Unsightly Mental Blemishes

I feel compelled to praise Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, who appeared on The Late Show with Colbert Thursday, and made the very important point that being personally irresponsible with our health means we’re endangering our families, friends, and strangers. Here’s the last segment:

There are two prior segments which are also worth viewing.

I’ve made this point before, including in this critique of a fairly immature petition here:

Let us honestly assess reality: we are not independent islands, inviolably separate from each other. Along with voluntary bonds which we often assume with each other through association, contract, and other forms, there are also the involuntary bonds over which we have no control, as we share the resources of this reality, amongst which we can enumerate air and water. Because of these involuntary bonds through which pathogens travel, we are vulnerable to the illnesses of the age: mumps, measles, etc. — their names are legion.

When I say the Fourth Amendment applies to everyone, I mean that I and my progeny have an equal right to protection under the Amendment, and that protection, in my case, is from easily propagated disease. Here we see the tension to which I alluded: I do not wish to become infected with a pathogen which can cause severe damage or death, yet is easily negated. The author of the petition does not wish to accept the vaccination. The tension comes in the fact that we have unavoidably shared resources (air, water. etc.) through which many pathogens travel to infect a new victim.

This isn’t like buying a couch or a toothbrush – our individual decisions can affect, positively or negatively, many other people. Not only is this of immediate significance, it also plays into the debate concerning the proper nature of our health system.

It’s worth considering.

This is how you tell if a corporate entity is part of the community, or merely preys on it under the guise of capitalism:

Just to get the word out there. With all the school closings and families relying on the lunch for their kids that are now out of luck. Billy’s on grand ave [St. Paul, MN] is offering free lunch for kids until this calms down. No other purchases needed, just feed your kid. [Facebook posting]

If you’re company isn’t helping out in the face of disaster, whether imminent or post, then they may be a predatory corporation.

Kudos to Billy’s on Grand.

Panspermia:

For generations, some astronomers have speculated about whether our planet was pollinated with an alien seed. This theory, called panspermia, suggests that primitive life can travel from world to world on space rocks, kick-starting evolution in each new environment.

This all sounds more like science fiction than science, but there are also good reasons to think panspermia is possible.

With the recent discovery of the alien space rock ‘Oumuamua and the interstellar comet Borisov, some astronomers are rethinking how far life could travel to trigger a “Second Genesis.” Could life spread across the galaxy? If alien asteroids and comets commonly travel between stars, then the interstellar version of panspermia may be more possible than astronomers imagined. [“Could Alien Life Travel on Interstellar Asteroids and Comets like ‘Oumuamua?“, Eric Betz, Discover]

A reader remarks on my review of Dark Star:

You found a lot more meaning and more in that film than I did. Seemed more like a semi-tongue in cheek film made by a bunch of stoners who couldn’t quite keep their not-very-funny jokes together long enough to deliver real laughs. I saw it in college, and was semi-amused because it was so camp and so bad.

I think it the consistency of its awfulness. Sure, other films can be bad, but the dreadfulness of the entity relationships was so distinctly terrible and, well, noir, that I thought there had to be a little more here than met the eye.

Or maybe I just made it all up out of whole cloth.

Even then, I think the only reason we watched it was because it had a myth (true? false?) of having been the place where some of the crew who did Star Wars amazing special effects got their start.

The late Dan O’Bannon co-wrote the screenplay, was editor of the movie, played Sgt Pinback / Frug, and worked on special effects. He also contributed special effects to Star Wars, as well as the legendary chest-bursting scene in Alien. Ron Cobb did design work on both movies; incidentally, he also designed the Ecology symbol, later incorporated into the Ecology flag. Greg Jein did model work for Dark Star and various Star Trek franchise episodes.

Of course, many folks in the United States have an interest in the results of the next big election in November 2020, from the House to the Senate to the Presidency, as well as the state and local elections. I’ve talked about the 35 Senate races here, myself. But the Presidency is a little harder, since the mathematics of the Electoral College is confusing as votes are allocated two to a State plus the number of House members it has, making for wildly differing results depending on where votes are won – as President Trump demonstrated by losing the popular vote by several million votes, but winning the Electoral College.

Still, it comes down to what we call the mood of country: perceptions of policies, ideologies, dislikes & demonizations, likes and canonizations, perceived levels of competency, misleading statements from foreign entities, and a dozen other factors, which are then put together into a single vote (at least until Ranked Choice Voting goes national) by the voter. And while we wait for that final judgment day in November to come around, we have more than just polls to examine to forecast the future, and I’m not talking goat guts.

Special elections, those elections called to fill local or national elective offices prior to the big day!

As it happens, the Democrat’s propaganda machine likes to update me from time to time on these, and the first one of which I’ve taken any notice was last Tuesday, a special election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Merrimack 24. As it happens, in New Hampshire a district may send more than one representative to the legislature, with Merrimack 24 sending four. What happened in 2018?

They sent four Republicans.

2016? Ditto. In fact, it repeats back to 2012, where Ballotpedia stops.

But when one of the 2018 class passed away, a special election was called, which ended up pitting Kathleen Martins (D), an educator, against Elliot Axelman (R), an EMT. Democratic propaganda demonized Axelman, and it’s difficult to find much on his web site, beyond keeping taxes as low as possible and 2nd Amendment absolutism – neither of which fills me with feelings of wellness, as they are religious tenets of the current brand of Republican Party, but neither are alarmingly extremist, more naive than anything. Martins is even more bland.

Enough suspense, eh? Democrat Kathleen Martins beat Axelman, breaking the Republican lock on Merrimack 24, 1000 to 961. Yeah, the numbers are small enough that it only takes a small swing in sentiment for Martins to lose next time.

But consider this Ballotpedia tidbit as the greater context to this election:

In fact, the Republicans have held the chamber after the 2010, 2014, and 2016 elections; the 2018 elections signaled quite a change in the voter’s mood. Whether this means Martins will hold onto her seat is impossible to forecast, but the 2018 election behavior suggests that the Republicans have, at least temporarily, lost their grip on the sentiments of New Hampshire voters.

New Hampshire only has four electoral votes. Nevertheless, President Trump, in what I suspect is a calculated political ploy, has repeatedly claimed, without presentation of substantive evidence, that he in actuality won those four electoral votes, but the state was swamped with illegal votes that were not detected. These allegations were investigated and found to be without basis in fact. Whether this ploy will sway New Hampshire voters in November is to be seen, but I suspect President Trump, if he and his team continue to underperform in the realm of disaster response, will find it harder to find an inhabitant of New Hampshire who’ll take any such claims seriously in 2020.

Today, the jumpy market whiplashed us with a nearly 10% jump after the big 10% drop of yesterday. At this point, I wouldn’t even care to guess what Monday will bring – but those who pay attention to events over the weekend may be able to hazard a guess. But I think Max Boot’s observation of how Trump will likely manage the response is spot-on:

He did not even declare a national state of emergency — something he has previously done for the southern border and cybersecurity. An emergency declaration could give Trump broader powers to mobilize the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military, among other resources, but Politico reports that Trump is concerned it “could hamper his narrative that the coronavirus is similar to the seasonal flu and could further agitate Wall Street.” Actually, it’s Trump’s failure to take decisive action that is agitating Wall Street, with stocks in free fall the morning after his speech. Trump is heightening, not ameliorating, pandemic panic. [WaPo]

Trump’s propensity to make things look good suggests he doesn’t understand that judging work on its own merits is actually a thing. He could have rebuilt much of his shattered reputation if he had simply attacked this problem with vigor and honesty, but I suspect there was never a possibility of that happening. For Trump, it’s disaster and coverup, disaster and coverup, all through his business life and now his political life – but with a much larger audience.

And don’t forget what his immediate audience thought of him at the 2016 election:

Trump’s home town vote in 2016.

For the investor, this suggests a continued roller coaster: big losses one day, big gains another. Those will with balls of brass will try to profit, and many will succeed. I hate heartburn, so I won’t be among them.

But I will be looking for a bottom by watching Trump and public opinion. If it appears he’s given up and will let others deal with the problem, then predictability concerning the governmental response may finally become a reality.

Until then … keep your seat belts tightly fastened.

Sometimes the most amazing things are found, like, oh, Oculudentavis khaungraae, specially protected from the elements. Not sure what that is? It’s awfully damn cool. Here’s Dr. Jingmai O’Connor talking about it.

Sounds utterly fascinating and cool until you think of a bunch of hungry ones chasing you. Then they’re flying piranhas.

Not really. They’d be good for taking care of irritating insects, though. Maybe a good pet?

If you were appalled by President Trump’s speech concerning the coronavirus on Wednesday night – I only caught clips on Colbert myself – this fumbling, mistake-littered speech which appalled our allies and the markets alike made for a gaping opening for Trump’s political opponents.

Into this, Joe Biden (D-DE) charged with a proper delivery – by presenting his own plan. A speech on the subject, clearly laying out the proper principles for dealing with a pandemic on American soil, is in this ABC News link. I was impressed, because in a way he reminded me of Obama’s initial campaign. I voted for Obama, in part, because he insisted on treating Americans as adults. The preceding Bush Administration had admonished us to keep on shopping in the face of not one, but two wars. Obama was clearly a more serious politician than Bush or, following the Palin pick, Senator McCain.

I have to agree with conservative NeverTrumper Jennifer Rubin of WaPo:

Biden closed with a series of promises that should not have been noteworthy. However, they now stand out, a bright light at the end of our very dark Trumpian tunnel. “No President can promise to prevent future outbreaks. But I can promise you that when I’m president, we will prepare better, respond better, and recover better. . . . We will listen to experts and heed their advice. We will rebuild American leadership and rally the world to meet global threats.” He added, “And I will always, always tell you the truth. That is the responsibility of a president. That is what is owed to the American people.” What a delight it would be to have a president who did not compulsively lie.

That moment when you want to roar and make the humans run, but you can feel that sneeze coming on instead.

Gorgo (1961) follows a not unfamiliar plot line. Man finds monster, man catches monster, man takes monster home for a bit of exploitation, Mama Monster catches wind and comes a-hunting … man. Throw in a dumb little boy who has mysterious knowledge and probably should have been thrown over the side of the private salvage ship (read: treasure hunter) he stows away on, two really awful monsters – I mean, the rubber feet on these beasties were embarrassing! – and a lovely destruction of London with, perhaps surprisingly, many of its inhabitants in a welter of collapsing walls, and that’s about it.

Glowing red eyes, some OK acting. No profound themes, some questionable behaviors, and that damn kid. This one was not worth the time.

To say the market seems jumpy is an understatement. Here’s the DJIA sometime in the middle of the day:

Since I took that snapshot, the markets have closed, with the DJIA just a smidgeon short of 10% down. I’m expecting a dead cat bounce tomorrow, but I won’t try to take advantage of it.

The current contretemps have been driven by the emergence of the Wuhan virus. Certainly, a few investors saw the early reports on the virus and decided to liquidate, so they’re relatively financially safe. For the rest of us, including me, it’s time to ride the rollercoaster. I believe it was Buffet who said, The wise investor, upon seeing panic in the financial streets, licks his lips and begins to plot.

Well, maybe not in so many words. But you get the gist.

However, as I mentioned in the prior post on this thread, politics also will play into the market. Our current President is a political amateur whose main gift is communicating with his base and reinforcing their grievances, with a secondary gift of using his base and the Republican Party structure to keep his Congressional allies in line. After that, he doesn’t appear to have any strengths.

That means, while the Wuhan virus is certainly the main driver of our current financial meltdown, the massive inefficiencies of the current Administration are magnifying the effect, or, in today’s case, purely driving a drop in value. Last night the President suddenly announced travel restrictions, and this is credited with driving the market over the cliff.  For those investors who have been ignoring politics as either irrelevant or too painful, here are the factors that concern me:

1. President Trump’s inclination to minimize the effects of the Wuhan virus. We’ve seen Trump declare the virus as good as beaten and not important, when professionals and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stated otherwise. We’ve also seen him and his allies use the Wuhan virus to attack political opponents. This is the lesson to be learned: this White House and its allies cannot be trusted to treat this health threat with honesty. Anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth should be disregarded; anything from members of his team with an overtly political role, such as VP Pence, also disregarded. And, yet, the fact that their words and actions, disparate as they may be, makes their words important. This is a hard time for the serious investor.
2. President Trump’s crippling of our pandemic response capability. The firing and failure to replace the pandemic response team is merely the latest in a series of miscues and blunders by Trump and his team. But it remains important because it’s a signal of what the future may hold: more failures of competency. Trump’s defense of this failure holds the key: “And rather than spending the money — and I’m a business person — I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly.” He thinks like a business leader, effective or not, not like a government leader. He’s had three+ years to learn differently, and has failed to remand himself. As an investor, I can hope that someone will pull a miracle out of their ass – but I have to expect that the minimum time of creating, validating, manufacturing, and distributing a vaccine is at least a year, more likely closer to two. And that has strong consequences for the market.
3. President Trump’s mistaken belief that he has something important to say. Trump has engaged in the classic amateur’s behavior of believing he’s a professional and has a competent understanding of the material, and, for this investor, that means he may undertake actions and communications which are, at best, inaccurate, and, at worst, deleterious to the efforts of the professionals who should be in charge. Fumbling the effort makes the crisis last longer.
4. President Trump has a big, loose mouth. Last night, President Trump announced some sort of travel ban – you’ll see why I phrase it that way in a moment – and today Viking and Princess, two cruise lines, announced they were closed for business until further notice, while Norwegian, an airline, laid off 50% of its employees. This I picked up just in passing; no doubt there’s more. Was this well-thought out? No. Reportedly, he surprised advisors with this announcement. And when he didn’t, he screwed up the message. For example, as Steve Benen notes, Trump went on to tell the public, “Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.” A spokesperson for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading trade association for the nation’s private health insurers, soon after clarified to a Politico reporter that the president didn’t get this right, either: insurers waived co-pays for coronavirus testing, but “not for treatment.” Understandable when taken out of context, but in context, President Trump does this all the time – he can’t, or perhaps won’t, clearly communicate simple facts. For me, as an investor, bad information is the devil’s favorite tactic. My best counter-tactic? Ignore the font of bad information, and wait for the professionals to speak up. I understand that they are laboring under an idiot who’ll fire them if they make him look bad, so some interpretation is necessary.

This is going to be a rough patch, with a dip into recession, led by an Administration more concerned with reelection than with honest governance.

But, for me, the question isn’t how my 401K is doing, as my late conservative friend Jim once asked, but whether we’re going to come out of it with the least fortunate members of our society still relatively healthy, or if they’ll be broken: dead or so deeply into debt that they have no hope.

Good luck, folks, and always remember there’s someone else far worse off than yourself.

I haven’t had time to harp on the climate change situation, but I just ran across this beautiful visualization from about a year ago, and I share it, if only as a lesson in data visualization.

The "wait-for-it" million year tour of atmospheric CO2 is back. This time with some RCPs (the future) for context. Wait for it…. pic.twitter.com/RmwOz7Dk5B

— Kris Karnauskas (@OceansClimateCU) March 9, 2020

Speaking of CO₂ measurements, what’s the trend line at Mauna Loa?

Still upwards. I am looking forward to checking in on this in 6 months, out of curiosity as to whether it reflects any reaction to the slowdown in human industrial activity due to the Wuhan virus.

A few days ago, President Trump floated the idea of reducing the payroll tax (used to fund Social Security) as a way to keep the economy going. Regardless of the utility of the idea – I think it would ineffectual and reflects an unhealthy fixation on taxes and entitlements – I found this note about Senator McConnell’s (R-KY) reaction deeply amusing:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has privately told several allies in recent days he personally opposes the payroll tax cut idea Trump has endorsed, according to two veteran Republicans briefed on the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

McConnell has made clear he “detests” pursuing this particular policy, which would probably add to federal debt and deficits, and he has said many conservative GOP senators share his view. Still, he will hear out the White House on Tuesday, they said. [WaPo]

Source: St. Louis Fed

Really, Senator McConnell? You helped pass legislation which increased the deficit by how much, and now you’re worried about the deficit?

Hypocritical at best.

In the Mississippi primary that played out yesterday, Mike Espy has won the right for a Round 2 with now-Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), having lost the special election to her in 2018 by a relatively large margin of 7 points.

Now we shift focus to November. This campaign will decide what we want the next decade to look like for Mississippi. #MSSen https://t.co/HITdZmoqDv

— Mike Espy (@MikeEspyMS) March 11, 2020

Mississippi may be the most reliably Republican state in the nation, so Espy can only be hopeful, not confident. The latest poll I can find suggests Hyde-Smith has a comfortable 10 point lead.

This has been bugging me for a couple of days, and since I run the blog to let the bugs roam free … some more email, but this time from the author to an email list to me. The author? Former Redstate editor in chief and general far right-wing personality Erick Erickson. What is he purveying? It’s in support of some newsletter he’s trying to hawk, so I shall only quote the salient parts.

What is truth? The dictionary defines truth as “the quality or state of being true.” So then what is true? The dictionary defines true as “in accordance with fact or reality.” Scripture tells us that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life.”

What does that mean? Well, in short, it means Jesus is reality — God is real and factual and existent. Christians are to walk in that truth. We, as Christians (assuming here that you are), have an obligation to fact and reality because Jesus is fact and reality. We harm our witness for the truth of the gospel when we are unwedded from fact and reality. We cannot say the resurrection is real when we say an ascertainable, real fact is false. No one will believe us.

Note this emphasis on truth. Almost everyone loves truth. Yes?

What is not allowed is your truth and my truth. The truth is in accord with facts and people talking about their own truth are talking about emotions more often than not. That leads me to this picture that is going around on conservative corners of social media. I drew the red BS on it.

This picture is designed to minimize concerns over the Wuhan coronavirus. But it is not true. It is not the truth. If Christians are supposed to walk in truth and be grounded in truth, then to disseminate this is to sin because this is such a willful distortion of truth as to be a lie. A lot of Christians on social media are sinning.

It’s quite a lovely sentiment which makes me want to applaud Erickson. Yes, yes, take down someone on your own side! He goes on to debunk all of the paranoid remarks on the whiteboard, with which I shan’t burden you, makes some speculative historical remarks, suggests how those might apply to today, and then journeys down a path leading to an allegedly hypocrisy by the mainstream media concerning the appellation “Wuhan virus” being supposedly racist, which I have not heard from anywhere but Erickson. And that brings us to this:

But, being honest and truthful, I really do think this has everything to do with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Team Trump as adopted a universal naming convention for a virus, but because it is Trump doing it, it must be racist.

And then, of course, Erickson goes on to justify his use of the Trump Derangement Syndrome phrase in view of the objective fact that Trump himself has no love for truth, only for advantage, and Erickson did so in the most eloquent and persuasive of terms.

Nyah, just kidding. Erickson ignored the entire subject. He ignores 16,000+ verified lies. He tars his ideological opponents with a goofy phrase, covers himself in the cloak of virtuous truth, closes the rips in the cloak with thread made of the mistakes your own side has made, and struts off as if he’s been persuasive.

Alas for him, I smell hypocrite, I smell someone who decided to join the side of Father of Lies, and has shucked any devotion to truth or intellectual honesty in the process.

And that just sort of drives me crazy.

In the Sessions v Tuberville Republican primary runoff scheduled for the end of March, President Trump has made his selection known:

Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville) is running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Alabama. Tommy was a terrific head football coach at Auburn University. He is a REAL LEADER who will never let MAGA/KAG, or our Country, down! Tommy will protect your Second Amendment….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2020

And I expect Tuberville will win the primary. There are two questions then to be answered.

1. Will Alabama still be enamored with President Trump in November?
2. Will the Sessions supporters be willing to support Tuberville despite the bitter loss of their candidate?

If either of the answers goes against Tuberville, incumbent Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) may find a way to victory. I suspect if Jones does win, it’ll be because the hardball tactics of Tuberville will offend the Sessions supporters to the extent that they’ll simply stay home, even in the face of team politics demands of the Republican Party.

Talking Points Memo has the goods on disgraced Evangelical preacher Jimmy Baker:

Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker wants you to know that, as long as you’ve got his branded “Silver Solution” on your side, the novel coronavirus epidemic sweeping the globe doesn’t stand a chance. If only those pesky federal regulators hadn’t gotten in the way!

Bakker, a once-mainstream Evangelical disgraced by a sex scandal and a fraud conviction, is now best known for his relentless merchandizing, including with his buckets of freeze-dried food.

And with viewers’ virus concerns peaking last month, he recently took to marketing a miracle cure: “Silver Solution.”

“This influenza that is now circling the globe, you’re saying that Silver Solution would be effective?” Bakker asked the naturopathic doctor Sherrill Sellman on his Feb. 12 show, holding up a bottle of the product.

Silver Solution hadn’t been tested on the current strain of the coronavirus, Sellman responded, but “it has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus, and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours. Totally eliminates it, kills it, deactivates it.” …

The Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission told the Jim Bakker show Friday that that pitch, and several others, had crossed the line.

“You should take immediate action to correct the violations cited in this letter,” officials from the agencies wrote to Bakker’s show in a letter dated March 6.

“The claims cited above are not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence,” the regulators added later. “You must immediately cease making all such claims.”

If you’re wondering about the word naturopathic, Wikipedia defines it fairly harshly:

Naturopathy or naturopathic medicine is a form of alternative medicine that employs an array of pseudoscientific practices branded as “natural”, “non-invasive”, or promoting “self-healing”. The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine, rather than evidence-based medicine (EBM). Naturopathic practitioners generally recommend against following modern medical practices, including but not limited to medical testing, drugs, vaccinations, and surgery. Instead, naturopathic practice relies on unscientific notions, often leading naturopaths to diagnoses and treatments that have no factual merit.

Why this Sellman dude, who supposedly endorses natural therapies, would think a colloidal silver formulation is anything close to natural is rather beyond me. Incidentally, this Skeptical Inquirer magazine cover recently crossed my desk:

Gets right to the point, doesn’t it?

So, it appears this particular Evangelical preacher, even disgraced, can’t stay himself from preying on the credulous. It’s all of a piece, in my mind, since I figure much of his audience will be Evangelicals, because redemption is – quite sensibly – a big part of Christianity. I see them as a beef cow that just keeps on giving, even though the restraints holding it in place are of the flimsiest material – imagination.

If you’re in the mood for something off the beaten path, Convento (2010) may be right up your alley. This is a documentary of a family of Dutch artists working in Portugal in an abandoned, broken down monastery. They work the land, commune with the domestic animals, scavenge the refuse piles, and build whatever pleases them to build; as the mother is a former professional ballerina, their work tends to incorporate movement.

We were enchanted by some of their works, and a little disturbed by a couple. If you like documentaries on free spirits or artists, you’ll like this.

As I read CNN’s Chris Cillizza’s condemnation of Fox News‘ Trish Regan’s rant concerning the coronavirus being a hoax meant to injure President Trump, it seemed to me this was more than a simple defense of President Trump. But, first, Regan’s paranoid rant:

You gotta watch this, I mean……..you just gotta watch pic.twitter.com/x2ZsayVrmv

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 10, 2020

Yeah. I couldn’t finish it. Hell, I could barely start it. I have an allergy to such deliberate stupidity.

But it seems to me that this is more than a defense of an incompetent President. This is really about normalizing the bad behaviors of the President and his party, an attempt to legitimize a fundamentally third-rate approach to governance and society. Rather than admit that this is not a good President, they scream about it all being a hoax meant to hurt the President.

Because America’s been trained to love the victims of shadowy, hateful forces, without pausing for critical thoughts.

The truth of the matter is that, per usual, Congress is offering criticisms of the President’s efforts, even as it works on its own offerings. This has happened practically since day 1, and it is a good thing.

Let me repeat that. It is a good thing to offer criticism.

Sure, they have to be earnest and fair, which is more than can be said for some such criticisms from any Congress you’d care to name; there’s always some extremist bomb-thrower who wants to make points with the extremists back home. Left, right, top, bottom, they always exist.

But hardly anything improves without critique, whether internal or external. And with Trump reportedly firing the team that would have been in charge of the response, he makes  an easy target for gentle correction.

Unfortunately for him, Trumps and their cult never makes mistakes, do they? So he’s stuck. He’s stuck having to defend a bone-headed decision, and he’s elected to with As a businessman … and I don’t even have to finish up that quote, do I? It implicitly and completely indicts him as not understanding his job – and not being interested in finding out what it might entail, because it’ll just make him look worse.

So what is our part in this drama? To understand what’s going on behind such rancid dramas as Regan’s, and call it what it is.

I never thought of this:

Eschrichtius robustus

A study of nearly 200 strandings of healthy grey whales over the past 30 years has found that the animals are four times more likely to strand themselves during solar storms.

Jesse Granger at Duke University in North Carolina and her colleagues think that radio frequency noise produced by the storms interferes with the magnetic compass of whales, preventing them from sensing direction.

But her team has shown only a correlation between the two events, Granger stresses. “This is not direct evidence,” she says.

We still know little about how whales navigate in largely featureless oceans during their long migrations. It is likely that they use magnetoreception as many other animals do, but this is difficult to demonstrate.

To investigate, Granger and her team looked at 186 instances where individual grey whales with no signs of any injury or interaction with people had become stranded, presumably due to navigational errors. They found strandings were twice as likely on days with more sunspots. [NewScientist (25 February 2020)]

Assuming they got this right, it makes a lot of sense, of course. Sunspots are magnetic in nature:

Sunspots are dark splotches that mark cooler patches on the solar surface. They correlate with areas of intense magnetic activity that are breeding grounds for violent outbursts of matter and radiation from our star. If it weren’t for the protective hull of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, these solar flares and coronal mass ejections would rapidly fry life on our planet. [NewScientist (14 September 2013)]

But I wouldn’t have guessed the intensity at this range could vary so much as to confuse, perhaps even blind those creatures using magnetoreceptors for navigation.

In philosophy, one of the subjects of contention is whether or not we can know the sensations that another creature is experiencing, with the iconic example being the sonar-locating bat. I’d add whales to the list. Do their magnetoreceptors still detect the sun when they’re at depth, chasing their meals?

Oh, OK, grey whales are baleen whales, meaning they are filter feeders mostly eating plankton. Still, I had to have the poetic touch, no?

My Arts Editor directs my attention to this article in the Independent:

China, where the [COVID-19] outbreak began, has nearly 80,000 cases of coronavirus, by far the largest number of any country, with nearly 2,900 deaths.

Nasa’s maps compare pollution levels between the first three weeks of the year and 10-25 February.

The space agency’s scientists said the fall in pollution was first apparent near Wuhan, the source of the outbreak, but eventually spread across the country.

“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” said Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

She said she had seen a decline in nitrogen dioxide levels during the economic recession of 2008 but said that decrease was more gradual.

It’s fascinating how quickly mankind’s pollution begins to fade, and does give me a little hope for the future. NASA pollution maps, just because they’re dramatic:

Blow, boys, blow, your audience is all the way across the continent!

Something to Sing About (1937) is a light-hearted tale of a New York City hoofer, Terry Rooney, taking his talents to Hollywood, leaving his band – and his fiancee – behind. When, at the end of his first movie, he feels like a failure, he flies his fiancee to Hollywood, marries her as she comes off the plane, and they take a long honeymoon in the South Seas.

Meanwhile, his movie becomes a smash, and the studio is nearly melting down when they can’t find Rooney to sign to a long term contract. When Rooney, Mr. & Mrs., finally return, a riot occurs when he’s recognized by the public.

The serpentine coils of Hollywood now become clear as it’s commercially impolitic to let the world know that heart throb Rooney is married, and his new wife is ready to play along in the interests of building a financially secure future, but they both find the charade wearing. And then when a gossip columnist claims Rooney is actually about to marry his ridiculous co-star … !

It comes down to following one’s heart, staying honest, and making spectacular entrances in the several dance numbers to which we are treated – or must endure if dance isn’t your thing. Anything profound is carefully covered in frosting, and it’s a lot of fun if you like licking frosting.

Enjoy!

Adduce:

to give reasons why you think something is true:

• None of the evidence adduced in court was conclusive. [Cambridge Dictionary]

Noted in “Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Optimism, Explained,” Kevin Drum:

Why is President Trump so obsessive about insisting that the coronavirus is no big deal, everything is under control, no worries, etc.? It seems self defeating. Obviously the virus is going to do what it does regardless of what he says, and Trump’s Pollyanna routine is just going to make him seem ever further out of touch the worse things get.

Maybe. But I have another theory. This is not something that I believe Trump has thought through, but something that he’s adduced via pure, subconscious animal cunning, of which he is well endowed. Here it is: …

I’m not entirely sure Drum’s usage is adroit.