I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Linkee-poo Election Day Nov 3

Hang on folks, it's going to be a rough week.

"The center of Hurricane Eta, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, was nearing the coast of Nicaragua on Tuesday, pummeling homes and potentially bringing life-threatening flooding to Central America's Caribbean coast."

"But one experiment has drawn more scrutiny than the others. In August 2019, Muotri’s group published a paper in Cell Stem Cell reporting the creation of human brain organoids that produced coordinated waves of activity, resembling those seen in premature babies. The waves continued for months before the team shut the experiment down." At the edge of ethics. Consciousness is an emergent property, and there are very few hard lines in biology.

"With new coronavirus infections surging and area hospitals already at capacity, medical examiners in El Paso, Texas, have received a fourth refrigerated morgue to temporarily store bodies, a county official says."

"Why was the United States left scrambling for critical medical equipment as the coronavirus swept the country? With the Associated Press and Global Reporting Centre, FRONTLINE investigates the fragmented global medical supply chain and its deadly consequences." Just In Time was never meant for service industry sectors (of which healthcare is one), the same as Lean Manufacturing. But because many of our corporate leaders are MBAs instead of engineers or people who worked their way up, here we are. Also Peter Navarro is a fucking idiot and should not have the position he's in (or the supposed respect he has), at least IMHO.

"At this point, Anchia's best hope is that his wife will be covered by a federal assistance program for uninsured COVID-19 patients. But that's because he lives in one of the dozen holdout states that hasn't expanded Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. That part of the ACA was intended to provide health coverage for adults who are working but who have no insurance through their job — either because it's not offered or because they can't afford the premiums."

"A Wisconsin court commissioner on Monday set bail at $2 million for Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of killing protesters in Kenosha, in his first court appearance in the state after being extradited from Illinois last week."

"The Black Lives Matter movement got a favorable ruling Monday from the Supreme Court… The justices tossed out a federal appeals court decision that allowed a Black Lives Matter protest organizer to be sued by a police officer injured by an unknown assailant."

"A Russian oligarch, nicknamed The Sausage King, has been murdered with a crossbow, investigators say… Vladimir Marugov and his partner were in an outdoor sauna cabin when they were attacked, reportedly by two masked assailants."

"A Florida principal who wrote in an email to a parent that he could not confirm that the Holocaust was a 'factual, historical event' was fired for a second time after being reinstated following an appeal… The Palm Beach County School Board voted Monday to terminate William Latson at Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton again, reversing an earlier decision to reinstate the former principal."

"Americans have bought nearly 17m guns so far in 2020, more than in any other single year, according to estimates from a firearms analytics company… Gun sales across the United States first jumped in the spring, driven by fears about the coronavirus pandemic, and spiked even higher in the summer, during massive racial justice protests across the country, prompted by police killings of black Americans." Banner year for the gun business.

"U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman in Chicago, Ill., rejected a rule Monday implemented by the Trump administration that aimed to deny green cards to immigrants utilizing food stamps and other public benefits. The decision applies nationwide, not just in the state of Illinois."

"That's the headline. But many people overlook other things that could flow from new U.S. jurisprudence on abortion — such as erasing the right to birth control that the court recognized in a 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut. During her confirmation hearings, Barrett specifically refused to say whether she felt Griswold was correctly decided."

"Voters in Colorado and Louisiana will weigh in on state ballot measures Tuesday that have the potential to chip away at abortion access… Coloradans are considering Proposition 115, which would ban abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy, while Louisiana residents will decide whether the state constitution allows a right to abortions."

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had no greater friend in the White House than him. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the only European Union leader to endorse him for president in 2016. And Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he admires him greatly. President Trump has counted several world leaders as his fans, many of them authoritarians, nationalists or populists. But they might have trouble keeping their relationship with the United States as friendly and their growing authoritarian tendencies unchecked if Joe Biden wins the presidency." Yet another reason for my vote for Biden.

"A Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was vandalized with pro-Trump graffiti that was discovered the same day the president visited the city for his final campaign rally of the 2020 election… 'Six headstones in the cemetery were spray painted with "Trump" and/or "MAGA,"' Grand Rapids Sgt. Dan Adams told NBC News in an email Tuesday." MAGA, swastika, same difference.

"Down to the wire with the threat of court battles looming, supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden scrambled Monday to rally swing-state voters to drop off ballots, visit precincts in person and ensure their votes are counted."

"At rallies across the Midwest and Sun Belt swing states, President Donald Trump has been openly discussing murky schemes to prevent legitimate ballots from being counted, escalating threats to disenfranchise millions of American as the weeks-long voting season ends tonight and his pathway to reelection becomes increasingly narrow."

"Still, Trump has shown concern over what will happen to him if he loses, several advisers told the Times, and he expects prosecutors will take a closer look at his business dealings; there are already established investigations into the Trump Organization in New York." Don't worry, Donnie, you'll have company.

"If you were one of the more than 19,000 people to cast your ballot at Trumbull County’s Early Voting Center, you probably noticed a few sheriff’s deputies stationed nearby. It’s something officials say you’ll see if you’re going to vote on Tuesday, too." Ah, small-town Ohio values.

"As the nation careens into the 2020 presidential election amid a damaged economy and a surging pandemic that has infected more than 9 million people and killed more than 230,000, Americans are facing historic division." My Facebook feed is replete with "can't we just be friends." The majority of these are from my "friends" who spent the last 4 years wishing harm against me and my friends (mostly indirectly, but sometimes directly against me), not supporting the downtrodden, celebrating the power grabs by the right, telling me I should "open my eyes and see The Truth", and sometimes calling for the jailing and death of dissenters. Fuck that.

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