Apologies for not posting in a while. Many aspects of life got in the way. That and resonance effects from my big new book about Artificial Intelligence AIlien Minds...
...and preparing for performance of my play The Escape on August 28, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim. But so much is happening in the news... and so little of it sheds much light. And so...
...I'll opine at the end of this posting about the insanely hypocritical Fauci Fables. But first...
== The War on Science should be issue #1 ==
I used to give talks at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), back when its mission was to enhance U.S. scientific leadership for the overall betterment of citizens, humanity and truth.
None of the accomplishments of the post WWII Greatest (GI Bill) Generation was greater than encouraging politically neutral science and discovery of verifiable facts. Even when those facts undermined the prejudices they had been raised to believe.
(A burst of discovery, creativity and truth that was spurred by the universities that the GI Billers built, that were their greatest pride, and that are now under relentless oligarch-subsidized attack. Because children of the middle and poorer classes have used college to rise up and compete fairly with the aristos' inheritance brats. And we can't have that now, can we?)
Alas, 30 years ago the Republican Party began its relentlessly accelerating war against science and objective reality. It started with Newt Gingrich's demolition of the Congressional Office of Science and Technology Assessment -- OTA -- whose expert advisors kept saying those fell words unwelcome across all levels of the Republican Party:
"Um, I'm afraid that's just not true, and here's the evidence."
(Restoration of OTA is among my 35 recommendations to Democrats, should they ever recover enough power to save America.)**
WHY the right's hatred of objective reality? It wasn't universal in the days of Goldwater and Buckley, as it is now. Scan 250 years and you'll see the pattern of recurring culture war -- one that has erupted every generation in America, pitting modernists who opposed first kingly rule, then slavery, then lucre-oligarchy and unearned hierarchy... versus those neighbors who are enraged by the very concept of modernity, preferring instead the serenity of knowing your place, beneath kings, priests, lords and their inheritance brat sons, recapitulating 6000 years of oppressive, unsapient feudalism.
Which brings us to this news. OSTP - now under rule of an acolyte of Peter Thiel - has issued a new manifesto that proclaims dedication of science, while proposing measures that (all of them) will serve to curb scientific exploration and independence and intellectual honesty, across the board.
See: https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/45470/
Are there flaws in current systems like peer review? Well, sure, and competitive science usually discovers and reveals those flaws. What the Right's hate agitprop always hides, while depicting scientists as conformist lemmings, is that scientists tend to be the most COMPETITIVE creatures Nature ever produced. A young researcher gets nowhere in her career without finding some niche assumption (or a big one) to topple with factual experimentation.
Should promulgators of the 'lemming' slander make science policy? They want it all politically controlled and under their thumb. So where does this all lead?
Alas, they are chivvying and radicalizing the brainiest men and women on the planet, who would prefer never having to radicalize! And hence, I have to ask the prepper lords (I know several) "Where do you think it will get you, to wage war against all the smartest humans? Those who know cyber, chem, bio, nuclear, nano and all the rest? Do you think you will emerge from your bunkers into the fantasy future of A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, where all the nerds are killed by angry peasants, eager to become serfs of you New Lords?
Hey delusional oligarchs that your sycophant flatterers have misled you. The people will side with us. And tumbrels will roll. See this re feudalism.
** So many earnest proposals would reform weaknesses in the US system that were exploited by traitors. Alas, too many are politically impractical, like Constitutional Amendments, or would waste our political capital unnecessarily. We need a to-do checklist of fixes that (1) will sell well to most voters, (2) that can pass quickly, almost the moment we get a good Congress… with some of them immune to vetoes! And (3) that will PRAGMATICALLY reverse the treason-evisceration of the USA and ensure this never happens again. Want to see how to do all of that? Here is the full list of my own proposed Newer Deal tactics and reforms. https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-contract-part-three-aggressive.html
== But why do they hate us? Mostly made-up stories. But in fact, there is a basis! And it goes way back ==
I've tried to explain that confederatism (and its current partners Nazism and Kremlin/Putin-communism) must be defeated yet again. But meanwhile, we must emulate Lincoln and win with 'malice toward (almost) none and charity for (almost) all. First, because Lincoln asked it of us and that should be enough...
...but second because these are our neighbors and if they just return to a decent version of conservatism a la Goldwater or Buckley, then we will gladly go back to the adult art of negotiation.
Only there's another reason for 'malice toward (almost) none.' Sympathy. Empathy. Because their recurring, maniacal rage against modernity does have a basis! A small, insufficient one... but a basis of a sort.
Oh, not any of their Murdoch/Foxite/Kremlin-generated lies and memes and crazy shit. Like generations howling that city folk are decadent filth! Get bent with that bullshit! No, there's something deeper. A hurt that never goes away.
Norman Rockwell made my point!
Ever wonder why we experience relentless resentment by rural, salt-of-the-Earth folks toward city slickers, calling them - or folks who get too educated - 'not real'? Or decadent or corrupt or impractically airhead?
Come on, we've heard it all our lives. We aren't supposed to respond. Just grin wryly and accept it. Yep, New Yorkers talk fast and don't have time to waste on pleasantries. That must mean they're evil.
Okay, I've long offered a reason.
...and yet it hurts. Dig it: every small town in America revolves around the high school, where each crop of seniors is the town treasure everyone talks about. The sport heroes, the cheer squad, heck even the science fair nerds! 'Our pride and joy.' And each summer they weep and hug...
...and then skedaddle as quick as they can to the bright lights. And that has got to hurt! Like an implied rebuke. A wound. Every year. Every damned year.
== Is that enough reason to hate us? ==
Does this feed both the simmering slurs toward city folk and the recurring outbreaks of outright civil war hate that we see, about once per generation?
If so, then do NOT answer with contempt! If this must come to a fight - as it has done several times in the past - then let us not nurse reciprocal malice. We must maintain a core of 'charity for all.'
On the other hand, we will not let a nation of knowledge and science and calm and fair argument and transparent justice and law and civil-service and ever-rising tolerance and diversity and all other things-modernity be crushed and burned by a lava of ingrate resentment, either.
For one thing, their contempt for us revolves around a masturbatory notion - that we are cowards. A self-serving, auto-erotic fantasy that we disproved at Gettysburg, at Normandy and on Mare Tranquilitatus and in ten billion other ways, as we forge ahead into the sometimes-scary unknown, picking up the very tools with which God made Creation. And getting blessed for it.
Anyway, there's something that neither the world oligarchs nor the coward mogul-preppers nor their millions of dittohead lackeys ever seem able to ponder. That it's only a fool who keeps POKING at those Americans who know cyber, chem, bio, nano, nuclear and the rest. Daring us - just daring us - to lose our temper.
Please stop, before I lose my coo...
Look, we welcome your children into a better future. We in the cities and universities are - or are descended from - that boy in the Norman
Rockwell painting.
Join us in the adventure and you will get robots and medicine and the rest. Be like that dad. Be proud that we are in it together.
== Addendum: The Fauci Fables ==
Once again - this time regarding the right's attempted shivving of Dr. Anthony Fauci - the thing bugging me the most is how poorly the moderate/blue side handles its response to the outrageous madness. The Union side in this phase of the 248 year recurring US Cicil War is so dumb at the arts of polemic! Alas, in every phase, the Union flounders... till it finds its generals.
So, let me get to what's fundamental. Not Fauci's lifelong, mostly successful fight against diseases like AIDS, polio, ebola etc., saving millions. Nor his few, Fox-cherrypicked "Gee, lookit how I'm famous now!" diary entries (one millionth of Trump's narcissism.)
Nor the failure of the lying Foxites to follow up after Covid with ANY of their assertions, like proof that horse-pills work. (They've had years and years and have spent nothing to prove their wild yammer-claims.)
No, this chart is what's fundamental. Comparing death rates in states where covid vaccination was common or commonly avoided. And note the same effect is observed in CDC stats of simple death rates of individuals who were vaccinated vs unvaccinated. (And note that it was a Fauci-supervised miracle that delivered RNA-based vaccines at warp speed... and the current administration has canceled almost all followup research in preparing for the next pandemic.)
And gain-of-function contracts to Wuhan were done (stupidly) by several administrations of both parties, who thought they might thus lure China into transparency in disease research. A bipartisan delusion.
But we only need one thing to settle this. An unambiguous fact. And a tactic that wins political arguments by sending the mad meme-junkies fleeing.
Demand WAGERS from the yammering rightist/Kremlin bozos over easily verified DEATH RATES OF THOSE WHO TOOK OR REFUSED COVID VACCINES. Demand escrowed wager stakes from anyone yowling this monstrous BS.
Watch them flee.
== A pertinent after-thought ==
PS. Look at the chart again and ponder: does ANYONE have any memory? Like how at the beginning of the pandemic redders crowed gleefully about the covid death rates in CA & NY as proving that blue, city folk were 'filthy'? Like any natural disaster in a blue state was "God's wrath!" but anything hitting red zones is all "Help us now!"
And we always do
It's ironic that the basis you propose for conservative grievances is, at root, a social thing ("there is no such thing...!" sayeth St. Margaret...).
ReplyDeleteI think the increasing use of 'telecommuting' might help alleviate it somewhat: young folk don't need to go into the cities so much to pursue a career.
Unsurprisingly, there is a reported correlation between bosses preferring 'in office' working and having psychopathic (...or is that patriarchal?) tendencies.
In other news: Link mission update reports spin has been reduced to about 1 degree /sec, and that a software update should allow them to regain full attitude control. If that all goes as planned(!?), then rendezvous preparation may continue.
ReplyDeleteThere are huge number of suspect assumptions in this most recent post, the first being that the scientifically inclined are of superior moral mien, the second being that an extended education confers superior intelligence, the third being that urbanity correlates with either morality or intelligence & the fourth being that statistics are somehow immune to dishonest manipulation.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, human beings are manifestly dishonest species, despite & regardless of scientific inclination, as the Fauci Diary's documentation of his many many lies during COVID demonstrates, especially when such lies virtually guaranteed his self-advancement, self-aggrandizement & self-enrichment.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-08-05/organized-scientific-fraud-is-growing-at-alarming-rate
Secondly, increasing educational expenditures do not necessarily result in increased intelligence, as demonstrated by the 30 year decline in US literacy rates down to 79% in 2024 & a US numeracy rate that has plunged below 65% in the same time frame.
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-literacy-statistics
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/math-decline-ucsd/684973/
Thirdly, the argument that the city dweller is somehow 'more moral' is frankly absurd, as urban rates of 'violent victimizations' & 'property crimes' are nearly 3X higher than in rural settings, while urban rates of 'robbery & extortion' are 5 to 8X higher than in rural settings, despite higher rates of rural poverty.
https://usafacts.org/articles/where-are-crime-victimization-rates-higher-urban-rural-areas/
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/cjsc/publications/misc/urbrurt.pdf
In terms of urbanity & intelligence, numerous studies also show that red rural students are more academically proficient & graduate secondary (high) school at higher rates than their more privileged blue urban opposites, despite higher rates of rural poverty.
https://www.the74million.org/article/rural-students-graduate-hs-more-than-city-peers-but-attend-college-less/
And, finally, let's talk about how there's damn little difference between 'damn lies' and statistics, especially when it comes to comparing Blue v Red State COVID mortality, even though it's statistically true that blue states like California appear to have a lower mortality rate than red states like Florida.
https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2023-11-28/backup-2-0-essential-california-template-do-not-use-make-a-copy-essential-california
These are disproportional comparisons, however, as Florida has a +65 year population of 21% as compared to a California's +65 years population of less than 15%, as is the case in all disproportionally older conservative 'red' areas, which would necessarily translate into higher COVID mortality rates per population since this disease disproportionally killed older +65 populations.
Welcome back, btw, as I look forward to debunking more of your magical mumbo-jumbo about everything from socialism to dark matter.
Best
Comparing rural and urban pathologies is something of a moot point as rural areas are depopulating, aging rapidly and dying out.
DeleteI've seen this first hand working in Appalachia for almost 50 years on environmental clean up operations.
Many remote rural areas are experiencing population decline and aging faster than urban areas, largely driven by young adults moving away, fewer births, and higher death rates among an aging population. Rural areas have a higher percentage of older adults (65+) compared to urban centers. Many rural counties record more deaths than births annually because younger generations migrate to cities for jobs and education. The departure of working-age adults reduces the local tax base and strains community services
As for social pathologies, higher crime rates are to be expected in communities with a larger youth demographic. Violence, whether criminal or military, is almost exclusively the province of young males.
But rural pathologies can be considered more widespread, endemic and enduring (a potentially violent male will eventually grow up and become a respected citizen).
Not so in dying rural areas that have: high rates of suicide and self-harm per capita. Severe opioid and methamphetamine addiction crises. Limited access to mental health and medical care. And high levels of poverty tied to job loss in farming or manufacturing.
In short, both areas have problems, but only rural areas are dying out.
There is blood on the hands of anti-vaxxers.
ReplyDeleteThey will also be responsible for the avoidable deaths in the next pandemic.
Damn these stupid fucks.
But thanks to a general anti-science ignorance and tax cuts for the wealthy that result in spending cuts to health care, Republican counties already have much higher death rates.
My Dad used to say "God is merciful, but Mother Nature is a bitch."
As far as Mother nature is concerned stupidity is a capital crime, punishable b death.
There is no appeal.
As far as that bitch is concerned, the stupid deserve to die.
And there is nothing stupider than being anti-vax.
So will a Blue Tsunami mid term in November signal the start of new Phase 9 of the ACW, with the good guys winning for a change?
ReplyDeleteSo it looks like Trump's brilliant obliteration war against Iran will end with a whimper instead of a bang, largely because we have run out of bombs and missiles (FFS we spend more on defense than the next 20 nations combined, so how the fuck did this happen?!?!?).
ReplyDeleteOman and Iran look like they are independently negotiating a lane change where outgoing tankers will sail in Iranian waters and incoming tankers will sail through Omani waters.
Nobody bothered to tell Trump, because America is no longer important - thanks to Trump and the idiots who thought this war was a good idea.
Meanwhile, our massive naval armada of aircraft carriers is sitting off shore with its thumb up its arse - having been proven totally useless in the age of cheap drone warfare.
Wall Street is rallying because the oil fields that provide the bulk of world's energy won't be going up in flames after all. Oil can flow again with Iranians taking cash under the table that makes what they got back from their own frozen accounts by Obama look like pocket change.
Image all the mayhem they can finance with that.
But Wall Street is effectively celebrating the end of the American empire.
Unless the Iranians agree to take their money in dollars thus preserving the linchpin of the American Empire - the Petrodollar.
The petrodollar was created by Nixon as a replacement to the post-war Bretton Woods gold standard. You see we had to get off the gold standard when the President of France Charles De Gaulle called our bluff about agreeing to exchange a set amount of gold for a set amount of dollars. For the record, this was a dick move by De Gaulle who was an arrogant prick and hated by almost everyone. Even his fellow Allies in WW2 hated his guts.
So Nixon forged an agreement with the Saudis where all oil would be purchased only with American dollars in exchange for our pledge to protect the House of Saud. In effect, the dollar continued as an even more powerful world reserve currency. Everyone had to buy American bonds (obtain American dollars) if they wanted to buy oil. And oil is far more valuable than gold ever was.
Nixon may have been evil, but he really did have a strategic genius - unlike the moron who is currently president.
This "extraordinary privilege" of being the world's reserve currency allows the American government and economy to defy the normal financial laws of gravity. Worried about American financial debt? Don't be. So long as the world has to borrow dollars to get oil we can go as deep into debt as we want. Japan's debt to GDP ratio is currently about 250%. That's nuthin'. America can have a debt to GDP ratio measured in the gazillions, provided the Petrodollar continues to be the world's reserve currency.
Cont.
Delete(BTW, did you noticed we just baled out the Japanese yen? We had to because Japan's debt is starting to catch up with them, and as the biggest holder of American dollars, the Japanese would have had to dump their dollars on the world market to cover their loses in yen - and that would have catastrophically fucked our bond markets at a really awkward moment. And its the bond market - not the stock market - that really matters. The bond market underlies everything, including the stock and real estate markets which are comparatively just the froth on top.)
So long as the petrodollar exists our debt doesn't mean shit. Our economic growth, standard of living, wealth and military power can be financed comparatively for free courtesy of the rest of the world - provided the petrodollar is preserved AND we don't substitute renewables and EVs for oil. Its the real reason Trump and the Right hate renewable energy, if there is no need for oil then there is no need for petrodollars - and no way to finance the American empire. So we will continue to deny global warming since a switch to renewables to save the planet will end American power. Burning planet, heat domes and acidic oceans be damned.
So where does this leave us?
America is now a broken humiliated formerly great nation similar to Britain after its equally disastrous 1956 Suez Crisis. The American empire can be kept on life support if we somehow convince the Iranians to buy and sell oil (and take protection money) in American dollars. And the Iranian regime may just be corrupt enough to do so since the yuan they have been using all these decades to sell oil on world markets in defiance of international bans isn't as valuable as the dollar. Ask yourself, if you were a corrupt mullah would you rather have dollars or yuan in your Swiss bank account?
And thus we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, with Trump claiming victory of course and how he always meant for this to be the end game (and his idiot followers will believe him).
But is only a stay of execution since renewable technology keeps getting cheaper and easier to use. Cheaper now than fossil fuels in most applications. Its why 90% of new energy infrastructure in the past 5 years has been renewable.
Hopefully the planet won't burn in the meantime.
Mexico sends another 200 firefighters to BC.
ReplyDeleteMuchas gracias amigos
Sorry, Doc, filling their stomach will be the number one priority of most voters, not ending the war on science.
ReplyDeleteI think a Nawalny-style platform - anti- corruption - would be most successful.
I think our best proposal is public option Medicare for all.
DeleteThat wins us elections even in Red States.
Normally, I would agree, but with corruption firmly in place in both parties (though in different quantity and quality) I don't see that going forward.
DeleteGain power, wield it to remove those who endanger democracy ruthlessly..
Though I'd admit putting two options in the table - an easy way and a hard way - may be effective, too.
Delete"Pass the Rebuild America for Greater Equality Act, or we will direct all law enforcement activities towards weeding out corruption. The Trump administration has left US a great toolbox to rely on."
Sen. Lee of NJ is trying the host's suggestion of doing Medicare for All under 26 years old as a first step. I think it is wise politically.
DeleteI recently came across a new paper on the extinction of Neanderthals that I found very interesting in several ways, and thought some here might be interested. If the topic is not of interest, don't read any further.
ReplyDeleteThe paper is here, A simple analytical model for Neanderthal disappearance due to genetic dilution by recurrent small-scale immigrations of modern humans.
The paper looks at the hypothesis that the Neanderthal went extinct by interbreeding with modern humans, "genetic assimilation". In other words, that they were absorbed into populations of modern humans.
What the paper shows is that the researchers' modeling of this scenario based on current knowledge of Neanderthal and modern human populations, and genetic data, indicates that this scenario is very possible. They are careful to note that while their modeling shows that genetic assimilation is a very good fit to the current data that it doesn't mean that other reasons, climate, competition, etc., were not also factors, or even that their hypothesis is correct at all.
Some other interesting links. This one, Neanderthals are Homo sapiens, not a different species, and may have disappeared because of repeated interbreeding with H. sapiens who emigrated from Africa to Eurasia, is to an article about this paper by Jerry Coyne, a biologist who literally wrote the book (along with Allen Orr) on Speciation, on his website WEIT. In it he relates the research and his thoughts on it. There is also a very interesting exchange about speciation more generally in the comments section, between Jerry and David Hillis (another biologist of note).
And this link, David Hillis's Post, is to a post by the previously mentioned biologist David Hillis where he gives some of his thoughts on the paper. Some of the comments here are interesting too.
One of the things I learned that I never quite understood before is the difference in size between Neanderthal populations and modern human populations during the time periods that the two intermingled. For whatever reasons, by the times they intermingled there were already very, very few Neanderthals compared to the modern human groups they encountered. To me this, along with the amount of the Neanderthal genome still persisting in current human populations, genetic assimilation seems very plausible.
I’ve heard there is evidence of them inbreeding near their end. Any source of pressure that reduces and segments them would lead there… and nothing brings on disaster quite so fast as inbreeding.
DeleteThere were small differences in how our Rh blood factors expressed too. That would have made interbreeding a bit dicey, but not impossible.
Thanks to Celt for conceding each & every one of my objections to Dr Brin's main post, especially those that specify that (1) red rural areas have a much higher percentage of the elderly demographic which was much more likely to die of COVID infections regardless of their vaccine status and (2) red rural areas also have a much lower crime rate than the overpopulated blue urban shitholes do despite a much higher rate of rural poverty.
ReplyDeleteThis. I'll accept as a minor victory, despite Celt's ongoing & incredibly despicable attempt to BLAME THE VICTIMS of Covid for being too old & feeble to survive an epidemic, regardless of their vaccination status., as this is analogous to blaming homosexuals for contracting HIV in the 80s & 90s.
Note also that, aside from "The Science's" many diary confirmed lies, there still has NOT been a single prospective double-blind scientific study that proves either the efficacy or the safety of the COVID vaccine in any way, shape or form.
Additionally, it is a proven fact that blue urban areas have much much higher violent crime rates than red rural areas. As Celt suggests, this could be due to the red rural areas being simply too old & feeble to engage in criminal & immoral acts. Its an intriguing argument, is it not?
Even so, the same argument would also 'put to lie' Dr Brin's little assertion that Blue Cities are somehow more moral & law obedient than red rural areas, along with the old progressive saw that Poverty correlates with Crime, especially since red rural areas have much higher rates of poverty than do the blue urban diversitopias.
Best
______
@Darrell_E:
Assuming that the Neanderthals may have disappeared because of genetic dilution & repeated interbreeding with H. sapiens, is there any indication of prior & ongoing Neanderthal consent ??
Or, could the Neanderthals have simply been overwhelmed by H sapiens immigrants who then RAPED the Neanderthals out of existence like the sexually-exploited little girls of Rotherham UK & their Muslim abusers ??
Or, would you prefer to think of RAPE in terms of UPLIFT, as in the Muslim Rape Gangs are merely 'uplifting' the reluctant & non-consenting little girls of Rotherham ??
I don't blame the elderly, I blame the idiots who refuse to get vaccinated.
Delete"there still has NOT been a single prospective double-blind scientific study that proves either the efficacy or the safety of the COVID vaccine in any way, shape or form."
DeleteSo come the next pandemic you won't get vaccinated?
The point you are missing is that gross per capita comparisons are only valid if the populations being compared have similar demographics.
DeleteWhat you need to do is isolate the the young male populations of urban an rural areas and examine their per capita violent crime rates separately to get an apples to apples comparison.
Given the extensive meth and opioid usage in rural areas I think you will find that city area still come out ahead.
Celt the Japanese actually have an easy solution. Most of their debt is held by rich old Japanese. They to increase inheritance taxes to buy their debt back.
ReplyDeleteThe point you are missing is that we are making exactly the same points, as any & all comparisons between red rural & blue urban populations are suspect because of dissimilar demographics.
ReplyDeleteYet, our fine host, along with the many many mostly Marxist collectivists who lurk here, continue to insist that the disproportionately older, more impoverished, conservative, law obedient merit-based red rural communities are somehow 'less moral' & 'less deserving' than those younger, crime-ridden, economically privileged, politically progressive blue urban communities, as is their bias.
So, tell me again how all those red rural old people who died of COVID 'deserved it' while all those blue urban old people who died of COVID were 'innocent victims', especially in light of a still unproven vaccine.
Tell me again how red rural poverty & law obedience indicates 'moral turpitudes' while high rates of blue urban crime & violence despite economic privilege equals 'moral superiority'.
Also explain how abysmal blue urban secondary school test scores & graduation rates indicate superior urban intelligence when red rural secondary school students perform at a much higher proficiency level by all criteria.
Best
"So, tell me again how all those red rural old people who died of COVID 'deserved it' while all those blue urban old people who died of COVID were 'innocent victims', especially in light of a still unproven vaccine."
DeleteOld people don't.
Antivaxxers do.
Tell me again how red rural poverty & law obedience indicates 'moral turpitudes' while high rates of blue urban crime & violence despite economic privilege equals 'moral superiority'.
DeleteRural folks are not more law abiding.
Young males are not
So do you promise not to get vaccinated when the next pandemic arrives?
DeleteGiven that rural America is aging and dying isn't your entire argument moot?
Delete"So, tell me again how all those red rural old people who died of COVID 'deserved it' while all those blue urban old people who died of COVID were 'innocent victims',"
DeleteHerman Cain, Meat Loaf, and Diamond (of Diamond and Silk fame) deserved it in the same way that someone who jumps off of a cliff deserves the consequences--not that they required punishment but that they are responsible for the obvious consequence of their own decisions. "If you demonstrate loyalty to MAGA by going unvaccinated and you die of COVID, blame yourself!"
" especially in light of a still unproven vaccine."
Five years later we're still on this "unproven" crap? The billion people who were not harmed by the vaccine and the subsequent drop in COVID deaths was a pretty convincing real-life experiment. Reality doesn't care about your feelings.
Why do you equate inner city with urban. Outside the most destitute slums, blue suburban school systems perform better than red rural school systems when measuring standard academic achievement, test scores, and college enrollment
ReplyDeleteLocoweed's inflammatory talking points are based on statistics long ago refuted or obsolete. For instance, urban crime has fallen far since the early 90's. I credit this to the banning of leaded gasoline a generation earlier.
ReplyDeleteAlso: locoweed keeps using the word 'Marxist'. I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
Not yet fully re-engaged to the CBrin comments section… and certainly not wasting time on locum! (Working hard on deadline for a 3 minute vid trailer for EARTH.)
ReplyDeleteBut a few brief blips after scanning.
1. Medicare for all is an election loser. The insurance cos will twist every arm in order to survive and Americans like incremental steps that are plausibly affordable and even no-brainers. And hence MEDICARE FOR ALL CHILDREN AND CITIZENS UNDER 25. Easily affordable with the teensiest rise in the social security ceiling. And anyone opposing it is automatically evil. And yes… that is one of my 35 proposals no one pays any attention to.
Matthew thanks: U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the "MediKids Act" on July 21, 2026, proposing free government health insurance for all U.S. children and young adults from birth through age 26. The plan automatically enrolls newborns into a federal system modeled on Medicaid, acting as a universal baseline or "bookend" to Medicare. https://kffhealthnews.org/health-care-costs/interview-senator-andy-kim-healthcare-fix-children-coverage/
2. I deem the interbreeding hypothesis for Neanderthals to be unlikely. The latest Neanders would show signs greater than observed.
Looks like enough time has passed for more work on the inbreeding hypothesis to be complete. The evidence is spotty. Some isolated populations were, but not all of them in western Europe were isolated. So... like with our brand of hominid... inbreeding likely culled isolated groups but doesn't explain much beyond that.
ReplyDeleteI suspect with more time, the interbreeding hypothesis will go the same way. Interbreeding was possible, but no favorable. Some did it (obviously), but those who did were taking the "I get fewer viable children" path. I've no doubt the neanderthals would have noticed that.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete"We meddle. People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run, don't walk"
ReplyDelete"We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome"
The issue here is Dr. Brin is your class believes that anyone who denies its right to rule is defective in some way. They are either stupid, deluded, or evil, or some combination thereof. And since they are defective, they can not exercise true agency and therefore must be marginalised and ignored. In this way, you can simply ignore or dismiss critiques as being the ramblings of defective or evil minds.
History, after all, is on your side.
All roads lead to you.
@Dirtnapninja,
DeleteHow are you not exactly describing Christian Nationalism, or any fundamental religion for that matter?
DirtyNappy Waaaaaaa! In order to attack me and all fact people, you have to portray us as would-be tyrants by OUR own standards. Declaring that we are everything we claim to oppose... and that historically we HAVE opposed... you hope to hurt our feelings. Oh, no. Waaaaa!
DeleteExcept we see you. And your cult's utterly destroyed credibility. Moreover, we actually ENJOY the tussle of competitive reciprocal accountability! Even pokes from imbeciles like you and locumranch. It's an attitude you are incapable of comprehending.
So go ahead and waaaaa!. There's nothing factual or even sane about your ravings. But I kinda enjoy them! Knowing we will win. And when we do, you will be safe and consinue yowling...
...and if we lose, you will murder us all, starting with me.
That motivates a guy. So thanks!
ReplyDeleteAging demographics;
Limited dating opportunities;
Differentiating Attrition from Collapse;
COVID vaccine safety & discontinuation.
Reports of red rural demise have been grossly exaggerated.
Constituting gradual attrition due to shifting socioeconomic variables, resource-rich red rural communities have shown an incremental & continual population decline, as the old age & the rural young seek concentrated employment opportunities in urban adjacent areas, yet these are most likely temporary trends, as resource-poor blue urban areas are merely 3 to 7 days away from total collapse, as they recklessly rely on an increasingly fragile & fossil-fuel dependent supply chain for even their most basic needs.
Dr Brin refers to this issue as 'Resilience', either the presence or the absence of, which the resource-poor urban areas completely lack but the red rural areas have a preponderance of, in spite of & because of a decreased rural demand.
Western birth rates have fallen significantly in recent years but have declined most sharply in urban areas, constituting an urban decline of 18% as opposed to a lower rural decline if 12%, a fact obscured by high immigration to urban metro areas, indicating a much larger reproductive issue affecting urban masses..
The so-called 'limited dating opportunities' crisis is likewise a predominantly urban issue, as (1) it only takes two people to screw & produce offspring in rural areas and, according to current projections, (2) unrealistic urban dating criteria will render nearly 45% of adult urban females childless & functionally sterile by 2030.
In terms of COVID vaccines, it's common knowledge these products were granting 'Emergency Authorization" by the FDA in December 2020, meaning that they never underwent clinical testing or formal FDA approval, meaning that they were never required to meet federal effectiveness & safety standards, followed by the official Discontinuation of Pfizer and Moderna Monovalent mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines as of April 18, 2023 under the Joe Biden Administration, only to be immediately replaced by similarly unproven bivalent COVID vaccines that also skipped clinical trials.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEHHS/bulletins/3559d26
The sad truth is that we may never know the whole truth about the relative safety or effectiveness of the emergency COVID vaccines, because our once methodical culture abandoned the scientific method in a moment of 'viral' panic, so pay no attention to the sudden & unexplained 20% Increase in Young Adult Cancer, lest you be marginalized as another 'science denier', as it obvious to all that those cancer victims somehow "deserve it"..
Best
Yes. We skipped over the standard trials. Those take years. When the excess death count gets high enough, we get motivated enough to experiment on ourselves the old fashioned way. Try it and find out.
DeleteYes. There could be consequences tied back to the vaccines. Well... it might be difficult to officially tie them, but suggestive statistics will sway me.
No. I wouldn't have done it different except maybe relax a bit with respect to the quality of the masks. The point of all that was to slow the rate so we didn't wind up with a bazillion people in the ICU's at the same time. Fear was running wild and it wasn't ALL unjustified. The excess death rate was real enough no matter what the believed cause was.
Sorry Locum, I work in the public sector and am still getting the next COVID vaccine when it becomes available. I expect that it will eventually become this generation's flu vaccine, recommended for most as a prophylactic. If a vaccine had been available for the Spanish Flu, do you believe that people would have refused to accept it after the first wave of horrible deaths, even if unproven?
ReplyDeleteIn the meanwhile, would you be so kind as to provide links for your assertions in the previous? I would like to see from whence you get your bullet points.
Re - the normal vaccine trials were not used - bollocks!
ReplyDeletethe normal trials were used - they went dramatically faster because of the large - sample sizes - it normally takes a long time to get a big sample size - with COVID that was not a problem
No. We did skip over some usual steps. I’m glad we did… but we did.
DeleteI'll confess that despite his being nuts, locum has clearly taken vitamins re the logical progression of his (mostly dogmatically mad) assertions.
ReplyDeleteActually, I fault Fauci & co for not dividing the nation into experimental zones and in acouple of them keeping schools open to see what happens. e.g. we could have divided classes in half so the M-W kids could zoom watch the T-Th kids and vice-versa, thus allowing much of the day to be distanced/maskless. Given the high survival rate of healthy youngsters, it would have been worth a try.
Wouldn't that violate ethical standards to experiment with people on that?
DeleteWhat If you WANTED the vaccine, but would have been denied it on the base of your postal code?
That’s a problem for all medical testing. The ethical bypass involves broad agreement on understood risks. Difficult to do that in the US.
DeleteBack in 2013 when I almost died of an immune over reaction, I asked what caused it. My doctor pointed out that we’d likely never know because the tests to find out involved causing it in others. Highly unethical.
This field has a lot of landmines buried in it.
Hard to say how many lives Dolly Parton helped to save with her donation to Moderna mRNA. Mine was one of them. One of the many reasons I have for loving Americans so much.
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