The story of a young mother in a coma battling COVID-19 after giving birth — and the schoolteacher who stepped in to care for the newborn. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Director Oscar Guerra chronicles a 30-year-old mother named Zully and her fight to survive COVID and see her newborn baby, after giving birth on a ventilator and spending nearly three weeks in a coma — as her husband, Marvin, and older son, Junior, battled the virus as well. The film tells the story of how, in the Guatemalan immigrant family’s moment of crisis, their community in Stamford, CT, stepped in to help — including Junior’s ESL teacher, Luciana Lira, who took the newborn into her home while Zully, Marvin and Junior recovered.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 8.12.20
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. 
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of eighty-five. Sunrise is 5:59 AM and sunset 7:59 PM, for 14h 00m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1939, the Wizard of Oz has its world premiere — in Oconomowoc.
Recommended for reading in full —
Rabbi Jack Moline writes Trump says Biden will ‘hurt God,’ but such 2020 posturing really hurts religious Americans:
The pastors and parishioners who accept Trump’s casual relationship with the truth and with the righteous life they preach are coming up on a test. Come November, will they, like the object of their admiration, replace faith with partisanship. Do their allegiances lie with God or with Trump? Now is the time to stand up and say to him, “Mr. President, we accept your choice to play golf on Sunday morning and behave in uncharitable ways toward others, but we cannot accept your denigration of the Bible itself and Almighty God.” The very suggestion that any human being can damage Scripture and wound God is, to the faithful, blasphemous.
Perhaps that was not what Trump was implying when he said Biden “is going to do things that nobody ever would ever think even possible because he’s following the radical left agenda.” But for years, we have watched the president denigrate the faith of his rivals, demonstrate an abysmal knowledge of the Bible and use a photo op in front of a church as an excuse for violence. This latest attack on Biden suggests Trump is not a man of faith, nor is he a man of decency. But what about his supporters?
Michael Gerson reports Trump’s seeming indifference to Russian influence is part of his moral incapacity:
Trump’s deeper incapacity is moral. Rather than judging his own actions against the standards of a creed or ideology, Trump finds his ethical inspiration in the mirror. Those who support him are fundamentally good; those who resist him are stupid, malicious and evil. A general or Cabinet secretary who bows and scrapes is the best at his or her job in human history. Those who contradict him are overrated and “dumb as a rock.” People carrying Confederate battle flags along with Trump signs can’t be all bad. Democrats who politically oppose him and media figures who challenge him are traitors or enemies of the people.
For Trump, egotism even takes precedence over nationalism. In his ambitious revision of political ethics, foreign dictators who support his reelection (and imprison their own opponents) are friends and models. Even if they sow discord and chaos in U.S. democracy. Even if they set out to humiliate the country. Even if they offer bounties for killing U.S. troops.
Amanda Carpenter writes Trump Has a Pen and a Phone:
After riffing on “Sleepy Joe Biden,” hyping unproven allegations of voter fraud, and bragging about his still unbuilt border wall, Trump announced a series of executive orders. He said he would bypass Congress to defer payroll taxes through the end of the year, provide $400-per-week unemployment benefits, suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year, and stop renters from being evicted from their homes.
Will these orders actually be implemented? Who can say.
They are likely to be challenged in court because only Congress can authorize spending. This is a tenet of Constitutional Conservatism that you may have heard some Republican here or there mention in the times before Trump.
Can These Companies Solve The Plastic Waste Problem?:
more >>Biden-Harris, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Presidential race 2020
Kamala
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Presidential race 2020
Sen. Kamala D. Harris Becomes Joe Biden’s Running Mate
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Difficult to overstate what a good selection Kamala Harris is – this is a choice both sound and happy. Readers know that I supported Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president. Like so many others – millions upon millions of us across this continent – I am committed to the defeat of Trump and Trumpism.
Biden and Harris represent, however, more than Trump’s defeat – they represent America’s best hope for a renaissance of the American liberal democratic tradition.
Coronavirus, Education, Public Health, School District
Whitewater School Board Meeting, 8.10.20: 9 Points
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
At last night’s meeting of the Whitewater Unified School District’s board, the board heard presentations from a consulting epidemiologist and also a former Jefferson County school administrator who now works with Jefferson County. After comment & discussion, the board voted 6-1 to extend the September 1-11 teaching format through 9.25, with the present expectation of face-to-face instruction to begin 9.28.20. The board will decide whether to proceed with that face-to-face format after reviewing epidemiological measurements (among other information it chooses) at a 9.14.20 meeting. In a separate vote, the board adopted a mask requirement or a face shield requirement as an alternative for those who cannot wear a mask.
A few remarks —
1. A Conversational Format Gone Bad. Over these years, I’ve watched countless board meetings, whether or not commenting afterward. This board is, toward each other, mostly conversational in the way one might find at the dinner table of a slightly dysfunctional family with one-too-many moments of disagreement or interruption. (Candidly, the charm of back and forth at a family table comes from the wit and joy of those gathered in conversation; there’s nothing like that in these board discussions. A family that allowed interruptions, shouting, and serial digressions would be a recommendation only for the single life.)
In times of low community notice, that somewhat informal style doesn’t make much difference (if the board members want to slog through this way, so be it). For serious topics, the amount of back-and-forth, on side issues & secondary concerns, must seem oddly jarring to those accustomed to a better order and clarity of discussion. Debating possible alternatives only works if all participants have a clear – to themselves and others – sense of what they want. Some members of this board do have, and do convey, that clear sense; others don’t. This lack of clarity makes efforts at creative, in-the-moment solutions look more like confusion and delay (to borrow from Sir Topham Hat).
2. Jurisdictional Issues. An extended discussion of jurisdictional authority while looking for language on a mask ordinance for the district is time wasted. Indulging fixations comes at the expense of intelligible discussion. Allowing a member to shout his concerns (even when at moments he admits he should stop but won’t) is a failure of good order.
3. Robert’s Rules. A concern over procedure – however much one perseverates over it during a meeting – matters less than addressing more substantial matters. There is, it’s true, something known as substantive procedure, but that emphasis on a rights-oriented procedure means much more than anything in Robert’s Rules. This (like Point 2, above) all comes down to forest, trees, and not seeing the difference.
4. Epidemology and Diligence. I’ll offer no claims of my own about the path of this novel coronavirus, as I’ll sensibly avoid the fate of the Biggest Fool in America. How Whitewater fares in this – in sickness or fatality – I cannot and will not predict. It is notable, however, that very few communities in Wisconsin have relied on contracted epidemiologists (as this district has) to make their decisions. There’s a dislike of expertise in our area, as though anyone can easily assess any question. Some questions are, however, less inviting. Perhaps the assessments offered professionally will prove erroneous, as there’s risk in any human assessment. It’s delusional (and proud), however, to assume technical fields have no incremental value or can be entered easily.
5. Old Whitewater’s Sham Values. Old Whitewater – a state of mind – is mostly a perspective with a metaphorically narrow perimeter fence and an honor-shame culture. That culture looks to only a few people out of a city of thousands, and runs on praise for some and scorn for others. It’s a crude outlook that mistakes self-promotion and praise for true virtue. It’s slowly fading way, but there’s life yet in it, and it’s easy to slip into this view.
When a board member worries about how the board’s actions will seem in an online publication, she places greater importance on someone else’s words than her own actions and her own defense of them. It’s a mistaken view, to care more about another’s depiction than of her own work.
If someone from the government, pretending to be a reporter, comes along and writes If You’re Confused About the School District’s Reopening Plan, You’re Not Alone, it’s not a cause for concern but for a simple, detached, and dispassionate reply (point 1, point 2, point 3, etc.).
Whitewater is a small city, and now a factionalized one. In all of it, there’s no one to whom someone couldn’t respond suitably in one’s own defense. Even if Whitewater were a much larger place, there’d still be no concern: most people are sharp, and can handle themselves well in advocacy and their own defense if only they’d try. There are – thankfully – no titans in this city. No one on this board lacks an ability to respond.
6. Government v. Government. I’ve no interest in defending one part of the government (the district, of whom I have been sometimes critical in the past) against others. Like the ACLU (of which I am a member), the one representation I’ll never undertake is of the government. Yet, as this is true, I’ll also not believe that a politician’s role as sham private reporter on public affairs is anything but laughable.
It’s a sign of cultural decline that Whitewater carries on this way.
7. The New Administration. It’s been only about six weeks, during a tumultuous time, but Whitewater’s new district administrator shows two traits over these several weeks: she values sympathy or empathy as an approach, and she’s more data driven than past leaders in the area. It’s much too soon to say how this will develop, but it’s not typical for Whitewater. Old Whitewater’s culture emphasizes neither empathy nor sympathy, and very little work here is data-driven by reference to genuine experts. (Whitewater’s common council, for example, adopted a mask ordinance with far less reliance on particular expertise than the district has done here. I supported the mask ordinance, but this common council put out no data before its meeting. They showed characteristically weak preparatory effort. For the most part, claims here – especially on the economic development side – are simply flowery press releases.)
8. Discombobulated. So it’s easy to get discombobulated in this environment. What date did you say? Did you mean September 25, 27th, 28th, or 30th? These are mostly small matters, and easily corrected. (Too funny: some of the same officials who would take umbrage at any suggestion that they made a mistake scrutinize the work of others for a mispoken reference here or there.)
There are sometimes tell-tale words and phrases people use that point to deeper issues, but references to dates would usually not be among them.
9. Conditions in the Fall. Again and again: Conditions among people, not speculation now, will decide whether any given course was sensible. It’s stressful during this time (in many ways), but this time will give way to the late fall. In a few months, we’ll know what was the right course.
Previously: Whitewater Schools’ Community Focus Group, 7.8.20, The Whitewater Unified School District’s Proposed Fall Instructional Plans, The Whitewater School Board’s Decision on Early Fall Instruction: 4 Points, and Whitewater School Board Meeting, 8.3.20: 6 Points.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 8.11.20
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:58 AM and sunset 8:01 PM, for 14h 02m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 52.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1919, the Green Bay Packers professional football team is founded.
Recommended for reading in full —
Drs. Joshua Budhu, Méabh O’Hare, and Altaf Saadi write How “excited delirium” is misused to justify police brutality:
“I am concerned about excited delirium or whatever.” These were the words spoken by a fellow police officer as Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for the final eight minutes of his life. This concern for “excited delirium” may now become part of the case for the defense in the upcoming trial for the murder of George Floyd, as it has for other Black men before him. Just three months shy of Floyd’s murder, officers in Tacoma, Washington had suggested “excited delirium” as the cause of death in the case of another unarmed Black male, Manuel Ellis. And last year in Aurora, Colorado, paramedics injected Elijah McClain with ketamine, for “exhibiting signs of excited delirium”. McClain later died of cardiac arrest after the injection.
Law enforcement officers nationwide are routinely taught that “excited delirium” is a condition characterized by the abrupt onset of aggression and distress, typically in the setting of illicit substance use, often culminating in sudden death. However,?this “diagnosis” is not recognized by the vast majority of medical professionals. In fact, “excited delirium” is not recognized by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, or the World Health Organization, and it is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
The diagnosis is a misappropriation of medical terminology, used by law enforcement to legitimize police brutality and to retroactively explain certain deaths occurring in police custody. There is no systematic or publicly available data about how this diagnosis is used in relation to deaths in police custody. The limited data available involves small samples in certain states only: In one Maryland-based study, excited delirium was invoked in 11 percent of deaths in police custody and in another Florida-based study, 53 deaths in police custody were attributed to this entity over the past decade.
Ari Sen and Brandy Zadrozny report QAnon groups have millions of members on Facebook, documents show:
An internal investigation by Facebook has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers, that support the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to internal company documents reviewed by NBC News.
The investigation’s preliminary results, which were provided to NBC News by a Facebook employee, shed new light on the scope of activity and content from the QAnon community on Facebook, a scale previously undisclosed by Facebook and unreported by the news media, because most of the groups are private.
The top 10 groups identified in the investigation collectively contain more than 1 million members, with totals from more top groups and pages pushing the number of members and followers past 3 million. It is not clear how much overlap there is among the groups.
….
The company is considering an option similar to its handling of anti-vaccination content, which is to reject advertising and exclude QAnon groups and pages from search results and recommendations, an action that would reduce the community’s visibility.
Perseid meteors captured by NASA all-sky cameras:
more >>Trump, Trump-Russia
Puppet
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Coronavirus, Economy
The Pandemic Economy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Economists Carmen Reinhart and Vincent Reinhart write in Foreign Affairs that we’re in The Pandemic Depression:
Although dubbed a “global financial crisis,” the downturn that began in 2008 was largely a banking crisis in 11 advanced economies. Supported by double-digit growth in China, high commodity prices, and lean balance sheets, emerging markets proved quite resilient to the turmoil of the last global crisis. The current economic slowdown is different. The shared nature of this shock—the novel coronavirus does not respect national borders—has put a larger proportion of the global community in recession than at any other time since the Great Depression. As a result, the recovery will not be as robust or rapid as the downturn. And ultimately, the fiscal and monetary policies used to combat the contraction will mitigate, rather than eliminate, the economic losses, leaving an extended stretch of time before the global economy claws back to where it was at the start of 2020.
The pandemic has created a massive economic contraction that will be followed by a financial crisis in many parts of the globe, as nonperforming corporate loans accumulate alongside bankruptcies. Sovereign defaults in the developing world are also poised to spike. This crisis will follow a path similar to the one the last crisis took, except worse, commensurate with the scale and scope of the collapse in global economic activity. And the crisis will hit lower-income households and countries harder than their wealthier counterparts. Indeed, the World Bank estimates that as many as 60 million people globally will be pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic. The global economy can be expected to run differently as a result, as balance sheets in many countries slip deeper into the red and the once inexorable march of globalization grinds to a halt.
….
In its most recent analysis, the World Bank predicted that the global economy will shrink by 5.2 percent in 2020. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently posted the worst monthly unemployment figures in the 72 years for which the agency has data on record. Most analyses project that the U.S. unemployment rate will remain near the double-digit mark through the middle of next year. And the Bank of England has warned that this year the United Kingdom will face its steepest decline in output since 1706. This situation is so dire that it deserves to be called a “depression”—a pandemic depression. Unfortunately, the memory of the Great Depression has prevented economists and others from using that word, as the downturn of the 1930s was wrenching in both its depth and its length in a manner not likely to be repeated. But the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were filled with depressions. It seems disrespectful to the many losing their jobs and shutting their businesses to use a lesser term to describe this affliction.
One can leave it to economists to decide – and for society to adopt as a common expression – whether this period of economic loss is worthy of the term depression. It’s enough to note that hopes of a quick rebound – a v-shaped recovery – have proved unrealistic. If America could have prevented worse by slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus across this continent, then one can at least say that she has not done so.
The re-opening debate, however fraught, assumes there was ever a thorough closing. If where America is now assumes a proper closing, then the term proper closing has no serious meaning.
Music
Monday Music: Laraaji, This Too Shall Pass
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 8.10.20
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of eighty-three. Sunrise is 5:57 AM and sunset 8:02 PM, for 14h 05m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 61.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Through audiovisual conferencing, the Whitewater United School District board meets at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Planning Commission also at 6 PM.
On this day in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000.
Recommended for reading in full —
Jonathan V. Last writes of Identity Politics Conservatism:
The other view—let’s call it Identity Politics Conservatism until we come up with something better—is largely agnostic on questions of policy. Do these people want tariffs, or free trade? Do they hate socialism, or do they want the government picking winners and losers according to the national interest? Are they pro-life, or are the deaths of 160,000 people just something that “is what it is”?
The Identity Politics Conservatism theory would say that these people don’t care a whit about the policies—they care about who is doing the policymaking. Like old-guard Leninists, their primary concern is: Who? Whom?
In case you’re too young for Lenin, when you go from his original Russian….his bon mot translates as “Who will overtake whom?” And in practice, this was more precisely carried out as “Who will obliterate whom?”
The logic of Identity Politics Conservatism suggests that all of this think tanking and speechifying is—at best—tertiary to what these voters care about. They do not want a new strategy for bringing tech giants to heel.
They want Lafayette Park.
Niall McCarthy reports A Third of Americans Unwilling to Get Covid-19 Vaccine:
That’s according to a Gallup poll conducted between July 20 and August 02 which found that more than a third of American adults, 35%, would avoid such a vaccine.
A partisan gulf in attitudes was one of the most eye-catching results of the research with 81% of Democrats saying they would be willing to get an FDA approved vaccine while 19% said they would not. A 53% majority of Republicans on the other hand would refuse to take a vaccine while 47% would be willing to take it.
Broken down by age, 76% of younger adults aged between 18 and 29 would be willing to take a vaccine, along with 70% of senior citizens with reluctance highest among middle-aged Americans. The high level of willingness among over 65s is likely due to that age-group experiencing the most serious risk of complications and a higher chance of death due to Covid-19.
BBC News reports Violent protests in Belarus as President Lukashenko claims “landslide” election victory:
How Thread Became Critical in a Pandemic:
more >>Animals, Good Ideas
The Good People Protecting Animals
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 8.9.20
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-seven. Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset 8:04 PM, for 14h 07m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1974, Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.
Recommended for reading in full —
William H. Frey writes Trump’s new plan to hijack the census will imperil America’s future:
Despite initial support from Trump and the House of Representatives, the Census Bureau—apparently under pressure from the White House—has abruptly shortened its timeline. On August 3, the Bureau announced its intention to end all follow-up activities by September 30 and report the results to the president by December 31. This move has been criticized by many experts, including four former Census Bureau directors who served under Republican and Democratic presidents. It also contradicts past statements by Bureau personnel that emphasized the impossibility of completing the census with enough time to report results to the president by the end of 2020.
The now-rushed end date—reportedly to accommodate Trump’s insistence to have reapportionment numbers while he is still in office—places a huge burden on the Bureau’s staff. This involves effectively enumerating hard-to-count populations who have not responded to earlier requests, those who have moved during the pandemic, the homeless, residents of dormitories, rural residents, and Native American reservations that have always taken extra efforts to reach. The New York Times estimates that during this period, 60 million households will need to be contacted, in comparison to 47 million at this stage of the 2010 census.
Racial minorities are a large part of this hard-to-count population, and they will likely be undercounted even worse than in earlier censuses if Trump’s directives remain. These include Latino or Hispanic, Black, American Indian, and Asian American populations. If previous censuses are a guide, members of these groups who are low-income, renters, small children, young adults, or foreign-born will be particularly hard to reach. Moreover, given the time crunch, the Census Bureau may be forced to statistically estimate (to a far larger degree than in earlier censuses) information for households that cannot be contacted. This process can lead to even greater undercounts of racial minorities compared to whites.
Adam Kilgore reports Health experts worry coronavirus could cause lasting heart complications for athletes:
(Mayo Clinic researcher Jay) Schneider is one of many cardiovascular experts concerned about the nascent, growing body of evidence about how covid-19 affects the heart. The studies have not focused on athletes, but their findings have implications for the sports world. Research raises the possibility that athletes who recover from covid-19 may face dire or lasting heart complications, and medical experts have urged cardiac screening for athletes returning to play after contracting the virus. Two high-level athletes — including the projected Opening Day starter for the Boston Red Sox — have reported heart issues in the wake of recovery from covid-19.
Many questions remain unanswered, and they are coming at a pivotal time. Scores of NFL and college football players have opted out of competing this year, owing to concerns regarding covid-19. Thousands of high school, college and professional athletes are returning to play, and inevitably some will contract the virus. Guarding against the possible effects the disease has on the heart will be crucial, and maybe even lifesaving.
Infectious-disease and cardiovascular experts do not have enough data to make conclusions about how covid-19 might affect an athlete’s heart, and even recent studies of other populations require further validation. But what they have seen has alarmed them.
“We have very strong, serious concerns about the potential for covid to affect athletes cardiovascularly,” said Michael Emery, co-director of the sports cardiology department at the Cleveland Clinic. “When you look at covid in general, there seems to be a higher predilection for involvement with the heart than about any other virus we’ve seen.”
The novel coronavirus is a master of disguise: Here’s how it works:
more >>Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 8.8.20
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 5:55 AM and sunset 8:05 PM, for 14h 10m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1974, Pres.Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the presidency effective noon the next day.
Recommended for reading in full —
Laurence Tribe, Jennifer Taub, and Joshua Geltzer write Trump Has Launched a Three-Pronged Attack on the Election:
We can see glimmers of Trump’s approach in what he said about Florida’s tight 2018 gubernatorial and Senate races, and he’ll say it again to delegitimize the counting of mail-in ballots that might cost him reelection. We’ve received a frightening preview in the Census Bureau’s recent announcementthat it plans to cut off population-counting efforts one month early, well before needed to meet the December 31 deadline for delivering census results to Congress.. This decision was made after the Trump administration itself had asked for more time, not less. It’s the same play: When Trump doesn’t like the numbers coming in, he stops counting.
Halting vote-counting after Election Day requires Trump to stage a three-pronged attack: slowing mail delivery, then urging Republican state legislatures to deem Election Day “failed” because of the many uncounted votes, and finally denouncing as illegitimate all vote-counting that continues after Election Day—even as slowly delivered mail-in ballots keep arriving. Leading the first step is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s reportedly shutting down post offices and slowing mail delivery under the guise of cost-cutting. Employees say that piles upon piles of letters and packages remain undelivered, stranded for weeks on end. These efforts undermine public confidence in the Postal Service and threaten to slow the distribution of blank ballots to voters and the return of completed ballots to state officials—with a likely disproportionate effect on Democratic-leaning urban voters, for whom the coronavirus’s circulation in cities makes mail-in voting particularly appealing. The likely surge in mail-in ballots that the pandemic will encourage suggests that tallying the election results won’t be completed on November 3 but will take days, possibly weeks, to complete accurately.
Missy Ryan and Paul Sonne report As Trump demurs, an unimaginable question forms: Could the president reach for the military in a disputed election?:
As the election approaches, the president has once again declined to say he would accept its results. “I have to see,” he said during a Fox News interview this month [in July]. “I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no. And I didn’t last time either.”
The president has warned for months that mail-in voting — expected to be used more widely than ever due to the coronavirus pandemic — or potential foreign interference in Democrats’ favor could yield widespread fraud and a “rigged” election, comments his critics worry are laying the groundwork in case he decides to dispute the result. The remarks take on new meaning as former vice president Joe Biden, his presumptive Democratic challenger, assumes a commanding lead in polls.
Scholars cautioned that they are not suggesting that the military would proactively seek to influence the vote, but rather that Pentagon leaders could be forced in a disputed election to become involved in a way that would appear partisan, similar to what occurred in the nation’s capital in the wake of protests in June.
Philip Bump examines Trump’s dishonest rhetoric about mail-in voting:
A Melting glacier — Ice chunk shows signs of breaking away in Italy:
more >>Cats, Coronavirus
Friday Catblogging: A Cat Cafe During the Pandemic
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embedded above is a video about the Neko Cat Cafe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The pandemic’s led to changes at the establishment. Gabe Gurarante writes The Cats at Capitol Hill’s Temporarily Closed Neko Cafe Basically Run the Place Now:
Even though Capitol Hill’s cat cafe Neko has been temporarily closed for months due to the pandemic, the furry residents are hanging out there. Co-founder Caitlin Unsell says most of the cats were adopted when all restaurants, bars, and coffee shops were closed for indoor service in the spring, but those that were put in foster care have now returned to the cafe.
The cats receive visits from caretakers who feed and give them love, but for the most part, they are left to their own devices, as the cafe starts planning to reopen for humans within the next few weeks. (Despite rumors a few weeks ago that there was some property damage during area protests, the space is all intact.) Neko’s second location, up in Bellingham, is currently open to the public, with reduced occupancy, social distancing, and other COVID-19 guidelines in place.