NOW OUT: Revised USDA Dietary Guidelines. Their track record isn’t exactly brilliant. Story here.
Archive for 2020
December 30, 2020
WILL MCCARTHY, HOUSE GOP GO FOR A COALITION TO OUST PELOSI? There are 10 Democrats in the 117th Congress that convenes next week who voted against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House in the 116th Congress.
With Republicans picking up the same number of seats in the new Congress, nominating one of those 10 Democrats as part of a coalition could end the Pelosi era. But are Republicans making the necessary moves to assemble such a coalition? Not holding my breath.
CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD: It’s ‘Wrapped Up’: Pelosi Confident She’ll Retain Speaker’s Gavel Despite Challenges.
CHANGE: Intel shares rise after Third Point urges chipmaker to explore strategic alternatives as market share deteriorates. “Without immediate change at Intel, we fear that America’s access to leading-edge semiconductor supply will erode, forcing the U.S. to rely more heavily on geopolitically unstable East Asia to power everything from PCs to data centers to critical infrastructure and more.”
It’s been sad watching Intel lose its fabrication mojo, but Trump was ahead of most on this one, which is why he got Taiwan Semi to start building a plant in Arizona.
ASSEMBLY LINE SWALWELLS: A finely thought-provoking contemplation by UncoverDC’s Richard Gagnier on G2 honeypots, small-time Mafia set-ups and the frailty of the human condition.
MURDER RATES SKYROCKET: Don’t look now, but the whole country seems to be coming undone.
DISPATCHES FROM YEAR ONE: Canceling ‘The Odyssey.’ “The Odyssey is ‘trash.’ Shakespeare is filled with “hateful rhetoric.” The Scarlet Letter is ‘slut shaming’.”
MICKEY KAUS: Woke Health Care Should Terrify Liberals:
You may have assumed that woke activism was a sideshow, destroying academic institutions and The New York Times. Yet here it had pentrated an important, once-revered government scientific agency and it was affecting, not who gets to edit the Times op-ed page but basic questions of life and death for millions.
For liberals, this should be especially terrifying–most crucially for backers of “Medicare for All” and other ambitious health plans. I think I’m one of them — I’ve always supported some kind of universal, national health insurance. Medicare seems like a program that works–why not expand it? Claims from conservatives that this gives government too much power have always seemed like a rote application of abstract dogma. Did Medicare — run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — have too much power? Hard to see how. There’s no obvious rationing. No death panels. Of course there are always worries about cost-cutting, and the insidious culture of “good death,” including creepy end-of-life maneuvers (like the UKs infamous Liverpool Pathway). Yet we could seemingly rely on voter demand for care to overhwelm lugubrious proponents of medical austerity.
But what happened last week was not abstract: The near-hijacking of a universal medical instiution, and a potential denial of care, not in the name of budget-cutting but in the name of two-wrongs-make-up-for-racism social justice. Fight it and you’re not just self-interested and wrong. You’re self-interested and wrong and racist.
Where’ll this line of argument crop up next? Do I have to worry that in the future, when I’m wheeled into the ER, some Ivy League bioethicist will have decided I’m too white to get care? Or — further up the medical supply chain — that valuable medicines won’t even be developed because’If the government paid for this procedure it would save lives, but they would not be diverse lives …’
If you thought Woke CDC was bad, wait till you see Woke CMS. I’ll stick with Blue Cross, thanks.
Yes, I’m quite paranoid about this, for good reasons. Put crudely, our colleges have been churning out these Woke folk for many years now. They’ve infiltrated themselves into every institution of society — including the state, apparently– where they reward each other with tenure and civil service protections. They’ll be hard to root out! You can’t fire a civil servant without months, or years, of due process. Even then you can’t fire them just because their loony views clash with the policies endorsed by the voters. That would violate the First Amendment! (See Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347). Now I know how Joe McCarthy felt.
Actuallly, the Woke have a weapon that 50’s Communists never did — the power of cancellation, which works in some contexts at least, including agencies that are terrified of even a day’s bad PR. (Ask Shirley Sherrod.)
And if Wokeness gained power under Trump, what about under a Democrat? Here is Biden’s historic opportunity to perform a service for his party. If you’re a Big Government liberal, you want to strangle the Woke baby in the bathtub, before it grows up to thoroughly undermine public support for finishing the great Democratic project (including universal health care, but also ending exclusionary zoning and stratified schooling, providing a safe environment, etc.).
Biden’s not ‘the perfect man for the job’–that would be 1992’s Bill Clinton. (Ask Sister Souljah.) But Biden’s a solid candidate.
Good luck with that. I’m not sure he’s even got solid poops these days.
TRUST IS THE PUBLIC HEALTH COMMUNITY’S GREATEST — MAYBE SOLE — ASSET, AND THEY’RE WILLING TO SQUANDER IT AT THE DROP OF A HAT: Why Did Fauci Move the Herd Immunity Goal Posts? — Scientists play a dangerous game when they tailor factual statements to promote policy goals.
An expert cannot distort the message to the public because too many in the public can directly interrogate the source material. In this case, that means: models estimating herd immunity thresholds or the data underlying community mask use, drawing their own conclusions. If an expert seeks to distort their view of the science to further a behavioral change amongst the public, the risk of detection is high — at least by some in the public. As such, it runs the risk of immediate backlash and the ensuing loss of credibility. . . .
Once it is revealed that any individual has presented information selectively to get the listener to change their behavior — that person will forever be viewed through that lens: a calculating person. Is Fauci telling me this because the science supports it, because he believes it, or because he thinks hearing it might motivate a behavioral change on my part?
Personally, I don’t see a way back from this situation. The moment the public believes that you might be withholding, selectively presenting, or distorting information to get them to behave a certain way, they will immediately put your comments through a translator. He might be saying this because it’s what he believes, but what if he is saying it to change my behavior. What might that look like? What does he want my behavior to be, and what would it be if he told me something else? If that’s the case, what might his real feelings be … and on and on. The moment you enter this state in a relationship, there is no path back, it is over. Trust is irrevocably broken. A new spokesperson is needed.
At the very least. One way to make the new spokesperson more trustworthy is to punish the old spokesperson for lying.
WELL, NOW. I ALSO HAVE CONTRIBUTOR COPIES AND BOOKS I MEAN TO READ. THOUGH THE FIRST ARE CONFINED TO A PARTICULAR AREA, AND BOOKS TO BE READ ARE MOSTLY PILED BY THE BED. OR STORED IN MY KINDLE: When it comes to the books on my shelves, I’ve read them.
VIRAL LOAD MATTERS: You’re Infected With the Coronavirus. But How Infected?
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE ESCAPE ARE JAILERS. WHICH IS WHAT MOST OF OUR WOULD BE PUBLISHING ESTABLISHMENT IS. THANK HEAVENS FOR INDIE: Escapism.
NO, REALLY ALIEN: The seas of Titan, deep and alien.
DO LOOK AT THOSE NUMBERS. LOCKDOWN FOR THIS? And Lockdown Crazy California Jumps Into the Lead.
AT SOME POINT, THOUGH, WE HIT ROMANIA, WHEN EVERYONE SUDDENLY REALIZES THAT ACTUALLY THEY’RE IN THE MAJORITY. BTW, NOVEMBER 2020 AND HOW HARD AND BLATANTLY THE DEMS HAD TO FRAUD TO “WIN” SHOULD BE YOUR HINT. YOU’RE IN THE MAJORITY. IT’S TIME TO STOP LETTING THEM COW US. THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS: When lies become obligatory.
OF COURSE IT’S BY DESIGN: The Pennsylvania voting numbers don’t add up.
CAUSES AN ITCH IN THE MIDDLE FINGERS: Insufferable.
IT SURE IS: Box It.
SURE THING. HEY, AMERICA? WHEN THEY TELL YOU THEY HATE YOU? BELIEVE THEM! Raphael Warnock: Jeremiah Wright’s ‘God Damn America’ Sermon ‘Very Thoughtful, Compelling’.
I’M SORRY, THE ONLY WAY THEY CAN COVER THEM ANY BETTER IS IF THEY BORROW COMMIE LAWHORISH’S KNEEPADS: Media Promises Kinder, Gentler Coverage Of Biden.
YOU’RE GIVING HIM WAY TOO MUCH CREDIT. HE’S JUST FANG FANG MCCONNEL: A Familiar Play – Mitch McConnell Blocks Attempt to Pass $2,000 COVID Relief Bill, Deflects Accountability to POTUS.