GLEANINGS FROM THE PASSING WEEK … (Politically Uncorrected)

From the week:

Human genetics: Gene editing turns fluffy hamsters into attack dogs (Report)

U.S. President: Claims (emergency) power to detain, seize, censor etc. at will? (Article)

COVID: Study shows masking increases risk (Report)

Flight cancellations: Continue without mentioning pilots refusing vaccination (Report)

Turkey: Failing currency, rising inflation  impoverish (Report)

California cuts water to rice farmers to serve minnows (Report)

Pakistan is inflating toward collapse (Report)

Germany is inflating too (Report)

Finance: More European countries increasing gold holdings (Report)

Science: Chimps communication more complex than expected (Article)

More science: Quantum network progress (Report)

Los Angeles lifeguards: spectacularly overpaid? (Report)

Syracuse University raises tuition as it pursues new anti-racism program (Report)

U.S. electricity: Another nuclear plant closed; blackouts in prospect (Article)

The war on cash: A disaster for savers (Video)

Mali: Degenerating again (Article)

Political swindles: Replacing blacks with Latino immigrants? (Article)

Cyberwarfare: U.S. attacking Russia for Ukraine (Report)

The pandemic: New York Times reports masks don’t reduce infection rate (Report)

U.S. Social Security, Medicare approach insolvency, trustees report (Article)

Submarines: A robotic naval arms race (Article)

Yemen: Update (Article)

U.S. military: Punishing the unvaccinated (Interview)

U.S. Capitol riot: Former Trump aide sues Congressional committee, is arrested (Report)

Uvalde school shootings raise questions (Article)

Chicago: 6 dead, 32 wounded in weekend shootings (Report)

A naked man was arrested running through a business (Report)

And that is all …

EDITORIAL:         America’s President Problem

President Obama may or may not be a true black American but seemed indubitably an erstwhile political lightweight who led the way toward remodeling the presidency into a large scale, regular public presence. President Trump, a political neophyte, grabbed the internet and expanded himself into a kind of U.S. Ringmaster. The U.S. presidency will never be as it was; it has been remodeled  by the social media. President Biden and V.P. Harris seem sufficient evidence that whatever else they may be, future  top politicians will be competent actors with an impressive public presence when they read their lines. Who will be writing those lines may be less public. Republicans and Democrats are both showing remorse over their most recent candidate selections so that is likely to be a more scripted process, Consonant with governing generally. Government has become a show; we may want to remember that the purpose of shows is to divert us from reality.