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.
[T]he Supreme Court needs more accountability and transparency. I'm less clear about which reforms Congress can and should implement. The bills for a greater transparency and compliance with ethics rules would certainly be a good start.
That's the long-term structural response to this incident, which shows that these proposed reforms are definitely needed. The short-term response is to ask what to do about Justice Thomas. Should he resign? Abe Fortas resigned for something similar although involving less money, even after inflation. Will he? Ha! No, not unless the situation gets much worse for Justice and Mrs. Thomas. Should he be impeached, convicted, and removed? It doesn't matter, because the Republican House majority will never vote to impeach Thomas. We'll have to wait until 2025 for a Democratic majority. Even then, I doubt the Senate would convict, even if the Democrats retain their majority. We'll just have to outlast him. Sigh.
Reduce? No, I think we should expand the court: "I also support increasing the size of the Supreme Court so that there is a Justice for every federal appellate circuit, but President Biden is not in favor of this idea and Republicans would filibuster it." That's still true, although I wonder if Biden's mind will change. It's also a subject for another post. Stay tuned.
This week, the World Health Organization ended the global public health emergency it declared three years ago as COVID-19 spread around the world. Meanwhile, the U.S. public health emergency is set to end on Thursday, May 11. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas, joins John Yang to discuss where the pandemic stands now and what we should be doing about it.
In case Katelyn Jetelina AKA Your Local Epidemiologist looks familiar, PBS NewsHour interviewed her in the video I featured in the previous update. I'm glad to see her again, even though the subject matter is distressing. One of the distressing subjects is long COVID, which PBS NewsHour covered in Long COVID symptoms keeping many Americans from returning to work two weeks ago.
Three years after the start of the pandemic, some 16 million Americans have long COVID, meaning their symptoms continue well after the initial infection. An estimated 4 million people say long COVID has significantly reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. For many of them, that includes their jobs. Economics Correspondent Paul Solman has the story.
COVID is not over and won't be even if the virus stops circulating. The effects may be with us for decades, just like the effects of polio were and still are. My neighbor growing up had a limp from polio that she contracted as a young child in Iraq and she's probably still alive and living with that limp. The same will be true of the people disabled from COVID-19; they could be impoverished for the rest of their lives unless the disability system recognizes their condition.
I acknowledge there are limits to increasing the labor force. The pandemic has killed more than one million Americans, disabled many more, and prompted a lot of retirements.
Seeing and hearing about the economic effects of the pandemic reminds me that I never asked the question about PBS that I asked in Who watches Cable News? (Teaser) and Time for some newspaper humor: Who watches PBS? My guess is educated people, including professionals, managers, and employers. They'd be concerned about a labor shortage in the way the video depicts. Now I have to turn that into a punchline.
Walensky sent a resignation letter to President Biden and announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting and her last day will be June 30.
That last item, that Walensky had never run a government public health agency before her appointment, explains a lot of things. She tried to balance science, society, and economy and didn't quite pull it off. I'm not sorry to see her go and I hope President Biden appoints someone with more public health experience to run the agency to replace her — maybe someone with experience in reducing overdose deaths, a major contributor to accidents passing COVID-19 as a cause of death last year. The opioid epidemic was with us long before the COVID-19 pandemic, never went away, and will remain with us now that the pandemic is (officially) over.
After weeks of negotiations, for the first time in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America has officially gone on strike. Dan Casey breaks down everything you need to know about why this strike happened, how long it might last, and what it means for you, the viewers at home, on today’s episode of Nerdist News!
Dan Casey called the writers strike "the most important thing happening in the world of entertainment right now." I agree, which is why I'm blogging about it today. Besides, who am I to argue with Nerdist, let alone MSNBC, CNN, and KTLA, who also reported on the strike? Follow over the jump for their segments on the work stoppage.
In honor of Star Wars Day, this special episode analyzes the politics of the Disney+ series ‘Andor’ and just how much this tale about the origins of the Rebellion against the Empire has to tell us about the current global fight against tyranny and oppression.
My wife and I couldn't get past the second episode of "Andor." It was too slow a burn for us and not escapist enough. On the other hand, the critics and entertainment professionals love it. Its IMDB page lists 2 wins and 22 nominations, including Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie at the Critics Choice Super Awards.
Congratulations!
Watching Hasan, Tracy Brown, and Wajahat Ali dissect "Andor" and relate it to real-life struggles against occupation and oppression make me interested in resuming the series. I've heard that the show gets more interesting after the second episode and looking at it as a serious political allegory would probably increase my appreciation for it. Besides, I'm a Saturn Awards voter and want to be able to vote intelligently in this year's awards.
Now I'm curious about how "Andor" will help the Star Wars franchise in 'Star Trek' vs. 'Star Wars' in streaming science fiction at the Saturn Awards. I voted for "The Mandalorian" last year, but "Star Trek: Brave New Worlds" won. Let's see how well "Andor" does at this year's awards should it be nominated. That's not a sure thing. The Saturn Awards goes for entertainment over art and likes to stick it to the experts, so "Andor" might not even earn a nomination. I hope it earns at least two, one for the show and another for Diego Luna.
Follow over the jump for food, drinks, and music for the day.
Every year thousands of Americans crowd intro their favorite bars and restaurants for Cinco de Mayo. Many use it as the prefect excuse to go out for a drink or favorite Mexican meal, but the majority don’t know the real history behind Cinco de Mayo.
“It’s not Cinco de drinko, that’s off the table and it’s also not Mexican Independence Day," said Gerardo Rios, a professor of Mexican American studies and history at Southwestern College.
Rios explains why the fifth of May is an important date in Mexican history.
“What Cinco de Mayo celebrates is the Mexican liberal victory over the French forces that had invaded Mexico," said Rios.
In 1862, a powerful French army led by Napoleon III was sent to invade the country, and even though they outnumbered the Mexican army, they were met with a strong resistance in the Mexican state of Puebla.
"Cinco de drinko" — on the one hand, ha! On the other, I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling what I wrote last year.
Alex Bozarjian, who I first featured on Fat Tuesday, opened by sharing the sentiment that "everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, everyone's Polish on Paczki Day, and today everyone's Mexican." That's both good and bad — good because of the melting pot/salad bowl nature of being American, so we can celebrate our diverse but now shared heritage, and bad because people are treating Cinco De Mayo like they treat St. Patrick's Day, as adrinkingholiday. That shouldn't be a surprise, as the importers of Mexican beer and spirits helped promote it during the past several decades.
Many people celebrate Cinco de Mayo by drinking or eating Mexican-inspired dishes, however, some may not know its historical origins. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated on May 5, after the Mexican Army defeated the invading French Army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
Self-determination — that's something I'd never heard before as a reason for the celebration, but I like it.
Southwest Detroit's rich culture and cuisine will be on display this weekend as the country celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Alma Cruz, a proud Mexican-American, said Cinco de Mayo represents the day the Mexican Army defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla, showing perseverance.
I feel lucky to be able to embed this video, as WXYZ blocks that feature on most of its uploads. Let's see if they catch it on this video.
I left the first comment on the video: "Thank you for providing some drum corps Star Wars content on Star Wars Day. I love my 1978 North Star, but I wanted to hear another corps take on the material today."
While I don't love the USC Trojan Marching Band — I went to UCLA — I do love The Mandalorian.
The USC Trojan Marching Band performs the theme from "The Mandalorian" at halftime on Sept. 4, 2021. The soundtrack to the Disney+ hit was composed by USC alumnus Ludwig Göransson.
Stephen unlocks clues to the mystery of Tucker Carlson’s firing and the ratings fallout that ensued, and looks at reactions to the Florida governor’s trip overseas.
Colbert's audience cheered nearly as loud for Carlson's firing as when he told them about Trump's indictment. LOL, show the viewers what you really think. Speaking of which, hearing that "Russian state media," specifically Russia Today, publicly offered Carlson a job shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. I didn't think they would be that brazen, but they were. As I wrote more than a decade ago, "Russia Today loves to broadcast dissenting American voices" and Carlson qualifies. The only problem is that Russia Today is blocked in the U.S., so Carlson won't be reaching his target (pun intended) audience. Ah, too bad.
Seth takes a closer look at Fox News reportedly being gripped by paranoia and fear as on-air personalities worry they could be next to go after last week's surprise ouster of Tucker Carlson.
I used to enjoy watching Maria Bartiromo on CNBC during the early 2000s, so it pains me to see what's she's become now. I miss that version of her. On the other hand, I prefer watching comedians do impressions of Jeanine Pirro. If she goes off the air, I won't miss her, just laughing at her.
Meyers is right about the contrast between Biden and the Republicans; he has to re-use a couple of clips while the Republicans create new material all the time. Speaking of which, he had fun with DeSantis's bobblehead and deer-in-the-headlights reaction to falling behind Donald Trump in the polls, although he resisted the obvious Disney reference. Maybe he should have made one for Universal Studios, who is his employer.
Stephen shares some thoughts on what could be ahead for The Late Show and peeks into the future for news stories that might come across his desk in the coming weeks.
We'll see if those predictions come true, but it will be a while before we hear jokes about them from Colbert, Meyers, or any of the rest of the late-night talk-show hosts, because the writers are now on strike. That means no more comedy posts about the news (unless the hosts are guests on news shows) and no more "Saturday Night Live" highlights on Sunday until the strike is resolved. Darn. I'll figure out something else for the Sunday entertainment feature. In the meantime, stay tuned for Star Wars Day, Cinco De Mayo, and Revenge of the Sixth. I love holidays!
Traffic and congestion has been worsening in American cities for decades. What to do about it divides opinion. Some say cities need more of everything: widened roads, public transit, and better urban design and planning. Some say however that widening roads won't solve traffic. Some economists, for example, argue that congestion pricing is the only way to reduce traffic. The solution is politically controversial though. Though it is implemented in cities like London and Singapore, attempts to implement it in America cities such as New York have incurred a lot of pushback.
I've examined all these issues in previous driving updates, including congestionpricing and the return of driving as the pandemic came and is now subsiding. Still, it's good to have it all in one video.
That's the big picture. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update plus a retrospective of the top driving update during last year, which was also the most commented entry of the year.
The traditional English folk song "Greensleeves" performed by the Guardsmen five different times over five subsequent years. Who did it best?
Drum Corps International uploaded this video to celebrate Christmas, but the dance around the maypole by the 1978 and 1979 corps makes this one of my favorites to celebrate May Day.
After three years of predicting the end of this iteration of the tradition, I now think this resource has been completely extracted. Unless DCI uploads a video like this for 1978 and 1979 Santa Clara Vanguard during the next 366 days (2024 is a leap year), next year's post would not feature drum corps maypolesin motion. That's O.K. I'm ready to embrace May Day as International Workers' Day and showcase corps with themes that match. Just hope that we are all still here to celebrate it. After all, there is still a war in Ukraine that could spread beyond its borders.
President Joe Biden and comedian Roy Wood Jr. poked fun at Trump's hush money case, Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Fox News, recent cable news firing and more at the 2023 White House correspondents' dinner.
Those are some of the best jokes and zingers of the night, but not all of them. I'm sharing both Biden's and Wood's complete remarks to see and hear every one of the jokes in context, beginning with Biden's 2023 White House correspondents’ dinner speech from The Washington Post.
President Biden's speech at the 2023 White House correspondents’ dinner tackled free speech, the 2024 election, and his GOP opponents.
Comedian Roy Wood Jr. joked about President Biden's and former President Trump’s classified documents cases and poked fun at CRT, Fox News-Dominion settlement and more as he headlined the 2023 White House correspondents' dinner.
