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from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), dubbed the “Iron Chancellor,” was one of modern history’s masters of Realpolitik. As Prussia’s minister-president, he executed the “blood and iron” war policies that resulted in 1871 in Germany’s long-desired unification. As the new German Empire’s first chancellor, he maintained a balance of power at home and abroad. In 1890, he was fired by the new Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who yearned for a more aggressive foreign policy, which in turn led to the First World War. Bismarck died on July 30, 1898, 123 years ago Friday. If he were alive today, what would he think of the Eastern Mediterranean’s balance of power?
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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website
The rising sea could become a problem for many, but for the Dutch, it is merely an old and well-known enemy. Trapped between some of Europe’s largest rivers and the violent North Sea waves, the people living in the Netherlands prevent floods for a living – literally. Holland is a flat, low-lying country on the edge of a stormy sea. To make matters worse, between 20 and 40 percent of its land area is at, or below, sea level. Yet, as the Dutch have shown for centuries, it is possible to live below the water level with appropriate water management and technology. ... Fortifying our societies against the climate is a constant challenge. But like the Dutch war against the waves, fortification against nature’s whims is a technical problem that requires engineering and adaptation, not fearmongering.
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from The Inlander
Media/News Company in Spokane, WA
Media/News Company in Spokane, WA
Sam Artzis is exhausted. As both an emergency room doctor and the public health officer in rural northeast Washington, he's spent more than a year trying to convince people to take COVID-19 seriously. But now more than ever, he fears there's a "perfect storm" brewing that will devastate his community. In the Northeast Tri County Health District — where Artzis is health officer — just over one-third of people 16 and older have initiated vaccination. Yet the more contagious Delta variant has arrived as the dominant strain there, and people are attending large indoor gatherings more now that the state has lifted restrictions. It's a recipe for "the next onslaught" of preventable disease, death and economic fallout, he says.
For months, concerned citizens and the state Board of Health have looked into the question of whether Spokane Regional Health District Administrator Amelia Clark improperly fired health officer Dr. Bob Lutz in a conversation on Oct. 29, 2020. As administrator, Clark could ask the local board of health to fire Lutz, but that had to take place during a public meeting with a public vote, which didn't happen until a week later. But an email obtained by the Inlander from SRHD Board of Health attorney Michelle Fossum to health board members confirms that at 5:40 pm on Oct. 29, Fossum told the board "Please be advised that Amelia has terminated Dr. Lutz's employment. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to her or to me, but do not 'reply all' to this email."
Ben Stuckart: What does a housing crisis look like? Recently, the head of a local lab at a large medical facility and one of our region's largest employers contacted me to let me know that his employees are all seeing rent increases of over 30 percent in the next 60 days. He is worried that none of his full-time employees can afford to live in Spokane. Markets work like this: When there is no supply, prices increase. There are simply no other options for the employees at this facility. The people who check our groceries, draw our blood and flip our burgers ought to be able to afford to live inside the city limits. What does housing mean? We have the rental market (which are mostly apartments), home ownership and low-income housing. Low-income housing is defined as apartments or homes that were built with government subsidy and can accept housing vouchers. The other two are considered market rate. Housing discussions should include all three. Is there really a housing crisis? As of last week, nationwide data showed Spokane saw the largest rent increases in the country over the last year. Market-rate apartment rents have risen almost 30 percent and market-rate home prices have risen by 29 percent during that time, but wages have not kept pace. Low-income housing is becoming impossible to find. If you lose your job and apartment, the average time to get into low-income housing is three years.
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from MedPage Today
— We can't "follow the science" if there's no relevant science to follow
Throughout the pandemic, we learned a lot about which drugs help and which don't. Steroids are of indisputable benefit when given to hospitalized patients who require oxygen or mechanical ventilation. Hydroxychloroquine does not work in a similar situation. Many things we thought might help, were found to offer no net benefit. We are much better off from having this knowledge. Randomized trials were the scientific tool that allowed us to separate drugs that save lives from those that have no effect or even contribute to iatrogenic injury. Randomizing patients was the secret sauce to improving the care of people diagnosed with COVID-19, and I suspect future scientists will look back with admiration at the pandemic heroes: the trialists of RECOVERY and SOLIDARITY and other major randomized efforts. When it comes to non-pharmacologic interventions such as mandatory business closures, mask mandates, and countless other interventions, the shocking conclusion of the last 18 months is this: We have learned next to nothing. ... Anyone who considers themselves a scientist should be embarrassed by our collective failure to generate knowledge, and this failure is once again looming large. The CDC is again recommending vaccinated people to wear cloth masks in indoor public spaces, at least in locations where COVID is surging. The CDC director calls this "following the science," but it is not. It is following the TV pundits.
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from Spokane Daily Chronicle
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Running a successful political campaign at any level requires money. Preferably local money, but it’s not surprising to find statewide and national organizations interested in the council races in Washington’s second largest city. One organization has perfected a method of disguising its support as ordinary individual donations. The group calls it a “moneybomb.” Its successful July 9 bombing run dropped over $20,000 from Seattle metro area donors strategically into two Spokane City Council races.
Spokane resident Billy Tipton Jr. never knew how much of an icon his father was. That is, until filmmakers Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt, along with writer Amos Mac, showed him a collection of interviews of trans artists and activists contemplating what they would say and ask Billy Tipton if he were still alive today.
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from Vox
LEFT BIAS, HIGH, Media/News Company based in Washington, D.C.
Under previous administrations, Haitians have been detained indefinitely and sent back to dangerous conditions.
The US could soon be facing dual migrant crises stemming from unrest in Haiti and Cuba. In response, the Biden administration has preemptively warned migrants not to try to come to the US by boat. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently confirmed that any migrants intercepted by the US Coast Guard off US shores will not be allowed to enter the country — they will be turned back or, if they express fear of returning to their home countries, repatriated to a third country. “The time is never right to attempt migration by sea,” Mayorkas said in a press conference earlier this month. “To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking. Allow me to be clear: If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.” The policy isn’t new. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have employed this interdiction approach to prevent Caribbean migrants from reaching US shores. But although it was always done under the pretense of protecting migrants from the very real dangers of that journey, it resulted in many Haitians being returned to certain peril in their home country over the years and, under the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, languishing in what one federal judge called a “prison camp” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they were held after being intercepted at sea.
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