My women friends are showing their coronavirus hairdos on Instagram. Here’s mine.
“Remain calm! All is well!" The White House maintains order during the coronavirus pandemic.
CDC Director Robert Redfield warned the coronavirus pandemic might come back in the winter, worse than before. The White House claims he never said it. The White House is lying.
Why the CDC director wasn’t misquoted on coronavirus – no matter what the White House says [Chris Cillizza/CNN]
Why do people think 5G causes coronavirus?
The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory[Reset]
A vague throwaway line in a European newspaper in January ignited multiple conspiracy theories about a nonexistent link between 5G and coronavirus
People subscribe to theories like this because there are things really going on in the world that would have been unthinkable a short time ago
The best way to combat the spread of a conspiracy theory: Start by listening.
What to expect in the next year or two of the pandemic
Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times science and health reporter, who has successfully anticipated the pandemic thus far, polishes his crystal ball and looks at what to expect for the next year or two.
- Immunity passports, as people get certified immune and fit to go out in public;
- Start-stop lockdowns, as societies open up, infection rates increase, and then societies shut down again;
- and strategic self-infection – people intentionally infecting themselves in hopes of acquiring immunity.
Afterward, possibly a flourishing of prosperity and progressive policy, as happened after World Wars I and I.
The Next Year (or Two) of the Pandemic [The Daily/The New York Times]
Stories to Wash Hands By [The Memory Palace/Nate DiMeo]: “20 stories, each 20 seconds, to accompany you in the proper washing of hands.”
Today on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic
++ Calls by the music industry to put copyright filters on the entire Internet are a terrible idea. Existing filters are utter failures at finding copyrighted material and “they also flag and block entire libraries' worth of legit materials.” Copyright filters will do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they intend: They will encourage copyright abuse, stifle legitimate free expression and creativity and – because they cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to implement – they will block startups from competing with the big incumbent internet companies.
++ Apartment buildings didn’t cause the pandemic.
++ “Reopen” websites are backed by the Koch brothers and other grifters behind the Tea Party, GOP and conmen who stir up fears that guns are going to confiscated.
++ Charter gives its field techs $25 gift cards to restaurants – which aren’t open – instead of hazard pay or PPE, and it requires back-office staff to come to work in the office. Now at last 230 Charter employees have Covid-19 and the company is under investigation by the NY Attorney General.
++ Disney heiress Abigail Disney says the company’s top executives ought to forego bonuses rather than furlough 100,000 front-line workers.
Trump is going down hard in November
Everyone is in denial about November [Daniel W. Drezner/The Washington Post]
We’re only in the second inning of the pandemic. Getting a little breather now, things are looking like they’re getting better, but most of the crisis is still ahead of us.
And Trump can be counted on to make things worse. That is his biggest liability as a President. Not his numerous character flaws – jerk, crook, racist, narcissist, serial and compulsive liar. No, Trump’s biggest liability as a President is that he’s an incompetent moron. He’s an idiot. Even worse, he THINKS he’s a super-competent genius. And that’s going to be even more obvious in November than it is today.
"World on Fire"
Last night we watched about 15 minutes of the second episode “World on Fire,” a British miniseries about the Nazi conquest of Europe, told from the vantage point of ordinary people.
Then we turned off the TV.
I loved the first episode of the program and was extremely impressed by it, but somehow we’re not feeling like watching “World on Fire” when the world seems like it’s on the verge of burning.