२८ ऑगस्ट, २०२०

At the Stormy Sunrise Café...

IMG_9425

... write about whatever you like.

Did you watch Trump's New Hampshire rally this evening? Strange that he went out immediately after the convention and did a rally. He was mocking Joe Biden's plan to go out campaigning 10 days from now.

That's a Type #2 sunrise, you know. Completely cloudy sky but texture to the clouds. I think it's nice.

६२ टिप्पण्या:

Skeptical Voter म्हणाले...

I dunno---I think there was a Trump ad that mocked Joe for saying "I'm glad to be here in New Hampshite" when he was actually in Vermont---or it may have been vice versa. In any case, good old Slow Joe didn't know where he was--statewise. But when you are trying to keep track of 57 states, it's easy to get confused. Just ask Obama.

Michael McNeil म्हणाले...

I notice from the headlines that the WaCompost is all about convention “lies” today. The paywall, even at $1 stops me - I don’t pay to dive into dumpsters either - so I can’t read about the “lies” in WaPo although there was plenty of it on other lefty sites.

One can read both the WaPo along with the NYT (not WSJ) despite their paywall, by simply arriving at the site from a “private” browser window. Using (say) an iPhone with its Safari browser, for instance: from a Safari tab, take note of whether the browser control icons are visible at the top or bottom edge of the screen — if not touch the upper-right corner of the screen so that they show up — then touch (click) on the icon that looks like two overlapping boxes. The display should now show “Private + Done” along one edge of the screen. Touch “Private” so it's now selected, then touch “+” to open up a private browser window. Then enter (or paste) the NYT or WaPo URL into the browser's address line — and it will ignore your existing paywall status (no. of articles already read).

YoungHegelian म्हणाले...

In all this mess about "Black Lives Matter" & the rise of the left in the Democratic Party, there has been one very important dog that has not yet barked -- the Latino community.

The Latino vote is almost as important to the Democrats as is the Black vote, but the two communities are often very much at odds at the street & precinct level. White liberals tend to wishcast these oppositions away with a "progressive policies lift all brown boats" naivete'. Reality is much more complex & downright mean.

So, what do the Latinos think about all the attention now being paid to black concerns? Do they think their time on stage will some come? Or, do they think that handing out the government spoils is a zero-sum game & that the blacks are angling for more than their share?

My guess, and it's just the best guess of some old white fart, is that the Latinos are now sick to death of hearing the Blacks bellyache about "Nobody knows the trouble we've seen -- Nobody knows our sorrow". The Latinos come from recent hardscrabble backgrounds, too, and don't share a sense of racial guilt pounded into them since childhood as do Americans. I think there's a lot of eye-rolling now among Latinos when they turn on the TV.

I'm happy to hear differing views on this topic, but I suspect that this is fracturing the Democratic coalition much more than is being realized by the Party hierarchy.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Something we may need right now:

Send in the clowns

including a timely statement from Orson Wells at the end.

n.n म्हणाले...

Pushing Back on the Narrative of Modern Systemic Racism & White Privilege by Casey Petersen

Diversity dogma is progressive. Not surprisingly, people are reacting negatively to normalization of color judgments, not limited to racism, sexism. Speaking truth to facts is progressively an intolerable quasi-religious action that is a first-order forcing of adversity.

Wince म्हणाले...

Trump said he wanted to prove he can still do the freewheeling campaign rally speech after the more formal acceptance speech to spite the press who would raise doubts whatever approach he took in either forum.

He even teased his acceptance speech the night before would be too boring for a rally.

n.n म्हणाले...

Pushing Back on the Narrative of Modern Systemic Racism & White Privilege by Casey Petersen

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Here are my updated spreadsheets on COVID to today:

US COVID Data
Individual States COVID Data

New cases/day and deaths/day are both in decline, and have been for 3 and 2 weeks now.

There are only a few states with truly increasing cases- SD, ND, HI, and IL. Most of the states hit hard in March-May are through the peaks of their 2nd waves that arose on the reopening phases- only MN, MI, IL, and IA look to still be at the peak of the second wave, and IA doesn't really count as a hard hit state in the Spring.

The most notable thing is that while a lot of the second waves produced just as many new cases as the first wave, the deaths are around 1/10th what they were in the first wave in pretty much all these states. Two major possibilities- either the 1st wave was much larger but a much smaller fraction got tested at that time, or the disease just eliminated the most vulnerable ones the first go around. I think it is a combination of both- a lot of the Sunbelt states had mush higher case fatality rates in the Spring, too- rates that barely budged from their nadirs in June, and all now look to be in decline again, never reaching the NY/NJ levels of close to 10%.

madAsHell म्हणाले...

I just heard a local news talking head invoke the name of Trayvon Martin with George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. Revered men struck down in the prime of their lives.

I'm guessing we're going to be hearing more of that.

I'm Not Sure म्हणाले...

"I'm happy to hear differing views on this topic..."

Not a differing view, but an observation- I have a good friend who is latino and if his attitude towards blacks is anything like the typical latino, blacks should really stop worrying about whites- they've got bigger fish to fry.

FullMoon म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
jj121957 म्हणाले...

Rally's are the last thing the Dems want to see Trump having. The picture of crowds having a good time listening to Trump, enjoying themselves. Contrasted against the angry, destructive mobs that the mainstream media beclowns itself calling them "peaceful" protesters. Trump will be looking like Silky Sullivan now.

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

YW:
Surely there are two other reasons contributing to the much lower death rate for a not-much-lower case rate:

1. Don't viruses usually mutate to less virulent forms over time?

2. Treatments have undoubtedly gotten better: hydroxywhatchacallit and associated drugs do seem to work, so people who are equally sick are more likely to pull through now with appropriate treatment.

DanTheMan म्हणाले...

A type 2 sunrise? You remind me of a Douglas Adams character, Rob McKenna. He's a lorry driver who gets rained on every single day, so he numbers the various types of rain!

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Rob_McKenna

narciso म्हणाले...

Chadwick bozeman dead at 43 of cancer.

Rt41Rebel म्हणाले...

@YoungHegelian

Before I retired a few months ago, I supervised a mostly minority workforce in Miami. Without getting into the details of what I experienced, I can tell you that the Cuban community absolutely has quite a bit of disdain for the Black community.

n.n म्हणाले...

Two major possibilities

Yeah, Planned Parent is under investigation, people are more diligent with good hygienic practices (e.g. fecal transfer). A third possibility: the virus has, despite mitigation strategies to flatten and extend disease proliferation, evolved with progressive viability.

n.n म्हणाले...

the name of Trayvon Martin with George Floyd, and Jacob Blake

White Hispanics are a politically incongruent diversity class, crime and drugs pay it forward, and sexual harassment, rape perchance rape-rape, and domestic conflict are woke and drowsy.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Went to a memorial service for a black friend’s son, who died at 23. Handsome talented young man. He took his own young life. No idea why and there was much sadness at the loss. His friends were eloquent, and spoke as a small group, and wanted to pray for us, the friends and family. They wanted to pray for peace. They urged their fellow twenty-somethings, and the Marines lining the walls of the socially distanced church, to seek Jesus. They were not angry youth. They were sad. They were full of love and praise for the Marine/friend/brother they lost. These young people were hopeful. They are like most the black people with whom I’ve been to church before. They remind me how normal American youth respond to tough times with love and support for each other. They will not be rioting.

After the interment at Riverside National Cemetery most of his friends will return to suburban WA and the 3rd Battalion will return to Camp Pendleton. His brothers will live peacefully here in San Bernardino County. Please remember that the few screaming garbage babies in the streets, of whatever ethnicity, are a tiny minority of our youth.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"Strange that he went out immediately after the convention and did a rally."

Why strange? He's fighting. He wants to win. He's better at rallies than at formal speeches. He thinks he has momentum, or at least wats to give the impression that he does.

Plus every rally he does contrasts with Slow Joe.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Gotta love a woman who's OCD about sunrises : )

@ Althouse

What did you expect? That's what Trump does...love him or hate him he is a master troll. He sees weakness and he pushes and pushes and pushes.

While Uncle Joe is in the basement, Trump is on the trail...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

"Stormy Sunrise"?? You mean Strize dont you?

How to Smize (Smile With Your Eyes) When You’re Wearing a Mask

"Teams gather in a circle with their masks on and run through a series of facial-expression drills that involve arching their eyebrows, crinkling their noses and, most important—smizing".

https://www.wsj.com/articles/smize-mask-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-tyra-banks-reopen-restaurants-11598463705

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

"...the Latino community."

I have been saying the exact same thing, so I am calling brilliant analysis : )

I live in an area with many Mexicans, most of them not legal so they shouldn't be voting anyway (wink, wink).

Now, because of their politics in the homeland, they tend to skew socialist. But one thing that I know; I have never met a lazy Mexican. They work their asses off and for that they get nothing but respect.

I think Trump, and Republicans in general, can turn that demographic into solid conservatives in a generation or two, but it will take some work.

They are tired of being treated like chopped liver (or guac)...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

Joe Biden
@JoeBiden

Mr. President, Americans are canceling weddings and holding funerals without family. They're sacrificing so more Americans don't have to die.
But instead of leading by example, you hosted a super spreader event on the South Lawn.

When will you take the presidency seriously?

------

will you condemn THIS super-super-super spreader event, No-Show Joe??

Tens of thousands join Get Your Knee Off Our Necks march in Washington
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/28/march-washington-dc-racism-get-your-knee-off-our-necks


-

walter म्हणाले...

YoungHegelian said...In all this mess about "Black Lives Matter" & the rise of the left in the Democratic Party, there has been one very important dog that has not yet barked -- the Latino community.
--
Well..before the Floyd incident, I was wondering whether Dems were neglecting blacks with the previous focus on/allowance for illegal immigrants.
Sure made up for that, didn't they?

Char Char Binks, Esq. म्हणाले...

jacob blake sr. looks like he has the sugar, putting him at high risk for ChiComvirus, NTTAWWT.

walter म्हणाले...

Early all in BLM adopters be like:
McDonald's
@McDonalds
·
Aug 25
Spicy Chicken McNuggets. get ready.

everywhere 9.16.

StephenFearby म्हणाले...

Question on 8/29 Bing Rewards quiz:

The second Tour de France, held in 1904, was notorious for multiple cheating scandals. Which of these was not one of them?

A Conspiring to drop nails and broken glass to puncture tires
B Cyclists catching rides in cars and trains
C Use of performance-enhancing drugs

Your answer

Use of performance-enhancing drugs.  44% got this right

"The top four finishers that year were all disqualified for various forms of cheating but use of drugs was not among the infractions. For example, the elegantly mustachioed Hippolyte Aucouturier was pulled by a string tied from a car to a cork, which he clenched between his teeth hoping no one would notice.

In a separate incident, a mob of fans blockaded riders after their hometown hero passed by. Other fans threw nails and glass on the road to puncture tires. Some cyclists were accused of taking trains. Another was punished for sneaking illegal food. Masked men in a car attacked the two leaders. The second Tour was a mess. Luckily, the sponsors decided to continue the race the following year, but with more stringent rules."

Over time, a certain percentage of humans seem to relish their ill-gotten gains, "by hook or by crook", hence the 10 commandments.

This tendency to cheat particularly raises its ugly head in presidential election years.

walter म्हणाले...

KFC
@kfc
·
Jul 28
The moment you’ve been waiting for: Kentucky Fried Chicken x @Crocs
Classic Clogs available now. Complete with chicken-scented Jibbitz! Not for human consumption. http://crocs.com/kfc

Mark म्हणाले...

Strange that he went out immediately after the convention and did a rally.

That's Biden thinking.

It's not strange at all. Burst out of the gate.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

"So, what do the Latinos think about all the attention now being paid to black concerns? "

I know a lot of Latinos, and they are not down with the cause at all. In fact, some have recently developed an open hatred for Blacks that sounds more like white supremacists than fellow minorities, and it's specifically because of the BLM thing. They hate the whole thing: the BLM message, the riots, the violence, the destruction of neighborhoods they often share. The Latino friends I have, have often been assaulted and or robbed by Blacks, and there is a seething dislike, which BLM has turned into outright racial hatred. I've gotten into a few arguments with some of them recently over racist statements using the N-word, and saying stuff like we just need to kill them all, and these are usually mild-mannered people who rarely express political opinion.

BLM may have done more damage to Blacks than anything since Jim Crow. An incredibly stupid and counterproductive movement. Imagine thinking that insulting, burning and rioting your way to respect and acceptance makes sense.

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

Multiple generations of blacks have never known financial solvency but a 17-year old with a high-powered rifle is walking the streets to show us what's-what. You people are as insane as the Nazis who admired you.

Clues? म्हणाले...

I just heard a local news talking head invoke the name of Trayvon Martin with George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. Revered men struck down in the prime of their lives

Men? Don’t you know that Trayvon was an angelic 5-year old with muscular dystrophy, randomly murdered in broad daylight while delivering alms to orphans?

Big Mike म्हणाले...

@Yancey (9:13), plus we know much more about how to treat it.

StephenFearby म्हणाले...


n.n said...

Pushing Back on the Narrative of Modern Systemic Racism & White Privilege by Casey Petersen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1207&vewe=zyNW9nlFDBk

This is an amazing, eloquent video by electrical engineer Casey Petersen, who continues to buck the stupid Critical Race Theory programs pushed by Human Resources personnel at Sandia National Labs.

Succinct Comment: "When you convince people to believe absurdities, then they can convince them to commit atrocities." - Voltaire

Edited Linkedin bio (not updated), of this former Eagle Scout, which reflects no political inclinations:

I am an Honors Student at Arizona State University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Electrical Systems); I am a Senior and will be graduating Fall 2015. I am currently seeking a summer internship at one of the DOE National Laboratories, in order to pursue my passion for research and development in the electrical engineering field.

Experience

Arizona State University

I am currently designing electrical/mechanical control systems to aid in the process of growing, harvesting, and researching algae. My job involves electrical hardware development, programming, modeling, and experimental design among other things.

Arizona State University
Electrical Engineering Student
Arizona State University
Aug 2012 – Present8 years 1 month

Arizona Public Service (APS)
Fossil Generation Engineering Intern
Arizona Public Service (APS)
May 2014 – Aug 2014 4 months

Cholla Power Plant, Joseph City, Arizona

• Completed a Fossil Generation Electrical Engineering Internship at the APS Cholla Power Plant and exceeded project goals
• Developed Engineering Systems for monitoring/assessing the health of the plants internal Electrical Power Distribution System


Military Service
• Served honorably 5 years U.S. Army Infantry
• Completed a 12-month deployment to Afghanistan
• Accumulated 3-year training/experience as a cultural adviser
• Operated & Maintained diverse communications equipment
• Entrusted with tasks above my pay grade on a continual basis
• Managed up to 30 employees frequently
• Safeguarded 50 million dollars’ worth of sensitive equipment

Education
Arizona State UniversityArizona State University
Arizona State University
Bachelor of Science in EngineeringElectrical SystemsGPA 3.8/4.0
2012 – 2015

Some completed & current coursework (Through Spring 2015):
• Physics of Electromagnetism
• Design of Electrical Systems
• Analog-Digital Interface
• Microcontrollers in Smart Systems
• Thermodynamics
• Engineering Statics and Dynamics
• Calculus III, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra
• Transforms and Systems Modeling


Barrett Honors College
Engineering (BSE)Electrical Systems3.8/4.0
2014 – 2015

Will graduate, with Honors, Fall 2015
Got into the honors program in order to challenge myself further and become a better engineer.

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

NOT THE MAN THEY WERE LOOKING FOR

Megaera म्हणाले...

Followed a link to Twitter and read that BLM has now invaded the Mayor of Portland's condo building in force and is demanding his resignation -- also that he completely defund the police by 2022, and steroid up the City's contributions to bipoc groups. Predictably, damage is being done (red paint mentioned) and police have been called. Hadn't arrived at the time of the latest reply posting. The occupation of course comes immediately upon the heels of Ted's virtue-signalling announcement that he had rejected out of hand the offer of federal forces to assist w/ civil unrest.

Karma, neh?

exhelodrvr1 म्हणाले...

Yancey,
From what I have read, viruses tend to mutate to less deadly versions (presumably so they don't kill the host?). That may also be a factor.

Gahrie म्हणाले...

Multiple generations of blacks have never known financial solvency

But their smart phones, $200 sneakers, gold chains, Diamond grills and tricked out hoopties are off the hook.

wendybar म्हणाले...

If you haven't seen videos of violent lefties attacking people who left the Republican National Convention...watch some. This is the left in action, and they are being encouraged to do this by their leaders...and it isn't going to end pretty.

Kai Akker म्हणाले...


What is my property?

My single biggest piece of property is my house. I paid in my money month after month to buy it. That money came from the wage I was paid in my job. It took many hours of that labor to pile up enough of those wages to be able to pay the bank each month for the loan of their capital.

So my house is made of many thousands of hours of my labor. Many hours I gave up to working so as to obtain the token of money, by which we represent the value of labor. (It wasn't just I, it was we; but for simplicity's sake, it's I.)

Many thousands of hours -- thus, not just weeks, not just months, but years of my life were given in labor to create the value that I could use to buy and maintain my house.

If someone comes and chooses to attack my house for whatever purpose, what is that? It is someone who is taking those years of my life and destroying them. If that someone is going to destroy my life, am I not entitled to protect it? Yes, of course. If I tell him to stop, and he doesn't stop, then what do I do?

If he has chosen to destroy all those years of my life, am I entitled to destroy his life in order to prevent his malicious destruction of mine? I am innocent. He is evil.

Of course, in a civil world, there are agents who specialize in preventing that kind of destruction. If I call the police, they have the power to compel the destructive one to stop destroying. He may be punished by jail. But I live in a Democratic-run sanctuary city. If I call the police, will they stop him? Will they even come to answer my call?

By reducing the role of the police, political leaders have made my life less protected in this city, both my future life as a citizen, a human; and my entire past life of work, which stands there a few feet from the street and gives us shelter and comfort.

On the corporate level, property may seem more remotely connected to individuals, but it's not. It's the tangible form of the capital that many individuals paid in to that corporation to enable it to achieve its specific purpose -- build a product, sell a service. Those individuals paid in the capital that represents their many, many hours of labor in the belief that those past weeks, months, years of their work will yield growth and a positive return through the efforts of that corporation to perform its function. So an office building or a factory or a car lot hold the past lives of many people combined together to be even more efficient than an individual.


Destroying the building, the factory, or the car lot is destroying some part of their lives. All destruction is destruction of lives.

Bay Area Guy म्हणाले...

Michael Moore warned the Dems in 2016, and is warning them again.

"Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC to pull this off?"

Short Answers: No,No,Yes,Yes.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

Yancey, thank you for your COVID charts. I’m also keeping track of cases and deaths and noticed 2nd wave deaths going down—especially this week—but I’m not as thorough or chart friendly as you. The daily variation (always fewer cases on Mon & Tue, probably due to less weekend testing) 7-day averages are important.

I think there are a lot of reasons why the death rate is so much lower in the 2nd wave, but IMO the biggest reason is that the average age of the infected is much lower and, as we all know, the virus is much less dangerous among the non-elderly.

rehajm म्हणाले...

...has now invaded the Mayor of Portland's condo building in force and is demanding his resignation...

To me it's about the timing. They could have gone there 30 60 90 days ago but it was now, about the same time they cleaned up the park, about the same time the bad polling started to hurt...about the same time their Mayorial ally probably told them they were done...

Mr. Forward म्हणाले...

In Wisconsin if you catch every sunrise for a year you can get your dairy farm license.

Andrew म्हणाले...

I agree that Trump is doing what comes naturally to him in holding rallies, and he will get the political benefit from it.

I voted for Trump in 2016, but very reluctantly. I really didn't know what to expect. It was mainly a vote against Hillary, the political establishment, and the news media. But one thing that stood out to me, and one reason why I voted for him rather than a third party candidate, was how hard he worked for it. He never stopped holding his rallies, sometimes late into the evening. He went from one state to another without losing a step. He was like a war horse. He had "fire in the belly."

So for him to do the same thing this year makes sense. The contrast with Sleepy Joe could not be more obvious. Hillary treated her campaign as if it were a coronation, but she was still a lot more visible than Joe Biden has been. And the Dems keep muddling their own message of "rallies are dangerous because of the virus" when they endorse the various marches and "protests." Joe has no excuse not to be visible. But even during the primaries, his rallies were a snoozefest, and sometimes an embarrassment.

Did you see Joe's recent interview with Anderson Cooper? Joe is clearly reading a script, and still screws it up. Meanwhile, his convention speech sounded old and tired. Trump exudes energy and stamina wherever he goes. If he trips over his words, or says something that is misconstrued, it dominates the news cycle.

(Off the subject of rallies, but Trump recently tweeted something and misspelled the word "success" as "succes." So everyone on Twitter was mocking him, and "succes" was trending. And I thought, "You idiots. You still don't get it. You are equating Trump with the sound of success. You're doing his own work for him." After all this time, they still don't know what they are dealing with.)

As long as his health can handle it, the more rallies he holds, the better. His forward momentum is now joined to the country's hope for renewal and restoration.

On a different subject, I was married to a Latino for 12 years, and got to know her community well. The contempt they had for lower class American blacks was worn on their sleeves. If they were somehow put in charge, the first thing they would do is abolish welfare. I don't see them anymore, but I think Trump's anti-PC rhetoric would appeal to them.

izyperspective म्हणाले...

Jane Wilson painted many pictures like your type two sunrise

Todd Roberson म्हणाले...

Crack:

Perhaps if the guy in San Antonio had just done what the cops told him to do the matter would have been resolved after some short period of discussion?

I was falsely arrested once. I just cooperated, remained calm, was polite and matter was sorted out in about a half hour.

h म्हणाले...

Yancey Ward and others speculating about the lower death rate in second wave. Policymakers and caregivers were slow to catch on the deadliness of the virus in nursing homes. Deaths among the elderly should have been a known problem in late Feb or early March, based on the experience of the Diamond Princess cruise ship. If there were ever to be an honest evaluation of policy/public health response, in my opinion ignoring the Diamond Princess experience will be among the biggest mistakes.

Jon Burack म्हणाले...

Crack,

"You people are as insane as the Nazis who admired you."

"You people" appears to include us all. So if I could even understand this insult, I might feel insulted. Or I might consider what it was I'd done wrong. But I don't and won't.

Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...

“ But one thing that I know; I have never met a lazy Mexican. They work their asses off and for that they get nothing but respect.”

We just moved from a heavily Hispanic part of the Phoenix metro area. The other thing that I noticed was how entrepreneurial they are. Everyone had side gigs. The new law in CA, aimed at destroying their gig economy, if seriously enforced, is going to cause a lot of trauma in their very large Hispanic community. They may have a day job, but inevitably doing something else on the side. Weekly we would get solicitations for gardening, etc - often with a business card attacked to a small bag of rocks, suggesting that they will put in a xeriscaped back yard for you, thrown on your walk. Or the women all seem to want to do maid work for you. Plus run Neighborhood Watch. Etc.

I discovered that Mexicans were far from lazy some 45 years ago. I was working at a brick yard in E Boulder, CO, making bricks. It was hard work, and none of the CU students who infest Boulder could handle more than a week or two. The bulk of the labor force was (probably illegal) Mexicans who would, leave their families, come up for 7-8 months every year, sending back most of their money, then when the plant shut down for the winter, would go home for 4-5 months, and live like kings. One of my jobs was to work on the line behind the pug mill stacking wet bricks for the kiln. There would be 4-5 guys taking bricks off the conveyor belt and stacking them on carts. It was moderately hard work keeping up. Except that periodically a pair of young guys would decide to race and see who could stack the most bricks. The rest of us could then kick back, and if you were at the end, which is where I tried to be, you could even have a leisurely cigarette break. Then, after maybe a 10 minute race, things went back to normal for the next 15-20 minutes, followed by another race. All day long, except for a half an hour lunch, and two 15 minute breaks. Once you got into the rhythm, the days flew by. One of my main memories of that time was the Mexicans working their asses off, and having fun doing it. They all seemed to find joy in the hard work.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

Stormy Sunrise is a porn star name if ever there was one.

Michael McNeil म्हणाले...

Don't viruses usually mutate to less virulent forms over time?

Do they? I've heard this comforting theory asserted but never seen it demonstrated.

And how could it be? Models? They're oftentimes flawed. And anyway that comforting pablum certainly appears false in the concrete case of smallpox — historically one of the world's deadliest diseases, viral or no (which it is).

Note that smallpox 1) was one of the three diseases (the others being typhus and measles) which drastically decimated the Native American population throughout the zone stretching from Chile to Mexico — over a half-century timeframe beginning in the early 1500's — reducing the native population there by some 90%.

2) By the mid-1800's smallpox was still capable of extinguishing two-thirds of (e.g.) the Blackfeet in Montana, together with devastating many another Plains tribe. The Mandan of South Dakota, for instance — a settled rather than nomadic people — were reduced from thousands to only a few hundred — and so were easily overwhelmed by the (nomadic) Sioux afterwards. Even the (bacterial) Black Death plague only massacred one-third of the Medieval European and Mediterranean population!

So, no, I don't think there's much real reason to believe that deadly viral diseases must or even customarily decline over time in their deadliness.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

"Multiple generations of blacks have never known financial solvency..."

Only blacks have been poor. My grandfather dug ditches. He was poorer than anyone you've ever known. My father worked paycheck to paycheck and paid cash for everything. If he didn't have the money he didn't buy it.

Of my siblings, two of us went to a state college (I'm wearing the T-shirt now) and two dropped out of college. We are all multi-millionaires (low millions, but not bad).

None of us has a glamor job. We sat behind desks or moved numbers around on a spreadsheet. None of us has ever taken a dime in welfare but don't begrudge people who rightfully need it. We all worked very hard and saved because that's what our father taught us.

Maybe the issue is very few fathers in black families. If you want to put partial blame on white people I will agree...the great society programs were designed to get black votes by giving away benefits. So in that sense, white Democrats, once again, but y'all back in chains.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

put y'all back in chains.

walter म्हणाले...

Crack is gobbling up the hunter theme like a pelican.
Unexpectedly.

Michael K म्हणाले...

So, no, I don't think there's much real reason to believe that deadly viral diseases must or even customarily decline over time in their deadliness.

Deadly viruses tend to be poor parasites because they kill their hosts. Smallpox requires a population of about 250,000 to survive or it burns itself out. Plague, which of course is not a virus, did seem to evolve to a less deadly form in the 1700s, long before treatment, but rats may have changed their ecology with brown rats replacing black rats. Some viruses, assuming the Plague of Athens was a virus, did change or die out. Typhus changed its hosts as modern cleanliness made the body louse a less successful vector. Now the organism, a Rickettsia, has adopted fleas and can be found in flying squirrels.

Michael K म्हणाले...

I discovered that Mexicans were far from lazy some 45 years ago.

They are also capable of considerable skill. The guy who painted my sailboat at Lido Shipyard in Newport Beach was the painter for the yard, a very upscale yard with boats in the millions in value (not mine).

My best friend in medical school was a the son of a Mexican man who had a wrought iron business in east LA. The father had 10 children. Nine of them had graduate degrees. His mother did not speak English.

Gahrie म्हणाले...

So, no, I don't think there's much real reason to believe that deadly viral diseases must or even customarily decline over time in their deadliness.

You're right and wrong. Viral diseases do decline in deadliness over time, but not because the virus mutates. It becomes less deadly because over the years it kills the those whose immune system is the weakest in fighting off the disease. They pass fewer of their genes on, and over time the population becomes better at fighting off the disease.

The Europeans who landed in North America were able to bring the diseases with them precisely because they could survive them. They were descended from generation who survived the diseases over centuries. The Indian populations in North America had never been exposed to the diseases, and their immune systems were not prepared to resist them.

mockturtle म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
mockturtle म्हणाले...

Young Hegalian is spot-on about Latinos [Hispanics here in the West]. There is zero sympathy or camaraderie with the BLM movement here in SW AZ, where two-thirds of the population and about half of my neighbors are Hispanic. Plus, they are too busy running their businesses and working for their families to waste time in the streets protesting.

Narr म्हणाले...

Joke from the early '90s when our new campus library was under construction--

What did Davy Crockett say on the morning Santa Anna and 4000 Mexicans showed up at the Alamo?

"Hey, nobody told me we were laying concrete today!"

There's a substantial, and largely hardworking and sober, Hispanic population here. One of my old friends, an early gentrifier in a very diverse older neighborhood, used to say that though both the Blacks and the Hispanics liked to play their music too loud, at least the latter reflected some actual culture.

Narr
He wasn't wrong