Briefly Noted for 2020-08-19
The end of California’s “Mediterranean climate”? Nah. It’s still cooler in the summer than Greece, or Catalonia, or Sicily—by a lot:
Daniel Swain: https://weatherwest.com/archives/7427 https://weatherwest.com/: ‘A very intense and prolonged heatwave now appears likely for a large portion of California over the next 7-10 days, and this event will likely have wide-ranging impacts from human health, wildfire, and electricity demand perspectives.... A strengthening ridge axis... from the southeast... a humid tropical airmass... from the southwest... remnants of former Hurricane Elida... locked in place for at least the next 7 days, and very possibly longer…
It now looks like there was enough of a bounceback in July to give us a 5% boost to third quarter GDP—that is a 20% reported annualized growth rate for Q3 –unless the economy is falling off a cliff now or does so in September. Unfortunately, the economy may well fall off a cliff this month or next. The renewed spread of the coronavirus plague, plus Trump's and McConnell‘s decision that they would rather have no fiscal stimulus at all then negotiate with Pelosi, are not pieces of good news for aggregate demand:
Tim Duy: Fiscal Follies Continue* https://blogs.uoregon.edu/timduyfedwatch/2020/08/10/fiscal-follies-continue/: ‘Incoming data still reflects the push-pull dynamics of the shutdown and reopening; we *don’t have a clear picture of the growth trajectory after those dynamics play out. Fiscal policy in the U.S. is a mess…
Duncan Black is depressed. And there is, admittedly, a lot to be depressed about. But I think that the elected politicians here are right. The best thing we can do is to vote in November and throw the fascist bastards out. The second best thing we can do is scare the fascist-enabling bastards today with the thought that they are going to be thrown out in November unless they frantically start blocking the idiocies of Trump’s goons:
Duncan Black: The Plan Is Hope https://www.eschatonblog.com/2020/08/the-plan-is-hope.html: ‘I was never a SUPER DC INSIDER, but I used to be a bit more connected.... Not so much anymore.... Members of Congress are tweeting, "nothing we can do, please vote." I am dumb and not important and nobody tells me anything anymore, but…
This is not coherent: If "those people“ are not going to use their Medicaid benefits because of their attitudes toward life—which the likely future senator from Kansas says he is “not judging”-then those Medicaid benefits are not a burden on the federal or the state treasury, hence not a problem:
Nancy LeTourneau: The Extremist Agenda of Establishment Republicans https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/12/whats-the-difference-between-establishment-and-extremist-republicans/: ‘It can be difficult to distinguish between candidates who are “establishment” and those who are “extreme.”... [Roger] Marshall is touting the fact that he is “trusted by Trump”... in the center of efforts to repeal Obamacare and oppose Medicaid expansion in Kansas... "even with unlimited access to health care [they] are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought [in]…”
Steve M.: Donald Trump, A Force for "Stability"? https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/07/donald-trump-force-for-stability.html: ‘One participant... really seemed to misread the country: "'The more demonstrations there were, the more demands for recounts, the more legal challenges there were, the more funerals for democracy were held, the more Trump came across as the candidate of stability', said Edward Luce, the US editor of the _Financial Times, who played the role of a mainstream media reporter during one of the simulations." Donald Trump has many weapons at his disposal if he wants to try to cling to power after an election loss, but the general impression that he's a figure of stability is not one of them...
Julian E. Zelizer with Rick Perlstein: _ A discussion of Zelizer's latest book, Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=lRopePOgjzE&feature=emb_logo...
Zack Budryk: 'Pastor who urged people https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/510274-pastor-who-urged-people-not-to-cower-in-fear-tests-positive-for not to "cower in fear" tests positive for coronavirus…
Jo Walton: Designing People & Societies: C.J. Cherryh’s "Cyteen" https://www.tor.com/2011/08/08/designing-people-and-societies-cj-cherryhs-cyteen/_: "Cherryh chose to show us Union society first from outside in Downbelow Station, where they are the implacable enemy. I didn’t want to read Cyteen when it was first published because I didn’t want to spend that much time in Union. It becomes clear that Alliance don’t understand Union. Close up it’s… both better and worse than it seemed from outside.... If you were an ordinary CIT in Union, your life would be much nicer and more free than I would have imagined. But for an azi or somebody who isn’t ordinary, it’s much worse.... We also know, because Cherryh had written books set later in the history of this universe, that it doesn’t ultimately work.... I’ve probably read Cyteen forty times, but it always grabs me and won’t let go, and I always see more in it...
Brian Resnick & Umair Irfan: Covid-19 Antibodies, Herd Immunity, & Vaccines, Explained https://www.vox.com/2020/7/22/21324729/getting-covid-19-twice-immunity-antibodies-vaccine-herd-immunity: ‘While there is no guarantee that a successful Covid-19 vaccine will be made, some scientists are optimistic that one or more will be available in record time. One big reason: Most people survive the infection on their own, showing that the immune system can be coached to fend off the pathogen.... Our first line of defense against the virus is the cells within us, but stopping the outbreaks will depend on the whole world working together…
Cicero: Pro Balbo: ‘It has been imputed to [Balbus] also that he has become one of the tribe Clustumina, a privilege which he obtained by means of the law concerning bribery, and which is less invidious than the advantages acquired by those men who, by the assistance of the laws, obtain the power of delivering their opinion as praetor, and of and of wearing the purple-striped toga...
Cicero: Pro Roscio: 'I come now to that point to which my desire does not lead me, but good faith towards my client. For if I wished to accuse men, I should accuse those men rather by accusing whom I might become more important, which I have determined not to do, as long as the alternatives of accusing and defending are both open to me. For that man appears to me the most honourable who arrives at a higher rank by his own virtue, not he who rises by the distress and misfortunes of another...
Herodian: Commodus http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/herodian_01_book1.htm#C1…
Google: Google One https://one.google.com/home?utm_medium=email&utm_source=welcome&utm_campaign=new_member_explore_g1_top&utm_content=cta_explore_g1_top…
Plus:
Follower of Hieronymus Bosch: Christ in Limbo:
.#brieflynoted #noted #2020-08-19
