American Power

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Zion Graham in Greensboro, North Carolina

The kid's plugging away in summer school with the hopes of beating the zombifcation of learning.

At NYT, "In Mrs. McQueen’s Summer Classroom, an 8-Year-Old Races to Catch Up":

GREENSBORO, N.C. — In second grade, Zion Graham bounded to school. He loved math. His favorite book was about a slow turtle who took all day to get dressed.
Then came the pandemic, and months of joyless remote learning. Zion lost confidence in reading. His performance in third grade plummeted.
Zion, now 8, is spending his summer racing to catch up, back at Hunter Elementary School in Greensboro, N.C. When Zion and his schoolmates arrive by 7:45 a.m. each morning, they face a challenge — and a deadline. How much can they learn before fourth grade starts, to avoid falling even further behind?
Around the country, children are attending summer school like never before, as the United States pushes billions of dollars into education to help children recover from the pandemic. The Biden administration has identified summer learning as one key strategy, allocating at least $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money for it. From San Diego to New York City to Miami, hundreds of thousands of children are attending programs this year, some for the first time. In Guilford County, N.C., the school district that includes Greensboro, summer school enrollment has skyrocketed to 12,000, from 1,200 two years ago.
Yet summer school, by its very nature, is short, and the pandemic’s impact on students is expected to stretch months, even years. “You have kids who have the potential to catch up relatively easy — I mean, before Christmas,” said Tonette McQueen, Zion’s summer teacher. “Then you have some kids who will experience some growth, but will be behind for years to come.”
Though the pandemic hurt almost all students, creating learning gaps for some, and deepening existing gaps for others, research suggests that the students who suffered the most are like those in Mrs. McQueen’s classroom — students of color, low-income students, English language learners and other historically marginalized groups. Hunter Elementary is almost 90 percent Hispanic and Black, and nearly all students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
“It has definitely widened the gap for poor kids and kids of color,” said Tomeka Davis, a sociologist at Georgia State University who studies education, with an emphasis on race and class...

Still more.

Critical Witchcraft Theory

At American Greatness, "'Systemic racism' is not a sociological theory. It is theology. More precisely, it is a demonology: a theory of witchcraft."

Lifeless, Detached Students Have Returned to My Classroom

Writes Jeremy Adams, at the Los Angeles Times, "The Rise of the Zoombies":

Almost every teacher I know has noticed the same sinister reality this summer: Kids have come back to the classroom. But the classroom hasn’t come back to the kids.
Far from it.
More to the point, they are back, they are sitting at their desks, but in many ways they now embody the detached, lifeless malaise of a hipster zombie incapable of showing the slightest patina of zest or zeal. This isn’t their fault, mind you. They have spent the last year in a learning ecosystem that was decidedly not of their choosing — watching Zoom classes, learning through omnipresent pixilated screens that demanded little from them and, in too many instances, taught them even less.
And now?
Now, they are perpetually chilled out, difficult to intellectually prod or verbally poke. They resist verbal engagement with me — or with each other. At the end of the day, we usually have a few minutes to spare before the bell rings. But nowadays there’s little talking. No socializing. No teenage gossiping or flirting. Instead, they silently self-medicate on their devices. For decades the bell would ring and students would fly out of the classroom like it was on fire. Now, their departure is, at best, a leisurely gait.
So we meander forward during this summer school session, making our way through the world history curriculum. The students are oddly obedient. They never argue. Never talk over me. They do everything they are “supposed” to do. But they ask zero questions. They make zero connections. It’s hard to make them laugh, and I can’t tell if they are smiling behind their masks. I am skeptical that they are learning anything of substance despite my best efforts. Their eyes are distant. I can’t decide if they are confused, disoriented or bewildered by the COVID-caused whirlwind they have endured.
My class is almost entirely populated by students who haven’t learned traditionally in nearly a year and a half. And they don’t pull any punches about the difficult pedagogic terrain that lies ahead...

RTWT.

Rep. Ronny Jackson Predicts Biden Won't Finish Term

At the New York Post, "Rep. Ronny Jackson, ex-White House doc, predicts Biden will be forced to resign":

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician-turned-congressman, says he’s “terrified for our country” in the wake of President Joe Biden’s disastrous town hall this week — and that he doubts whether the commander in chief has the cognitive ability to make it through a full term.
“He’s completely LOST it!” Jackson (R-Tex.) tweeted Saturday, along with a video clip — recorded this week — in which Biden bizarrely answered a reporter’s question about defunding the police by claiming that Republicans accuse him of “sucking the blood out of kids.”
“Needs a cognitive exam NOW!” Jackson posted...

More.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow

At Amazon, C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow.

Exclusive: Congressional Republicans Seek to Give Biden War Powers for Cuba.

At the American Conservative:

West Virginia GOP Rep. Alex Mooney is planning to introduce a new congressional joint resolution to grant President Joe Biden the ability to use war powers to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba amid growing unrest in the country.
Images of the resolution reviewed by The American Conservative show that “The Authorization for the Use of Military Forces Against Cuba to Ensure the Delivery of Humanitarian Aid” has three specific goals:

* “ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba, including but not limited to food, water, and medicine;” * “create a safe zone in Cuba for the Cuban people to safely receive humanitarian aid;” and
* “prevent humanitarian aid from being stolen by the Cuban government or its forces.” Mooney’s office stated, “The Congressman hasn’t introduced any legislation related to Cuba. If he does introduce legislation we’ll be happy to comment at that time. Our office doesn’t comment on hypothetical legislation.”

Congressional Republicans have also held separate, virtual, member-level meetings regarding how to respond to the protests in Cuba and have invited representatives of large corporations to them. Emails also reviewed by The American Conservative show an official from Sen. Rick Scott’s office coordinated a meeting on July 19 with members of Congress and representatives with Amazon, Facebook, Google, Verizon, and the wireless communications trade association CTIA.
Sources detailed that senators spoke to companies from Silicon Valley to see what was technically feasible as far as getting internet access into Cuba...

Keep reading.

A Shocking Number of College Grads Wish They Had Been Taught More Life Skills

At Pajamas, "According to a poll from SWNS digital, 81% of college grads wished they had been taught more life skills before graduation. Instead, they learned the importance of pronouns and social justice activism. It seems that many students leave a college clueless about budgeting and what to do when you can’t afford DoorDash."

I Can't Leave My Spouse — I'll Lose My Healthcare

It's Jessa Crispin, at the Guardian U.K., "Like millions of Americans, I can never leave my spouse. I’ll lose my healthcare":

It was around the second dose of fentanyl going into my IV bag that I stopped trying to control how much all of this was going to cost. I had been arguing with every decision the caregivers at the emergency room were making – “Is this Cat scan actually necessary or is there another diagnostic tool?” “Is there a cheaper version of this drug you’re giving me?” – and reminding them repeatedly that I was uninsured, but either the opioids in my bloodstream, or the exhaustion of trying to rest in a room next to a woman who, given the sounds she was making, was clearly transforming into a werewolf, forced me to surrender.
I walked out of there four years ago alive, yes. And, as the doctors and nurses kept reminding me, if I had waited another 48 hours to discover I didn’t actually have the magical ability to self-diagnose and self-treat serious problems with Google and herbs, I might have gone septic. But all said and done, I was also walking home to a $12,000 bill, which was approximately half of my annual income as a single woman.
It took me several years of hardship, contributions from my friends and the assistance of the hospital’s charity program to pay off the $12,000.
Then, last month, it started again. I was at home. I turned my head a little, the whole world started sliding away from me, and I crashed to the floor. I tried to crawl back into bed, insisting, “It’ll pass, it’ll pass.” My husband, on the other hand, was raised in a country with compulsory public health coverage, so his first instinct upon something weird happening isn’t to lie down for 48 hours and see if it goes away. He immediately started plotting the route to a hospital on his phone.
I was back, but this time I was married. The whole hospital visit cost us $30, including the prescription. Everything was covered by his insurance. That’s when I realized I can never divorce my husband.
The first emergency room visit might have been an anomaly – a freak health problem that the nurse explained as “sometimes these things happen”. The intense vertigo was the result of the deterioration of the condition of my ears. It has been a problem since childhood, one left in “let’s wait and see what happens” condition until a weird virus last year – yes, I was the big idiot who caught a debilitating non-coronavirus virus during a coronavirus pandemic – forced me to a doctor, who discovered significant hearing loss and structural damage that will require lifelong treatment and intervention.
As a freelance writer who has tried and failed for years now to get a real job with real benefits, the costs of the surgeries and hearing aids and other treatments the doctor sketched out as part of my future would be suffocating. But almost all of it is covered by my husband’s insurance, making my health and ability to access healthcare dependent on his presence in my life.
While I convalesced from the virus last year, I watched the discussion about health insurance take over the Democratic primary debates. I had little hope that the bright, sparkly Medicare for All plan championed by candidates like Bernie Sanders would be made reality. But still I despaired of the excuses other candidates made for why they did not support guaranteed coverage for all. It angered me to see Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and the eventual winner, Joe Biden, defend their plans to largely maintain the status quo – a system in which employment and marriage determine access to healthcare – as though they were protecting our “freedom” to “choose” coverage that was right for us.
The coercions built into American social welfare programs limit freedom, not preserve it. People who are not financially independent are forced to maintain ties with family members who might be abusive or violent unless they want to relinquish their housing, healthcare or other forms of support. And as outlined by Melinda Cooper’s Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism, the dismantling of protections like food and financial aid in the 80s and 90s had the express purpose of increasing familial obligations in the name of “duty” and “responsibility”. Single parents seeking public support for their children’s well-being now had to first seek assistance through their partners, no matter how fraught or harmful those relationships might be. While politicians spoke of “strengthening families” and repairing the social fabric, one of the consequences of these policy changes was to limit the ability for people to make the basic decisions required to live the lives of their choosing, unless they had the money that in this country is our substitute for freedom...

Still more.

Covid-19 Vaccine Holdouts Face Restrictions in Europe as Delta Variant Spreads

Following-up, "Large Protests in France Over Covid Restrictions (VIDEO)."

At WSJ, "Proof of vaccination is increasingly required to enter restaurants and other public spaces":

European governments worried about the rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant are nudging, and in some cases pushing, people to get a shot by introducing restrictions to daily life for those without a Covid-19 vaccination.
In most cases, vaccination still isn’t obligatory, with a few exceptions such as healthcare workers in Italy. Yet by closing off the unvaccinated from aspects of daily life such as indoor dining at restaurants or going to the gym, governments are looking to make life more difficult for people holding out against getting vaccinated.
The governments have the dual objective of overcoming hesitancy among people who don’t have a hard-core ideological stance against vaccinations, while stemming the need for new lockdowns that would damage European economies. Politicians and public-health officials are pushing the idea that vaccination equals more individual liberty, not less.
The tool being used in most European Union countries to separate the vaccinated from the holdouts is the digital Covid-19 certificate, which has different monikers in different nations.
The certificates, called green passes in Italy and health passes in France, were designed principally to facilitate travel between countries, but now have found an expanded use. They have a unique QR code and can be printed or stored on a mobile phone. In most countries, they can also be accessed through official coronavirus contract-tracing mobile-phone apps.
“The green pass is a means by which people can continue to do their activities, with the guarantee they are doing it in the presence of people who aren’t contagious,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Thursday as he presented a series of new restrictions.
If France, Italy and other European countries succeed in getting the undecideds to roll up their sleeves for a shot, their efforts could become a blueprint for the U.S. and other countries that have seen their vaccination drives stall.
The restrictions have had early success, pushing millions of French people to sign up for vaccination appointments in the past week and helping turn around a stalled campaign. The most recent data show that on average, 298,000 first shots have been administered a day, compared with 161,000 a day in early July.
In Italy, the number of daily first doses ticked up in the past two weeks as the government discussed making activities unavailable to the unvaccinated. In several of the country’s 20 regions, requests for a first shot doubled on Friday, the day after the new measures were announced, compared with what they had been at the beginning of the week.
“We can’t force people to get vaccinated, but those who don’t do it will have fewer opportunities,” Walter Ricciardi, a professor of public health and an adviser to Italy’s health minister, said in a newspaper interview.
But in deference to one of the daily rituals of millions of Italians, the vaccination requirement for indoor dining and drinking doesn’t apply to people having an espresso or cappuccino while standing at a bar.
In most countries that have introduced restrictions on the unvaccinated, proof of recovery from Covid-19 or a negative test will open the same doors. The restrictions usually apply to everybody older than 12, the youngest age for which vaccines have been approved.
In Greece and other countries, indoor dining is only open to the vaccinated, recovered or tested. Italy will follow suit on Aug. 6, adding the requirement for those taking part in indoor sports such as swimming, going to a gym and attending large events like concerts, whether indoors or outside. Trade fairs, museums and a host of other venues are on Italy’s off-limits list for the unvaccinated. In France, the government has set restrictions for museums and movie theaters, and plans in August to extend them to venues including restaurants, both indoors and outside...

Still more.

Hispanics Aren't Marginalized, Oppressed Victims

At Fox News, "Rev. Samuel Rodriguez: Hispanics, Latinos thriving – we are not marginalized, oppressed victims: Please stop calling us marginalized, oppressed victims."

Large Protests in France Over Covid Restrictions (VIDEO)

This is the second weekend in a row for these protests.

At NYT, "Large Covid-related protests hit France, Italy and Australia":

Over 160,000 demonstrators took to the streets in France on Saturday to protest the government’s Covid-19 health pass policy, with brief clashes between largely unmasked protesters and police officers in Paris followed by wafts of tear gas that were reminiscent of the Yellow Vest turmoil of several years ago....
In France, presenting the health pass — paper or digital proof of being fully vaccinated, a recent negative test or recent Covid-19 recovery — is mandatory to attend large events in stadiums and concert halls, and to enter the country’s cultural venues, including cinemas, museums and theaters...

Health passes?

Gawd, what a nightmare.

Still more.

U.S. Moves to Evacuate Afghan Translators as War Winds Down

Man, you'd think we'd be getting these people out of the country --- they be the first to the firing squads once the Taliban topple the regime in Kabul.

At the New York Times, "U.S. scrambles to move translators from Afghanistan while leaving many in limbo:"

An additional 4,000 Afghans who worked with American forces, many of them interpreters, had been approved to relocate to the United States with their families in light of the withdrawal of U.S. troops, State Department officials said on Wednesday.
But officials added that evacuations were only taking place out of Kabul, the capitol, and any eligible Afghans in remote areas were on their own in figuring out how to make the difficult, and likely dangerous, journey if they wanted to take advantage of the offer.
“In order to come on an evacuation flight, they would have to get themselves to Kabul,” a senior official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the plan in detail, said on a call with reporters. “Obviously, we don’t have extensive U.S. military presence. We don’t have the ability to provide transportation for them.”
“If they’re staying in the north of the country and they don’t feel safe staying in Afghanistan, they could go to a neighboring country” and finish their application process there, the official added.
The United States also will not provide security to applicants outside Kabul, many of whom are under direct threat from the Taliban for cooperating with coalition forces during the war.
With the American military in the final phases of withdrawing from Afghanistan, the White House has come under pressure to protect Afghan allies and speed up the process of providing them with special immigrant visas, and President Biden has vowed to do so...

Still more.

All-Out Attacks on the Vaccinated

It's not just this Leana Wen (former head of Planned Parenthood) who's demonizing vaccinating folks, making them pay for the sins of the unvaccinated. I'm seeing all kind of idiots make this same argument.

Pfft. No doubt Dr. Wen is perhaps the biggest stooge on CNN.

Via Melissa Mackenzie, who is a medical doctor:

You're either vaccinated and safe or you're not. Which is it?

Otherwise, people can decide what level of risk they're willing to live with. https://t.co/oJMeQw110I
— Melissa Mackenzie (@MelissaTweets) July 22, 2021

Paulina Porizkova, 56, Shows Off Abs in Topless Photo with Friend After Announcing Her Split from Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin

This woman was my absolute favorite way back in the 1980s, when I was about 21-years-old.

The woman's still looking tasty!

Biden Splits with Voting Rights Activists on New Federal Legislation

Maybe he's not that radical after all. Thus far, it seems nothing on the extreme left's wish-list hasn't been granted.

At NYT, "Democrats’ Divide on Voting Rights Widens as Biden Faces Pressure":

WASHINGTON — A quiet divide between President Biden and the leaders of the voting rights movement burst into the open on Thursday, as 150 organizations urged him to use his political mettle to push for two expansive federal voting rights bills that would combat a Republican wave of balloting restrictions.
In the letter, signed by civil rights groups including the Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, activists argued that with the “ideal of bipartisan cooperation on voting rights” nowhere to be found in a sharply divided Senate, Mr. Biden must “support the passage of these bills by whatever means necessary.”
The issue is of paramount importance to Democrats: Republicans have passed roughly 30 laws in states across the country this year that are likely to make voting harder, especially in Black and Latino communities, which lean Democratic. Several of the laws give state legislators more power over how elections are run and make it easier to challenge the results.
In a fiery speech in Philadelphia last week, Mr. Biden warned that the G.O.P. effort was the “most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.”
But the president and voting rights advocates are increasingly in disagreement about how to pass that test.
Mr. Biden, a veteran of the Senate who for decades has believed in negotiating on the particulars of voting rights legislation, has faced calls to push Democratic senators to eliminate the filibuster, which would allow the two major voting bills proposed by the party to pass with a simple majority. The president and his advisers have repeatedly pointed out that he does not have the votes within his own party to pass federal voting legislation, and does not have the power to unilaterally roll back the filibuster even if he supported doing so.
But voting rights groups say that Mr. Biden is not expending sufficient political capital or using the full force of his bully pulpit to persuade Congress. They point to the contrast between his soaring language — “Jim Crow on steroids,” he has called the G.O.P. voting laws — and his opposition to abolishing the Senate filibuster.
“As you noted in your speech, our democracy is in peril,” the groups said in their letter. “We certainly cannot allow an arcane Senate procedural rule to derail efforts that a majority of Americans support.”
Ultimately, the advocates fear that the Biden administration — currently focused on a bipartisan infrastructure deal and an ambitious spending proposal — has largely accepted the Republican restrictions as baked in, and is now dedicating more of its effort to juicing Democratic turnout.
In private calls with voting rights groups and civil rights leaders, White House officials and close allies of the president have expressed confidence that it is possible to “out-organize voter suppression,” according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.
“I have heard an emphasis on organizing,” said Sherrilyn A. Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who visited the Oval Office to meet with the president two weeks ago. But, she added, “we cannot litigate our way out of this and we cannot organize our way out of this.”
Several Biden advisers involved in the private calls said this week that they did not recall telling attendees that voter suppression could be out-organized, but said organizing was integral to the administration’s efforts.
Broadly, Mr. Biden’s advisers insist that the administration is committed to protecting access to the ballot and passing two federal bills: the For the People Act, an overhaul of federal election laws that was considered more of a political statement than viable legislation when it was first introduced in 2019, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore important parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court stripped away in 2013.
Republicans have castigated the For the People Act as overreaching and partisan. And Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, has said there is no need for a bill restoring parts of the Voting Rights Act.
White House officials privately note that even if Mr. Biden came out in support of ending the filibuster, moderate Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have publicly resisted such a move. Mr. Manchin has also called the For the People Act a piece of “partisan” legislation...

You Lift, Bro?

Seen on Twitter.

Alopecia is some kind of immuno-system response that affects the hair follicles.

Chimp with alopecia reveals a truth usually concealed in fur: Chimps. Are. Ripped. https://t.co/eKYaFdNkwM pic.twitter.com/J7VhOgeWMv
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) July 23, 2021

Japan Olympics Diversity

Japan's population is 98 percent Nihon. For reasons of ethnic chauvinism, fear of the outer world (like the U.S. and Commodore Perry's expeditions to that country in 1853-1855), or outright racism, it's unreasonable to expect much "diversity" to be coming to that nation's shores anytime soon.

Frankly, given the above, I'm not sure what's the purpose of this article. *Shrug.*

At LAT, "Tokyo Olympics: Diverse faces are representing Japan. Does it reflect real change?":

TOKYO — With millions around the world watching, Rui Hachimura walked onto the gleaming white floor of Japan’s Olympic Stadium on Friday waving the country’s red-and-white flag.
The 6-foot-8 Washington Wizards forward with a Japanese mother and Beninese father led his nation’s athletes in procession, a beaming smile peeking out of the sides of his face mask. Towering 20 inches over his fellow flag bearer, wrestler Yui Susaki, the 23-year-old’s careful steps signaled a changing face of Japan.
But in an unpopular Games, echoing with protests outside the largely empty Tokyo stadium, the discontent and ire over the influx of foreign visitors in the midst of a pandemic threatened to overshadow the inclusive image Japan had intended with Hachimura.
Even apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, the years and months leading up to the Games have been marked by a series of disappointments over promises to highlight diversity. The planet’s biggest sporting event has been troubled by high-profile resignations following scandals involving sexist and discriminatory remarks. The Olympic moment will come and go with neither a highly anticipated new anti-discrimination law nor immigration policies that reflect Japan’s fast-changing needs and norms.
It has left a conflicted feeling for Japanese like Hachimura or tennis great Naomi Osaka, who lighted the Olympic torch capping Friday’s ceremony, who haven’t always felt accepted. Some Japanese cling to notions of ethnic and cultural homogeneity even as the country needs young people to replace the world’s fastest-aging population. Though cities like Tokyo have become more cosmopolitan over the last half century, only 2% of babies born in Japan have at least one foreign parent.
Athletes like Hachimura are “one of the few people that can bring major changes for us,” said Alonzo Omotegawa, who has a Japanese mother and Bahamian father and has lived in the Tokyo area his entire life. Yet he has been repeatedly told: You are not Japanese.
The 25-year-old English teacher said he questions whether Hachimura’s popularity and symbolism will be enough to stifle the discrimination he faces on a daily basis — change the minds of landlords who refuse to rent to him because of his skin color, children who ask if it will wash off or police who stop and search him without a warrant, saying people with dreadlocks like him “tend to carry drugs.”
“The country is only on our side when it wants to be,” he said.
Organizers devoted a chapter of Friday night’s opening ceremony to a performance featuring children of diverse ethnic backgrounds assembling the Tokyo Olympics emblem. For months, the slogan “Unity in Diversity” had been pasted on posters around the city, projecting at least for the international media that this nation of 126 million was pledging to become more nuanced and accepting.
At the same time, the pandemic, as it has elsewhere, has brought out in Japan suspicion of those who look different, and a fear they may bring danger. That unease has been amplified in recent days as tens of thousands of athletes and others from around the globe have filtered into a nation that had kept its borders heavily restricted, even keeping out many foreign expats who’d long called Japan home.
Gracia Liu-Farrer, a sociologist at Tokyo’s Waseda University who studies migration and inequality in Japan, said of the Olympics: “It’s ironic. It’s not a moment of change but a moment of almost intensification of xenophobia because of this global health crisis.”
Even so, she said, the international attention around the Olympics has led to soul-searching and introspection over discriminatory opinions and remarks that may have previously gone unchallenged. The week before the opening ceremony, a director who’d made a Holocaust joke years ago and a composer who admitted to once bullying disabled classmates stepped down from their roles...

Still more.

Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual

At Amazon, Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership.

'Make Coffee Great Again'

Very interesting.

At New York Times Magazine, "Can the Black Rifle Coffee Company Become the Starbucks of the Right?"

Author Michael Wolff Roasts Brian Stelter Live, on His Own Show (VIDEO)

This was from a few days back, and lots of folks were tweeting the segment at the time.

From Tucker Carlson, at Fox News:

Plus, Wolff had an essay up at the New York Times yesterday, "Why I’m Sure Trump Will Run for President in 2024."

Eleven-Year-Old Boy with Autism Dies After Being Left in Hot Car Close to Two Hours

My youngest boy's on the spectrum, which makes this story even sadder for me.

At KUTV Salt Lake City:

Developments in hot car death: Boy had autism, state investigating, center on notice https://t.co/g6WL2mRz5i
— Heidi Hatch KUTV (@tvheidihatch) July 23, 2021

Oakland Tries to Save Walgreens Pharmacy (VIDEO)

There's a lot of reasons for the closure.

As one shopper explained, "'I mean, this was in the neighborhood, but look what happened. They stole a lot of stuff from there, ok? I don’t know. Just look around. So much stuff is happening here in Oakland, you know'," says Martha Stolaroff, who grew up in Oakland.

Watch:

How Did the Party of J.F.K. Become So Woke and Stupid?

It's V.D.H., at Fox News, "How did the Democratic Party of JFK, Bill Clinton turn into a woke neo-Maoist movement? Democrats used to talk nonstop about the 'working man'."

Charles Mills, From Class to Race

At Amazon, Charles Mills, From Class to Race" From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism".

To Ban or Not to Ban Critical Race Theory

That is the question.

At Quillette, "Should Critical Race Theory Be Banned in Public Schools? — a Conversation with Christopher F. Rufo."

Growing Opposition to Critical Race Theory

At the Epoch Times, "CRT Opposition Grows Stronger, Bolder, and More Organized: ‘You Have to Fight Fire With Fire’":

Despite growing opposition to critical race theory (CRT) and a growing number of states passing laws to ostracize it from classrooms, edification and teachers’ cumulations are vowing to edify the controversial subject matter anyway. But one candid Florida mom verbalizes it’s time to “fight fire with fire.”
“I cerebrate parents have realized you have to fight fire with fire,” Quisha King told the Epoch Times. You have to be as vigorous, as forceful, and as unrelenting as they are.
King is the Florida mother who gained notoriety when she blasted the Duval County school board with vigorous opposition to CRT. In replication to the National Education Association’s threat to go after those who dared oppose CRT, King verbally expressed bring it on.
In an effort to avail denizens fight back against the behemoth inculcation system, Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA) is now distributing a 46-page booklet (pdf) edifying parents and students how to get organized in their effort to fight back. As described on its website, the United We Stand toolkit is a component of TPPA’s campaign to inspirit people to attend their local school board meetings to oppose CRT, and to urge a full return to in-classroom ordinant dictation.
I cerebrate it’s good to avail parents understand how to apperceive (CRT) and how to detect it because they don’t genuinely understand how it’s being worked into the system, King verbalized. “It’s a great, handy guide so they’re armed with something.”
“I cerebrate we require more things like that,” she integrated, verbally expressing she has additionally endeavored to avail parents by engendering informative videos.
We embolden every parent and concerned denizen who cares about the future of our country to attend their local school board meeting, learn what is going on locally, and ascertain schools are plenarily open,
TPPA Honorary Chairman Jenny Beth Martin verbally expressed in a verbalization regarding their incipient anti-CRT campaign. Teachers should be edifying reading, inditing, arithmetic, and history without indoctrination.
I cerebrate there’s a sense of exigency with this because kids are in school for 12 years or 13 years if you include kindergarten, Martin explained to The Epoch Times. I don’t cerebrate it’s fair to wait just for the elections. We’ve got to understand what’s transpiring and work to unwind it at a policy level as well.
“Obviously the first thing is to commence peregrinating to school board meetings,” Vero Beach, Florida, activist Susan Mehiel told The Epoch Times. The second thing is to commence electing school board members who are true to their word. According to Mehiel, people need to commence electing “non-edifying people on those boards,” rather than perpetually pulling from the same barrel of rotten apples. She additionally suggests people establish a good relationship with their local representatives. In June, Mehiel organized the “Save our Students” town hall meeting in Vero Beach to rally community members to verbalize out against proposed edification materials that pushed critical race theory in K-5 English Language curriculum.
“If parents genuinely want to make a difference,” Mehiel exhorted, they have to have numbers and they have to have clout at the state level.
At Moms for Liberty, we believe that it is essential for every denizen to amalgamate together to avail parents reclaim their rights in America’s public-school classrooms,
Tiffany Justice, co-progenitor of Moms For Liberty told The Epoch Times. We applaud the work of organizations that give denizens resources and a roadmap for engagement with all levels of regime...

Biden's Infrastructure Boondoggle Won't Pass

Good thing. *Phew.*

At the New York Times, "G.O.P. Blocks Infrastructure Debate in Senate, Raising Doubts About a Deal":

WASHINGTON — Republicans blocked the Senate on Wednesday from taking up an emerging bipartisan infrastructure plan, raising doubts about the fate of a major piece of President Biden’s agenda even as negotiators continued to seek a compromise.
The failed vote underscored the intense mistrust between the two parties, which has complicated the effort to complete a deal. Both Republicans and Democrats in the group seeking a deal say they are still making progress toward agreement on a package with nearly $600 billion in new funds for roads, bridges, rail, transit and other infrastructure, which could be the first major infusion of federal public works spending since the 2009 stimulus law.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, forced the vote in a bid to intensify pressure for a swift resolution to the talks, acting over the pleas of centrist Republicans who said they needed more time to solidify their deal with Democrats. With many Democrats harboring concerns that Republicans will drag out the process only to withhold support from a final bill, he argued that there was still time to iron out final details.
“This vote is not a deadline to have every final detail worked out — it is not an attempt to jam anyone,” Mr. Schumer said before the vote, adding that negotiators would have “many opportunities” to add their plan to the bill “even if they need a few more days to finalize the language.”
But Republicans said they were not ready to commit to considering an infrastructure measure, and warned that putting the matter to a vote risked scuttling a potential bipartisan breakthrough. On Wednesday, as they shuttled between meetings and votes, Republican negotiators said a final deal could emerge in the coming days, about a month after they first triumphantly announced agreement on a framework.
“We’re optimistic that once we get past this vote today, that we’re going to continue our work and that we will be ready in the coming days,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and a key negotiator. She said members of the group “think that we will be largely ready on Monday.”
With all 50 Republicans in the Senate opposed, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to move forward with an infrastructure debate. All 50 members of the Democratic caucus initially voted to proceed, but Mr. Schumer switched his vote to enable him under Senate rules to bring up the measure again.
It was an inauspicious beginning to what Democrats had hoped would be a period of intense activity on Capitol Hill, with action on a bipartisan infrastructure measure and a far more ambitious, $3.5 trillion partisan budget blueprint that would include money to address climate change, expand health care and education and broaden child care and paid leave.
Instead, senators spent Wednesday voicing frustration over their failure to begin debating the infrastructure plan and privately meeting to work through the details of how to structure and finance the package...

Still more.

Biden Administration Admits Attempting to Censor Conservative Websites

From Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "White House Communications Director Admits They’re Trying to Censor Conservative News Sites":

During an interview with CNN this week, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield admitted the Biden administration's censorship efforts are specifically targeting conservative news sites for publishing "misinformation."
"You've heard the president speak very aggressively about this. He understands this is an important piece of the ecosystem but its also the other thing, the president has pointed out and spoke to when he was asked about this yesterday, it is also the responsibility of the people creating the content and again I would go back to, there are conservative news outlets who are creating irresponsible content that's sharing misinformation about the virus," Bedingfield said...

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Jen Psaki's White House Disinformation."

Mark Levin, American Marxism

At Amazon, Mark Levin, American Marxism.

Oscar Blasts Off

Hilarious.

Call us next time you want to ride a wiener into space… pic.twitter.com/cmAnDeh6nS
— Oscar Mayer (@oscarmayer) July 21, 2021

'We're An American Band'

It's Grand Funk Railroad:

Lebanon's Economic Implosion

At LAT, "Lebanon’s people line up in ‘queues of humiliation’ as their country unravels":

BEIRUT — Fill ’er up? Be ready to wait in line at least an hour — assuming the gas station is open, that is. Need medication? Something as basic as aspirin could set you on a daylong hunt from pharmacy to pharmacy.
Even a grocery run is an ever-accelerating race against ballooning prices and a failing currency. And whatever you do, you’ll need to time it around power cuts that can last up to 23 hours a day.
This is life in Lebanon these days, where a 21-month-long, government-engineered economic implosion — the World Bank calls it “a deliberate depression” — has transformed everyday tasks into a gantlet of fuel, power, water, medicine and basic goods shortages that residents dub tawabeer al-thul, or “queues of humiliation.”
Those lines stretched long this week as the country geared up to celebrate Eid al-Adha, a festival during which Muslims sacrifice a sheep to commemorate Abraham almost sacrificing his son Ismail at God’s command. With the Lebanese lira’s street value down to less than 10% of its official value against the dollar, it’s a ritual few can afford.
“Every month it’s getting worse, so long as the dollar [rate] gets worse,” said Abbass Ismail, a 37-year-old computer repairman trudging home from Beirut’s Sabra market on the eve of Eid.
“This cost 100,000 lira,” he said, looking down at his four stuffed grocery bags. At the official exchange rate, that would have been $66. In reality, it’s about $4.50. Even then, “not everyone has this kind of money to spend. I don’t think there’s Eid. It’s only Eid for the haves.”
It was little better across town in Hamra, an upscale neighborhood with a usually bustling shopping thoroughfare.
“The days when people used to buy in large amounts, that’s gone,” said Sarah, an employee at a traditional sweets shop, who gave only her first name. The store had extended its hours to allow for Eid shoppers, she said, “but even if we stay open till 3 a.m., it won’t matter.”
The international community spoke vaguely of corruption but continued to pour aid into Lebanon with little regard for how it was spent. Girding everything was a once-inviolable currency peg that kept the lira at 1,507.50 to the greenback.
By 2019, after years of so-called financial engineering by Lebanon’s central bank — which tried to lure dollars from abroad with astronomical interest rates, in what critics likened to a Ponzi scheme — and a series of crises that constricted the flow of dollars into the country, the system crashed...

Still more.

U.S. Life Expectancy Declines

The decline is a direct function of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is both interesting and sad.

At NYT, "U.S. Life Expectancy Plunged in 2020, Especially for Black and Hispanic Americans."

More here, "How the White Working Class Is Being Destroyed."

Friday, July 23, 2021

Volker Ullrich, Hitler

At Amazon, Volker Ullrich, Hitler: Downfall, 1939-1945.

Florida's Covid Hospitalization Rate at Highest Point Since the Pandemic Started

It's Patricia Mazzei, at the New York Times, "Some Florida Hospitals Have More Covid Patients Than Ever Before":

MIAMI — A month ago, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted at two University of Florida hospitals in Jacksonville was down to 14. Now more than 140 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus, a tenfold increase over five weeks — and the highest number of Covid-19 patients this system has seen during the pandemic.
Debra Wells, 65, was among those admitted to one of the hospitals this month when what she thought was a cold grew worse and worse until she could not breathe. “I said, ‘Lord, I feel like I’m dying,’” she recalled.
Like most of the patients who hospital officials say they are admitting in Jacksonville and other fast-filling medical facilities in pockets around the country, Ms. Wells was unvaccinated. She had worried, she said, that the shots were not safe.
“I was misinformed,” Ms. Wells said this week, after a five-day hospital stay. “I wasn’t ready, and I was scared.”
A national uptick in coronavirus cases has led, in sudden and concerning fashion, to a steep rise in hospitalizations in some spots around the country where people have been slower to get vaccinated, a predicament experts hoped might be avoided because the people contracting the infection tend to be younger and healthier.
Nationally, hospitalizations remain relatively low, nowhere near earlier peaks of the pandemic. But in some regions with lagging vaccination rates and rising virus cases — such as northeastern Florida, southwestern Missouri and southern Nevada — the highly contagious Delta variant has flooded intensive care units and Covid-19 wards that, not long ago, had seen their patient counts shrink.
Covid-19 hospitalizations are trending upward in 45 states. While levels remain well below previous peaks, health care centers in parts of the Midwest, West and South are strained.
At the two hospitals in Jacksonville, the number of Covid-19 patients is higher than last summer, when the coronavirus slammed Florida, and higher than over the winter, when the virus surged to devastating levels across the nation.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Dr. Leon L. Haley Jr., the chief executive of UF Health Jacksonville. “Each day we continue to go up. There’s no sense of when things are going to curtail themselves. People are stretched thin.”
The situation is worrying across northeastern Florida...

Still more.

Felicia Sonmez Sues Washington Post for Gender Discrimination

Ironically, she herself covers sexual harassment and other gender-based forms of discrimination.

At Fox News, "Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez sues the paper and top editors including Marty Baron: Sonmez claims 'economic loss, humiliation, embarrassment' and 'mental and emotional distress' from paper."

The Contradictions of Ibram X. Kendi

Actually it's Ibram Henry Rogers, so I guess that's more authentic, considering his shtick.

Shoot, I'm surprised he doesn't wear a dashiki. *Shrug.*

At New York magazine, "How Anti-Racist Is Anti-Racism?":

Ibram X. Kendi’s work takes dead aim at those convenient fictions [of the mainstream interpretations of U.S. history]. The historian and pop-theoretician of “antiracism” seeks to disrupt white America’s complacency about racial progress by spotlighting Black-white disparities in incarceration, wealth, and other social ills. And he seeks to stigmatize victim-blaming accounts of Black social disadvantage by insisting that all racial disparities derive from a history of white supremacy (not a “culture of poverty”). Kendi is especially concerned with the way superficially non-racist ideas and policies can serve the function of fortifying racial hierarchy. His solution is to adopt a consequentialist definition of racism: A policy or idea is racist to the extent that it “produces or sustains racial inequity,” and antiracist to the extent that it reduces the same.
Kendi’s ideas have both influenced and internalized broader intellectual currents on the social-justice left. And, collectively, antiracist thinkers and activists have had great success in reshaping mainstream discourse. Today, statistical testaments to racial inequity are a staple of Democratic oratory, while pathologizing calls for Black men to “pull up their pants” and raise their children are largely absent. Mainstream news outlets, meanwhile, rarely report on social problems without conveying pertinent racial disparities. And much of corporate America has invested resources into monitoring and mitigating racial gaps in pay, hiring, and promotions.
All of which is to the good. Today’s discourse about race is surely more conducive to egalitarian reform than yesterday’s (better for the liberal media to fixate on racial disparities than “welfare queens”). Given that anti-Black discrimination in hiring remains prevalent in the U.S., corporations that feel compelled to diversify their workforces for brand reputation’s sake are preferable to ones that don’t. Further, one could reasonably argue that Kendi-esque antiracist advocacy has already facilitated meliorative changes in public policy. Had such advocates not heightened the salience of racial inequity among white liberals, debt relief for disadvantaged Black farmers might not have made it into The American Recovery Act. And it’s also plausible that antiracists’ stigmatization of “welfare queen” narratives enabled the Democratic Party’s recent embrace of unconditional cash assistance to low-income families; until this year’s CTC expansion, Democrats had designed their anti-poverty programs to leave out America’s poorest children so as to punish their parents for being unemployed, a convention that disproportionately harmed Black families.
This said, the scale of reform necessary for eradicating Black disadvantage remains far beyond the bounds of political possibility. Enact Joe Biden’s entire agenda, and millions of African Americans will still lack affordable housing, remunerative employment, and health insurance. Meanwhile, an increasingly authoritarian far-right party controls a majority of U.S. states, and is well-positioned to retake Congress, if not full control of the federal government, within the next four years. Building the America that the Civil Rights Movement demanded — one that would guarantee economic security to all of its citizens — will require transforming our nation’s politics.
Within blue America, there is much debate about whether the discourse of antiracism is conducive to such a transformation...

Keep reading.

Governor Kay Ivey Says Stop Blaming Unvaccinated for Coronavirus Resurgence (VIDEO)

Looks like she's taking a personal liberties and responsibilities position, which I think is good.

But no doubt she'll be savaged in the national press for her pragmatic stance --- these media ghouls destroy people.

At Politico, "Alabama governor says ‘it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks’ as pandemic worsens: “I can’t make you take care of yourself,” Republican Kay Ivey said of her state’s residents who have yet to receive their shots."

Cleveland Indians Changing Name to Cleveland Guardians

I wonder if this will have an effect on the Atlanta Braves, not to mention all the professional football teams and college and universities with Indian mascots.

Time will tell. I have a sense it's sooner or later.

An interesting story with lots of background on the origins of the change to the Cleveland Guardians.

At the Akron Beacon Journal, "How the Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians."

A fresh look from the 216. pic.twitter.com/0W8VTtZ7b0
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 23, 2021

Eye want candy?

Introducing the "Diamond C," "Guardians Fastball," and "Script Guardians." pic.twitter.com/VfF5pWwPf9
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 23, 2021

Annette Gordon Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello

At Amazon, Annette Gordon Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

Joe Biden's Small Town Hall (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Stumbling, Bumbling Joe Biden 'Town Hall' on CNN."

It's Laura Ingraham, at Fox News:

Great Review of Critical Race Theory

At the BBC, surprisingly, "Critical race theory: the concept dividing the US."

Evelyn Taft's Weekend Forecast

Ms. Evelyn's such a beauty --- and she's got a degree in political science (and journalism) from USC!

At KCBS 2 News Los Angeles:

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Slams Megyn Kelly Over Naomi Osaka Tweet

Everything's so stupid, especially these summer games (which I'm boycotting, because, well, they're so lame).

At NBC News, "Sports Illustrated's swimsuit editor calls Megyn Kelly's Naomi Osaka tweet 'unnecessary'":

Let’s not forget the cover of (& interview in) Vogue Japan and Time Mag! https://t.co/PAAUEwAVi0
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 19, 2021

Poor @naomiosaka blocked me while taking a shot at me (guess she’s only tough on the courts). She is apparently arguing that she shot her many covers b/4 publicly claiming she was too socially anxious to deal w/press. Truth is she just doesn’t like Qs she can’t control. Admit it. pic.twitter.com/izyRzOrUVm
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 19, 2021

Los Angeles Officials Urge Caution Amid New Corona Virus Surge

Following-up, "Angelenos Cave to L.A.'s Renewed Mask Mandate."

At LAT, "Even the vaccinated must take precautions as L.A. coronavirus surge worsens, officials say":

With coronavirus cases reaching levels in Los Angeles County not seen since the waning days of the winter surge, public healt

h officials said Thursday that even those who have been vaccinated should take precautions, given how widely the virus is now circulating.
This surge is predominantly hitting people who have not been vaccinated. But with the highly infectious Delta variant racing through the region, additional measures — like wearing masks inside crowded public places — can further armor everyone against transmission.
“Vaccines are like our umbrella: excellent protection on most rainy days. But when the rain gets really intense, for example during a bad thunderstorm, we might also throw on a raincoat,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
But, “When you have a more infectious variant that’s circulating and you see what we see now, lots of community transmission, you can expect exactly what we’re seeing: lots more people getting infected, including more people who are fully vaccinated,” she added.
That mathematical reality is now playing out. Out of all coronavirus cases confirmed countywide in June, 20% occurred in residents who were fully vaccinated, according to Ferrer.
The figure is not as alarming as it first appears. At the beginning of June, about 44% of residents were fully vaccinated, with the proportion rising above 50% by the end of the month, according to data compiled by The Times. Currently, 53% of L.A. County residents are fully vaccinated.
In other words, even though half of the county was not fully vaccinated in June, this portion of the county’s residents comprised 4 out of 5 newly diagnosed coronavirus cases.
“While our numbers have been going up, they would be much higher if we didn’t have as many people fully vaccinated,” Ferrer said.
She also noted that, among fully vaccinated infectees, “the vast majority of those folks only experienced either no illness or very mild illness.”
County health officials reported 2,767 additional cases Thursday, the second straight day with more than 2,000 newly confirmed infections.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are also rising. On Wednesday, 655 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized countywide — nearly triple the number seen a month ago...

Jodie Foster Steps Out in Los Angeles

She should do more movies --- a spectacular woman.

See, "Jodie Foster cuts a casual figure in jeans and a blue T-shirt as she enjoys a relaxing pamper day in Los Angeles.

I mean, what other top actor has their own army?

Local CBS Station Chiefs Ousted

There are 28 CBS-owned local stations across the U.S.

Heads rolled in Chicago and Los Angeles (and New York too).

At LAT, "CBS ousts L.A., Chicago station managers after misconduct probe":

CBS’ stations in Los Angeles have been beset by turnover for years. Current and former employees have long complained about the harsh workplace culture, which they allege has been rife with sexual harassment, favoritism, pay discrimination and ageism.
In the last five years, KCBS has been led by two general managers and three news directors. Last year, Howell navigated the L.A. stations through at least two rounds of corporately mandated staff cuts, resulting in the departures of high-profile anchors Jeff Michael and Sandra Mitchell and meteorologist Garth Kemp.
Workplace complaints have festered for years. In 2018, CBS paid a settlement to former KCAL anchor Leyna Nguyen after she complained to KCBS management about inappropriate comments and unwanted touching by a male colleague, according to several people familiar with the matter.
In separate high-profile incident, described in a 2019 story in The Times, popular sports anchor Jill Arrington was denied a salary increase after she learned she was making $60,000 a year less than her male predecessor.
Then-station manager Steve Mauldin allegedly told Arrington in 2018 to “put on a tennis dress.... We’ll put you on tape, and you can make some extra money.” Mauldin denied making the remark.
Mauldin retired in 2019, and Howell was brought in as L.A.'s general manager after leading CBS’ station in Pittsburgh. He was tasked with modernizing the L.A. stations.
Howell could not be immediately reached for comment.
CBS manages KCBS and KCAL jointly, and the stations’ audience lags in size behind market leaders KABC-TV Channel 7, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and Spanish-language stations KMEX-TV Channel 34 and KVEA-TV Channel 52...

RTWT.

2021 C8 Corvette Z51 (REVIEW)

This 'Vette at the video is actually a 2020.

I saw one on the freeway the other day and I thought it was an Italian car, a Ferrari or a Lambo.

Very slick:

Kenny Xu Interviewed

Don't miss his new book, An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy.

At Fox News:

Angelenos Cave to L.A.'s Renewed Mask Mandate

Frankly, I think people should rise up against these renewed mandates --- L.A.'s the only county in the state that's brought back masks, and such mandates are virtually nonexistent around the rest of the country.

I mean, well over half the population in the United States is fully vaccinated, and that's not counting those who've survived the affliction and now have natural immunity. And polls show that Americans' fear of the loss of freedoms is the reason hesitant citizens are getting the jab.

So lame.

At the New York Times, "Wary and Weary, Los Angeles Largely Accepts Restored Mask Mandate":

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — As the sun began to burn through the morning marine layer, patrons of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif., were still adjusting to the new normal, which was pretty much the old normal — an order from Los Angeles County to wear masks indoors in businesses and public places.
Most customers dutifully took their masks on and off at the entrance of shops, where signs were posted to remind them of the policy and where, in some cases, complimentary masks were offered. Out-of-state tourists found themselves wearing masks for the first time in months, sometimes annoyed but largely compliant, and one restaurant employee who forgot about the mandate was able to secure a mask by running across the street and asking employees at the Starbucks if they had extras.
“Some people think it’s a punishment,” said Lisa Liu, 38, who said she was fully vaccinated. She was shopping on Sunday and was interviewed outside a clothing store called Tazga. “But for me it’s a mask — it’s not a big deal.”
. It was not what people expected when the previous mandate was lifted a month ago, but for the most part people in Los Angeles seemed to react with resigned acceptance, sometimes even weary approval, figuring that rising Covid-19 rates made the policy tolerable, if not welcome.
The decision was greeted cautiously by some store and restaurant employees, wary of going back to having to enforce the policies with mask-resistant customers. Still, some seemed prepared to do it
Anna Ituh, 50, said that her bosses at a local retail store had instructed her to ask customers to put on a mask when they entered, but that she wasn’t allowed to insist that they do so. Still, she described one confrontation in which she asked a customer to leave the store.
“I don’t play games with that,” she said. “I’m that person that will tell them.”
The indoor mask mandate for all people regardless of vaccination status took effect at midnight on Saturday, making Los Angeles County the first major county in the United States to reinstate such a requirement. The policy expands beyond the current state standard and the recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; both require masks for unvaccinated people but not for those who are fully vaccinated...

L.A's political leadership is quite special, IYKWIMAITYD. *Wink.*

Keep reading.

Lots of People Get Vaccinated as Loss of Freedoms Mount and Mandates Accelerate

If you’re going to lose your freedoms and civil liberties, you might be persuaded” to get the jab.

At the New York Times, "Vaccine Persuasion":

There is now a roiling debate over vaccine mandates, with some hospitals, colleges, cruise-ship companies and others implementing them — and some state legislators trying to ban mandates. The Kaiser poll suggests that these requirements can influence a meaningful number of skeptics to get shots, sometimes just for logistical reasons.
“Hearing that the travel quarantine restrictions would be lifted for those people that are vaccinated was a major reason for my change of thought.” — a 43-year-old Black Democratic man in Virginia.
“To see events or visit some restaurants, it was easier to be vaccinated.” — a 39-year-old white independent man in New Jersey.
“Bahamas trip required a COVID shot.” — a 43-year-old Hispanic independent man in Pennsylvania.

Who's Really Not Getting the Jab?

At Issues & Insights, "Who Are The Real COVID Vaccine Refuseniks? Hint: It’s Not What You’ve Been Told":

The Biden administration, stung by missing its vaccine targets and the rising COVID-19 cases, has decided to blame Republicans. That’s not surprising. But it’s traditionally Democratic groups – minorities and the young – who aren’t getting vaccinated, and it’s leftists who are the most influential anti-vaxxers on the planet...

RTWT.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Ian W. Toll, Twilight of the Gods

At Amazon, Ian W. Toll, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Pacific War Trilogy, 3).

Jeff Bezos Gives Van Jones $100 Million (VIDEO)

He gifted celebrity chef José Andrés as well, so the two could support the charities of their choice.

I guess Jones was shocked:

Whoa!

This is unreal.

Via KCBS 2 Los Angeles:

A pursuit suspect in a BMW hit speeds of over 160 miles per hour in the Inland Empire. The suspect is wanted for a burglary out of Fairfax. https://t.co/4MwB1JtR1a pic.twitter.com/uWgHI0CkBT
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) July 21, 2021

Civil Liberties After January 6th

Green Greewald's written much on this, for example, "Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath" and "Questions About the FBI's Role in 1/6 Are Mocked Because the FBI Shapes Liberal Corporate Media."

More here and here.

And now, Reason jumps on Greenwald's bandwagon.

Watch:

What's Normal Post-Corona?

Following-up, "Bare Season."

At the New York Times, focusing on post-corona freedom rather than fashion, "How Nations Are Learning to ‘Let It Go’ and Live With Covid: More officials are encouraging people to return to their daily rhythms and transition to a new normal. But scientists warn that it may be too soon to design exit strategies for the pandemic.

Bare Season

Interesting, to say the least.

At the New York Times, "Suddenly It’s Bare Season":

“People, in other words, are running around half naked.” Can confirm. https://t.co/2niLTT2sSh
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) July 22, 2021

Bras in the parks, skivvies on Fifth Avenue: Is this the logical endpoint of increasingly blurred distinctions between public and private?

*****

Who hasn’t had the nightmare? It’s the one about being caught in public dressed in your undies. Therapists and dream bibles tend to cast these dreams as symbolic expressions of shame or repression.
Yet what if the so-called experts are wrong and these dreams are instead a subconscious bid for liberation? Shed the embarrassment along with those constricting outer garments. Go forth proudly in your turtle-print boxers or your Cosabella bra.
That is assuredly what a lot of people are doing lately, as many venture forth after 16 months of hibernation with a startling degree of license about what passes for street wear.
As recently as a decade ago, it was a rarity to spot people on Fifth Avenue, in Washington Square Park, riding the subway or milling about at airports in various states of advanced dishabille. Anyone who’s taken a stroll in New York lately can tell you that’s not true anymore.
People, in other words, are running around half-naked.
Last week Claudia Summers, a writer, was out doing errands in Midtown Manhattan when she passed a young woman nonchalantly ambling along 33rd Street near Moynihan Train Hall dressed in low-slung jeans and a bra. “Was it a sports bra?” a follower inquired after Ms. Summers posted a snapshot of the woman to her Instagram account.
“Most definitely not!” replied Ms. Summers, who quickly added that she admired the woman’s moxie and, anyway, the day was hot.
Of course it wasn’t a bra top. Bralettes, itty-bitty bandeaus and crocheted bikinis are everywhere. So, too, are Daisy Dukes cut high enough to expose buttocks curvature. And these items are by no means relegated to people who identify with the pronouns “she” and “her.”
“I’m an exhibitionist, and I get pleasure from showing off my body,” said Kae Cook, 32, a messenger, of his wardrobe choice one recent evening as he made his way across Eighth Street in the East Village.

Stumbling, Bumbling Joe Biden 'Town Hall' on CNN

The small studio auditorium was less than have full.

Lots of folks were hammering the president last night, but S.E. Cupp pushed back with some considerably compassionate comments:

“Whether or not we should be in a position where you are why can’t the experts say we know that this virus is in fact it’s going to be or excuse we know why all the drugs approved or not temporarily but permanently approved, that’s underway too” —Joe Bidenpic.twitter.com/ebkp9TJaZT
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) July 22, 2021

Speaking from experience: Don’t shame or question someone’s mental health struggles.

Not JUST because you don’t know what they’re going through; not JUST because many others may be going through similar things and need to see supportive responses; but bc it’s needlessly cruel.
— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) July 22, 2021

At USA Today, "At 98 and facing cancer, Bob Dole reckons with legacy of Trump and ponders future of GOP."

At RCP, "Elder Wins Recall Legal Victory, Shakes Up CA Race."

Elder explains his issues getting his name on the recall ballot | https://t.co/bXbFAWOHvg https://t.co/7Id61F7XE3 #RecallGavinNewsom
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) July 22, 2021

Howard Kurts Slams NPR's Attack on Ben Shapiro's Success

At Fox News, "HOWARD KURTZ: NPR slams Ben Shapiro for drawing huge traffic by…being conservative: The target is Ben Shapiro, a highly successful entrepreneur of the right."

NPR says @BenShapiro rules Facebook--but "experts worry" he's fueling polarization (because he's conservative). He's cast as practicing "outrage politics" with little grasp that liberal sites do the same thing https://t.co/AksLfamKhr
— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) July 22, 2021