IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Scientists Found a Fossilized South American Frog in Antarctica.
Archive for 2020
April 24, 2020
CONSERVING THE TRUE CONSERVATIVISM BY ENDORSING AN INCREASINGLY PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT: Republican Group Sings Biden’s Praises In New Political Ad.
A conservative group—whose advisers include George Conway, husband to top White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and former Republican strategist Rick Wilson—released a new video lauding Joe Biden’s qualifications to be the next president of the United States.
The video ad, uploaded to YouTube by The Lincoln Project this week, calls former Vice-President Biden, the “man for this moment,” insisting that the veteran politician has a record of service and is “a bipartisan leader who puts good ideas ahead of party politics.” The ad titled “Ready” also takes a few subtle shots at Donald Trump, saying that Biden’s life “has been marked by triumphs that didn’t change the goodness in him and public office that never went to his head.” It added that personal events gave him “the character that this country needs more than ever.”
Conway, Wilson, et al. might still be Republicans, technically. But they’ve proven themselves over and over again to be no conservatives.
RELATED: Joe Biden Is Unfit to Serve by Any and Every Measure.
NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: Non-workers of the world unite!
Exit quote: “I agree with AOC. Work is a form of oppression. It’s just wrong. Let’s abolish it. After all, this lockdown has proven that we don’t really need work. Everything that is truly essential — Amazon and liquor stores — remains open. Let’s stay locked down forever!”
WHAT PROVOSTS GET WRONG (ABOUT FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS): My review of former NYU vice provost and current professor Ulrich Baer’s What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Truth, and Equality on Campus. The weirdest thing about the book, as I discuss, is its unrelenting partisanship, which almost seems calculated not to change anyone’s mind.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Toys & Games.
EVERYTHING IS AN EXCUSE FOR WHAT I ALREADY WANTED TO DO: Biden: Coronavirus Is a ‘Wake Up Call’ on ‘Climate Change,’ an ‘Opportunity’ for ‘Institutional Change.’
FASTER, PLEASE: Inexpensive, portable detector identifies pathogens in minutes.
IS THERE ANYTHING SHE CAN’T DO? The Multi-Talented Ms. Abrams.
Most politicians in the running to join a presidential ticket as the VP candidate are inclined to stay silent, change the subject, or simply express their humility at the thought of being considered. Stacey Abrams isn’t most politicians.
“I would be an excellent running mate,” Abrams said in a recent interview with Elle magazine, citing her “strong history of executive and management experience,” as well as her “25 years in independent study of foreign policy.”
As soon as it became clear that former vice president Joe Biden would be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, Abrams embarked on a media tour to make the case for why Stacey Abrams, a woman of extraordinary talents and independently attained expertise, should be Biden’s running mate.
Asked on Morning Joe if she agreed with her previous assessment that Stacey Abrams would make an excellent running mate, Abrams affirmed she was indeed correct. “Absolutely,” she said. “This is a question of competency, of skills, and of understanding the intricate nature of our federal, state, and local governments.”
Abrams elaborated in an interview with FiveThirtyEight, describing Abrams as “a very accomplished person who has experience on a realm of issues and has the capacity to do this job [of vice president].” Abrams added that in her own “very pragmatic” assessment, Abrams would be elected president within 20 years.
Read the whole thing.
Abrams is Al Sharpton approved, to boot: “Pressure has been growing on Mr. Biden to choose a black woman to inspire black turnout this fall and not take it for granted. The Rev. Al Sharpton, for instance, who speaks to Mr. Biden regularly, is [set] to announce his support for Ms. Abrams as vice president as soon as next week, according to those familiar with his plans,” the New York Times reports.
As Dan McLauglin tweets, “It is difficult to write anything as damning about Joe Biden as ‘Al Sharpton, who talks regularly to Biden.’”
Perhaps though, there is another choice: Five Reasons Jesse Ventura Is More Qualified Than Stacey Abrams To Be President.
WE DON’T TRUST CHINA. CHINA IS ASSHOLE: U.S. Views of China Plunge During Corona Crisis.
To be clear, we’re talking about the mainland People’s Republic of China, not the finely-run Republic of China on Taiwan.
IF YOU MIX AMMONIA AND BLEACH YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING THE CORONAVIRUS, BUT NOT IN A GOOD WAY: Accidental Poisoning Is on The Rise in The US as People Try to Sanitise Their Homes.
HOW MUCH BETTER WOULD NYC BE DOING IF THEY HAD SHUT DOWN THE SUBWAYS? OR IF THEY EVEN BOTHERED TO CLEAN THEM AT THE END OF THE LINE? ‘They Are Transporting This Virus’: MTA Subway Conductors Say Trains Are Filthier Than Ever Amid Coronavirus Pandemic.
THIS POST SPONSORED BY GAULOISES: Smoking may greatly reduce the chances of becoming infected with coronavirus, according to a French study.
Related: Ben Affleck won’t let face mask stop him from smoking.
As Iowahawk tweets, “If the new normal means staying away from people, smoking and drinking is preventative medicine, and $1 gasoline, I AM HERE FOR IT.” Endorsed.
CRUEL, BUT FAIR: Stacey Abrams Is Running for a Job She Never Wanted Because Her Career Is Over. “Right now, we’re just a little under halfway through Kemp’s first term as Governor. He’s not done a bad job, and has even scored some victories along the way that people didn’t expect of him. But the impact of the novel coronavirus on his legacy isn’t something we can measure yet. Abrams, in trying to get the Vice Presidential pick, is trying to put herself into a situation that is hard to come out a loser in.”
AT AMAZON, Face Mask, Pack of 50.
OUT: UBER EATS. IN: BOOBER EATS. With Clubs Closed for COVID-19, Strippers in Portland, Oregon, Take to Topless Food Delivery.
WELL, IF YOU’D LISTENED TO THE NEWS MEDIA IN FEBRUARY YOU’D HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT WORRYING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS WAS PARANOID, UNSCIENTIFIC NONSENSE: Preppers Are Quite Prepared to Enjoy Some Vindication. “Now, with Covid-19, they feel vindicated. Because they are. The coders and founders long snickered at for stockpiling flour and toilet paper were absolutely right. . . . Observing all of this is one thing. Acting on it is another. The moment when you first started prepping for coronavirus has become perhaps the hottest new credential in Silicon Valley. Noticing it early signaled that you were someone who kept a close eye on China, ignored official channels of information, brushed off snark and knew how to parse data.”
Plus: “I have noticed an instinct among those who first mocked Silicon Valley preppers as alarmist is now to call them smug. Certainly, some of them are. But the fact remains that they saw this — or something like it — coming a long ways off.”
And:
There is irony to this, of course. Prepping is required in part because technology helped make America’s economic infrastructure so efficient. Grocery stores adopted just-in-time delivery systems perfected by Silicon Valley. Hospitals would keep only a few days of extra gear.
“Prepping is really a decision to take the slack that we’ve ‘optimized’ out of the system and put it on your own balance sheet,” Mr. Stokes said.
Maybe optimize less in the future.
IT’S THE SNARL OF A CORNERED RAT: China’s diplomats show teeth in defending virus response.
From Asia to Africa, London to Berlin, Chinese envoys have set off diplomatic firestorms with a combative defense whenever their country is accused of not acting quickly enough to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
They belong to a new generation of “Wolf Warrior” diplomats, named after patriotic blockbuster films starring a muscle-bound Chinese commando killing American bad guys in Africa and Southeast Asia with his bare hands.
But cornered rats can be dangerous.
LIFE IN TENNESSEE: I listened to Gov. Lee’s reopening plan press conference on the radio a few minutes ago. Sounds sensible to me. The press was better than the one at Trump’s briefings, but not by much. The very first question, on behalf of the state’s Karen population I guess, was basically why the Governor wasn’t unleashing thousands of inspectors to keep everyone in line. The second was why the Governor wasn’t issuing a mask to each Tennessean before reopening anything. The third question, on daily numbers, actually produced a useful discussion of testing populations, where we got a one-day bump in the numbers because we tested the Bledsoe County correctional facility which had multiple cases.
Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods: 24 active Knox County COVID-19 cases; 207 total. “The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Knox County grew by one on Friday to 207 with active cases at 27. The total number of recovered cases rose to 179 from 173. Of the 207 cases, 31 of them have resulted in hospitalization at any point during the illness. This figure does not reflect the number of patients currently hospitalized in the county. Six cases currently require hospitalization.” Still just four deaths, a number that has held steady for quite a while. (The headline, which says 24, appears to be correct.). The 27 in the text appears to be a typo, judging by what’s on the KCHD site.
UPDATE: Here’s a report on Lee’s plan.
