Better Friends Than Enemies

At this point we shouldn't be too surprised by any of the revelations coming out about the things the Trump Justice Department did, but the recent news that it went after the cellphone records for Democratic Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell struck a personal note with me.

We had both men as guests frequently on "Newsroom," the weekly television news show at KQED, which is Northern California's major public media corporation, during the time in question.

As the executive supervising the show, I greeted Schiff and Swalwell and their aides when they arrived at the Green Room and chatted with them before we went into the studio to tape the interview.

You always get a different sense of people when the lights and microphones are off than when they are on the air.

Both guys are charming, in the way many politicians are -- personable, gracious, smart and well-spoken. They are ambitious but there are many Democratic stars in California,  so they are also cautious about missteps when they are around media people.

I saw definite signs of improvement in their media performances over the years, as coaches stepped in to teach them how to stick with their talking points. Schiff seemed much more comfortable with national issues than state issues -- perhaps his media trainers had overlooked that part of his prep work.

TV is unforgivingly visual, so the men's appearance mattered more than it would in a print interview. Both dressed impeccably but Schiff is a rather wide-eyed fellow who occasionally got that "deer caught in the headlight" expression on the air.

I supposed that would create a ceiling on his long-term political prospects, although you never can tell, because it also makes him a bit endearing, almost naive-looking at times.

Swalwell, by contrast, has a more calculating look, can narrow his eyes and look more like the kind of an enemy the opposition researchers might take note of.

On a substantive level, as former prosecutors, both men are formidable questioners at hearings as they've demonstrated during their time in Congress.

So it didn't really come as a surprise to me, or to either of them, that Trump's J-Department hacks singled them out for special attention. 

I'd summarize the impression I got from my visits with these two gentlemen this way -- I think I'd much prefer to be their friend than their enemy.

***

If you hang around with children long enough, they'll show you creative ways to express skepticism.

Case in point: A breakfast conversation I had with my 7-year-old granddaughter last month, not long after Mother's Day, which was on May 9th.

Often the two of us are the only ones in the dining room from around 7-8 a.m., when her parents are busy and her older siblings still asleep, or pretending to be. Such was the case on this particular morning.

One of the things we often do together is check on the date. She is just learning all kinds of skills, including how to tell time and keep track of upcoming events.  Dates are a good way to practice math, as we did on 4-3-2-1, the sequence for April 3rd this year.

Or, if she feels bored after eating her breakfast cereal, I often suggest an art project, such as making a family member a birthday card or a card for some other special occasion.

"I know what you should do today," I told her. "Make your Mom a Mother's Day card!" 

She didn't point out the obvious about my absurd suggestion, which is that Mother's Day had just happened. instead she got a peculiar look on her face and said to no one in particular:

"*That* day sure came around again fast!"

Realizing my error, I quickly recovered to say, "What I mean is you should make her a birthday card, you know." 

"Ah," she said without expression. 

A sardonic wit will suit her well.

***

Ever since I resolved the disruption that started a week ago with my posts, there appears to be a noticeable falloff in traffic to this page. Perhaps my writing has deteriorated (I would be the last to know), or everyone's left on vacation, or the algorithm really doesn't like me. Whatever the cause, this totally sucks.

The news:

* America may be ‘back’ at G7, but allies’ doubts about U.S. democracy linger (Reuters)

* Hunting Leaks, Trump Officials Focused on Democrats in Congress -- The Justice Department seized records from Apple for metadata of House Intelligence Committee members, their aides and family members. (NYT)

* Trump Justice Dept. secretly sought records of two House Democrats -- The move in 2018 to subpoena Apple for the data of Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as well as the data of several of their current and former staffers and family members, came as part of an aggressive push by the Trump administration to hunt down leakers. (WP)

* Former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department reportedly seized records on a dozen people connected to two House Intelligence Committee Democrats in an effort to find out who leaked classified information about Trump’s relationship with Russia to reporters. The spying reportedly targeted Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the House committee’s top Democrat at the time of the subpoenas and currently its chair, and Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.), a committee member. [HuffPost]

* DOJ seeks internal probe on seizure of Democrats’ data (AP)

* Christian group tied to Justice Amy Coney Barrett faces reckoning over sexual misconduct (WP)

* Starbucks, Flush With Customers, Is Running Low on Ingredients -- At locations across the country, there have been complaints about shortages of key ingredients for popular drinks, breakfast foods and even cups, lids and straws. (NYT)

* Al Gore pressed Biden to stick with climate plans as liberals fear White House is softening its agenda (WP)

* Amazon Could Be Forced to Shed Assets Under Bill--The House bill could mandate structural separation of the e-commerce giant and other big tech companies that Congress spent 15 months investigating as part of an inquiry into their size and power. (WSJ)

* In a no-holds-barred rebuke of the federal judge who overturned California’s three-decade-old assault weapons ban, Gov. Gavin Newsom lambasted U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez as a “stone-cold ideologue” and shill of the gun industry. The state will appeal the ruling. [HuffPost]

* Ex-Mossad chief signals Israel attacked Iran nuclear assets (AP)

* Mapping the destruction left by Israeli strikes on Gaza --Data released by the U.N. this week shows that it could take years for Gaza to rebuild after the Israeli bombings in May. Along some 140 square miles, 459 buildings were destroyed or damaged. (WP)

* As U.S. Withdraws, Afghan Interpreters Fear Being Left Behind (NYT)

* Dreams of Hazara children snuffed out in attack on school (AP)

* FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that companies shouldn't make ransomware payments to hacking groups, even as major companies in the past month have participated in multimillion-dollar transactions to get their systems back online. Such payments can encourage more cyberattacks and victims may not get their data back, Wray said. [AP]

* Elite German Police Unit Disbanded Over Far-Right Group Chat -- The move against the unit in Frankfurt is the latest by German authorities to clamp down on a rise in far-right networks in several state security units and in the military. (NYT)

* Alan Hostetter, a police chief turned yogi, was indicted along with Three Percenter extremists in a conspiracy to attack the Capitol. “Some people, at the highest levels, need to be made an example of: an execution or two or three,” he says in a recording he made of his thoughts. [HuffPost]

* Men Said to Be Tied to Three Percenters Movement Are Charged in Capitol Riot --The indictment marks the first charges lodged against conspirators linked to the radical gun rights group or involved with planning any of the political events held the week of the attack. (NYT)

* China’s children may be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines (AP)

* What You Need to Know About the Delta Variant --The COVID-19 variant that has ravaged India is now spreading in the United States, and some public health experts have warned that it could interfere with the progress we’ve made toward our return to normalcy. Preliminary reports suggest the Delta variant is more transmissible (up to 40% more than the original form of the coronavirus from 2019). There have also been anecdotal reports that it causes more severe illness and bizarre symptoms like gangrene and hearing loss. The Delta variant only seems to be a real issue in people who are unprotected; those who’ve been fully vaccinated appear to have sufficient protection against this variant. This is likely why the Delta variant became such a problem in India, where the vaccination rate was (and is) low. People who previously had COVID-19 also appear to similarly be protected. Evidence has found that though antibody levels drop after infection, another part of our immune system — the cell-mediated immune response — can kick into action. (HuffPost)

* PG&E Warns of More Blackouts During California’s Wildfire Season -- The state’s largest utility said a new shut-off criteria and California’s dry weather conditions could lead to more power cuts than in 2020, especially if seasonal winds are as strong as they have been in recent years. (WSJ)

* Illinois Restaurants Reopen At 95% Capacity After Factoring In Quarantine Weight Gain (The Onion)

***

That's Life

Song by Frank Sinatra

Songwriters: Gordon Kelly L / Thompson Dean K

That's life
(That's life)
That's what all the people say
You're riding high in April, shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top, back on top in June

I said that's life
(That's life)
And as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks
Stomping on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down
Cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin' around

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet
A pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself
Flat on my face
I pick myself up and get
Back in the race

That's life
(That's life)
I tell you, I can't deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet
A pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself layin'
Flat on my face
I just pick myself up and get
Back in the race

That's life
(That's life)
That's life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out but my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shaking come this here July
I'm gonna roll myself up
In a big ball and die
My, my

-30-

Perturbations of the Plague

I have an eery feeling that soon we will be reverting to the state we were in back in late 2019 when reports of a strange new coronavirus in the Far East started reaching us. And I'm chagrined to say that at that time I did not take the initial reports very seriously, dismissing them as "probably just another SARS scare." 

Today, at least 175 million cases and 3.76 million deaths later, I won't be making that mistake again. It is significant news that once again, authorities in China are clamping down in response to a new outbreak of the disease due to variants that are severely contagious and perhaps immune to our vaccines.

Meanwhile, the vaccination situation remains problematic here, since only one U.S. city (Seattle) has achieved a 70 percent vaccinated rate so far; in the South the poke rates remain alarmingly low.

Most of us certainly realize there is no reason to panic at the prospect of Covid's resurgence, even though vigilance is called for. At present the outbreaks remain far away, like summer storms forming beyond the horizon. And we know we have experts alert to the storms' progress who will warn us if and when it's time to board up the windows again, i.e., mask up and go back into isolation.

Assuming the mutated variants eventually infiltrate our communities here in the U.S. to an extent that they affect us, we will most likely also have the additional protection of updated vaccines, probably in the form of booster shots.

In almost every way but one, we will be much better prepared than way back then if and when  the virus makes a comeback in our neck of the woods, but that one way is huge.

It is the residual polarization -- partially Trump's legacy -- that will prevent us from reaching local herd immunity and allow anti-vaxxers to thrive in the public sphere who profit from their propaganda (another interesting story brought to light by journalists.)

A much larger longterm implication will hinge on resolution of the mystery of how this virus jumped from bats in caves in one district in China to humans 1,000 miles away next to a bio-weapons lab in Wuhan. That story, once it can be told, should affect the future of bio-warfare research globally.

What will be needed is a day of reckoning with the impact of the anti-nuke movement back in the 1970s. I'll never forget interviewing Ralph Nader in 1976 for Rolling Stone on a street corner in San Francisco about Prop. 15 -- California's grassroots nuclear power initiative.

<https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/californias-proposition-15-fearful-little-people-58417/>

Nader told me the proponents of nuclear power were suffering from a disease called "technological insanity." But former governor Pat Brown (father of Jerry Brown) disagreed with Nader. He told me that the opponents were "fearful little people … scared to death of death."

(My editors liked that phrase -- "fearful little people" -- so much they made it the headline of my article.)

Meanwhile, author Barry Commoner said “(nuclear power) is like trying to kill a fly with a cannonball: you’ll get the fly but there will be a lot of damage."  

I interviewed tons of other people, including activists and scientists for that story, trying to capture the perspectives of all sides on the matter. 

In the end, Prop. 15 prevailed and the nuclear power industry has never really recovered. We're all safer as a result.

The point of this essay is we are probably going to need a similar movement against biological warfare research once the lab origin of Covid-19 gets verified as I think it will be.

If I'm still around, maybe I'll write *that* story. And I promise I won't say "I told you so..."

***

Another sad obit from the publishing world: Oxford University Press is dying at the age of 535.

***

(NOTE: Today's top story broke too late for me to properly react to it. I will do so later today.)

The headlines:

* Trump Justice Dept. secretly sought records of two House Democrats -- The move in 2018 to subpoena Apple for the data of Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as well as the data of several of their current and former staffers and family members, came as part of an aggressive push by the Trump administration to hunt down leakers. (WP, NYT, HuffPost)

* Oxford University Press to end centuries of tradition by closing its printing arm -- The University’s right to print books was first recognized in 1586, in a decree from the Star Chamber. But its centuries-old printing history will end this summer, after the publishing house announced the last vestige of its printing arm was closing. (The Guardian)

* Covid-19 Deaths This Year Have Already Eclipsed 2020’s Toll-- As wealthy nations vaccinate, the growing death tally underscores the worsening divide between rich and poor nations and highlights how the pandemic is far from over. (WSJ)

* The media called the ‘lab leak’ story a ‘conspiracy theory.’ Now the theory has prompted corrections — and serious new reporting. -- The pandemic’s origins are still unknown. But while the lab leak theory was first dismissed as politically motivated, it has gained new respect among journalists. (WP)

* China Returns to Its Strict Covid Limits to Fight a New Outbreak (NYT) 

* As India’s pandemic surge eases, a race begins to prepare for a possible next wave (WP) 

* Biden to Send 500 Million Doses of Pfizer Vaccine to 100 Countries Over a Year -- The White House’s move is part of a nascent campaign to inoculate the world, and came as President Biden faced intense pressure to do more. (NYT)

* Global approval of the United States has rebounded under Biden, survey finds (WP)

* Despite Ample Shots and Incentives, Vaccine Rates Lag Far Behind in the South -- Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have the lowest vaccination rates in the country, increasing the risk of virus surges there. (NYT)

* Allies — and one adversary — will test Biden’s diplomacy (WP)

* Joe Biden opened the first overseas trip of his presidency by seeking to reassert the nation on the world stage and steady European allies deeply shaken by his predecessor. The first stop on his eight-day trip was a visit with U.S. troops at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England. (AP)

* U.S. Weighs Possibility of Airstrikes if Afghan Forces Face Crisis -- The Pentagon is considering whether to intervene with warplanes or drones in the event that Kabul is in danger of falling to the Taliban, though no decisions have been made. (NYT)

* 10 Mine-Clearing Workers Are Killed in Afghanistan Attack -- Gunmen killed at least 10 people and injured 16 in an attack on staff members of a British-American charity working in Afghanistan to remove land mines, officials said on Wednesday. (AP, Reuters)

* Former Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to carry out Donald Trump's demands to overthrow the November 2020 election staved off a constitutional crisis at the very least, and possibly widespread national violence. S.V. Dáte wonders why no one wants to talk about it -- especially Pence. [HuffPost]

* FBI director suggests 'serious charges' coming in probe of Capitol attack (Reuters)

* Prices jumped 5 percent in May, continuing inflationary climb. Policymakers say it’s temporary. (WP)

* A Growing Number Of Critics Raise Alarms About The Electoral College (NPR)

* A new election forecast gives Democrats hope for 2022 -- "Despite their extremely narrow majorities, the forecasts ... show that Democrats have a reasonable chance of keeping control of both chambers in the midterm elections..." (CNN)

* To save the planet, the world needs to tackle the crises of climate change and species loss together, taking measures that fix both and not just one, United Nations scientists said in a report (AP).

* Collapse of Infrastructure Talks Puts Climate Action at Risk (NYT)

* CEOs and investors push world leaders for stronger climate action (Reuters)

* Mandatory water restrictions are on the way for the some two million residents of Santa Clara County as the drought worsens. (San Francisco Chronicle)

* Biden Administration to Restore Clean-Water Protections Ended by Trump (NYT)

* Salt erosion decaying world's oldest cave painting -- The oldest known cave painting is decaying at a rapid pace due to climate change, archaeologists said, as experts race against time to find ways to preserve the priceless prehistorical artwork in Indonesia. (Reuters)

* Scientists hail golden age to trace bird migration with tech (AP)

* Newly discovered planet could have water clouds -- Scientists have discovered an exoplanet located 90 light-years from Earth with an intriguing atmosphere -- one that could contain water clouds. (CNN)

* Child Labor Surges For The First Time In 20 Years. The Pandemic May Make That Worse. (NPR)

* Drop in routine childhood vaccinations during pandemic may raise risk of other outbreaks, CDC says (WP)

* College Football Playoff considering expansion to 12 teams (AP)

* How Videoconferences Make It Harder for Employees to Collaborate(WSJ)

* One of legendary University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler’s sons and two of his former players described in heartbreaking detail Thursday how they were molested by the team’s longtime doctor and how Schembechler turned a blind eye when they told him about the abuse, telling one to “toughen up” and punching his son in anger. (AP)

* Spring Numbers Show 'Dramatic' Drop In College Enrollment (NPR)

* N. Carolina ban on Down syndrome abortions goes to governor  (AP)

* Man Flattered Spam Caller Believes He Has Car, House, Savings Account To Defraud (The Onion)

***

"Save the World"

By George Harrison

We've got to save the world
Someone else may want to use it
So far we've seen
This planet's rape, how we've abused it
We've got to save the world

The Russians have the biggest share
With their long fingers everywhere
And now they've bombs in outer space
With laser beams and atomic waste

Rain forest chopped for paper towels
One acre gone in every hour
Our birds and wildlife all destroyed
To keep some millionaires employed

We've got to save the whale
Greenpeace they've tried to diffuse it
But dog food salesmen
Persist on kindly to harpoon it
We've got to save the world

The armament consortium
They're selling us plutonium
Now you can make your own H-bomb
Right in the kitchen with your mom

The nuclear power that costs you more
Than anything you've known before
The half-wit's answer to a need
For cancer, death, destruction, greed

We've got to save the world
Someone's children they may need it
So far we've seen
The big business of extinction bleed it
We've got to save the world

We're at the mercy of so few
With evil hearts determined to
Reduce this planet into hell
Then find a buyer and make quick sale

To end upon a happy note
Like trying to make concrete float
Is very simple knowing that
God in your heart lives

We've got to save the world
Someone else may want to use it
It's time you knew
How close we've come
We're gonna lose it 
We gotta save, we gotta save
We gotta save the world.

-30-

Lost and Found

As we emerge from the isolation imposed by Covid, we're finally meeting up in person after over a year where almost all of our interactions had to be virtual. Even when we did see each other in the flesh, we were masked and distanced and defensive in posture.

There was no hugging, no smiling, no high-5-ing.

But there were plenty of zoom calls, text conversations, and lots of social media.

Although technically an early adopter of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I never actually used any of them regularly until the pandemic.

That is when a combination of factors -- illness, retirement, the lockdown -- converged to set me off as a writer on a mission.

In retrospect, it was natural for me to choose Facebook as my writing outlet. I'd been composing similar thoughts and feelings in blogs for over 15 years, with only a tiny audience. It had replaced my earlier writing habit, which was to keep hand-written journals. (That went on for 40+ years.)

The year was 2005. I had started blogging in the wake of a painful breakup after a relatively short relationship, and when I told friends at work what had happened, one of them said "Why don't you write your way out of it?"

My colleague, who was gay, told me that after a breakup she had written imaginary love letters to her former girlfriend. She said it helped her recover. Then she had an idea.

"David, you love to write. Why not start a blog and use it as a way to write love letters to your lost friend? You don't have to show it to anybody."

Of course! I took her advice and opened a blog and started writing every day -- not exactly love letters but wistful, nostalgic memories that captured my sense of longing for all that was gone. I was in a pitiable state of heartache, having virtually stopped eating, and even bereft of my normal caustic sense of humor, usually my most reliable ally.

In the blog, I described my ex-girlfriend at times but never named her or gave any identifying details.

What I was seeking as a person was sympathy but as a writer I needed to make it more universal in nature as opposed to being strictly about me. I made the blog public but only told a few fiends what I was doing. Over time, I got the sense that my ex-girlfriend was one of those reading my posts, which later turned out to be true, but that didn't really matter in the end.

By then I'd moved on. The emotional relief I'd been seeking came through the writing process. That, in turn, was a life lesson.

Slowly, over many months, my blog accreted a small audience, perhaps 50 regular readers, a handful of whom left comments and encouraged me to keep going.  Some of them shared their own stories of heartbreak with me in the comments, which built a sense of community around the effort.

Then late one night, a new commenter caught my attention. Whoever it was was clearly contacting me from someplace very far away, across the ocean.

I couldn't tell from the name whether this was a man or a woman. But whoever it was indicated that they too were healing from a lost relationship and my words brought them some comfort. Something about their use of language attracted me.

Weeks went by and a few more comments from my mysterious friend drifted in. I decided I simply needed to know more about this person. Upon inquiry, it became obvious that she was a woman; also, that she would be visiting San Francisco in the very near future. 

So we set a time and place to meet in person -- at a bookstore in the Inner Sunset near Golden Gate Park.

I got there early, as is my custom, and was browsing the best-selling non-fiction table when an attractive woman with long black hair walked up and tapped me on the shoulder. We smiled at each other and agreed to take a walk in the park to get to know each another.

She explained that she worked as both a journalist and a translator back home, and had visited the States for extended periods in the past, which explained her proficiency in English. She said she was here on a tourist visa to scout out work prospects. 

After that first meeting, we agreed to meet again a few days later. Then again a few nights later. And then again. Pretty soon I was driving to the Inner Sunset every night I was free so we could just hang out in cafes and restaurants and talk.

My new friend had found a room via Craigslist in that neighborhood but was not entirely pleased with the arrangement. The man who owned the house lived there too and only rented rooms out to young foreign women like her.

She said he made her feel uncomfortable. She also explained that in order to obtain a work visa she would be returning to her home country to arrange a work sponsor there.

Despite our language and cultural differences, we shared many of the same values and interests; our talks grew longer and longer, covering a vast number of topics. Most people tend to repeat themselves a lot, and use the same words over and over, which irritates me, but she was different.

Despite her accent and frequent grammatical and pronunciation errors, she clearly was comfortable using a wide vocabulary and had a passion for learning about virtually any topic I brought up. She'd keep a list of any words she encountered that she didn't understand, and I helped her with those --- particularly the nuances. 

I never felt I had to condescend to her, although since my Peace Corps days I know that I tend to speak a little slower and articulate my words more clearly with non-native speakers.

Sometimes during our talks, when it was late and she was tired, I encouraged her to speak to me in her native language for a while before I took her home. I knew some words and phrases from my traveling days and wanted to improve my skills.

I also started helping her network with journalism and non-profit organizations as part of her quest to move here permanently.

One night after a long dinner I asked her if she wanted to see San Francisco from the best vantage in town, which, of course, is up on Twin Peaks, where you can look down on the City north, south and east all the way to the Bay and beyond.

From there, you can see how the Ferry Building marks the start of Market Street, which angles through downtown out to the Castro and winds back and forth all the way up to the heights where we were standing.

The summer fog was holding back to the west that night, but it was late and more than a bit chilly. She moved up against me as we chatted on the hill.

After she'd snapped some photos of the view, we held hands as we returned to my car. She pointed toward a parking lot a little further up the hill, where a number of cars were parked in the dark.

"What is that place up there?"

"That is what we call a Lover's Lane."

(To be continued.)

***

The news:

* Local newsrooms can combat polarization, if only they have the margins -- While partisan divides have increased, local newsrooms have struggled. Since 2008, the number of journalists in US newsrooms has been cut in half. At least 1,800 geographic communities that had a local newspaper in the year 2004 had no local source of original reporting left by 2020. (Columbia Journalism Review)

* Biden Ends Infrastructure Talks With Republicans, Falling Short of a Deal -- After weeks of failed efforts to bridge deep divides, the president pulled the plug, turning to a bipartisan group to try to salvage a chance at compromise. (NYT)

* Harris wraps up a Latin America trip that featured sharp words to would-be immigrants (WP)

* ProPublica obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing billionaires pay little to nothing in income tax compared to their massive wealth. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Michael Bloomberg and many others did not pay a penny in federal income tax some years. Make some time for this big investigation. [ProPublica]

* A Record Number Of Americans, Including Republicans, Now Support Same-Sex Marriage -- The rise in support stems largely from a majority of Republicans, who for the first time back same-sex marriage at 55%, according to Gallup. (NPR)

* The U.S. isn't on pace to meet President Joe Biden's goal of having 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by July 4. The White House has launched a monthlong blitz to combat vaccine hesitancy and a lack of urgency to get shots, but is increasingly resigned to not hitting the target. [AP]

* Trump’s continued refusal to accept 2020 election results is keeping some Jan. 6 rioters in jail (WP)

* Stacey Abrams’ voting rights group will begin a monthlong effort to mobilize young Americans of color to support the For the People Act, landmark legislation that would combat GOP voter suppression nationwide. Her organization, Fair Fight Action, will launch an initiative called Hot Call Summer. [HuffPost]

* Google to build new undersea cable to connect Latin America and the U.S. (Reuters)

* There's A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States' Vaccination Rates (NPR)

* ‘This IS INSANE’: Africa desperately short of COVID vaccine (AP)

* Why the Hybrid Workplace Is a Cybersecurity Nightmare --It’s a hacker’s dream: a constantly changing mix of office and remote workers, devices that move in and out of the company networks, and security staffs stretched thin. (WSJ)

* For Netanyahu, like Trump, Only ‘Fraud’ Can Explain His Defeat -- Israel’s democratic transition is set for Sunday, but nothing is certain amid the prime minister’s scorched-earth campaign to wreck his opponents’ coalition. (NYT)

* China meddled in family planning. Now it faces a population crisis. (WP)

* Drought-stricken Nevada enacts ban on ‘non-functional’ grass (AP)

* Women Now Drink As Much As Men — Not So Much For Pleasure, But To Cope (NPR)

* Protected Habitat, for a Population of One -- Fifty years ago, Marty Bluewater fought to keep his home among the nesting birds of Protection Island. Now he’s fighting for the birds. (NYT)

* Delta variant accounts for 6 percent of new U.S. coronavirus infections (WP)

* The Drought In The Western U.S. Is Getting Bad. Climate Change Is Making It Worse (NPR) 

* Intensifying Calif. drought promises ‘very concerning’ fire season (WP)

* Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Bill to Bolster Competitiveness With China -- The wide margin of support reflected a sense of urgency among lawmakers in both parties about shoring up the technological and industrial capacity of the United States to counter Beijing. (NYT)

* A Group Of Gray Whales Survives Die-Off With An Annual Detour To Puget Sound (NPR)

* Report: Easiest Path To U.S. Visa Still Signing with Dallas Mavericks (The Onion)

***

"I Left My Heart In San Francisco"

Song by Tony Bennett

Songwriters: D. Cross / G. Cory

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly grey
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the Bay
I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me

When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me

-30-

The Big Hole

If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you've seen what this country's greatest natural divide looks like up close.  It's 18 miles across, a mile deep and 277 miles long. The state of Rhode Island could fit inside that hole.

It's also a fitting metaphor for the political divide that besets our nation. Never before in modern history have the two sides been further apart, speaking different languages from    opposite cliffs staring into the void.

The whole country looks to be on the verge of falling in.

I never have considered myself an alarmist but I am deeply alarmed at what is shaping up to be terrible confrontation between the warring parties next year. They are screaming separate versions of reality at us and share no common ground at all -- just that giant hole.

The Republicans have calcified around Trump's myth that the election was stolen from him. He is inciting officials all over the country to put new rules in place and elect new representatives with the open intent to steal power back.

The Democrats consider the Jan. 6th riot at the Capitol to have been an insurrection intended to subvert our democracy and override the will of the voters.

All a simple journalist like me can do is state the obvious: Trump's supporters are wrong; Biden won fair and square and did not steal the election. Trump is the one who tried to steal the election. And the Democrats are correct that the groundwork Republicans are laying represents an unprecedented threat to our democracy.

These are objective opinions backed by provable facts.

But an objective journalist might as well be yelling into a void as great as the Grand Canyon in the current political environment. If I simply speak the truth, I am painted as a partisan, which I most definitively am not.

We are in trouble.

Nate Silver's 538 polling site says Republicans are "on track to take back the House in 2022," based on a big gerrymandering advantage over Democrats. 

And in the Senate the GOP needs to only flip one seat, which is highly possible.

Biden would still be President, of course, but he would then face a completely hostile Congress that would make any legislative progress on the actual problems facing us impossible. No more stimulus checks, progress on climate change, help for our immigration crisis, a fighting shot at taxing the rich and closing the wealth gap, countering racism, ending hate crimes, giving hope and comfort to the poor or the outcasts.

No more hope for change. Rather a return to the hateful, spiteful politics of resentment of the Trump era.

So, assuming the Republicans win next year, both parties would next gear up for the 2024 Presidential race. By all measures, Biden should win re-election by a safe margin if the economy is strong, the pandemic ends, and no new disaster reshuffles the political deck.

But those are big ifs and also, Biden will turn 81 in 2024. He will have to stay healthy and maintain a high favorable rating, which he currently possesses, to win re-election.

Who knows what the mess in Congress will look like by then.

It took the Colorado River 6 million years to carve out the Grand Canyon. But it may run dry before we have a solution to the political drought plaguing our nation this year, next year, and beyond.

***

My recent skirmish with Facebook over not being able to access my essays or comments ended when I had exhausted every suggestion their support team and my Facebook friends had given me.

I'd updated all the apps, switched browsers, cleared caches, cleaned the Mac, started and restarted everything, consumed extra cups of coffee, and generally created what one of my ex's would call a psychodrama.

That's not like me. I'm not given to panic attacks. But it taught me a lesson -- that I have become dependent on this social network to an extraordinary degree.

In the end, one simple step fixed everything. I gave Facebook access to my geo-location on my phone. Immediately that location popped up on my laptop page as well and I could suddenly see all the "lost" posts.

I wish I had known just how badly Facebook wanted to know where I was coming from. Then again, why didn't they just read my posts?

I know, I know. There is no "they" there, just an algorithm.

***

The news:

* Rejecting Biden’s Win, Rising Republicans Attack Legitimacy of Elections -- The next generation of aspiring G.O.P. congressional leaders has aggressively pushed Donald Trump’s false fraud claims, raising the prospect that the results of elections will continue to be challenged through 2024. (NYT)

* Capitol Police had intelligence about invasion weeks before riot, Senate probe finds -- The findings represent the most detailed — and bipartisan — public account to date of the security failures that led to the Jan. 6 riot. It comes as Congress is debating legislation to fund safety improvements at the Capitol (WP)

* 'Bring Your Guns': Probe Uncovers More Alarming Intelligence Before The Capitol Riot (NPR)

* In Arizona 2020 Election Review, Risks for Republicans, and Democracy -- Experts call it a circus. Polls say it will hurt the G.O.P. in 2022. But Republicans are on board in Arizona and elsewhere, despite warnings of lasting damage to the political system. (NYT)

* W.H.O. Calls for End to ‘Two-Track Pandemic’ Response -- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said that inequitable vaccine distribution has allowed coronavirus deaths to rise in low-income countries with less access, despite wider global declines. (AP)

* Wealth Gap Likely to Widen as Major Economies Power Recovery, World Bank Says (WSJ)

* Canada to move against far-right groups after Muslim family attack (Reuters)

* After six months of Democratic control in Washington, the party’s progressive wing is growing increasingly restless as campaign promises go undone — blocked not only by Republican obstruction, but also by Democrats’ inability to unite fully around priorities. “There’s a lot of anxiety,” said Rep. Ro Khanna. “It’s a question really for President Biden: What kind of president does he want to be?” [AP]

* FBI-controlled app ensnares scores of alleged criminals in global police sting (WP)

* Supreme Court Rules Against Immigrants Seeking Green Cards -- The justices said immigrants with “temporary protected status” who entered the country without authorization may not apply for lawful permanent residency. (NYT)

* G-7 leaders face pressure to aid poor countries grappling with climate change (WP)

* For a network of social media influencers, speaking out against vaccines, including the coronavirus shots, isn't just a personal crusade. It's also a profitable business. Find out how they are cashing in from spreading fears. [HuffPost]

* Spate of Mass Shootings Is Among Worst in U.S. History (WSJ)

* Companies that have lobbied Gavin Newsom, like PG&E and Kaiser Permanente, have also given tens of thousands of dollars to his wife’s nonprofit. (Sacramento Bee)

* As other states make abortion more restrictive, California is moving to make it free for more people. (Kaiser Health News)

* Job Openings Reached Record Level This Spring (WSJ)

* Cuomo’s administration contends with investigative scrutiny on multiple fronts (WP)

* Telegraph and Mescal Wildfires Force Hundreds of Evacuations -- Two wildfires, less than 50 miles away from each other, have burned tens of thousands of acres east of Phoenix as of Monday morning. (AP, Storyful)

* An annular solar eclipse, also known as a “ring of fire” eclipse, will occur on June 10. People in the far north will get to see the whole spectacle, but some other locations will be able to see a partial solar eclipse. [HuffPost]

* A team of engineers is trying to stop the Golden Gate Bridge from “humming.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

* Dozens of websites went down briefly around the globe Tuesday, including CNN, The New York Times and Britain’s government home page, after an outage at the cloud computing service Fastly, illustrating how vital a small number of behind-the-scenes companies have become to running the Internet. (AP)

* Switzerland to vote on synthetic pesticides ban -- It could become the first European country to ban artificial pesticides in a June 13 referendum. (Reuters)

* Scientists confirm discovery of Australia's largest dinosaur, two stories tall and a basketball court long. (CNN)

* A Herd of Wild Elephants Wandering Across China Captivates Millions (WSJ)

* 'Unprecedented rate of cancer' in sea lions -- Chemical dumping in Californian waters has sparked the highest prevalence of cancer in any mammal, including humans. (Reuters)

* The joy of Crossing Paths With Strangers (The New Yorker)

* "I found the Bay Area dock where Otis Redding wrote his final song" -- Waldo Point Harbor, Sausalito. (Don Gentile/SFGate)

* Report: Bananas Still Most Popular Fruit For Pretending To Receive Phone Call (The Onion)

***

"(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay"

Song by Otis Redding

Written by Otis Redding/Steve Cropper

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco Bay
'Cause I've had nothin' to live for
It look like nothin's gonna come my way
So I'm just gon' sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time

Look like nothin's gonna change
Everything, still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes

Sittin' here restin' my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, listen
Two thousand miles, I roam
Just to make this dock my home
Now I'm just gon' sit, at the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh yeah
Sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

-30-

A Winning Percentage

Note: As this essay goes to press, at 3 am Tuesday PT, I still cannot view any of my daily essays or comments since last Friday June 4th. Facebook keeps replying to my Help requests but so far there is no resolution. For now I intend to keep posting anyway but if this is not resolved, I'll put up a notice to say where my new web location will be going forward. This experience has convinced me there is no long-term future for me at Facebook.

People like me who are enjoy both statistics and sports *love* baseball, pure and simple. One reason is that in baseball, unlike life, you can be successful by failing more often than not.

A great batting average is .300, which translates to three hits out of every ten tries. Currently, a little over a third of the way through the major league season, only 14 of the roughly 400 rostered position players in MLB are maintaining that high a batting average. Nick Castellanos of Cincinnati leads everyone at .359.

But there is another measure of hitting success, called on-base percentage (OBP), which includes walks and getting hit by the pitch. A mere six players have attained .400 in this category; Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., of Toronto leads all players at .436. 

(Both of these categories require a certain number of plate appearances.)

The point here is that for all of the rest of us who are not Major League Baseball hitters, that kind of success ratio in most jobs would be considered an abject failure.

But perhaps a lesson we can take from the Nicks and Vlads of this world is to keep trying even when we fail. They are elite performers because they don't let adversity define or confine them.

They just pick themselves up and keep going.

Again in baseball, there are mirror-image stats for pitchers. Earned Run Average (ERA) captures the earned runs per inning pitched -- a good level would be 3.00, which translates into three runs per nine innings pitched.

Just twenty-one of the roughly 380 rostered pitchers are below 3.00 in ERA so far, headed up by Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets with a microscopic 0.62.

Another pitching stat is WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched). A WHIP under 1.00 is considered exemplary. There are currently 16 pitchers at that elite level, headed up again by the amazing deGrom at 0.57.

None of these statistical achievements are likely to stand up over the course of the entire season, because virtually every player will hit a slump. Castellanos has a career BA of only .278 and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. an OPB of .360. As a pitcher, deGrom has a career ERA of 2.51 and a WHIP of 1.02.

Everyone who soars eventually returns closer to the mean.

So, again, regarding the rest of us, what can we divine from this? Everyone gets to go on a hot streak now and then, but absolutely no one is on top of the game all the time. We all hit slumps.

But persistence is its own reward and the older we get, hopefully the smarter we get at recognizing when and how we can have the most impact, which may be the ultimate measure of a successful life.

And by impacts I do not mean becoming a billionaire or winning baseball titles, far from it.

Rather, recognizing the moment you can reach out to a person in crisis and choosing to do so -- that is success. Helping save a life. 

Being generous with your time, your skill, your friendship -- that is success. Loneliness and isolation kill people.

Taking a stand when it matters is another measure of success. It most definitely may not be rewarded in real time; in fact, the opposite often occurs.

But that is a grand slam home run every single time in my book, and I'm keeping score. The thing to remember is none of this is a game.

***

The news:

* Scientists begin to unravel the mysteries of the coronavirus and brains -- Even as the pandemic appears ready to recede in the United States, dropping below an average of 30,000 new cases daily, it will take years to fully understand the way the virus afflicts the brain. (WP)

* Google said it would make changes to its global advertising business to ensure it did not abuse its dominance, bowing to antitrust pressure for the first time in a landmark settlement with French authorities.The deal with the French competition watchdog could help rebalance the power over advertising in favor of publishers, which held sway over the business in the pre-internet era but lost control with the rapid rise of Google and Facebook. (Reuters)

* Manchin Vows to Block Democratic Voting Rights Bill and Preserve Filibuster -- Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, appeared to slam the door on the far-reaching measure when he wrote that he would not vote for any partisan voting bill. (NYT)

* Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) tore into Manchin over an opinion piece in which the West Virginia Democrat wrote he would vote against a timely elections bill because it doesn't have the support of Republicans. “Sen. Manchin would rather preserve Jim Crow on some outdated theory of bipartisanship that frankly does not exist in the same way today as it did a generation ago,” Jones said on MSNBC. [HuffPost]

* Supreme Court begins its sprint to finish — with a retirement decision possible -- As the court’s term winds down, decisions await on the future of the Affordable Care Act, gay and religious rights, and whether Justice Stephen G. Breyer will create an opening for President Biden to fill. (WP)

* Federal Student-Loan Loss Forecast Rises by $53 Billion --The new estimate reflects pandemic-relief efforts for borrowers and low repayment rates on the government’s $1.6 trillion portfolio. (WSJ)

* Israeli Security Forces Clash With Protesters in East Jerusalem -- The security forces fired stun grenades at demonstrators rallying in East Jerusalem in support of several leading Palestinian activists who were arrested in the area on Sunday. (AP)

* Amid unending conflicts, Gazans wrestle with rebuilding — and whether it’s worth it (WP)

* 2021 is on pace to be the worst year for U.S. voter suppression laws since 2011, and activists are worried that Democrats aren't responding aggressively enough. Fueled by lies that widespread voter fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 election, Republicans have passed new voter suppression laws at the fastest pace in a decade.  [HuffPost]

* Trump allies’ push for ballot reviews started quietly in Pa. -- In December, Republican state senators asked several counties in the state to allow a private company to scrutinize ballots cast last fall, a tactic that allies of former president Donald Trump are seeking to employ across the country. (WP)

* The Justice Department has recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation's largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month, officials said Monday. (AP)

* C.I.A. Scrambles for New Approach in Afghanistan -- The rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops has left the agency seeking ways to maintain its intelligence-gathering, war-fighting and counterterrorism operations in the country. (NYT)

* Vaccination rates fall off, imperiling Biden’s July Fourth goal (WP)

* Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting (AP)

* Famed naturalist David Attenborough said climate change is a “crime” humanity has committed against the planet in an interview that aired Sunday, asking why society should have the prerogative to continue “poisoning life on earth” when there is still time for redemption. Attenborough has concluded that the problem has grown so large as to be beyond the burden of any one nation. [HuffPost]

* Despite pandemic, level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits historic levels (WP)

* Carbon dioxide levels hit 50% higher than preindustrial time (AP)

* Offshore Wind Farms Show What Biden’s Climate Plan Is Up Against -- The U.S. has fallen way behind Europe partly because of an old shipping law and opposition from homeowners and fishing groups. (NYT)

* G-7 should bear most of cost of vaccinating low-income countries, say former leaders (WP)

* We’re Finally Starting to Revolt Against the Cult of Ambition -- Naomi Osaka has given a public face to a growing, and long overdue, rebellion. (NYT)

* Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she believes U.S. officials made a mistake in initially dismissing the idea that COVID-19 was the result of a laboratory. Rice, who served as national security adviser during the SARS outbreak in 2003, said one early red flag was that U.S. officials had previously called safety practices “substandard” at a lab studying coronaviruses in bats in Wuhan, China. [HuffPost]

* FDA approves Biogen Alzheimer's drug, shares soar (Reuters)

* Democratic Report Raises 2022 Alarms on Messaging and Voter Outreach -- A new report, in perhaps the most thorough soul-searching done by either party this year, points to an urgent need for the party to present a positive economic agenda and rebut Republican misinformation. (NYT)

* California's insurance regulator endorsed proposals that would aggressively limit construction in fire-prone areas. If adopted, they could reshape the real estate market. (California Today)

* U.C.L.A. economists said California’s strict Covid restrictions protected its economy, and the state is now poised for one of the best years of economic growth “since World War II. (Los Angeles Times)

* Jeff Bezos announces he’ll be on first crewed spaceflight of Blue Origin rocket (WP)

* NASA Spacecraft Made A Flyby Visit To The Largest Moon In The Solar System (NPR)

* A microscopic animal has been revived after slumbering in the Arctic permafrost for 24,000 years. Bdelloid rotifers typically live in watery environments and have an incredible ability to survive. Russian scientists found the creatures in a core of frozen soil extracted from the Siberian permafrost using a drilling rig.Once the rotifer thawed, the creature was able to reproduce, the study said. The tiny invertebrates were also able to feed. (CNN)

* How Mickey Guyton Is Making Country Music Her Own -- The “Black Like Me” singer is taking on the overwhelming whiteness of the genre. (New Yorker)

* Biden Offers Infrastructure Concession By Partially Demolishing Brooklyn Bridge (The Onion)

***

(Love Is Like a) Baseball Game

Song by The Intruders

Songwriters: Kenny Gamble / Leon Huff

Love is just like a baseball game
Three strikes you're out

Up to bat
I thought I hit a love run
But to my surprise
I found I didn't hit none

Threw her love so fast
She put me in a daze
Never knew that love
Could come so many ways

Strike one - She took me by surprise
Strike two - Right in front of my eyes
Strike three - Oh, I was out without a doubt
Oh, I was out

Love is just like a baseball game
Three strikes you're out
Whether you win or lose
Love is just like a baseball game
Three strikes you're out
Everybody's got to pay some due

Oh, I'm up to bat
I'm gonna try love one more time
I really love this girl
And I'm gonna make her mine

I ain't never won
When I played a baseball game
Now it seems that love
And baseball are just the same

Strike one - Oh, she did it again
Strike two - Looks like I'm never gonna win
Strike three - Oh, I was out without a doubt
I was out

Love is just like a baseball game
Three strikes you're out
Three strikes you're out whether you win or lose

-30-