Monthly Archives: September 2021

Early one morning a couple of years ago, at the height of Hong Kongs prodemocracy protest movement, Ta Kung Pao, a Chinese-government-owned newspaper based in Hong Kong, published what it claimed was a major scoop. An American diplomat had met with a group of high-profile activists, including Joshua Wong. A photo accompanied the piece, a low-angle shot from across the lobby of the hotel where the meeting had ostensibly taken place. For Beijing, which at the time was promoting the baseless theory that foreign forces were behind Hong Kongs protests, the gotcha moment was a juicy story.

Western media largely ignored the meeting: A diplomat talking with activists is not typically news. Once trumpeted by Ta Kung Pao, however, the story was picked up by other pro-Beijing outlets and twisted as it reverberated across Chinese state media. The meeting eventually made its way to English-language outlets; the far-right website ZeroHedge published a story that was subsequently posted on the website of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, an organization founded by the former Texas congressman.

Basic facts, however, were incorrect from the start. According to a State Department official, who requested anonymity for fear of being targeted by the newspaper, Julie Eadeh, a political counselor at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, was assisting a delegation of congressional staffers who were meeting with Wong and his colleagues. She had simply arrived a few minutes ahead of the delegates and was waiting with the activists.

The facts and details, though, mattered little. The original Ta Kung Pao story had included Eadehs professional background and her education credentials but more personal details as well, including the names of her two young children and information about her husband, who is also an American diplomat. Other outlets published Eadehs parents names and their hometown in the U.S. As the stories mushroomed on Chinese social media and elsewhere, Eadeh morphed from a regular consulate employee to someone highly trained in the dark arts of subversion. Her past postings in the Middle East, articles claimed, showed a sinister track record of assisting the overthrow of foreign governments. (Ta Kung Pao did not respond to requests for comment.)

Eadeh began to notice suspicious activity offline too. A white minivan started to trail her and her family whenever they left their Hong Kong apartment, including when she dropped off her children at school. Sometimes, the people tailing them would hoist cameras with large lenses, conspicuously snapping photographs of her and her family as they went about their day. (It is unclear who the men in the van were.) Later, Eadehs likeness was featured in a Chinese video game promoted by state media in which players had to hunt down traitors who seek to separate Hong Kong from China. A state-backed documentary on the 2019 protests shown on multiple Hong Kong television channels devoted substantial time to her.

The length and intensity of the focus on a mid-level diplomat was highly unusual, Kurt Tong, the former U.S. consul general to Hong Kong, for whom Eadeh once worked, told me. Its intimidation. It is intended to intimidate the consulate and intimidate the [political] opposition.

Sitting at the center of this storm of vitriol was Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper little known outside of Hong Kong, but one with a long history and which is rapidly growing in influence. Its reports and the fallout that typically follows unfold in a familiar, almost routine fashion. A shaky-grasp-of-facts story or editorial is picked up by an array of other outlets, creating an echo chamber in which those targeted are put under enormous pressure and, in many cases walk back criticism, resign from their job, or flee Hong Kong entirely. In other instances, the newspaper will run an exclusive interview with a high-ranking official that will lay out a de facto policy position or telegraph a possible future move, one that generally attacks prodemocracy organizations or figures.

Ta Kung Paos influence illustrates the instruments Beijing uses to pursue its opponents, working in close concert with lawmakers, the police, and other Hong Kong authorities to crush dissent. It also showcases a strategy that China may employ more and more in Hong Kong and elsewhere: using the tools of a free society (in this case a once lively and aggressive press) to suppress freedom itself.

Herbert Chow, an outspoken prodemocracy advocate and shop owner, discovered this spring the damage Ta Kung Pao could inflict. Two days after he opened a new store packed with protest memorabilia, he was the focus of a critical report. The day after the story ran, his shop was swarmed by dozens of police. Three of his five employees quit. This is how they do things, he told me. They just scare you.

Read: A newsroom at the edge of autocracy

Ta Kung Pao, which is controlled by Chinas representative office in Hong Kong, in some respects mirrors the citys broader evolution. In colonial times, the publication championed Chinese identity while taking aim at Hong Kongs British rulers, playing a crucial role in fomenting the leftist riots that broke out in the city in 1967 as the Cultural Revolution swept the mainland. The salaries were low but the morale was very high was the way one former staffer described the atmosphere in the late 1980s when he was first hired. Journalists, he told me, felt they were not only patriots but fighting against the colonial power. When Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, the paper remained influential, telegraphing Beijings thinking while delivering largely reliable, if heavily slanted, reporting. Its former top editor, the recipient of a prestigious fellowship at Harvard, was named Hong Kongs secretary for home affairs in 2007.

But in recent years, Ta Kung Pao has adopted paparazzi-style tactics. Its employees have been accused of ambushing, harassing, and incessantly stalking prodemocracy activists (and others who land on Beijings ever-expanding list of enemies). Its jingoistic rhetoric largely reflects the blustery screeds of Chinas wolf warrior diplomats. The newspaper is the most aggressive in a web of publications that make up what Bloomberg described as a publishing empire in Hong Kong that is overseen by Beijing. Ta Kung Paos parent company does not make clear its ownership structure but coyly mentions on its own website that it is supported by the motherland. Chinas Hong Kong Liaison Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Since the 2019 prodemocracy protests, there has been a sharper, harsher edge of really smearing and demonizing perceived [Chinese Communist Party] enemies, Sarah Cook, an expert on Chinese state media at the U.S.-based NGO Freedom House, told me.

The enactment of Hong Kongs national-security law last year hampered press freedoms in the city. Apple Daily, a stridently prodemocracy newspaper, was forced to close this year after more than two decades of publishing when authorities froze its assets, raided its newsroom, and arrested numerous editors for violating the new law. Other outlets have moved their operations abroad. Editorial writers have put down their pens. Hong Kongs public broadcaster is being retooled as a progovernment mouthpiece. (Though these are recent examples, Ta Kung Paos opaque ownership reflects a longer-term trend in Hong Kong of once-boisterous independent media outlets falling into the ownership or orbit of Beijing and its proxies, thus further eroding freedoms.) Now that the political system has no risk, officials are beginning to look at religion, media, and teachers, Fred Li, a longtime member of the citys largest prodemocracy party, told me recently.

In this new environment where national security is paramount, Ta Kung Pao and other Chinese state outlets have thrived, though not by the common journalism metrics of readership and credibility. Instead, their ability to frighten and intimidate people and institutions into subservience has expanded, making them powerful tools in the ongoing, unrestrained effort to purge Hong Kong of opposition. Ta Kung Pao has targeted artists, filmmakers, academics, judges, and exiled activists. This marks a significant escalation. Ching Cheong, a former deputy editor at Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Paos sister publication, which is also overseen by the Liaison Office, told me that state-backed publications in the city used to act more as traditional newspapers, with pro-Beijing positions set out in op-ed pages and articles from academics and other influential contributors. What they are doing right now, he said, is to force Beijings ideological inclination upon the Hong Kong people.

Ta Kung Pao is the creation of a devout French-speaking Catholic named Ying Lianzhi. After a stint serving at the French consulate in Yunnan province, Ying founded the paper, then named Limpartial, in 1902 in Tianjin, a port city in northeastern China. He promoted a free press and believed in the societal benefits of newspapers. He appealed to a wider audience by writing in vernacular Chinese. After his death in 1926, the paper was sold to a wealthy banker and its new editor in chief, Zhang Jiluan, kept standards high, offered attractive salaries, and lured top talent, building up a circulation of 150,000. Zhang laid out guidelines to keep the newspapers pages free from bias, and he became a prominent figure within Chinese journalism. In 1941, the Missouri School of Journalism awarded Ta Kung Paowhose name is an allusion to a stated mission of serving the publica medal for distinguished service, lauding the papers rich and essential reporting on developments in China. As the Chinese civil war erupted in the aftermath of World War II, however, the paper began running afoul of the ruling nationalist authorities, who tightened controls on the press as they sought to fight off the Communist advance. Ta Kung Pao was relocated to Hong Kong in 1948 in search of political and economic stability, but the following year, with the triumph of the Communist Party, its ownership was handed over to the Chinese people.

The now pro-Communist paper soon became a source of frustration for the colonial government in Hong Kong. The British accommodated the press to a degree but maintained a trove of laws that could be wielded to curb free speech, deploying them, albeit rarely, when outlets challenged their authority. They used those rules most famously in 1967, when a labor dispute spiraled into deadly riots across Hong Kong. Ta Kung Pao stoked anti-colonial sentiment, but British officials were reluctant to punish it and other newspapers with direct links to Beijing for fear of the response they might provoke. Instead, the government went after independent leftist papers, arresting key figures and barring three outlets from publishing. The moves elicited a furious response from Ta Kung Pao. What sort of laws and rule of law is it? the newspaper asked. What sort of press freedom is it? How can the colonial government close all patriotic newspapers and arrest all patriotic journalists?

Patriotism is now again at the forefront of Hong Kongs political discourse, as pro-Beijing figures and the government are trumpeting an overhauled election system that has effectively criminalized the prodemocracy opposition. Ta Kung Pao is doing its part as a propaganda and misinformation megaphone. According to two former reporters, both of whom left in recent years and who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, the atmosphere was not unlike a government office on the mainland: top-down and highly bureaucratic, with editors making heavy-handed changes and dictating story angles to please higher-ups. One of the reporters said that during training, immediately after being hired, they were schooled on state-media jargon, how to avoid politically sensitive topics, and the importance of always showcasing the positive aspects of living in Hong Kong. Those working on the international desk were directed to select news stories from abroad for translation that showed police cracking down on protests in foreign countries, as if to normalize the practice. I felt like I was reporting on Hong Kong in the mainland, using the mainland language and the angles they wanted, one of the former reporters said. I felt like there was a divide between Hong Kong and myself.

Like other traditional media outlets, Ta Kung Pao has tried in recent years to engage a younger, more web-centric audience, with mixed success. In 2017, the newspaper launched DotDotNews, an online publication that hosts original video content as well as written stories. Its English-language version, which is decidedly amateurish and often lacking production value, regularly features commentary from well-known influencers and punditsmany of them foreignerswho hold pro-Beijing views. It falsely reported in March that two U.S. Consulate staffers whod tested positive for COVID-19 had invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid being sent to quarantine. (Multiple stories were removed from the outlets Facebook page in 2019, the social-media company said, before the page was taken down completely for repeatedly breaking the platforms community standards.) In 2016, a new chief editor arrived at Ta Kung Pao, according to local media reports. His background in the world of pro-Beijing tabloids ushered in the use of a more confrontational and combative style of writing and reporting, the former longtime staffer told me.

Read: The end of free speech in Hong Kong

By modern news-media standards, Ta Kung Pao is flailing. Research from the Chinese University of Hong Kong shows that the newspapers credibility among the public has dropped significantly since 1997, now ranking the worst among surveyed outlets. Many staffers feared being attacked during the protests two years ago if Hong Kongers became aware of where they worked or that they were from the mainland, one of the reporters I spoke with said. For this reason, and as a way to give the appearance that the newsroom was larger than it was, reporters often used pseudonyms.

Yet these shortcomings hardly seem to matter because, in terms of impact, a favorite buzzword of journalists, Ta Kung Pao is more valuable than ever. Drawing on a rotating cast of pro-Beijing talking heads, lawmakers, and even former Hong Kong chief executives, the newspaper can whip up support for almost any issue, forcing the subjects that come into its crosshairs to cower in submission, out of fear of possible legal repercussions and further harassment. Ta Kung Pao is just one of the numerous ways in which the liaison office exerts shadowy control over the city, serving as what University of Hong Kong politics professor Eliza W. Y. Lee describes as a quasi-ruling party of the political regime of Hong Kong.

The newspaper in November 2020 accused a shop selling yellow-colored face masksa color associated with the prodemocracy movementand other protest-related souvenirs of inciting hatred and tearing society apart. The shop shut down days later. The same month, the newspaper began targeting Lee Ching-kwan, the director of the Global China Center at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, arguing that comments Lee had made saying Hong Kong belongs to the world were pro-independence. Lee suffered numerous waves of media attacks before eventually resigning, she told me. A DotDotNews article in February highlighted a World Press Photo exhibition at Hong Kong Baptist University that included some photos of the 2019 protests. University administrators abruptly called off the event.

There are plenty of other examples. The body that funds art projects has announced that it will cut off resources to any artist that promotes Hong Kong independence, after criticism from Ta Kung Pao; one artist singled out by the paper left Hong Kong this month, saying he was in search of freedom. Hong Kongs largest teachers union disbanded entirely after Ta Kung Pao joined a pro-Beijing pile-on against the organization. The newspaper continues to push for the group to be investigated. And in an August interview with Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kongs police chief said the Civil Human Rights Front, the umbrella organization behind 2019s largest demonstrations, possibly violated the national-security law and would be investigated. The claim came despite the group having had police clearance for its rallies and holding no events since the law was enacted. The CHRF folded days later.

Cook, the Freedom House analyst, told me that dismissing these instances simply as meaningless propaganda would be a mistake. It is not just fluff, it is not just words, she said. It actually does drive very real consequences for people.

Two court cases in the past year provide an illuminating glimpse at the double standards now in effect in Hong Kong, where different sets of rules apply to those who support the Chinese government and those who challenge it, and how the press freedoms demanded by Ta Kung Pao half a century ago are being denied to its rivals.

Last November, the freelance journalist Bao Choy was arrested and questioned about accessing a public database of car registrations. She had used the system to obtain license-plate information, a standard practice for Hong Kong journalists, while working on a damning investigation into police inaction during a mob attack on protesters and commuters in 2019. The report would win numerous awards, and Choy was awarded the same Harvard fellowship as the former Ta Kung Pao editor, but she was found guilty and fined about $775. (Choy is appealing.)

Wong Wai-keung, a senior editor for Ta Kung Pao, was this year accused of the same crime for a story that targeted a former prodemocracy lawmaker. At a short hearing this past June, however, prosecutors announced that they had dropped the charges against Wong, saying he would need only to pay about $130 in court fees. Wong had arrived at previous court appearances in a baseball cap and sunglasses, carrying an open umbrella to hide his identity. But on the final day of his case, he didnt bother to show up to court at all.

Asked why Wong had been treated so differently from Bao by authorities, the prosecutor demurred. It was a one-off incident, he said of Wong. He is of clear record and gainfully employed.

Tiffany Liang contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

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How China Weaponized the Press - The Atlantic

The 2008 Great Recession was one of the biggest financial crises in U.S. history, devastating millions of families economic prospects worldwide, including my own.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most severe economic recession in the history of the industrialized world.

The one thing that both of these economic crises have in common is an ineffective Federal Reserve.

The former was caused by a massive failure by the Fed to realize the impending housing market bubble despite the advice of several experts. The latter was exacerbated by a Federal Reserve that, post-stock market crash, required banks to keep more money in reserve rather than lower the reserve requirement, which is now the established norm for high-deflation events.

Federal economic policies should be set by market forces, not a central authority that often seems to have little to no idea what they are doing when times of actual crisis come.

But how can we remedy the wholly lackluster performance brought forward by the Fed?

Blockchains are one way to bring more power into the hands of the people and create a more robust, quick-acting system.

Blockchain technology allows a record of any type to be stored throughout a network of independent computers. Its what enables cryptocurrencies to exist.

The technology has come very far in its 12 years of existence, and there lies a promising future in a system where power is distributed directly to the people rather than to middlemen such as governments or Federal Reserve chairpeople that may not act according to our interests.

Though we cannot know for certain, blockchain technology has boundless potential to not only increase government transparency, but fight corruption itself and strengthen our democracy.

According to Carlos Santiso of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, blockchain technology can strengthen accountability in not only the Federal Reserve but in other facets of the government by leveraging a shared and distributed database of ledgers [which] eliminates the need for intermediaries, cutting red-tape and reducing discretionally.

In other words, the public nature of a blockchain which is essentially a fancy record-keeper means that government agencies will be more easily held accountable.

The most salient and seemingly easiest solution to the Federal Reserve problem would be to abolish or curtail the Federal Reserve, as former Republican Congressman Ron Paul argues.

But this may cause more harm than good. According to Princeton University economist Alan Blinder, the Federal Reserves independence produces less inflation and superior macroeconomic performance.

The more permanent solution we can fight for is to embrace a middleman-less future. A future where it is not politicians that say they act on our behalf, but instead an amalgamation of everyones views through blockchain technology to create a truly democratic system. A future where banks do not have control over our hard-earned money, but we do. A blockchain-based future.

However, there stand some points of argument against a blockchain-based future.

In an article for the Atlantic, Ian Bogost writes that more computing power means more energy cost to run and cool the machines, which requires more capital and physical infrastructure to support. Those rising costs inspire centralization.

He says this because of the nature of a proof-of-work blockchain, like Bitcoins, where computers are doing thousands of complex math problems that require an amount of electricity that increases marginally with each block added to the blockchain.

Because voting power in the blockchain is based on the amount of work one can do, someone with access to a lot of capital and infrastructure could potentially take majority control over a PoW blockchain.

What he says could be true for proof-of-work blockchains like Bitcoin, but Bogosts argument doesnt hold water when talking about proof-of-stake blockchains such as Ethereum, the 2nd largest blockchain by market capitalization, where voting power on the blockchain is no longer held by those who can provide the most computing power but instead spread equally.

Though the Fed continues to provide some value in reducing volatility and better macroeconomic performance, how far are we willing to trust a system governed by a regulatory body that remains intransparent and insufficiently audited?

The Federal Reserve has shown itself to be unable to make the correct decisions when we need them to. Blockchain is the future, and we can either watch the Fed continue to botch its responsibilities or force it to adapt to a decentralized future.

Originally posted here:
Modern Toolbox: The Federal Reserve is killing the United States The Daily Free Press - Daily Free Press

On Sunday, a Boston Celtics fan account posted a video from Timeless Sports' Twitter account, sharing an entertaining old video from a game between the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics.

The video can be seen in a Tweet that is embedded below from the Twitter account of @HonestLarry1.

In the video, Ron Artest (now Metta Sandiford-Artest) is seen guarding Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics.

Artest pulls down Pierce's pants during the game, and even through the tactic, Pierce comes off of a screen and drills a shot in the face of Artest.

In 2004, Artest was the Defensive Player of The Year and an NBA All-Star for the Pacers.

He was one of the best defenders in NBA history, but this tactic did not work on Pierce.

Artest played 17 years in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls, Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks.

He won a championship in 2010.

He has career averages of 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

In 12 different seasons he averaged 1.5+ steals per game.

On the other hand, Pierce played 19 years in the NBA for the Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers.

He was ten-time NBA All-Star and won an NBA championship with the Celtics during the 2008 season.

He has career averages of 19.7 points, 5.6 rebounds 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

In eight different seasons Pierce averaged 20+ points per game.

The video made for some good content to look back on.

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Remember When Paul Pierce Got His Pants Pulled Down In A Game? It Really Happened To The Former Celtics, Nets, Wizards And Clippers Star - Sports...

While many of The Beatles songs are considered classics, Paul McCartney felt one of their No. 1 hits is not a classic. He thought the best thing about the song was its title. Interestingly, he said the lyrics of the song reflected the relative sexual liberation of the time when it was written.

The Beatles had 20 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. During an interview with Billboard, Paul discussed the origins of eight of The Beatles No. 1 songs. He said he disagreed with the way some journalists characterized one of The Beatles chart-toppers.

When people review my shows, they say, He opened with a Beatles classic, Eight Days a Week,' Paul said. I wouldnt put it as a classic. Is it the cleverest song weve ever written? No. Has it got a certainjoie de vivrethat The Beatles embodied? Yes. The best thing about it was the title, really.

According to rumor, Ringo Starr thought up the title Eight Days a Week. This is not the case. In actuality, Paul lost his license and someone else drove him to John Lennons house. When Paul arrived at Johns house, they had a conversation that inspired Eight Days a Week.

RELATED: The Beatles: John Lennon and Paul McCartney Used These 2 Words in Their Song Titles and Lyrics to Connect to Fans

Just as we reached Johns, I said, You been busy?' Paul recalled. Just small talk. And he said, Busy? Ive been working eight days a week. I ran into the house and said, Got a title! And we wrote it in the next hour.

Paul discussed the significance of the lyric Hold me, lover in Eight Days a Week. Our parents had been rather repressed, and we were breaking out of that mold, Paul opined. Everyone was let off the leash. Coming down from Liverpool to London, there were all sorts of swinging chicks, and we were red-blooded young men. All thats on your mind at that age is young women or it was, in our case.

Eight Days a Week reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 10 weeks. The song appeared on the Fab Fours album Beatles IV, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the charts for 41 weeks.

RELATED: The Beatles: Paul McCartney Once Felt He Could Never Perform This Sgt. Pepper Song Live

Eight Days a Week has a legacy outside of its time on the charts. Ron Howard directed a documentary about the Fab Four titled The Beatles: Eight Days a Week. The documentary focused mostly on the bands early period, around the time they released Eight Days a Week. Paul isnt a huge fan of Eight Days a Week, but the song made an impact on the American charts and on cinema.

Read more:
Paul McCartney Said This No. 1 Beatles Song Isn't a Classic: 'The Best Thing About It Was the Title' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Paul Avery, Peter Hirschfeld and Chuck Hobson| Guest columnists

Since late July, the pandemic has worsened in Florida due to the spread of the highly transmissibledelta variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus. Hospitals throughout the state are strained to capacity with COVID-19 patients, and their ICUs are overflowing.

One of us works as ICUmedicaldirector at a local medical center and daily sees the desperation of patients on ventilators and bedside cardiopulmonary bypass. Unvaccinated patients make up the vast majority of COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths at North Florida Regional Medical Center.

In fact, Florida currently has the highest per capita death rate from COVID-19 of any state in the country. Most of these facts have received considerable local andeven national press coverage.

There is a mystery that has not been addressed properly, in our opinion. While our neighbors in Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana have death rates from COVID-19 that are also high, their situation has an obvious explanation:Those states have among the lowest vaccination rates in the country.In Florida this is not the case.

In fact, by aggressively pursuing vaccination of seniors early after vaccines were developed, Florida achieved a relatively high vaccination rate for a Southern state, roughly equal to the national average. Florida is an extreme outlier: a state with a relatively high vaccination rate and simultaneously the highest death rate in the country. Why are residents here dying so fast?

We can rule out some obvious misperceptions immediately. First, it is not true that the high death rate in Florida means that vaccinations are not preventing COVID-19 deaths.The efficacy of the vaccines in preventing serious illness and death is astounding and has been proven in study after study around the world, and is reflected in the data from Alachua County.

Florida nurse practitioner on recent surge

As coronavirus cases continue to trend upward across the state of Florida, a nurse practitioner working in Miami depicts the dire situation that he says has brought about a 600 percent increase of COVID patients into their ICUs. (Aug. 10)

AP

Second, it is not true that patients are dying at a higher rate in Florida simply because Florida has one of the highest populations of seniors in the country. Seniors are known to be less resilient against the disease, although deaths are now occurring in all age categories.

While 20% of Florida residents are above age 65 (compared to 16.5% in Alabama and 12.5% in Texas), this age class is the most highly vaccinated of all. Over 80% of Florida seniors have been fully vaccinated, making it highly unlikely that seniors account for the high overall death rate.

The primary factor that separates different populations regarding their susceptibility to COVID-19 is human behavior, including willingness to be vaccinated but also participation in masking and social distancing regimes. For most of 2021 Floridians have taken this pandemic entirely too lightly, and the main explanation for this attitude toward COVID-19 infection has been the approach taken by Gov. RonDeSantis.

DeSantis gets credit for a reasonable vaccination campaign in the state, for attempting to keep the economy open and recently for emphasizing the use of the REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail for outpatient use.Howeverhe has, at the same time, fanned the flames of anti-vax, anti-maskculturein Florida by emphasizing personal liberty at all costs over the basic tenets of public health.

In his desire to declare Florida open for business he consistently downplayed the severity of thisdelta wave. He has acted to punish localities who work to protect their citizens by mandating masks in schools, and businessesthatattempt to require vaccinations. Other Republican governors and legislatures have attempted to outlaw public health measures, but none so early nor so loudly as DeSantis.

The governors bully pulpit matters. Floridians and tourists alike have gotten the message from state leaders that the pandemic is over, go out, visit Mickey and enjoy life in the Sunshine State. This message is the direct cause of the current crisis in our state and the explanation of why we areNo.1 in COVID-19 deaths.

We insist that our public health care leaders be allowed to deploy the strongest tools at their disposal to fight this pandemic. We need the state to make all COVID-19 data easily available so that localities and individuals can make informed decisions.

Lets work together to bring the number of cases and deaths down before the next variant arrives, and make Florida a role model for the nation rather than an object lesson in bad policy.

Paul Avery,PhD, andPeter J. Hirschfeld,PhD, are professorsofphysicsat theUniversity of Florida,Charles Hobson,MD,PhD, isICUmedicaldirectoratNorth Florida Regional Medical Center.These are the authors personal views and do not reflect the positions of their organizations.

Send a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines.

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Why is Florida the COVID capital of the US? - Gainesville Sun

Long before the Safdie Brothers' "Uncut Gems" earned him serious awards buzz, Paul Thomas Anderson proved that Adam Sandler could be a great actor with "Punch-Drunk Love." Sometimes, comedic actors choose deathly serious roles or make extreme physical transformations in order to be taken seriously. Here, though, Sandler is cast as a good-natured man-child in over his head, a role not dissimilar from those he frequently plays. It's Anderson's non-traditional approach to the material, which incorporates strange non sequiturs and philosophical ramblings, that makes "Punch-Drunk Love" different fromSandler's other romantic comedies.

Sandler stars in "Punch-Drunk Love" as Barry Egan, a salesman whose life is dominated by his eccentric sisters and frequent bouts of rage. Unsatisfied with the direction of his career, Barry finds hope when a bizarre car accident inadvertently introduces him to Lena (Emily Watson), his sister's co-worker. Barry quickly becomes infatuated, and attempts to break free of his familial trauma in order to pursue a relationship.

Anderson deconstructs Sandler's on-screen persona by giving reasons for Barry's erratic behavior. While "Punch-Drunk Love" contains many hilarious moments, including the now iconic phone conversation in which Barry is berated by the owner of a phone-sex line (Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a brief, but unforgettable, performance), Sandler is more vulnerable in this film than he's ever been. Anderson is rarely a sentimental filmmaker, but the genuine chemistry between Sandler andWatson make "Punch-Drunk Love" his most charming film to date.

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All 8 Paul Thomas Anderson Feature Films Ranked Worst To Best - /FILM