DL Open Thread Sunday, August 8, 2021
Alexander Pope was right: A little learning is a dangerous thing. He put it more poetically, but his observation was spot on. People who know a lot usually know how much they don’t know, whereas people who learn only a little tend to overestimate their knowledge. A perfect example played out yesterday at Christiana Hospital, where several hundred benighted people gathered to protest vaccine mandates. A lot of them are health-care professionals, which you would (wrongly) think makes them smart, but read some of their reasoning. Yes, of course the vaccine carries risk — every vaccine ever developed carries risk. Yet that risk is demonstrably lower, by orders of magnitude, than an unvaccinated person’s risk.
As this explainer from Vox notes, the risk of death is 24 times more likely to die from Covid than someone who’s vaccinated. So I’m going to guess that those health-care professionals didn’t score all that high in math or critical thinking. As this story shows, Republicans would rather dose themselves with veterinary products like horse paste and sheep drench.
Robert Reich speculates that Previous Guy fatigue blunted the effect of news that should have shocked the nation: Evidence that Trump actively plotted to stay in power through a coup. In a functioning country, this would lead to Trump’s execution by hanging, but we live in a fascist state whose citizens are only slowly realizing that they already live in a fascist state. Now shut up, give me some bread and put the circuses on TV.
Given that he’s already committed capital crimes, it seems penny-ante, but that’s Trump’s trademark, isn’t it? So it’s no surprise that his campaign has been forced to return nearly $13 million in donations raised through chicanery. Basically, those who donated online were signed up for automatic periodic donations unless they read through the fine print and opted out.
RWNJs love to fulminate about Joe Biden’s supposed dementia, but they can’t seem to explain why he keeps outsmarting them at every turn. Latest example: When a reporter tried to play junior-high lunchroom –“Gov. DeSantis said this, what’s your response?” — Joe had the perfect response: “Governor Who?” followed by a snort of derision. So tell me, nut jobs — if he’s senile and he’s still smarter than you, what does that make you?
The mainstream media is breathing a sigh of relief at the news that barely Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb has entered the Pennsylvania Senate race. Did I say sigh of relief? More like a slobbery kiss. I don’t think he stands a chance, but he apparently doesn’t relish the idea of trying to get re-elected in a redrawn district.
The long international nightmare known as the Olympics ends today, while Tokyo deals with the resulting pandemic outbreak. Even without the pandemic, more people are coming around to the obvious reality: They are costly, corrupt and do more harm than good. It’s time to stop listening to propaganda from people who profit from them and start paying attention to those who bear the costs — in Tokyo’s case, the price tag is about $28 billion.
The floor’s yours.
I get (and share in some ways) your Olympics disdain. But think every once in a while paying attention to under-appreciated sports, and seeing the world gathered together for some fun is a good thing.
It is too bad it is so corrupt and twisted into knots by late stage capitalism.
I agree, both things are good. Combining them in the Olympic manner, not so much.
How much of the Third World could have been vaccinated with that $28 billion? Or, basically, any other cause that would do some actual good, as opposed to what an earlier Scrooge, pointing out the wasteful folly of a different tradition, called “a false and commercial festival, devoutly to be ignored.”
Besides, a sporting world in which skeet shooting and synchronized swimming are Olympic sports but the keg toss and vehicle pull are not is a sporting world I’m interested in subsidizing.
“Previous Guy fatigue blunted the effect of news that should have shocked the nation: Evidence that Trump actively plotted to stay in power through a coup. In a functioning country, this would lead to Trump’s execution by hanging,”
Trump fatigue or just lazy end stage democracy? Our 4th estate is coming up very small, and “Democratic” Senators put a premium on being in good standing with traitors.
‘Sheep Drench’. Hmmm, wonder if that band name’s taken. Back in a sec…
Nope.
Speaking of bands, (perhaps my most artless transition yet), I found this review of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born In The USA’ fascinating. Mainly b/c it’s less a review than a description of Springsteen’s ambivalence towards the album. If you wanna learn more about The Boss, this article will help fill in some gaps…including why he got so buff around this time:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bruce-springsteen-born-in-the-usa/
“Evidence that Trump actively plotted to stay in power through a coup. In a functioning country…”
In a functioning country this would lead to Congress declaring Trump ineligible to hold office under the Fourteenth Amendment.
At, y’know, a minimum. But that’s America — among our most cherished freedoms are freedom from standards and freedom from responsibility.
On a political level, I’m glad he’s eligible to run. He will tear that corpulent party apart, and it’s about time.
” He will tear that corpulent party apart, ”
*sigh*
When? I’ve been expecting that for 5 years.
Loved all stories written in short bursts on goodies. Great format. Please keep it up.