what, exactly, should come next.
Who are the boogaloo bois? And why do they want to start a civil war? I’ve spent the past few months trying to figure that out…’
Why physicist Avi Loeb thinks there’s a “serious possibility” that ‘Oumuamua was an alien spacecraft
‘..[W]hen a bizarrely fast, cigar-shaped interstellar object jetted past Earth on its trip through our solar system, Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes scientists weren’t ready to seriously consider that it was of artificial origin. But Loeb is beyond consideration — he says it’s very possible that ‘Oumuamua (pronounced “oh moo ah moo ah”) was an interstellar spacecraft.
Back in October 2017, a postdoctoral researcher named Robert Weryk at the University of Hawaii was sifting through the usual data stream from the Pan-STARRS astronomical survey of the sky when he noticed an unexpected object. It appeared to be highly elongated, like a stick, with a long axis 10 times longer than its short axis — unprecedented for an asteroid. Some hypothesized that ‘Oumuamua swung towards our solar system as a result of a gravitational slingshot of a binary star system; others, that it might be an odd comet, though no tail was evident. Thus the search began to collect and analyze as much data as possible before it left our solar system.
Immediately upon discovering its physical properties, researchers realized its shape — which would minimize abrasions from interstellar gas and dust — would be ideal for an interstellar spacecraft. The idea understandably sent shockwaves through the scientific community and stoked controversy. Ultimately, scientists coalesced behind the idea that it was of natural origin, rather than artificial. But Loeb, who is the former chair of astronomy at Harvard University, remains certain that it was something akin to a light sail — a form of interstellar propulsion — spacecraft created by an extraterrestrial civilization. So much so that he wrote a whole book about it.
That book would be “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” in which Loeb argues that the scientific community’s resistance to discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life has hindered taking seriously his hypothesis that ‘Oumuamua was an alien light sail. Loeb reflects on how what happened with ‘Oumuamua was a bit of a missed opportunity, and that academia must invest more in the search for life in our universe to better prepare us for another interstellar visitor. But perhaps, most importantly, in a time when Earth faces an urgent global warming crisis, Loeb says that it could be finding extraterrestrial life that saves us from ourselves….’
‘Throughout his presidency, President Donald Trump has remained hugely popular among fellow Republicans. As recently as December, after Trump had lost the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden, some polls showed the president with an approval rating in the high 80s among Republicans.
But a new poll by the Pew Research Center suggests that the events of the last few weeks — a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, and then Trump was impeached for the second time in his presidency — are finally starting to weigh on Republican voters. The poll was conducted from January 8-12, so it was conducted entirely after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
The poll shows Trump with a disastrous 29 percent approval rating among US adults. Notably, this rating, the lowest of his presidency, appears to be driven in large part by a significant minority of Republicans who have lost faith in the president. Only 60 percent of Republicans approve of Trump, a stark drop from previous Pew polls.
Pew Research Center
The poll potentially bodes bad news for the Republican Party, as it shows that a rift may be forming within the GOP between hardcore Trump loyalists and Republicans who would prefer to see the party leader fade away. Other recent polls have also found a sharp decrease in Trump’s support, as FiveThirtyEight’s tracker shows, though not all to such a low….’
‘It’s becoming clear that the assault on the Capitol last week was well-planned. Here are a few of the latest findings:
The riot may have been coordinated with the help of at least three far-right U.S. Representatives: Andy Biggs, AZ, Mo Brooks, AL, and Paul Gosar, AZ.
Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, NJ said she saw GOP “colleagues leading groups on “reconnaissance” tours of the building” a day before the riot.
“One freshman lawmaker, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), is also facing criticism for tweeting about the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) while the Capitol was under siege,” reports The Washington Post.
“Several Capitol Police officers have also been suspended and more than a dozen others are being investigated for suspected ties to rioters or for showing inappropriate support for last week’s attempted insurrection,” reports the Post.
“The attack on the Capitol was coordinated and planned. Here are the insurrectionists talking about the plan, including detailed schematics of the Capitol building.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s chief of staff, Sarah Groh, said the panic buttons in her office had been removed…’
Isolated and angry at aides for failing to defend him as he is impeached again
‘Though Trump has been exceptionally furious with Vice President Pence, his relationship with lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most steadfast defenders, is also fracturing, according to people with knowledge of the dynamics between the men.
Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, two officials said, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president’s behalf to challenge election results in key states. They said Trump has privately expressed concern with some of Giuliani’s moves and did not appreciate a demand from Giuliani for $20,000 a day in fees for his work attempting to overturn the election….’
‘…Certainly, Trump deserves to be impeached for inciting an insurrection; lawmakers, direct targets of the attack, have ample justification for doing so. If Trump had any integrity, he would resign. If Vice President Pence had integrity, he would invoke the 25th Amendment. If Republican congressional leaders had integrity, they would see to Trump’s removal before he can do more harm. On Tuesday, an unrepentant Trump said his riot-inciting speech was “totally appropriate” — as if any more grounds were needed to justify his ouster.
Even if Trump were removed in his final week, though, the punishment would be inadequate, because it lets his co-conspirators off the hook. The attack on the Capitol was not a protest but a crime. The many people complicit in encouraging, planning, financing or condoning it need to be held to account: Members of Congress, state legislators and attorneys general, and the Internet platforms, businesses, advertisers and political action committees that aid them, must be prosecuted, hit with civil litigation or defunded.
Trump may preemptively pardon himself in the coming days, but he won’t be beyond civil and financial punishments. Let’s hope his enablers will be likewise held accountable for convincing millions that the election was stolen, and moving some to violence…’
‘A loyal lieutenant to President Donald Trump, Pence was criticized by the president over his role counting Electoral College votes in Congress and was one of the people trapped inside the U.S. Capitol when Trump supporters stormed the building as the votes were being tallied.
“While the vice president and his family were in a bunker in the Capitol, the president did not reach out to check on his safety nor did he condemn those who said the VP should be executed,” said sources familiar with the matter. Video shows rioters shouting, “Hang Pence!
“We strongly condemn all calls to violence, including those against any member of this administration,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
Pence and Trump have not spoken since the riots unfolded, according to a source familiar with the matter….’
I have wondered if trump’s announcement he will not attend the inauguration (what made him expect he was invited anyway??) represented a coded message to his mob that it would be okay to attack that gathering, with Pence and other prominent figures in attendance? Posts on pro-Trump forums continue calls for violence ahead of Inauguration Day. (NPR)
‘Social media platforms have (finally) clamped down on conspiracy theories. But this has simply moved them to ‘alt-tech’ platforms, where there’s no moderation and less critical analysis…’
‘It’s understandable that his critics on the Hill — who were hunkered down in the belly of the Capitol while Trump’s supporters raided their offices Wednesday — would be tempted to snatch the president’s keys to the “red button.”
But the House speaker does not have the authority to try to keep the nuclear codes from Trump. Like it or not, the president of the United States has sole authority to launch a nuclear weapon.
Pelosi knows this full well — and that’s the point.
The move was political, a way to gin up support for the new Democratic push to impeach Trump over his incitement of the violence that occurred at the US Capitol on Wednesday. (The Washington insider newsletter Punchbowl reported Friday that some Republicans would be “sure to support the move” to impeach.)
Pelosi is a savvy political operator, and painting Trump as not just unhinged but an imminent threat to global security is certainly a way to heighten pressure on members of Congress to support impeachment….’
‘Hidden amidst the physical cleanup and repairs necessary after a mob of rioters stormed and occupied the US Capitol are significant cybersecurity concerns. At Wired, Lily Hay Newman writes about the cybersecurity implications of the invasion, explaining some of the breaches that happened and discussing others that could have happened if foreign intelligence agents piggybacked on the takeover.
Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, wasn’t surprised, noting, “You have to step back and realize that foreign intelligence could have looked at this and said, ‘Yeah, this is going to be an opportunity.’” Other experts commented on the massive amount of work needed to assess the damage and remediate or monitor any potentially compromised accounts, devices, and networks.
We should all take to heart the words of Kelvin Coleman, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, who said, “Any time there’s a physical breach of a space, I automatically assume it was a digital compromise as well.”…’
‘Whether you’re a longtime astronomy enthusiast or someone embracing a newfound quarantine hobby, here are ten celestial events visible from North America to mark on the calendar….’
I share a belief in Gay’s central point. We do not stand a chance if we give credence to the outpouring of sentiment after the coup attempt that “This is not who we are.” Face it, The Capitol events show us clearly that this is exactly what America has become and we had better face it, or we are whistling in the dark while the monsters descend on us.
‘Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will be hosted digitally this year, except for The Isolated Cinema, which allows a single viewer to watch all 60 films alone at an abandoned lighthouse, empty theater, or deserted arena…’
I think four options are worthy of urgent and immediate consideration in dealing with the unfit lying tyrannical dangerous narcissist:
Reimpeachment and removal from office. If he has not committed high crimes and misdemeanors, there is no meaning to the words. trump’s actions lie at the very core of the offenses contemplated by the Constitution’s impeachment standard. There is so much procedural discretion allowed the two houses of Congress in pursuing their roles in the impeachment process that it could be done incredibly rapidly, many legal experts believe. And keep in mind that removal from office is not the only possible outcome of impeachment. It is possible, and will be necessary, to permanently disqualify him from office in the future.
As I have long advocated, utilizing the 25th amendment provision to remove trump from the presidency as unfit to serve. Finally, there is some serious consideration of this option. Vice President Pence would go down in the history books as a decent and honorable man who did much to save the republic if he would orchestrate this move, together with a majority of the Cabinet if there are enough of them left who have not resigned.
Immediate arrest on one or many of diverse criminal charges which in my mind could include sedition, domestic terrorism, inciting to riot, conspiracy, and accessory murder. Don’t think for a moment there aren’t a myriad of law enforcement officers impatient to get their hands on trump and take him into custody, especially after his actions led to the killing of Brian Sicknick, one of their own, in the Capitol siege. trump would be welcome to have his court jester Rudy Giuliani argue whether he had immunity from prosecution on these crimes… once he is behind bars. Oh, wait, Giuliani could very well be in custody as well.
Consideration of involuntary civil commitment to a psychiatric facility. I honestly don’t know why this is not being seriously considered. Tell me if you see anyone but me discussing this in the media, because I haven’t seen it. As a psychiatrist, although I am not familiar with the involuntary commitment regulations in the District of Columbia in particular, it seems clear that trump meets the criteria of presenting a risk of imminent harm to others by virtue of mental illness. I do not believe that any claim of Presidential immunity would extend to civil commitment.
The choice among the four options essentially comes down to whether this was an act of presidential disability (options 2 and 4) or one of presidential culpability (options 1 and 3). I personally have a hard time seeing his actions as those of a fully rational but morally culpable man, but then I have not evaluated him psychiatrically. [Here is an armchair psychoanalytic formulation of trump from Dave Pell at Nextdraft.] There are many arguments extant right now for each of the two poles. Of course, even if he is arrested and charged criminally, he might require a forensic psychiatric evaluation. Certainly, there is more furor in the mainstream press for responding to him as a criminal insurrectionist than as dangerously mentally ill:
However, I do not see that at all as based on clinical assessment as much as political feasibility and expediency. Why can’t we simply wait for Jan. 20th without taking any action? Both for the sake of the Constitution and because the madman still holds the nuclear launch codes and I for one do not trust that there are adequate safeguards in place against his further acting out.
Related: 50 Spot On Reactions People Had To The Events In The US Capitol. (Bored Panda)
(The World’s Largest Waterfall Is Underwater – Neatorama)
‘Meet the Denmark Strait cataract, the largest waterfall in the world. The gigantic waterfall is located between Greenland and Iceland, stretching over 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide and plunging 11,500 feet (3,505 meters) down from the Greenland Sea into the Irminger Sea…
The Denmark Strait cataract is formed by the difference in temperature between the ultra-cold Arctic waters of the Greenland Sea meeting those of the slightly warmer Irminger Sea. Since the molecules in the cold water are less active and take up less space than in warm water, they are packed together more tightly, making colder water denser. That means that when water from the Greenland Sea meets the Irminger Sea water, it slides right down through it to the bottom of the ocean….’
(The UK Denies Julian Assange’s Extradition, Citing Suicide Risk | WIRED)
‘The ruling is based not on whether the WikiLeaks founder violated the Espionage Act, but on the implications of subjecting him to the US carceral state….’
‘I am drawing up Articles of Impeachment. Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate. We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath…’
(Baby universes could have branched off the main universe after the Big Bang and may appear to us as black holes.)
‘Researchers recently used a huge telescope in Hawaii to study primordial black holes.
These black holes might have formed in the early days from baby universes and may be responsible for dark matter.
The study also raises the possibility that our own universe may look like a black hole to outside observers….’
Early in the pandemic, a Cleveland researcher examining the structure of the newly identified virus found it could potentially be blocked by melatonin, a physiological hormone that calibrates sleep and the immune response. Subsequent studies have shown that patients taking melatonin, which is available as an over the counter dietary supplement, have reduced rates of Covid infection and better survival. (Trump was given melatonin as well as other more experimental therapies at Walter Reed). Eight clinical trials of melatonin are currently ongoing, making it one of the most studied potential treatments. But is it melatonin per se or the improved sleep it facilitates, and In turn the effect that has on immune function, that improve Covid-19 outcome?
Initially clinicians saw rampant sleep disturbances and attributed them to pandemic anxiety. But long-term neurological sequela after infection, including sleep disturbance, are becoming apparent and appear out of proportion to patients’ level of preoccupation or worry. Post-Covid symptoms were assumed to be autoimmune reactions, similar to those known in the CNS after other viral infections. But autoimmune researchers feel the effects of Covid don’t exactly fit the bill, being more sporadic and widespread. As one put it, it is “haphazard inflammation — less a targeted attack than an indiscriminate brawl,” with symptoms resulting from a number of mechanisms, perhaps similar to myalgic encephalitis or “chronic fatigue syndrome,” which is poorly understood, widely misrepresented, poorly treatment-responsive, and stigmatized. Interestingly, many clinicians and theoreticians believe the sleep disturbance is central in myalgic encephalitis. Impairment of stages of deep (slow wave) sleep dysregulate metabolism and immune response. This reinforces the idea that melatonin treatment should be part of standard practice.
And, with some discipline, routines to regulate sleep are possible during the pandemic, unlike so many other uncontrollable factors in our current lives. Recommendations may sound prosaic but are profound, and include consistent sleep-wake times, even on weekends, scheduled walks, sunlight exposure early in the day, reduction in blue light exposure for at least the last hour before bed, and maintaining meaningful social connections with others. As Hamblin opines, “Sleep like your life depends on it.”
(The Mutated Coronavirus Is a Ticking Time Bomb – The Atlantic)
‘…[G]iven the stage in the pandemic we are at, a more transmissible variant is in some ways much more dangerous than a more severe variant. That’s because higher transmissibility subjects us to a more contagious virus spreading with exponential growth, whereas the risk from increased severity would have increased in a linear manner, affecting only those infected….’
— Zeynep Tufekci, associate professor (in information technology, not virology) at UNC, via The Atlantic
David Frum spins out the consequences in The Atlantic:
(Trump’s Georgia Call Crosses a Red Line – The Atlantic)
‘In a bombshell conversation with Georgia’s secretary of state yesterday, President Donald Trump made monkeys of every Republican official and every conservative talking head who professed to believe Trump’s allegations of voter fraud. The president himself made clear that he had only one end in view: overturning the 2020 election.
…[A] president desperate enough to try to steal an election on a recorded line is desperate enough to try a self-pardon. If a president can pardon himself as well as his or her subordinates, a president can order any crime, or commit it himself, with absolute impunity. The very notion of a self-pardon is radically inconsistent with democratic accountability. If Trump tries to pardon himself, his successors must fight his attempt all the way to the Supreme Court. And given the Raffensperger recording, who doubts that Trump will try it?…’
One of the keys to the puzzle appears to be ‘metal-poor disc stars’:
‘…[O]ver the past two years, researchers have rewritten nearly every major chapter of the galaxy’s history. What happened? They got better data.
On April 25, 2018, a European spacecraft by the name of Gaia released a staggering quantity of information about the sky. Critically, Gaia’s years-long data set described the detailed motions of roughly 1 billion stars. Previous surveys had mapped the movement of just thousands. The data brought a previously static swath of the galaxy to life. “Gaia started a new revolution,” said Federico Sestito, an astronomer at the Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory in France.
Astronomers raced to download the dynamic star map, and a flurry of discoveries followed. They found that parts of the disk, for example, appeared impossibly ancient. They also found evidence of epic collisions that shaped the Milky Way’s violent youth, as well as new signs that the galaxy continues to churn in an unexpected way.
The Gaia satellite has revolutionized our understanding of the Milky Way since its launch in December 2013. Taken together, these results have spun a new story about our galaxy’s turbulent past and its ever-evolving future. “Our picture of the Milky Way has changed so quickly,” said Michael Petersen, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh. “The theme is that the Milky Way is not a static object. Things are changing rapidly everywhere.”…’
‘Someone I follow on Twitter, Erika Chappell, recently encapsulated my feelings about The Simpsons in a tweet: “That a show which was originally about a dysfunctional mess of a family barely clinging to middle class life in the aftermath of the Reagan administration has now become aspirational is frankly the most on the nose [manifestation] of capitalist American decline I can think of.”
For many, a life of constant economic uncertainty—in which some of us are one emergency away from losing everything, no matter how much we work—is normal. Second jobs are no longer for extra cash; they are for survival. It wasn’t always this way. When The Simpsons first aired, few would have predicted that Americans would eventually find the family’s life out of reach. But for too many of us now, it is….’
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I agonized awhile ago over whether a coup was happening
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