One More Truck Stop

Missed exits 

Pop up billboards 

Of one more truck stop. 

 

The wheels that carry 

Souls across lifetimes. 

 

Banana bazooka 

Gunshot wounds 

After one more argument.

Fights are not supposed to be settled

On this side of the fence. 

Submission is peace. 

Hurl the red flag

The white and the green

Against the blue sky.

Fathom the bottom of seas

While you reach for

The stars.     

Coronavirus News (290)

Stephen Colbert Anxiously Reads the Latest Polls The “Late Show” host tossed some table salt and knocked on wood so as not to jinx Biden, who currently leads the president by 10 points in the polls. ..............  “According to most national polls, Joe Biden is leading President Trump by about 10 points. And based on the last election, that means Biden’s losing by four points.” — JIMMY FALLON ............... “Yep, for Democrats it still feels eerily similar to the 2016 election. It's like ‘Friday the 13th’ when the kids think Jason’s finally dead and you’re like, ‘He’s right behind you!’” — JIMMY FALLON ............  “Trump referred to Fauci and other scientists as ‘idiots’ — then he planned another giant indoor rally in a Covid hot spot.” — JIMMY FALLON “Trump then added, ‘Listening to scientists is the craziest thing in the whole wide flat world.’” — JIMMY FALLON ............  But I don’t know why Donald Trump still thinks he can ignore this virus and it will go away. I mean that strategy — it didn’t work with Don Jr. and Eric and it isn’t going to work here.” — JIMMY KIMMEL 

Trump Is Giving Up Against both the coronavirus and Joe Biden, the president’s strategy increasingly accepts defeat. ......... what we’re watching is an incumbent doing everything in his power to run up his own margin of defeat. ..........  The resulting incoherence just feeds his tendency to return to old grudges and very online grievances, as though he’s running for the presidency of talk radio or his own Twitter feed. Without Steve Bannon to keep him grounded or Clinton to keep him focused, he’s making a closing “argument” that’s indistinguishable from a sales pitch for a TV show or a newsletter — suggesting that even more than four years ago, the president assumes he’ll be in the media business as soon as the election returns come in.............. argues that we’re overtesting, overreacting and probably close to herd immunity anyway.  

Life (and Death) Without God The philosopher Todd May is an atheist who rejects the supernatural, but not the people who believe in it. .......... My particular atheism commits me to thinking that those who believe in the supernatural are mistaken. ......... I have been involved in grass-roots political movements for decades and some of the most courageous people I know act out of their religious conviction. ......... Atheism, in short, is a view — or a set of views — about the supernatural; it is not a view about people who believe in the supernatural. ......... The Soviet Union, for instance, persecuted Jews and other believers in the name of a doctrine that they at least saw as tied to atheism, and today the Chinese government is committing genocidal acts against the Uighurs for related reasons. ..........  I do volunteer teaching in a maximum-security prison, where faith among the incarcerated men often plays an important role in sustaining them psychologically.    

My party may have given up it’s voice on things that matter but I have not. This election is about the course of a nation and the character of her people reflected in the leader they choose. America matters. I’m voting for ⁦@JoeBiden⁩ https://t.co/0sEy7D0bOk

— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) October 20, 2020

Why Biden Will Need to Spend Big The economic case for deficit spending is overwhelming. ........ For now, and for at least the next few years, large-scale deficit spending isn’t just OK, it’s the only responsible thing to do. ...........  we won’t be able to have a full economic recovery as long as the pandemic is still raging. ......... another round of large-scale fiscal relief, especially aid to the unemployed and to cash-strapped state and local governments ........... will also help avoid a downward economic spiral, by heading off a potential collapse in consumer and local government spending. ..........  think of what smart businesses do when they face great investment opportunities and have access to cheap capital: they raise a lot of money. ............   there’s a global savings glut — the sums individuals want to save persistently exceed the sums businesses are willing to invest .......... this situation — private savings all dressed up with nowhere to go — translates into extremely low government borrowing costs  

 An Undercover Trip Into the Rageful Worlds of Incels and White Supremacists

Coronavirus News (289)

The winners of the pandemic

 

  

Fauci ‘absolutely not’ surprised Trump contracted coronavirus after ‘superspreader’ event

The pandemic is rewriting the rules of science. But at what cost?

As Washington scrambles for more bailout money, the Fed sits on mountain of untapped funds  Hundreds of billions of dollars from the Cares Act remains uncommitted and may go unspent despite scramble by White House to produce more aid ............... Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials say there are ways the money could be repurposed to more directly reach businesses and workers but say they cannot do so without congressional approval. ........... Republican lawmakers have expressed openness to pass legislation to immediately repurpose these funds, but Pelosi has rejected that approach in favor of a more comprehensive bill. .......... As financial relief remains idle, cities and states have begun exploring budget cuts to make up for revenue shortfalls, with Chicago and New York City contemplating dramatic cuts to their workforces. .........  One bank told Roth to take out a loan against her house — and then offered to pray for her. ........ Congress should take the untapped money “put to the Fed for a purpose the Fed could not reasonably achieve” and use it instead to fund another round of stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and infrastructure needs. .............. These programs are square pegs trying to fit a round hole. The Fed cannot design a program to get money into the classroom to build plexiglass to help kids go back into school.” 

Trump’s den of dissent: Inside the White House task force as coronavirus surges As summer faded into autumn and the novel coronavirus continued to ravage the nation unabated, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose commentary on Fox News led President Trump to recruit him to the White House, consolidated his power over the government’s pandemic response. ...........  Atlas also cultivated Trump’s affection with his public assertions that the pandemic is nearly over, despite death and infection counts showing otherwise, and his willingness to tell the public that a vaccine could be developed before the Nov. 3 election, despite clear indications of a slower timetable.  ....... Atlas, whom colleagues said they regard as ill-informed, manipulative and at times dishonest ..........  Birx, whose profile and influence has eroded considerably since Atlas’s arrival, told Pence’s office that she does not trust Atlas ..........  a U.S. response increasingly plagued by distrust, infighting and lethargy, just as experts predict coronavirus cases could surge this winter and deaths could reach 400,000 by year’s end. ......... The doctor’s denial conflicts with his previous public and private statements, including his recent endorsement of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which effectively promotes a herd immunity strategy. ........ On Saturday, Atlas wrote on Twitter that masks do not work, prompting the social media site to remove the tweet for violating its safety rules for spreading misinformation. Several medical and public health experts flagged the tweet as dangerous misinformation coming from a primary adviser to the president. ......... Trump and many of his advisers have come to believe that the key to a revived economy and a return to normality is a vaccine. “They’ve given up on everything else” ............ “It seems to me this is policy-based evidence-making rather than evidence-based policymaking” ...........   Fauci, Birx, Surgeon General Jerome Adams and other members have confided in others that they are dispirited. ........ Birx and Fauci have advocated dramatically increasing the nation’s testing capacity, especially as experts anticipate a devastating increase in cases this winter. ............. a consensus has formed within the administration that some measures to mitigate the spread of the virus may not be worth the trouble. ............. “This thing can take off. All you need to do is look at what’s happened at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the last two weeks to see that this thing is way faster than we’re giving it credit for.” .............. In a video taped at the White House on Oct. 5, he vowed, “The vaccines are coming momentarily.”  ......... Trump told supporters, “The vaccines are coming soon, the therapeutics and, frankly, the cure. All I know is I took something, whatever the hell it was. I felt good very quickly . . . I felt like Superman.” ........... Pfizer said it will not be able to seek an emergency use authorization from the FDA until the third week of November, at the earliest ............ Trump’s notion of a vaccine as a cure-all for the pandemic is similarly miraculous ......... “There’s no fairy-tale ending to this pandemic. We’re going to be dealing with it at least through 2021, and it’s likely to have implications for how we do everything from work to school, even with vaccines.” .......... “Remember, we have vaccines against the flu, and we still have flu.” .............  Earlier this fall, Trump called Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer, and asked whether a vaccine could be ready for distribution by late October, before the election. ............ Trump’s view of the FDA has darkened considerably in recent weeks. The president now believes — despite the absence of any such evidence — that officials there are working against him to slow-walk vaccine approval as “some sort of ‘deep state’ push to keep him from winning reelection” ...................  50 percent of Americans said they would be willing to take a coronavirus vaccine approved by the FDA “right now at no cost.” That is a sharp decline from 61 percent in August and 66 percent in July. .......... “This administration, like it does with everything, is overselling vaccines. They make it sound like a magic dust they’ll distribute over the country and the disease will go away . . . What could happen is people think, great, I just got my vaccine, I can throw away my mask, I can engage in high-risk activity, and then we’d actually take a step back.” ...............  Most controversially, Atlas has pushed a baseless theory inside the task force that the U.S. population is close to herd immunity ... despite a scientific consensus that the United States is nowhere close. ............  about 9 percent of people in the United States had antibodies against the virus. ....... “He’s not an infectious-disease expert,” Guthrie said. “Oh, I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Look, he’s an expert. He’s one of the experts of the world.” 

Coronavirus News (288)

Live in Dubai and work abroad

US may see 'substantial third wave'  More than 1,000 current and former CDC officials have signed an open letter saying "the absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous" and urging the CDC to take the lead during the crisis.  

Why to-do lists kill productivity  those with to-do lists bypass important or complicated tasks, instead focusing on those that are easier to complete. ....... people use their calendars to block out chunks of time for specific tasks, arguing that we perform better under time constraints. 

Throw out your shitty to-do list — here’s what to do instead deciding to keep a “done list,” ensuring that I write down every single task I completed and then crossing it or ticking it off. 

The key to being a better listener To start, we can pay active, silent attention to what others are saying. Next, we can repeat what we’ve heard in our own words, making sure we understand what's been said (even if we don't agree). And finally, we can ask open-ended questions that demonstrate that we are processing what we've heard. 

The economy may never be the same Primarily, the crisis will accelerate trends that were already growing: more saving, low interest rates, less globalization, e-commerce, remote work, along with online education and health care. There will also be more great power conflict, trade disputes and growing wealth disparities.   

Who will be the winners in a post-pandemic economy? COVID-19 will force a rebirth of many industries as we all sit at home in lockdown, re-assessing and re-imagining modes of consumption, supply, interaction and productivity. As president of a global technology firm, what intrigues me is where there will be paradigm shifts, as opposed to just existing trends either accelerating or decelerating. ........... Those businesses that have designed their solutions to use the full potential of cloud computing, will not buckle under the pressure. .............  Meanwhile, supply chains are having to reconfigure themselves in real time. .........  But in the longer term, change will have to be more fundamental. Resilience, combined with agility, must be the new focus of business leaders as we all emerge from this crisis. ........... To create long-term resilience we will likely see further robotic automation and artificial intelligence (AI) within our supply chains. These technologies reduce manual intervention and hand-offs, cutting transmission risks, and reducing the reliance on humans to work face-to-face. They can also enable production to scale and shrink in response to sudden demand. .............  Many countries’ fiscal stimuli amount to the largest scale experiment in Universal Basic Income (UBI) to date. UBI is considered by many to be a prerequisite for a successful AI-driven economy – by enabling businesses to potentially replace humans without impacting their welfare.  ......... We will always want to travel, to eat out, to be entertained, and to have experiences in person. Just don’t expect any of these activities to be unchanged. Or to be delivered by the same brands, and by the same means to which we’ve become accustomed............  We will emerge from this period stronger, wiser and more connected as a global society. Resilience will be at the forefront of every strategy, yet it is agility that will ensure competitiveness, and an ability to respond to the unexpected. To achieve this, businesses will have to re-evaluate where they must be strong and where they must be flexible. 

Top CEOs vow 'real change' on racism  The CEOs of more than 200 of the biggest U.S. companies are making major commitments to "advance racial equity and justice," acknowledging the effects of systemic racism following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans. ........... six fronts: employment, finance, education, health, housing and criminal justice. ........... events of 2020 have illustrated how far we still have to go to ensure that every person can fully realize opportunity and justice in America. ........  Informed by listening and learning sessions with more than 100 experts across the ideological spectrum, Business Roundtable details commitments and recommendations to address the economic opportunity gap including disparities in access to good jobs, financial tools and quality education and health care. 

Walmart CEO: Business Roundtable members have new plans to fight historic racial injustice The 208 members of the Business Roundtable have new proposals about what more we can do to move the weight of racism that presses on people of color. ...........  Behind the weight of the man was the weight of society — the weight of institutions and structures in which systemic inequity and injustice are engrained. ..........  As anybody who’s had to move something of significant weight knows, sheer force won’t do the job. The great achievements of ancient societies were built using levers and fulcrums. That’s how great weights were moved and used to build and create. ....... In the area of employment, we’re calling on companies to report annually on their progress to increase diversity in senior management and on their boards. We’re also launching an initiative to make sure that companies are open to hiring anyone who has the right skills, even if they don’t have a college degree.  

The winners of the pandemic

Coronavirus News (287)

The economy may never be the same 

Live in Dubai and work abroad

साहित्य, शोध र धारा

Election results 2020: World reacts to huge Labour, Jacinda Ardern victory 

Province 2
As US hones its Indo-Pacific strategy, South Asian nations come into focus High-level visit to Bangladesh seen as larger trend in US policy to engage smaller countries in region Washington’s strategy in the region is focused on strong India ties and countering China, but other nations see room for manoeuvring 

Chinese military beefs up coastal forces as it prepares for possible invasion of Taiwan Missile bases have been upgraded and equipped with the most advanced hypersonic missile the DF-17, according to one military source Build-up of forces comes as the PLA continues with a series of exercises designed to keep up the pressure on the island

Hong Kong cannot afford to say ‘I don’t mind’ to being overtaken by Shenzhen, President Xi’s ‘miracle’ city Carrie Lam’s indifference, even if diplomatic, to Shenzhen surpassing Hong Kong economically goes down badly in proud city Hong Kong failed to capitalise on competitive edge offered by ‘one country, two systems’, and may have to claw its way back with blood, sweat and tears ....... “We should build several Hong Kongs on the mainland,” the late Deng Xiaoping once said.

China’s military moves targeting Taiwan are more about intimidation than invasion, analysts say Strategy is seen as a tolerable one for Beijing while it focuses on bigger issues like overhauling its economy and managing competition with Washington ‘There is still no incentive for Beijing to provoke a war over Taiwan, since war would only make all of China’s problems far worse’ 

Coronavirus: living samples found on frozen food packaging in east China’s Qingdao, CDC says Port city has been the focus of an investigation by the CDC since the country’s first locally transmitted infections for 55 days were identified there last month Despite findings, academic says ‘we already knew it was a theoretical possibility that infection could spread through contaminated objects, and this study does not change that’ 

India fears Diwali celebrations will bring surge in coronavirus As festival season approaches, health experts fear India’s modest success of recent weeks is about to turn a corner Kerala’s response to Covid-19 had been praised by the UN as recently as June, but since the 10-day Onam festival it has become India’s worst-hit state

Coronavirus News (286)

Who Was ‘El Padrino,’ Godfather to Drug Cartel? Mexico’s Defense Chief, U.S. Says Drug enforcement agents had long tried to solve the mystery of “El Padrino,” a shadowy, powerful force. They’ve now identified him as Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s defense chief from 2012 to 2018. 

$421 Million in Debt: Trump Calls It ‘a Peanut,’ but Challenges Lie Ahead The president on Thursday played down big loans he guaranteed for his struggling businesses. But much of that debt is soon to come due in the midst of declining revenue and an I.R.S. audit that could cost him over $100 million. ......... nearly all the money he borrowed in the last decade came from only two institutions. .......... His main source of income in recent decades — a total of more than $427 million from entertainment and licensing deals that were fueled by his fame — has all but dried up. ............ Mr. Trump’s finances were under stress, with losses that allowed him to pay just $750 in federal income taxes for 2016 and 2017, and nothing at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. ......... Mr. Trump’s reputation among lenders was sealed over the decades that his Atlantic City casinos repeatedly filed for bankruptcy. ......... banks got “an expensive education” ......... “They lent on the aura of success,” he said. “And things went really wrong.” ......... Mr. Trump’s businesses reported cash on hand of $34.7 million in 2018, down 40 percent from five years earlier.   

THE FOREIGN POLICY THAT WASN’T  and the Department of Defense noted — again — that it does not respond to commands over Twitter. ............. To his supporters, his diplomatic incompetence must be a source of frustration — Why aren’t the troops home? Where’s the wall? Yet his critics take no solace in his vandalism of alliances built up at the cost of many lives and the expenditure of much hard-earned treasure over the course of many generations. ............  (before meeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Helsinki he reportedly asked aides whether Finland was part of Russia) ......... his disdain for diplomacy, intelligence and experience (“My primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff”) ........... Mr. Kim, arguably the nastiest despot on earth, made a striking metamorphosis from “little rocket man” to writer of “love letters” in Mr. Trump’s universe after two summit meetings that achieved nothing. 

WHY THEY LOVED HIM  The mess the nation faces is bigger than Donald Trump. If he is voted out in November, the people who cast ballots for him will remain, pining for the policies he promoted. About 40 percent of American voters want tariffs and a border wall. More than half say it’s important to deport more undocumented immigrants. ...........  Much ink has been spilled about whether Trump supporters voted for him out of economic anxiety or racial anxiety, with plenty of studies concluding the latter. But spend time at a dying factory and you might see how difficult it can be to disentangle the two. ..........  By the time I met Tim, he loathed the Clintons and the Democratic Party. Democrats had gotten in bed with the corporations, while no one was looking. Tim felt betrayed, and politically abandoned — until Mr. Trump came along. ..........  But even false hope is a form of hope, perhaps the most ubiquitous kind. .......... About 55 percent of voters who expected to support Mr. Trump during the 2016 primaries identified as working class ............   Fewer than a third who backed other Republican candidates identified as such. ..........  saw alarming increases in child poverty, single motherhood, deaths from alcohol and drugs and reliance on public assistance. ............  Free trade and globalization have undoubtedly made the country richer. But those riches have flowed disproportionately to the few with capital and education, while globalization’s downsides have piled on the shoulders of the most vulnerable Americans. .........................  The rebellion against free trade and globalization has largely taken the left by surprise. ........... They revere him for tearing up NAFTA (even if the new version looks an awful lot like the old one) and slapping tariffs on Chinese imports and Korean washing machines (even if his unpredictable trade war forced the deepest contraction in the manufacturing sector in a decade). .............   The Trump administration’s interim trade deal with China focuses far more on opening up the Chinese banking and insurance sectors than on creating blue-collar jobs. ................   He’s either incompetent or he’s a Trojan horse who used blue-collar workers to get into the White House, only to hand over the keys to the one percent. 

Coronavirus News (285)

Make Your First Home Your Last: The Case for Not Moving Up It’s a tough moment for big decisions. Think more about what you’ll want in three years — and not just three months, when we’ll still be shut in..............   With schools and businesses signaling that these conditions will extend at least through the spring ........... right now, with mortgage rates at record lows, it’s tempting to go as big as possible. ......... A more modest home can leave more money in the budget for travel, expensive hobbies, or a getaway abode by a lake or mountain. Living smaller also helps the environment. .......... over the past 20 years, the average increase for single-family homes priced at 125 percent or more of the median home price in their region is just 3.4 percent annually. For homes at the 75 to 100 percent level, the gain has been 4.3 percent. ......  A newer home — say, less than five years old — might require just 1 percent of the purchase price in annual expenses .......... But if your home is 25 years old or more, 4 percent is a better estimate ........... putting money into stocks over periods measured in decades should yield a better return. ........... More often, they have two rooms they rarely use. .......   An addition to your home might be possible — and cheaper than a move. .......... “The people who are generally the most happy are the ones who avoid the more, more, more and understand what is enough for them,” Mr. Wolniewicz said. “That takes courage, to stand firm on what your enough is, especially if it’s in contrast to what the world says you should want more of.”

Covid-19: Government identifying 30 crore who will get vaccine on priority  high-risk population and first responders — from healthcare workers to police, sanitation workers as well as the elderly and people with co-morbidities ......... around 50-70 lakh healthcare professionals, over two crore frontline workers, including police, municipal workers and armed forces, about 26 crore persons above 50 years of age and another set aged less than 50 but with co-morbidities.  

The World’s Largest Tropical Wetland Has Become an Inferno  This year, roughly a quarter of the vast Pantanal wetland in Brazil, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, has burned in wildfires worsened by climate change. ....... For centuries, ranchers have used fire to clear fields and new land. But this year, drought worsened by climate change turned the wetlands into a tinderbox and the fires raged out of control......... In places like California, small animals often take refuge underground during wildfires. But in the Pantanal, scientists say, fires burn underground too, fueled by dried-out wetland vegetation. .......... Now, biologists are braced for the next wave of deaths from starvation; first the herbivores, left without vegetation, and then the carnivores, left without the herbivores. ........ The ecosystem’s grasslands may recover quickly, followed by its shrublands and swamps over the next few years, said Wolfgang J. Junk, a scientist who specializes in the region. But the forests will require decades or centuries. ....... In less than 20 years, it found that the northern Pantanal may turn into a savanna or even an arid zone.   

How to Help Kids Open Up About Anything Tips for creating safe spaces and developing emotional intelligence in your children. ........... children feel more empowered “after their feelings have been validated.” ........... a “feelings check-in.” ......... Self-awareness, or knowing what you feel and how you feel it, is an important component of emotional intelligence ........... Showing children how to calm down, stay focused on a goal and remain optimistic despite setbacks is another aspect of emotional intelligence ......... When my daughter is frustrated and trying to explain herself, I make her take big breaths in and out before continuing. ...........   a safety circle. In this circle, we sit face to face to create a feeling of equalness. She is allowed to share anything with me without the fear of consequence — unless it is against one of our “limits,” which include stealing, hurting someone else, intentional lying, and not taking responsibility for her actions .................  even though she can express herself freely, she still has a responsibility to be a good person. .......... “If your child is crying, instead of assuming they are sad, ask descriptive questions around what they feel, how it happened, and why they feel as they do” ..“The child may discover that the emotion they feel is frustration instead of sadness. ” ..............   Once, she told me I spent too much time on my phone when we were supposed to be watching a movie together. Now, I limit checking my phone when we watch movies — even if we are on our 18th viewing of Frozen ..............  When situations may be too challenging for children to verbalize what they are experiencing, consider talking to your child in writing. My daughter and I keep a journal where we share our day-to-day thoughts. It allows her to express freely without interruption and helps her to read my thoughts as well. ..........  It is never too late to start opening new communication channels with your child 

Coronavirus News (284)

The First Amendment in the age of disinformation.  This month, Trump retweeted a response to a Republican member of Congress, Mark Green, who suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could stage a coup. .............  The United States is in the middle of a catastrophic public-health crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus. But it is also in the midst of an information crisis caused by the spread of viral disinformation, defined as falsehoods aimed at achieving a political goal. (“Misinformation” refers more generally to falsehoods.) .............  The conspiracy theories, the lies, the distortions, the overwhelming amount of information, the anger encoded in it — these all serve to create chaos and confusion and make people, even nonpartisans, exhausted, skeptical and cynical about politics. The spewing of falsehoods isn’t meant to win any battle of ideas. Its goal is to prevent the actual battle from being fought, by causing us to simply give up. .......... effective disinformation campaigns are often an “elite-driven, mass-media led process” in which “social media played only a secondary and supportive role.” ...........   Though Fox News is far smaller than Facebook, the social media platform has helped Fox attain the highest weekly reach, offline and online combined, of any single news source in the United States .......... the mass distortion of truth and overwhelming waves of speech from extremists that smear and distract. ........   the separate problem of “troll armies” — a flood of commenters, often propelled by bots — that “aim to discredit or to destroy the reputation of disfavored speakers and to discourage them from speaking again” .............   the “use of speech as a tool to suppress speech is, by its nature, something very challenging for the First Amendment to deal with.” ........   Other democracies, in Europe and elsewhere, have taken a different approach. Despite more regulations on speech, these countries remain democratic; in fact, they have created better conditions for their citizenry to sort what’s true from what’s not and to make informed decisions about what they want their societies to be. Here in the United States, meanwhile, we’re drowning in lies.  .......  Mill and Meiklejohn stand for the proposition that unfettered debate — Holmes’s “free trade in ideas,” or the “marketplace of ideas,” coined by Justice William O. Douglas in 1953 — furthers the bedrock values of the pursuit of truth, individual autonomy and democratic self-governance. ............ the use of propaganda to “make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism.” ............ good ideas do not necessarily triumph in the marketplace of ideas. “Free speech threatens democracy as much as it also provides for its flourishing” ........ “Once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment over the last hundred years has mainly become a weapon of the powerful” ...........  Instead of “radicals, artists and activists, socialists and pacifists, the excluded and the dispossessed,” she wrote, the First Amendment now serves “authoritarians, racists and misogynists, Nazis and Klansmen, pornographers and corporations buying elections.” .......... Justice Elena Kagan warned that the court’s conservative majority was “weaponizing the First Amendment” in the service of corporate interests, in a dissent to a ruling against labor unions. .......   The purpose of free speech is to further democratic participation. “The crucial function of protecting speech is to give persons the sense that the government is theirs, which we might call democratic legitimation” .......... the conservative media did not counter lies and distortions, but rather recycled them from one outlet to the next, on TV and radio and through like-minded websites. .............  In the eyes of many conservatives, news outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN do not fill that role when they challenge a story that Trump and Fox News promote. ........... Content that prompts hot emotion tends to succeed at generating clicks and shares, and that’s what the platforms’ algorithms tend to promote. Lies go viral more quickly than true statements .........   some fact-checking methods significantly reduce the prevalence of false beliefs ........ a misleading message in a microtargeted ad “remains hidden from challenge by the other campaign or the media” ........... In Europe, there is historically an understanding that democracy needs to protect itself from anti-democratic ideas. ..........   there is no equivalent of Fox News or Breitbart in France. ....... In March, the World Health Organization appealed for help with what it called an “infodemic.” ........... Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple have monopoly power in their markets like that of the “oil barons and railroad tycoons” of the early 20th century. ...........   The ideal subject of fascist ideology was the person “for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e. the reality of experience),” Arendt wrote, “and the distinction between true and false (i.e. the standards of thought) no longer exist.”

The Intricacies of Colombia’s War, Stitched Together in a Novel  They can be interventionists or mercenaries, they can be idealists or cynics, but they fight, administer or narrate these wars with little command over one crucial fact: Violence poisons everything. 

Trump’s Overhaul of Immigration Is Worse Than You Think This administration has attacked every aspect of the immigration system — and it won’t be easy to undo. ........... how meticulously the Trump administration has pursued the destruction of immigration in America ......... Through administrative orders, strict enforcement and mere threat, the White House has attacked virtually every aspect of immigration, legal and illegal. ......... This transformation of the American immigration system has been perhaps the administration’s boldest accomplishment ......... Between 2016 and 2019, annual net immigration into the United States fell by almost half, to about 600,000 people per year — a level not seen since the 1980s — ............   To scare people from bringing their families over the border, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time, said, “We need to take away children.” ............ In Barack Obama’s last year as president, the ceiling for refugee admissions was 110,000. For the current fiscal year, it’s 15,000. .......... “Are you having a good time with your refugees?” he said with smirk to a roaring crowd in Minnesota recently. .......... The administration had threatened to furlough 70 percent of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, blaming the pandemic, but some of those employees said the real problem was restrictive policies and delays in visa applications that have sharply reduced revenue from the processing fees that fund the agency. ...........  Mr. Trump also has ended “temporary protected status” for 400,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Sudan and elsewhere who have legally lived and worked in the United States for decades after being provided a haven from war or natural disaster. ...........   rejecting, by law and action, the Trump administration’s racism, cruelty and xenophobia would reaffirm that America is a nation of immigrants who help revitalize the country — an ideal that most Americans support. 

Editor’s Note: The Editorial Board’s Verdict on Trump’s Presidency And an urgent call to action. ......... Kids who are too young to remember anyone else have now learned that racism, xenophobia and bullying tweets are hallmarks of presidential behavior. They don’t remember a Republican Party that wasn’t an obsequious cult of personality or presidential debates that weren’t confusing shouting matches. They think it’s normal for every other word out of a president’s mouth to be bravado, innuendo or, too often, a lie. .............  they live in a country where representative democracy is under assault from algorithmic gerrymandering, institutionalized voter suppression and foreign and domestic disinformation campaigns. .........   his record of racism and corruption to his utter administrative incompetence. ...... In the midst of an economic calamity unmatched in generations, a pandemic of global scope and a nation more divided than in modern memory, the stakes couldn’t be greater.

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U.S. tops 60,000 daily coronavirus infections for first time since early August New study shows Republican-leaning counties hardest hit in recent weeks. ..........  The virus is spreading in rural communities in the heartland ......... “Stay home. Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart. Wash your hands frequently.” .........  The widespread use of powerful steroids and other treatments has lowered mortality rates among people who are severely ill. .............  the dry indoor environment is congenial to the spread of respiratory viruses. ......... “Inevitably, we’re moving into a phase where there’s going to need to be restrictions again” ......... The virus isn’t going away magically, and everyone needs to prepare for a challenging winter. ........  the tendency for people to lower their guard around individuals they know best ......... Much of the new transmission is taking place in rural communities in the heart of the nation with limited hospital capacity. They also tend to have older populations more vulnerable to severe outcomes from covid-19. ........ “red” counties with the most intense leanings toward Republicans have had the largest recent increases in cases, while “blue” counties that lean Democratic have tended recently to be flat. ........ the Republican-leaning communities have been less inclined to follow public health guidance, including recommendations about mask-wearing and social distancing  ........ Many of the country’s leading medical experts, including top federal government doctors, have urged adherence to public health guidelines, but that message has competed with the pronouncements of President Trump and his closest political allies, who have played down the threat of the coronavirus. ..........   the White House strategy for fighting the pandemic is bolstered by the Great Barrington Declaration, a document posted online by three “dissenting scientists” that argues the virus should be allowed to spread at natural rates among younger, healthier people while older people and others who are vulnerable are kept isolated. .......... “It’s eventually going to spread everywhere in the U.S. … This virus is opportunistic. 

Pelosi, Mnuchin cite progress in economic relief talks but eye obstacles with Senate Republicans During a nearly 90-minute call, the two negotiators said they continued to exchange proposals on stimulus, virus testing ...........  Pelosi and Mnuchin have been discussing a new spending deal between $1.8 trillion and $2.2 trillion, although President Trump has said he would support even more. ......... McConnell next week plans to put a roughly $500 billion package on the Senate floor, close to a quarter the size of the package Mnuchin and Pelosi are working on. .............   “I’ve told him. So far, he hasn’t come home with the bacon," the president said of Mnuchin. ........... “The Republicans are very willing to do it,” Trump said, insisting that Pelosi is standing in the way and “she’s got a lot of mental problems.” ............ Trump’s uneven posturing appears to have only strengthened Pelosi’s determination to hold out for a bigger and better deal, despite pressure from a number of House Democrats to reach an agreement now. ........... Mnuchin and Pelosi have agreed on several measures to include in a new stimulus plan, including a desire to send another round of $1,200 stimulus checks, more small- business aid and help for the airline industry. They also have sought to extend emergency unemployment insurance, although there have been differences on how to structure such assistance. ..............   Defending his call for higher spending, Trump repeatedly asserted without evidence or explanation that China would pay for the nearly $2 trillion stimulus package. “I’d like to see more money — because it comes back,” he said on Fox Business Network. “We’re going to take it from China. I’ll tell you right now: It’s coming out of China.” .............  The president has repeatedly made false claims about foreign nations paying for domestic spending projects, for instance claiming that Mexico would fund construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border. .............  Asked how he would get China to pay for the stimulus package, Trump asserted: “Well, there’s lots of ways. Okay? There’s a lot of ways. And I’ll figure all of them out. I already have them figured out.” 

A pandemic should be the great equalizer. This one had the opposite effect. The virus is ushering in the greatest rise in economic inequality in decades, both globally and in the United States. .......... Thanks to the rise of China, India and other countries, the share of people living in abject poverty (under $2 a day) is less than a quarter of what it was in 1990. ........... about 100 million people are falling back into extreme poverty this year. ......... The World Food Program — recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize — estimates that the number facing hunger will double this year to 265 million people. ..........  38 percent of those who have lost work due to covid-19 don’t have even a month’s worth of savings. ........... In the current recession, the top 25 percent, after a slight initial decline, has bounced back completely. The bottom 25 percent, on the other hand, has cratered, with job losses of more than 20 percent. .......... For those whose jobs can be done remotely — bankers, consultants, lawyers, executives, academics — life goes on with a few hiccups. For those who worked in restaurants, hotels, cruise ships, theme parks, shopping malls, work has simply disappeared. .............  The tragedy is that we know what we need to do. In March, Congress and the administration acted swiftly and boldly to pass a massive relief and stimulus package, which was so successful it seems to have made many in Washington complacent. It has now largely expired, and the two parties are back to their partisan warfare. The Democrats are right to want a much larger relief package than the administration is offering. Cities and states should not be punished for the collapse in tax revenue that have resulted from the pandemic. But surely the best path for the country is for Democrats to accept the concessions they have extracted from Republicans and then push for more after Election Day. .............  I cannot help but wonder whether the relative normalcy of life for elites has prevented us from understanding the true severity of the problem. For those of us using Zoom, things have been a bit disruptive and strange. But for tens of millions of people in the United States — and hundreds of millions around the world — this is the Great Depression. Can we please help them?

The First Amendment in the age of disinformation.

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Jimmy Kimmel Slams NBC for Giving Trump His Town Hall Seeing the president on the network that hosted “The Apprentice” was “like taking a time machine back to 2004, when he was just a blowhard reality TV host,” Kimmel said.

Inside the Fall of the CDC How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus. ...........  a superspreader event in which 52 of the 61 singers at a 2½-hour choir practice developed COVID-19. Two died. .......... When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which federal doctors withheld medicine from poor Black men with syphilis, then tracked their descent into blindness, insanity and death. ............  A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of public health has, with breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn and even pity. .......... How could an agency that eradicated smallpox globally and wiped out polio in the United States have fallen so far? ....... the escalating tensions, paranoia and pained discussions that unfolded behind the walls of CDC’s Atlanta headquarters ......... battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost. ...........  A shifting and mysterious cast of political aides and private contractors — what one scientist described as young protégés of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wearing blue suits with red ties and beards” — crowded into important meetings about key policy decisions. ......... Veteran CDC specialists with global reputations were marginalized, silenced or reassigned — often for simply doing what had always been their job. Some of the agency’s most revered scientists vanished from public view after speaking candidly about the virus. .............  Theirs was the model other nations copied. Their leaders were the public faces Americans turned to for the unvarnished truth. They’d served happily under Democrats and Republicans. ......... Now, 10 months into the crisis, many fear the CDC has lost the most important currency of public health: trust, the confidence in experts that persuades people to wear masks for the public good, to refrain from close-packed gatherings, to take a vaccine. .......  what can happen when people lose confidence in the government and denial and falsehoods spread faster than disease. He called it the “bankruptcy of trust.” .......  Emails and calls bounced among the agency’s leaders .........   In the fierce chaos of Trump’s Washington, the CDC needed a streetfighter. Instead, it got “the nicest grandfather you can imagine” .......... the American public health system, which has been quietly gutted since the Great Recession. ......... years of federal and state cuts had left about 26,000 fewer employees at state, county and municipal health agencies since 2009 ........ In the secure, high-tech room where the CDC brain trust met, the mood turned dark as the scientists began to fear they were confronting a pandemic. .......... The lab official tried to contact a chief virologist at the China CDC who was usually helpful, but got no response. Neither did colleagues who reached out to Chinese scientists with whom they had collaborated for years. The Americans concluded that the regime in Beijing was telling them to keep quiet. .......... China was a hard target. Even U.S. spy agencies struggled to gather intelligence on the evolution of the disease. ..........  “What the fuck are we paying for people to be in China if they can’t go where there’s an outbreak when there’s an outbreak” ............  His coverage of the SARS pandemic had helped shape his view of China as what he called “an expansionist totalitarian empire.” .......... The CDC, which had been the public face of the government during every health crisis in memory, soon became nearly invisible. After a few more briefings, a Pence aide told the agency’s media staff that this was the president’s stage, not theirs. ......... A friend of one CDC scientist ribbed him: “We keep waiting for the CDC to show up on a milk carton as a missing child.” ...............  Trump countermanded science in a flurry of inaccuracies and dangerous advice, saying the virus would soon go away, theorizing about injecting disinfectant as a treatment, and dismissing recommendations about wearing a mask. ..........  In contrast, South Korean officials gave near instantaneous approval to commercial labs, and they quickly began testing 10,000 people a day. ........... “There’s a four-foot gap at the top of the shower curtain that you bought from Home Depot — and you’re calling this a quarantine area?” ........ Trump flew to Atlanta for an impromptu tour of the CDC laboratories. Wearing a red “KEEP AMERICA GREAT” cap, Trump briefly praised the CDC’s tests as “perfect” and talked about the record high ratings for his recent appearance on Fox News. Asked by a reporter about cruise ships, the president said he preferred that the Grand Princess passengers remain on board because their arrival — even at a federal quarantine site — would cause a spike in U.S. case numbers. “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship,” Trump told reporters. .............. At the same time as they were watering down Cetron’s criticism of the cruise industry, the White House and DHS were pushing him to invoke quarantine powers to stop a problem that barely existed: the spread of coronavirus by migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. ............... border officials tested unaccompanied children seeking asylum — and expelled them even if their results were negative. ........ By April, the numbers were brutal. There were 608,000 cases of COVID nationwide. More than 26,000 people had died, about 10,000 of them in New York City, where the per capita death rate had surpassed Italy’s. ................ the agency had a “culture where petty rivalries between egos tend to subordinate the public good.” ........... the tough new policy would “convert a problem of incomplete data to a problem of invalid data.” ......... the 1918 flu pandemic that had infected a third of the world’s population, killing more than 50 million people ................ Obama was clear: All decisions had to be made quickly and grounded in the best available science. .......... “You know, Rahm,” Besser recalled him saying. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be writing scientific guidance.” Cursing, Emanuel crumpled the paper in his fist, threw it aside and began eating his lunch. At a crucial moment, science prevailed. ......... One CDC official recalls seeing the July 8 tweet and sighing in defeat. “Come on, man, this is your team! You don’t have to tweet it like that! You can just pick up the phone and call Redfield!” ........... Everyone nitpicked the CDC’s subsequent proposals, records show — even Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who suggested granting paid sick leave to teachers and administrators at high risk for COVID-19 complications. ............. In a section that described the higher proportion of cases among Hispanic children, the White House counsel’s office wanted the CDC to add a reference to one of the president’s favorite bugaboos, the Mexican border. ..........   The HHS unit was even critical of the suggestion that schools might need to close in areas where the virus was raging uncontrolled. ......... One of their prime tormentors was Michael Caputo, a political fixer handpicked by Trump himself to oversee communications at HHS. A proud protégé of convicted dirty trickster Roger Stone, Caputo had served as an adviser for Russian politicians, worked for Trump’s campaign and promoted conspiracy theories. Soon after arriving at HHS in April, Caputo began riding herd over CDC communications seen as conflicting with Trump’s political message. ................. She attracted the administration’s ire with her blunt assessments in media interviews. 

 

Robert Lighthizer Blew Up 60 Years of Trade Policy. Nobody Knows What Happens Next. Trump’s trade representative joined the administration with one mission: Bring factory jobs back from overseas. The results so far? Endless trade wars, alienated allies, and a manufacturing recession. ............  He’s ruptured international relationships, maintained tariffs on $350 billion worth of imports, and constructed a series of piecemeal and delicate agreements with trading partners that are as good as the next president’s dedication to enforcing them. .................... The gap between American imports and exports of goods is as big as it’s ever been, while manufacturing output and job growth flatlined in 2019. To the extent that manufacturers have pulled out of China, they’ve shifted to countries like Vietnam and Mexico, rather than set up factories in the U.S. And Lighthizer has failed to achieve his most ambitious goals, as a tempestuous president’s abrupt twists and turns sabotaged the patient, insistent approach on which his trade representative had built his reputation. ..............  Trump’s tactics have undermined his goal of reviving America’s industrial might. ............ we still see a trade deficit today that’s bigger than when Trump took office, and ongoing outsourcing of jobs, despite good efforts to try and turn around a mess.” ............  Ultimately, import quotas on Japanese steel and cars didn’t save the Rust Belt — Japanese automakers simply set up shop in the union-free American South, while robots thinned the ranks of workers needed on factory floors. ...........  Moving plants to cheaper locales all over the world was rapidly becoming the default setting for American companies, and plenty of attorneys were making good money helping them do it. ............  “The fact that the Appellate Body had ruled against the U.S. repeatedly was the primary reason Lighthizer was determined to bring down the WTO” ..............  Decades later, Donald Trump blamed NAFTA for a host of ills — from the rise of automation to the decline of unions — and it helped him win traditionally Democratic states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. ........... To be fair, conventional wisdom had begun to shift under President Barack Obama, as it became increasingly clear even to free-trade advocates that U.S. efforts to prevent China from flouting international rules and norms weren’t working. .................  Obama spent much of his second term negotiating a trade pact with 12 other Pacific Rim countries, with the idea of creating a U.S.-centered economic bloc to counter China’s influence, and tried to sell it to Congress. The Trans Pacific Partnership marked a rare point of agreement with Republican leadership, but an alliance of labor-oriented progressives and tea party conservatives opposed it. ................  Many staffers harbored hopes that Trump would put his own stamp on the TPP agreement and move ahead with it. Instead, Trump pulled out of the deal on the first business day of his administration, stunning USTR officials who had devoted years to hammering out its intricately balanced details. “It was like someone died,” said one former staff member, describing the mood at headquarters on that rainy January Monday. ...............   To Trump, relationships with other countries usually come down to who’s “winning.” In trade, that usually refers to the trade deficit — that is, America’s exports to a country minus its imports. Like his boss, Lighthizer focused on the goods deficit, since the U.S. imports far more stuff than it exports, which he sees as a problem. That leaves out services, including everything from the many billions in financial expertise the U.S. provides, to tourists and foreign students who attend college here. On that front, the U.S. actually sells more to the rest of the world than it buys. ...............   Trump often gave no notice of his tariff pronouncements, blindsiding careful USTR employees. “When you’re getting calls from the private sector asking what’s going on, and you have to somewhat jokingly say, ‘I haven’t checked Twitter,’ That can be a challenge,” said one former staffer. ........... Over time, staff gained respect for Lighthizer’s management of his single most important constituent: the president. While USTR’s profile heightened, Lighthizer largely avoided the limelight, knowing that upstaging his boss could hasten his exit. He also coped with Trump’s more extreme trade impulses, like hiking tariffs without warning and threatening to end various alliances and agreements. ..............  The world’s second-biggest economy had become a market system that was fundamentally different from the capitalist model upon which most international trade laws and norms are predicated. ......... the Chinese executed an about-face around the time of the great financial crisis, when capitalist systems neared collapse. Returning to a managed economy, they subsidized exports, required outside companies to enter joint ventures with Chinese ones, and encouraged widespread piracy of intellectual property. ...............  In the TPP, the Obama administration negotiated a trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations that would theoretically be so attractive to China, it would meet the pact’s requirements for fair competition so that it could join. .......... The Trump administration’s thinking: Assembling a coalition of nations to pressure China would never have worked. ........... Farmers, an important Trump political constituency, were compensated for the lost Chinese market with tens of billions of dollars in subsidies — more than the auto companies received during the last recession — and no obligation to repay them. But manufacturers, faced with higher prices for imported parts, got nothing. That helped drive the sector into a recession ...............  “The strategy of talking to these people had been tried across two administrations and basically led to nothing.” ............. by Lighthizer’s own metrics, the U.S. isn’t winning the trade war. The trade deficit with China has barely budged, and it’s widened with other countries like Vietnam as American companies responded to tariffs by moving operations elsewhere in the region. .................  Although they’re not usually cast as such, tariffs aren’t so much a weapon against other countries as they are a signal to domestic business: Lighthizer was telling American companies that investing overseas wouldn’t be the obvious choice it had been in the past. ............   “The business community’s concern is that an effort to reset tariffs risks ending up with higher tariffs everywhere”  

U.S. tops 60,000 daily coronavirus infections for first time since early August New study shows Republican-leaning counties hardest hit in recent weeks. 

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Hear people out (literally)  people felt more connected to others after a phone call than those who chatted via email. 

Research: Type Less, Talk More adding video to an “old-fashioned” phone call may not further increase our sense of connection to another person  ........  Being able to see another person, in short, did not make people feel any more connected than if they simply talked with them. A sense of connection does not seem to come from being able see another person but rather from hearing another person’s voice. .......... a person’s voice is really the signal that creates understanding and connection. ..........  Text-based interactions are sometimes simpler and more efficient and enable recipients to respond at their leisure.  If you’re sending a simple message, a quick update, or an attachment, then emails and texts are the way to go. ......... take a little more time to talk to others than you might be inclined to. You—and those you talk to—are likely to feel better as a result. 

The economy may never be the same 

A Combative Trump and a Deliberate Biden Spar From Afar at Town Halls With less than three weeks left in the campaign, there was no sign that either candidate was diverging from the political tracks they laid down months ago. ...........  President Trump spoke positively about an extremist conspiracy-theory group, expressed skepticism about mask-wearing, rebuked his own F.B.I. director and attacked the legitimacy of the 2020 election in a televised town hall forum on Thursday, veering far away from a focused campaign appeal. Instead, he further stoked the country’s political rifts as his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., pushed a deliberate message anchored in concerns over public health and promises to restore political norms. ........... On the central issue of the election, the coronavirus pandemic, the two candidates appeared to inhabit not just different television sets but different universes. .........  Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon, a pro-Trump internet community that has been described by law enforcement as a potential domestic terrorism threat ...........  Trump improvising freely, admitting no fault in his own record and hurling various forms of provocation. .......... and briefly appeared to promise Ms. Guthrie that he would “let you know who I owe” money to ......... and at one point he delivered a kind of miniature filibuster by listing various properties he owns .......... “On the masks, you have two stories,” Mr. Trump said, claiming falsely that most people who wear masks contract the virus. ........  When Ms. Guthrie pointed out that the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, had said there was no sign of such widespread voter misconduct, the president shot back, “Then he’s not doing a very good job.” ...... The president has continued to predict that the virus will soon disappear, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. 

‘Long Covid’ Could Be A Cyclical Disease That Moves Around Body Systems, Report Finds  The review found people to be suffering from a wide-range of symptoms, including those affecting mental health and fatigue, the brain, breathing, the cardiovascular system, the skin and the liver. The researchers say there may be four different syndromes that could be responsible for the symptoms: post-intensive-care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, long-term Covid symptoms and damage to the lungs and heart. Testimony from patients show ongoing Covid-19 to be a “cyclical disease,” with symptoms moving around the body and fluctuating in severity over time. An emphasis on acute Covid-19 symptoms, particularly respiratory issues, has led to difficulties in patients receiving treatment or recognition for “long Covid”, the researchers say. ................  for some people, Covid-19 infection is a long term illness 

McConnell Won’t Support $1.8 Trillion White House Stimulus Bill—Even If Pelosi And Trump Make A Deal