There’s now a black market for negative COVID-19 tests so people with COVID-19 can keep their jobs and go to work and spread COVID-19 further and wider. Of course, if legislation was passed to accommodate people who test positive for COVID-19 and make sure they stay whole economically through their trials and tribulations with the disease, no doubt a burgeoning black market would develop for positive COVID-19 tests so people who don’t have COVID-19 can take prolonged vacations at others’ expense and obscure COVID-19 statistics.
I like Ted Koppels view, that today, editorials have become front page news. Too many people would rather discuss opinions first, and then make any news fit those “facts”.
It sickens me to watch so many powerful people put their personal/political/economic agenda before the interests of this nation in what could well be…an existential crisis.
Sorry to disagree with you S. Brennon, I truly respect your comments. But this pandemic is not a existential crisis. Humanity will continue through this. Human created global climate change is the existential crisis. Our stupidity and inability to change has caused 60 % of the world’s wildlife to disappear in the past 50 years. The rate of species extinctions is increasing almost logarithmically. Now that is existential. Why do we humans continue to think that we are the be all and end all on this planet.
Stay safe. You’ll probably make it through this. Our social structure may not.
“An existential threat is a threat to something’s very existence—when the continued being of something is at stake or in danger. It is used to describe threats to actual living things as well to nonliving thing things, such as a country or an ideology”
“as well to nonliving thing things, such as a country or an ideology” being the key difference between our POVs.
I’ve heard various individuals say that there is currently no ”left”, including Chomsky. I\’ve heard others say that there is no \”right.\” Is there a definition or foundational element to being considered ”left”? I’ve never heard a precise definition of what it means to be ”left”, or ”right\”, but rather it seems that everyone has their own idea of what is left or right. Thanks.
How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House. An investigation of the alliance among conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, longtime Trump associate Roger Stone and the president — and their role in the battle over truth and lies.
This ought to be titled “United States of Ignorance and Stupidity”. I would not have believed that anyone with at least a halfass education would listen to – much rather believe – Alex Jones, but I was wrong. This seems to be what many citizens choose for their “education”. IF this is truly the norm, then I don’t think that there is much hope for our country. We will be well on our way to a failed nation-state.
Take your own survey by sending the link to others to see if they can become enlightened OR do they actually believe the infamous crap that Alex Jones vomits every time he speaks.
I’m noticing that the insects are gone this year. Not all of them, but enough that I can hear the difference. For those of you who have not spent your lives in a semi-tropical canopy forest, it is a pretty noisy environment when it is healthy. At night the sound of the insects used to be cacophonous, but not anymore. The bees seem to be gone for the most part, but the damn mosquitoes are thriving. So I guess even the bugs around here are neoliberal, with producers dying off and parasites proliferating.
It’s a good take on the recent history of economics in the west combined with some interesting policy recommendations to correct the mess we are in. The format of the book is a conversation between the two authors, Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan.
Some of you may know Mark Blyth from his last book, “Austerity the History of a Dangerous Idea”.
I can report that too, at least where I am, which is definitely not a semi-tropical canopy forest. I was reading about it on another forum and the results around the US were mixed: some places fine, with others reporting the strange absence of insects.
Is there a definition or foundational element to being considered ”left”?
I think it comes down to how you feel about hierarchy, authority and domination.
For people on the right, the best state is an aristocracy with all the ordering of rank, power and honor that implies. For a person of conservative views, aristocracy is not just desirable, but natural. Conservatives are often sympathetic to explanations of social or economic success anchored in genetics and immune to tinkering thru public policy. Their ideas of justice respect the privileges of property ownership.
People on the left tend to be egalitarians. Politically, their ideas of justice center on fairness by standards of reciprocity and the universal claims of moral persons. The Left are the perennial champions of the oppressed and the working classes. They tend to see economic inequality as artificial and socially corrosive. They see explanations for social and economic failure in institutions and seek reforms thru public policy.
Any resemblance between political philosophies/ideologies and the fashions of the opposed blue and red “tribes” of American politics, created and managed by corporate media propaganda, is purely coincidental.
They’re just high abstraction words. Worse, people individually define them differently from each other, as we all know, so are we even communicating? On the Linnaean scale of politics, we should talk more about policy instead. That’s species level, rather than plant vs animal, left vs right; ism vs ism. It’s part of the control scheme, really. Suggest a single policy-level solution and someone will immediately kick it back to stupidville: “but that’s socialism!” (i.e. the whole system is now totally socialist, natch)
Welcome to the existential threat of our times. As go the bees so go we. Insects are the perfect example of the mass extinction event that we humans have created. Human overpopulation is the primary culprit with western capitalism riding shotgun. If you’re old enough you may remember three environmental “rules” from the 1960’s; everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Science has been warning us but we refused to listen.
The link is to a video of Mark Blyth’s talk about global Trumpism. He is the go-to guy to understand the truth about why Trump won. Also has a twitter feed worth following.
Speaking of important thinkers that our reptile leaders ignore and banish, Thomas Frank’s work just keeps getting better and better. The link below is to a recent article of his that is making the rounds in left blogistan. It’s a history of the fight for national healthcare in the U.S. and Canada. Besides a scathing indictment of doctors, he also breaks down the fascist intent implicit in our glorification of professionals.
Of course. They’re a cultural phenomenon, they’re an industry, and they’re a tool by which the government keeps the kids in check. They also use the same thing to keep the housewives down. Every time you take some dope and you think you’re getting some escape from your life, you’re just playing right into the government’s hand. Everytime you use whatever it is that you use, you’re registering yourself as a pawn.
There were good vibrations in the ’67–’70 period, and you were particularly cynical then.
… The fact of the matter was everyone else was going around kissing everybody else’s ass, and if you didn’t have two fingers up in the air, some beads around your neck, a song tied on your head and a couple of flowers in your pocket, then you didn’t have any peer-group status. But that whole thing was an immense pile of shit. … They were just so full of dope that they were going blindly their own way, not thinking for a moment that the origin of LSD was in the CIA and a lot of them probably don’t like to think about that now. By taking LSD they were helping the CIA in one of their favorite experiments. After they got done taking volunteers from the army, they actually made a profit selling it to people on the street, and seeing what actually happened to a civilian population.
Watched a UC Davis sponsored video last night on infection and prevention Covid-19, it was geared towards informing the medical community about recent research in the areas of aerosol particulate and protection. It was interesting in that there appeared to be no political actors, each person who spoke seemed to distribute inconvenient truths to both unscientific Ds and unscientific Rs in fair portion.
Long story short:
1] Covid-19 creates the most serious infections in the aerosol groups with particulate small enough to reach the lung tissue directly. This means that the 6 feet rule while helpful, in that the source’s distribution follows the cube of the distance rule. 6 feet is slightly better than nothing but…close to useless in confined spaces, the particulate sizes that results in the most serious infections can reach well beyond six feet.
2] We now have good evidence to show that the initial dose of covid-19 is a VERY LARGE determinate in the seriousness of the illness and every indication that if the initial dose is low enough, the person is prone to be asymptomatic. [Spoiler alert; This has been known to be the case in numerous other viral infections and most informed people may have already surmised this might be the case here.] Masks, when worn by OVER 80% are useful at reducing serious infection. When the % of mask users drops below 80% masks appear to have much less value unless, they are of the highest grade. When the usage of masks was over 90%, the percentage of known cases were asymptomatic 85% of the time.
So both sides are right, masks CAN BE EFFECTIVE if high enough of a % of the population wear them but, masks are NOT EFFECTIVE if high enough of a % of the population prefer their personal freedom over their biblically prescribed obligation “to love thy neighbor as thy self”. This being Sunday and all, it’s probably a good day to ask, am I to be my brothers keeper?
Nobody ever says this, but I can’t be the only one thinking it. The quality of the comments here is one of the reasons I keep returning to this site. Ian is the main attraction of course, but the comments are always really good too. So, just wanted to do a quick nod of thanks to all the participants here who are so interesting and teach me so much.
One of my favorites in the thread today was this one from Bruce Wilder:
“Any resemblance between political philosophies/ideologies and the fashions of the opposed blue and red “tribes” of American politics, created and managed by corporate media propaganda, is purely coincidental.”
That was my first laugh of the morning. Still funny reading it again for this post.
@someofparts Exactly. The best blogs are the best because the hosts are able to attract (through their excellent writing) the best comments. I feel like I’m following Hugh and Nihil Obstet and Bruce as much as I’m following Ian.
The point of the game called capitalism is to make a profit. Nothing else. But, like every game, the strategy changes as it is played. In the “halcyon” days of capital, markets were easily created, especially for cheap labor. But these burgeoning markets are gone and labor will never be cheap enough again. I’d economize on phosphates, too.
Capitalism can’t be reformed anymore than a wrench can. You can use it if it works but not if you need a screwdriver. Maybe capitalism isn’t useful now, either.
The only thing the great-writing commenters can do to do their part to keep the comments part of the blog worth reading is to keep the quality of their comments good or great.
There is nothing the good-to-great commenters can do to stop the periodic human trollwave attacks which have targeted the comment section in the past and will target the comment section in the future. The only thing the non-troll commenters can do is to not reply to the trolls. The only thing the readers can do is to remember that some of the trolls hope to make reading the threads such an unpleasant time-suck experience that non-troll readers will quit reading. Non-troll readers should remember that if they decide to quit reading.
It is possible to avoid stepping in most of the puddles of troll-puke and troll-sewage by stepping around them. I tend to stop reading as soon as I realize a particular comment is really just a piece of fece left by a squatting troll. One soon learns the troll names ( till they change their names . . . . in which case one just learns the new names) and one remembers that God made a scroll button.
Plague Species
There’s now a black market for negative COVID-19 tests so people with COVID-19 can keep their jobs and go to work and spread COVID-19 further and wider. Of course, if legislation was passed to accommodate people who test positive for COVID-19 and make sure they stay whole economically through their trials and tribulations with the disease, no doubt a burgeoning black market would develop for positive COVID-19 tests so people who don’t have COVID-19 can take prolonged vacations at others’ expense and obscure COVID-19 statistics.
Stirling S Newberry
“Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik.”
“But probably the reason is that one dead man is death – and two million are only a statitic.”
Erich Maria Remarque, Black Obelisk, End of Chaptor 8
Hugh
Whereas 150,000 or 200,000, that’s fake news, not my fault, look over there.
Willy
I like Ted Koppels view, that today, editorials have become front page news. Too many people would rather discuss opinions first, and then make any news fit those “facts”.
S Brennan
Again Willy, agree.
It sickens me to watch so many powerful people put their personal/political/economic agenda before the interests of this nation in what could well be…an existential crisis.
Dale
Sorry to disagree with you S. Brennon, I truly respect your comments. But this pandemic is not a existential crisis. Humanity will continue through this. Human created global climate change is the existential crisis. Our stupidity and inability to change has caused 60 % of the world’s wildlife to disappear in the past 50 years. The rate of species extinctions is increasing almost logarithmically. Now that is existential. Why do we humans continue to think that we are the be all and end all on this planet.
Stay safe. You’ll probably make it through this. Our social structure may not.
S Brennan
No disrespect Dale;
But my intended meaning was;
“An existential threat is a threat to something’s very existence—when the continued being of something is at stake or in danger. It is used to describe threats to actual living things as well to nonliving thing things, such as a country or an ideology”
“as well to nonliving thing things, such as a country or an ideology” being the key difference between our POVs.
Jimmy
I’ve heard various individuals say that there is currently no ”left”, including Chomsky. I\’ve heard others say that there is no \”right.\” Is there a definition or foundational element to being considered ”left”? I’ve never heard a precise definition of what it means to be ”left”, or ”right\”, but rather it seems that everyone has their own idea of what is left or right. Thanks.
Jeremy
Read/watch and weep.
Official figures from Brazil have shown a big increase in the number of fires in the Amazon region in July compared with the same month last year.
Satellite images compiled by Brazil’s National Space Agency revealed there were 6,803 – a rise of 28%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53626544
Chuck Mire
Pandemic conspiracy theories – Age of ignorance & Anti-science
https://www.vox.com/2020/7/26/21338174/covid-19-conspiracy-theories-fauci-sinclair-plandemic
Chuck Mire
PBS Frontline: United States of Conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVjL5rUx3TM (53:17)
How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House. An investigation of the alliance among conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, longtime Trump associate Roger Stone and the president — and their role in the battle over truth and lies.
This ought to be titled “United States of Ignorance and Stupidity”. I would not have believed that anyone with at least a halfass education would listen to – much rather believe – Alex Jones, but I was wrong. This seems to be what many citizens choose for their “education”. IF this is truly the norm, then I don’t think that there is much hope for our country. We will be well on our way to a failed nation-state.
Take your own survey by sending the link to others to see if they can become enlightened OR do they actually believe the infamous crap that Alex Jones vomits every time he speaks.
someofparts
I’m noticing that the insects are gone this year. Not all of them, but enough that I can hear the difference. For those of you who have not spent your lives in a semi-tropical canopy forest, it is a pretty noisy environment when it is healthy. At night the sound of the insects used to be cacophonous, but not anymore. The bees seem to be gone for the most part, but the damn mosquitoes are thriving. So I guess even the bugs around here are neoliberal, with producers dying off and parasites proliferating.
GlassHammer
So I bought this book some weeks ago and since I am past the halfway point I feel comfortable recommending it.
https://www.amazon.com/Angrynomics-Eric-Lonergan/dp/1788212797
It’s a good take on the recent history of economics in the west combined with some interesting policy recommendations to correct the mess we are in. The format of the book is a conversation between the two authors, Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan.
Some of you may know Mark Blyth from his last book, “Austerity the History of a Dangerous Idea”.
Joan
@someofparts,
I can report that too, at least where I am, which is definitely not a semi-tropical canopy forest. I was reading about it on another forum and the results around the US were mixed: some places fine, with others reporting the strange absence of insects.
bruce wilder
Is there a definition or foundational element to being considered ”left”?
I think it comes down to how you feel about hierarchy, authority and domination.
For people on the right, the best state is an aristocracy with all the ordering of rank, power and honor that implies. For a person of conservative views, aristocracy is not just desirable, but natural. Conservatives are often sympathetic to explanations of social or economic success anchored in genetics and immune to tinkering thru public policy. Their ideas of justice respect the privileges of property ownership.
People on the left tend to be egalitarians. Politically, their ideas of justice center on fairness by standards of reciprocity and the universal claims of moral persons. The Left are the perennial champions of the oppressed and the working classes. They tend to see economic inequality as artificial and socially corrosive. They see explanations for social and economic failure in institutions and seek reforms thru public policy.
bruce wilder
Any resemblance between political philosophies/ideologies and the fashions of the opposed blue and red “tribes” of American politics, created and managed by corporate media propaganda, is purely coincidental.
Charles
@jimmy:
They’re just high abstraction words. Worse, people individually define them differently from each other, as we all know, so are we even communicating? On the Linnaean scale of politics, we should talk more about policy instead. That’s species level, rather than plant vs animal, left vs right; ism vs ism. It’s part of the control scheme, really. Suggest a single policy-level solution and someone will immediately kick it back to stupidville: “but that’s socialism!” (i.e. the whole system is now totally socialist, natch)
Dale
Someofparts & Joan,
Welcome to the existential threat of our times. As go the bees so go we. Insects are the perfect example of the mass extinction event that we humans have created. Human overpopulation is the primary culprit with western capitalism riding shotgun. If you’re old enough you may remember three environmental “rules” from the 1960’s; everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Science has been warning us but we refused to listen.
someofparts
@ Joan – Sorry to hear you are seeing the same insect loss I am. I would love to check out the forum you mentioned if you have a link.
@ Glass Hammer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkm2Vfj42FY
The link is to a video of Mark Blyth’s talk about global Trumpism. He is the go-to guy to understand the truth about why Trump won. Also has a twitter feed worth following.
Speaking of important thinkers that our reptile leaders ignore and banish, Thomas Frank’s work just keeps getting better and better. The link below is to a recent article of his that is making the rounds in left blogistan. It’s a history of the fight for national healthcare in the U.S. and Canada. Besides a scathing indictment of doctors, he also breaks down the fascist intent implicit in our glorification of professionals.
https://mondediplo.com/2020/08/02populism-expertise
Also, stumbled across a treasure this morning. Long interview with Zappa.
http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Frank_Zappa:_Outraged_Consumer
“You think drugs are really cultural?
Of course. They’re a cultural phenomenon, they’re an industry, and they’re a tool by which the government keeps the kids in check. They also use the same thing to keep the housewives down. Every time you take some dope and you think you’re getting some escape from your life, you’re just playing right into the government’s hand. Everytime you use whatever it is that you use, you’re registering yourself as a pawn.
There were good vibrations in the ’67–’70 period, and you were particularly cynical then.
… The fact of the matter was everyone else was going around kissing everybody else’s ass, and if you didn’t have two fingers up in the air, some beads around your neck, a song tied on your head and a couple of flowers in your pocket, then you didn’t have any peer-group status. But that whole thing was an immense pile of shit. … They were just so full of dope that they were going blindly their own way, not thinking for a moment that the origin of LSD was in the CIA and a lot of them probably don’t like to think about that now. By taking LSD they were helping the CIA in one of their favorite experiments. After they got done taking volunteers from the army, they actually made a profit selling it to people on the street, and seeing what actually happened to a civilian population.
S Brennan
Watched a UC Davis sponsored video last night on infection and prevention Covid-19, it was geared towards informing the medical community about recent research in the areas of aerosol particulate and protection. It was interesting in that there appeared to be no political actors, each person who spoke seemed to distribute inconvenient truths to both unscientific Ds and unscientific Rs in fair portion.
Long story short:
1] Covid-19 creates the most serious infections in the aerosol groups with particulate small enough to reach the lung tissue directly. This means that the 6 feet rule while helpful, in that the source’s distribution follows the cube of the distance rule. 6 feet is slightly better than nothing but…close to useless in confined spaces, the particulate sizes that results in the most serious infections can reach well beyond six feet.
2] We now have good evidence to show that the initial dose of covid-19 is a VERY LARGE determinate in the seriousness of the illness and every indication that if the initial dose is low enough, the person is prone to be asymptomatic. [Spoiler alert; This has been known to be the case in numerous other viral infections and most informed people may have already surmised this might be the case here.] Masks, when worn by OVER 80% are useful at reducing serious infection. When the % of mask users drops below 80% masks appear to have much less value unless, they are of the highest grade. When the usage of masks was over 90%, the percentage of known cases were asymptomatic 85% of the time.
So both sides are right, masks CAN BE EFFECTIVE if high enough of a % of the population wear them but, masks are NOT EFFECTIVE if high enough of a % of the population prefer their personal freedom over their biblically prescribed obligation “to love thy neighbor as thy self”. This being Sunday and all, it’s probably a good day to ask, am I to be my brothers keeper?
someofparts
Nobody ever says this, but I can’t be the only one thinking it. The quality of the comments here is one of the reasons I keep returning to this site. Ian is the main attraction of course, but the comments are always really good too. So, just wanted to do a quick nod of thanks to all the participants here who are so interesting and teach me so much.
One of my favorites in the thread today was this one from Bruce Wilder:
“Any resemblance between political philosophies/ideologies and the fashions of the opposed blue and red “tribes” of American politics, created and managed by corporate media propaganda, is purely coincidental.”
That was my first laugh of the morning. Still funny reading it again for this post.
Chipper
@someofparts Exactly. The best blogs are the best because the hosts are able to attract (through their excellent writing) the best comments. I feel like I’m following Hugh and Nihil Obstet and Bruce as much as I’m following Ian.
Bruce
The point of the game called capitalism is to make a profit. Nothing else. But, like every game, the strategy changes as it is played. In the “halcyon” days of capital, markets were easily created, especially for cheap labor. But these burgeoning markets are gone and labor will never be cheap enough again. I’d economize on phosphates, too.
Capitalism can’t be reformed anymore than a wrench can. You can use it if it works but not if you need a screwdriver. Maybe capitalism isn’t useful now, either.
Chuck Mire
Trump’s New Favorite COVID Doctor Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine
different clue
@someofparts,
The only thing the great-writing commenters can do to do their part to keep the comments part of the blog worth reading is to keep the quality of their comments good or great.
There is nothing the good-to-great commenters can do to stop the periodic human trollwave attacks which have targeted the comment section in the past and will target the comment section in the future. The only thing the non-troll commenters can do is to not reply to the trolls. The only thing the readers can do is to remember that some of the trolls hope to make reading the threads such an unpleasant time-suck experience that non-troll readers will quit reading. Non-troll readers should remember that if they decide to quit reading.
It is possible to avoid stepping in most of the puddles of troll-puke and troll-sewage by stepping around them. I tend to stop reading as soon as I realize a particular comment is really just a piece of fece left by a squatting troll. One soon learns the troll names ( till they change their names . . . . in which case one just learns the new names) and one remembers that God made a scroll button.