Althouse: 5:05 and 5:30 a.m. — the moon and the sun.

July 5, 2020

5:05 and 5:30 a.m. — the moon and the sun.

(Open thread in the comments.)

38 comments:

gspencer said...: Reminds me of the Moon and the Sun being in the same question from the French version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQBIeYb4cQ; 7/5/20, 7:55 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: I feel worst for Drago.; 7/5/20, 8:10 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: US population growth is driven ONLY by minorities with the white population declining for the first time in the nation's history, according to new census data

There are two problems. First, US politicians/business people have no idea how to grow the economy other than through the use of cheap labor. Second, white people in the US don't reproduce and relatively few white people in other nations want to live here, because things are generally more pleasant in their own country.

Options include, making the country a better place to live or politicians and business learn how to run an economy while paying a decent wage.

Who am I kidding?; 7/5/20, 8:30 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: did we do Gen. Flynn's recent nod to Q yet?; 7/5/20, 8:44 PM
Inga said...: “I feel worst for Drago.”

Me too. Poor Drago.; 7/5/20, 9:01 PM
narciso said...: Those are some great pictures.; 7/5/20, 9:04 PM
bagoh20 said...: OK, time to fess up, ARM. Are still in junior high school or are you just a really advanced elementary student?; 7/5/20, 9:11 PM
StephenFearby said...: Hot Air, July 5

Report: COVID-19-Like Strain Originally Found By Chinese…In 2012

A fascinating article from The Sunday Times in London reveals a potential relative to the coronavirus strain currently ruining everyone’s 2020 plans may have its origins from an abandoned southwest Chinese copper mine…in 2012. It’s important to note the viruses mentioned in The Times report are similar but not exact so there’s no proof COVID-19 came from the copper mine:

'On Tuesday, April 24, 2012, a 45-year-old man with the surname of Guo was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit suffering from severe pneumonia.

The next day a 42-year-old man with the surname Lv was taken to the hospital with the same life-threatening symptoms, and by Thursday three more cases — Zhou, 63, Liu, 46, and Li, 32 — had joined him in intensive care. A sixth man called Wu, 30, was taken into intensive care the following Wednesday...'

Tongguan is nowhere near Wuhan, the believed site of the initial coronavirus outbreak. Wuhan becomes involved because the Wuhan Institute of Virology doctors discovered antibodies of a SARS-like virus in two survivors. Here’s where things get a little muddy, per The Times:

'Researchers in China have been unable to find any news reports of this new Sars-like coronavirus and the three deaths. There appears to have been a media blackout. It is, however, possible to piece together what happened in the Kunming hospital from a master’s thesis by a young medic called Li Xu. His supervisor was Professor Qian Chuanyun, who worked in the emergency department that treated the men. Other vital details, including the results of the antibody tests, were found in a PhD paper by a student of the director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Li’s thesis was unable to say what exactly killed the three miners but indicated that the most likely cause was a Sars-like coronavirus from a bat.'

This goes against comments by Shi Zhengli aka China’s Bat Woman to Scientific American earlier this year about the abandoned mine...

https://preview.tinyurl.com/ycaajrrn

More from the Sunday Times itself:

'The final and trickiest question for the WHO inspectors is whether the virus might have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Is it possible, for example, that RaTG13 or a similar virus turned into Covid-19 and then leaked into the population after infecting one of the scientists at the Wuhan institute?

This seriously divides the experts...'

'...But others say such arguments are based on the assumption the virus develops at a constant rate, along lines that have been monitored over the past six months. “That is not a valid assumption,” said [Professor Richard] Ebright [of Rutgers University’s Waksman Institute of Microbiology] “When a virus changes hosts and adapts to a new host the rate of evolutionary change is much higher. And so it is possible that RaTG13, particularly if it entered humans prior to November 2019, may have undergone adaptation in humans at a rate that would allow it to give rise to Sars-Cov-2. I think that is a distinct possibility.”

Ebright believes an even more controversial theory should not be ruled out. “It also, of course, is a distinct possibility that work done in the laboratory on RaTG13 may have resulted in artificial in-laboratory adaptation that erased those three to five decades of evolutionary distance.”'

'...Ebright alleges, however, that the type of work required to create Covid-19 from RaTG13 was “identical” to work the laboratory had done in the past. “The very same techniques, the very same experimental strategies using RaTG13 as the starting point, would yield a virus essentially identical to Sars-Cov-2.”

The Sunday Times put a series of questions to the WIV. They included why it had failed for months to acknowledge the closest match to the Covid-19 virus was found in a mine where people had died from a coronavirus-like illness. The questions were met with silence.'

https://preview.tinyurl.com/ybfplmgz; 7/5/20, 9:14 PM
n.n said...: US population growth is driven ONLY by minorities with the white population declining for the first time in the nation's history, according to new census data

Planned Parenthood and other dysfunctional choices and wicked solutions.
Labor and environmental arbitrage for profit and democratic gerrymandering.
Diversity (e.g. racism, sexism) and exclusion is a progressive condition.
Extended and long-term public smoothing functions (e.g. "welfare") is a first-order forcing of corruption.
Single/central solutions and regulations, and progressive prices, that force market, developmental distortions.
Social contagion spread by advocates, activists, protestors that disrupt and reduce confidence and the quality of life.
Spoiled-child syndrome affecting both women and men.; 7/5/20, 9:36 PM
Josephbleau said...: "I feel worst for Drago."

I feel worst for all of us who are pummeled by pathological ARM who claims that he feels for Drago, an obvious lie.; 7/5/20, 10:06 PM
Narr said...: "Who am I kidding?" Well since you asked politely, I'll tell you, ARM.

Nobody but yourself.

Your link goes to a story about the changing demographics of the US population, and very interesting those stats are . . . but then, you tell us about the two problems.

The problems, by your own definition, focus entirely on white people--they expect too much money to work, and relatively few (compared to what?) white people want to move here. Does this mean relatively more black and brown people want to move here? And why would that be?

But ARM can solve America's problem of too few wypipo!

Narr
We knew a leader, a guide, would emerge from the ranks of the folk!; 7/5/20, 10:14 PM
stephen cooper said...: Since there is no viewpoint moderation ===

here is my viewpoint, in eight short paragraphs and one almost short paragraph. Stop reading right now if you want. All I can promise is that every paragraph is from my heart,but maybe that is not enough for you. Either way, God bless you, God loves you as much or more than God loves me ....

I remember what life was like 20 thousand years ago (I can read Latin with near native fluency, and I know what the languages before Latin must have sounded like. It is not a pretty picture, but it is what it is.)

and I know what life is going to be like a million years from now. I am a lot older than you think, and I can't see the future, but I know what people are like, trust me on that, and I know what they are always going to be like until the days described in the more specific future chapters of the Book of Revelation.

Trust me ---- though, please take my word for it, I do not monetize that knowledge, I do not even use it when I am flirting with the middle aged women who, trust me, do not want a husband who knows what life was like 20 thousand years ago, much less a husband who knows what life is going to be like a million years from now.
Seriously, I do actually understand what I am saying.

That is my viewpoint, and maybe I am kidding, or maybe I am right, maybe 9999 out of 10000 people my age who have been through what I have been through are dead so they are not here to tell you what I am telling you, or maybe I am just an ordinary person born half a dozen decades ago or so who has been through a hard day here and there and who somehow thinks, incorrectly but sincerely, hey, 9999 out of 10000 people my age who went through what I went through are dead already.
By the way, almost all people who really are as old as me --- at this point in your reading of this comment, please remember how old I (with all the sincerity of the ancients) have claimed to be - are people who think that way, except for the old ones with bitterness or unfixed foolishness in their heart.

(or maybe I talk this way because I know the people who understand me understand I know how much they have been through, usually much more than I have been through, and the people who don't understand --- WELL I KNOW HOW MUCH GOD LOVES THEM. so there's that).

If you want shelter from the storm, my young friends (a quote from a great Dylan song - the shelter part, not the young friends part), there is only one way to do it.

Stop focusing on taking care of yourself and take care of someone else, someone who does not yet know what i know and what i hope you know, even though I wish from the bottom of my heart you did not have to go through so much to know it, just as much as i wish from the bottom of my heart i did not have to go through so much to know what i know.

God help any poor soul who dares to raise a hand against a creature for whom I pray in the sincerity of my heart. I mean that.

It is no small thing to be a friend to a creature who never had a friend in this world. Cor ad cor loquitur. Carry on.

Carry on.; 7/5/20, 10:17 PM
Inga said...: Just some of Drago’s friends having fun...

7 men arrested after allegedly harassing Black family on Oregon beach; 7/5/20, 10:33 PM
Josephbleau said...: Moderation interrupts the flow of argument, yet, if ARM has not been discussed,

"There are two problems. First, US politicians/business people have no idea how to grow the economy other than through the use of cheap labor" ARM says, ha ha.

The current good companies have learned to be privately owned, so they are not vulnerable to be attacked by the Soros crowd and be questioned to death by the CNBC FTC team. Public companies are dead. Private Companies run by Billionaires Rule. This will make it harder for individuals to invest alone. They will be more in the arms of Fidelity and Vanguard. What ARM likes is to the advantage of the PRC, they can try to control these companies, but violate their patents also.

Did the poor people supporting the democratic party ever think that they were fighting to allow the rich to take over the US? The only bastion that could have saved them was the money seeking democrat elite? No, black people were induced to support their new modern enslavers.; 7/5/20, 10:40 PM
traditionalguy said...: Sun’s day and Moon’s day in that order. The full moon is upon us tonight. Incidentally, Yellowstone has a 3rd season starting tonight on the Paramount Channel. First class show.; 7/5/20, 10:47 PM
stephen cooper said...: more on my viewpoint - this time 24 short paragraphs. please enjoy reading them - or if not, remember this --- please remember I tried.

Here goes ....

For the record - if I am one of the commenters who you have no respect for, that is fine.

Life is hard for most of us. I have never taken insults personally, because I know that.

I am used to people thinking I am nobody, a loser in life, and if you have read my comments now or then and thought, wow, what is wrong with that guy, I am totally fine with that, it is no reflection on you. I get it.

That being said, someday there will be a moment where you want someone to pray for someone you care about.

Now here is something important to remember.

You probably have met angels unaware, at some point in your life. I don't care if you are the most passionate believer in materialism, or if you do not have a second of doubt that atheists are right and people like me (the least atheist person I have ever met, despite my faults) are wrong.

If you care about people, whether you are an atheist or not, there will come a moment where you need someone to pray for you and to pray for someone you care about.

Trust me, at that moment, you will not be thinking about me.

But remember this, even if you remember it only as well as you remember something you barely remember.

There will never be a moment where God will not hear your prayers.

Not only God, but many many angels, and many many of the people you have met in life who you do not remember, but who remember you, and who know something you may have forgotten, or something you may only barely remember ....

God hears the prayers of the poor.

And trust me, my friends ---- it is not very likely that you are not one of the poor. It is possible, but it is not likely.

I wish I did not remember as much as I remember, but I do remember. I don't mind the fact that you have read what I have written, thinking every moment that I am maybe bipolar, maybe schizophrenic, maybe strung out on adderal .... (none of that is true) ... but remember this.

I have seen the faces of angels looking at the face of God, and you probably have too, even if you do not remember.

Trust me, God will hear your prayers.

AND EVEN IF YOU ARE THINKING --- "I CANNOT PRAY IT IS RIDICULOUS TO THINK THAT I SHOULD BE EXPECTED TO BE ABLE TO PRAY"---

remember this.

The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.

Maybe you will meet me in eternity , maybe not.

My viewpoint is this ---- I know God loves you just as much as God loves me.

Probably more. Trust me on that, please. Just as a matter of courtesy, if nothing else - I would not have said it if I did not know it was true.

And I know this too .... I do remember what it is like to look on the faces of angels as they looked at God.

Please please remember how much God loves you.; 7/5/20, 11:00 PM
Lucien said...: BCARM:
Why do you view this news as posing “two problems “? Would there be something wrong if fewer than half of our citizens were White?; 7/5/20, 11:10 PM
buwaya said...: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Q-MZjGXG0

Niall Ferguson (Historia; Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Hoover Institution) on the intellectual rot at US universities. Says Oxbridge isn't quite as bad yet, but are getting infected from the US.; 7/5/20, 11:15 PM
chickelit said...: Reminds me of a Neil Diamond song:Play Me

Options include, making the country a better place to live or politicians and business learn how to run an economy while paying a decent wage.

Option 3: do nothing. Eventually the country will run out of white people's money. That is in fact the default option. Pun intended.; 7/5/20, 11:23 PM
Not Sure said...: First, US politicians/business people have no idea how to grow the economy other than through the use of cheap labor.

You seem to have missed the news that Trump has tried restricting immigration and deregulation, and that the economy grew quite well, as did wages--especially among Blacks--before the WuFlu.

Second, white people in the US don't reproduce and relatively few white people in other nations want to live here, because things are generally more pleasant in their own country.

This is really confusing. Everybody knows that diversity benefits all of us, so why wouldn't the US be increasingly attractive to whites elsewhere? I hate to say it, but this sounds kind of ... racist.; 7/5/20, 11:27 PM
Drago said...: Howard's Heroes busy at work now tearing down statues of Frederick Douglass.

According to Howard, this can only be because Douglass must have served in the Confederate Army.; 7/5/20, 11:42 PM
buwaya said...: Niall Ferguson on the roots of modern polarization.
His analogy is vs the invention of printing, that brought on the Reformation, and the results thereof.
"It is a bloody terrifying analogy"
And that things move many, many times faster today.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yLiPPtxKRAA; 7/5/20, 11:45 PM
walter said...: No worries ARM,
Your folks are hell bent on destroying the country's economy so that growth is a non-issue.
I feel worst for you since you are (pretend to be) blind to that.; 7/5/20, 11:47 PM
Josephbleau said...: Moderation,

This is the way the world ends... Not with a bang but a whimper.; 7/6/20, 12:15 AM
walter said...: NYT 7/5: "Chicago Gun Violence Spikes and Increasingly Finds the Youngest Victims
Nine children under the age of 18 have been shot dead in Chicago since June 20."
--
#defundthepolice; 7/6/20, 12:25 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: You most likely are a white 'white supremacist'

... If you drive a luxury car.

Or-- one of the growing number of White Supremacists of Color; 7/6/20, 12:46 AM
buwaya said...: The new-ish CDC overall mortality report now makes it possible to compare US overall mortality vs European reporting. The US Covid experience began quite late vis-a-vis most of Europe.

Because the rate and circumstances of testing has varied so widely between countries, this is not a useful metric. The death rate is by far the most reliable indicator, though of course it is a lagging indicator. And the best comparable indicator is overall mortality, as again the categorization of causes of death vary among nations, and even among states, munucipalities and institutions. But dead is dead anywhere.

The critical bit I think is when the overall mortality crosses the "expected" line, which is the median for that date based on x years experience - that is, when it goes below "normal".

In Spain that happened on May 9. In the US that probably happened on July 1, or a bit before. The US is therefore about 6-7 weeks "behind" Spain. Granted the US is much larger and has many more sub-populations and the disease is probably(?) diffusing more slowly through the whole. On May 9, in Spain,having dropped to "normal" mortality, Covid was credited with killing @200 a day. In the US on and a bit after July 1 Covid was credited with killing @630 a day - which is actually a peak day, as many US localities report weekly. The US has about 7 times Spains' population, so in Spanish terms at the same point the US was losing @90 people daily. Spain does have a considerably older population however, so the scale factor of 7 should probably be increased.

Anyway, using Spain as a comparison the US has some reason to expect continuing declining death rates from Covid.

What is very unlikely is that death rates will equalize across the US. This simply has not happened in Europe. Sevilla never "got" much Covid, much less approached the levels of Madrid.; 7/6/20, 1:00 AM
madAsHell said...: Comments die in moderation.

I can't breathe!!; 7/6/20, 1:44 AM
Big Mike said...: Just some of Inga’s friends having fun: 8 year old Secoriea Turner murdered by BLM protestors in Atlanta.; 7/6/20, 4:35 AM
rhhardin said...: It needs a sleeping gypsy and a lion.; 7/6/20, 5:29 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: VDH Takes it to church...-https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/05/an-industry-of-untruth/; 7/6/20, 5:36 AM
Rory said...: Comparing the US to a big European area - the EU plus the EFTA countries plus the UK - it seems that the US has attributed the deaths of .000401 of its population to the virus, while the Europeans have attributed the deaths of .000346 of their populations. So, about 15% difference.; 7/6/20, 6:21 AM
Nichevo said...: Not Sure said...

...relatively few white people in other nations want to live here, because things are generally more pleasant in their own country.

This is really confusing. Everybody knows that...

White immigration is comparatively tightly choked in the wake of the Hart-Cellar Act, if memory serves, and there is far greater desire to immigrate from Western countries than there are slots.

The only reason most immigrants are brown is because you can walk from Mexico, or indeed from Chile, to the southern US border, and hitch a ride most of the way if your feet hurt. White people being more law-abiding probably also plays a role.; 7/6/20, 6:31 AM
h said...: I wanted to highlight this tweet from a race car driver who stood silently rather than kneeling during a pre-race pause for racial equality.

"Charles Leclerc
@Charles_Leclerc
I believe that what matters are facts and behaviours in our daily life rather than formal gestures that could be seen as controversial in some countries. I will not take the knee but this does not mean at all that I am less committed than others in the fight against racism."; 7/6/20, 7:17 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Lucien said...
Would there be something wrong if fewer than half of our citizens were White?

This is the animating force driving Trumpism. Yet Trump's supporters refuse to acknowledge that the country has become an increasingly unpleasant place to live. A place that is attractive only to people who live in even bigger shitholes. And, commerce demands cheap labor. Trumpists oppose everything that would make it a better place to live and anything that would make life better for those on the bottom rung and then complain that the place is being overrun with brown people. They are the only people willing to live here.

Trumpists created the problem, they are the problem and yet they bitch about their creation endlessly.; 7/6/20, 8:18 AM
Michael K said...: Here is a nice summary of the NeverTrump conspiracy that began with The Washington Free Beacon in 2016.

It continues with dishonest flacks like Bill Kristol and includes Commentary magazine.; 7/6/20, 8:20 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: This article explains the problem with pictures.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/02/opinion/politics/us-economic-social-inequality.html; 7/6/20, 8:28 AM
Ken B said...: What the holy fuck. The CEO of Reddit says she knew about Maxwell and Epstein back in 2011. She says everyone in that set knew.
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1280032579752570880; 7/6/20, 9:52 AM