In The News (22)

How Francis Ford Coppola Got Pulled Back In to Make ‘The Godfather, Coda’ The director and cast, including Al Pacino, Sofia Coppola and Andy Garcia, look back at making “Part III,” which has been re-edited (and retitled) for its 30th anniversary. ...........  In the final scene of “The Godfather Part III,” Michael Corleone, the aged protagonist of this epic crime drama, is left in solitude to contemplate his sins, gripped with guilt over actions that have devastated his family and the knowledge that he cannot change what he has done. ......... These three movies have won a combined nine Academy Awards, grossed more than $1.1 billion when adjusted for inflation and gained an exalted status in the popular consciousness. But rather than regard them as immutable monuments, Coppola has treated them like an unfinished painting he is free to update. ........ “Part III” is remembered as the Fredo of its family — the one that doesn’t really measure up.  .......... The history of this “Godfather” movie is as sweeping and dramatic as the much-told tales behind the creation of its two illustrious predecessors, full of conflict, perseverance and decisive last-minute changes. It is a legend that seemingly ended with a fatally flawed result — but now has a new untold chapter that could improve the standing of the final film in one of the most influential franchises of all time............... As he explained the studio’s philosophy, he said, “You’ve got Coca-Cola, why not make more Coca-Cola?” ..............  Pacino was delighted by the screenplay, in which Michael’s well-honed craftiness would be tested by unexpected guile within the Vatican: “He found something a little more corrupt than his criminal world,” the actor said. ............ He also shed some of his pride and became a humbler person. ............... “I’m ready to do it now!” he exclaimed. “I understand it better! I don’t need makeup!”  

N.Y.C’s Mayoral Primary Is 6 Months Away: Who’s Running?

Marc Benioff Sets His Sights on Microsoft The Salesforce C.E.O.’s planned acquisition of Slack will have him competing directly with the Goliath that is Microsoft. .......... He learned some lessons in showmanship from his mentor, the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, including how to turn news conferences into events and how to become the human embodiment of a company. ............  Before the coronavirus pandemic forced many to stay home, Salesforce was San Francisco’s largest private employer, eclipsing the 168-year-old Wells Fargo. Its offices were in Salesforce Tower, a lipstick-shaped edifice that dominated the skyline and could be seen from around the bay. .............  “Business is the greatest platform for change … The future of our industry is a work-from-anywhere environment … I like to innovate, I like to create, I like to see things and make them happen … I love that we take care of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” ...........  Over the past two decades, Salesforce has acquired dozens of companies to extend its core products. The biggest acquisition before Slack was Tableau, a data visualization company, which Salesforce bought for $15.3 billion last year.   

The Deep State Is on a Roll Three cheers for Anthony Fauci and all the other glorious cogs. ............ These officials and servants are distinguished by a professionalism that survives and edges out their partisan bearings, by an understanding that the codes of conduct and rules of engagement become more important, not less, when passions run hot. They’re incorrigible that way. Invaluable, too. .......... Anthony Fauci is the steely superhero of my deep state  

How to End a Forever War The Biden administration should support a regional effort to stabilize Afghanistan. ......... At 19 years and counting, the U.S.-led effort in Afghanistan is already the longest war in American history. ......... The two sides have yet to begin confronting a host of seemingly irreconcilable differences, including whether to be a theocracy or a republic, and the status of women and followers of the Shiite sect of Islam. ........... Some Hazaras fear the Taliban are simply going through the motions of peace talks until U.S. forces leave. ........ The United States has a moral obligation to work with regional partners to try to clean up the mess we are leaving behind. .......... Six countries share a border with Afghanistan. Not one wants a failed state on its doorstep. Afghanistan has been at war almost continuously since 1978, partly because its powerful neighbors have all tried to manage the chaos inside it by funding proxies. ............ a rare instance where Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan and the United States all share a common interest: the orderly departure of American troops and preventing Afghanistan from imploding. .............. the United States would benefit from having a strategic vision for the region that was bigger than “no Al Qaeda.” .......... a country in a region with China, Russia, Iran, India and Pakistan — four nuclear powers   

Obama: Criminal justice reformers ‘lost a big audience’ with defund the police rhetoric The former president is the latest prominent Democratic leader to express disapproval of the politically divisive phrase.

1 In Every 800 North Dakota Residents Now Dead From Covid

Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow Are Sentenced to Prison Over Hong Kong Protest Activists denounced the prison terms for illegal assembly charges over a 2019 demonstration outside Police Headquarters. ....... “They’re using Joshua Wong as an iconic figure in particular to issue this chilling message.” ......... Ms. Chow, 23, who has been called the “Mulan” of the Hong Kong democracy movement, enjoys a wide following in Japan thanks to her Japanese-language skills. 

India’s Leading Documentary Filmmaker Has a Warning Anand Patwardhan spent decades tracking the rise of Hindu nationalism. And now, under an increasingly repressive government, he holds his screenings in secret. ........... Over four hours, “Reason” documents how the world’s largest democracy has plunged into a majoritarian abyss since the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., came to power in 2014, and Narendra Modi was voted in as the prime minister. With testimonies from witnesses to mob lynchings, stories of college students driven to suicide by intense right-wing ostracism and interviews with Hindu nationalists willing to defend the frequent murders of journalists and activists, Patwardhan contradicts the narrative that the B.J.P. routinely projects to the country’s 900 million voters: a story where, under Modi, India is at last starting to fulfill its potential, more than 70 years after independence. .................. “In many ways, this is worse than the Emergency” ...........  We have been conditioned into a false sense of normalcy. Most of us don’t know how bad things are.” ........... a country’s slide into intolerance is rarely so dramatic: Norms don’t always collapse overnight; they corrode against the background of everyday life. ........... In India, the Modi years are often spoken of as an “undeclared Emergency.” But something more enduring, a fundamental reimagining of the nation as a homeland for Hindus, appears to be afoot. .......... The larger story Patwardhan tells in the film is of a revival of the psychosis of Partition, when the subcontinent was divided by the British into India and Pakistan along explicitly religious lines. More than one million people died in the resulting violence, and, according to some estimates, more than 15 million were displaced. Democracy in India was never quite robust — Ambedkar thought the Indian soil was “essentially undemocratic” — but never before have all its organs seemed so fragile. ............ TV networks that refuse to toe the line have been investigated for laundering money from abroad. Bank accounts of human rights organizations have been frozen. Citizens have been jailed for lampooning Modi online. Activists are routinely scorned as traitors. Policemen have falsely implicated victims of right-wing violence. .......... many Hindu nationalists still condone Gandhi’s murder. Godse had once been a member of the R.S.S. — his family maintains that he never quit — and many members of the B.J.P., including Modi, began their careers as R.S.S. volunteers. ............... a story to illustrate the extent of hysteria in the city around that time. Many Hindu residents were apparently so convinced that Muslims from abroad were planning to overrun Indian shores that they would stay up all night guarding the city’s beaches. .............. “All my films are made like home videos” ............  Until the Emergency, the R.S.S. stood more or less discredited in India because of its perceived involvement in Gandhi’s death.  

In The News (21)

Alaska becomes second state to approve ranked-choice voting as Ballot Measure 2 passes by 1% Starting with the 2022 election, the measure will merge the state’s two primary elections into one, and the top four vote-getters regardless of political party will advance to the general election. Some states have so-called “top two” primaries. Alaska will be the only state with a “top four” primary. ........... In the general election, voters will be asked to rank the four candidates in order of preference. Maine already uses that system. Ranked-choice voting would apply to legislative races, and all statewide races, including governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The 2024 presidential race will also be ranked-choice but is not subject to the top-four primary. ........ In Massachusetts, a statewide ranked-choice measure was defeated by a wide margin. 

Trump's Potential Criminal Liability but how to deal with his predecessor’s flagrant and relentless subversion of the rule of law is in many ways the most vexing. ......... there is nothing to protect a former president from prosecution. No ex-president has ever been indicted before, but no president has ever left office with so much potential criminal liability. ........... a growing sense that his moment of reckoning was coming. He was, after all, already the subject of a criminal investigation by the district attorney of Manhattan as well as a civil investigation by the attorney general of New York State. Both of those inquiries concern his conduct as a private businessman. ............ The visions of Donald Trump in an orange jumpsuit were more fantasy than reality. ...........  The damage to democracy that would be caused by a failed prosecution of a former president is hard to even fathom. An acquittal could also set back future efforts at accountability, and embolden aspiring abusers of authority. Even once he’s out of office, Trump is going to be a powerful force in the country’s political life; putting him on trial for his conduct as president would be tantamount to putting on trial the more than 72 million Americans who voted for his re-election. ......... Prosecuting a former president could mean convicting him, and the idea of sending a former president to prison does indeed seem fantastical. .......... how does the country move on from a president whose disregard for the law has been so constant and pervasive? ......... Trump’s conduct as president was a product of his unique character. But it was also enabled by the office. .......... The stakes of prosecuting Donald Trump may be high; but so are the costs of not prosecuting him 

Obama chides Democrats for giving AOC short convention speaking slot  

Trump's 2024 begins

Trump's Election-Fraud Business Is Booming The president needn’t risk his own money as long as others are willing to chip in. 

Diego Maradona, Argentina’s Hero, and Mine Through him, I was able to experience the incomparable joy of being champion of the world in the sport I loved. ........... I spent the next four days rewatching Maradona’s most memorable goals and interviews.  

Democrats, Stay United Even though significant compromises will be required in Congress and not every progressive idea will be embraced. ......... All committed Democrats agree that Black lives matter, that every American is entitled to good health care and that climate change represents our greatest existential threat.  

In The News (20)

Groupthink Has Left the Left Blind A constricted view of the world leaves progressives surprised by the world as it is.

IVANKA TRUMP WAS MY BEST FRIEND. NOW SHE’S MAGA ROYALTY We met at an all-girls school on the Upper East Side and were inseparable for more than a decade. Gradually, though, our differences divided us—“Why would you tell me to read a book about fucking poor people?” she once asked—and I watched her blow up her carefully curated image of refined privilege to embrace her father wholesale. 

Pfizer to seek Covid-19 vaccine approval 'within days' as trial shows 95 percent efficacy "With hundreds of thousands of people around the globe infected every day, we urgently need to get a safe and effective vaccine to the world," Pfizer said.

In Georgia, a Republican Feud With Trump at the Center Double-crossing. Accusations of lying and incompetence. And a bitter divide over whether to endorse President Trump’s false claims of fraud. The G.O.P. in Georgia has a messy feud unfolding, with two Senate seats up for grabs.

शव व्यवस्थापनमा सेना : मुस्किलको घडीमा मलामी

गल्ती कमजोरीको गम्भीर समीक्षा गरौं, समय नलम्ब्याऔं : माधव नेपाल

पार्टीभित्रै आरोप लागेपछि ओलीलाई हटाउनैपर्छ : बाबुराम भट्टराई

महाधिवेशनतिर अग्रसर कांग्रेस, विवाद भने कायमै

China-Australia relations: Canberra reached out to Beijing at ‘every possible level’, minister says Australian trade minister Simon Birmingham reiterated claims that the ‘ball is in China’s court’ in their ongoing trade dispute Canberra will not change positioning on human rights issues, after China said statements on issues like Hong Kong and Xinjiang are fraying ties

China’s R&D, tech investment inflows show deepening global economic integration despite US decoupling push Incoming foreign direct investment to China rose for a seventh consecutive month in October to US$12.4 billion, despite rising geopolitical tensions Investment in China’s hi-tech service industry led the way in the first 10 months of the year, while money flowing to the industrial sector slowed

China now has the nuclear strength to hit back at a first strike, former PLA colonel says The military has built an ‘underground Great Wall’ of tunnels to hide and move its arsenal of ballistic missiles, Wang Xiangsui tells Moganshan forum The defences add up to a credible ability to mount a second strike, resulting in a deterrent effect, he says

Coronavirus hunters pick up another piece of the trail in Italy New research suggests the pathogen infected people across the country months before it was detected in China Antibodies specific to the coronavirus were found in blood samples from lung cancer screening tests going back to September last year

French president takes China rhetoric off the table in low-key meeting with US Secretary of State Pompeo Macron is among world leaders to congratulate Joe Biden on winning US election but meets key Trump administration member on post-election tour Global security and terrorism among subjects discussed as Macron faces radical Islamists in his own country

Ant Group IPO resumption will depend on how company adapts to new fintech rules, CSRC official says International investors have reacted to the suspension of Ant’s IPO ‘quite well’ Fang Xinghai says Ant’s dual listing in Hong Kong and in Shanghai was expected to be the biggest fundraising on record

Here’s Why People Are Calling Elon Musk a “Space Karen” "What's bogus is that Space Karen didn't read up on the test before complaining to his millions of followers." ....... “Two tests came back negative, two came back positive,” the mercurial billionaire tweeted on November 13. “Same machine, same test, same nurse.”

UN OFFICIAL WARNS OF “FAMINES OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS” IN 2021  WFP head David Beasley told The Associated Press that the agency needs to raise $5 billion just to avert global famine, and another $10 billion to feed malnourished children around the world. Otherwise, he said, “we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.” 

This Pandemic Board Game From 2017 Is Almost Too Perfect for 2020 The impossible, made possible: A timely board game, that's fun as hell.

What’s Ahead for the U.S. Economy?  “When your R is bigger than 1, you get explosive growth,” Ricco said. “Our analysis shows that the number of states where R is greater than 1 — in that danger zone — is almost near 50 right now. It’s a pretty dire situation.” ....... “We’re basically stuck in neutral right here until the virus is suppressed.” ........ over the 10-year budget window of 2021–2030, the Biden platform would raise $3.375 trillion in additional tax revenue and increase spending by $5.37 trillion. .......... Over a 10-year period, the largest new revenue-raisers in the Biden tax plan are the corporate tax ($1.4 trillion), payroll taxes ($992.8 billion) and individual income taxes ($944 billion). Over that same period, the two biggest areas of new net spending would be education ($1.9 trillion) and infrastructure and R&D ($1.6 trillion). ...............  “It’s the older rich people that don’t like Biden’s world,” he noted. “They face a lot of taxes, and they don’t get a lot of benefits from the spending program. At the other end, the lower-income folks really do like Biden’s world.” ....... Almost 80% of the increase in taxes under the Biden tax plan would fall on the top 1% of the income distribution. ......... 75% of the tax falls on capital owners and 25% falls on workers in the form of lower wages over time. ............ the top 0.1% of households, who will experience a bump from 30.6% to 43% if the tax changes are implemented in 2021. ......... The education plan, which will boost spending by $1.9 trillion over 10 years, includes provisions for universal pre-K schooling, two years of debtless college education and free public college for students from low-income families. The infrastructure and R&D plans totaling $1.6 trillion cover investments in water infrastructure, high-speed rail, clean energy R&D, 5G and artificial intelligence. ...................... In health care, the study estimated that Biden’s proposals would lower average prescription drug prices by about 60%, by allowing consumers to import those drugs from abroad and for Medicare to negotiate prices. .......... A stimulus focused on lower-income people who are more likely to consume that money will prove more effective

Beyond Philanthropy: How Corporate America Can Advance Racial Equity

In The News (19)

Hong Kong opposition activist Joshua Wong put in solitary confinement with lights on 24 hours a day, after X-ray reveals ‘a shadow’ in his stomach Wong put in single cell in medical ward and source says he is to be there for several days The 24-year-old was remanded in custody in Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre on Monday

नेकपाभित्रको विवादले जसपा नेपाल ‘पर्ख र हेर’ को अवस्थामा

‘प्रचण्डलाई फेरि महानायक बन्ने अवसर छ’ ‘प्रचण्ड र माधव कमरेडबीचको उच्च तहको सहकार्यले कम्युनिस्ट आन्दोलनलाई बचाउँछ’

Douglas Stuart Wins Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’ The autobiographical novel, about the lonely gay son of an alcoholic mother in 1980s Scotland, was one of four debut books in this year’s shortlist.

Lockdowns Aren’t Funny. But You’ve Still Got to Laugh. In theaters before the second shutdown, and online once playhouses were closed, actors and comedians have tried to cheer up France. 

Mnuchin’s Inglorious Endgame The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to curtail the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs is a gamble with no upside.

America Is Letting the Coronavirus Rage Through Prisons It’s both a moral failure and a public health one.

Saudi Arabia and Human Rights Activists Fight Over Kingdom’s Image at G-20 As the summit’s host, the kingdom hopes to showcase its advances, while critics see an opportunity to pounce. But the virtual event will have a lower profile.

Networked: The 5G Future

At Wharton, a New Leader Confronts the Culture Wars Erika James recently took over the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Already, she is enmeshed in debates about race, politics and the role of business in society. ..........  Diversity and inclusion, inequality, climate change, immigration and, more broadly, the role of business in society are all part of the conversation, in the boardroom and the classroom. ..........  I’ve spent the past 20 years looking at the dark side of the business. There is never a shortage of case studies to study or to write about. .......  We’re going to have coursework and reading material and discussions on corporate social responsibility. We have to. ............. We don’t all necessarily need to agree on everything, but we do need to understand how to engage with and respect the views and opinions and beliefs of all of our community members. I think business schools are struggling with that, as are companies. ............. In 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, the galvanizing efforts of C.E.O.s and executives is unlike anything that I had ever seen before. ............. when you’re the best, it is very easy to become complacent ........ There just aren’t a lot of us.

‘No One Is Listening to Us’ More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this.

प्रचण्डको व्यवहारले बिच्किए नेपाल

नेकपा विभाजन हुने अवस्थामा पुग्दैन : मन्त्री त्रिपाठी 

शृङ्गलाको भ्रमण : भारतको ‘रियलाइजेसन’ कि नेपाल ठूला देशको ‘ब्याटल ग्राउन्ड’ बन्दै ?

जहाँ म्याराडोनालाई भगवान मानिन्छ 

In The News (18)

My Covid-19 Bubble Is Enormous Getting together with family for Thanksgiving without quarantining beforehand is like “bringing a loaded pistol for Grandma’s head” .......... “You’re going to say ‘Hi’ at Thanksgiving, ‘It’s so nice to see you,’” he said in a recent briefing, and then “you’re either going to be visiting her by FaceTime in the I.C.U. or planning a small funeral by Christmas.” 

The Lady and the Trump Unfeeling royals offer no respite from unfeeling Republicans. .......... this country is shot to hell and running on empty. ...... It’s outrageous that Congress left town for the holidays this weekend without passing Covid relief. ........  when Blair had to beg Queen Elizabeth to show more emotion ......... describes the palace as “a cold frozen tundra, an icy dark, loveless cave with no light, no hope, anywhere, not even the faintest crack.” ............. Dream on, Donald. Of his wooing, Diana told a friend, “He gives me the creeps.” Di, we know how you feel. 

Politics, Science and the Remarkable Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine The furious race to develop a coronavirus vaccine played out against a presidential election, between a pharmaceutical giant and a biotech upstart, with the stakes as high as they could get. ............  Few corporate competitions have unfolded with so much at stake and such a complex backdrop. 

‘प्रचण्डलाई फेरि महानायक बन्ने अवसर छ’ ‘प्रचण्ड र माधव कमरेडबीचको उच्च तहको सहकार्यले कम्युनिस्ट आन्दोलनलाई बचाउँछ’

It’s Time to Hunker Down A devastating surge is here. Unless Americans act aggressively, it will get much larger, very quickly. .......... Good news is arriving on almost every front: treatments, vaccines, and our understanding of this coronavirus. ........ Pfizer and BioNTech have announced a stunning success rate in their early Phase 3 vaccine trials—if it holds up, it will be a game changer. Treatments have gotten better too. A monoclonal antibody drug—similar to what President Donald Trump and former Governor Chris Christie received—just earned emergency-use authorization from the FDA. Dexamethasone—a cheap, generic corticosteroid—cut the death rate by a third for severe COVID-19 cases in a clinical trial. ............. We may soon get cheaper, saliva-based rapid tests that people can administer on their own, itself a potential game changer. .............  a devastating surge is now under way. And worse, we are entering this dreadful period without the kind of leadership or preparation we need, and with baseline numbers that will make it difficult to avoid a dramatic rise in hospitalizations, deaths, and potential long-term effects on survivors. ........... it’s not just confirmed cases that are on the rise. The United States is also experiencing a steep increase in hospitalizations, as well as about 1,500 reported deaths a day; those are the highest numbers since mid-May, and they are still rising sharply. ............. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine—or Moderna’s vaccine—may be available in the United States to health-care workers and other high-priority people as early as the end of this year. But it won’t be distributed widely until well into 2021, even in the best-case scenario—and the Pfizer vaccine needs two doses, about 21 days apart. ......... we desperately need to flatten the curve again before hospitals nationwide are overrun ............ The bottleneck for medical care isn’t just lack of space, or even equipment, which we may be able to increase, but staff—trained nurses and doctors who can attend to patients, and who cannot be manufactured out of thin air. ........... Fewer nonurgent but important surgeries, more overworked medical staff, and overburdened emergency rooms could all contribute to worsening health outcomes for many other viruses that peak in winter months, like influenza, as well other ordinary medical conditions. ................ This seasonality is not a huge surprise, which makes our lack of preparation even more tragic. The 1918 flu pandemic saw an earlier, milder wave in the spring; a lull in the summer; and a deadlier surge starting in the fall. Other coronaviruses endemic to us are also sharply seasonal, tending to peak in winter. This may be because the humidity and temperature conditions of fall and winter favor the virus more. It may also be because we spend more time indoors during the winter. Most likely, it’s a combination, along with other factors (less vitamin D? less light?). Whatever the causes, public-health experts knew a fall and winter wave was a high likelihood, and urged us to get ready. But we did not. ....................... Once the numbers are this large, it’s very easy for them to get much larger, very quickly—and they will. When we start with half a million confirmed cases a week, as we had in mid-October, it’s like a runaway train. Only a few weeks later, we are already at about 1 million cases a week, with no sign of slowing down. ................ We are barely nine or 10 months into this pandemic, and we have not experienced a full-blown fall or winter season. Everything that we may have done somewhat cautiously—and gotten away with—in summer may carry a higher risk now, because the conditions are different and the case baseline is much higher. ............... More people at the grocery store will be positive. A casual gathering of friends may be harder to hold outdoors. Even transmission from surfaces may pose a higher risk now, because lower humidity levels may improve the survivability of the virus. ......................  any gathering outside one’s existing quarantine pod should be avoided for now—especially if it is indoors. ....................  Pods should not expand unless absolutely necessary. .............. Shop in bulk, so you can do fewer trips to the store. ........... Many colleges are ending school and sending students home, for what could be a country-wide super-spreader event. ........... It might also be time for ordinary people to consider using higher-quality masks (N95s and KN95s)—something that public-health experts have long recommended. ............ As long as they are put on and taken off carefully (use hand sanitizer before and after), such masks are reusable after being left in a paper bag or breathable container for at least five days ..........  We are no longer in the open-ended, dreadful period of spring 2020, when we did not know if we’d even have a vaccine, whether any therapeutics would work, and whether we’d ever emerge from the shadow of this pandemic. We can see the cavalry coming, but until it’s here, we need to lock ourselves down once again.

How Many Americans Are About to Die? A new analysis shows that the country is on track to pass spring’s grimmest record. ............  the virus has, with ruthless regularity, killed at least 1.5 percent of all Americans diagnosed with COVID-19 over the past four months. .............. predicting the virus’s death toll in the near term has become a matter of brutal arithmetic: 150,000 cases a day, times 1.5 percent, will lead to 2,250 daily deaths. .................. In the spring, an enormous outbreak hit the New York metro area, infecting perhaps 20 percent of all New Yorkers, more than 1.6 million people. But up through mid-May, as the initial outbreak wound down, fewer than 200,000 cases were confirmed with PCR tests. (Almost 16,000 people had died in New York City alone by then.) ............... three out of four infections still go unconfirmed. ..............  How many people might die during the third surge? ........... the lagged case-fatality rate has averaged 1.8 percent since August ............ Every 100,000 cases would mean roughly 1,800 dead Americans a few weeks later. ............. the country would hit an average of 2,000 deaths a day on November 30. ......... For all our talk of better treatments and more widespread testing, we do not yet see evidence that those factors have led to major declines in the death rate over the past three months. ........... the standard of care is likely to fall in places experiencing major surges. Treatment of severe COVID-19 is an intricate and laborious process; understaffed and exhausted units are unlikely to sustain the level of care that has improved the case-fatality rate. ............. the entire state of Iowa is now out of staffed hospital beds, with more than 3,000 cases being diagnosed every day. ............... The pandemic is out of control and many, many people are dying. The longer we continue along our current path, the higher the death toll will rise.

‘No One Is Listening to Us’ More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this. ........... health-care workers do not have the luxury of looking away: They’re facing a third pandemic surge that is bigger and broader than the previous two. In the U.S., states now report more people in the hospital with COVID-19 than at any other point this year—and 40 percent more than just two weeks ago. ................  Some health-care workers told me that COVID-19 patients are the sickest people they’ve ever cared for: They require twice as much attention as a typical intensive-care-unit patient, for three times the normal length of stay. ...............  Hospitalizations lag behind cases by about two weeks; by Thanksgiving, today’s soaring cases will be overwhelming hospitals that already cannot cope. “The wave hasn’t even crashed down on us yet,” Perencevich said. “It keeps rising and rising, and we’re all running on fear. The health-care system in Iowa is going to collapse, no question.” .............. This cumulative knowledge means that death rates from COVID-19 are much lower now than they were in the spring. Flattening the curve worked as intended, giving health-care workers some breathing room to learn how to handle a disease that didn’t even exist this time last year. ............. If death rates have fallen thanks to increasing medical savvy, they might rise again as nurses and doctors burn out. ............ Every day, they’ll need to be flipped onto their stomach, and then onto their back again—a process that requires six or seven people. They’ll have several tubes going into their heart and blood vessels, administering eight to 12 drugs—sedatives, pain medications, blood thinners, antibiotics, and more. All of these must be carefully adjusted, sometimes minute to minute, by an ICU nurse. None of these drugs is for treating COVID-19 itself. “That’s just to keep them alive,” Neville, the Iowa nurse, said. An ICU nurse can typically care for two people at a time, but a single COVID-19 patient can consume their full attention. Those patients remain in the ICU for three times the length of the usual stay. ............... a third pandemic surge that is bigger and broader than the previous two. .................. Nurses and doctors are also falling sick themselves. “The winter is traditionally a very stressful time in health care, and everyone gets taken down at some point” ............  The third COVID-19 surge has intensified this seasonal cycle, as health-care workers catch the virus, often from outside the hospital. ...........  “but now the entire nation is on fire.” No one has reinforcements to send. ...........  COVID-19 has eaten away at the emotional core of their work. “To be a nurse, you really have to care about people,” Neville said. But when an ICU is packed with COVID-19 patients, most of whom are likely to die, “to protect yourself, you just shut down. You get to the point when you realize that you’ve become a machine. There’s only so many bags you can zip.” .............. across the country, doctors and nurses have struggled with the same anxieties as everyone else—loneliness, extra child-care burdens, the stress of a tumultuous year, fear. “The lines between our personal lives and our careers have completely gone” ...............  “I’ve had conversations with people who’ve been nurses for 25 years, and all of them say the same thing: ‘We’ve never worked in this environment before’” ...........  As hard as the work fatigue is, the “societal fatigue” is harder ........... He is tired of walking out of an ICU where COVID-19 has killed another patient, and walking into a grocery store where he hears people saying it doesn’t exist. ............ The next months will be bleak. .......... ending a steady stream of gaslighting and misinformation from the federal government itself. ............ Biden will inherit a health-care system that is battered at best and broken at worst, a polarized electorate, and many local leaders who are doubling down on bad policies. Trump won Iowa by eight points ...........  the best strategy remains the obvious one: Keep people from getting infected at all. ...... Once again, the nation must flatten the curve. This need not involve a lockdown. We now know that the coronavirus mostly spreads through the air, and does so easily when people spend prolonged periods together in poorly ventilated areas. People can reduce their risk by wearing masks

In The News (17)

U.S. Passes 12 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Cases of COVID-19 are rising at an alarming rate in nearly every state as the nation approaches Thanksgiving. The cumulative case count passed 12 million on Saturday, six days after the previous million mark was crossed, which was six days after the previous million........ To avoid an even starker increase in the spread of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to not travel for Thanksgiving at all. The CDC says Thanksgiving should be spent only with people actively living in your own household for at least 14 days before the holiday, advice many medical professionals are echoing.   

G-20 Summit Opens With Calls For United Response To Pandemic

सावधान ! मधुमेहका रोगीलाई कोरोनाले छिटो संक्रमण गर्न सक्छ ! महामारीमा मधुमेह रोगीको स्वास्थ्य अवस्था झन जटिल बन्दै : वीर अस्पतालका मधुमेह रोग विशेषज्ञ डाक्टर दीपक मल्ल

धुलोमा भेटिएको कोहिनुर अर्थात् डाक्टर विष्णुमाया परियार

Elon Musk: First Mars City Will Start With Glass Domes "At least a future spacefaring civilization — discovering our ruins — will be impressed humans got that far." 

100 Notable Books of 2020 The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review

Trump Using Last Days to Lock In Policies and Make Biden’s Task More Difficult At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trump’s political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the president’s legacy.

US coronavirus cases top 12 million. An expert says spread is now 'faster' and 'broader' than ever November already accounts for almost a quarter of all Covid-19 cases ......... the real case count is likely to be "multitudes" higher than the 12 million reported because not enough people are getting tested. ......... more than 50% of Covid-19 infections are spread by people who exhibit no symptoms. .......... a negative test result will not guarantee a person isn't carrying the virus to a Thanksgiving gathering, because a test won't necessarily pick up on fresh infections .............. in the 24 counties that required people to wear masks in public, there was a net decrease of 6% in cases. Meanwhile, in counties without the mandate, the disease continued to surge, with a net increase in cases of about 100%. 

बालुवाटार भेटको तरंग : ओलीले देउवालाई प्रधानमन्त्री ‘अफर’ गरेकै हुन् ?

प्रस्ताव फिर्ता नलिने प्रचण्डको अडानबीच ओलीको देउवा कार्ड कता जाला नेकपा विवाद ?

राजनीति मूल्य, मान्यतामा आधारित हुनुपर्छ : अध्यक्ष  यादव

Bill Gates on his WFH schedule during the pandemic, including what he likes about it  he hasn’t been to a physical office since March. .......... Now, “it’s a simpler schedule.” .......... traveling can also disrupt “being thoughtful,” as well as his reading time and even his sleep quality ............. These days, Gates said, he has mostly been reading about the pandemic ........... Gen-Z adults, those ages 18 to 23, reported the highest levels of stress during the pandemic compared to other generations.  

Here’s what President-elect Joe Biden wants to include in a coronavirus stimulus bill It is possible that Democrats could take control of the Senate when Georgia hosts a runoff election for two seats in January, potentially making it easier to pass a bill. ......... millions of people could lose unemployment benefits altogether by December 31, 2020 and housing advocates warn about an impending eviction crisis if more relief isn’t made available. ........ he will work with Congress to extend the extra $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits that expired at the end of July for “however long this crisis lasts.” ......... Biden has advocated making all testing and treatment for Covid-19 free for everyone, including any possible vaccines. 

Biden calls for Congress to pass another coronavirus relief package. But there’s no sign of a stimulus deal as holidays approach  Biden said he supports a stimulus package like the HEROES Act, the $3 trillion relief package passed by House Democrats in May, that included provisions for enhanced unemployment benefits, a second stimulus check, aid for state and local governments and housing relief. He also noted that sick leave and more money for child care are economic imperatives 

What's next for the Trump show? "They don't want the ride to end," when Trump leaves office. .........  focusing instead on his TV star bona fides and his packed rallies. "He is," declared Ruddy, "a very great TV personality." ........... Trump has been building his persona since his early days in New York City, when, before completing a single building project, he sold himself as a rich, sexy and much sought-after young man. "He looks ever so much like Robert Redford," a New York Times reporter gushed in 1976. Over time, celebrity became Trump's main product. As Donald Trump played Donald Trump on TV and at public events, he netted hundreds of millions of dollars more in some years than he earned in his real estate business ............. Trump's true money-making talent lies in media and not real estate .......... Trump ran for President in 2016 not to gain office but to increase his visibility ......... The campaign was a "political infomercial" ...... $2 billion worth of free publicity as the press became transfixed by his tirades and insults ............ allowed Trump to expand his fan base to include 70 million voters and 90 million followers on Twitter. ............ From the Trump family's perspective, January 20, 2021 need not mark not an end, but a beginning. To quote Kimberly Guilfoyle, "The best is yet to come!"

When the World Seems Like One Big Conspiracy Understanding the structure of global cabal theories can shed light on their allure — and their inherent falsehood........ at its heart, Nazism was a global cabal theory based on this anti-Semitic lie: “A cabal of Jewish financiers secretly dominates the world and are plotting to destroy the Aryan race. They engineered the Bolshevik Revolution, run Western democracies, and control the media and the banks. Only Hitler has managed to see through all their nefarious tricks — and only he can stop them and save humanity.” ...........  Global cabal theories argue that underneath the myriad events we see on the surface of the world lurks a single sinister group. .............. Global cabal theories are able to attract large followings in part because they offer a single, straightforward explanation to countless complicated processes. Our lives are repeatedly rocked by wars, revolutions, crises and pandemics. But if I believe some kind of global cabal theory, I enjoy the comforting feeling that I do understand everything. ............ The skeleton key of global cabal theory unlocks all the world’s mysteries and offers me entree into an exclusive circle — the group of people who understand. It makes me smarter and wiser than the average person and even elevates me above the intellectual elite and the ruling class .............. The key premise of global cabal theories is that it is relatively easy to manipulate the world. .............. Particularly remarkable is this group’s ability to see 10 moves ahead on the global board game. .............. it is incredibly difficult to predict and control human affairs. ......... Lenin, for example, would never have won power in Russia by avoiding the public gaze. And Stalin at first was much fonder of scheming behind closed doors, but by the time he monopolized power in the Soviet Union, his portrait was hanging in every office, school and home from the Baltic to the Pacific.  

देउवालाई आठ मन्त्रालयसहित सहकार्यको प्रस्ताव राखे ओलीले 

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.”