The Illusion of Possession

"Let yourself be surprised." -- Sarah Braunstein ("Early Web's Magic"/New Yorker)

______

Over too many years I was a loyal (too loyal) customer of one of the evil empires, Comcast (aka Xfinity). As part of the huge monthly payments they extracted from me, I purchased, or thought I purchased many of my favorite movies.

You know the ones. Casablanca, Charade, Pink Panther, Witness, Hunger Games, Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, Love Actually, It's a Wonderful Life, and so on -- somewhere around 50  in all.

I paid whatever the going rate was to "purchase" them -- $9.99 to $14.99 mostly, I think.

But recently Xfinity redesigned its website, and the option to select "Your Purchases" disappeared from the menu. So I did the only thing any frustrated customer can do, and contacted Customer Service.

That turned into an extended ordeal, starting with the requisite chat with a robot. The robot serving me got tangled up in my request because it had not been programmed to respond to requests for "saved purchases," apparently.

After many such chats, and repeated calls to the customer service phone line, which never yielded a human being, I finally did somehow connect with a delightful fellow on the other side of the world.

I was angry, you know, the righteous anger of a customer who has been cheated, but this gentleman seemed to possess endless patience as he searched database after database for my missing movies. 

"They must be here," he insisted. "There must be a way for you to view your movies. They're *yours* after all."

Well, it turns out there wasn't a way and also that they aren't mine, not really.

First, though, I did what I always do in this age of technology. I changed browsers, updated my operating system, searched Twitter, returned to the fruitless robotic chat sessions, tried to reach another actual human being by phone; on and on it went.

Finally, one day, bingo! Using Chrome, I snuck into the Xfinity website, convinced it I was me, and started searching new movies. After a while, under "other options," I suddenly could load my entire library of purchased films once again in all their glory.

I selected one for viewing, probably Casablanca, and bookmarked the site.

That was a month ago. The bookmark has never worked since and I've never been able to replicate the obscure clickstream that yielded my treasure despite multiple attempts to do so.

Recently I just gave up. I guess those possessions of mine, like virtually everything else I once thought I owned, are gone forever.

***

This week my old friend The Nation, also the oldest continuously published magazine in the U.S. (156 years) published an essay that provides the context for my bad experience of losing my movies.

"Sell This Book! Corporate publishing wants to turn all readers into renters" is the name of the essay by Maria Bustillos.

"Maybe you’ve noticed how things keep disappearing—or stop working—when you “buy” them online from big platforms like Netflix and Amazon, Microsoft and Apple," she writes. "You can watch their movies and use their software and read their books—but only until they decide to pull the plug. You don’t actually own these things—you can only rent them."

The author is a founder of the Brick House Cooperative, a venture that is proactively fighting against this immoral attempt by corporations to take away our right to own things by selling rentable ebooks to libraries.

This won't get my movies back, of course, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

If you think this is only a marginal issue in your particular life, think again. As my son-in-law with an MBA reminds me, "In capitalism there are only two classes of people. There are owners and there are renters."

When it comes to books, movies, video games, and any kind of software, you my friend own nothing -- you are like me, just a renter.

THE HEADLINES:

* Sell This Book! Corporate publishing wants to turn all readers into renters. (The Nation)

* The Internet Is Rotting -- Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone. (Atlantic)

* Weekend of fear looms for Californians in face of wildfires (AP)

* Dixie Fire Ravages California Towns (NYT)

* Judge orders utility PG&E to explain role in start of Dixie Fire that’s tearing through California (WP)

* Wildfires Rage Across Turkey (AP)

* Greece battles wildfires for fifth day in 'nightmarish summer' (Reuters)

* After Deadly Floods, a German Village Rethinks Its Relationship to Nature (NYT)

* Warm waters further threaten depleted Maine shrimp fishery (AP)

* 'Where are we going to go?' Residents flee as fires reach Athens suburbs (Reuters)

* Yes, the Pandemic Is Bad Again -- Masks are reappearing and return-to-office plans have been postponed. Welcome to Delta’s whiplash. (Atlantic)

* Nothing is predictable with the delta variant — and this surge may not be the last of the year. (SF Chronicle)

* U.S. now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day (AP)

* Half of U.S. population fully vaccinated against COVID-19: CDC (Reuters)

* Highly Vaccinated States Keep Worst Outcomes in Check (WSJ)

* How to cancel your flights, Airbnbs and more because of the delta variant (WP)

* Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Continues Despite Coronavirus Warning (NYT)

* Fla. offers school vouchers to families angry about masks; Ark. judge blocks ban for now (WP)

* Amazon orders all U.S. employees to mask up at work (Reuters)

*Italians (Mostly) Embrace a ‘Green Pass’ to Prove Vaccination on Its First Day (NYT)

* Some in U.S. getting COVID-19 boosters without FDA approval (AP)

* Australia suffers worst COVID day this year with millions in lockdown (Reuters)

* As Covid Surges in Florida, DeSantis Refuses to Change Course (NYT)

* Indonesian president says restrictions needed to stem COVID surge outside most populous islands (Reuters)

* Lyft And Uber Prices Are High. Wait Times Are Long And Drivers Are Scarce (NPR)

* Pause on federal student loan payments extended through January (WP)

* College Hasn’t Helped Close the Wealth Gap for Black Americans (WSJ)

* Jobs Surge in July Offers Fresh Sign of Economic Recovery -- The gain of 943,000 was the best showing in nearly a year, and unemployment was 5.4 percent, the lowest since the pandemic began. (NYT)

* U.S. will fly Central American migrants to southern Mexico in bid to discourage repeat crossings (WP)

* Why Is It So Hard to Say Goodbye to New York City? -- Many New Yorkers who left during the pandemic have sought ways to replicate what they love about New York in their new hometowns. (NYT)

* Can Stimulating Brains Lead to Controlling Them? (WSJ)

* Taliban Seize Afghan Provincial Capital Just Weeks Before Final U.S. Withdrawal (NYT)

* Life-Changing Epiphany Wears Off On Ride Home (The Onion)

***

"Dear Landlord"

Bob Dylan

Dear Landlord
Please, don't put a price on my soul

My burden is heavy
My dreams are beyond control

When that steamboat whistle blows
I'm gonna give you all I got to give
And I do hope you receive it well
Depending on the way you feel that you live

Dear Landlord
Please, heed these words that I speak

I know you've suffered much
But in this you are not so unique

All of us, at times, we might work too hard
To have it too fast and too much
And anyone can fill his life up
With things he can see but he just cannot touch

Dear Landlord
Please, don't dismiss my case

I'm not about to argue
I'm not about to move to no other place

Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don't underestimate me
I won't underestimate you

Gift From The Stigmatized

James Suroweicki is one of the American writers I admire and not just for "The Wisdom of Crowds." In his articles in The New Yorker, Wired and elsewhere, he brings common sense to bear on the vagaries of science, including how the media cover science and health.

This week he published an excellent essay on how the mass media, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, have been selling fear in their coverage of CDC data indicating that vaccinated people can spread the delta variant.

"Covid vaccines are incredibly effective," Suroweicki notes. "The media’s overhyping of new research from the CDC is making people think otherwise...The problem was not what the press wrote about, but rather how it wrote about it, and even more,  how it hyped it." 

He continues:  "First, it’s just actively misleading. (It) makes people thinking about getting vaccinated (think) that there’s no point to doing so. 

"Second, the current news environment is not a neutral news environment. It’s an environment in which antivaxxers are working assiduously to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines, and every overhyped, poorly written tweet, every misstatement by a public-health official, quickly becomes fodder for their message."

So there in a nutshell is what is wrong with this week's news cycle. Too many people are over-reacting to a minor indication that the delta variant can be spread by vaccinated people and that we even might get sick ourselves.

While both things are technically true, neither matters in the big picture. Yes we can spread it but far less efficiently than unvaccinated people, who are the whole reason this even matters. 

And yes we might get sick but only with the symptoms of a minor cold. Plus the chances of that happening are infinitesimal. 

Everyone needs to calm down and read the news more critically, as Surowiecki is doing. Responsible people like him have been  trying to tamp down the latest panic all week.

 

***

Let's consider something concrete that is being done about a far greater problem than Covid-19 will ever be: addiction. Journalist Maia Szalavitz, author of "Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids," and other books, is a leading writer on addiction.

Currently she is celebrating "harm reduction," an approach to treating addicts that shows promise. She and the rest of us who pay attention to the issue have known about it for many years now.

Harm reduction seeks to reduce the negative effects of health behaviors like drug and alcohol use, smoking, eating disorders, and sex addiction without necessarily banning the problematic  behavior completely. 

The idea is to reduce. not eliminate the problematic behavior in the short term, while the patient can talk it over with his support network.

For some people it works, and I know several special, special people who are currently trying programs devoted to this approach. I feel a lot of gratitude to those who practice this form of treatment.

I also want to highlight this wonderful quote from Szalavitz: "Harm reduction is a gift from some of the most stigmatized people in the world. And it will continue to have influence beyond drugs: Epidemiologists promote harm reduction to combat Covid while minimizing pandemic fatigue."

How does this work? 

Dr. Monica Ghandi, the wonderful infectious diseases and HIV doctor at UCSF, explains: 

"Harm reduction aims to decrease new infections just like strategies that don't involve harm reduction. But #harmreduction takes into account the actual real-world conditions of life (need for contact, for work, for school) when forming policy to mitigate a pathogen's effects."

All of us need regular contact with other people -- in school, at work, in coffee houses, at playgrounds and on and on. We need these things as desperately as we need to protect our health and the health of those who are most vulnerable to viruses.

So there we have two huge topics brought together -- addiction and Covid. Think about that. 

***

Two more Covid-related issues:

There are some legitimate concerns about the adverse effects of the Covid vaccines, particularly the reported increase of Myocarditis in young males (~age 16) after getting the vaccine. Most recover quickly upon getting treatment from their cardiologists, but this is certainly an issue for parents of boys to stay informed about.

Another question I get frequently is why the FDA has not officially approved any of the vaccines yet. The agency just says it is reviewing the data, which only relatively recently has hit critical mass, and it will make a decision soon on Pfizer and then Moderna. I would expect both to receive full approval probably this month.

***

I've been so distracted by the need to speak out on the panic over delta this week that I haven't yet had enough energy to address the far bigger story of climate change that threatens us right here right now.

Please read these two stories:

 

1. Major Atlantic Current May Be On The Verge Of Collapse, Scientists Warn (Forbes) 

2. Human-driven planetary warming threatens to collapse a system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean that regulate weather across the globe, a new study has finds. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a section of the Gulf Stream, has long worked to stabilize climate conditions, but scientists warn that the system is slowing down. [HuffPost]

***

THE HEADLINES:

* The Costs of Selling Covid Fear -- Covid vaccines are incredibly effective. The media’s overhyping of new research from the CDC is making people think otherwise. (James Suroweicki/Elemental) 

 * Could the Covid Vaccine (and Others) Prevent Alzheimer’s? (Commentary (WSJ) 

* Booster shots for the immunocompromised expected to be authorized soon after fast-track review (WP)

 * Japan COVID cases hit 1 million as infections spread beyond Tokyo (Reuters)

* Biden considers withholding funds and other moves to spur vaccinations (WP)

* United Airlines to Require All U.S. Employees to Get Vaccines (WSJ)

* New Jersey to require masks in schools as Delta variant spreads (Reuters)

* Experts Predict What The Next Covid-19 Variants Will Be Like -- We’ve never seen anything like SARS-CoV-2 before. We’ve never had a pandemic of this scale with so much global mixing. (HuffPost)

* A new mandate calls for all California health care workers to be fully vaccinated by the end of September. (LA Times)

* Over half of Australia in lockdown as Delta spreads (Reuters)

* In California, the number of people getting vaccinated against Covid-19 across the state has grown substantially, with 41 percent more people receiving their shots last week compared with two weeks before, (LA Times) 

* Education Department extends pause on federal student loan payments through January (WP)

* CNN Fires Three Employees For Coming To Work Unvaccinated (NPR) 

 * The climate news is about to get a lot worse (WP) 

 * One of the Coldest Places on Earth Is On Fire -- The smoke from the fires in Russia’s northeast is so thick it has blotted out the sun, plunging vast swaths of the region into darkness during the brief summer. (WSJ)  

* Major Atlantic Current May Be On The Verge Of Collapse, Scientists Warn (Forbes) 

* Human-driven planetary warming threatens to collapse a system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean that regulate weather across the globe, a new study has finds. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a section of the Gulf Stream, has long worked to stabilize climate conditions, but scientists warn that the system is slowing down. [HuffPost]

* Homes flooded, fields and roads damaged as heavy rain hits North Korea (Reuters) 

 * No Work, No Food: Pandemic Deepens Global Hunger -- Relentless waves of the virus, combined with crises caused by conflict and climate change, have left tens of millions of people around the world on the brink of famine. (NYT) 

* Forest Fires Burn Through Greece, Threatening Ancient Athens Sites

 (Reuters) 

* Wildfire explodes to third-largest in California history (AP)

* Turkish blaze approaches power plant as wildfires enter 10th day (Reuters)

* Lake Oroville, one of California’s largest reservoirs, hit a record-low elevation point this week. (SF Chronicle)

* Biden, in a Push to Phase Out Gas Cars, Tightens Pollution Rules (NYT)

* The full picture of Trump's attempted coup is only starting to emerge (CNN)

* How Cuomo and His Team Retaliated Against His Accusers (NYT)

* Cuomo says he will cooperate with Assembly impeachment probe as lawmakers step up pace of inquiry (WP)

* Resurgent Taliban take provincial capital, kill Afghan gov't spokesman (Reuters)

* As Taliban Advance, Biden Officials Cling to Hope for Afghan Peace (NYT)

* Salesforce.com accepted a $2.7 million payment from one of Donald Trump’s political committees the day after the then-president incited a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol ― and a few days before Salesforce claimed it would not permit its services to be used “in any way that could lead to violence.” But it's again sending emails from Trump's "Save America" committee. [HuffPost] 

* Co-workers are still hooking up, even during a time of remote work (WP)

* Sell This Book! Corporate publishing wants to turn all readers into renters. (The Nation)

* Hiroshima by John Hersey (New Yorker)

* Skunk Forced To Bluff Way Through Encounter With Dog After Realizing There’s Nothing Left In Chamber (The Onion)

***

"Two More Bottles Of Wine"

Song by Emmylou Harris

Written by Delbert Ross Mcclinton

We came out west together with a common desire 
The fever we had might've set the west coast on fire 
Two months later got trouble in mind 
Oh my baby moved out and left me behind 
But it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine 
The way he left sure turned my head around 
Seemed like overnight she just up and put me down 
Ain't gonna let it bother me today 
I been workin' and I'm too tired anyway 
But it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine 

I'm sixteen hundred miles from the people I know 
I've been doin' all I can but opportunity sure come slow 
Well I'd be in the sun all day 
But I'm sweepin' out a warehouse in west L.A. 
But it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine

I'm sixteen hundred miles from the people I know 
I've been doin' all I can but opportunity sure come slow 
Well I'd be in the sun all day 
But I'm sweepin' out a warehouse in west L.A. 
But it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine
Yes, it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine
Yes, it's all right 'cause it's midnight 
And I got two more bottles of wine

-30-

Voices of Reason

Two of the most consistently credible (and cautious) public health experts throughout the pandemic have been Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Leana S. Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore.

In her most recent essay in the Post, Dr. Wen offers her take on the current situation with "The delta variant is surging. How should that change how we live?"

Following are her main points:

* "While delta does change the risk calculus, it doesn’t mean that we have go to back to hunkering down at home. When deciding which activities to engage in, vaccinated people should consider two factors: the medical risk of your household and the value of the activities to you."

* "According to CDC data, the vaccinated are approximately eight times less likely to become infected than the unvaccinated. Even if they contract covid-19, chances are excellent that a vaccinated person will experience symptoms akin to the common cold; after all, the vaccines reduce the chance of severe illness by a whopping 25-fold."

* "The vaccinated constitute a small minority... of total coronavirus cases. Israel, which does much better contact tracing than the United States, reported that 80 percent of those vaccinated did not infect anyone in public spaces. Even if we asked the vaccinated to significantly restrict their activities, it would hardly make a dent in total infections."

* "There may be high-risk events that are worth the possible exposure because of their value to you. If you can’t take precautions during the event, quarantine for at least three days afterward and then get tested. 

* "What about people who ... live with unvaccinated or immunocompromised family members? That’s the situation I’m in. My advice for those in our situation is to continue the activities you care about while reducing risk. Eat at a restaurant but dine outdoors. Keep your flight plans but wear a high-quality mask the whole time. Go to the gym but during off-hours when you have more space to yourself."

Wen's is a welcome voice of reason. As she points out, for those of us who are vaccinated the danger from the current Covid variants is miniscule. That doesn't mean we should behave irresponsibly, but it does mean we should resume normal life activities free of guilt and free of fear.

Accordingly, my biggest concern now is terrible toll isolation is taking. Study after study documents the rising rates of addiction, suicide, and other mental illnesses during the pandemic -- especially among the young, though all ages are vulnerable.

Because we don't talk about addiction or suicide to any significant degree compared to the constant panic over Covid, I fear we are avoiding the harsh reality. Four times as many people died from overdoses than from Covid in San Francisco and other cities during the height of the pandemic, which means drug addiction was and is a far worse public health problem than Covid.

And wearing masks, social distancing and remote work are not helping address *that* at all; on the contrary they are making it worse.

New variants of Covid will continue to emerge, of course, thanks to those who remain unvaccinated, with unknown consequences for the rest of us just yet. We may face an awful resurgence at some point. But even so, in all likelihood the updated vaccines will continue to protect us from most of the crap that Covid can throw at us.

The bottom line is that for most of us, Covid is probably going to retreat to the status of the flu -- an annual threat but one largely controlled by vaccinations and sensible social distancing measures when symptomatic.

But addiction and suicide will still be with us. The question is: What will be done about those?

***

THE HEADLINES:

* The delta variant is surging. How should that change how we live? (Leana S. Wen/WP)

* Moderna says its COVID-19 shot 93% effective six months after second dose Reuters)

* Should you cancel travel plans because of the coronavirus’s delta variant? Ask these questions. (WP)

* Serious Cases Remain Rare, But Coronavirus Infections In Children Are On The Rise (NPR)

* How Provincetown, Mass., stress-tested the coronavirus vaccine with summer partying and delta -- Officials from Provincetown to the White House are stressing that July’s outbreak should be a cautionary tale less for the vaccinated than for the millions of Americans in parts of the country far less prepared for the delta variant. (WP)

* Nursing Homes Confront New Covid Outbreaks Amid Calls for Staff Vaccination Mandates -- With the vaccinated elderly susceptible to breakthrough infections, inoculation of workers is becoming more urgent. (NYT)

* China posts first decline in local new COVID-19 cases this week (Reuters)

* Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all active-duty troops in the coming days. The Defense Department had previously said it would likely wait for full FDA approval of the vaccines before making them mandatory, but a renewed surge in coronavirus cases has expedited that timeline. [HuffPost]

* Some Fla. school districts push ahead with mask mandates, defying governor’s threat to cut funds (WP)

* U.S. COVID-19 cases hit six-month high, Florida grapples with surge (Reuters)

* Napa residents, and vintners, try to take wildfire protection into their own hands (SF Chronicle)

* Turkey Battles Worst Blaze in Decades -- Forest fires continued in Turkey after more than a week as the country dealt with an economic crisis and the pandemic. The fires are the worst the country has seen in decades. (AP)

* In the Infrastructure Bill, a Recognition: Climate Change Is a Crisis -- For the first time, both parties have acknowledged — by their actions, if not their words — that the United States is unprepared for global warming and will need huge amounts of cash to cope. (NYT)

* The Greenland ice sheet experienced a massive melting event last week (WP)

* Fire engulfs Northern California town, leveling businesses (AP)

* Biden aims for big boost in electric cars by 2030 (WP)

* Atlantic Ocean currents weaken, signalling big weather changes - study (Reuters)

* A critical ocean system may be heading for collapse due to climate change, study finds (WP)

* In summer of heat, drought and fire, adaptation becomes necessity (WP)

* U.S. officials are seeking to list emperor penguins as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to climate change. An independent study warned that nearly all colonies could be wiped out by 2100. [HuffPost]

* Is Biden serious about fighting for democracy? Egypt will be a decisive test. (Editorial Board/WP)

* U.S. Taps Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Others to Help Fight Ransomware, Cyber Threats (WSJ)

* NYU Researchers Were Studying Disinformation On Facebook. The Company Cut Them Off (NPR)

* New legislation from Democratic lawmakers would provide all Americans with an affirmative right to vote and a legal process to secure that right for the first time ― a move that could counter Republican voter suppression efforts around the country. The Right to Vote Act is meant to fill the gap in voters’ ability to challenge voting restrictions. [HuffPost]

* With eviction victory in hand, Democratic lawmakers in Congress turn their attention to student loans -- Temporary freeze on federal student loan payments expires at the end of September, and many Democrats want it extended (WP)

* Turks Wage War on Social Media as Raging Fires Turn Political -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under a concerted attack by his opponents over his handling of the worst forest fires in decades. (NYT)

* Afghan Air Force Struggles to Stay Aloft as U.S. Leaves and Taliban Advances (WSJ)

* Taliban target provincial Afghan cities in response to U.S. strikes, commanders say (Reuters)

* A Near Press Blackout in Afghanistan -- The war that Americans forgot is ending in chaos and secrecy. (New Yorker)

* Mexico Sues Gun Companies in U.S., Accusing Them of Fueling Violence  -- The government accuses gun makers and suppliers of knowingly flooding the market with firearms attractive to drug cartels. (NYT)

* California Gov. Newsom and his allies have raised more than $51 million to fight the recall, more than twice as much as every major Republican candidate and pro-recall committee combined. (LA Times)

* U.S. health-care system ranks last among 11 high-income countries, researchers say (WP)

* Facing Loss of Supporters, Cuomo Gains Attention From Prosecutors -- District attorneys in Manhattan, Nassau, Oswego and Westchester Counties separately announced that they were investigating Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s actions. (NYT)

* A majority of New York state Assembly members support beginning impeachment proceedings against Gov. Andrew Cuomo if he doesn’t resign over investigative findings that he sexually harassed at least 11 women, according to an Associated Press count. Investigators didn't make conclusions about whether he should be criminally charged, leaving the door open for local prosecutors to bring cases. Cuomo denies the allegations. [AP]

* Bill Gates Calls Jeffrey Epstein Meeting a Mistake --Mr. Gates acknowledges that he had several dinners with the convicted sex offender in hopes it would lead to donations to his foundation. (WSJ)

* The Author, the Work, and the No.1 Fan -- Writing didn't serve the purpose I wanted it to, which was to fix the fundamentally broken relationship between myself and other people. (New Yorker)

* Man Hides Under Bed, Covers Mouth As Enormous Delta Variant Virus Tears Through House (The Onion)

***

"Voice of Reason"

Chamillionaire

Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up

A conversation between 2 different people
One's the original and one's the sequel
See one ain't never scared to tell you what he believe in
But you always got the other one that's that voice of reason
Listen

***