Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Let's Hear It For Some Anti-Party Unity

"Well-played, Bernie," simpers Michelle Cottle of the New York Times today as she ever so "gently and gratefully" shoves Sanders into the memory hole that she and her cohort were so feverishly digging for him and for America for the better part of the last year.

Joe Biden is so great and such a savior that even the coronavirus couldn't keep legions of his fans away from the latest batch of Democratic primaries. 


Yes - Michelle Cottle really does come right out and gush that tens or hundreds of thousands of voters unnecessarily exposing themselves to infection is so well worth it so long as it achieves "party unity" and the removal of Donald Trump from office this November.

Cottle further insinuates that the pandemic will only get worse the longer that Sanders "reassesses" his campaign. His supporters must socially distance themselves, pronto, before he kills her. And then Joe Biden will give all of us an avuncular hug... or grope... or if we're really lucky, a long lingering hair-sniff.

 This primary began with a sprawling, at times overwhelming, field of candidates. Campaigns rose and fell and rose again as Democrats agonized over which contender had the best shot at defeating President Trump — their absolute top priority. Once actual voting began, the race quickly boiled down to two clear and competing visions: one of electrifying revolution and one of reassuring restoration.As is often the case in presidential politics, things could have broken a different way based on a thousand different factors. (Just ask Hillary Clinton about that.) But whatever hope Mr. Sanders had of wooing more people into his camp effectively died with the arrival of an apolitical black swan in the form of a pandemic.
When Biden won South Carolina and Barack Obama put his discreet thumb on the magical scales to effect a veritable party convention of centrists to nominate Uncle Joe, the pandemic was still only a blip on the media radar. Those were still the days when Russia was the only existential threat, newly encapsulated by Democratic propagandists in the person of Bernie Sanders. 

That the pandemic has had little to nothing to do with Bernie's defeat is beside the point when it becomes a talking point.

But in order to cover their own asses, all that Michelle Cottle and all the folks at the Times, the Post, and MSDNC have to do is pivot from red-baiting to disease-baiting Bernie Sanders. At the same time, they pretend that Biden's wins actually mean something.


Cottle cynically and cloyingly absolves the media of all blame for Bernie's losses , ridiculously claiming that he can't go on TV as much to make his case because the pandemic is interfering with all the positive coverage he allegedly would have gotten after their coverage of Amy Klobuchar's fifth place victory over Bernie's first place showing in Nevada. Or was it New Hampshire?


The thundering hooves of the mainstream media's horserace coverage are like the pitter-patter of tiny raindrops compared to the pandemic. The election has faded in importance in the space of a nanosecond, but still they persist in obsessively fact-checking Donald Trump, as though his lies were more deadly than the lethal virus.

Who cares about Biden or any of them when the lack of toilet paper is second only to the daily overriding fear of the premature deaths of ourselves and our loved ones?

The corporate media, even as they boast of reporting from the quarantined confines of their luxury basement bunkers, certainly seem to care. They have been too well-programmed with the official petty narratives to abandon them just because of a pesky old plague.

"On Tuesday night, the cable news shows kept interrupting their analyses of the primary results for virus updates," Michelle Cottle disingenuously marvels in her own alleged analysis of the death of Bernie's "brand."

My published response to her clueless condescension:

And well-played, New York Times, for the relentless campaign of red-baiting and fear-mongering and marketing of the sexist "Bernie Bro" trope that helped to give us Joe Biden.
Bernie or no Bernie, the revolution from neoliberal predatory capitalism to social democracy is already underway, courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic. Shrill cries from centrists of "but how you gonna pay for that?" are already turning into distant memories.
  The cry for "party unity" is also sounding more grotesque by the minute, given that what we really need is human unity on a scale not seen since who knows when. Biden's latest victories are pyrrhic ones, especially in light of the Democrats refusing to cancel Tuesday's primaries and willfully herding vulnerable older people in large crowds into polling places. Since Biden's victory was all but guaranteed anyway by superdelegates regardless of the once-feared Sanders plurality, the continuing marketing of illusory participatory democracy is both stupid and cruel 
History, if we do have a history, will remember Bernie as a kind man who stuck to his principles and simultaneously and tragically lacked the necessary cutthroat political skills to call out Biden's right-wing career until it was far too late. That is my main beef with Bernie. He put comity over taking the gloves off on behalf of his millions of supporters.
  Lesson learned. Revolution never comes from within a presidential campaign or from elected officials.
On that note, the enforced isolation of the pandemic has not had the desired or expected effect of people crying on their couches as they hope against hope for Biden Party Unity as the panacea against both disease and against Trump.

New York's Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, to which I have belonged for the past year, just succeeded in enforcing a statewide moratorium on evictions. That's not good enough, though, so we are now clamoring for a moratorium on all mortgage, rent and utility payments for the duration of the catastrophe. Looming rent strikes and other boycotts of capitalism are what's scaring both sorry sides of our political duopoly into issuing stimulus checks for every American. It's not because they love us. They're perfectly OK if we die, but they're also desperate to win elections and hold on to power.

They will soon get the message that their one or two thousand bucks aren't going to cut it.

I see us going the way of Britain, for hundreds of years one of the most class-based and imperialistic countries on the planet, answering  its physical, emotional and economic post-World War II trauma with the National Health Service.

The unicorns and puppies once so derided by neoliberal naysayers and corporate shills are already dancing in the detritus of this horrific viral pandemic. Medicare For All is coming for those of us lucky enough to survive the last gasp of neoliberlal capitalism.

19 comments:

puzzled said...

Fuck yeah!

All of it, every word, Karen!

I love what you accomplished with the Upstate/Downstate Alliance on eviction moratoriums. And even more thrilled you’re pursuing the next step of a moratorium on all rent, utilities and mortgage.

Send the bill to Bloomberg, Gates, Zuckerberg and to the Sackler famiglia.

They can kick Bernie out, but we’re not quitting. You put it perfectly with “Revolution never comes from within a presidential campaign.”

Hard to watch as some GOP’ers outflanked Pelosi from the left on scraps to us plebes.

Whatever Sanders decides, he took the old schoolbus that Occupy put together, and got it up and running long enough to connect a lot of people over common causes, especially out here in California, where we toil in the shadow cast by the tech titans. I think for a lot of us, that connection stripped away some of our fear of the billionaire class which hijacked our government and empowered us to demand something better at the local level.

Something is happening here to quote the old Dylan song, but none of us know what it is. Whatever it is, something has definitely shifted.

chuck said...

Ms. Garcia,

I gotta give you props for continuing to absorb that miserable rag. The only thing I can tolerate in the NYT any longer is the crossword puzzle. And that even when downhill after Eugene Maleska died. (That might show you how old I might be.)

I'll probably get smacked around for this, but as someone in possession of a y-chromosome, I wish you had preceded "Bernie Bro tropes" with "misandrist" instead of "sexist." But that's just me. Maybe.

Mark Thomason said...

Cottle also dares to suggest that Banker Biden now can pretend to be just like Bernie Sanders, in order to win over Bernie voters.

Then of course she fully expects him to laugh at Bernie supporters and do exactly what she wants, the very opposite of Bernie -- what she gladly calls by "normalcy."

She uses that word without any apparent awareness that it was the rallying cry of Republicans from Warren Harding until Hoover, producing both the Great Depression and the utter failure to deal with that.

Jay–Ottawa said...


Breaking News:

In a long email to her contributors this morning, Tulsi Gabbard announced the suspension of her campaign. But in the denouement of her feisty campaign, she swears an oath of fealty to –– wait for it –– good-ol' JoeBy, while giving a limp salute to Bernie, among others, on her way out.

I know Vice President Biden and his wife and am grateful to have called his son Beau, who also served in the National Guard, a friend. Although I may not agree with the Vice President on every issue, I know that he has a good heart and is motivated by his love for our country and the American people. I'm confident that he will lead our country guided by the spirit of aloha — respect and compassion — and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart.
...
I want to extend my best wishes to my friends Senator Bernie Sanders, his wife Jane, Nina Turner and their many supporters for the work they’ve done. I have a great appreciation for Senator Sanders’ love for our country and the American people and his sincere desire to improve the lives of all Americans.

WHAT !!! I am flabbergasted. Shouldn't the brave and noble warrior Tulsi have thrown her support to Bernie in his hour of need? What this tells me is that she never was what she portrayed herself to be. She was in this campaign for name recognition only, with an eye to some future campaign. Above every other consideration, take note, she dare not blow her bridges to the Democratic Party, no matter how corrupt and inept its leadership.

Fooled again, my loose change down a rat hole. Aloha to you too, Tulsi; enjoy your stay back in the fold.

Erik Roth said...


“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee —
that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
~ George W. Bush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

“It’s Inadequate”: Rep. Ro Khanna Says White House Stimulus Plan Helps Big Business, Not Workers —
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/18/ro_khanna_coronavirus_stimulus
March 18, 2020
Amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus at polling places, many Americans stayed home. Nearly one in five households have already experienced a layoff or a reduction in work due to the pandemic. Trump wants to inject more than $1 trillion into the economy and send a $1,000 check to everyone. This comes as the Senate is set to consider a multibillion-dollar package bill passed by the Democrat-led House Monday night that includes significantly weakened paid sick leave measures. We get response from California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who has also co-sponsored a bill for an emergency Earned Income Tax Credit that would give up to $6,000 to everyone who made less than $130,000 last year. His Bay Area district has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and about 7 million residents there have been told to stay home for all but the most crucial outings until April 7.

A Coronavirus Bailout Will Save Corporations, Not Workers —
https://therealnews.com/stories/coronavirus-bailout-corporations-workers-unemployment
March 18, 2020
What happened to the cash from the last bailout?
Industries spent it all on stock buybacks and are now looking for billions more in relief from the impact of coronavirus.

“Coronavirus Capitalism”: Naomi Klein’s Case for Transformative Change Amid Coronavirus Pandemic —
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/19/naomi_klein_coronavirus_capitalism
March 19, 2020
Author, activist and journalist Naomi Klein says the coronavirus crisis, like earlier ones, could be a catalyst to shower aid on the wealthiest interests in society, including those most responsible for our current vulnerabilities, while offering next to nothing to most workers and small businesses. In 2007, Klein wrote “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Now she argues President Trump’s plan is a pandemic shock doctrine. In a new video for The Intercept, where she is a senior correspondent, Klein argues it’s vital for people to fight for the kind of transformative change that can not only curb the worst effects of the current crisis but also set society on a more just path.

Joseph Stiglitz: Trump’s “Trickle-Down” Economic Plans Are Not Enough to Meet Coronavirus Challenge —
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/19/us_economy_coronavirus_stimulus_joseph_stiglitz
March 19, 2020
The coronavirus relief package signed by President Trump Wednesday provides unemployment benefits and free coronavirus testing to millions of Americans suddenly out of a job, but guarantees paid sick leave to less than 20% of American workers. Earlier this month, Trump signed into law an $8 billion coronavirus response package and has laid out the first details of a third, $1 trillion economic package and invoked the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to allow the government to direct industrial production. For more on those bailouts and who benefits, we speak with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Columbia University professor and chief economist for the Roosevelt Institute. He served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton and as chief economist of the World Bank. His latest book is “People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent.”

Annie said...

@Jay

Sure looks like Tulsi is angling for a spot with the Biden administration. Maybe VP?

Let's not forget that good old Bernie never stuck up for Tulsi nor for most others he could have defended when they were publicly wronged.

Bernie never did publicly acknowledge or thank Tulsi for quitting the corrupt DNC to endorse him when they were clearly rigging for Hillary. Nor did he join with Martin O'Malley and Jim Webb when they wanted more debates or better times or something to make it more fair. Bernie stayed silent.

He didn't defend Tulsi when Hillary accused her, an active-duty military officer, of working for Putin. While he didn't throw her under the bus as he did to Zephyr Teachout, he might as well have. He let repeated attacks go on against Nina Turner before he finally stuck up for her on one occasion but in the context of defending against charges that his supporters were the only ones who were toxic.

I've never heard him call anyone his good friend who was on his side. Would it hurt to have called Teachout, Gabbard, or Turner his good friend while defending them? Maybe he only considers men to be friends.

When people accuse Bernie of being 'My way or the highway', I used to think they meant in terms of policy and didn't see anything wrong with that. But now I think they meant personally. Perhaps he's something of a control freak - he wants the highway all to himself, assumes he knows the way and won't ask for directions. He just drives around or over others on the way to his destination. Ralph Nader would probably agree with that assessment. He's been futilely reaching out to Bernie for years and Bernie won't even wave at him.

So who can blame Tulsi for trying to hitch a ride with the old guy who's driving a bus called Malarkey that makes frequent rest stops? At least the driver asks others questions, like "Who am I? Where am I? Where are we going?" which means there's a good chance of getting a seat and taking a ride if not taking the wheel.

puzzled said...

The Richard Burr story is just excruciating.

The chance to slow the rate of infection being INTENTIONALLY denied for love of power and opportunity to cash in.

But the news that the Senate Intel Committee had the information THREE WEEKS ago (information that likely trickled down to Feinstein’s office and thus to Newsom) actually explains some recent events in California:

Specifically, Newsom’s announcement that 286 state properties would be permitted for unhoused individuals, which came just a few weeks prior to the shelter in place instruction.

One of these properties is the cloverleaf at the University exit (freeway cloverleafs make up a large portion of the 286 sites), which has been used as an encampment for years, with frequent “sweeps” against the unhoused people trying to eke out an existence against the roar of the freeway.

We know these individuals, they are decent young people, who often testifiy at local council and neighborhood meetings. For all their troubles, they maintain a surprisingly good attitude and great humor.

After years of requests, lawsiits and protests, 286 sites coincidentally were magically offered - just weeks before the order to shelter in place?

Our governor had to know what was coming, but it appears he delayed necessary measures to shelter in place order until very late in the game.

Just really hard to try to imagine what Gov. Newsom was thinking, if anything.

We are projected to have a 56% infection rate in California in eight weeks.

Can’t imagine how terrified farm workers, crowded eight to a room in the Central Valley, must be.

puzzled said...

It’s a good question about Tulsi.

What’s interesting is that, for all the criticism of Liz Warren, Warren hasn’t (yet) stooped to the level of endorsing Biden. Tulsi has, and that speaks volumes, given Biden’s record.

And there’s probably an argument to be made that Tulsi, on record, leaned Centrist Dem for most of her history, despite the more recent fiery rhetoric and the sparring with HRC.

Which might explain why she remained more popular with an older group of white voters, but never had broad support from young voters, black voters, latino voters, asian voters, or even her own age cohort.

That’s a long list of voters who didn’t quite trust her record. There was a lot to like about Gabbard’s criticism of US foreign policy. But it rang hollow for many, as if the actions didn’t match the words.

I’ve been disappointed with Liz Warren frequently, less so with Sanders. But seeing everyone from Yang to Harris to even Gabbard get on the Biden bus makes me appreciate what Sanders (and Warren) have been up against this whole time. Imperfect people, perhaps, as we all are, and yet truer to their words than all those who cravenly endorsed Biden.

Jay–Ottawa said...

@Annie

This year I've been amenable to accepting Bernie as a lesser evil I might vote for, crossing my fingers with one hand and pinching my nose with the other. Anything (up to a point) to rid us of Trump.

I believe I'm long on record here as emphatically writing Sanders off as a sheepdog. The fascist or the sheepdog: that's the best I might hope for in 2020's presidential election.

I agree with you that back in 2016 it was so revealing that Sanders never returned Nader's calls. Bernie's throwing Teachout under the bus early in the 2020 campaign was also revealing. Bernie punches down, it occurs to me. When have we seen him punch up?

I did not take note as Bernie stood aside whenever Tulsi got pushed around or ignored. She has good reason, I now realize, not to endorse him. The wise and just thing, however, would have been for her to drop out endorsing nobody. Instead, she smothered Biden's ring with kisses and put out a statement so sickening it must have been drafted by Tom Perez himself. Sad.

Yes, she's angling for an administration appointment, but I doubt the DNC would ever put her on the ticked as Biden's VP, even now that she trills a new song in the old choir. She's probably dreaming of an assistant secretary job in the VA or Pentagon. She loves her uniform.

I doubt Sanders' delegate count will leapfrog Biden's during the East Coast primaries on 28 April, assuming the virus doesn't cancel those primaries. Short of a miracle, the Sanders campaign will be toast by 29 April. Unity at last! Progressives, even those who wear clothespins 24/7/365, will have nothing to vote for.

By November the virus may still be threatening us all coast to coast. Voting sites will dangerous. Between now and then few states will provide absentee ballots for all or voting by internet. Trump might as well declare himself Emergency President until a proper election can take place by around, say, November 2024.

puzzled said...

Just a quick fact-check:

It’s untrue that Sanders failed to defend Gabbard against HRC’s invective. He did so, and he did so memorably.

But it’s important to bear in mind some of Gabbard’s anti-democratic policies against native Hawaiians, and her peculiar insistence on, and activism for, the sanctity of same-sex marriage.

Both of these would warrant many not to defend her more vociferously, and Sanders was probably wise not to go further.

Because Gabbard’s actions against native Hawaiians were in an area that is close to my heart, I would like to write about it in greater detail, as I think it demonstrates a larger, common inequality faced by other minority groups.

I have some chores this morning but will send that later today. I hope it is information you will consider.

puzzled said...

Tulsi Gabbard, Hilton Hotels, the ACLU, and Occupy: How a Conservative Democrat and a Major Hotel Chain Conspired Against Native Hawaiians:

Maybe the first thing to understand about Tulsi’s combative policy against native Hawaiians and other minorities, is that the majority of unhoused individuals in Hawaii are, starkly put, native Hawaiians.

In fact, contrary to how the issue of US “homelessness” as a whole has been portrayed in the media (largely as white, mentally ill drug addicts), the majority of unhoused families in the US as a whole are not white. Rather, they are working class black families. “Minorities” make up the disproportionate number of the unhoused in the US due to racial discrimination energized through an extreme and unregulated private real estate market, full stop.

Three important books that help to explain this phenomenon are Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor’s “Race for Profit”, Aaron Glantz’s “Homewreckers” and Rothstein’s “The Color of Law.” (I would also add Kahrl’s “The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South”.)

In Hawaii, waves of post-1970s privatization eroded the multi-racial middle class that ILA/ILWU leader Harry Bridges had struggled to build. Bridges was, in many ways, emblematic of a multi-racial west coast solidarity, from his implementation of a radical and hard-won black-white solidarity during and after the phenomenally successful 1934 Great Strike, to his own groundbreaking, racially mixed marriage to an activist survivor of the Japanese internment camps, Noriko Sawada, which resulted in a landmark lawsuit.

But back to Hawaii: the end result of the privatization and the weakening of the unions was the multinational hotel industry faced with the “pesky” reality of unhoused individuals outside its Hawaiian hotels. Despite the beatdown from police and hotel security, these inconvenient natives simply refused to go away - and why should they have? IT WAS THEIR LAND, FOR GOD’S SAKE ALREADY.

Enter Honolulu City Council Member Tulsi Gabbard to the Hotel Chains’ defense. She immediately addressed the struggle of desperately poor unhoused native Hawaiians by... pushing through legislation that allowed the police to literally seize the property of these individuals.

Their diabetes medication? Their remaining family photos? Their food? Their necessary state government paperwork?

All seized, and the loss of all those items plunging them into further need and desperation.

And this sort of grift is exactly the type of grift that made Nancy Pelosi praise Gabbard as a “rising star in the Democratic Party.” It was centrist Dems who first promoted Gabbard because Gabbard was a grifter just like them.

You know who went up against Gabbard’s anti-homeless legislation? The ACLU of Hawai’i. And Occupy Honolulu. And they got beat. Gabbard won because she had the hotels’ money on her side and because no one gave a shit about native people.

The letter from the ACLU is a stunner, and I recommend you read it IN FULL.

https://acluhawaii.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/aclu_bill-54.pdf

There is a follow-up on this story here on the West Coast. I might write that when I finish screaming.

Look, I get the Pocahontas derision of Liz Warren. But no one ever saw a dispossessed senior native hawaiian woman, suffering from T2 diabetes and rationing her insulin, and decided, like Gabbard did, that the right move was to take a running kick at the old woman’s feeble (and probably now febrile) back.

Sanders had no reason to defend Gabbard more than he did, and, here do I modestly suggest: neither do you good people.

puzzled said...

As promised, my take on:

Tulsi Gabbard, Hilton Hotels, the ACLU, and Occupy: How a Conservative Democrat and a Major Hotel Chain Conspired Against Native Hawaiians:

Maybe the first thing to understand about Tulsi’s combative policy against native Hawaiians and other minorities, is that the majority of unhoused individuals in Hawaii are, starkly put, native Hawaiians.

In fact, contrary to how the issue of US “homelessness” as a whole has been portrayed in the media (largely as white, mentally ill drug addicts), the majority of unhoused families in the US as a whole are not white. Rather, they are working class black families. “Minorities” make up the disproportionate number of the unhoused in the US due to racial discrimination energized through an extreme and unregulated private real estate market, full stop.

Three important books that help to explain this phenomenon are Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor’s “Race for Profit”, Aaron Glantz’s “Homewreckers” and Rothstein’s “The Color of Law.” (I would also add Kahrl’s “The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South”.)

In Hawaii, waves of post-1970s privatization eroded the multi-racial middle class that ILA/ILWU leader Harry Bridges had struggled to build. Bridges was, in many ways, emblematic of a multi-racial west coast solidarity, from his implementation of a radical and hard-won black-white solidarity during and after the phenomenally successful 1934 Great Strike, to his own groundbreaking, racially mixed marriage to an activist survivor of the Japanese internment camps, Noriko Sawada, which resulted in a landmark lawsuit.

But back to Hawaii: the end result of the privatization and the weakening of the unions was the multinational hotel industry faced with the “pesky” reality of unhoused individuals outside its Hawaiian hotels. Despite the beatdown from police and hotel security, these inconvenient natives simply refused to go away - and why should they have? IT WAS THEIR LAND, FOR GOD’S SAKE ALREADY.

Enter Honolulu City Council Member Tulsi Gabbard to the Hotel Chains’ defense. She immediately addressed the struggle of desperately poor unhoused native Hawaiians by... pushing through legislation that allowed the police to literally seize the property of these individuals.

Their diabetes medication? Their remaining family photos? Their food? Their necessary state government paperwork?

All seized, and the loss of all those items plunging them into further need and desperation.

And this sort of grift is exactly the type of grift that made Nancy Pelosi praise Gabbard as a “rising star in the Democratic Party.” It was centrist Dems who first promoted Gabbard because Gabbard was a grifter just like them.

You know who went up against Gabbard’s anti-homeless legislation? The ACLU of Hawai’i. And Occupy Honolulu. And they got beat. Gabbard won because she had the hotels’ money on her side and because no one gave a shit about native people.

The letter from the ACLU is a stunner, and I recommend you read it IN FULL.

https://acluhawaii.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/aclu_bill-54.pdf

There is a follow-up on this story here on the West Coast. I might write that when I finish screaming.

Look, I get the Pocahontas derision of Liz Warren. But no one ever saw a dispossessed senior native hawaiian woman trying to survive unobtrusively on the street, suffering from T2 diabetes and rationing her insulin, and decided, like Gabbard did, that the right move was to take a running kick at the old woman’s feeble (and probably now febrile) back.

Sanders had no reason to defend Gabbard more than he did, and, here do I modestly suggest: neither do you good people.

puzzled said...

(sincere apologies for double post, cell phone service out here is spotty, wasn’t sure first went thru)

Jay–Ottawa said...


@ puzzle,

Thanks for that backgrounder on Tulsi Gabbard.

BTW, double post double post.

Will said...

Quick FYI: The UK's Dr. John Campbell posts incredibly informative COVID-19 videos every day on his YouTube channel. Yesterday's scared the daylights out of me. See for yourselves: https://youtu.be/He0TYPm3Prg

The Joker said...

@puzzled:

Thanks very much for the info you provided about Tulsi Gabbard. It's a reminder of the strong tendency for many politicians to look good when the view is only cursory or from a distance; examine them and their policies close-up and all sorts of serious flaws become visible, sometimes the "meat" of their supposed "principles" is actually putrid, and overrun with maggots.

Jay–Ottawa said...


@Will

Good link for the whole family, and I understand Dr Campbell updates daily. As the doctor makes plain, we will flatten the curves on those graphs through strict quarantines and other radical life-style changes for at least the next year. This won't be over by July 4. A year is the earliest we can hope for a properly-tested vaccine, one that neutralizes the virus without opening a back door to unintended side effects.

Another site that has put out a series of mostly good posts and commentary on Covid-19, along with various countries' responses is MoA (blog roll). At first Bernard, the host, cautioned against exaggeration and panic. It wasn't long, however, before 'b' and most of his commenters adopted a different tone more in line with the worried and exasperated Dr Campbell.

Italy's experience is turning out to be much worse than China's. In the US the misleadership seems intent on copying Italy's mistakes, only on a larger scale.

For a brief history of the past month in northern Italy, the LRB just posted an essay from a professional writer on the scene. The LRB has a paywall, but it comes into effect after the first article. Erase your cookies and get the feel of the disaster still unfolding around Milan.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n06/thomas-jones/quaresima

The overpopulation lobby has long been telling the well off we were too many for this little world. More recently, the global warming Cassandras with their prophecies of extinction kept telling us the rich nations had to stop, preferably yesterday, with our level of consumption and movement fuelled by carbon. Along comes Covirus-19 to the rescue with the power to solve both those problems in a matter of weeks. Deus ex machina? Be careful what you wish for.

The Joker said...

@Jay-Ottawa

"Overpopulation [...] Global warming [...] Along comes Covirus-19 to the rescue with the power to solve both those problems in a matter of weeks." -- Jay

But with supply chains disrupted, we might yet run out of our usual foodstuffs. If one gets worried about running out of food, perhaps head for a screening of "The Hunt", for relevant tips?

Based on what I know about parasites and infectious disease, though, I recommend that all animal flesh consumed be very well-cooked -- and same-species flesh doubly-so! Also avoid consuming neural tissue.

And finally, perhaps seek out a copy of the cookbook from that classic Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man"!:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)

Annie said...

Karen

Here's a suggestion for your blogroll:

The Nib - 'Political satire, journalism, and non-fiction on what is going down in the world, all in comics form, the best medium.'

https://thenib.com/