In The News (16)

Detailed Turnout Data Shows How Georgia Turned Blue By Nate Cohn, Matthew Conlen and Charlie SmartNov. 17, 2020 Democrats have long dreamed of turning Georgia blue, with young voters and nonwhite voters leading a progressive charge. Now, a blue Georgia is a reality, but with a winning coalition that might have stunned the party not that long ago. ......... Republican candidates won more votes than Democrats in the state’s two Senate contests, even as President Trump was defeated at the top of the ticket. ............ the relatively low Black share of the electorate could mean that Democrats have the potential for a better showing, perhaps even in the two Senate runoffs in January. ............. Over all, Mr. Biden ran well ahead of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 showing in well-educated, wealthy and increasingly diverse precincts around Atlanta, while making relatively few gains elsewhere in the state.  

Groupthink Has Left the Left Blind A constricted view of the world leaves progressives surprised by the world as it is.   ....... Trump once again stunned much of the liberal establishment by dramatically beating polling expectations to come within about 80,000 votes of another Electoral College victory. .......... The old liberal left paid attention to complexity, ambiguity, the gray areas. A sense of complexity induced a measure of doubt, including self-doubt. The new left typically seeks to reduce things to elements such as race, class and gender, in ways that erase ambiguity and doubt. The new left is a factory of certitudes. ......... Trump won a majority of the vote of white women against both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. ......... He also improved his vote share over 2016 with both Latino and Black voters, while losing most of the advantage he previously had with college-educated white males — precisely the demographic his policies had supposedly done most to favor. ............. “Trump did a much better job at understanding Hispanics. Sometimes, Democrats see Hispanics as monolithic.” Latino voters in his South Texas district were particularly turned off by progressive rhetoric about defunding the police, opposition to fossil fuels and decriminalizing border crossings. .......... People are rarely reducible to a single animating political consideration. Nor should they be subject to a simple moral judgment. Motives are complicated ..................  the unemployment rate reached record lows before the pandemic hit   

American health care workers issue a call to arms for wearing masks as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the United States, breaking records nearly every day for deaths — and cases — in state after state. ........... the frustration felt by some of the nation’s health care workers over the refusal of so many Americans to wear masks ..........  It’s a call to arms. “We put our lives on the line daily to keep you safe. So, do something for us. Wear. A. Mask,” the caption reads.  

Hospitals Know What’s Coming “We are on an absolutely catastrophic path,” said a COVID-19 doctor at America’s best-prepared hospital. ........... One unit solely provides “comfort care” to COVID-19 patients who are certain to die. “We’ve never had to do anything like this,” Angela Hewlett, the infectious-disease specialist who directs the hospital’s COVID-19 team, told me. “We are on an absolutely catastrophic path.” ..............  “We’re watching a system breaking in front of us and we’re helpless to stop it,” says Kelly Cawcutt, an infectious-disease and critical-care physician. ............ “I don’t see how we avoid becoming overwhelmed,” says Dan Johnson, a critical-care doctor. People need to know that “the assumption we will always have a hospital bed for them is a false one.” ............. What makes this “nightmare” worse, he adds, “is that it was preventable.” The coronavirus is not unstoppable, as some have suggested and as New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, and Hong Kong have resoundingly disproved—twice. Instead, the Trump administration never mounted a serious effort to stop it. Whether through gross incompetence or deliberate strategy, the president and his advisers left the virus to run amok, allowed Americans to get sick, and punted the consequences to the health-care system. And they did so repeatedly, even after the ordeal of the spring, after the playbook for controlling the virus became clear, and despite months of warnings about a fall surge. .............   UNMC’s preparations didn’t fail so much as the U.S. created a situation in which hospitals could not possibly succeed. “We can prepare over and over for a wave of patients,” says Cawcutt, “but we can’t prepare for a tsunami.” ...........  with the third national surge, “all the trends have gone out the window,” Sarah Swistak, a staff nurse, told me. “From the 90-year-old with every comorbidity listed to the 30-year-old who is the picture of perfect health, they’re all requiring oxygen because they’re so short of breath.” ................  UNMC is struggling not because of any one super-spreading event, but because of the cumulative toll of millions of bad decisions. ..........  When the hospital first faced the pandemic in the spring, “I was buoyed by the realization that everyone in America was doing their part to slow down the spread,”  Johnson says. “Now I know friends of mine are going about their normal lives, having parties and dinners, and playing sports indoors. It’s very difficult to do this work when we know so many people are not doing their part.” The drive home from the packed hospital takes him past rows of packed restaurants, sporting venues, and parking lots. ................ the Midwest has taken entirely the wrong lesson from the Northeast’s ordeal. Instead of learning that the pandemic is controllable, and that physical distancing works, people instead internalized “a mistaken belief that every curve that goes up must come down,” he said. “What they don’t realize is that if we don’t change anything about how we’re conducting ourselves, the curve can go up and up.” ............... some of the people who get infected over Thanksgiving will struggle to enter packed hospitals by the middle of December, and be in the ground by Christmas. .................  Patients with strokes and other urgent traumas aren’t getting the normal level of attention, because the pandemic is so all-consuming. ........... “many of us feel like we haven’t had a day off since this thing began” ........ people with COVID-19 are far sicker than the average patient. In an ICU, they need twice as much attention for three times the usual stay. To care for them, UNMC’s nurses and respiratory therapists are now doing mandatory overtime ............... “I used to be able to leave work at work, but with the pandemic, it follows me everywhere I go,” she said. “It’s all I see when I come home, when I look at my kids.” ............. Long and other nurses have told many families that they can’t see their dying loved ones, and then sat with those patients so they didn’t have to die alone. Lindsay Ivener, a staff nurse, told me that COVID-19 had recently killed an elderly woman whom she was caring for, the woman’s husband, and one of her grandchildren. A second grandchild had just been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. “It just tore this whole family apart in a month,” Ivener said. “I couldn’t even cry. I didn’t have the energy.”  

In The News (15)

China GDP: Xi Jinping says ‘completely possible’ to double size of economy by 2035, despite foreign hostility China can become a high-income country by 2025 and double size of economy by 2035, President Xi Jinping says Xi also says the country can rely on its domestic market for growth as the world grows less friendly .........  double the size of its economy, as well as per capita income, by 2035

Barack Obama: ‘I could not have a trade war’ with China due to global financial crisis Former US president Barack Obama explains that he was ‘hamstrung’ on dealing with China’s trade policies by global economic meltdown Obama says he ‘had to make sure we did not start a trade war that tipped the world into a depression’, on the back of the global financial crisis of 2008-09 ...... China’s role in the global economic recovery from the crisis, caused in large part by defaults on subprime mortgages in the United States, “hamstrung” his ability to tackle China’s “mercantilist policies that violated international trade rules”, Obama said in remarks made to the The Atlantic, which expanded on similar themes in his new book, A Promised Land.

Abandoning its loose approach to virus controls, Sweden clamps down. “Don’t go to the gym, don’t go the library, don’t have dinner out, don’t have parties — cancel!” .......... While Sweden’s number of Covid-19 deaths still pales in comparison to those of some European countries like Italy or Spain, it is more than 10 times higher than in Finland or Norway. Over the past five days, Sweden has recorded more than 15,000 new infections and Mr. Lofven warned that “it will get worse.”  

The Coronavirus Is Airborne Indoors. Why Are We Still Scrubbing Surfaces? Scientists who initially warned about contaminated surfaces now say that the virus spreads primarily through inhaled droplets, and that there is little to no evidence that deep cleaning mitigates the threat indoors. .......... All over the world, workers are soaping, wiping and fumigating surfaces with an urgent sense of purpose: to fight the coronavirus. But scientists increasingly say that there is little to no evidence that contaminated surfaces can spread the virus. In crowded indoor spaces like airports, they say, the virus that is exhaled by infected people and that lingers in the air is a much greater threat. ............  Hand washing with soap and water for 20 seconds — or sanitizer in the absence of soap — is still encouraged to stop the virus’s spread. ......... Viruses are emitted through activities that spray respiratory droplets — talking, breathing, yelling, coughing, singing and sneezing. .......  the virus could stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhaled — particularly in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation. .......... the coronavirus could spread by air in any indoor setting ........ indoor aerosol transmission could lead to outbreaks in poorly ventilated indoor places like restaurants, nightclubs, offices and places of worship. .......... transmission of infectious respiratory droplets was the “principal mode” .........  coronavirus droplets could spread through air vents in offices  

McDonald’s Is Making a Plant-Based Burger; You Can Try It in 2021 One of those options is plant-based foods, and not just salads and veggie burgers, but “meat” made from plants. Burger King was one of the first big fast-food chains to jump on the plant-based meat bandwagon, introducing its Impossible Whopper in restaurants across the country last year after a successful pilot program. Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) uses plant-based patties in its Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwiches. ......... McDonald’s announced last week that it will debut a sandwich called the McPlant in key US markets next year. Unlike Dunkin’ and Burger King, who both worked with Impossible Foods to make their plant-based products, McDonald’s worked with Los Angeles-based Beyond Meat, which makes chicken, beef, and pork-like products from plants.  ......... customizing the items displayed on the drive-thru menu based on the weather and the time of day, and recommending additional items based on what a customer asks for first (i.e. “You know what would go great with that coffee? Some pancakes!”). ......  Drive-throughs, shouting your order into a fuzzy speaker with a confused teen on the other end, and burgers made from beef? So 2019.

China Macro Economy 

In The News (14)

Karl Rove to helm massive GOP fundraising drive for Georgia runoffs Rove is serving as national finance chair for a joint fundraising effort between the NRSC and Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. ......... Haley is also seen as a likely 2024 presidential contender. ....... the fund, which was formed by NRSC chair Todd Young, took in nearly a quarter of its overall goal since it was launched last week. 

I Was a Military COVID Planner. The Vaccine Rollout Is Going to Be a Nightmare. WHAT CAVALRY? Our long winter with COVID could turn into a slog through the spring and summer, even with an effective vaccine. ........... The incoming administration will inherit one of the most daunting challenges any president has ever faced: planning and executing a national mass-vaccination campaign in the middle of a global pandemic. ........... With cases spiking to over 10 million, the virus is everywhere, and spreading deeply into every corner of the country. ............. in 2019, Texas budgeted $17.7 million for infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and epidemiology—and over $400 million for border security. So even when a vaccine is delivered, it will be going to a state that is understaffed and underfunded. .............  The Pfizer vaccine, now the leading contender, will require ultra-cold storage of at least -94 degrees Fahrenheit and two rounds of shots. Another leading vaccine candidate from Moderna also requires cold storage, albeit not to the same extent, according to the company. Typically, hospitals and large clinics have this capability. Small towns lacking even the most basic health clinics do not. .............. An uncoordinated federal roll out of vaccines requiring ultra-cold storage could leave state and local governments competing for resources much like they were competing for PPE earlier in the pandemic. .......... it just isn’t realistic to think the military can replicate the hard work of state and local health-care planners. ....... Instead of a military miracle, it will take nearly flawless coordination between local, state, and the federal government to execute the plan. Our long winter with COVID could turn into a slog through the spring and summer even with an effective vaccine. ...........  One can also hold out hope that a successful vaccination campaign can begin to restore America’s tattered faith in its public institutions. Either way, the people in isolated, underserved communities from rural Texas to hallowed-out manufacturing cities to the overwhelmed Dakotas deserve our best shot.

Fauci says Biden transition is key to quick distribution of Covid vaccine  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the "incompetent" Trump administration has not "thought through" the vaccination distribution process. ........  by the end of December, there will be doses of vaccines available for people in the high-risk category from both Pfizer and Moderna ..... "The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get doses to people starting in December, and then we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into January, February and March," Fauci said.

Why Obama Fears For Our Democracy

‘We could effectively end this pandemic in 2021’ with Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines Both Pfizer and Moderna are using mRNA-based vaccines, a new technology that uses genetic material to generate an immune response.   

In The News (13)

The Pandemic Is Showing Us How Capitalism Is Amazing, and Inadequate Why big business needs big government and vice versa.

What Democrats Are Up Against in Georgia The Senate contenders face not just Republicans but also the state’s political history, which shows that change doesn’t come easy.........  Georgia has almost 160 counties, second in number only to the state of Texas. The story goes that the legislature carved out small counties so that a farmer in a mule-drawn wagon could make it to the courthouse and back in a single day. The real consequence was that under Georgia’s county-unit system, the more rural counties there were, the more leverage they would have against urban interests in Atlanta. ........... The field general of the conservative culture wars of the 1990s was a Georgia Republican, Representative Newt Gingrich, who played a singular role in bringing forth the scorched-earth tactics of the modern Republican Party.  ...........  “One of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty,” Mr. Gingrich told the Georgia College Republicans in 1978 during his third, and ultimately successful, race for Congress. “We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the campfire, but are lousy in politics.”  ......... What Mr. Gingrich pioneered in culture-war politics Mr. Trump has escalated. Two days after Election Day, Donald Trump Jr. was in Georgia at a rally outside Republican Party campaign headquarters, castigating Republicans who did not defend his father’s specious claims of fraud. ............. Two Democratic victories would not only give Democrats control of the Senate but could also help turn the page on Donald Trump’s influence in American politics.

The Evolving Travel ‘Experience’: Virtual, Actual and In Between Socially distanced craft classes, virtual tango lessons, a city tour accompanied by an avatar guide: how experience companies — which now include Amazon — are adapting to the pandemic.

How to Have Better Family Meals 

Biden Can’t Be F.D.R. He Could Still Be L.B.J. He has the power to make transformational progress look like “C’mon Man” common sense. Will he use it? 

How the Polls Got the Election Wrong, According to One Pollster Who Got It Right

COVID-19 Is Out of Control. What Can We Do? We need a one-two punch to knock the virus down and then keep it down.

सहरभरि शंकास्पद संक्रमित उपत्यकाका मेयरहरुलाई गृहमन्त्रीले भने , ‘लकडाउन गर्ने योजना बनाउँदैछौं ।’

Japan’s New Leader Sets Ambitious Goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2050 The announcement, coming weeks after a similar pledge by China, will require a major overhaul of the infrastructure in Japan, which remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels.

A New Breakthrough Just Brought City-Wide Quantum Communication Into Reach

In The News (12)

Smart Concrete Could Pave the Way for High-Tech, Cost-Effective Roads  Of the 614,387 bridges in the US, for example, 39 percent are older than their designed lifetimes .......... The cost to repair and improve nationwide transportation infrastructure ranges from nearly US$190 billion to almost $1 trillion. ......... These new systems self-monitor the condition of roads and bridges quickly and accurately and can, sometimes, even repair themselves. ............. At an early stage of a crack, for example, self-healing pavement would activate super absorbent polymers to absorb water and produce concrete-like material that fills in the crack. Cracks as small as a few microns could be healed to prevent significant damage by preventing or delaying the later stages of the freeze-thaw cycle.  

You Can Buy This Electric Car for $7,999 in California

Why We Need a Collective Vision to Design the Future of Health

This Coronavirus Surge Does Not Have to Be So Horrific America is entering a difficult period. But the outcome is not foregone. ........... The nation is entering its third, and potentially most dreadful, coronavirus surge. Earlier this month, the daily nationwide case count reached 100,000 for the first time. On Thursday it passed the 160,000 mark. Hospitalizations are at their highest point yet. Unlike previous surges, there is no epicenter. The virus is spreading everywhere. ............ Death isn’t the only bad outcome of contracting the coronavirus. Debilitating symptoms can last for months, and some doctors worry they may lead to permanent disability. Also, lower death rates are contingent on a high standard of care, which will be difficult to maintain across the country as case counts grow. In any case, death tolls are a lagging indicator. ................. “It’s like we survived the Titanic............Now we’re looking at the tip of an iceberg and pretending that the tip is the whole thing.” ........... If Americans want to get the current surge under control through this long, dark winter, they need to skip indoor gatherings, including for the holidays. They need to avoid nonessential travel. They must wear face masks in all public places. They all need to practice social distancing. They need to quarantine when they think they’ve been exposed to the virus and isolate if they get a positive test result, even if no symptoms emerge.  

Here’s How Trump’s Stalling Risks Our National Security I’ve seen my share of presidential transitions. The administration hurts the country by not cooperating with President-elect Biden. ........... Tragically, but not surprisingly, Mr. Trump appears determined to take a final wrecking ball to our democracy and  national security on his inevitable way out the door.

China-Led Trade Pact Is Signed, in Challenge to U.S. The deal sealed on Sunday stands as a potent symbol of Beijing’s growing economic sway in Southeast Asia at a time of uncertainty over Washington’s economic ties with the region.

Before ‘I Have a Dream,’ Martin Luther King Almost Died. This Man Saved Him. The untold story of the patrolman who took charge when the civil rights leader was stabbed in Harlem.

Economic Demands Test Biden Even Before Inauguration With the recovery slowing and coronavirus cases surging, Democrats must decide whether quick action on federal aid is more important than its scale.

Newton’s Daunting Masterpiece Had a Surprisingly Wide Audience, Historians Find The discovery suggests that “Principia” had a stronger impact on Enlightenment science than previous research suggested............ It had a reputation for unreadability. ......... First editions of the Principia, the scholars say, today sell for between $300,000 and $3,000,000 on the black market and at auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. They estimate that the book’s first edition consisted of some 600 and possibly as many as 750 copies — hundreds more than the 250 or so that historians had previously assumed.

In The News (11)

Was Reagan a Precursor to Trump? A New Documentary Says Yes “The Reagans,” a new Showtime docu-series, presents Ronald Reagan as an early practitioner of dog-whistle politics. But some historians and journalists disagree with that position...............  a glorified actor who won election with a coded racist appeal to white voters ........... The episode opens with 40-year-old footage of Reagan in Mississippi, affirming his support for “states’ rights” at a county fair filled with white voters. ............. his 1980 campaign slogan — “Make America Great Again” .......... the parallels between a movie star and a reality television star, both of whom knew how command the attention of the American public and the media. .............. the notion of Reagan as an early practitioner of dog-whistle politics, a member of the generation of politicians who used coded appeals directed at an attuned audience of white voters. .................. “Reagan is the antithesis of Trump in so many ways,” he added. “He was uniformly courteous and nice and decent to people. Trump, by the way he acts, has made us see that human decency in a political leader is important. Second, he was a compromiser. He always said that he was willing to take half a loaf. He got legislation through because of that.” ..............  the former president’s invocation of states’ rights was halfhearted, buried midway into his speech, inserted at Lott’s suggestion. (And to what end? Reagan barely squeaked by Jimmy Carter in Mississippi.) ................ impressed that this former actor clocked in for the 60-second advertisement at 57 seconds ........... “What was really astonishing to me was seeing how much film there was of Reagan in the act of dog whistling,” Tyrnauer said. “And some of his dog whistles at the time would be considered foghorns today.” ................. The coronavirus crisis is not his first experience with either a pandemic or a president who failed to deal with one: Reagan largely ignored the deadly AIDS epidemic during its early years, and the documentary presents this as one of his most consequential failures as president. ...................... Tyrnauer argues that Reagan has been protected by historians, Republicans and journalists because of his political success and likability.  

Padma Lakshmi: Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris Moved Me to Tears Imagine how wide the ripples of impact can be when a woman of color is vice president. ...........  When I first came to this country at age 4 from India, walking around New York City, I was excited to see all kinds of people — with different colors of skin, styles of dress and ways of moving through the world. But slowly I became aware of a different world, through magazines and TV, where almost everyone was white. ........... I figured out how to navigate the time a boy called me the N-word when I was 11; and navigate the times I auditioned for acting roles in my 20s, only to be told they weren’t “going ethnic”; and navigate the times in my 30s when I didn’t know to negotiate full credit for my work. ............... Over the summer, I learned that Ms. Harris’s mother’s family comes from the same city in India as my family. Her grandparents lived right around the corner from mine in the Besant Nagar area of the city of Chennai. Our grandfathers might have strolled together in the same walking group of retirees on Elliot’s Beach. ...................  President Trump’s attacks on women, on people of color and on immigrants feel personal to us. As he allows a pandemic to run rampant in our country and even threatens our democracy, it feels like a betrayal that so many Americans persist in supporting him. His vitriol encourages those who hate us. In comments under my Instagram and Twitter posts, people frequently tell me, “Go back to your country.” .............. The Trump era she is ending empowered people to show their racism nakedly, in slights and jeers and acts of violence.  

I WON THE ELECTION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020

😳 Wow! Apparently I just survived my first NYC Tornado pic.twitter.com/cx82tnEdoo

— MichaelWilliamG (@MichaelWilliamG) November 16, 2020

Barack Obama: One election won't stop US 'truth decay' https://t.co/NhgpQQVBAX

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 15, 2020

Hey @ossoff 👋🏾! Ready to KEEP Georgia blue? pic.twitter.com/FK3aWyFt9K

— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) November 15, 2020

A Republican Senate Would Be Bad for Business What’s bad for America would be bad for corporations, too. ...........  Corporate interests appear to imagine that they will flourish under a Biden presidency checked by Republican control of the Senate. ......... Divided government is all too likely to mean paralysis at a time when we desperately need strong action. ..........  Despite the vaccine news, we are still on track for a nightmarish pandemic winter ........... I’m not sure how many people realize just how ruinous a prospect we’re facing for the next few months. .......... By the time Biden is finally inaugurated we may well be having the equivalent of a 9/11 every day. .........  In addition to bringing death as well as long-term health damage for many survivors, the exploding pandemic will bring immense economic hardship. ............ What we need, clearly, is a very large-scale program of disaster relief, providing families, businesses and, not least, state and local governments with the help they require to avoid financial ruin until a vaccine arrives. And you might think that a Republican Senate would be willing to work with the Biden administration on such an obviously necessary program. That is, you might think this if you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past 12 years. ..................  The good news is that the misery will abate when we finally have widespread distribution of a vaccine. In fact, we’ll probably see a sharp jobs recovery late next year. .................  We desperately need to spend trillions on repairing our crumbling infrastructure, caring for our children and meeting the urgent need for action against climate change. .......... given where we are, divided government would mean paralysis in a time of crisis, which could very well be catastrophic for everyone. The truth is that even in its own interests, the big money should be rooting for Democrats in those Georgia runoffs.

 

In The News (10)

Are Cities Our Greatest Invention?  the cities that spread across the Indus Valley in today’s Pakistan were watery Edens: They had no temples or palaces but granaries, assembly halls and systems for sewage and water that may instead have been the sacred centers of the communities’ lives. ................. Hell was Babylon, or what it stood for — the “original Sin City,” rife with the unsavory aspects of urbanity decried since at least 2000 B.C. A line from the Hebrew Bible might easily have appeared in a recent political ad: “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!” Ditto the 18th-century writing of Jean-Jacques Rousseau describing the city as “depraved by sloth, inactivity, the love of pleasure.” .............. Dinocrates of Rhodes imposed a grid of streets on the anarchy of the Greek public space, making Alexandria encyclopedic; irregular Athens, by contrast, was “spontaneous and experimental.” When Romans conquered the world, they brought their built environment with them, like a subdivision to the wilderness. Bathing, Wilson argues, made the barbarous clean, Roman and urban. ..................  The author links Baghdad’s messier, more organic development with a dynamism that generated some of the ideas it took Europe centuries to comprehend. .........  Into the 1600s, Amsterdam made a kind of meta-trade of urbanization, with the government connecting corporations, banks and merchants to create the world’s first securities market and its attendant financial devices. Forwards and futures, hedges and margin-buying were inventions Amsterdamers classified as windhandel, or trading in the wind, as opposed to trading something tangible. .................   Friedrich Engels called Manchester’s poor neighborhood “Hell upon Earth.” Ideologues that came to be known as the Manchester School believed their free trade policies would lead to a world harmony that — spoiler alert! — has yet to arrive. ......................   Tenochtitlan, bigger than Paris in the 1500s ............... Crucial to Lisbon’s conquest of land and bodies were the papal bulls that granted Portugal the right to, in 1455, take slaves and then, in 1493, to “discover” land — lay claim, in other words, to territory inhabited by non-Christians. .................  in a chapter titled “Annihilation,” which compares Hitler’s destruction of Warsaw to the American bombing of Tokyo. In landscapes of horrific violence, the most damaged communities find creative ways to survive.   

Abby Phillip Is Next-Gen CNN In an election dominated by fast-talking policy dudes, her deliberate commentary and context stood out. ..........  And while “Donald Trump’s political career began with the racist birther lie,” she continued, “it may very well end with a Black woman in the White House.” ............ and asked Mr. Trump if he hoped Mr. Whitaker would tamp down on the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “What a stupid question that is,” he said. “What a stupid question. I watch you a lot, you ask a lot of stupid questions.” ............. “He insults a lot of people and a lot of the time, the insults aren’t true.” 

The Post-Presidency of a Con Man Out of office, Trump might seem a lot less formidable.  .......... It’s hard to tell whether Donald Trump is attempting a coup or throwing a tantrum. ...........  most of the money is actually going to a PAC, Save America, that “will be used to underwrite Mr. Trump’s post-presidential activities.” ........ Trump is considering starting a digital media company to undermine Fox News, which he now regards as disloyal. ............ and will be a favorite for the party’s nomination in 2024. ........ “If he runs in 2024, he’ll certainly be the front-runner, and then he’ll probably be the nominee.” ........... he’s personally on the hook for $421 million in debt, most of it coming due in the next four years. If a long fight with the I.R.S. goes against him, he could owe at least $100 million more. ...........  There are several examples of once-formidable right-wing leaders reduced to footnotes after leaving office.

Trump Floats Improbable Survival Scenarios as He Ponders His Future There is no grand strategy. President Trump is simply trying to survive from one news cycle to the next. 

‘Women’s Work’ Can No Longer Be Taken for Granted New Zealand is pursuing a century-old idea to close the gender pay gap: not equal pay for equal work, but equal pay for work of equal value. ......... Instead of “equal pay for equal work,” supporters of pay equity call for “equal pay for work of equal value,” or “comparable worth.” They ask us to consider whether a female-dominated occupation such as nursing home aide, for instance, is really so different from a male-dominated one, such as corrections officer, when both are physically exhausting, emotionally demanding, and stressful — and if not, why is the nursing home aide paid so much less? ................ the gender pay gap remains a feature of nearly every economy on earth. ............. caring for elderly people was just as demanding and dangerous as better-paid jobs mostly performed by men, including, notably, prison guards .......... other female-dominated occupations, including midwives, social workers and school support staff ........... Economics 101 says wages are set by the intersection of a supply curve and a demand curve — if demand for say, data scientists is high, and there aren’t enough of them to fill the available roles, data scientists will have more pricing power over their wages. But in the real world (and, sometimes, in Economics 201), most people recognize that wages encapsulate a host of other factors: monopoly and monopsony (buyer’s monopoly) power, the quirks of a given firm or institution, and, most relevant to pay equity, social beliefs about the relative value of a job. These social beliefs inevitably intersect with biases like racism and sexism, which then manifest in ways both formal and informal. ............... Most job evaluation methodologies ignored what the sociologist Arlie Hochschild called “emotional labor” — adjusting one’s feelings in order to competently perform a job ................ pay equity, when done properly, challenges us to think deeply and objectively about a job and its components. This can be a messy process, one that requires unlearning decades of bias about gender and work, as well as political good will and a spirit of collaboration. ............  What skills are being deployed to, say, deal with someone who is angry and doesn’t want to be there, and several hours later, with someone who is needy and crying, all while maintaining meaningful boundaries? To describe this capacity to navigate “these emotionally complex situations — how to be both emotionally present but not emotionally enmeshed,” as Ms. Ross put it, the group eventually came up with the term “emotional dexterity.” .............  hesitated to classify “listening” as a skill, arguing that anyone can listen ..............  active listening entails not just hearing, but also picking up on what goes unsaid, the way things are said and what that means in context .............. air traffic controllers, for example, “operate within a highly codified environment,” which reduces the need for interpersonal skills.) ..................  problem-solving skills, physical demands, interpersonal skills and emotional demands .................  many social workers found the analysis of their work “more valuable” than the pay raise itself ................ Several New Zealanders pointed to the unanimous vote on the pay equity law as an important sign of where the public had moved on the issue. .......... The thing that so many of today’s most underpaid and essential workers have in common is simply that they are women. ............   New Zealand’s experience in the coming years will serve as an experiment in what happens when an entire society, led by a feminist prime minister, decides, in effect, to say yes. 

In The News (9)

Powerful Aide to Boris Johnson Quits in Britain, Report Says Dominic Cummings, who masterminded the Brexit campaign in 2016 and helped vault Mr. Johnson into office, resigned amid fierce infighting. 

London Police to Recruit 40% of Officers From Minority Backgrounds The Metropolitan Police also announced a review of all road traffic stops, as Commissioner Cressida Dick acknowledged that her force was “not free from racism or discrimination.” ......... The London Metropolitan Police will aim to hire 40 percent of new recruits from Black, Asian, and other minority backgrounds by 2022, Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Friday ......... the Metropolitan Police should be more inclusive; work more closely with local communities; and gain the trust of minorities, who are treated differently than white Londoners.  ....... Mr. Khan said that the Black Lives Matter protests this summer had highlighted the need to change the perceptions of the police ....   the goal was for 16 percent of the force to be from minority backgrounds by 2022, and 28 percent by 2030 ......... officers will also review footage from body cameras to identify potential patterns in the use of stop-and-frisk tactics, and how de-escalation methods could be used more frequently. 

How Exercise Might Affect Immunity to Lower Cancer Risk Working out may enhance the immune system’s ability to target and eradicate cancer cells, a study in mice suggests. ...........  highly active people were found to be much less likely to develop 13 different types of cancer than people who rarely moved.   

Trump Remade His Party and the World He transformed both the Republican coalition and the way other countries see America. His legacy will be with us for generations.  

Stacey Abrams on minority rule, voting rights, and the future of democracy In 2020, democracy is on the ballot.

Why Trump is suddenly replacing Pentagon officials with loyalists It seems scary, but the answer may be simpler than you think.

Ecocide: Should killing nature be a crime?

My Daughter’s New Friends (and Their Parents) Are Terribly Racist What should we do? 

घरघरमा ‘अनियन्त्रित’ फैलिएको कोरोना संक्रमण : कहाँ चुक्यो नेपाल ? अब गर्ने के ? कतै वरदान त कतै अभिशाप बन्यो लकडाउन, के यो समयको बर्बादी मात्रै हो ?

Why Polling Missed The Mark Again

Election Showed a Wider Red-Blue Economic Divide Some partisan differences were scrambled, but places with brighter future prospects swung toward Biden.

Biden Wants to Be the Climate President. He’ll Need Some Help From Xi Jinping. The U.S.-China relationship is at its lowest point in a half century, but there are also converging interests on global warming.........  Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi, though, are locked in a very difficult relationship that makes climate cooperation a bit like a couple in divorce court trying to plan their child’s wedding. ............. The countries represent the two biggest economies, two leading military powers and the two biggest sources of the climate problem, together producing 40 percent of the greenhouse gases that currently go up into the atmosphere and heat the planet to dangerous levels. ............ and nudging other major emitters — India, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil — to do their part. .......... There’s conflict over trade. China’s human rights abuses are hard for Washington to ignore, and growing nationalist sentiment in both countries makes diplomacy politically tougher. ........ climate change offered Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi a real opening to work together. .......... could spur healthy competition over clean energy technology and, in turn, drive down prices of renewable power for the rest of the world. ............. China would have to peak its carbon emissions by 2025, five years earlier than the country has promised, and phase out coal by 2040 in order to keep global temperatures close to the upper limits laid out in the Paris Agreement. ............. China’s addiction to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, which supplies the bulk of the country’s electricity despite its expansion of solar and wind power. ............. Four of the world’s top coal-plant builders are Chinese. 

Just got a tornado warning... in Manhattan pic.twitter.com/7MdDD0qgNq

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) November 16, 2020

2020 Shows Why the Electoral College Is Stupid and Immoral It doesn’t just distort presidential elections. It infects the entire political process. 

Put On A Mask

Do you want to be

A superhero?

Put on a mask.

Now that you have 

Poked into

The hornet nest of nature

Just please

Put on a mask.

You can not see the virus

The virus need not see you

But in the sea of people

Coughes and sneezes

And heart attacks

To last

Put on a mask.

A strand of DNA

That fells titans

Of lies and disguise

To ask

Put on that damn mask. 

Peter Diamandis Newsletter: 20 Metatrends for the 2020s

20 Metatrends for the 2020s

(1) Continued increase in global abundance: The number of individuals in extreme poverty continues to drop, as the middle-income population continues to rise. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of high-bandwidth and low-cost communication, ubiquitous AI on the cloud, growing access to AI-aided education and AI-driven healthcare. Everyday goods and services (finance, insurance, education and entertainment) are being digitized and becoming fully demonetized, available to the rising billion on mobile devices.

(2) Global gigabit connectivity will connect everyone and everything, everywhere, at ultra-low cost: The deployment of both licensed and unlicensed 5G, plus the launch of a multitude of global satellite networks (OneWeb, Starlink, etc.), allow for ubiquitous, low-cost communications for everyone, everywhere–– not to mention the connection of trillions of devices. And today’s skyrocketing connectivity is bringing online an additional 3 billion individuals, driving tens of trillions of dollars into the global economy. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: low-cost space launches, hardware advancements, 5G networks, artificial intelligence, materials science, and surging computing power.

(3) The average human healthspan will increase by 10+ years: A dozen game-changing biotech and pharmaceutical solutions (currently in Phase 1, 2, or 3 clinical trials) will reach consumers this decade, adding an additional decade to the human healthspan. Technologies include stem cell supply restoration, wnt pathway manipulation, Senolytic Medicines, a new generation of Endo-Vaccines, GDF-11, supplementation of NMD/NAD+, among several others. And as machine learning continues to mature, AI is set to unleash countless new drug candidates, ready for clinical trials. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: genome sequencing, CRISPR technologies, AI, quantum computing, and cellular medicine.

(4) An age of capital abundance will see increasing access to capital everywhere: Over the past few years, humanity hit all-time highs in the global flow of seed capital, venture capital and sovereign wealth fund investments. While this trend will witness some ups and downs in the wake of future recessions, it is expected to continue its overall upward trajectory. Capital abundance leads to the funding and testing of ‘crazy’ entrepreneurial ideas, which in turn accelerate innovation. Already, $300 billion in crowdfunding is anticipated by 2025, democratizing capital access for entrepreneurs worldwide. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: global connectivity, dematerialization, demonetization, and democratization.

(5) Augmented Reality and the Spatial Web will achieve ubiquitous deployment: The combination of Augmented Reality (yielding Web 3.0, or the Spatial Web) and 5G networks (offering 100Mb/s - 10Gb/s connection speeds) will transform how we live our everyday lives, impacting every industry from retail and advertising, to education and entertainment. Consumers will play, learn and shop throughout the day in a newly intelligent, virtually overlaid world. This Metatrend will be driven by the convergence of: hardware advancements, 5G networks, artificial intelligence, materials science, and surging computing power.

(6) Everything is smart, embedded with intelligence: The price of specialized machine learning chips is dropping rapidly with a rise in global demand. Combined with the explosion of low-cost microscopic sensors and the deployment of high-bandwidth networks, we’re heading into a decade wherein every device becomes intelligent. Your child’s toy remembers her face and name. Your kids’ drone safely and diligently follows and videos all the children at the birthday party. Appliances respond to voice commands and anticipate your needs.

(7) AI will achieve human-level intelligence: As predicted by technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence will reach human-level performance this decade (by 2030). Through the 2020s, AI algorithms and machine learning tools will be increasingly made open source, available on the cloud, allowing any individual with an internet connection to supplement their cognitive ability, augment their problem-solving capacity, and build new ventures at a fraction of the current cost. This Metatrend will be driven by the convergence of: global high-bandwidth connectivity, neural networks, and cloud computing. Every industry, spanning industrial design, healthcare, education, and entertainment, will be impacted.

(8) AI-Human Collaboration will skyrocket across all professions: The rise of “AI as a Service” (AIaaS) platforms will enable humans to partner with AI in every aspect of their work, at every level, in every industry. AIs will become entrenched in everyday business operations, serving as cognitive collaborators to employees — supporting creative tasks, generating new ideas, and tackling previously unattainable innovations. In some fields, partnership with AI will even become a requirement. For example: in the future, making certain diagnoses without the consultation of AI may be deemed malpractice.

(9) Most individuals adapt a JARVIS-like “software shell” to improve their quality of life: As services like Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homepod expand in functionality, such services will eventually travel beyond the home and become your cognitive prosthetic 24/7. Imagine a secure JARVIS-like software shell that you give permission to listen to all your conversations, read your email, monitor your blood chemistry, etc. With access to such data, these AI-enabled software shells will learn your preferences, anticipate your needs and behavior, shop for you, monitor your health, and help you problem-solve in support of your mid- and long-term goals.

(10) Globally abundant, cheap renewable energy: Continued advancements in solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear and localized grids will drive humanity towards cheap, abundant, and ubiquitous renewable energy. The price per kilowatt-hour will drop below 1 cent per kilowatt-hour for renewables, just as storage drops below a mere 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, resulting in the majority displacement of fossil fuels globally. And as the world’s poorest countries are also the world’s sunniest, the democratization of both new and traditional storage technologies will grant energy abundance to those already bathed in sunlight.

(11) The insurance industry transforms from “recovery after risk” to “prevention of risk:” Today, fire insurance pays you after your house burns down; life insurance pays your next-of-kin after you die; and health insurance (which is really sick insurance) pays only after you get sick. This next decade, a new generation of insurance providers will leverage the convergence of machine learning, ubiquitous sensors, low-cost genome sequencing and robotics to detect risk, prevent disaster, and guarantee safety before any costs are incurred.

(12) Autonomous vehicles and flying cars will redefine human travel (soon to be far faster and cheaper): Fully autonomous vehicles, car-as-a-service fleets, and aerial ride-sharing (flying cars) will be fully operational in most major metropolitan cities in the coming decade. The cost of transportation will plummet 3-4X, transforming real estate, finance, insurance, the materials economy, and urban planning. Where you live and work, and how you spend your time, will all be fundamentally reshaped by this future of human travel. Your kids and elderly parents will never drive. This Metatrend will be driven by the convergence of: machine learning, sensors, materials science, battery storage improvements, and ubiquitous gigabit connections.

(13) On-demand production and on-demand delivery will birth an “instant economy of things:” Urban dwellers will learn to expect “instant fulfillment” of their retail orders as drone and robotic last-mile delivery services carry products from local supply depots directly to your doorstep. Further riding the deployment of regional on-demand digital manufacturing (3D printing farms), individualized products can be obtained within hours, anywhere, anytime. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: networks, 3D printing, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

(14) Ability to sense and know anything, anytime, anywhere: We’re rapidly approaching the era wherein 100 billion sensors (the Internet of Everything) is monitoring and sensing (imaging, listening, measuring) every facet of our environments, all the time. Global imaging satellites, drones, autonomous car LIDARs, and forward-looking augmented reality (AR) headset cameras are all part of a global sensor matrix, together allowing us to know anything, anytime, anywhere. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: terrestrial, atmospheric and space-based sensors, vast data networks, and machine learning. In this future, it’s not “what you know,” but rather “the quality of the questions you ask” that will be most important.

(15) Disruption of advertising: As AI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, your custom AI will soon understand what you want better than you do. In turn, we will begin to both trust and rely upon our AIs to make most of our buying decisions, turning over shopping to AI-enabled personal assistants. Your AI might make purchases based upon your past desires, current shortages, conversations you’ve allowed your AI to listen to, or by tracking where your pupils focus on a virtual interface (i.e. what catches your attention). As a result, the advertising industry—which normally competes for your attention (whether at the Superbowl or through search engines)—will have a hard time influencing your AI. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: machine learning, sensors, augmented reality, and 5G/networks.

(16) Cellular agriculture moves from the lab into inner cities, providing high-quality protein that is cheaper and healthier: This next decade will witness the birth of the most ethical, nutritious, and environmentally sustainable protein production system devised by humankind. Stem cell-based ‘cellular agriculture’ will allow the production of beef, chicken and fish anywhere, on-demand, with far higher nutritional content, and a vastly lower environmental footprint than traditional livestock options. This Metatrend is enabled by the convergence of: biotechnology, materials science, machine learning, and AgTech.

(17) High-bandwidth Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) will come online for public use: Technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that in the mid-2030s, we will begin connecting the human neocortex to the cloud. This next decade will see tremendous progress in that direction, first serving those with spinal cord injuries, whereby patients will regain both sensory capacity and motor control. Yet beyond assisting those with motor function loss, several BCI pioneers are now attempting to supplement their baseline cognitive abilities, a pursuit with the potential to increase their sensorium, memory and even intelligence. This Metatrend is fueled by the convergence of: materials science, machine learning, and robotics.

(18) High-resolution VR will transform both retail and real estate shopping: High-resolution, lightweight virtual reality headsets will allow individuals at home to shop for everything from clothing to real estate from the convenience of their living room. Need a new outfit? Your AI knows your detailed body measurements and can whip up a fashion show featuring your avatar wearing the latest 20 designs on a runway. Want to see how your furniture might look inside a house you’re viewing online? No problem! Your AI can populate the property with your virtualized inventory and give you a guided tour. This Metatrend is enabled by the convergence of: VR, machine learning, and high-bandwidth networks.

(19) Increased focus on sustainability and the environment: An increase in global environmental awareness and concern over global warming will drive companies to invest in sustainability, both from a necessity standpoint and for marketing purposes. Breakthroughs in materials science, enabled by AI, will allow companies to drive tremendous reductions in waste and environmental contamination. One company’s waste will become another company’s profit center. This Metatrend is enabled by the convergence of: materials science, artificial intelligence, and broadband networks.

(20) CRISPR and gene therapies will minimize disease: A vast range of infectious diseases, ranging from AIDS to Ebola, are now curable. In addition, gene-editing technologies continue to advance in precision and ease of use, allowing families to treat and ultimately cure hundreds of inheritable genetic diseases. This Metatrend is driven by the convergence of: various biotechnologies (CRISPR, Gene Therapy), genome sequencing, and artificial intelligence.

In The News (8)

Stacey Abrams on minority rule, voting rights, and the future of democracy In 2020, democracy is on the ballot.

Why Trump is suddenly replacing Pentagon officials with loyalists It seems scary, but the answer may be simpler than you think.

Ecocide: Should killing nature be a crime?

My Daughter’s New Friends (and Their Parents) Are Terribly Racist What should we do?

Google Photos is ending free unlimited storage in 2021 — so what are your options?  all photos uploaded before June 1 next year will still be available under the free unlimited storage option. ....... Google Photos, which has more than 1 billion users, has offered free unlimited storage for high-quality photos (read: compressed) for users across platforms. ........ Photos hosts more than 4 trillion pictures and videos, with users uploading 28 billion every week. It added that while media uploads would count towards your 15GB free data cap, 80 percent of users won’t reach that limit for 10 years.  ......... Luckily, the Big G said that it’ll roll out a new storage management tool for Google Photos next year, so that you can easily clear up images that might not be worthy. .......... Plans start from $1.99 per month for 100GB of storage ...... Then there’s Dropbox, which offers 2TB space for an annual plan of $9.99 per month for individuals. ....... Google Photos’ unlimited storage has been a beloved feature all across the world.

Fauci: COVID-19 won’t be pandemic ‘for a lot longer’ thanks to vaccines

Wearing a mask isn’t just about protecting other people, the CDC says. It can help you — and might prevent lockdowns. As part of a push for stronger messaging, the agency acknowledged masks work both as ‘source control and personal protection’ ........... Masks are neither completely selfless nor selfish — they help everyone. ............  the widespread wearing of face coverings can help prevent the need for national lockdowns. ...........  the more people wearing masks in the community, the greater the individual benefit. ........... “Wearing a mask blocks you from inhaling potential virus-containing particles in the air.......But most of the benefit to a mask is to block particles coming out of people who don’t know they are infected from exposing others.” ..........  Masks create a barrier that stops some of the droplets from flying outward when someone breathes, talks, sings or coughs. ......... in experimental conditions, simple fabric masks blocked about three-fourths of the particles expelled by coughing volunteers.........  masks can filter out the types of incoming particles able to carry virus .......... personal protection for the mask-wearer is not absolute. “The real benefit is when all of us do it, that’s how we bring down the viral load of covid-19 in communities”  .............  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in late June putting on a mask was the “single most important thing you can do” until vaccines were available. ......... conservatives are strongly motivated by a personal responsibility to care for themselves. ...............  laboratory, epidemiological and population-based studies all showed “very substantial benefits” of mask-wearing .............. science suggests face coverings “of higher thread count, more than one layer, and those that employ ‘electrostatic filtration’ like surgical masks” provide the best protection. ............ the dose of virus that people are exposed to may impact the seriousness of disease ..............  face coverings could filter enough droplets to lead to asymptomatic or mild illness in some cases — and lead to some immunity.