Normal, yet not normal

We have been fortunate not to have experienced a global pandemic before in our lifetimes. The previous global epidemics that threatened to become one, (SARS, MERS, swine flu (aka H1N1), and bird flu) did not pan out (Ha!) so it is hard to know what would constitute a normal state of events during one. So I am not surprised to find that things seem to me to feel a little strange.

I went to the supermarket today to buy a couple of potatoes for a recipe but there were no potatoes. It is a very large supermarket so at first I thought that they had moved it to another location, something they do from time to time but no, they were out of potatoes, something that had never happened before. I then realized that there had been a run on potatoes because people were stocking up on food. Why potatoes? I don’t know. I was about to leave when I thought I would wander around a few aisles to see what else was gone. The shelves were mostly full and by no means bare, unlike in the Latvian town where Andreas Avester lives, but some shelf sections were empty, especially those that should have had cleaning products. [Update: See correction from Andreas.] This article describes what people are NOT buying, as evidenced by the things still on the shelves of denuded grocery stores: pasta made from chick peas, chocolate hummus, Dasani brand bottled water while all other brands are gone, pork, kidney beans, vegan food, and obscure canned vegetables.
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When reality bites

Donald Trump is notorious for thinking that he can create his own version of ‘reality’ that can replace, you know, actual reality, by simply dismissing the views of experts, making counterfactual assertions, and claiming that anyone who contradicts his ‘reality’ is either a fool or a knave, part of a larger conspiracy that seeks to thwart his glorious plans to make America great again. He is not the first person to try this. We recall the top official in the administration of George W. Bush (believed to be his chief propagandist Karl Rove, though he denied it) who told reporter Ron Suskind during the period when the Bush administration was lying about the Iraq war:
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The gender difference in lifespans

It is well known that women live longer than men. I had not been aware that this was not true for all species and that when comes to birds, the opposite is true. Now some researchers are finding new evidence to support an idea that what causes the difference is whether one has an unpaired sex chromosome or not.

From humans to black-tailed prairie dogs, female mammals often outlive males – but for birds, the reverse is true.

Now researchers say they have cracked the mystery, revealing that having two copies of the same sex chromosome is associated with having a longer lifespan, suggesting the second copy offers a protective effect.
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If only there was a better health care system to deal with emergencies …

After relentlessly attacking the idea of a universal, single-payer, health care system such as Medicare For All, that Bernie Sanders has been pushing for so long against even the opposition of the Democratic party establishment, as a Utopian, pie-in-the-sky, fantasy that would bankrupt the country, the corporate media is suddenly realizing that such a system would have resulted in a much better and more coherent response to pandemics that the utterly inept, confusing, and chaotic system than what the current US system is able to provide.
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The Bernie bro myth has no empirical basis

The myth of the so-called ‘Bernie bros’, that the supporters of Bernie Sanders seem to be particularly prone to making nasty misogynistic attacks on rival candidates and their supporters, seems to be one of those things that will never die. But what evidence is there for this idea? Part of the problem is that the criteria for being a Bernie bro is very vague and getting vaguer with time. Right now, it seems to consist of just two necessary and sufficient conditions: (a) that one must be a supporter of Sanders and (b) one has to have said something bad about other candidates and/or their supporters. Neither gender nor age nor ethnicity nor any other demographic feature seems to be required to be thus classified. This is indeed a wide net that has been cast and it should not be surprising that it should catch people in it. As Robinson Meyer, the person who coined the term later wrote, what we are witnessing is ‘category collapse’, where something that was intended to have very narrow usage has become so elastic as to cease to have any meaning since it could be applied to pretty much anything and anyone.
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The next debate and primaries

This coming Sunday the 15th there will be a debate between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden starting at 8:00 pm Eastern time and it will be a good occasion to compare where the two candidates stand on key issues, especially now that chronic interrupter Pete Buttigieg has bowed out and we will be able to hear what each person says. Unfortunately, the debate will be hosted and moderated by CNN which has not covered itself with glory so far in its political coverage, so we can expect the questions to be inane and slanted in a way that disparages Sanders, just like the last time the network moderated a debate.

Then the following Tuesday the 17th there will be four primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio for a total of 577 delegates. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won all four of them suggesting that this will be difficult terrain for Sanders before the subsequent primaries where he has a better chance.

Live by the stock market, die by the stock market

Up until now, Donald Trump felt that he had a sure-fire way of deflecting criticisms of his performance as president. He would point to the record levels of the stock market as ‘proof’ that he was the greatest president ever, despite the fact that the markets have been steadily rising since April 2009, soon after Barack Obama became president and long before he took office in January 2017. Trump also found that he could boost stock prices by making promises about actions he would take concerning trade or China even if those actions did not materialize. These are his favorite tactics, combined with labeling any bad news as fake manufactured by an adversarial press, He gloated over the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 29,568 just a month ago.
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Using common sense about the coronavirus

Donald Trump has suspended travel from the European Union starting Friday and lasting for 30 days. Meanwhile the NBA has suspended its season after one Utah Jazz player tested positive. And in other news, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive while filming in Australia.

As is often the case when some kind of epidemic appears on the horizon, especially if it originates in a foreign country, a lot of people flip out with a “Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” response and start stocking up on supplies for a long confinement, somewhat like preppers do. But there is no need to panic if you cannot find hand sanitizers and face masks. If you are worried, there are some very simple things you can do.
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