The alternative is to keep pressing lockdowns, no matter the cost in lives and wellbeing, until a vaccine is available for all. That should be a non-starter… The media campaign against “herd immunity” is a cynical effort to keep this approach from gaining traction.

Even if herd immunity can be achieved with only 40 percent of the population infected or vaccinated, the I.H.M.E. estimates that a total of 800,000 Americans would die. The real death toll needed to reach herd immunity could far exceed one million.

No, “herd immunity” will not work. We need to stay the course of social distancing, masking, and listening to the wider scientific community while we await true herd immunity from a safe vaccine.

…even in the direct aftermath of Bush v. Gore, Americans still kept the faith in democratic institutions and the process. I went looking for lessons from that period of disruption. But all I found were the first cancer cells that have metastasized in our political system over the past 20 years.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, once confirmed, will be one of three current Supreme Court justices who assisted the legal team of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Florida ballot-recount battle that came down to a single vote at the Supreme Court… Of the original nine who decided the case two decades ago, only two remain, Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer. And they were on opposite sides.

We have entered a moment of irrational partisanship. If the election is close, yet marred with violence or credible claims—on either side—of fraud, that partisanship will trigger a self-righteous and irrational response, on both sides, and likely together. Each will have its reasons for the actions it takes. Each will believe itself justified by the wrongs charged to the other.

You don’t know what I, the Author & a scholar considered.

Somehow among a million possible concerns, you believe yours are supposed to jump to the top. That is called privilege.

If you cant accept there are frames to view history outside your own, I dont know what to tell you.

You can’t talk about Louis Farrakhan without mentioning his violent, unhinged antisemitism.

An incredible statement by the author of the Farrakhan oped in today’s
@nytimes. It exposes what happens when universalist-morality is usurped by identity-morality. In her worldview, “people who have become white” — Jews — cannot call out Farrakhan’s evil.

If you agree that your own life should be guided based on Torah values, then surely it applies to the leader who governs with the greatest authority, the president. So what are the attributes that God wants us to have, and especially for people in power? Some of the attributes that our president should emulate are: be truthful, support justice with mercy, have compassion, be slow to anger, and be abundant in kindness.

We Jews have a ladder of values that helps determine how to make decisions. One thing is clear from a multiplicity of situations — choose life… So it could not be any clearer to me that when there is a political leader who is actively promoting behaviors that have led — and will continue to lead — to the death of many of his citizens, anyone who professes Jewish values should not support such an individual.

If Trump wins an historic level of support among American Jews, it will be a testament to the wisdom of an unprecedented percentage of American Jews… The good news is that like Trump, Biden can be expected to take on white supremacists. The bad news is that in stark contrast to Trump, Biden can be expected to turn a blind eye to the growing anti-Semitism in his own political camp.

For thousands of years, California tribes burned the state’s forests and brushlands, clearing and enhancing the fire-adapted ecosystem. Then white people arrived and banned the practice… Only recently have scientists begun studying indigenous burning techniques, which were lit strategically at specific times of year in different places.

…people need to be comfortable with the idea of the use of fire. They need to accept a little bit of smoke and realize that it’s not a wildfire situation that we’re creating. It’s trying to mitigate for that, and all the other suite of benefits that would come from being able to do that kind of burning is a big part of that.

… if California wants to incorporate Indigenous fire practices, then that means grappling with the history of its Indigenous people. Indigenous communities can also facilitate a conversation about how fire practices can be a part of a larger cultural shift that values Indigenous lands and peoples.

Furie’s comic “Boy’s Club” establishes Pepe is a good-natured slacker who loves pizza and beer and hanging out with his equally aimless roommates. The artist explains that he named him after a childhood memory of a cousin who peed with his pants down instead of simply unzipping his fly. This isn’t the most dignified origin story for a cartoon character, but it is light years away from the figure that stars in memes intended to dehumanize and intimidate.

Actual-bigotry-camouflaged-as-ironic-bigotry seems like a new phenomenon, perhaps even a quintessentially 21st-century one, dependent on a mashup of consumerism and pop culture and being Very Online… Look at Pepe the cartoon frog, a symbol that white supremacists co-opted from its creator… But that’s not right-bigotry and absurdity have long been intertwined.

In tracking Pepe’s co-option, director Arthur Jones unveils a broader story of how tribalism in internet culture can vastly distort reality to a disturbing, and sometimes lethal, extent. The radicalization of Pepe can be traced to the controversial message board 4chan where he became a popular symbol for NEETs, a term meaning “not in education, employment, or training” that describes people who, whether by choice or circumstance, have no ambition to be in school or hold a job.