What the East was able to do was cooperate as societies to fight Covid. And it turned out that you couldn’t beat Covid w

We all want this miserable year to be over. For this miserable plague to go away already. And after Donald Trump, then Covid. But let us first learn the lesson of the last year. It goes like this.

,

At the end of the day, can any of us really be surprised that it came down to this? After all, in American politics, there is little that concerns our lawmakers more than their money, and preservation of power. Donald Trump’s antics were only going to be tolerated as long as the donor class determined it was not going to cost them, and the moment they decided they were tired of it, the game was effectively over. After all the blustering, the court cases, the vehement assertions that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and the unapologetic bending of democracy to the brink, all it took was a few phone calls from their donors, reminding Republicans who owns them to get them to essentially roll over.

,

As has been so often the case in recent weeks, these recent revelations have served as yet another sobering reminder of just how fragile what’s left of our democracy really is. We may have defeated the fascist this time, but who’s to say we can rely on a few wealthy men to pressure the next one who comes along in the right direction? Are we really prepared to exit this moment, go “back to brunch” like it never happened, and pretend as though there’s no reason to be concerned any longer? As I have said now countless times before, for a multitude of reasons too numerous to list, all signs point to the country being in for some dark days ahead.

,

http://startup.munich.es/xuo/videos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-fdc-.php

http://molos.bodasturias.com/qpe/videos-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-ywr-.php

http://elta.actiup.com/mto/Video-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-qxi-.php

http://main.ruicasa.com/xrk/video-Peykan-Nassaji-Mazandaran-v-en-gb-sbs30122020-.php

http://www.ectp.org/cqt/v-ideos-Peykan-Nassaji-Mazandaran-v-en-gb-ion-.php

http://team.vidrio.org/rtr/video-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-rjf30122020-.php

http://startup.munich.es/xuo/videos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-wno30122020-.php

http://main.ruicasa.com/xrk/Video-Peykan-Nassaji-Mazandaran-v-en-gb-alj-.php

http://team.vidrio.org/rtr/video-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-vvu-.php

http://elta.actiup.com/mto/videos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-dxv30122020-.php

http://www.ectp.org/cqt/v-ideos-Peykan-Nassaji-Mazandaran-v-en-gb-yih-.php

http://startup.munich.es/xuo/v-ideos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-irh-.php

http://old.cocir.org/media/cla/video-gazisehir-gaziantep-v-ankaragucu-v-tr-tr-1wyy-10.php

http://elta.actiup.com/mto/Video-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-hnv-.php

http://molos.bodasturias.com/qpe/video-gazisehir-gaziantep-v-ankaragucu-v-tr-tr-1ehq-8.php

http://elta.actiup.com/mto/videos-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-ksk-.php

http://main.ruicasa.com/xrk/videos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-aeg30122020-.php

http://www.ectp.org/cqt/videos-Chiangrai-United-Port-FC-v-en-gb-hoc30122020-.php

http://startup.munich.es/xuo/v-ideos-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-hpq-.php

http://elta.actiup.com/mto/Video-Zob-Ahan-Tractor-Sazi-v-en-gb-rrc30122020-.php

ially emulates the concepts reflected in your brain. Given some input data (and the black box of your brain), a neural network will break down the input and be able to make sense of it. With enough training data, it’ll be able to infer something from it.,

Putting aside how this probably had everything to do with preserving their stock portfolios from the volatility that a constitutional crisis would create, and not “preserving democracy” as the article went on to state that they had claimed, it seems fairly clear that this was in fact the underlying motive for Trump’s decision to waver.

,

There’s a lesson that we should have learned from Covid. The big We. As a world, as societies, a human beings, as inhabitants of planet earth. It goes deep. All the way. Past politics, economics, all the superficial dross that surrounds us, deficits, left, right, budgets, cuts — the nostrums shouted at us by a hundred pundits a thousand times a day. So deep that it cuts to the truth of who we really are, when you take away the labels.

,

The world’s top performers against Covid? Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, South Korea. They’re not just mostly Asian — they’re also far, far poorer and less powerful than the West. Even Africa, blighted by centuries of enslavement, has done better than the West. Why? How did this come to be? After all, these societies have a) less money b) less “talent” c) fewer resources. Everything you can imagine was stacked against them.

,

And yet — strikingly — just the opposite has been true. The West is the one that’s been ravaged by Covid, and it’s most powerful nation, the USA, is the society with the worst outcomes on the planet. Nine of the world’s top ten Covid hotspots are American states.

,

It turned out that they have something much more valuable than money, talent, or resources. Something that’s devalued in the West, as soft, weak, meaningless, and useless — especially so in Anglo societies, like America and Britain. There, this thing — this little piece of magic — barely exists at all, so America has the worst outcomes in the world, while Britain has the worst ones in Europe.

,

There are a handful of societies in the world who managed to beat Covid. What’s remarkable about them is that they’re not the ones you might expect. At the beginning of this pandemic, the predictions went like this: the pandemic would ravage the poor world, and spare the rich, powerful West.

,

Joe Biden won the election in what even Donald Trump would have referred to as a landslide, considering that’s what he called it when he won the electoral college vote by the same margin in 2016. It should also go without saying that Joe Biden also won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, earning more votes than any other Presidential candidate in U.S. history. Is it not even just a little bit disturbing that a letter and some phone calls from a handful of executives threatening to pull funding from two Senate races in a single state carried more weight than a multi-million popular vote victory and sizable electoral college lead in the decision to begin the transition of power? Am I the only one finding it ominous that a few wealthy executives hold the stability of the entire country’s democratic process in their hands? Should we not be concerned that what’s left of the nation’s stability all depends on what Wall Street determines serves their best interests?

,

…The group includes executives at many top financial firms, including Accenture, Blackstone, and KKR. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzmann, a loyal Trump ally who spent $27 million this year backing the president and the Republican Party, did not join Blackstone President Jon Gray in signing the letter. He has issued a separate statement urging Trump to move on and accept defeat.”

,

These questions are as old as time. And so far — if you ask me at least — the answers that we have aren’t really working. The human race remains as violent and predatory and stupid as it has always been. But don’t call me a pessimist. Think with me, my friend. Learn. Let us reflect and contemplate together, like fellow travellers on this dusty and strange road.

,

As has been so often the case in recent weeks, these recent revelations have served as yet another sobering reminder of just how fragile what’s left of our democracy really is. We may have defeated the fascist this time, but who’s to say we can rely on a few wealthy men to pressure the next one who comes along in the right direction? Are we really prepared to exit this moment, go “back to brunch” like it never happened, and pretend as though there’s no reason to be concerned any longer? As I have said now countless times before, for a multitude of reasons too numerous to list, all signs point to the country being in for some dark days ahead.

,

What is the thing the East had that the West didn’t — that made all the difference in fighting Covid, much more so than money and resources and so forth? Sociality. Social cohesion. Social bonds. Trust, relationships, ties. An economist might call that “social capital.” You can use that term if you want — I won’t, because, like I said, this lesson goes so, so deep that I want to take pains to really explain, and you can tell me if I succeed.