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January 3, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/arts/design/wilshire-boulevard-temple-broad-annenberg.html
LOS ANGELES — On a clear December morning, Los Angeles’s greatest hits shine from the roof of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion: You can see the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Park Observatory, even a snowy Mount Baldy, all without squinting. The pavilion, a futuristic, three-story trapezoid with a wood-panelled event center, sunken garden and rooftop terrace in the center of the city, will serve Koreatown, which is among the city’s densest and most diverse neighbourhoods. It is first, though, a community space for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the Byzantine-Romanesque domed synagogue next to the pavilion — the final piece of the temple’s long expansion plan.
The temple’s dome was modelled after Rome’s Pantheon. It crowns the sanctuary, whose 1929 construction was supported by heavyweights like the Warner brothers, the Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle, and the M.G.M. co-founder Louis B. Mayer, who donated wraparound murals by the artist Hugo Ballin, coffered ceilings, a heavenly oculus and stained glass windows. But in the 2000s, as the congregation was shrinking and the grounds were degrading, some temple leaders and members thought it might make sense to sell the building.
The senior rabbi of the temple, Steven Leder, spent six years raising $120 million. By 2011, there were renovation plans for the temple from the architect Brenda Levin, and two years later, the oldest glass studio in Los Angeles, Judson, had restored the sanctuary’s neo-Gothic windows, the sculptor Lita Albuquerque had designed a memorial wall and the artist Jenny Holzer had crafted a series of benches. The pavilion was next, in an adjacent parking lot owned by the temple, but Rabbi Leder needed the right architect: a modernist who respected tradition. Enter the philanthropist Eli Broad, who reshaped this city’s cultural footprint and left its future in question after his death last year.
Broad, the billionaire developer who spent decades raising the profile of the city with his wife, Edythe, met with Rabbi Leder in 2015, a few years before retiring. Rabbi Leder said: “I asked Eli: ‘Will one of the world’s great architects design a building for a synagogue?’ He looked at me and said: ‘For that sanctuary, on Wilshire Boulevard, in Los Angeles? They’re all going to want to do it.’” So the pavilion was born. Designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture — the firm founded by the Pritzker Prize-winning Rem Koolhaas — the project also paved the way for another donor, Wallis Annenberg, to fulfil a longstanding vision she had for the city: for a center to help older people find community.
snip
Boldface Names Give Los Angeles a New Cultural Center
An OMA-designed pavilion at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was helped along by Eli Broad. It houses Wallis Annenberg’s GenSpace, a center for older people.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/arts/design/wilshire-boulevard-temple-broad-annenberg.html
LOS ANGELES — On a clear December morning, Los Angeles’s greatest hits shine from the roof of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion: You can see the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Park Observatory, even a snowy Mount Baldy, all without squinting. The pavilion, a futuristic, three-story trapezoid with a wood-panelled event center, sunken garden and rooftop terrace in the center of the city, will serve Koreatown, which is among the city’s densest and most diverse neighbourhoods. It is first, though, a community space for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the Byzantine-Romanesque domed synagogue next to the pavilion — the final piece of the temple’s long expansion plan.
The temple’s dome was modelled after Rome’s Pantheon. It crowns the sanctuary, whose 1929 construction was supported by heavyweights like the Warner brothers, the Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle, and the M.G.M. co-founder Louis B. Mayer, who donated wraparound murals by the artist Hugo Ballin, coffered ceilings, a heavenly oculus and stained glass windows. But in the 2000s, as the congregation was shrinking and the grounds were degrading, some temple leaders and members thought it might make sense to sell the building.
The senior rabbi of the temple, Steven Leder, spent six years raising $120 million. By 2011, there were renovation plans for the temple from the architect Brenda Levin, and two years later, the oldest glass studio in Los Angeles, Judson, had restored the sanctuary’s neo-Gothic windows, the sculptor Lita Albuquerque had designed a memorial wall and the artist Jenny Holzer had crafted a series of benches. The pavilion was next, in an adjacent parking lot owned by the temple, but Rabbi Leder needed the right architect: a modernist who respected tradition. Enter the philanthropist Eli Broad, who reshaped this city’s cultural footprint and left its future in question after his death last year.
Broad, the billionaire developer who spent decades raising the profile of the city with his wife, Edythe, met with Rabbi Leder in 2015, a few years before retiring. Rabbi Leder said: “I asked Eli: ‘Will one of the world’s great architects design a building for a synagogue?’ He looked at me and said: ‘For that sanctuary, on Wilshire Boulevard, in Los Angeles? They’re all going to want to do it.’” So the pavilion was born. Designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture — the firm founded by the Pritzker Prize-winning Rem Koolhaas — the project also paved the way for another donor, Wallis Annenberg, to fulfil a longstanding vision she had for the city: for a center to help older people find community.
snip
January 3, 2022
Here Are the 2021 Doug Awards! (Best Car, Worst Car, etc.)
January 3, 2022
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478024054242111489
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478024872269733888
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478026071744253955
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478027016247001094
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478028061241077760
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478028750956630019
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478029711586459651
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478030526300626948
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478032765949861888
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1478023167482335232.html
A few words about this Yglesias post, which I hesitate to do since the man has made a lucrative career out of authoritatively not knowing what he’s talking about. But he surfaces several issues that are decisive to the policy question of cancellation.
/1
The vanishing case for student loan forgiveness
With no more need for stimulus, this doesn't make sense anymore
https://www.slowboring.com/p/student-loan-forgiveness
I won’t respond to the macro stuff, since that’s never been the real heart of the matter, which is rather about 1. distribution, and 2. overall higher education (and labor) policy.
/2
On distribution, Yglesias is correct that the populations of student debtors & non-debtors are each highly heterogeneous. The population of non-debtors is more so, since it includes people who didn’t need debt to pay for college and people who’ve never touched higher ed.
/3
(One should also keep in mind that the borrowers ineligible for cancellation, having refinanced out of the federal system, are also the richest borrowers.)
/4
Yglesias asserts that comparing these very heterogeneous distributions, the distribution of borrowers is on the whole higher-income. That’s possible, with the caveat given in (4) above. But the distribution of borrowers is almost certainly lower-wealth.
/5
Nearly all negative-net-worth households are in negative territory thanks to student debt. And that category is growing rapidly. The usual response to this is “ah but their human capital!” And that response reveals a failure to comprehend labor market credentialization.
/6
It also reveals a logical inconsistency: “adding” human capital to HH net worth to rationalize negative-wealth households has to be done for everyone else. Especially the people whose families paid for their higher education—a giant inter-vivos transfer, benefiting the rich.
/7
The final flaw in that move is just the usual basic social science error of confusing correlation with causation. People with more higher ed credentials have higher income. So do people with more luxury cars. That doesn’t mean the very expensive asset caused the higher income.
/8
Yglesias states that “strange math” underlies the claim that cancellation reduces the racial wealth gap. While stipulating that exactly how it should be measured is not obvious, that claim is slanderous. I & the others who’ve published on that question have been transparent.
/9
The strange math is coming from the “scholars” who said that since Black people are poorer than white people, Black people are less burdened by their debt thanks to IDR, and so cancelling “true, effective” student debt per their calculations is racially regressive.
/10
Finally, to higher ed policy: Yglesias also rightly says that higher ed finance is a mess & that cancelling student debt won’t solve that. Instead, to solve it you need a reform coalition. The implication being that administrative cancellation is an unfair political shortcut.
/11
The coalition blocking such a reform is also the coalition opposed to student debt cancellation, with which Yglesias affiliates himself. The reason that coalition dislikes cancellation is b/c it highlights that the feds are issuing loans thither & yon that won’t be repaid.
/12
Yglesias says nothing about the current reality of non-repayment. So he must think that even if the Feds won’t collect regardless, borrowers should still suffer.
/13
The politics of higher ed policy is that there’s been massive public disinvestment from higher ed, which has re-engineered institutions to rely on tuition. That’s viable as a business model b/c of labor market credentialization, which is also why the loans won’t be paid back.
/14
But it’s still, basically, a scam: institutions charge high tuition, the Feds write a blank check enabling that, and the loans just sit there, ruining people’s lives. That by itself is sufficient justification for cancellation.
/15
But beyond that, the political theory is that setting those loans on fire would galvanize the reform coalition Yglesias says is lacking, b/c Congress would rightly ask why the Feds are pumping so much money through loans to individuals into an exploitative Higher Ed system.
/16
If we can “afford” to cancel debt (which we can, and I suppose that touches on the macro point, but also, Yglesias concedes it) then there’s no sound reason not to do it. What remains is an aversion to pointing out that the emperor is in fact clothesless, plus age-ism.
/17
As the kids say, couldn’t be me.
/fin
Oh, re: the “strange math” slur, I should also link to these pieces by @_cromer043 & @andreperryedu:
https://www.brookings.edu/essay/student-debt-cancellation-should-consider-wealth-not-income/
Student debt cancellation should consider wealth, not income
As enrolment numbers and tuition at higher education institutions grow, the rise in student debt is outpacing both.
https://www.brookings.edu/essay/student-debt-cancellation-should-consider-wealth-not-income/
Student loans, the racial wealth divide, and why we need full student debt cancellation
Anti-Black polices across multiple sectors have diminished wealth-building opportunities that accelerate economic and social mobility.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need
Dr Marshall Steinbaum scorches newly-minted Big Debt shill Matthew Yglesias on student loans
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478023493606281217https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478024054242111489
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478024872269733888
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478026071744253955
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478027016247001094
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478028061241077760
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478028750956630019
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478029711586459651
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478030526300626948
https://twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/status/1478032765949861888
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1478023167482335232.html
A few words about this Yglesias post, which I hesitate to do since the man has made a lucrative career out of authoritatively not knowing what he’s talking about. But he surfaces several issues that are decisive to the policy question of cancellation.
/1
The vanishing case for student loan forgiveness
With no more need for stimulus, this doesn't make sense anymore
https://www.slowboring.com/p/student-loan-forgiveness
I won’t respond to the macro stuff, since that’s never been the real heart of the matter, which is rather about 1. distribution, and 2. overall higher education (and labor) policy.
/2
On distribution, Yglesias is correct that the populations of student debtors & non-debtors are each highly heterogeneous. The population of non-debtors is more so, since it includes people who didn’t need debt to pay for college and people who’ve never touched higher ed.
/3
(One should also keep in mind that the borrowers ineligible for cancellation, having refinanced out of the federal system, are also the richest borrowers.)
/4
Yglesias asserts that comparing these very heterogeneous distributions, the distribution of borrowers is on the whole higher-income. That’s possible, with the caveat given in (4) above. But the distribution of borrowers is almost certainly lower-wealth.
/5
Nearly all negative-net-worth households are in negative territory thanks to student debt. And that category is growing rapidly. The usual response to this is “ah but their human capital!” And that response reveals a failure to comprehend labor market credentialization.
/6
It also reveals a logical inconsistency: “adding” human capital to HH net worth to rationalize negative-wealth households has to be done for everyone else. Especially the people whose families paid for their higher education—a giant inter-vivos transfer, benefiting the rich.
/7
The final flaw in that move is just the usual basic social science error of confusing correlation with causation. People with more higher ed credentials have higher income. So do people with more luxury cars. That doesn’t mean the very expensive asset caused the higher income.
/8
Yglesias states that “strange math” underlies the claim that cancellation reduces the racial wealth gap. While stipulating that exactly how it should be measured is not obvious, that claim is slanderous. I & the others who’ve published on that question have been transparent.
/9
The strange math is coming from the “scholars” who said that since Black people are poorer than white people, Black people are less burdened by their debt thanks to IDR, and so cancelling “true, effective” student debt per their calculations is racially regressive.
/10
Finally, to higher ed policy: Yglesias also rightly says that higher ed finance is a mess & that cancelling student debt won’t solve that. Instead, to solve it you need a reform coalition. The implication being that administrative cancellation is an unfair political shortcut.
/11
The coalition blocking such a reform is also the coalition opposed to student debt cancellation, with which Yglesias affiliates himself. The reason that coalition dislikes cancellation is b/c it highlights that the feds are issuing loans thither & yon that won’t be repaid.
/12
Yglesias says nothing about the current reality of non-repayment. So he must think that even if the Feds won’t collect regardless, borrowers should still suffer.
/13
The politics of higher ed policy is that there’s been massive public disinvestment from higher ed, which has re-engineered institutions to rely on tuition. That’s viable as a business model b/c of labor market credentialization, which is also why the loans won’t be paid back.
/14
But it’s still, basically, a scam: institutions charge high tuition, the Feds write a blank check enabling that, and the loans just sit there, ruining people’s lives. That by itself is sufficient justification for cancellation.
/15
But beyond that, the political theory is that setting those loans on fire would galvanize the reform coalition Yglesias says is lacking, b/c Congress would rightly ask why the Feds are pumping so much money through loans to individuals into an exploitative Higher Ed system.
/16
If we can “afford” to cancel debt (which we can, and I suppose that touches on the macro point, but also, Yglesias concedes it) then there’s no sound reason not to do it. What remains is an aversion to pointing out that the emperor is in fact clothesless, plus age-ism.
/17
As the kids say, couldn’t be me.
/fin
Oh, re: the “strange math” slur, I should also link to these pieces by @_cromer043 & @andreperryedu:
https://www.brookings.edu/essay/student-debt-cancellation-should-consider-wealth-not-income/
Student debt cancellation should consider wealth, not income
As enrolment numbers and tuition at higher education institutions grow, the rise in student debt is outpacing both.
https://www.brookings.edu/essay/student-debt-cancellation-should-consider-wealth-not-income/
Student loans, the racial wealth divide, and why we need full student debt cancellation
Anti-Black polices across multiple sectors have diminished wealth-building opportunities that accelerate economic and social mobility.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need
January 3, 2022
https://www.thedailybeast.com/director-of-national-intelligence-avril-haines-gets-saudi-lawsuit-tossed-to-protect-state-secrets
A judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a case against a former Saudi intelligence official after the U.S. Director of National Intelligence stepped in and suggested the case would reveal sensitive U.S. intelligence information and would damage national security.
The case—brought by a company owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which belongs to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)—centers around a dispute between the company, Sakab, and a former Saudi counterterrorism official, Saad Aljabri.
Aljabri was a key ally to the U.S. in its fight to root out terrorists and thwart al Qaeda attacks. In one case, Aljabri helped foil a 2010 al Qaeda plot in which terrorists hid bombs in desktop printers stowed away in cargo on planes with destinations in the United States, Michael Morell, the former acting director of the CIA, told 60 Minutes in October. Aljabri, who has previously supported a rival of MBS, has previously accused the Saudi prince of plotting to murder him.
The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, intervened earlier this year, suggesting that if the case were to proceed without restrictions state secrets could come out. The U.S. government said the case could lead to “the disclosure of information that could reasonably be expected to damage the national security of the United States." The nature of the state secrets Haines wants to keep classified is unclear, as additional filings detailing the government’s concerns are not public.
snip
Intelligence Head Gets Saudi Lawsuit Tossed to Protect State Secrets
https://www.thedailybeast.com/director-of-national-intelligence-avril-haines-gets-saudi-lawsuit-tossed-to-protect-state-secrets
A judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a case against a former Saudi intelligence official after the U.S. Director of National Intelligence stepped in and suggested the case would reveal sensitive U.S. intelligence information and would damage national security.
The case—brought by a company owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which belongs to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)—centers around a dispute between the company, Sakab, and a former Saudi counterterrorism official, Saad Aljabri.
Aljabri was a key ally to the U.S. in its fight to root out terrorists and thwart al Qaeda attacks. In one case, Aljabri helped foil a 2010 al Qaeda plot in which terrorists hid bombs in desktop printers stowed away in cargo on planes with destinations in the United States, Michael Morell, the former acting director of the CIA, told 60 Minutes in October. Aljabri, who has previously supported a rival of MBS, has previously accused the Saudi prince of plotting to murder him.
The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, intervened earlier this year, suggesting that if the case were to proceed without restrictions state secrets could come out. The U.S. government said the case could lead to “the disclosure of information that could reasonably be expected to damage the national security of the United States." The nature of the state secrets Haines wants to keep classified is unclear, as additional filings detailing the government’s concerns are not public.
snip
January 3, 2022
superb quote from 'The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election & the People Who Stopped It'
January 2, 2022
An 82-year-old Michigan woman reportedly died after catching Covid-19 from a friend who hid a Covid-19 infection so that they could attend a card game.
Lauren Nash told WXYZ that her grandmother, Barb Bartolovich, took precautions against Covid-19. She was vaccinated and limited her interactions with other people.
Before attending a card game late last year, Bartolovich made sure that everyone else was vaccinated too. "Everyone said yes," WXYZ reported. "But her loved ones say then one player took a gamble at that card game that no one else saw coming."
"Somebody decided that testing positive for COVID is something they can hide," Nash said. "The only way we found out is that the person owned up after Nana got sick."
snip
82-year-old grandmother dies of Covid after 'friend' hides infection to attend card game
https://www.rawstory.com/barb-bartolovich/An 82-year-old Michigan woman reportedly died after catching Covid-19 from a friend who hid a Covid-19 infection so that they could attend a card game.
Lauren Nash told WXYZ that her grandmother, Barb Bartolovich, took precautions against Covid-19. She was vaccinated and limited her interactions with other people.
Before attending a card game late last year, Bartolovich made sure that everyone else was vaccinated too. "Everyone said yes," WXYZ reported. "But her loved ones say then one player took a gamble at that card game that no one else saw coming."
"Somebody decided that testing positive for COVID is something they can hide," Nash said. "The only way we found out is that the person owned up after Nana got sick."
snip
January 2, 2022
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched something as embarrassing as "The Book of Boba Fett." I’ve seen better acting in home movies. I’ve played iPhone games that have better special effects. I’ve seen more convincing fight scenes on reality television. The whole affair, from beginning to end, is the worst episode of television I’ve seen this year, or any other year. It’s worse than polio. It makes me never want to watch anything related to "Star Wars" ever again, and maybe I won’t.
Some background: "The Book of Boba Fett" is an original Disney Plus series about intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, who became a "Star Wars" fan favorite long ago by embodying the “less is more” maxim. Boba Fett only had four lines in the original movie trilogy, but they were good lines. Also, he had a cool helmet, he didn’t care about any of the other characters, and he died a hilariously ignominious death in "Return of the Jedi" after falling into the Sarlacc pit: a living cavern that slowly digests people over a period of a thousand years. A thousand years, by coincidence, is exactly how long the premiere of Fett’s namesake show feels. There is no less made more here. This show is all chicken s—t, no chicken salad.
"TBOBF" comes off the heels of "The Mandalorian," which was an excellent space Western: so much so that "Star Wars" fans, apparently bereft of actual loved ones, spent days profusely thanking creator Jon Favreau on Twitter after its second season ended. They will do no such thing this time around. Favreau wrote the first episode of "TBOBF" and handed directing duties over to 1990s relic Robert Rodriguez, who’s no stranger to making outlet mall-quality children’s cinema. Together, they’ve made 38 minutes of entertainment — God, how could 38 minutes move by so slowly? — that would end the careers of people with lesser resumes. Let me highlight some of their failings right now. And trust me: You’d rather read the spoilers here than endure the story they spoil.
Originally, Boba Fett died when he fell into that Sarlacc pit. But what "The Book of Boba Fett" presupposes is … what if he didn’t? "Return of the Jedi" was released 38 years ago. So Favreau, along with every other living American, had ample time to imagine all kinds of creative ways for Fett to escape that pit. Here’s what he and Rodriguez came up with: Fett, played by wooden New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, remains conscious inside the toxic digestive tract of an alien beast, finds a dead Stormtrooper there, siphons off that Stormtrooper’s oxygen supply for a little pick-me-up, and then uses his wrist-mounted flamethrower to, like burn a few surrounding innards. HEY PRESTO! The screen goes white and we’re gifted a cliched shot of Fett’s hand reaching out of the ground. How did he dig up through that ground? How long was he trapped in there? Didn’t he need a glass of water at some point?
snip
'The Book of Boba Fett' premiere is an abysmal failure on every level (spoilers, so beware)
https://www.sfgate.com/culture-columns/article/The-Book-Of-Boba-Fett-Premiere-Was-The-Worst-16738851.phpIt’s been a long time since I’ve watched something as embarrassing as "The Book of Boba Fett." I’ve seen better acting in home movies. I’ve played iPhone games that have better special effects. I’ve seen more convincing fight scenes on reality television. The whole affair, from beginning to end, is the worst episode of television I’ve seen this year, or any other year. It’s worse than polio. It makes me never want to watch anything related to "Star Wars" ever again, and maybe I won’t.
Some background: "The Book of Boba Fett" is an original Disney Plus series about intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, who became a "Star Wars" fan favorite long ago by embodying the “less is more” maxim. Boba Fett only had four lines in the original movie trilogy, but they were good lines. Also, he had a cool helmet, he didn’t care about any of the other characters, and he died a hilariously ignominious death in "Return of the Jedi" after falling into the Sarlacc pit: a living cavern that slowly digests people over a period of a thousand years. A thousand years, by coincidence, is exactly how long the premiere of Fett’s namesake show feels. There is no less made more here. This show is all chicken s—t, no chicken salad.
"TBOBF" comes off the heels of "The Mandalorian," which was an excellent space Western: so much so that "Star Wars" fans, apparently bereft of actual loved ones, spent days profusely thanking creator Jon Favreau on Twitter after its second season ended. They will do no such thing this time around. Favreau wrote the first episode of "TBOBF" and handed directing duties over to 1990s relic Robert Rodriguez, who’s no stranger to making outlet mall-quality children’s cinema. Together, they’ve made 38 minutes of entertainment — God, how could 38 minutes move by so slowly? — that would end the careers of people with lesser resumes. Let me highlight some of their failings right now. And trust me: You’d rather read the spoilers here than endure the story they spoil.
Originally, Boba Fett died when he fell into that Sarlacc pit. But what "The Book of Boba Fett" presupposes is … what if he didn’t? "Return of the Jedi" was released 38 years ago. So Favreau, along with every other living American, had ample time to imagine all kinds of creative ways for Fett to escape that pit. Here’s what he and Rodriguez came up with: Fett, played by wooden New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, remains conscious inside the toxic digestive tract of an alien beast, finds a dead Stormtrooper there, siphons off that Stormtrooper’s oxygen supply for a little pick-me-up, and then uses his wrist-mounted flamethrower to, like burn a few surrounding innards. HEY PRESTO! The screen goes white and we’re gifted a cliched shot of Fett’s hand reaching out of the ground. How did he dig up through that ground? How long was he trapped in there? Didn’t he need a glass of water at some point?
snip
January 2, 2022
At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, each year is starting to feel more similar to the one before than we all might like. But despite the rise in case counts at the end of December and a certain sense of deja vu that came along with it, 2021 was different from 2020 in important ways — we’ve got ample vaccines, at least in the United States, and it seems possible to imagine a year that won’t be defined mostly by the virus and its associated political and policy challenges. Will 2022 be the one? For our sixth annual Year in Preview, Outlook asked Washington Post beat reporters and columnists to walk us through the ideas and arguments that will define the next 12 months.
The third year of the pandemic will be as unpredictable as the first two.
Year Two of the pandemic ended with dismaying news: Another new variant, potentially more transmissible than delta, had quickly hopscotched across the globe. Hospitalizations and deaths were nowhere near last winter’s levels but cases were still alarmingly high — in the United States, the seven-day average of daily cases reached a record Tuesday, at 266,889. What does that mean for the world’s third year contending with the coronavirus? If experts (and reporters) have learned anything, it’s never to make predictions about the virus — or underestimate it. Time after time, it has outsmarted the world’s top scientists and found new ways to infect people. And with numerous unanswered questions about the omicron variant, it remains unclear what exactly to expect, except that we aren’t going back to the pre-pandemic version of normal anytime soon.
The Biden administration is discovering that vaccines alone will not bring this pandemic under control, especially with a wide swath of the country refusing to get vaccinated, even though the shots are free and easily available. Omicron has infected many people who are vaccinated and even those who are boosted. The administration’s vaccine mandate for all businesses with more than 100 employees faces several legal challenges and may not survive the courts; it heads to the Supreme Court in January. Officials are leaning hard into booster shots — which have been shown to help protect against severe effects from the omicron variant — urging all adult Americans to receive one.
While officials have put more time and money into other tools to manage the pandemic, including rapid tests and antivirals, the country faces challenges on both fronts over the next few weeks. Antivirals will be critical in treating those who do become infected, but omicron can evade some of the most effective existing treatments. Two new easy-to-use pills were recently authorized by the FDA, but the most effective of them is expected to be in short supply over the coming weeks. Rapid tests can help prevent outbreaks from spinning out of control, allowing people to resume their daily activities more safely, but a surge in demand driven by omicron has caused shortages and backlogs. We also know how effective masks can be.
snip
The ideas and arguments that will define the next 12 months
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/30/year-in-preview-2022/At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, each year is starting to feel more similar to the one before than we all might like. But despite the rise in case counts at the end of December and a certain sense of deja vu that came along with it, 2021 was different from 2020 in important ways — we’ve got ample vaccines, at least in the United States, and it seems possible to imagine a year that won’t be defined mostly by the virus and its associated political and policy challenges. Will 2022 be the one? For our sixth annual Year in Preview, Outlook asked Washington Post beat reporters and columnists to walk us through the ideas and arguments that will define the next 12 months.
The third year of the pandemic will be as unpredictable as the first two.
Year Two of the pandemic ended with dismaying news: Another new variant, potentially more transmissible than delta, had quickly hopscotched across the globe. Hospitalizations and deaths were nowhere near last winter’s levels but cases were still alarmingly high — in the United States, the seven-day average of daily cases reached a record Tuesday, at 266,889. What does that mean for the world’s third year contending with the coronavirus? If experts (and reporters) have learned anything, it’s never to make predictions about the virus — or underestimate it. Time after time, it has outsmarted the world’s top scientists and found new ways to infect people. And with numerous unanswered questions about the omicron variant, it remains unclear what exactly to expect, except that we aren’t going back to the pre-pandemic version of normal anytime soon.
The Biden administration is discovering that vaccines alone will not bring this pandemic under control, especially with a wide swath of the country refusing to get vaccinated, even though the shots are free and easily available. Omicron has infected many people who are vaccinated and even those who are boosted. The administration’s vaccine mandate for all businesses with more than 100 employees faces several legal challenges and may not survive the courts; it heads to the Supreme Court in January. Officials are leaning hard into booster shots — which have been shown to help protect against severe effects from the omicron variant — urging all adult Americans to receive one.
While officials have put more time and money into other tools to manage the pandemic, including rapid tests and antivirals, the country faces challenges on both fronts over the next few weeks. Antivirals will be critical in treating those who do become infected, but omicron can evade some of the most effective existing treatments. Two new easy-to-use pills were recently authorized by the FDA, but the most effective of them is expected to be in short supply over the coming weeks. Rapid tests can help prevent outbreaks from spinning out of control, allowing people to resume their daily activities more safely, but a surge in demand driven by omicron has caused shortages and backlogs. We also know how effective masks can be.
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January 2, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/31/2021-school-shootings-record/
The day before he died, Bennie Hargrove told his grandmother he needed advice. It was Aug. 12, the second day of eighth grade, and Bennie confided that he had stopped a classmate and some other teens from beating up a younger boy at their Albuquerque middle school earlier that day. The 13-year-old’s disclosure made Vanessa Sawyer nervous. Sometimes, she said she told her grandson, it’s better to mind your own business. “That’s just not in me,” she recalled Bennie saying.
The next afternoon, Bennie confronted the bully, Juan Saucedo Jr., near the school track, another child would later tell police. Bennie asked Juan, also 13, to quit picking on his friends, insisting that if he wanted to fight someone, he should fight Bennie. “I’m done with this b----,” the child heard Juan say in Spanish just before he pulled a black handgun out of his backpack and, according to police, fired six rounds into Bennie’s body.
The shooting at Washington Middle School was one of at least 42 acts of gun violence committed on K-12 campuses during regular hours in 2021, the most during any year since at least 1999, according to a Washington Post database. The nation smashed the previous record of 30, despite most schools remaining closed to in-person classes for the first two months of the year.
In total, about 34,000 students were exposed to gun violence in 2021, bringing the tally since the Columbine High massacre to more than 285,000. It’s impossible to know with certainty what’s driven the surge in incidents, though researchers have speculated that a spike in gun sales, soaring rates of overall violence, the pandemic and the chaos of the past year all played some role.
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'Please help me': Kids with guns fueled a record number of school shootings in 2021
Bennie Hargrove was 13 when he was shot on the third day of 8th grade. His alleged killer was 13, too.https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/31/2021-school-shootings-record/
The day before he died, Bennie Hargrove told his grandmother he needed advice. It was Aug. 12, the second day of eighth grade, and Bennie confided that he had stopped a classmate and some other teens from beating up a younger boy at their Albuquerque middle school earlier that day. The 13-year-old’s disclosure made Vanessa Sawyer nervous. Sometimes, she said she told her grandson, it’s better to mind your own business. “That’s just not in me,” she recalled Bennie saying.
The next afternoon, Bennie confronted the bully, Juan Saucedo Jr., near the school track, another child would later tell police. Bennie asked Juan, also 13, to quit picking on his friends, insisting that if he wanted to fight someone, he should fight Bennie. “I’m done with this b----,” the child heard Juan say in Spanish just before he pulled a black handgun out of his backpack and, according to police, fired six rounds into Bennie’s body.
The shooting at Washington Middle School was one of at least 42 acts of gun violence committed on K-12 campuses during regular hours in 2021, the most during any year since at least 1999, according to a Washington Post database. The nation smashed the previous record of 30, despite most schools remaining closed to in-person classes for the first two months of the year.
In total, about 34,000 students were exposed to gun violence in 2021, bringing the tally since the Columbine High massacre to more than 285,000. It’s impossible to know with certainty what’s driven the surge in incidents, though researchers have speculated that a spike in gun sales, soaring rates of overall violence, the pandemic and the chaos of the past year all played some role.
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January 2, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/world/canada/montreal-bar-mitzvah-photographer.html
MONTREAL — Braulio Rocha, a Portuguese janitor at a Montreal synagogue, was about to begin his daily floor mopping routine some years ago when he heard a frantic voice: The photographer assigned to shoot a bris, a ritual circumcision, hadn’t shown up, and the baby’s grandmother was panicking.
Mr. Rocha, an amateur photographer, had recently arrived in Canada from Madeira with $50 in savings and a beat-up old Canon camera that he always carried with him in his car. Wearing his gray and blue polyester janitor’s uniform, a long key ring dangling from his pocket, he recalls, he summoned up the courage and asked the forlorn grandmother if he could shoot the baby’s bris — for free. She agreed, and a new career was born. Brisses soon led to bar mitzvahs, and six years later, Mr. Rocha, a 45-year-old Roman Catholic, has been called the bar mitzvah photography king of Montreal by rabbis and clients alike.
Mr. Rocha, who had never met a Jew before setting foot in Montreal’s Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in 2015, is now so in demand that he sometimes shoots five bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies a week, is booked for bar mitzvahs into 2023, and employs a team of eight assistant photographers. He recently expanded into Hasidic weddings.
He has also traded in his antiquated Canon for a $3,200 model, bought a Volvo SUV, and moved from his cramped apartment into a four-bedroom house in the suburbs, filled with Armani clothing. “I remember thinking, ‘You’re just a janitor,’” he said on a recent day, recalling his big bris break as he sat in the pews of the synagogue’s imposing sanctuary. “But I said to myself, ‘It’s now or never.’ I guess you could say I’m the Canadian dream.”
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Once a Janitor, Now the Bar Mitzvah Photography King of Montreal
With a touch of chutzpah and “a little help from God,” Braulio Rocha, a Roman Catholic Portuguese immigrant, traded in his mop for a camera.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/world/canada/montreal-bar-mitzvah-photographer.html
MONTREAL — Braulio Rocha, a Portuguese janitor at a Montreal synagogue, was about to begin his daily floor mopping routine some years ago when he heard a frantic voice: The photographer assigned to shoot a bris, a ritual circumcision, hadn’t shown up, and the baby’s grandmother was panicking.
Mr. Rocha, an amateur photographer, had recently arrived in Canada from Madeira with $50 in savings and a beat-up old Canon camera that he always carried with him in his car. Wearing his gray and blue polyester janitor’s uniform, a long key ring dangling from his pocket, he recalls, he summoned up the courage and asked the forlorn grandmother if he could shoot the baby’s bris — for free. She agreed, and a new career was born. Brisses soon led to bar mitzvahs, and six years later, Mr. Rocha, a 45-year-old Roman Catholic, has been called the bar mitzvah photography king of Montreal by rabbis and clients alike.
Mr. Rocha, who had never met a Jew before setting foot in Montreal’s Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in 2015, is now so in demand that he sometimes shoots five bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies a week, is booked for bar mitzvahs into 2023, and employs a team of eight assistant photographers. He recently expanded into Hasidic weddings.
He has also traded in his antiquated Canon for a $3,200 model, bought a Volvo SUV, and moved from his cramped apartment into a four-bedroom house in the suburbs, filled with Armani clothing. “I remember thinking, ‘You’re just a janitor,’” he said on a recent day, recalling his big bris break as he sat in the pews of the synagogue’s imposing sanctuary. “But I said to myself, ‘It’s now or never.’ I guess you could say I’m the Canadian dream.”
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