Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.
— Yoda
“ Why Is This Age Worse…?”
In a stupor of grief and dread
have we not fingered the foulest wounds
and left them unhealed by our hands?
and the clustered housetops glitters in the sun,
but here Death is already chalking the doors with crosses,
and calling the ravens, and the ravens are flying in.
The New York Times – Kara Swisher: When the pandemic is over, we most certainly should fear the industry more than ever. “If power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, how can we best describe the kind of power Big Tech will wield when the coronavirus crisis is over? How about this: The tech giants could have all the power and absolutely none of the accountability — at least all the power that will truly matter. This is the conclusion that many are coming to as the post-pandemic future begins to come into focus. Wall Street sure is signaling that the power lies with tech companies, vaulting the stock of Amazon to close to $2,400 a share earlier this week, from $1,838 at the end of January. While the price fell on Friday to $2,286 a share, after Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, said he would spend future profits on the coronavirus response, that still gives the company a value of $1.14 trillion….”
This is fascinating: mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome have allowed scientists to track the spread of the virus around the world. Seattle/SF viruses came from China, but NYC's came mainly from Europe
Lawyer dressed as Grim Reaper stalks Florida beaches to protest reopening Independent
Harmoniously Denied: The Wider Implications of China’s Censorship on COVID-19
Washington Post – Managers turn to surveillance software, always-on webcams to ensure employees are (really) working from home – “Always-on webcams, virtual “water coolers,” constant monitoring: Is the tech industry’s new dream for remote work actually a nightmare?…In the weeks since social distancing lockdowns abruptly scattered the American workforce, businesses across the country have scrambled to find ways to keep their employees in line, packing their social calendars and tracking their productivity to ensure they’re telling the truth about working from home. Thousands of companies now use monitoring software to record employees’ Web browsing and active work hours, dispatching the kinds of tools built for corporate offices into workers’ phones, computers and homes. But they have also sought to watch over the workers themselves, mandating always-on webcam rules, scheduling thrice-daily check-ins and inundating workers with not-so-optional company happy hours, game nights and lunchtime chats…
Nearly half the U.S. labor force is now working from home, according to a study by MIT researchers in April. And many employees are probably working longer and more sporadic hours than ever before:NordVPN Teams, which runs virtual private networks for businesses,said in March it had seen working time in the United States climb from eight to 11 hours a day since the stay-at-home orders began…”
Dear Professors —It’s been a minute, right? A few months ago, you were talking smack about my year in a cabin. Now you’re trapped in your condo in Yonkers or the backside of Amherst or wherever, and you’d trade it in a heartbeat for 150 square feet and a whole forest full of owls and frogs and shit.Don’t play dumb, bruh. You’ve spent most of your short career trash talking me. Every damn fall, you tell your first-year Am Lit seminar that I’m completely full of shit. You stand there in your goddamned tweed jacket with the suede elbow patches, and tell the kids how my experiment in self-reliance was all just a sham. Then you angle your head just so, and say something snarky about “performative solitude” or “cabin porn.” And for the coup de grâce, you proclaim that I was never really alone at Walden Pond, because I had regular visitors.Bitch, I disclosed my visitors — I wrote a whole damned chapter called “Visitors.” Can’t blame me if some debutante from Darien didn’t read it. And who’s entertaining visitors now? Not your quarantined ass.So sue me if my social distancing included regular visits from a Canadian woodchopper and multiple half-witted men from the almshouse. You, my friend, are leading a life of quiet desperation, where your only contact outside of Zoom is a fast-food delivery guy who you pay by app.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—Tax Relief for Individuals and Businesses Updated April 28, 2020: “The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—Tax Relief Congressional Research Service 1ongress has considered a number of proposals that seek to mitigate the economic effects of the Coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, pandemic. One such proposal, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136), was signed into law on March 27, 2020…This report briefly summarizes the major individual and business tax provisions of the CARES Act, as enacted. Links to CRS resources that offer additional information are provided. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that the individual and business tax provisions in the CARES Act would reduce federal tax revenue by $543.4 billion over the 10-year FY2020 through FY2030 budget window. The JCT also prepared a technical explanation of the provisions…”
FELLOW TRAVELERS, USEFUL IDIOTS, OR WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE PRC — YOU MAKE THE CALL! The Atlantic Favors the Chinese Communist Party’s Approach to Free Speech.
Naturally, Dem Party hacks see this level of colossal failure and think: "Draft Cuomo!"https://twitter.com/ChaseMadar/status/1255508017912655874 …
YouTube Used To Be About User Content. No Longer
Harvard University: “Our bipartisan group of experts in economics, public health, technology, and ethics from across the country, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, has released the nation’s first comprehensive operational roadmap for mobilizing and reopening the U.S. economy in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. “Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience: Massive Scale Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation (TTSI) as the Path to Pandemic Resilience for a Free Society,” lays out how a massive scale-up of testing, paired with contact tracing and supported isolation, can rebuild trust in our personal safety and re-mobilize the U.S. economy.
Among the report’s top recommendations is the need to deliver at least 5 million tests per day by early June to help ensure a safe social opening. This number will need to increase to 20 million tests per day by mid-summer to fully re-mobilize the economy…”
Watch Workers 1000 Feet Up Building The Chrysler Building
Typically when this country goes through tragedy or hardship, it bands together. Think back to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and how the United States pulled together. We’ve also seen examples of solidarity and support after natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the Houston floods caused by Hurricane Harvey or any of the annual tornado outbreaks that devastate towns in the Midwest and South. In troubled times, Americans tend to push in the same direction.
In a word: no
A media criticism from a media critic
President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Staying on the story
NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reporting on the “County to County” election project. (Courtesy: NBC Universal)