Can some journalist point this out to Trump?

One of Trump's back up plans for finding an excuse for [possibly, hopefully, and I think likely] losing the November election is to blame it on Democrats providing for voting by mail:

Yet in California, the Republicans just won back a seat (traditionally theirs anyway, so no one is in a great panic about it) in which it seems likely that perhaps 50% of the votes were by mail:

In 2018, in California as a whole, 43 percent of the votes ultimately cast were not in the morning-after tabulations, and the proportion of mail ballots in this special election (for which all registered voters were sent a mail ballot due to an executive order from Governor Gavin Newsom) could be even higher.

He shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways.   Even though he is a moron and there is no way to get him to make sense.

A bit late to the historical Korean zombie party

I like my zombies in small doses, and hence have no interest is something as protracted as The Walking Dead (ten series, seriously?), but I did start watching with my son the 2 series (but short - 6 episodes each) of Kingdom, in which zombies run amuck in ye olde Korea.

It's pretty entertaining, and a significant part of the fun is the odd (to Western eyes) costuming - particularly the hats.  The royal guards' two feathered ones look particularly flamboyant:

As I suspected, the hats have attracted some internet posts about whether they are accurate or not, and it would seem the answer is pretty much "yes".

Cool.

What a disgraceful moron

Isn't it remarkable that Republicans and conservatives support a President who defames a vocal critic by promoting a groundless, nutty conspiracy theory that he's a murderer?   Where's the common decency on the Right gone?  

The modern world

Brisbane's autumn skies are often clear and really good for early evening satellite spotting.

As I left work a couple of nights ago, I looked up to see what I could see with the good view I had to the west, and saw what looked like a pretty bright satellite moving in such a way that I thought there was a good chance it was the International Space station.   I turned on my phone and said "OK Google, ISS sightings for Brisbane Australia", and in a flash, information from a NASA website showed it was indeed the space station.

This is the undeniably cool side of near instantaneous information from the internet.

I am not sure that it makes up for the creation of a self supporting community of idiocy that the internet also enables.  It should, but gee at times I have my doubts.

I was mistaken

At first I thought this might have been Tony Abbott confessing as to what Peta Credlin had forced him to do:

but I was mistaken.

What a suck up

Command of English?   Yeah, "thrown out to sea in a chaff bag" was positively Shakespearean.  As was "nigger in the woodpile".  Such eloquence, the likes of which way never hear again.

I've always thought Adam a dill, but his validation of my judgment lately is so thorough it's still surprising me.

Update:  I know that there is also the odd "Leftist" journo who is making comment about what a "brilliant" broadcaster he is, in terms of effectiveness with his audience, even if you don't agree with his views.   But this is a very stupidly narrow way of judging a broadcaster career performance.   Even without criticising the political content (the anti carbon tax support, for example) what about the (I think) 11 defamation cases he faced?   Isn't a "brilliant" broadcaster one who is careful enough to avoid such a large number of financial losses for his employer?

Wonder drug continues to be no wonder

Results of an observational study published yesterday in JAMA:

In this study, during rapidly expanding hospitalization for COVID-19, 70% of patients received hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin. Patients who received hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin were more likely (relative to patients receiving neither drug) to be male, have preexisting medical conditions, and have impaired respiratory or liver function at presentation. There were no significant differences in in-hospital mortality between patients who received hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin and patients who received neither drug.

The lack of observed benefit of hydroxychloroquine associated with in-hospital mortality, following adjustment for preexisting disease and severity of illness on admission, is consistent with recently reported data from other observational studies.^17,23,24

Some good media news

Alan Jones, veteran Sydney radio host, announces he will retire on health grounds 

I find it a considerable puzzle how he has any substantial following at all.  Even if you ignore the content, I find his style to be so obviously pompous (how long has he been slipping opera into the end of his show?) and arrogant (an over-inflated self regard for his role as political kingmaker),  I don't understand his appeal at all.  

The biggest problem with the internet...

....is that it has put conspiracy minded idiots in instantaneous contact with other idiots, setting up a community and cycle of mutually reinforcing idiocy, all with the ability to be politically exploited. 

Today's example:  Obamagate is still trending on Twitter, with the main concern of many of the posts being that despite the number of mindless tweets on the topic, it's some sort of serious conspiracy that Twitter is repressing the hashtag from being number one on "Trending"!

And all it took is one Fox News "story" that is pure speculation (my bold):

"Sources are telling Watters' World that Attorney General Bill Barr was just given a trove of smoking gun documents that could point directly at former President Barack Obama, revealing his powerful connection to 'Spygate' and the Russia hoax," Watters said on Saturday.

Of course, Trump, an idiot, then just had to tweet "Obamagate", and his cult followers, not to mention the sad sack Qanon followers who find meaning in fantasising about how their Annointed One will (finally!) unleash an attack on the Deep State that has corrupted all that is good and right in the world, resulting in mass arrest and executions of liberal criminals, jump on board and find more evidence of conspiracy because their hashtag is not No 1.

The US is in so much trouble, because this idiocy is exploited and encouraged by the large slab of idiots in the Republican party.

The two best things I have read on the Michael Flynn scandal

David Graham in The Atlantic: he even thinks that the FBI notes about the tactics to use in interviewing Flynn are a worry, but still notes that the outcome is ridiculous:

But as it happened, the notes didn’t have to convince Sullivan, because the Department of Justice withdrew the charges before the judge had to reach a conclusion. (Sullivan could still reject the DOJ’s motion. The long-running prosecutor on the case abruptly withdrew from it today, a likely sign of disagreement, and The New York Times reports that the motion stunned prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office.) Flynn’s defenders argued that the FBI was out to get him, and if the FBI is out to get you, it will find a way. But there’s a corollary: If Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department wants to let you off, it will find a way too.

The whole process is stunning: Flynn was accused of committing several crimes, admitted to one to try to get himself off easy, agreed to cooperate, reneged on the deal, and is now free, having escaped punishment for both the crime to which he confessed and those on which he avoided prosecution.

Yet Flynn’s escape is not merely an isolated outrage. It is also a test case for loyalty to Trump. Since Flynn flipped on Trump, and then flopped back, his fate offers a lesson for others who might find themselves in a bind and tempted to turn on Trump, who continues to engage in the sort of behavior that got him impeached.

And today, at Axios:

Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security, claimed in a New York Times op-ed Sunday that the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn "twisted" her words to suggest that the FBI's 2017 interview of Flynn was illegitimate.

Why it matters: The Justice Department's filing relies in part on McCord's July 2017 interview with the FBI to argue that the FBI had no valid counterintelligence reason to interview Flynn, and that the former national security adviser's apparent lies were therefore immaterial....

The bottom line: "In short, the report of my interview does not anywhere suggest that the FBI’s interview of Mr. Flynn was unconstitutional, unlawful or not “tethered” to any legitimate counterintelligence purpose," McCord concludes.

 There has been the suggestion that Sullivan could, before deciding on the motion, ask for some sort of further explanation or investigation as to how the decision to withdraw was made.   It would seem that McCord's piece gives him plenty of reason to believe that the withdrawal of the charges is corrupt, but I don't know how he can get around a corrupt Attorney General...

Update:  a tweet on point -

Update2:   Another good article at The Atlantic: What Judge Sullivan Should Do

The distraction machine

And sure enough, Obamagate is trending on Twitter, and the Wingnut Right and Qanon idiots are beside themselves.

Update:  one thing I have noticed about Qanon on Twitter:  it seems to have unusually large support from women.   Not sure if all accounts are genuine, but this strikes me as odd.  Has anyone looked into this issue? 

Shipwreck story humour

Boy, that Tongan teenagers shipwreck story has gone viral.  It has given us this funny stream of tweets, too:

By the way:  I'm not doubting the story, but all photos I see of the survivors make them look way older than the ages they were when they were shipwrecked (13 to 16, and were on the island for "more than a year".)

About that Biden allegation...

This article at Vox about Tara Reade's allegations, from a reporter who had lengthy discussions with the complainant, is the single best thing I have read about the matter.

It convinces me that her complaint is highly dubious, given that her story has changed very significantly, and she has left raising the "worst" version against him until now, and not at the early stages of his career elevation.  I often don't care for Bill Maher's views, but his take on this matter seems right to me.

I know it's tricky, but Democrats and Democrat sympathisers with any brains should not let the mainstream media keep making this into another "Hilary's emails" situation - where they elevate an ill founded allegation to a significance it does not deserve, all to the benefit of the Wingnut Right.

A shipwreck tale.

It seems lots of people are sharing this article (actually, a book extract) in The Guardian about a 1960's case of 6 shipwrecked Tongan teenage boys in the Pacific who did not go all "Lord of the Rings".  

I note that the story rights were given to Channel 7 in Australia at the time of the rescue, but I don't remember it from my childhood.  (Although I would only have been 6 at the time.) 

Anyway, it's a nice, positive story.

Cooking confessions

*  As it happens, I have never had cause to make up my own dry curry mix before.  Well, I have made dishes that used a mix of these curry base spices, but I don't know that they were called curries, and I never had reason before to look up a simple, base curry mix of spices.   (This makes me feel inadequate as a cook.)

Anyway, I was making a prawn curry (from a Filipino food website) and it just called for "curry powder", but I had only one that said it was a meat curry powder.   I decided to make up from scratch instead, and used this mix from this website, and the quantity was just right for the 4 person meal:

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp ground coriander seeds
• 1 ½ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp ground ginger

As the website explains, you can add a wide variety of extra spices, and apparently Indian families have their favourite combinations they like.   I am still surprised I never did this before.

*  The prawn curry I had made once before, apparently on 7 June 2015.   Given that I posted about how it was nice, I'm surprised it took me this long to go back to it.   But looking at my old post, it seems I made a strange mistake:  I said that a "14 oz" can of coconut milk was about half a "normal" can.  But it isn't - 14 fluid oz is 414 ml, which is a "standard" sized can here for vegetables, soup etc.   So it would appear that the first time I made it, I may have used half of the coconut milk.  I didn't this time, and maybe that is why I found it particularly good yesterday.

The original recipe is kind of vague as to how much prawn head "stock" to use.   Yesterday, I boiled up the prawn heads (25 or so) in about 2 - 3 cups of water, but let it boil down until there was about one cup left.   This was added to the two, 400 ml, cans of coconut milk, and it made a lot of sauce.  Enough for 6 meals, I reckon, if I had more prawns to hand.   

I think the key thing in it is seasoning at the end with fish sauce.  Anyway, apart from the painful time of shelling and cleaning 26 raw prawns, this is pretty easy dish that is good to eat.  

*  Tonight, I made another thing for the first time:  a pea puree.   (To go with confit duck leg - bought pre-made by Luv-a-Duck).  I thought it pleasant, but there are million versions of it and perhaps it needed some thing extra - cream or lemon perhaps?   I didn't use mint - I didn't have any and am not sure it is a good match for duck.   All I did was boil 2 cups of frozen peas, fry off in butter a smallish onion, and blitz all of it with two or three teaspoons of parmesan cheese and a bit of the pea cooking water.   Maybe more cheese would have been better?   It looks great on the plate, at least.   
 

The sourdough issue

I had been interested in trying out sourdough breadmaking for some time, but now that it has come such a thing as a result of the lockdowns,  I don't want to give people the impression I'm a meme follower by joining in!

Anyway, I was interested in this NYT summary of what is going on in sourdough starter, apart from wild yeast:

But sourdough would not be sour without a second and equally important element: bacteria, specifically the kind that feed on the sugars to produce lactic acid and other organic acids that give the bread its tang. These, too, are found on the flour or other dry ingredients.

The yeast and bacteria have evolved a form of metabolic cooperation. “They’ve figured out how to work together,” Dr. Wolfe said.

There are some bad bacteria present as well, the kind that can cause food to spoil, but the acidic environment of the growing culture greatly reduces their number. And baking has a final “kill step,” Mr. Philip said — heat in the oven that will destroy good and bad microbes alike.

I wonder what commercial sourdough bakers use, then?   I assume there must be commerical suppliers of the right kind of bacteria to add?  

The article notes someone who has kept a sourdough starter going for 60 years!:

Ione Christensen has been baking breads and making pancakes for most of her 86 years, using sourdough starter, a bubbling brew of wild yeast she has kept alive since her mother gave her a batch.

That was six decades ago, which makes Mrs. Christensen, a Canadian former senator from Whitehorse, Yukon, one of the most experienced wild yeast wranglers around.

The deliberate killing of an old, family heirloom sourdough starter was a funny event in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

And finally - I had some truly delicious sourdough from an Italian bakery in Brisbane last weekend.   As well as an excellent Black Forest cake.   It's called Gerbino's, and I think it's probably our favourite in the city now.

Singapore still struggling

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 741 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Thursday (May 7), including two healthcare workers and two quarantine order officers.

There are now 20,939 COVID-19 cases in the country. The vast majority of the new cases are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update of preliminary figures.

Seven of the new cases were cases in the community, of which five are Singaporeans or permanent residents, and two are work pass holders.

The death rate is still low, though:

Twenty people have died of the disease in Singapore.

It's a very puzzling disease, isn't it?   

Covid problems in the Gulf

The Gulf countries' treatment of their large number of migrant workers has always been a problem, and throw in compulsory lay offs due to COVID-19, you're got a bad situation:

Low-wage migrant workers in Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world, say they have been forced to beg for food as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic takes a devastating toll, following a surge in the outbreak that has seen one-in-four people test positive.

In more than 20 interviews, workers in the World Cup host nation have described a mounting sense of desperation, frustration and fear. Many told the Guardian they have suddenly been left jobless, with no other way to earn a living. Others say they are desperate, but unable, to return home. Some have been forced to plead for food from their employers or charities.

“I don’t have much food left. Just some rice and lentils. It will last only a few days. What happens when this food finishes?” said Rafiq, a cleaner from Bangladesh who lost his job in March.

Qatar, home to over 2 million migrant workers, now has one of the highest rates of infection per capita in the world with almost 18,000 cases in a population of just 2.8 million. Over 25% of those tested for the virus in the past week have been found to be infected; the vast majority migrant workers.

The government says almost all the cases are mild, and death rates have remained very low, with just 12 fatalities.

The cost to livelihoods has been compounded by a government directive in mid-April allowing companies that have stopped operating due to coronavirus restrictions to put workers on unpaid leave or terminate their contracts. The government said food and accommodation, which is usually arranged by employers, must continue to be provided, but workers’ testimonies suggest in some cases this is not happening.

Some COVID-19 thoughts

*  The reaction to the lock down indicates that the old science fiction trope of a slow moving generation ship to get to the stars is wildly improbable.  If a lot of people can't stand not getting out into the open for a month, how will they go over a lifetime?    (Oh, but if they are born into a ship, they'll never know the difference?   Well, you got to get the first shipload of adults used to it.    I'd guess they'd be killing each other within a year.)

*  I cannot imagine the pandemic in the USA not doing Trump serious political harm.   Here's why:

1.  It looks unlikely that he will be able to hold rallies anytime soon - in fact, anytime before the election.   Not that he wouldn't have enough dumb-ass, wingnut cult followers to go to them; but Trump will have enough people around him to tell him that any surge in infections within a few weeks of a rally is going to be a bad look.  And Trump himself, as a germophobe,  might worry about whether he can avoid catching it in a huge, crowded room of re-circulating air.    So no, he is not going to be able to run a campaign like the last time.

2.  If Trump can't or won't do his rallies, he has to find other alternatives, and as we have seen, his rambling on in front of normal people does not work in the same way as his rambles in front of cheering wingnuts.  The more he tries to talk in response to serious questions, the worse he looks.

3.  As I have opined before, I think he will find excuses to avoid appearing at a debate with Biden, too.   He now has a record to try run on, and can't just make motherhood statements while roaming around the stage looking like he is menacing a woman (something which played well with the large number of misogynistic followers.) 

4.  Perhaps most importantly, there is no way the economy is going to be back to anything like what it was before the pandemic in the space of 6 months.   So the old adage that people won't vote out a sitting President if they have jobs and feel economically secure and comfortable - nature has taken away that traditional advantage from him.

5.  Turnout against him on the Democrat side is, unless a natural disaster intervenes, surely going to be huge.

*  The progression in India seems oddly slow - but numbers are picking up, and it would still be surprising if it does not develop into a very big problem.

Doctors depressed about conspiracies

At NBC, a report on how American doctors are very depressed about the wave of conspiracy misinformation around Covid-19:

Halazun, like many health care professionals, is dealing with a bombardment of misinformation and harassment from conspiracy theorists, some of whom have moved beyond posting online to pressing doctors for proof of the severity of the pandemic.

And it's taking a toll. Hazalun said that dealing with conspiracy theorists is the “second-most painful thing I’ve had to deal with, other than separation of families from their loved one."

Several other doctors shared similar experiences, saying that they regularly had to treat patients who had sought care too late because of conspiracy theories spread on social media, and that social media companies have to do more to counteract the forces that spread lies for profit.

Facebook seems to be taken some token action, not directly related to Covid 19, but it's pathetically inadequate:

Facebook removed a small cluster of groups and pages promoting the QAnon conspiracy in April, calling it part of a “coordinated inauthentic behavior” campaign around the 2020 US elections. It appears to be one of Facebook’s first announcements about cracking down on QAnon-related content, and it suggests Facebook views at least a few corners of QAnon as deliberate manipulation — not just false information.

QAnon is an expansive conspiracy theory that claims President Donald Trump is secretly planning to arrest high-profile Democratic politicians and celebrities for pedophilia or cannibalism. It originated on an independent message board but has found a home on Facebook, which still hosts a wide range of QAnon-related pages. According to a new report from Facebook, though, the company took down five pages, 20 accounts, and six groups linked to “individuals associated with the QAnon network known to spread fringe conspiracy theories.”