9-14: Trump's indoor, mask-free Nevada rally: "Shameful, dangerous and irresponsible," says Governor

Leonetto Cappiello, 1903

✅Skelton: How politics and police unions stopped bills to hold bad cops accountable -- It wasn’t good government. But it was probably good politics. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/14/20

✅Warmer. Burning. Epidemic-challenged. Expensive. The California Dream has become the California Compromise -- California has become a warming, burning, epidemic-challenged and expensive state, with many who live in sophisticated cities, idyllic oceanfront towns and windblown mountain communities thinking hard about the viability of a place they have called home forever. For the first time in a decade, more people left California last year for other states than arrived. Heather Kelly, Reed Albergotti, Brady Dennis and Scott Wilson in the Washington Post$ --

 

✅Trump’s California visit to spotlight political divides over climate change, coronavirus -- Ahead of President Trump’s visit to wildfire-ravaged California on Monday, Democrats charged over the weekend that his disregard for basic science had contributed to the worsening annual conflagrations, as well as to the still-uncontrolled spread of COVID-19. Laura King in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/14/20

 

✅‘Shameful, dangerous and irresponsible’: Nevada governor lashes Trump for indoor rally against state rules -- Shortly before President Trump took the stage on Sunday night in Henderson, Nev., for his first indoor rally in months, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak blasted the president for flouting the state’s coronavirus restrictions by packing hundreds of supporters, many without masks, into a building. Timothy Bella in the Washington Post$ -- 9/14/20

Leonetto Cappiello, 1902

✅In Visiting California, Trump Confronts a Scientific Reality He Denies

—NYT

✅WHO official: Europe headed for surge in deaths in October, November

—WashPo

 

✅Duquesne Suspends Professor Who Used N-Word in Class

—Inside Higher Ed

     … In one of the videos, the professor, Gary Shank, says, “I’m giving you permission to use the word, OK? Because we’re using the word in a pedagogical sense. What’s the one word about race that we’re not allowed to use?”

     “I’ll give you a hint. It starts with ‘N.’ … It’s even hard to say, OK? But, I’ll tell you the word, and again, I’m not using it any way other than to demonstrate a point. Fair enough?”….

     [Did he "use" the word? He did not. See.]

 

✅Spring Planning Has Begun. Here’s What Colleges Are Thinking So Far.

—CHE

     Colleges that have announced spring plans are mostly sticking to their strategies from the fall, be they in person, remote, or hybrid.

Black at UC Berkeley. Plus: we're the weirdest people in the world

JOB rolling papers are a popular brand
of cigarette paper produced by Republic Tobacco
in Perpignan, France.

✅Black at UC Berkeley: Professor Tyrone Hayes on discrimination in academia -- In a nation where Black people make up fewer than 5% of full-time college and university professors, UC Berkeley biology professor Tyrone Hayes stands as an exception. But the road has been hard and even at Cal, with its long history at the center of social justice movements, he’s still fighting for equal treatment. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/20

 

✅Willie Brown: Six reasons Joe Biden is likely to win the election -- The polls are beginning to show a consistent trend that has Joe Biden waxing President Trump’s wig. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/20

 

✅150 million dead trees could fuel unprecedented firestorms in the Sierra Nevada

—LA Times

✅Why Are We in the West So Weird? A Theory
—NYT
     In a groundbreaking new book, “The WEIRDest People in the World,” an anthropologist argues that people from Western countries have a unique psychology

 

9-13: is the war against the plastics lobby "unwinnable"? Milton Friedman reconsidered. Cal lawmakers are asshats.

A grisette is a variety of beer originating 
from the mining regions along the border
of France and Belgium. The Gay Grisette 
is a musical comedy by George Dance
with music by Carl Kiefert, first staged in 1898

✅If California won't enact a plastic waste overhaul, will anyone?
—Politico
     SAN FRANCISCO — The plastic waste revolution died in the California Legislature this year.
     Environmentalists have pinned their hopes on the nation's most populous state ever since China rejected American recyclables two years ago, literally dropping the problem on the public's doorstep by forcing cities to raise garbage fees and ban more plastics from recycling bins.
     California's working solution: Transform the entire recycling chain by cracking down on America's love affair with single-use plastic materials that have reliably contained meals, snacks and beverages for decades.
     Such legislation would seem a slam dunk in California, where Democrats have unprecedented supermajority control of the Legislature and have long made the state a national leader on recycling and climate change. But intense lobbying from container manufacturers, retailers and the plastics industry — coupled with legislative mismanagement — doomed the proposal for the second straight year.
     If California can't solve plastic waste, who can?.... 

✅Plastic waste cuts probably headed to California ballot as advocates give up on Legislature -- After the California Legislature killed bills designed to combat plastic pollution for the second year in a row, environmentalists say they’ve concluded the fight might be unwinnable at the heavily lobbied state Capitol. Instead, they’ve resolved to take the battle to voters, with an initiative aimed at the 2022 ballot. Dustin Gardiner in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/20

✅Will This Be a Lost Year for America’s Children?

—NYT

     School in the United States is nowhere near normal this fall. Most students are not walking through schoolhouse doors, sitting at desks next to their classmates or meeting their new teachers face to face. They’re at home, trying to learn through screens. (This is even more likely to be the case if the students live in cities or suburbs.) If they’re lucky, they have a laptop or a tablet and a fast internet connection — the bare minimum that remote education requires. If not, they may be cut off from school through no fault of their own or of their families. According to the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a nonpartisan research group, students in high-poverty districts are the most likely to start the year with fully remote learning.

     The debate over what form school should take this fall foundered amid political division and uncertainty....

 

✅A Free Market Manifesto That Changed the World, Reconsidered

—NYT

     [On Milton Friedman’s libertarian economics; inspired “greed is good”]

✅Shinzo Abe Vowed Japan Would Help Women ‘Shine.’ They’re Still Waiting.

—NYT

     Women remain largely shut out of management jobs, and many take part-time work, deSpite policies that the prime minister said would elevate their standing in society.

 

✅The U.S. shows all the signs of a country spiraling toward political violence

By Rachel Kleinfeld

It’s not too late to bolster our democracy’s resilience and pull back from the brink.

—WashPo

      [N.B.]

From Rough&Tumble

 

Bourgeois was an absinthe brand during the
Belle Epoque

✅Neighborhood group wins round in suit with UC Berkeley over impact of rising student population -- The California Supreme Court is allowing a neighborhood group to sue UC Berkeley for allegedly failing to consider and reduce the local impacts of an enrollment increase of more than 8,000 since 2005. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/20

 

✅Trump to Visit California After Criticism Over Silence on Wildfires -- After weeks of public silence about the wildfires devastating the West Coast, President Trump scheduled a visit to California on Monday, where he will join local and federal fire and emergency officials for a briefing on the crisis. Annie Karni in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/20

 

✅‘Terrible role-modeling’: How California lawmakers flouted pandemic safety practices -- As the end-of-session frenzy gripped the state Legislature in late August, pandemic no-nos spiked: Lawmakers gathered indoors in large numbers and huddled closely, let their masks slip below their noses, smooshed together for photos and shouted “Aye!” and “No!” when voting in the Senate, potentially spraying virus-laden particles at their colleagues. Samantha Young, Rachel Bluth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/12/20

 

✅Trump visa restrictions add obstacle to California winery harvest season: no international interns -- Around this time every year, thousands of young winemakers-in-training from countries like Australia, Chile, South Africa and Italy descend on the Bay Area to participate in a long-standing, international wine industry tradition: the harvest internship. Esther Mobley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/12/20

✅Today's OC Covid numbers: 170 new cases; 0 new deaths.

9-12: It is you, you, you, oh yeee-aaah! An OC College has a Covid outbreak, but OC health officials won't say which. It took Trump 3 weeks to notice that the West is on fire.

Producer Chris Blackwell, 1972

✅OC Public Health Officials Won’t Say What OC College Has a Coronavirus Outbreak While Enforcement Questions Surface
—Voice of OC
     An Orange County college has now seen a coronavirus outbreak, but county public health officials won’t say which college or university it is, yet.
     “One college had 3 or more cases within a 2 week period of time,” said county Health Care Agency Medical Director Dr. David Nunez.
     Agency officials are mulling over naming the college.
     “An internal discussion is in process and we have not reached a determination at this time,” said agency spokesman Ed Mertz in a Friday email.
     In comparison, Los Angeles County lists all outbreaks at businesses and schools throughout the county.
     Nunez also said there hasn’t been an outbreak at elementary schools that have reopened classrooms under the state’s waiver process.
     Meanwhile, all Orange County schools could have the ability to reopen classrooms in a couple weeks, but it’s unclear who’s overseeing enforcement of the state coronavirus guidelines…. 

✅With California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change -- Standing among charred trees in Oroville, Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted that California will do more to fight climate change and took the Trump administration to task for its policies that reduce environmental protections. Taryn Luna in the Los Angeles Times$ Sophia Bollag and Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ Rachel Becker CalMatters Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicl$ Fiona Kelliher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/12/20

 

Kovilpatti is an industrial city and special
grade municipality in Thoothukudi
District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu

✅The West is on fire. It took Trump 3 weeks to mention it -- During that time, Trump tweeted, golfed, held news conferences and appeared at campaign rallies. He visited Louisiana in late August after Hurricane Laura killed 27 people, saying he wanted "to support the great people of Louisiana, it's been a tremendous state for me." Carla Marinucci Politico -- 9/12/20

 

✅Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19 -- The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals. Dan Diamond Politico -- 9/12/20

 

✅Here’s how Joe Biden would combat the pandemic if he wins the election -- Joe Biden has created a war-cabinet-in-waiting on the coronavirus pandemic, with major figures from the Obama, Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations drafting plans for distributing vaccines and personal protective gear, dramatically ramping up testing, reopening schools and addressing health-care disparities. Yasmeen Abutaleb and Laurie McGinley in the Washington Post$ -- 9/12/20

✅Toots Hibbert, a Father of Reggae, Is Dead at 77

—NYT

     The first to use the word reggae on a record, he sang in a soulful tone and wrote songs with subtle social commentary, helping bring the sounds of Jamaica to the world.

     Although Mr. Hibbert never attained the same level of global fame as Bob Marley, he was immensely popular in Jamaica and was adored by critics and fellow musicians for a body of work that helped establish some of reggae’s fundamentals....

9-11: Was the novel coronavirus on the loose in Los Angeles way back in December? Atlas slugged. Cal State online in Spring. The college crowd much prefers Biden

✅Biden Beats Trump in Higher Ed Contributions

—Inside Higher Ed

     Though the nation finds itself deeply divided, it’s clear whom employees at the nation’s higher education institutions are supporting financially in the presidential race.

     According to federal elections records, those who listed their employer as a college or university have given Democratic candidate Joe Biden about $4.9 million in contributions, more than five times as much as the $890,000, including donations from for-profit college executives, that they have given President Trump.

 

✅Mental Health Needs Rise With Pandemic

—Inside Higher Ed

     Several recent surveys of students suggest their mental well-being has been devastated by the pandemic’s social and economic consequences, as well as the continued uncertainty about their college education and postcollege careers. Still reeling from the emergency closures of campuses across the country during the spring semester and the sudden shifts to online instruction, students are now worried about the fall semester and whether campuses that reopened for in-person instruction can remain open as COVID-19 infections spread among students and panicked college administrators quickly shift gears and send students who'd recently arrived back home.

 

✅Cal State to Stay Virtual in Spring 2021

—Inside Higher Ed

     …All 23 campuses of the California State University system will continue to operate primarily with virtual instruction during the spring semester of 2021.  

     System officials announced the plans for the academic term beginning next January in an email to the university Wednesday….

 

Virudhunagar is a town and the admin-
istrative headquarters of the
Virudhunagar district in the Indian 
state of Tamil Nadu.

✅Slouching Toward Equity: The lonely task of the chief diversity officer
—CHE
     We will remember this summer.
     To remember it will hurt, because what we have gone through, what we are still going through, involves a lot of pain. It is that very pain that has pushed the summer of 2020 deep into the soft tissue of our collective memory, that has made it stick to the walls of unforgetting. As with any moment of great and terrible political possibility, though, how we will remember all this — as a turning point, good or bad, or as a squashed carcass on the highway of historical sameness — is up to us, all of us, and what we do now. And, if nothing else, the mass protests for racial justice have been a painfully clear message that something needs to be done....

 

From Rough&Tumble:

✅The coronavirus may have reached Los Angeles even before China announced its outbreak -- Was the novel coronavirus on the loose in Los Angeles way back in December, before the World Health Organization was even aware of an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China? A new analysis of medical records from UCLA hospitals and clinics suggests the answer might be yes. Karen Kaplan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/10/20

 

✅Fires, Blackouts and Toxic Air: This Is Climate Change in California -- Multiple mega fires burning more than three million acres. Millions of residents smothered in toxic air. Rolling blackouts and triple-digit heat waves. Climate change, in the words of one scientist, is smacking California in the face. Thomas Fuller and Christopher Flavelle in the New York Times$ -- 9/11/20

 

✅False Rumors That Activists Set Wildfires Exasperate Officials -- Officials dealing with catastrophic fires on the West Coast have had to counter social media rumors that the blazes were set by antifascist activists, publicly pleading that people verify information before sharing it. Despite their efforts, misinformation about the origin of the fires — which have killed at least 15 people and consumed millions of acres — continues to spread on Facebook and Twitter. Kate Conger, Davey Alba and Mike Baker in the New York Times$ -- 9/11/20

 

✅Fraud likely driving suspicious spike in unemployment claims -- California's unemployment agency acknowledged Thursday that a sharp spike in continued Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims — which more than doubled in just two weeks, according to new federal data — appears to be related to a spate of fraud plaguing the department. Katy Murphy Politico -- 9/11/20

Veluthur is a village in Thrissur district 
in the state of Kerala, India.

✅Scott Atlas, pandemic adviser to Trump, slammed by Stanford health experts -- Dozens of Stanford Medical School faculty members signed an open letter this week denouncing Dr. Scott Atlas — a former Stanford professor now serving as President Trump’s pandemic adviser — saying “many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science.” Michael Williams in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/11/20

 ✅California death toll tops 14,000, but new coronavirus cases continue to decline -- The cumulative death toll rose to 14,021, up by 31 from Wednesday, but overall the state has seen deaths flatten out and new reported cases trend downward. The seven-day average of new cases on Wednesday stood at 3,742, according to data compiled by The Times — the first time new cases dropped below 4,000 since June 21. Maura Dolan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/11/20

 

✅High numbers of Los Angeles patients complained about coughs as early as December, study says -- The number of patients complaining of coughs and respiratory illnesses surged at a sprawling Los Angeles medical system from late December through February, raising questions about whether the novel coronavirus was spreading earlier than thought, according to a study of electronic medical records. Ben Guarino in the Washington Post$ -- 9/11/20

Old IVC school cheer suggestions, c. 2005

About fifteen years ago, there was some (more) public grumbling about IVC's stupid mascot, the Laser, and so, us trouble-makers down at the Dissent club house got to jawin' about that. One club house denizen—with a sizable jaw—who can always be counted on to be seething with School Spirit—and who, at the time, practically lived down at the club house—was none other than Red Emma, and he suddenly handed me some ideas for IVC school cheers written badly on a crummy sheet of yellow paper that had brown spots. So I took those ideas and came up with these images. I like 'em.

Here, Red is alluding to the famous brouhaha over Trustee Fuentes' nixing the "Study abroad in Spain" program owing to the Spanish backing out of Bush's Squad of the Willing Dead, or whatever it was called. Fuentes was a total asshole about it, and I caught his pompous bloviating on video. We ran the footage over to the OC Reg, and, well, the rest is history. After that, Tom always made a point of looking right at me (typically during board meetings) and smiling. In my mind, he was saying, "Oh, you!"

I felt special.

P.S.:

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, when Saddleback was havin' one of its bouts of consternation over the "Gaucho," I recommended that they save some money and just add an "R" and, well, your problem's solved! Besides, what could be cooler than Graucho Marx?

I happened to come upon some other old junk:

My "aphid" suggestion was poorly received.

Here's another:

—This alludes to some trouble we were having with students a few years back. Suddenly, there'd be this thing that would happen: guys with horse heads were showin' up to class, glowerin' and whinnyin' and  generally menacing the student population. They'd sit against the wall in the back of the classroom and snort. 

I don't think we ever got to the bottom of it. 

9-10: San Diego still bans speech that is "anti-authority." Chau's doctorate is from a degree mill. OC Board of Ed loses big

✅Questions Continue to Swirl Around Orange County Health Director’s Qualifications
—Voice of OC
     Since Clayton Chau was first appointed as public health director for Orange County, there have been swirling questions about whether he’s qualified to be the top medical doctor protecting the health of the county’s 3 million residents during the coronavirus pandemic. Chau is overseeing the county’s billion-dollar Health Care Agency while also taking on the job duties of county health officer.
     Chau has drawn attention for pulling back the local mask order that his predecessor Dr. Nichole Quick put in place. Chau, who says he co-owned two Rockin’ Crawfish restaurants until 2012 or 2013, also has taken a more relaxed approach to restaurant enforcement than Quick, relying on an attorney opinion that officials are declining to release. All that attention on Chau recently drew Orange County residents to his resume, with many raising questions on Twitter about the Ph.D degree he lists from an online university that apparently shut down amid accusations of being a fraudulent degree mill….

✅California Supreme Court denies O.C. Board of Education petition to reopen campuses

—OC Reg

     The Orange County Board of Education’s bid to force California to re-open school campuses for in-person learning ended Wednesday when the California Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

     Board of Education President Ken Williams expressed disappointment with the ruling.

     “I am sorry that the state Supreme Court did not view that Governor Newsom has abused his emergency powers that are given to governors under a real healthcare crisis. Our families and children are suffering from not going to school.”….

 

✅Trump played down the pandemic, but voters may have figured that out already-- ...But unlike the “Access Hollywood” story [four years ago], most voters in battleground states [today] didn’t need to hear Trump’s duplicity — on tape — to make up their minds about his handling of the pandemic. They made up their minds months ago — and that’s why Trump trails in most battleground states.... Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/10/20

 

✅San Diego moves toward repeal of ‘seditious language’ ban police have used during protests -- Public outcry over San Diego’s century-old ban against speech that is anti-authority prompted a City Council committee to take a key first step Wednesday toward repealing the rule, which critics say violates free speech rights. David Garrick in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/10/20

 

✅SF State to lay off 131 staffers — but no faculty — after budget shortfall -- The COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to enrollment and budget challenges, led to the layoffs, school President Lynn Mahoney said in an email. She said the administration hopes to meet with staff unions to find ways to reduce the number of layoffs. No faculty members were laid off. Vanessa Arredondo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/10/20

 

✅Behind Woodward’s September surprise: White House aides saw a train wreck coming, then jumped aboard -- He offered lengthy meetings in the Oval Office and made phone calls at night from the White House — delivering Bob Woodward an unprecedented nine hours of access across 18 interviews.  Nancy Cook and Alex Thompson Politico -- 9/10/20

 

"What's with your peepers, chum?"

✅California’s rate of virus infections keeps falling -- Significantly fewer people are testing positive and being hospitalized for the coronavirus in California. But Gov. Gavin Newsom and his top health official said Tuesday they won’t speed up the deliberate process they established last month for reopening the state. Adam Beam Associated Press -- 9/9/20

 

✅Coronavirus cases hit 400 at San Diego State -- The number of San Diego State University students who tested positive or were considered probable for coronavirus infection hit 400 Tuesday as the region narrowly retained its current tier in the state’s new reopening hierarchy. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/9/20

 

✅Whistleblower: Homeland Security Leaders Downplayed Threats from Russia and White Supremacists -- The former head of the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence division has accused three senior leaders of warping the agency around President Trump’s rhetoric. Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Nicholas Fandos in the New York Times$ Zachary Basu Axios -- 9/9/20

 

✅More White Lies

—Inside Higher Ed

     Historian Jessica Krug, who last week admitted to being white and faking being Black for her entire career, resigned from her associate professorship at George Washington University, effective immediately, the institution announced Wednesday.

     But on the heels of her scandal comes another confession of racial fraud from a scholar. This time it’s a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison -- where Krug got her own Ph.D….

 

✅Education Department Finalizes Religious Freedom Rule

—Inside Higher Ed

     …But Dena Sher, associate vice president of public policy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the rule will prevent universities from keeping religious student groups from discriminating based on religion, race, sexual orientation and other factors.

     "This rule creates troubling exemptions for religious clubs at public colleges and universities, and the result is discrimination underwritten by tax dollars and tuition fees," Sher said….

✅Today's OC Covid numbers: 281 new cases; 4 new deaths