Archive for 2020
July 14, 2020
HMM: TB vaccine may protect against COVID-19 infection, studies say. “The vaccine, which is routinely given to children in countries where TB infection is common, is called Bacille Calmette-Guérin, or BCG for short. It is not widely used in the United States.”
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Longtime columnist and blogger Andrew Sullivan resigns from New York magazine.
Columnist and blogger Andrew Sullivan is leaving New York magazine, his professional home since 2016, he announced Tuesday.
“This will be my last week at New York Magazine,” Sullivan tweeted. “I’m sad because the editors I worked with there are among the finest in the country, and I am immensely grateful to them for vastly improving my work. I’m also proud of the essays and columns I wrote at NYM – some of which will be published in a collection of my writing scheduled for next year.”
Sullivan did not directly state his reason for leaving but said on Twitter that it was “pretty self-evident” and the “broader questions involved” would be discussed in his last column on Friday.
New York editor in chief David Haskell confirmed Sullivan’s resignation in a memo to staff obtained by CNN Business.
* * * * * * * *
“I am trying hard to create in this magazine a civil, respectful, intellectually honest space for political debate,” Haskell said. “I believe there is a way to write from a conservative* perspective about some of the most politically charged subjects of American life while still upholding our values. I also think that our magazine in particular has an opportunity to be a place where the liberal project is hashed out, which is to say not only championed but also interrogated.”
Or as Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner tweets, “Translation: I want to challenge our reader base but I don’t know how to do that without challenging our reader base,” adding, “that feeling when you thought you were publishing far-right-wing ideas because you hired Jon Chait.”
* If Obama and Kerry supporting faux-conservative Andrew Sullivan can’t make it at the former home of Tom Wolfe, I’m not holding my breath for Sullivan to be replaced by an actual conservative anytime soon.
RBG WATCH: Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Hospitalized With Possible Infection. “She is resting comfortably and will stay there for a few days for antibiotic treatment.”
NEW FROM BURGER KING, THE AOC BURGER! Burger King debuts a Whopper made from cows who burp less methane.
“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s Green Nude Eel ghostwriter and former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti* famously wrote a million years ago in early 2019. Covid has wrecked the latter half of that goal; apparently hoping that the mob will devour them last, Burger King is taking up the udder other half.
In more satirical news from the world of America’s Socialist “It Girl” and food: The AOC Cookbook: My adobo recipe. “When Cockburn heard that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was calling for a boycott of Goya, he wondered what the dead Spanish painter had done wrong. Fortunately, a member of the Latinx community was on hand to explain in non-gendered grammar that it’s Goya foods that we must shun.”
* Flashback: AOC chief of staff criticized for wearing shirt touting Nazi collaborator.
HMM: Melatonin Inhibits COVID-19-induced Cytokine Storm by Reversing Aerobic Glycolysis in Immune Cells.
UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!
“IRATE EMPLOYEES” WHO DEMAND FIRINGS SHOULD BE FIRED: Museum Curator Resigns After He Is Accused of Racism for Saying He Would Still Collect Art From White Men.
I think someone should attack the museum’s tax exemption on Bob Jones grounds.
THE MEDIA SELF-PURGE CONTINUES: Andrew Sullivan: I’m leaving New York Magazine.
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING, BESIDES EVERYBODY WITH A BRAIN? Black Leaders Call on NYPD to Bring Back Anti-Crime Unit as Shootings Spike.
SOURCE: ‘DOZENS OF INSTANCES OF BULLYING AND HARASSMENT’ AT NEW YORK TIMES. “‘Bari Weiss’s letter was tame,’ a New York Times insider tells me. ‘She could have named names. She could have said, “There are dozens of other instances of bullying and harassment.” Because there are’…As Weiss herself says, her verifiable claims could amount to a costly compensation case for the Times: ‘unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge’. The Times’s management may also have breached Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), by failing to protect Weiss from ‘discrimination based on certain specified characteristics’ including ‘race, color, national origin, sex, and religion.’”
Read the whole thing.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Lincoln Project Co-Founder Rick Wilson Ambushed Over Bush Support By [Stephen] Colbert’s Cartoon Anchors.
(Yes, that’s an actual headline, as the Matrix’s programming continues to glitch very badly in its simulacrum of 2020 AD.)
Related: The Lincoln Project out-garbages itself, fires Ben Howe over old tweets. “There is no way that taken as a whole, Ben Howe’s Twitter history is more offensive or vitriolic than Rick Wilson’s.”
RADICAL CHIC: THE GERITOL YEARS. Remembering Joe Biden’s Newest Fan, Angela Davis.
Last night, 76-year-old radical Angela Davis was trending on Twitter due to her endorsement of 77-year-old presidential hopeful Joe Biden. Bravely we go into the future, I guess. While no politician can control who supports them, apparently numerous pundits believe that the Davis endorsement is worthy of celebration (though most also carefully avoided noting her blessing was made on Russian propaganda television).
“Why isn’t Angela Davis asked for commentary on major news channels?” wonders the Washington Post’s Wajahat Ali. Well, I’ve can think of a few reasons.
Read the whole thing.
Earlier: Biden Cites Quote Made Famous By Mao Zedong During Fundraiser.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: First Look: Federal Premium Hydra-Shok Deep in .380 ACP.
FASTER, PLEASE: New solar material could clean drinking water.
I CONFESS I DID NOT SEE THIS DISCOVERY COMING: Damaged Human Lungs Can Be Repaired by Attaching Them to Pigs, Experiment Shows.
POST-POSTWAR JAPAN: China Provocations Hasten Japan’s Military Revival.
China’s ascent has reshaped security policies across the Asia-Pacific region. Australia recently detailed $186 billion in high-tech defense spending over the next 10 years and, along with India, it is drawing closer to Japan and the U.S. through military drills and cooperation. South Korea is boosting spending on jet fighters after incidents such as one last year when Seoul accused Russian and Chinese bombers of intruding into its airspace and scrambled fighters in response. On Monday, the U.S. offered support to its allies in the region by formally opposing Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
Nowhere has the impact been stronger than in Japan. Its military is now one of the world’s best-equipped and trained, increasingly visible on exercises around the globe. A close partner of the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved the country away from its strict pacifism during his 8½ years in power over two stints. China’s military rise, along with the threat of North Korean missiles, has been a major catalyst.
In March of last year, Japan opened military bases on Amami-Oshima, the island shadowed by the Chinese submarine, and on another island further south, both equipped with antiship and surface-to-air missiles. Another base is planned for a third island. In 2016, it added a military radar station on one of its islands closest to China.
Other investments designed primarily to protect Japan’s islands include the largest fleet of F-35 fighters outside the U.S. and a network of satellites capable of guiding newly procured cruise missiles to shoebox-sized targets. Annual military spending lags far behind China, but under Mr. Abe it has risen by 10%.
Beijing has no one to blame but themselves.