"There's a swath of Americans - an ersatz elite with some power - who want respectability and reassurance. Providing them with that gets you a lot."
Love this. Besides the political implications, this is great advice for anyone working a white-collar job. The bureaucratic PMC loves manners, plans, optics etc. The perception of my job performance improved a lot when I focused less on actually doing my job and more on nebulous strategies and corporate etiquette.
2) The painting by Zinaida Serebriakova is interesting. I'd never heard of her. Wikipedia: "At the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917, Serebriakova was at her family estate of Neskuchnoye, and suddenly her whole life changed. … All the reserves of Neskuchnoye had been plundered, so the family suffered from hunger. … After the October Revolution, inhabitants of private apartments were forced to share them with additional inhabitants …"
Is this still the Marxist plan? Asking for a friend.
3) Fat Elvis got you FatElvisCare and Medicaid Expansion, all with a Fat Zero votes from Republicans in Congress. Why don't you go tell the millions of poor people who rely on those programs that you're going to take them all away, because Obama wasn't leftie-cool enough for you? I'll wait.
"I grow weary of the Covid discourse. So, so weary. I am particularly exhausted by the fact that the side that is more correct on the epidemiology, the pro-vaccine side, is also worshipful of expertise, incurious about basic questions, contemptuous of good-faith questions, and shrill in all things. I hate it all."
Me too. Weary on both sides. The obvious are the die-hard anti-vaxxers, which are really not that many in my practice. But equally exhausting are the Covid fundamentalists, who see nothing but Covid risk everywhere all the time. There were all kinds of health risks before Covid and there are those same risks now. I can't stand to read MSM these days, which reads like propaganda. "Horse-Dewormer": no Ivermectin looks like it doesn't work for Covid, but it's a real treatment used for people for other conditions. One recent article calmly reported that the vaccines work better than natural immunity. I'm not sure where they got that data. There's this study that looks at risk of re-infection with Covid, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, not looking at natural vs acquired immunity.
So, yes, you can get Covid again after contracting it, but you can also get a breakthrough infection after being vaccinated. This past week, a patient who had Covid in July had an appt with me to ask about being vaccinated. His job is requiring it and his family was pushing him to get a note from me exempting him. I explained that data does show vaccination offers further protection from re-infection and that LA county wants everyone vaccinated regardless of prior infection. But, in reality, he could likely wait 6-9 months to get vaccinated. We could have checked antibody levels. I've ranted here before, but I feel squeezed sometimes between what public health/CDC is recommending and what the actual data shows. He wasn't really against getting vaccinated, more appeasing his family with the visit, so we let it be. I'm not sure what I would have said had he been more forceful about wanting to wait to get vaccinated.
I second how good The Red, The Brown, The Green is. I’ve been enjoying the slow reveal of the mystery of how the world came to be that way. I’m wondering if it’ll end in triumph or despair. I can see it going either way. Also liking the slow feed of serialization of a chapter or two a week. I look forward to checking my inbox on Thursdays.
I promise I'll never be critical of Freddie again. Anyone who has had to endure Matt Nagy's playcalling does not deserve any more negativity in their life. I honestly think he may be the worst playcaller in the league. I sincerely hope the Bears bottom out and y'all can get someone better than Pace and Nagy.
"There's a swath of Americans - an ersatz elite with some power - who want respectability and reassurance. Providing them with that gets you a lot."
Love this. Besides the political implications, this is great advice for anyone working a white-collar job. The bureaucratic PMC loves manners, plans, optics etc. The perception of my job performance improved a lot when I focused less on actually doing my job and more on nebulous strategies and corporate etiquette.
Diehard Chicago Bears fan here too. Part of me is hoping we bomb in the short term so we can kick out the current regime and bring in a new one ASAP.
Some random comments:
1) Thanks for the Chris Arnade tip. Subscribed.
2) The painting by Zinaida Serebriakova is interesting. I'd never heard of her. Wikipedia: "At the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917, Serebriakova was at her family estate of Neskuchnoye, and suddenly her whole life changed. … All the reserves of Neskuchnoye had been plundered, so the family suffered from hunger. … After the October Revolution, inhabitants of private apartments were forced to share them with additional inhabitants …"
Is this still the Marxist plan? Asking for a friend.
3) Fat Elvis got you FatElvisCare and Medicaid Expansion, all with a Fat Zero votes from Republicans in Congress. Why don't you go tell the millions of poor people who rely on those programs that you're going to take them all away, because Obama wasn't leftie-cool enough for you? I'll wait.
Did your comment on Zen Shorts get chopped midsentence?
"I grow weary of the Covid discourse. So, so weary. I am particularly exhausted by the fact that the side that is more correct on the epidemiology, the pro-vaccine side, is also worshipful of expertise, incurious about basic questions, contemptuous of good-faith questions, and shrill in all things. I hate it all."
Me too. Weary on both sides. The obvious are the die-hard anti-vaxxers, which are really not that many in my practice. But equally exhausting are the Covid fundamentalists, who see nothing but Covid risk everywhere all the time. There were all kinds of health risks before Covid and there are those same risks now. I can't stand to read MSM these days, which reads like propaganda. "Horse-Dewormer": no Ivermectin looks like it doesn't work for Covid, but it's a real treatment used for people for other conditions. One recent article calmly reported that the vaccines work better than natural immunity. I'm not sure where they got that data. There's this study that looks at risk of re-infection with Covid, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, not looking at natural vs acquired immunity.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm?s_cid=mm7032e1_w
So, yes, you can get Covid again after contracting it, but you can also get a breakthrough infection after being vaccinated. This past week, a patient who had Covid in July had an appt with me to ask about being vaccinated. His job is requiring it and his family was pushing him to get a note from me exempting him. I explained that data does show vaccination offers further protection from re-infection and that LA county wants everyone vaccinated regardless of prior infection. But, in reality, he could likely wait 6-9 months to get vaccinated. We could have checked antibody levels. I've ranted here before, but I feel squeezed sometimes between what public health/CDC is recommending and what the actual data shows. He wasn't really against getting vaccinated, more appeasing his family with the visit, so we let it be. I'm not sure what I would have said had he been more forceful about wanting to wait to get vaccinated.
That Obama comment reflects the type of person who thinks their politics are vastly more popular than then actually are.
I second how good The Red, The Brown, The Green is. I’ve been enjoying the slow reveal of the mystery of how the world came to be that way. I’m wondering if it’ll end in triumph or despair. I can see it going either way. Also liking the slow feed of serialization of a chapter or two a week. I look forward to checking my inbox on Thursdays.
I thought that was a portrait of Liz Bruenig at first
I promise I'll never be critical of Freddie again. Anyone who has had to endure Matt Nagy's playcalling does not deserve any more negativity in their life. I honestly think he may be the worst playcaller in the league. I sincerely hope the Bears bottom out and y'all can get someone better than Pace and Nagy.
That painting is so beautiful; had never seen it before nor heard of the artist.
Here is a more from her:
https://www.wikiart.org/en/zinaida-serebriakova/all-works#!#filterName:all-paintings-chronologically,resultType:masonry
So lovely.