Saturday June 5, 2021
If I have any “gift” it is that of connecting disparate pieces of information. Some call me a Renaissance Man, (never Mannerist, I wonder why? ) Whatever you wish to call it I have a wide range of interests and as a young man I remember reading about Roger Bacon who wanted “to take all knowledge for his province.” I always liked that idea and wanted to do the same.
So today we set sail for enchanted lands and twisted ideas …
But first – Dr. Fauci.
Rachel did an interview with Dr. Fauci last night. She led up to the conversation by pointing out that it was Fauci in the 1980s when young gay men were dying from AIDS and demanding to be involved in the experiments of NIH and the Federal Government that he, Fauci, led the scientific community to do so. Not only did he get AIDS activists on the boards and participating in the experiments but he also got his fellow scientists to attend the AIDS activists’ meetings and listen to their concerns. Fauci took the brunt of the activists’ protests and complaints.
Dr. Fauci is once again being attacked, this time on Fox News and by Former President Trump. It’s not clear to me, nor to Rachel, what their compliant specifically is. There seems to be a belief that he lied. About what and for what reason is unclear. (Of course it is unclear because he didn’t lie, but I digress.)
Fauci made a very interesting point comparing the two times. In the case of the activists he said they believed in science and wanted to be part of it. In the case of Trump and Fox News they have no interest in science. Excuse me, he was more specific, they don’t believe in science. ( Which is another way of saying they don’t believe in truth, but I digress again. ) He pointed out that the current attacks are not about the science and wanting to make it better or be a part of it. It is an attack on him and a searching for some hidden motive to not be truthful.
The discussion turned to where did the Covid virus originate. It is not known. It is unclear, but there is no evidence, nor reason to believe that anyone was weaponizing a natural phenomena and that it accidentally escaped from a lab.
He also pointed out that in January of 2020 was when his lab started hearing about the virus and they started working to understand it. Due to the money put into basic R&D in this area and due to their efforts and that of Operation Warp Speed they were able to have a vaccine by December. He talked about the mRNA techniques that helped to make this possible and that those techniques could in turn be used to develop even better ways to fight AIDS.
So to sum up. A bunch of numb nuts on Fox News and the chief numb nut are accusing a man who has spent his whole life trying to improve our ability to fight deadly pandemic diseases. They are accusing him of harboring some hidden agenda.
It seems to be a trend.
For instance the fake counting of ballots in Arizona continues and now some idiot Republican legislators in Pennsylvania are hoping to do the same thing in their state.
I am working on the quantum physics book and trying to understand Bell’s Theorem. Bell and Bohr were both trying to tell Einstein that he was asking the wrong question(s).
Interesting. Asking the wrong question.
Speaking of which Don McGahn finally got to testify to a Congressional committee, under oath. Fortunately, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz were there to represent the numb nut contingent. Jim “I’ve never introduced a piece of legislation” Jordan and Matt “she was a mature 17” Gaetz can be counted on to do the political equivalent of Beavis and Butthead go to Washington.
For some reason Rachel brought up topics like: statute of limitations, evidence listed in the Mueller report of potential crimes by Donald Trump, and the like.
Let me remind the audience that the crimes of Donald Trump are not subtle. They are not complicated. They are typically sited as “simple fraud.” His political malfeasances are similar. There is nothing subtle or hard to understand. In the Muller Report for instance, it outlines ten instances of a crime. To my understanding in criminal statute there are certain specific things one needs to do to be found to have committed a crime. Those things are listed in the statute. In the Mueller Report ten instances are listed. In at least four of the ten Donald J. Trump met everyone of the elements required to be charged with a crime. In other words, a prosecutor has nothing more to do than cut and paste from the Mueller Report.
With McGahn we should learn what he said in seven days. That was the deal on releasing his testimony. His testimony will outline even more serious stuff. You know, like Obstruction of Justice, malfeasance in office and stuff like that.
In a “funny” sidebar, Eric Swalwell has been trying to bring charges against Mo Brooks. You know Mo, the guy who stood up at the Trump Rally and told the crowd to storm the place where he works, The Capital. Mo was brave then but has stayed remarkably out of the lime light now. So much so, that Swalwell hired a private investigator to find him and serve him. What a big change from Brooks accusing Swalwell of cavorting with a Chinese spy! (Swalwell wasn’t. Brooks and others on the right are grasping at straws.)
This brings me to Dana Lamb and his book “Enchanted Vagabonds.” The 1930s journey down the western coast of Mexico to Panama in a handbuilt kayak/canoe/sailboat. The description of his adventures with his bride Ginger are so harrowing that it is hard to believe, but there is nothing in what I have read that leads me to think any is made up.
Less than one hundred years ago there were Indians living in remote places along that coast. If you look at pictures now there are kite boarders and surfers along the beaches.
Lamb describes being mad with malaria. He and Ginger barely made it to an Indian village that for two months took care of them. They feed them and sent for someone who spoke perfect English who brought them more quinine (the cure for malaria at the time.) He also spoke of being given a native mixture to drink. It tasted god awful, but was more effective than the quinine, according to his account.
He spoke of how an old woman sat outside their abode all night singing a low droning song. When he asked why, he was told so that the song would help them think about that sound and not let negative thoughts enter.
He spoke of the way that the natives lived. That often they had an older relative who lived with them. That all the older people lived with someone, even if their own family had died. The old were taken in and cared for.
He spoke of transvestites. He said they could wear makeup and jewelry and whatever else but underneath they had to wear the clothes associated with their sex. (Ie Blue jeans for men. But blouses of a women up top were okay.) The transvestites worked with the women and were welcomed because their strength made carrying of water and such physically demanding chores easier on all.
He spoke of coming to San Cruz, which had been the western railhead for transporting goods across the from one ocean to another and how the town had been largely abandoned after the Panama Canal was built. Not that it couldn’t have survived, but there was so much theft and graft and crime that as soon as shippers didn’t need to stop there they didn’t.
The Lambs experience in San Cruz was so bad that they left before spending the night. There was a local gang of boys who kept throwing sand in their attempts to cook and they were pelted with rocks.
This was civilization.
Speaking of which, Lamb went int some detail about how the natives resented the white man their his puffed out sense of superiority. He mentioned how the natives had many medicines and cures, which he was sure a pharmacologist would be interested in.
It was about this time in the States that the notion that a five micron particle could not travel more than six feet before dropping out of the air. It was this mistaken notion that Fauci and others had mouthed in the halls of medicine after all these decades, before being disproven.
The natives Lamb went on valued attributes and honorable behavior, not gold like the white men did.
This is a similar story by Tim Cahill in his book “Please Pass the Butterworms.” In it he recounts giving a ride to a man in New Guinea. Clothed only in a penis shield, this man invited Cahill into his home where they ate and sang songs and were warm and in good company. Cahill compared this to the young drunks back in the town he had just left.
Which was more civilized?
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