"Betelgeuse's odd recent dimming was caused by a huge cloud of material that the supergiant star blasted into space, a new study suggests." And it didn't even say, "Excuse me."
"Robert Redfield said in an interview with WebMD that if Americans don't follow public health guidance, the country could be facing 'the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had.'" Jazz hands.
"Coronavirus contaminated chicken came from Brazil's Aurora, Chinese local government says." Not that you could actually contract it that way, but sure.
"U.S. government scientists have begun efforts to manufacture a strain of the novel coronavirus that could be used in human challenge trials of vaccines, a controversial type of study in which healthy volunteers would be vaccinated and then intentionally infected with the virus, Reuters has learned." What could go wrong?
"Parents who are suing the governor of California to allow schools to open for in-person learning said Thursday that their children are suffering academically and psychologically… 'The negative effects of keeping schools closed far outweigh the risks of opening them,' said Jesse Petrilla, a father of two boys and a plaintiff in the suit filed on July 29." While I agree that online schooling is a poor substitute (and is not good for most people as well as injecting more of the economic divide into the quality of education), I think death, life-long effects of the disease, and loss of parents/family is a little more risky than having online education. It would also be equally as easy to say, "Isn't enthusiasm for learning and the psychological wellbeing really the parent's responsibility?" But then that would be ignoring 40 years of transferring those duties to the school to free up the parents to work longer and harder (as well as both parents working). And then we have all the services we provide children through the schools (food, healthcare, psychological care, etc). We've dismantled all the other government activities that could have provided those so there is no ready way to get those services to kids without them going to school. But as to "proper precautions" keeping kids form contracting COVID-19, yes there are some. It's home schooling. Anything else exposes them to the risks of contracting the disease.
"The number of Americans contemplating suicide is soaring, and many more are showing signs of mental disorders, a CDC survey found. Nearly 41% of the 5,412 people who responded to the late-June CDC survey reported 'at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition.'" Working with the ER, can confirm. While this will be blamed on the pandemic (social isolation, etc), I think it more connected to the general political health of the country. Right now we are extremely dysfunctional, and that permeates out. And when that happens, despair about even the small things is a natural outcome.
"Consumers spent less than expected in July as a pullback in auto sales helped cool an economy struggling to shake off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic… Retail sales rose 1.2% for the month, against the expected increase of 2.3% from economists surveyed by Dow Jones." Note this is measured in actual dollars spent, not items purchased.
How go the Trade Wars? "Top U.S. and Chinese trade officials are expected to recommit to a Phase 1 trade deal during a review on Saturday, even though China’s promised purchases of U.S. exports are far behind schedule." nSo, basically we're trying to get movement on an agreement that was made nearly a year ago. Cool. Cool.
"On Thursday, thousands of women, many dressed in white and carrying flowers, turned out in the streets across Belarus for a second day of protests. They're reacting to a violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations triggered by a weekend election widely viewed as fraudulent." Another day, another protest.
"Several people who were detained for participating in mass protests in Belarus this week allege that the country's security forces beat, tortured and humiliated them while in government custody."
"Acting DHS chief Wolf and senior aide Cuccinelli not legally qualified to hold their jobs, congressional watchdog says… Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed their jobs by an order of succession from an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job, the GAO concluded."
"At a press conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump quickly moved past a reporter's question on whether he regretted lying throughout his first term in office." Because if he answered he didn't lie (which is what he should have done), that would have been another lie.
"The US government says Yale University is illegally discriminating against white and Asian-American applicants… The results of a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice found the Ivy League university had breached civil rights law in its undergraduate admissions process." This again? Seriously, the SCOTUS has already ruled on this. But the court makeup has changed. The expect to get affirmative action ruled unconstitutional.
Birtherism 2.0. "President Donald Trump spent years pushing lies about the birthplace and presidential eligibility of President Barack Obama, the first Black president… On Thursday, he started floating a new birther lie about Sen. Kamala Harris, who, if elected, would be the first Black and Asian American vice president."
There's a video circulating online… "VP Mike Pence: 'Sen. Kamala Harris said she would change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat.'" Lots os people are just "they'll just make shit up for people to be afraid of because that's all the GOP has anymore, fear." I can appreciate that. But here is a brand new dog whistle. Kamala is part Indian. Indian Hindus don't eat cow (American Red Meat). This is a racist attack.
"Colorado's top elections official on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of lying about vote by mail as the President continues to baselessly assert that mail-in voting is wrought with fraud and abuse."
"President Donald Trump, whose campaign has tried to thwart mail-in voting, has requested an absentee ballot that will allow him to cast a Florida primary ballot via the U.S. Postal Service." Pointing out the hypocrisy doesn't work. It doesn't affect the base who have been conditioned to believe anything their leaders say and deny anything that contradicts that.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Despite Biden’s lead, when asked who their neighbors are supporting, voters put Trump on top: 39 percent think the folks next door are going for the president, while 34 percent say Biden. More Republicans (67 percent) think their neighbors will back Trump than Democrats believe theirs will support Biden (56 percent)." They love him in the emails.
"Among many other accusations, Cohen alleges that Trump worked to get close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs,” according to an excerpt released Thursday from the book, entitled 'Disloyal, A Memoir.'… Cohen claims that Trump lied when he told the American public he had no dealings in Russia, because Cohen personally oversaw Trump’s efforts to secure a major real estate deal in Moscow during the campaign." We already know this, don't we?
John Scalzi, "Fuck You, I’m Voting." What he said.
"While QAnon bubbled on the fringes of the internet for years, researchers and experts say it has emerged in recent months as a sort of centralized hub for conspiracy and alternative health communities. According to an internal document reported by NBC News this week, Facebook now has more than 1,000 of these QAnon groups, totaling millions of members." There are reasons I keep a facebook account open, mostly to keep in contact with some friends and family who prefer that route over anything else. But these past two months have been making me rethink that. I'd hate to lose contact with those friends (who aren't QAnon followers, I should add), but damn if the noise form these assholes isn't drowning out that benefit.
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