Hi,
We talked yesterday. It's been a hell of a week. I hope you're doing well.
College COVID Recap
We
have some marginally better news here. It seems that the growth is
definitely not exponential for now, so something seems to be working.
Recall that we're on a delay, so we're seeing the results of the actions
we took about two weeks ago. We'll see how
stable this is, but I pretty much have all the doubts I did last week. I
fully expect another spike unless everything goes remote. It may well
have already happened and just needs to show up in our test results.
It's news like this that makes people feel safe, and I don't feel that
my peers are treating the situation with nearly enough gravity.
The really good news is the update to the testing policy. They are finally implementing a mandatory random testing policy
for all students in town on or off-campus. This is exactly what I
was arguing for immediately after move-in. It'll go a long way in
giving us the information we need and catching breakouts earlier. They
didn't say anything about the scale of this testing, but I hope they're
going big. About a thousand tests in the last week is just not enough in a deadly
pandemic. There are some idiots whining about this policy who
apparently just want the school president to solve Coronavirus without anyone
having to do anything. Some folks are scared to go on campus to get
tested. Obviously, I hope all this is successful. It's
taking longer than I predicted for everything to get shut down, so maybe
I was wrong. We'll see.
Election Recap
Because
apparently just about anybody can claim a month, it's Hispanic Heritage
Month. This brought Joe Biden to an event in Florida where he spoke
immediately after
Luis Fonsi, who sang “Despacito.” So, Biden took the stage and played “Despacito” from his smartphone into the mic to the whole audience as
his opener for a speech about Hispanic heritage. It's a wonderful,
hilarious moment, and you owe it to yourself to watch the clip
if you haven't seen it. Some folks are mad at Biden for pandering and
whatnot, but I'm trying to enjoy what I can. As you might imagine, a lot
of people made edited versions with different music. It's since been
deleted, but the President tweeted an edited video in which Biden played “Fuck the Police” without clearly stating that it was a joke, and
Twitter had a field day, etc, etc. This stuff is getting kind of rote if
you ask me.
Here's an unbelievable clip of President Trump gloating about his COVID performance.
Obviously,
we've already talked about the most important political happening this
year and probably one of the most important of this presidency. Justice
Ginsburg died yesterday from pancreatic cancer. This was her fifth battle with cancer.
The truth is that she should have resigned under President Obama, and,
really, I wish she had. I can only imagine that she didn't because she
wasn't able to foresee a President Trump on the horizon, a deadly error I
think most of us made. Now we have this situation. I want to clarify
something we discussed briefly yesterday. I absolutely still hold that
it was proper for a Republican Senate to delay the nomination of Judge Merrick
Garland and that it would be proper for that same Senate to affirm a
nomination in Justice Ginsburg's place. The Constitution and other
founding documents couldn't be clearer about this: Confirmation is a
political process. If the Senate couldn't deny appointments at will,
they wouldn't be part of the process. The real difference between now
and historical confirmations is the still-active nuclear option
requiring only 51 votes instead of 60, something I generally oppose.
There are 53 Republican Senators, so Trump is going to be able to make
an appointment. The real problem here isn't the political process, but
the rhetoric that Republican Senators used in 2016 to justify blocking
Garland. They all said so much stupid shit that should be held against
them if they try to fill the seat before the election. Here's Senator Graham explicitly telling people to use his words against him in this kind of situation. And here's Senator Cruz making up an 80-year precedent as if that means anything. Of course Senator Cruz has already called for President Trump to fill the seat.
Their angle seems to be that at the end of the Obama administration,
the American people had elected a Conservative Senate as a referendum on
President Obama who was leaving office anyway whereas Trump is in his
first term with a Republican Senate backing him up. Obviously, that's
not what the GOP was saying in 2016, but besides dealing yet another
wound to our political spirit, it doesn't really matter. And this
reasoning is total BS since the Senate isn't supposed to represent “the
will of the people,” but, again, it doesn't really matter. It's all just
empty rhetoric. Senate Majority Leader McConnell uses this reasoning in his official statement. They're going to fill the seat. These people are snakes. At least Senator Murkowski is sticking by the 2016 precedent.
Since
the GOP is signalling that they're going to fill the seat, the natural
question is, “With whom?” The betting markets say Judge Amy Coney
Barrett. The betting markets are fucking stupid. It's not going to be
her. We don't actually have to search far for a firm answer. Perhaps the
Trump administration knew something we didn't. Just ten days ago, it
published a list of Supreme Court candidates President Trump would consider were a seat to open up. Unsurprisingly, Judge Barrett is not on that list. Let's look at who is.
When this list was being shared around last evening, many were
particularly startled by the inclusions of Senators Cruz and Cotton. I
don't think either will be nominated. First, Senator Cotton is seen as a
fascist by a huge swath of Americans for the “Send in the Troops” op-ed
and not without good reason. Most of Trump's court picks have been
fairly moderate despite all the hullabaloo, and I think the Trump
Administration is wise enough to know that nominating someone seen as a
right-wing radical in Justice Ginsburg's place would give too much
ammunition to the other side. I eliminate Senator Cruz by similar
reasoning. Senator Cruz is well-known enough that a lot of Americans
already hate his guts. And I suspect that despite their current
alliance, President Trump still holds a grudge against the guy and
doesn't like the idea of handing him an elevated life-long position.
No,
Trump's going to try to get what he wants while stirring the pot as
little as possible. I predict that Trump is going to make his most
liberal appointment yet while not going too far to anger his
base. I think anyone else on that list is a real possibility, but I also
predict that President Trump will nominate a woman. Justice Ginsburg
will be remembered as a feminist hero. Keeping that seat female is
probably the best tactic. I also think it's most likely that the
President will pick a judge. So, if I'm going to wager a guess, I'd keep
an eye out for Judges Bridget Bade, Barbara Lagoa, Martha Pacold, and
Sarah Pitlyk. We'll have to see what happens.
Everything Else
If you already thought Alexa and other smart home devices were terrifying, prepare yourself for Amazon Echo for landlords.
Not only can Bezos listen to everything you say, now your landlord can
drop in so long as you haven't set the device to “not disturb.”Basically the landlord can drop in and initiate a 2-way conversation at
any time as opposed to, you know, making a phone call. You can pay rent
through the thing, too, so now Bezos can listen in on that.
Here's Alex Jones talking directly to a vaccine telling it to give black children Polio in a ridiculous voice.
JK Rowling cannot stop with the TERF shit. Apparently her latest book is about a cis male serial killer who dresses as a woman to murder people.
I really don't understand what motivates these TERFs. It seems like her
distaste for trans women is almost pathological. Why can't they shut
the fuck up and stop being terrible. In particular, Conservatives
defending her out of some misguided sense of unity are morons.
As a short update to the Cuties business from last week, here's a deranged review
from a guy who can't stop perving over the film's pre-teen stars. I
understand that the film criticizes the sexual exploitation of children,
but this video perfectly explains why that backfired horribly. Netflix
is still hosting child pornography. I'm honestly impressed this pedo has
the balls to keep this up on YouTube with comments enabled and
everything. I'm kind of hoping he's just doing it for attention.
Finally, here's a really bizarre story about South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnzborg.
Apparently, he struck and killed a guy on a rural road while driving
his car a long way away from his home coming back from some event. He
states that he thought the guy was a deer (since humans famously look
just like deer) and called 911 to report the accident. Whether this 911
call ever took place hasn't been confirmed. He said he looked around
with his phone but couldn't find what he'd hit in the dark. He called
Sheriff Mike Volek over who assessed the damage to the vehicle and also
apparently just didn't see the body. Since his car was wrecked, he
borrowed the sheriff's personal vehicle to get home.
 |
| A.G. Ravnzborg's wrecked car |
The
next day he returned with his chief of staff to return the sheriff's
vehicle. He stopped at the accident site, saw the body lying in plain
sight on the shoulder of the road. Despite the purported 911 call, the
site hadn't been investigated at all. Apparently, he and Sheriff Volek
are just really bad lookers.
A.G. Ravnzborg reported the finding not by calling 911
immediately, but by driving all the way to Sheriff Volek's house and
telling him. Then, despite being involved in the incident, the two
returned to the scene and investigated it themselves with Volek
promising to lead the investigation. A.G. Ravnzborg has gotten eight traffic tickets in the last four years. This story is sketchy as all hell and I'm going to try to keep up with it.
Thanks,
Jacob Morris
No comments:
Post a Comment