A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump secretly testing positive for COVID before coming into contact with more than 500 people, including President Biden at their first debate, while Republicans and Fox News suggest the new coronavirus variant is a liberal hoax.
In his new memoir, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says the President's blood oxygen levels reached dangerously low levels during his 2020 bout with Covid-19.
Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the moment that thrust a reluctant United States into World War II. Harry Smith, just back from Hawaii, looks back at the momentous event.
I agree with Dr. Satino; the U.S. would have stayed out of the war so long as none of the Axis powers attacked us. If not the Japanese, then the Germans attacking American ships supplying the U.K. through Lend-Lease might have done the trick, which would have echoed what brought the U.S. into World War I. Seen that way, Pearl Harbor was a tactical victory for Japan, but a strategic blunder. So were Germany and Italy declaring war on the U.S. It's possible that America might have only fought Japan if they hadn't done so. I'll let alternative history authors speculate on that. We'll never know.
Of the millions of Americans who fought in World War II, fewer than 2 percent are still alive. Some of them have made the trip to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii this week for solemn remembrance on the 80th anniversary of the attack. NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports from there for TODAY.
I'm glad Jack H. didn't transfer his anger at Japan to fellow veteran Ralph Matsumoto. All things considered, I feel he gave the right answer. May we all learn a lesson from that.
The nation pauses to remember Bob Dole, who died Sunday at age 98: a decorated war hero who became a defining voice in American politics for decades as a senator and presidential nominee. NBC chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell reports for TODAY.
While he was a partisan, Dole was interested in solutions, so he worked across the aisle to achieve them. He also remained friends with his Democratic colleagues. Both of those are rare these days and I miss those qualities in today's politicians.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham joins TODAY to assess the legacy of Bob Dole, who died Sunday at age 98. “His is the most American of stories,” Meacham says. “Bob Dole really did embody sacrifice.”
The Phantom Regiment joins the Madison Scouts in playing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the Show of Shows in celebration of the Scouts' 75th Anniversary.
R.I.P. Senator. You will be missed.
*I left the party shortly after that for reasons I described in If I were still a conservative a decade ago and cast my vote in the general election for Ralph Nader, much to my later shame. After seeing the results of that contest, I vowed not to make that mistake again and became a Democrat in 2004.
"I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions...if education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying.
"And to the teachers unions I say, when I am president, I will disregard your political power, for the sake of the parents, the children, the schools and the nation."
I was a member of a teachers union at the time, so Dole's remarks disturbed me, although I still voted for him. After four years of them gnawing on me, they helped contribute to my leaving the GOP. I decided I didn't want to be part of a party that didn't like what I did and what I believed in.
8:46 – Dave Chappelle (Netflix) Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix) David Byrne's American Utopia (HBO) Friends: The Reunion (HBO Max) Hamilton (Disney+) A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote (HBO Max)
The cast of ‘Hamilton’ opens up after winning an Emmy award for ‘Outstanding Variety Special (Live)’ at the 2021 Emmy Awards, which aired Sunday on CBS and Paramount+.
That was a good answer and one that shows that things are returning to normal and the pandemic is no longer messing with our entertainment.
Follow over the jump for the rest of the awards won by recorded variety specials, including a couple of categories I blew completely.
Every year on December 4th, International Cheetah Day encourages people worldwide to help this animal win the race against extinction.
The cheetah is well-known as the fastest animal on earth. This amazing animal can reach a top speed of 70 mph in just three seconds! At top speed, their stride spans 21 feet. The cheetah is a big, slender cat with long legs. Its short fur is yellowish-tan and covered in thousands of black spots. Most cheetahs have between 2,000 and 3,000 spots, which helps to camouflage themselves. The animal’s name comes from the Hindi word, “chita,” which means “spotted one.” These big cats weigh anywhere from 46 to 158 pounds.
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Cheetahs live on the open grasslands of Sub-Sahara[n] Africa. They are carnivores that feast mainly on small antelopes and wildebeest calves. They sometimes eat smaller animals, such as rabbits and birds. Female cheetahs live by themselves. Male cheetahs, on the other hand, live with a small group of brothers called coalitions.
Cheetahs are the most endangered big cat in Africa. As of 2020, scientists believe less than 8,000 cheetahs are living in the wild. This is a 50 percent decline in the last four decades. In the past, cheetahs were hunted for their fur. Today, one of their biggest threats is the loss of habitat due to increased human settlements and road construction. Some cheetahs are not able to reproduce, which threatens their survival even more.
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American zoologist Dr. Laurie Marker founded the Cheetah Conservation Fund in 1991. In 2010, she designated December 4th as International Cheetah Day. She chose December 4th as it was the birthday of a cheetah named Khayam. Dr. Marker trained this cheetah for her first research project on teaching captive-born cheetahs to hunt. When she reintroduced Khayam to the wild, she realized how endangered the cheetahs were becoming.
Learn about the world's fastest land mammal and how their vulnerable status needs more protection.
On the one hand, the plight of the cheetah comes through. On the other, so does their appeal. That's something worth celebrating.
Speaking of things worth celebrating, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature as I work my way through my "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood.
*The two cases share a connection beyond being about terrible things happening to teens in Michigan. The same attorney is representing the parents as represented Nassar. Even the worst offenders deserve good legal representation, just to make sure the system works fairly and the prosecution does its job.
That stench emanating from the Supreme Court Is the smell of conservative justices, five of whom were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, doing exactly what they were put there to do: restrict access to abortions. Elsewhere, anti-vaxxers have been cooking up wild new pandemic conspiracy theories since the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
In addition to all the bad things that can happen to health care, reproductive rights, civil rights, and voting rights as a result of this nomination, Oliver explained how the U.S. got here with an anti-democratic but pro-republican (double meaning intended) governing structure and what can be done to fix it...Expanding the Supreme Court has its risks, but I'm not against it.
"The bad things that can happen to...reproductive rights" are already on their way. This is one of those times I wish I weren't right. As for expanding the courts, the Democrats need a bigger majority in the Senate, one that doesn't count on Manchin and Sinema to pull it off.
That segment, while funny, depressed me. On the other hand, the paranoia about the pandemic in response to the Omicron variant being detected in the U.S. was a lot more amusing. The whole "omicron equals moronic" meme ignores the two words being anagrams of each other for as long as both words have existed with their current spellings in English; it's not anything new. Also, the response to the second case of the Omicron variant in the U.S. being diagnosed in an attended to an anime convention reminds me that I haven't referred to "Dragonball Z" here since Over 9000! That was a little more than nine years ago, and even then I didn't type out the name of the show. There are still new things to write about on this blog.
Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at a White House press briefing, announcing that the first confirmed US case of the Omicron coronavirus variant was discovered in California.
I can piece together only two bits of good news from this. First, the virus was detected in a traveler from South Africa, not someone with no travel history, so there is so far no evidence that it has achieved community spread in the U.S. Second, vaccines should still protect against severe illness, particular with a booster shot. Fauci elaborated on this second point in CNN Town Hall: Dr. Fauci answers questions on Omicron variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, joins Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta in CNN’s Global Townhall on viewers' questions regarding the emerging Omicron coronavirus variant.
Every Dec. 1, the world commemorates those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Known as World AIDS Day, it serves as a reminder that there has been an ongoing pandemic for the past 40 years, pre-dating Covid.
The Covid vaccines were sequenced, developed and approved in the U.S. in record time, but that would not have been possible without decades of work by HIV researchers.
“Almost everybody working on Covid vaccines comes from the HIV world,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a global advocacy group for HIV prevention. “Moderna had been working on mRNA-based HIV vaccine before SARS-CoV-2 was even known to exist.”
While I feel it would be somewhat tasteless to wish my readers a happy World AIDS Day, I can at least share some news that is cause for optimism as well as an example of how basic research ended up paying off for a different problem. It shows that science may not always deliver what one expects of it, but even seeming failures can be valuable just the same. Here's to World AIDS Day 2022 bringing more good news.
You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – two days of deals and shopping. But Tuesday marks Giving Tuesday, a day that has become one for generosity when people give to their favorite charities.
Black Friday has been a retail staple for decades – but the longstanding commercial holiday shopping sprees are complicated by shipping delays and inflation amid the coronavirus pandemic. NBC’s Jo Ling Kent reports in this week’s Sunday Focus.
Including the first mention of Black Friday in 1961 alone made this report worth embedding. The police and bus drivers would know how bad traffic is out there.
