Hello, good morning/afternoon, happy Friday. I am still moving into my new apartment, but I got my bed and computer moved last week, which means I can now work from home with the comfort of central air conditioning. Truly a life-changing improvement.
Also this week I finished Death Stranding, and I have to say that if I knew how utterly soul-rending it would be, I probably would not have played it directly after Persona 4: Golden, which was also extremely soul-rending. I have been completely destroyed twice over in the span of about a month by beautiful and gripping storylines, no big deal, everything is fine. Death Stranding was great, I recommend it. I don’t want to spoil it, because the story is largely driven by the way the mystery untangles, but here is a good tweet/article:
Volunteer racism
A friend sent me this article this week, and everything about it is incredible. Absolutely tremendous writing by Elizabeth Anne Brown, a timely story, and fantastic juxtaposition. Seriously:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Every spring, an 1840s plantation home owned by this city comes alive with a froth of ruffles and pastels.
Part debutante presentation, part “Gone with the Wind” costume play, a service organization called the Birmingham Belles taps high school girls to do good works in bespoke Civil War-era hoop skirts, gloves and hats, which can cost $1,000.
When each 17-year-old Belle is presented at the Arlington Historic House, gliding down the steps of the Greek Revival-style mansion, an announcer proclaims the names of her parents and extols her academic accomplishments and social involvements.
But to the horror of some previous participants, other former Belles are denouncing the organization as overtly racist and out of step with the times. As the nation grapples with issues of racial justice and a history of oppression, these repentant Belles say it’s time to stop honoring customs and social mores from an era in which millions of Americans lived in bondage.
It’s a story about history, tradition, and personal growth. It’s a microcosm of modern cultural conflict. It’s outstanding.
ClusterfuQ
I have included highlights and updates about the insane conspiracy theory rocking the conservative world, but things went into overdrive this week as the President praised the theory’s believers. Meanwhile, over the weekend, Will Sommer published a breathtaking two-part scoop about how the movement is causing people to lose their minds.
QAnon conspiracy theorist Alpalus Slyman pushed his Honda Odyssey past 110 mph while his five children screamed in the back of the minivan and police officers from two states pursued him down the highway.
“Donald Trump, I need a miracle or something,” Slyman, a 29-year-old Boston man, said during his June 11 chase across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in remarks captured on a livestream.
“QAnon, help me. QAnon, help me!”
Cyndie Abcug had a gun, a QAnon conspiracy theorist for a bodyguard, and a conviction that “deep state” cabal agents had abducted her 7-year-old son.
Abcug, 50, also had a plan, according to a police report: an armed assault on a Colorado foster home to “free” her son. Abcug’s 15-year-old daughter had tipped off sheriff’s deputies to the alleged scheme, fearful that people would be hurt in what Abcug purportedly called the “raid.”
A deep irony is that the followers of this theory believe they have to “save the children” - and yet, frequently, they are committing crimes like kidnapping and child abuse.
Will also published a great explainer this morning that you can share:
The deranged QAnon conspiracy theory movement came close to a presidential endorsement this week when Donald Trump praised the group as “people that love our country,” while refusing to disavow their bizarre beliefs, which include a faith that he’ll eventually arrest and execute his political opponents.
Trump’s remarks were the latest, and perhaps most alarming, illustration of the gains QAnon adherents have made within the GOP even as the FBI warns that it’s a potential domestic terror movement.
But even as more people embrace QAnon—and as its believers are poised to win at least one congressional seat—much of the public remains unaware exactly what it means to believe in QAnon, why anyone should care about the movement, or what QAnon could mean for American politics.
The following is a helpful explanation of the rot taking hold in our political system.
And participated in a piece about how to ask about and describe the conspiracy theory:
It’s important to gauge the extent to which Trump understands what QAnon followers are doing, given that he’s a central part of the conspiracy theory, and the risk the movement poses (as articulated by the FBI). So I asked the reporters to whom I reached out how Trump and other elected officials should be asked about the movement without similarly introducing the opportunity to bolster it.
I love a good heist
They’re definitely going to sell the film rights to this:
OVER THE COURSE of two years, four brothers in New York allegedly swindled Amazon out of at least $19 million using thousands of $94 toothbrushes and other expensive goods, according to a Department of Justice indictment unsealed Wednesday. Federal prosecutors accused Yoel Abraham, Heshl Abraham, Zishe Abraham, and Shmuel Abraham of invoicing Amazon for a large number of products the company never ordered. The defendants allegedly discussed their gimmick openly in a family WhatsApp group. In one message from May 2018, the indictment says, Yoel wrote that he was “so in the mood to fuck Amazon.”
A good story about Biden
From now until November I am a Biden shill, sorry, we need to win this election. So I will probably be sharing stories about him that I think are impactful and moving. You will probably enjoy them, but more importantly if you share them on your own social media platforms, your friends will find them impactful and moving and will maybe vote for Biden if they otherwise wouldn’t. Politics is most powerful at an interpersonal level, be the change you wish to see in the world, etc. Anyway:
His eyes fall to the floor when I ask him to describe it. We’ve been tiptoeing toward it for 45 minutes, and so far, every time he seems close, he backs away, or leads us in a new direction. There are competing theories in the press, but Joe Biden has kept mum on the subject. I want to hear him explain it. I ask him to walk me through the night he appeared to lose control of his words onstage.
“I—um—I don’t remember,” Biden says. His voice has that familiar shake, the creak and the croak. “I’d have to see it. I-I-I don’t remember.”
We’re in Biden’s mostly vacant Washington, D.C., campaign office on an overcast Tuesday at the end of the summer. Since entering the Democratic presidential-primary race in April, Biden has largely avoided in-depth interviews. When I first reached out, in late June, his press person was polite but noncommittal: Was an interview really necessary for the story?
It’s long, it’s good, it’s worth sharing.
Slow burn
People are not paying enough attention to long-haul COVID victims. Thankfully, Ed Yong is still writing, and does not appear to plan on stopping any time soon:
Lauren nichols has been sick with COVID-19 since March 10, shortly before Tom Hanks announced his diagnosis and the NBA temporarily canceled its season. She has lived through one month of hand tremors, three of fever, and four of night sweats. When we spoke on day 150, she was on her fifth month of gastrointestinal problems and severe morning nausea. She still has extreme fatigue, bulging veins, excessive bruising, an erratic heartbeat, short-term memory loss, gynecological problems, sensitivity to light and sounds, and brain fog. Even writing an email can be hard, she told me, “because the words I think I’m writing are not the words coming out.” She wakes up gasping for air twice a month. It still hurts to inhale.
Tens of thousands of people, collectively known as “long-haulers,” have similar stories. I first wrote about them in early June. Since then, I’ve received hundreds of messages from people who have been suffering for months—alone, unheard, and pummeled by unrelenting and unpredictable symptoms. “It’s like every day, you reach your hand into a bucket of symptoms, throw some on the table, and say, ‘This is you for today,’” says David Putrino, a neuroscientist and a rehabilitation specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital who has cared for many long-haulers.
All of his COVID articles are worth reading, they are all free, do not miss this one or the others he’s worked on.
Predictable consequences
California used prison labor (slave labor, basically) to fight fires, and also did not take adequate precautions to keep its prison populations safe from COVID, and now it does not have enough (slave) labor to fight fires. Who could have possibly predicted this:
As California enters another dangerous fire season, the COVID-19 pandemic has depleted the ranks of inmate fire crews that are a key component of the state’s efforts to battle out-of-control wildfires
This week, state prison officials announced they had placed 12 of the state’s 43 inmate fire camps on lockdown due to a massive outbreak at a Northern California prison in Lassen County that serves as the training center for fire crews.
Until the lockdown lifts, only 30 of the state’s 77 inmate crews are available to fight a wildfire in the north state, prison officials said.
California’s incarcerated firefighters have for decades been the state’s primary firefighting “hand crews,” and the shortage has officials scrambling to come up with replacement firefighters in a dry season that is shaping up to be among the most extreme in years. The state is hunting for bulldozer crews and enlisting teams that normally clear brush as replacements.
Inmate crews are among the first on the scene at fires large and small across the state. Name a major wildfire in recent years — from the devastating wine country and Thomas fires in 2017 to the massive Carr and Camp fires the following year — and inmates were there, on the ground cutting fire breaks around evacuated homes.
Listen, this is just my opinion, but maybe you should 1) not rely on prison (slave) labor for essential functions and 2) protect the people who you have imprisoned and voluntarily taken under your care. What an atrocity.
You deserve some good animal content
Have a good weekend.