John Brown's Notes and Essays

New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials  By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, August 31, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EDT https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/31/herd-immunity-covid-19/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_virustrump-7am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans image (not from article) from https://abcnews.go.com/Health/herd-immunity-protect-us-covid-19/story?id=70801834    Excerpt:  It remains unclear how large a percentage of the population must become infected to achieve “herd immunity,” which is when enough people become immune to a disease that it slows its spread, even among those who have not been infected.  That can occur either through mass vaccination efforts, or when enough people in the population become infected with coronavirus and develop antibodies that protect them against future infection.  Estimates have ranged from 20 percent to 70 percent for how much of a population would need to be infected. So

Excerpt from:   Trump tweeted a video of his supporters attacking protesters: His press secretary said he didn’t watch it.  image from  https://scitechdaily.com/linguistic-analysis-without-twitter-donald-trump-would-not-be-in-the-white-house-today/   Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker, The New York Times; Scroll down link for entry :  https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/08/31/us/trump-vs-biden?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage#trump-tweeted-a-video-of-his-supporters-attacking-protesters-his-press-secretary-said-he-didnt-watch-it [A Trump] tweet was part of an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages unleashed by the president over the weekend, in which he embraced fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d’état against him.  image from  https://www.angieslist.com/articles/what-difference-between-regular-and-premium-gas.htm In a concentrated predawn burst

August 31, 2020 9:30 AM ET David Folkenflik, National Public Radio https://www.npr.org/2020/08/31/907764105/voice-of-america-journalists-new-ceo-endangers-reporters-harms-u-s-aims; original article contains links and a copy of "lettertoVOAdirector [sic]"      A group of veteran journalists for the Voice of America delivered a letter of protest Monday denouncing their parent agency's new CEO, Michael Pack, and alleging Pack's remarks in a recent interview prove he has a damaging agenda for the international broadcasters he oversees. Pack's comments and decisions "endanger the personal security of VOA reporters at home and abroad, as well as threatening to harm U.S. national security objectives," the letter to VOA Acting Director Elez Biberaj read.  The protest was triggered by Pack's interview with the conservative and pro-Trump website The Federalist but came after a long line of sweeping changes and purges at the federally funded networks overseen

Most of my colleagues crossed the U.S. border with barely a glance.  Why was I usually detained and harassed?  Tianna Spears looking out her apartment window.  | Jason LeCras for Politico Magazine  By TIANNA SPEARS 08/30/2020 07:00 AM EDT, Politico https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/30/black-us-diplomat-customs-border-protection-cbp-detained-harassed-325676 Tianna Spears worked as a Foreign Service Consular Adjudicator with the U.S. State Department from April 2018 to October 2019, including posts in Ciudad Juarez and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. On Nov. 19, 2018, I was driving from my home in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border to El Paso, Texas, when a Customs and Border Protection agent in his booth looked at my car, looked at me, and waved me to the left, through yellow poles separating the lanes, and into one of a half-dozen parking spaces off to the side. He told me to park under a roofed area and sit on a metal bench alongside my car.  I was a freshly minted

After Trump’s unconventional convention, there is danger for the former vice president all over the political landscape.  By Gail Collins and Bret Stephens, The New York Times, Aug. 31, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/opinion/joe-biden-trump-2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Ms. Collins and Mr. Stephens are Opinion columnists. They converse every week.  Excerpt:  Stephens: [T]he [Republican] convention helped Trump politically in a bunch of ways . It did what every demagogic party needs to do: create a far-enemy, China, and a near-enemy, the radical left. It painted Biden as an enabler of both. It gave voters something visceral to fear: a progressive mob coming for your suburb, your job and your right to speak your mind. It painted Trump as a straight shooter whose coarseness was courage and whose rudeness was honesty. It gave shy Trump voters moral cover with its long list of Black speakers. And it promised economic growth as opposed to moral resto

Confessions of a Tiger Couple Amy Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, captured from two different cameras at the same moment. Credit... Barbara Probst for The New York Tim es By  Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times,   Jan. 29, 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/magazine/confessions-of-a-tiger-couple.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article   *** See also the recent NYT article (Aug. 26, 2020 )  Yale Law Professor Is Suspended After Sexual Harassment Inquiry:  Jed Rubenfeld, a high-profile professor who helped students obtain sought-after clerkships, denied he had harassed anyone."  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/nyregion/jed-rubenfeld-yale.html One gray afternoon in November, on the eve of the Harvard-Yale football game, Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld were preparing for their postgame party. Furniture had been moved, vulnerable rugs had been rolled into corners. Their older daughter, Sophia, a junior at Harvard, had just called, and Chua returned to the l