Author: danelabonte

The Republican Choice

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-07-03

How a party spent decades making itself white

“At key moments in history, Republicans considered greater outreach to minority voters but ultimately didn’t take that path.”

“The GOP’s whitewashed political reality is no accident — the party has repeatedly chosen to pursue white voters at the cost of others decade after decade. Since the mid-20th century, the Republican Party has flirted with both the morality of greater racial inclusion and its strategic benefits. But time and again, the party’s appeals to white voters have overridden voices calling for a more racially diverse coalition, and Republicans’ relative indifference to the interests of voters of color evolved into outright antagonism.”

Listen to the podcast here:

(https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/politics-podcast-how-the-gop-chose-to-be-a-white-party)

And read the article here:

(https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-republican-choice)

Humanity Tech

Digital malls

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-07-03

Take retail as an industry. Physical retailers pay rent for good locations, expecting footfall to come their way. That rent payment is actually part of their customer acquisition cost.
In the digital world businesses don’t pay rent in the traditional sense, but customer acquisition still isn’t free. Getting your products in front of the right people online is essentially paying temporary rent – and Facebook, Instagram & Google have the biggest malls in town.

(https://www.chartr.co/newsletters/2020/7/3/keeping-up-with-the-kardashians)

Current Events

Florida confirms nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases in a single day, a new record

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-06-26

**Line of cars waiting for coronavirus tests in Miami Beach, Florida**

(https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article243817017.html)

Current Events

Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak, an internal report found

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-06-19

“The theft of top-secret computer hacking tools from the CIA in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agency’s elite computer hackers “prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems,” according to an internal report prepared for then-director Mike Pompeo as well as his deputy, Gina Haspel, now the director.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/elite-cia-unit-that-developed-hacking-tools-failed-to-secure-its-own-systems-allowing-massive-leak-an-internal-report-found/2020/06/15/502e3456-ae9d-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html)

Current Events

Donald Trump, the Most Unmanly President

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-26

“Why do working-class white men—the most reliable component of Donald Trump’s base—support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?”

“the question is why so many of Trump’s working-class white male voters refuse to hold Trump to their own standards of masculinity—why they support a man who behaves more like a little boy.”

“Is Trump a man your father and grandfather would have respected?”

“Trump behaves in ways that many working-class men would ridicule: “He wears bronzer, loves gold and gossip, is obsessed with his physical appearance, whines constantly, can’t control his emotions, watches daytime television, enjoys parades and interior decorating, and used to sell perfume.”

“Trump’s lack of masculinity is about maturity. He is not manly because he is not a man. He is a boy.”

“Trump is a hero to a culture in which so many men are already trapped in perpetual adolescence. And especially for men who feel like life might have passed them by, whose fondest memories are rooted somewhere in their own personal Wonder Years from elementary school until high-school graduation, Trump is a walking permission slip to shrug off the responsibilities of manhood.”

“so many of the men who support Trump have morphed into childish caricatures of themselves. They, too, are little boys, playing at being tough but crying about their victimization at the hands of liberal elites if they are subjected to criticism of any kind.”

(https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/donald-trump-the-most-unmanly-president/612031/)

Current Events

Trump stopped taking hydroxychloroquine one day before WHO stopped trials due to significantly higher risk of death

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-26

Monday, May 18, 2020:

“Trump Says He’s Taking Hydroxychloroquine, Prompting Warning From Health Experts”
“His announcement drew immediate criticism from a range of medical experts, who warned not just of the dangers it posed for the president’s health but also of the example it set.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/us/politics/trump-hydroxychloroquine-covid-coronavirus.html)

Tuesday, May 19, 2020:

“FDA appears to soften stance on hydroxychloroquine after Trump says he takes malaria drug”
“However, in a warning issued last month, the FDA advised consumers against taking drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial due to the risk of “serious heart rhythm problems.”

(https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/fda-appears-to-soften-stance-on-hydroxychloroquine-after-trump-says-he-takes-malaria-drug.html)

Sunday, May 24, 2020:

“Trump said he has finished taking his regimen of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug he has promoted as a treatment for the coronavirus despite warnings from his own U.S. Food and Drug Administration and medical professionals about its effectiveness and potentially dangerous side effects.”
“Finished, just finished,” Trump said in an interview … which aired Sunday.”

(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/24/coronavirus-trump-says-he-finished-taking-hydroxychloroquine/5253492002/)

Monday, May 25, 2020:

“WHO pauses trial of hydroxychloroquine, once touted by Trump as a ‘game changer,’ over safety concerns”
“For months, President Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for covid-19, calling the antimalarial drug a “game changer”; asking patients, “What do you have to lose?” — and even announcing that he was taking the drug in an attempt to ward off the novel coronavirus.”
“On Monday, however, the World Health Organization announced it had temporarily halted its global trial of the drug, citing a new study that found a significantly higher risk of death among those taking hydroxychloroquine or the closely related drug chloroquine.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/26/hydroxychloroquine-who-trump-study/)

Music

RIP Little Richard

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-09

As a little kid

In clubs and on TV

In concert

And even recently

(https://www.theguardian.com/…/little-richard-dies-aged-83-r…)

Instagram

If 2020 was a bag of chips

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-09

Current Events

Federal judge issues order allowing Massachusetts gun shops to reopen

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-07

“A federal judge on Thursday ordered that gun shops across Massachusetts can reopen this weekend, ruling that Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to shutter them along with thousands of other “nonessential” businesses infringed on people’s Second Amendment rights.”

(https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/07/nation/federal-judge-says-he-will-issue-order-allowing-mass-gun-shops-re-open/)

Current Events Local

Life Care Center of Auburn reports 91 residents, 11 staff tested positive for COVID-19

Post author By danelabonte
Post date 2020-05-07

This is the facility my dad works at as a social worker.

“Since March, 91 of the facility’s residents and 11 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, while 22 have tested negative, Tim Killian, public information officer for Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America, said Thursday.
“Six Life Care Center of Auburn residents have died, Killian said.
“Six (deaths) may sound like a lot, but we have to keep in mind that in a typical facility like this, you might have three to seven deaths a month for any number of reasons,” he said. “This is not to say that more won’t come. It’s still possible.”

“Some of the residents who tested positive for the coronavirus at the Life Care Center of Auburn have been transferred to area hospitals, Killian said.”

“In addition to the 11 employees who tested positive, three other results are pending, Killian said. The facility, which has 154 licensed beds, typically employs 250, Killian said.”

“Asked what the facility has done thus far to limit the spread of the virus, Killian said, “Immediately upon testing, we isolate all positives into their own wing of the facility from anyone who’s tested negative … We isolate staff who are working on all the patients so that there’s no crossover between the positive and the negative wings. Those are the primary focuses to this point.”

“Killian said none of the patients who tested positive and remain at the facility are showing symptoms.
“Nobody is exhibiting signs or symptoms of COVID-19 within that population of positive patients,” he said.
“There are 208 Life Care Centers in the country, including 15 in Massachusetts.”

(https://www.telegram.com/news/20200507/life-care-center-of-auburn-reports-91-residents-11-staff-tested-positive-for-covid-19)