vdare--2020-04-01--Derb's March Diary: What, Me Worry?; What Time Does The Next Ice Floe Leave?; Philippa Schuyler, Bo

Derb's March Diary: What, Me Worry?; What Time Does The Next Ice Floe Leave?; Philippa Schuyler, Bo Winegard, And Lana Lokteff, Etc. [10 ITEMS]

What , me worry ?
I 'm not as bothered by this coronavirus outbreak as , according to the public-service announcements , I ought to be .
I belong to two high-risk categories : over seventy and with a compromised immune system .
I live in one of the worst-affected states .
Should n't I be cowering in a basement room compulsively checking my temperature and lung function in between having my meals delivered in sterilized containers through a hatch in the wall ?
Perhaps I should , but it all seems like too much trouble .
My life history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 'm a 1940s English baby .
The background wallpaper to my childhood was the Blitz ( well , by close hearsay ) , polio , diphtheria , and the Bomb .
We took in fatalism with our daily dose of cod liver oil , supplied free to kiddies by the then shiny-new National Health Service .
Worry ?
Eh , if it 's got your number on it … There 's sheer good luck in my circumstances , too .
I live in a spacious outer suburb .
There 's nowhere I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to meet .
My wife and son are at home ; but her work and his studies have all been put online , so they are as self-quarantining as I am .
So here we huddle , mumbling repetitively at each other like characters in a Harold Pinter play , hoping the lockdown will be eased before we go stir-crazy .
We need to go shopping , of course ; but we wear masks and gloves , carry hand sanitizers , and stay away from touch-screen services .
I walk the dog , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fifteen feet of social distancing .
At this point I should be casting nervous glances over my shoulder in fear of having attracted the attention of those demons who punish mortals boasting of good luck .
Nope : I 've paid a price for my vacation .
I 've been ill .
The long URI .
Bill Buckley had a conversational rule that no-one could talk about his own health issues for longer than 45 seconds .
I like that rule so I 'll keep this short .
I would have left it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asking .
Starting in mid-January and down to the present I 've had some kind of persistent URI .
Cold ?
Flu ?
I do n't know .
Hacking cough ; stuffed-up head spaces ; Nasenschleimheit ; listless , dull-witted , and without appetite … No fever , though , no trouble breathing , so I 'm fairly sure it 's not COVID-19 .
I 'd be surer if I could get tested ; but like the rest of you who are n't rich , famous , or exhibiting more clearly corona-ish symptoms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and wanes , but this month has been particularly bad .
These past few days my Eustachian tubes have been blocked , leaving me functionally deaf .
( Yes , I got antibiotics for possible ear infection ; and yes , I 'm taking anti-inflammatory pills and aggressively chewing gum , as advised by Doctor Google . )
I 've never had an ordinary URI last this long before .
My colds have always conformed to the Old Wives ' schedule : `` Three days coming , three days with you , three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over it , I 'm sure .
It seems odd , though , to be thus stricken , for so long , just as a really nasty , but different , viral outbreak is going on .
I nurse a longstanding superstition—it does n't rate as anything higher—that peculiar weather , especially too-warm winters , has negative health effects .
We have been 28 years in our present house this month ; this has been the first winter in those 28 when I have not had to shovel snow from my driveway even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ice floe leave ?
Lurking in the background are reflections on old age and death .
I doubt there is anything to be said about them in generality that has n't been said a hundred times over down through the ages , in prose , drama , verse , and song .
One of those things is the paradox that we become more protective of our precious hides as those hides become more wrinkled and useless .
If you want a volunteer to charge hollering at an enemy machine-gun nest , your best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to a creaky septuagenarian , you 'll most likely get : `` Whoa , you kidding ?
That 's dangerous . ''
The British Army catch-phrase is that a man has no `` bottle '' ( = reckless courage ) after age thirty .
All that may be true in generality , and of course there are some things we ca n't know until put to the test .
Still , I do n't myself have much fear of death , although like you , him , and her I 'd prefer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ old age is concerned , while I grudgingly admire the defiance of Tennyson 's Ulysses , temperamentally I ca n't emulate it .
I 've had a good innings : been round the world a couple of times , enjoyed long spells of comfortable prosperity ; also been broke , hungry , beaten-up , and friendless in places you can barely find on a map .
I 've experienced intense emotions of both the positive and negative sort .
I 've furnished a house , raised a family , made some friends , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ( I hope ) useful work to a couple of national economies , published some books .
I 've taken intellectual pleasure and instruction from the arts and sciences .
There are things I regret not having accomplished , but I do n't fool myself I 'm going to get round to any of them this late in the game .
Life-wise , I 'm done .
The house is paid for , there 's a good life-insurance policy , and the kids are self-supporting .
I ca n't bear to think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wife ; but she 's sturdy Malthusian stock , she 'd cope .
There 's an urban legend that among the Eskimos , when a member of the tribe gets old and burdensome , they put him on an ice floe and push him out into the ocean current .
I do n't know if it 's true—it does n't a priori seem very likely—but I 'm on board ( as it were ) with the general principle .
So … What time does the next ice floe leave ?
Notes from our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Winegard .
Bo Winegard is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Marietta College , a private liberal-arts school in Ohio .
Not for much longer , though : At the beginning of March he was told that his contract would not be renewed , i.e .
he was being fired .
The reason ?
He holds heterodox opinions about human nature—opinions well-founded in biology , reasonable and thoughtfully-argued , but at odds with current state ideology .
Among Winegard 's thoughtcrimes was liking a tweet by our own Steve Sailer .
Winegard himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Please read the whole thing .
I am just going to register my agreement with the blogger PostTenureTourettes : There is talk going around that among the economic consequences of our current disruptions may be the financial failure and closing of many private liberal-arts colleges , places like Marietta .
I hope and pray this comes to pass .
Has there ever been a more parasitic class afflicting a civilized society than these college deans and administrators and their uniformly , lock-step `` progressive '' lackeys and enforcers ?
It would be sheer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sinecures and put to some useful work … except that I doubt they are capable of any .
Notes from our Cultural Revolution ( 2 ) : Lana Lokteff .
This one I come to rather late ; it 's from last November .
I 'm obliged to my colleague Paul Nachman for bringing it to my attention .
It 's also long , nearly eight thousand words .
If that 's too much for you , please at least read the last forty percent or so , the interview with Lana Lokteff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TV , which was dropped by YouTube on October 18th last .
Sample , Ms Lokteff speaking : More than anything else I have read recently , this piece gives a clear picture of the relentlessly creeping , corporate-driven totalitarianism—uniformity of thought , violent suppression of dissent—we have been undergoing this past quarter-century .
Something awful is happening to us , and to what once were our taken-for-granted liberties .
Goodbye , Handshake Game .
If we 're going to give up the handshake as a style of greeting , that kills the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of bragging about famous people you have shaken hands with at one remove .
There is not much to it if you are senior and have lived some kind of public life .
I have shaken hands with Henry Kissinger , for example ; so at one remove I have shaken hands with Mao Tse-tung , Leonid Brezhnev , Richard Nixon , and so on .
It 's more fun if you can claim to have shaken hands at one remove with historically remote personages .
My college Socialist Society , circa 1964 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose name I ca n't remember , who had been with Trotsky in Mexico .
I shook the Englishman 's hand , so I have Trotsky at one remove .
The young Bill Buckley was taken to meet Herbert Hoover , right , in his suite at the Waldorf Hotel , where the Buckleys were also staying ; so I can claim Hoover at one remove as my earliest President .
A elderly relative of mine , as his unit disembarked at London docks from a troopship at the end of WW1 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
I once shook hands with the relative , I 'm sure ; he shook hands with Lloyd George , who was born in 1863 .
That 's a pretty fair span , though if I racked my brains I could probably do better .
Philippa Schuyler .
My nonfiction reading this month has included the Joseph Mitchell anthology Up in the Old Hotel .
Mitchell ( 1908-87 ) was a writer for the New Yorker in the middle years of the last century .
He specialized in magazine-length pieces about non-famous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who caught his attention for one reason or another .
One piece that particularly caught my attention , dated 1940 , was about a nine-year-old prodigy named Philippa Schuyler .
At nine years old !
Mitchell is a sober and credible reporter .
It 's plain that Philippa Schuyler is a very extraordinary child .
Even more so than you 'd think .
A few hundred words in we learn that : I was curious to know what became of Philippa Schuyler .
She might well still be alive , I thought .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Possibly Philippa Schuyler 's story is well known among native Americans ; I just encountered it for the first time via Joseph Mitchell .
It 's a strange , sad story .
Musical decadence .
I did n't have a whole lot to say about modern music in the Culture chapter of We Are Doomed , mainly because I do n't know much about it .
My overall posture was of course reactionary : Worse stuff than Webern has come out of 20th-century conservatories .
If memory serves , one modernist composer ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with instructions to the conductor at one point in the score to open the window and let traffic noise in .
That came to mind when I was reading Jay Nordlinger 's review of Australian modernist Brett Dean 's cello concerto in the March New Criterion : I 'll stick with Mozart and Puccini , thanks all the same .
Can I get a ticket for my emotional support pangolin ?
In the news about China 's wet market , where nasty viruses breed among exotic animals being sold for food , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The thing I was told about the pangolin in my Southeast Asia days was , that he has his teeth inside his stomach .
This may not be strictly true .
Wikipedia : Why am I telling you this ?
To encourage you to read or listen to the definitive China-Tibet-Wall Street-Italian opera novel Fire from the Sun , in which the pangolin has a walk-on ( waddle-on ? )
part , Chapter Two .
Come on—What else d'you have to do under lockdown ?
The third and subsequent chapters give a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Revolution , which had many features in common with our current one , although with somewhat more state-approved violence .
The Chinese for `` pangolin , '' should you ever need to know it , is 穿山甲 , chuānshānjiă , `` penetrate-mountain-shell , '' I have no idea why .
Math Corner .
I have a friend who sends in brainteasers for my consideration , difficult ones .
I chew over them , not always getting very far .
As in this case .
This is not in fact the puzzle my friend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the setting-up of the puzzle .
I keep bumping up against the same contradiction , though , and I 'm hoping readers can help me resolve it .
So : there are two teams , Team A and Team B , about to embark on a best-of-seven series of games .
I happen to know that the probability of Team A winning any one game is p. That is of course some number between zero and one .
If p is zero , there is no chance of their ever winning any game @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are absolutely sure to win any game .
Since somebody must win every game—there are no tied games—the probability of Team B winning any one game is 1 − p. The number of different ways to select four items out of seven is 7 !
divided by 4 !
× 3 !
, which works out to 35 .
Denoting a win for Team A by W and a loss by L , you can list all the 35 possible ways for Team A to win best-of-seven : LWWWLLW , WWWLW , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second case there is no point playing games six and seven ; this is best-of-seven and Team A has nailed it by winning game five .
Now you can list off the probabilities for each of those 35 combinations .
For LWWWLLW the probability is p4 ( 1 − p ) 3 ; for WWWLW it 's p4 ( 1 − p ) , and so on .
For the probability of some one of those 35 independent things happening—that is , of Team A winning the best-of-seven one way or another — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Doing this , I get : All very straightforward .
However , if I run a check by putting p = ½ , that thing works out to 35/64 .
But if p = ½ , then Team A has precisely a fifty-fifty chance of winning any one game , and likewise Team B .
So should n't the probability of Team A winning the best-of-seven be ½ ?
And the probability for Team B likewise ?
Is there something I 'm not seeing , or have I buggered up the algebra @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets .
( This no longer includes National Review , whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him . )
He is the author of We Are Doomed : Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books .
He has had two books published by VDARE.com com : FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT ( also available in Kindle ) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II : ESSAYS 2013 .
For years he ’ s been podcasting at Radio Derb , now available at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com .
Readers who wish to donate ( tax deductible ) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire 's writings at VDARE.com can do so here .

What, me worry? I'm not as bothered by this coronavirus outbreak as, according to the public-service announcements, I ought to be.
I belong to two high-risk categories: over seventy and with a compromised immune system. I live in one of the worst-affected states. Shouldn't I be cowering in a basement room compulsively checking my temperature and lung function in between having my meals delivered in sterilized containers through a hatch in the wall?
Perhaps I should, but it all seems like too much trouble. My life history is all against it, anyway. I'm a 1940s English baby. The background wallpaper to my childhood was the Blitz (well, by close hearsay), polio, diphtheria, and the Bomb. We took in fatalism with our daily dose of cod liver oil, supplied free to kiddies by the then shiny-new National Health Service. Worry? Eh, if it's got your number on it …
There's sheer good luck in my circumstances, too. I live in a spacious outer suburb. There's nowhere I have to go, no-one I have to meet. My wife and son are at home; but her work and his studies have all been put online, so they are as self-quarantining as I am.
So here we huddle, mumbling repetitively at each other like characters in a Harold Pinter play, hoping the lockdown will be eased before we go stir-crazy.
We need to go shopping, of course; but we wear masks and gloves, carry hand sanitizers, and stay away from touch-screen services. I walk the dog, waving cheerily at neighbors across ten or fifteen feet of social distancing.
At this point I should be casting nervous glances over my shoulder in fear of having attracted the attention of those demons who punish mortals boasting of good luck. Nope: I've paid a price for my vacation. I've been ill.
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The long URI. Bill Buckley had a conversational rule that no-one could talk about his own health issues for longer than 45 seconds. I like that rule so I'll keep this short. I would have left it out altogether, but kind people are asking.
Starting in mid-January and down to the present I've had some kind of persistent URI. Cold? Flu? I don't know. Hacking cough; stuffed-up head spaces; Nasenschleimheit; listless, dull-witted, and without appetite …
No fever, though, no trouble breathing, so I'm fairly sure it's not COVID-19. I'd be surer if I could get tested; but like the rest of you who aren't rich, famous, or exhibiting more clearly corona-ish symptoms, I can't.
It waxes and wanes, but this month has been particularly bad. These past few days my Eustachian tubes have been blocked, leaving me functionally deaf. (Yes, I got antibiotics for possible ear infection; and yes, I'm taking anti-inflammatory pills and aggressively chewing gum, as advised by Doctor Google.)
I've never had an ordinary URI last this long before. My colds have always conformed to the Old Wives' schedule: "Three days coming, three days with you, three days going."
I'll get over it, I'm sure. It seems odd, though, to be thus stricken, for so long, just as a really nasty, but different, viral outbreak is going on.
I nurse a longstanding superstition—it doesn't rate as anything higher—that peculiar weather, especially too-warm winters, has negative health effects. We have been 28 years in our present house this month; this has been the first winter in those 28 when I have not had to shovel snow from my driveway even once.
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What time does the next ice floe leave? Lurking in the background are reflections on old age and death. I doubt there is anything to be said about them in generality that hasn't been said a hundred times over down through the ages, in prose, drama, verse, and song.
One of those things is the paradox that we become more protective of our precious hides as those hides become more wrinkled and useless. If you want a volunteer to charge hollering at an enemy machine-gun nest, your best bet is a healthy eighteen-year-old. Suggest it to a creaky septuagenarian, you'll most likely get: "Whoa, you kidding? That's dangerous." The British Army catch-phrase is that a man has no "bottle" (= reckless courage) after age thirty.
All that may be true in generality, and of course there are some things we can't know until put to the test. Still, I don't myself have much fear of death, although like you, him, and her I'd prefer it fast and painless.
And where old age is concerned, while I grudgingly admire the defiance of Tennyson's Ulysses, temperamentally I can't emulate it.
I've had a good innings: been round the world a couple of times, enjoyed long spells of comfortable prosperity; also been broke, hungry, beaten-up, and friendless in places you can barely find on a map. I've experienced intense emotions of both the positive and negative sort. I've furnished a house, raised a family, made some friends, buried some friends, contributed thirty-odd years of (I hope) useful work to a couple of national economies, published some books. I've taken intellectual pleasure and instruction from the arts and sciences.
There are things I regret not having accomplished, but I don't fool myself I'm going to get round to any of them this late in the game. Life-wise, I'm done. The house is paid for, there's a good life-insurance policy, and the kids are self-supporting. I can't bear to think of parting from my sweet, incomparable wife; but she's sturdy Malthusian stock, she'd cope.
Supplementary factors are:
(1). Having been raised listening to medical talk, I took in some of that frank, unillusioned attitude that medical people have (unless they are unsuited to their work).
(2). Being a naturalized New Yorker. I lived several years in the Big Apple and absorbed some of the raw, devil-take-the-hindmost ethos of that city in the pre-Snowflake era. From The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, 1974 version:
Walter Matthau: "My only priority is saving the lives of these [subway] passengers."
Dick O'Neill: "Screw the goddam passengers. What the hell do they expect for their lousy thirty-five cents, to live for ever?"
There's an urban legend that among the Eskimos, when a member of the tribe gets old and burdensome, they put him on an ice floe and push him out into the ocean current. I don't know if it's true—it doesn't a priori seem very likely—but I'm on board (as it were) with the general principle. So … What time does the next ice floe leave?
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Notes from our Cultural Revolution (1): Bo Winegard. Bo Winegard is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Marietta College, a private liberal-arts school in Ohio. Not for much longer, though: At the beginning of March he was told that his contract would not be renewed, i.e. he was being fired.
The reason? He holds heterodox opinions about human nature—opinions well-founded in biology, reasonable and thoughtfully-argued, but at odds with current state ideology. Among Winegard's thoughtcrimes was liking a tweet by our own Steve Sailer.
Winegard himself tells the tale very eloquently here. Please read the whole thing. I am just going to register my agreement with the blogger PostTenureTourettes:
All things considered, the firing of an academic for legitimate research is a bigger threat to civilization than a coronavirus.
There is talk going around that among the economic consequences of our current disruptions may be the financial failure and closing of many private liberal-arts colleges, places like Marietta. I hope and pray this comes to pass.
Has there ever been a more parasitic class afflicting a civilized society than these college deans and administrators and their uniformly, lock-step "progressive" lackeys and enforcers? It would be sheer joy to see them expelled from their sinecures and put to some useful work … except that I doubt they are capable of any.
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Notes from our Cultural Revolution (2): Lana Lokteff. This one I come to rather late; it's from last November. I'm obliged to my colleague Paul Nachman for bringing it to my attention.
It's also long, nearly eight thousand words. If that's too much for you, please at least read the last forty percent or so, the interview with Lana Lokteff, co-founder and co-host of Red Ice TV, which was dropped by YouTube on October 18th last. Sample, Ms Lokteff speaking:
I think it is probably too late for America. The damage has been done and we're in for hard times but if all leftist agitation disappeared, if immigration stopped, if forced diversification stopped, you would see freedom of association and you would see people self-segregating into their own pockets around the country. People are tribal and they will ultimately choose to live with others like them. Sure, there will be a few hipster multicultural pockets in the cities but that wouldn't be the norm if people had a choice.
The YouTube Channel That Never Happened, by Edward Ring, AmGreatness.com, November 16, 2019
More than anything else I have read recently, this piece gives a clear picture of the relentlessly creeping, corporate-driven totalitarianism—uniformity of thought, violent suppression of dissent—we have been undergoing this past quarter-century. Something awful is happening to us, and to what once were our taken-for-granted liberties.
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Goodbye, Handshake Game. If we're going to give up the handshake as a style of greeting, that kills the Handshake Game.
The Handshake Game consists of bragging about famous people you have shaken hands with at one remove. There is not much to it if you are senior and have lived some kind of public life. I have shaken hands with Henry Kissinger, for example; so at one remove I have shaken hands with Mao Tse-tung, Leonid Brezhnev, Richard Nixon, and so on.
It's more fun if you can claim to have shaken hands at one remove with historically remote personages. My college Socialist Society, circa 1964, was addressed by an English fellow whose name I can't remember, who had been with Trotsky in Mexico. I shook the Englishman's hand, so I have Trotsky at one remove.
The young Bill Buckley was taken to meet Herbert Hoover, right, in his suite at the Waldorf Hotel, where the Buckleys were also staying; so I can claim Hoover at one remove as my earliest President.
A elderly relative of mine, as his unit disembarked at London docks from a troopship at the end of WW1, found David Lloyd George waiting to greet them. I once shook hands with the relative, I'm sure; he shook hands with Lloyd George, who was born in 1863. That's a pretty fair span, though if I racked my brains I could probably do better.
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Philippa Schuyler. My nonfiction reading this month has included the Joseph Mitchell anthology Up in the Old Hotel. Mitchell (1908-87) was a writer for the New Yorker in the middle years of the last century. He specialized in magazine-length pieces about non-famous people in New York City, people who caught his attention for one reason or another.
One piece that particularly caught my attention, dated 1940, was about a nine-year-old prodigy named Philippa Schuyler.
Philippa reads Plutarch on train trips, eats steaks raw, writes poems in honor of her dolls, plays poker, and is the composer of more than sixty pieces for the piano.[Evening With a Gifted Child, New Yorker, August 31, 1940 ]
At nine years old! Mitchell is a sober and credible reporter. It's plain that Philippa Schuyler is a very extraordinary child.
Even more so than you'd think. A few hundred words in we learn that:
Philippa's father, George S. Schuyler … is a Negro essayist and novelist … He wrote often for the American Mercury when H.L. Mencken edited it. Mr. Schuyler's skin is jet black. He comes from one of the oldest Negro families in New York … Philippa's mother, Mrs. Josephine Schuyler, is white. She is, in fact, a golden-haired blonde …
I was curious to know what became of Philippa Schuyler. She might well still be alive, I thought. I googled. Oh, dear.
Schuyler's personal life was frequently unhappy. She rejected many of her parents' values, increasingly becoming a vocal feminist, and made many attempts to pass herself off as a woman of Iberian (Spanish) descent named Filipa Monterro. Although she engaged in a number of affairs, and on one occasion endured a dangerous late-term abortion after a relationship with a Ghanaian diplomat, she never married.
Philippa Schuyler and her father, George Schuyler, were members of the John Birch Society.
Say what?
In 1967 Schuyler traveled to Vietnam as a war correspondent. During a helicopter mission near Da Nang to evacuate a number of Vietnamese orphans, the helicopter crashed into the sea. While she initially survived the crash, her inability to swim caused her to drown …
Her mother was profoundly affected by her daughter's death and committed suicide a few days before its second anniversary.
Possibly Philippa Schuyler's story is well known among native Americans; I just encountered it for the first time via Joseph Mitchell. It's a strange, sad story.
(It also makes hash of an offhand remark in my May 2017 Diary that Philippa is "one of those names, like 'Nigel,' that only Brits use." Well, here was an American Philippa. May she rest in peace.)
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Musical decadence. I didn't have a whole lot to say about modern music in the Culture chapter of We Are Doomed, mainly because I don't know much about it. My overall posture was of course reactionary:
We are now eighty years on from Webern's prediction that mailmen on their rounds would one day whistle his atonal, melody-free ditties. If my acquaintance with mailmen is representative, Webern's prediction has not yet come to pass.
Worse stuff than Webern has come out of 20th-century conservatories. If memory serves, one modernist composer (John Cage?) produced a piece with instructions to the conductor at one point in the score to open the window and let traffic noise in.
That came to mind when I was reading Jay Nordlinger's review of Australian modernist Brett Dean's cello concerto in the March New Criterion:
Here is one vignette from modern concert life—something that will not surprise you: in the final measures of the work, which are very quiet, someone's phone went off, playing the Nokia theme. For a second I was unsure whether it was part of the score or, indeed, a phone.
I'll stick with Mozart and Puccini, thanks all the same.
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Can I get a ticket for my emotional support pangolin? In the news about China's wet market, where nasty viruses breed among exotic animals being sold for food, the humble pangolin has received a few mentions.
The thing I was told about the pangolin in my Southeast Asia days was, that he has his teeth inside his stomach. This may not be strictly true. Wikipedia:
While foraging, they ingest small stones (gastroliths) which accumulate in their stomachs to help to grind up ants. This part of their stomach is called the gizzard, and it is also covered in keratinous spines. These spines further aid in the grinding up and digestion of the pangolin's prey.
Eh; spines, teeth, close enough.
Why am I telling you this? To encourage you to read or listen to the definitive China-Tibet-Wall Street-Italian opera novel Fire from the Sun, in which the pangolin has a walk-on (waddle-on?) part, Chapter Two. Come on—What else d'you have to do under lockdown?
The third and subsequent chapters give a child's-eye view of Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution, which had many features in common with our current one, although with somewhat more state-approved violence.
The Chinese for "pangolin," should you ever need to know it, is 穿山甲, chuānshānjiă, "penetrate-mountain-shell," I have no idea why.
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Math Corner. I have a friend who sends in brainteasers for my consideration, difficult ones. I chew over them, not always getting very far.
As in this case. This is not in fact the puzzle my friend sent, only some preliminary algebra for the setting-up of the puzzle. I keep bumping up against the same contradiction, though, and I'm hoping readers can help me resolve it.
(In my current mentally-depleted state, it may not really be a contradiction. Perhaps I've just muddled up the algebra. I'd still like to know.)
So: there are two teams, Team A and Team B, about to embark on a best-of-seven series of games. I happen to know that the probability of Team A winning any one game is p. That is of course some number between zero and one. If p is zero, there is no chance of their ever winning any game; if p is one, they are absolutely sure to win any game.
Since somebody must win every game—there are no tied games—the probability of Team B winning any one game is 1 − p.
The number of different ways to select four items out of seven is 7! divided by 4! × 3!, which works out to 35. Denoting a win for Team A by W and a loss by L, you can list all the 35 possible ways for Team A to win best-of-seven: LWWWLLW, WWWLW, and so on. Note that in the second case there is no point playing games six and seven; this is best-of-seven and Team A has nailed it by winning game five.
Now you can list off the probabilities for each of those 35 combinations. For LWWWLLW the probability is p4(1 − p)3; for WWWLW it's p4(1 − p), and so on.
For the probability of some one of those 35 independent things happening—that is, of Team A winning the best-of-seven one way or another — you just add up the individual probabilities. Doing this, I get:
p4[1 + 6(1 − p) + 10(1 − p)2 + 18(1 − p)3]
All very straightforward. However, if I run a check by putting p = ½, that thing works out to 35/64.
But if p = ½, then Team A has precisely a fifty-fifty chance of winning any one game, and likewise Team B. So shouldn't the probability of Team A winning the best-of-seven be ½? And the probability for Team B likewise?
Is there something I'm not seeing, or have I buggered up the algebra?
John Derbyshire [ email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.
For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.
Readers who wish to donate (tax deductible) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire's writings at VDARE.com can do so here.


vdare--2020-04-01--Liz Warren Demands Corona Reporting by Race

My suspicion is that the authorities decided a long time ago to ixnay reporting by race during epidemics to avoid Stigmatizing the Marginalized .
But now … From the Associated Press via The Mainichi : US Democratic lawmakers call for racial data in virus testing March 31 , 2020 ( Mainichi Japan ) ( AP ) — Democratic lawmakers are calling out an apparent lack of racial data that they say is needed to monitor and address disparities in the national response to the coronavirus outbreak .
In a letter sent Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pressley , both from Massachusetts , said comprehensive demographic data on people who are tested or treated for the virus that causes COVID-19 does not exist .
Over the weekend , cities with large black and nonwhite Hispanic populations emerged as new hot spots for the spread of the virus .
“ Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color , first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities , but also to slow the spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a whole , ” the lawmakers wrote to Azar .
“ This lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities , ” the letter warned .
Sens .
Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois also signed the letter .
It was shared exclusively with The Associated Press on Monday… .
“ Decades of structural racism have prevented so many Black and Brown families from accessing quality health care , affordable housing , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is blowing these disparities wide open , ” Warren said in a statement .
“ We need the government to step up in a big way to ensure that communities of color have equal access to free testing and treatment .
Congresswoman Pressley and I aren ’ t going to let up until we see solid data and real progress.
” … U.S. cities with large black and brown populations such as Chicago , Detroit , Milwaukee and New Orleans have emerged as hot spots of the coronavirus outbreak .
New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , reporting more than 36,000 confirmed cases and 790 deaths on Monday .
… In the letter , the U.S. lawmakers cited chronic health conditions and health care access disparities between white people and people of color “ that experts have identified as risk factors for complications from COVID-19.
” According to the CDC , black and nonwhite Hispanic adults are more likely to be obese and are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults are .
Asthma is more prevalent among nonwhite adults and children , the lawmakers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are also less likely to be insured , leaving many without access to quality health care providers , the lawmakers said .
“ Furthermore , a history of discrimination and marginalization has left some people of color distrustful of the medical system , making them less likely to seek out timely care , ” they wrote in the letter .
On Friday , the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that about half of the state ’ s deaths and total cases were in Milwaukee , a city of 600,000 residents that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eight people who have died from the coronavirus in Milwaukee County were black , and seven of them lived in the city .

My suspicion is that the authorities decided a long time ago to ixnay reporting by race during epidemics to avoid Stigmatizing the Marginalized. But now …
From the Associated Press via The Mainichi:
US Democratic lawmakers call for racial data in virus testing
March 31, 2020 (Mainichi Japan)
(AP) — Democratic lawmakers are calling out an apparent lack of racial data that they say is needed to monitor and address disparities in the national response to the coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter sent Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, both from Massachusetts, said comprehensive demographic data on people who are tested or treated for the virus that causes COVID-19 does not exist. Over the weekend, cities with large black and nonwhite Hispanic populations emerged as new hot spots for the spread of the virus.
“Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole,” the lawmakers wrote to Azar.
“This lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities,” the letter warned.
Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois also signed the letter. It was shared exclusively with The Associated Press on Monday….
“Decades of structural racism have prevented so many Black and Brown families from accessing quality health care, affordable housing, and financial security, and the coronavirus crisis is blowing these disparities wide open,” Warren said in a statement. “We need the government to step up in a big way to ensure that communities of color have equal access to free testing and treatment. Congresswoman Pressley and I aren’t going to let up until we see solid data and real progress.” …
U.S. cities with large black and brown populations such as Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and New Orleans have emerged as hot spots of the coronavirus outbreak. New York City remained the national epicenter of the outbreak, reporting more than 36,000 confirmed cases and 790 deaths on Monday. …
In the letter, the U.S. lawmakers cited chronic health conditions and health care access disparities between white people and people of color “that experts have identified as risk factors for complications from COVID-19.” According to the CDC, black and nonwhite Hispanic adults are more likely to be obese and are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults are. Asthma is more prevalent among nonwhite adults and children, the lawmakers noted.
People of color and immigrants are also less likely to be insured, leaving many without access to quality health care providers, the lawmakers said.
“Furthermore, a history of discrimination and marginalization has left some people of color distrustful of the medical system, making them less likely to seek out timely care,” they wrote in the letter.
On Friday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that about half of the state’s deaths and total cases were in Milwaukee, a city of 600,000 residents that is more than a third black. All eight people who have died from the coronavirus in Milwaukee County were black, and seven of them lived in the city.


vdare--2020-04-01--Masks: Inbound and Outbound Protection

Masks: Inbound and Outbound Protection

We need an agreed upon vocabulary for discussing the two main reasons for masks .
Maybe .. “ inbound ” @ @ @ @ @ outbound ” protection for others .
I think that could also help foster a useful @ @ @ @ @ that has been causing a lot of the disinformation about how Masks Don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ N95 masks right now for health care workers who need the most inbound self-protection , @ @ @ @ @ using all other types of masks , which hopefully do a pretty good job of @ @ @ @ @ .
This distinction would be good for people who want to do the right thing @ @ @ @ @ paralyzed between the March warning that civilians wearing masks are bad for the hospitals and @ @ @ @ @ wearing masks are good for society .
So , distinguish between hospital-approved N95s and everything @ @

We need an agreed upon vocabulary for discussing the two main reasons for masks. Maybe .. “inbound” protection for yourself and “outbound” protection for others.
I think that could also help foster a useful compromise for the shortage problem that has been causing a lot of the disinformation about how Masks Don’t Work: reserve the top-of-the-line N95 masks right now for health care workers who need the most inbound self-protection, while everybody else should be using all other types of masks, which hopefully do a pretty good job of outbound protection of other people.
This distinction would be good for people who want to do the right thing: presently, they are paralyzed between the March warning that civilians wearing masks are bad for the hospitals and the April warning that civilians wearing masks are good for society. So, distinguish between hospital-approved N95s and everything else.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-04-01--Audacious Epigone: Coronavirus Cases and Deaths Per Capita, by State

Confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 people as of March 31 , 2020 : There aren ’ t any obvious demographic @ @ @ @ @ me .
The correlation between confirmed cases and deaths is 0.86–not perfect , but close @ @ @ @ @ largely on the same page when it comes to tracking the virus at this point @ @ @ @ @ crushed while the central corridor is getting off pretty easily .
My mental map had @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s because media reporting has states ordered by absolute cases and deaths rather @ @ @ @ @ each ( hence the impetus for creating the maps and tables ) .
California is @ @ @ @

Confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 people as of March 31, 2020:
State Cases/100k New York 389.7 New Jersey 210.5 Louisiana 112.7 Massachusetts 95.2 Michigan 76.4 Connecticut 72.1 District of Columbia 70.1 Washington 68.1 Illinois 47.0 Rhode Island 46.1 Colorado 45.6 Vermont 41.0 Pennsylvania 38.8 Nevada 36.1 Georgia 35.3 Delaware 32.8 Indiana 32.1 Mississippi 31.5 Florida 29.5 Maryland 27.5 Utah 25.1 Tennessee 24.0 Wisconsin 23.2 Idaho 23.2 New Hampshire 23.1 Maine 22.5 Missouri 21.6 Alabama 19.4 California 19.1 Ohio 18.8 South Carolina 18.0 Arizona 17.8 Montana 17.3 Arkansas 16.8 Wyoming 16.4 Alaska 16.3 North Dakota 16.0 Iowa 15.8 Kansas 14.9 Virginia 14.6 North Carolina 14.6 Hawaii 14.4 Oregon 14.4 Oklahoma 14.3 New Mexico 13.4 South Dakota 12.2 Texas 11.3 Minnesota 11.2 Kentucky 10.7 Nebraska 9.6 West Virginia 8.1
Coronavirus-attributed deaths per one million people:
State Deaths/mil Louisiana 51.6 New Jersey 30.1 Washington 29.3 New York 28.3 Michigan 26.4 Vermont 19.2 District of Columbia 12.8 Georgia 10.2 Connecticut 10.1 Colorado 8.9 Massachusetts 8.8 Illinois 8.3 Rhode Island 7.6 Indiana 7.4 Delaware 7.2 Mississippi 6.7 Nevada 5.8 Oklahoma 5.8 Pennsylvania 5.4 Ohio 4.7 North Dakota 3.9 California 3.9 Idaho 3.9 Oregon 3.8 Wisconsin 3.8 Montana 3.7 Maine 3.7 Florida 3.6 South Carolina 3.5 Kansas 3.4 Arizona 3.3 Virginia 3.2 Maryland 3.0 Alaska 2.7 Kentucky 2.7 Alabama 2.7 Arkansas 2.3 Missouri 2.3 Iowa 2.2 New Hampshire 2.2 Minnesota 2.1 New Mexico 1.9 Tennessee 1.9 Texas 1.7 Nebraska 1.6 Utah 1.2 South Dakota 1.1 North Carolina 0.9 West Virginia 0.6 Hawaii 0.0 Wyoming 0.0
There aren’t any obvious demographic patterns that jump out to me. The correlation between confirmed cases and deaths is 0.86–not perfect, but close enough to assume states are largely on the same page when it comes to tracking the virus at this point.
The Northeast is getting crushed while the central corridor is getting off pretty easily. My mental map had California under siege, but that’s because media reporting has states ordered by absolute cases and deaths rather than by the rates of each (hence the impetus for creating the maps and tables). California is faring relatively well.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-04-01--In 65% Non-White Houston, TX,  Black Mayor Begs Criminals to "Stay at Home and Chill" During China V

In 65% Non-White Houston, TX,  Black Mayor Begs Criminals to "Stay at Home and Chill" During China Virus Pandemic

At first , the reality of post-America was only confined to 70 percent black Baltimore , where the black mayor begged citizens to stop shooting each other to make room for Coronavirus patients in hospitals .
But now the same scenario is found in Houston , Texas , a 35 percent white city where the black mayor is asking criminals to “ stay at home and chill ” during the pandemic .
Coronavirus : Mayor mocked for urging criminals to ‘ stay at home and chill ’ during pandemic : ‘ Wait ’ til the coronavirus is over and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , The Independent , March 31 , 2020 The mayor of Houston has been mocked for telling criminals to “ chill ” , amid the coronaviruspandemic .
Speaking to reporters on Monday , mayor Sylvester Turner said the safest place for criminals to be during the outbreak is at home .
“ Until the coronavirus is resolved , criminals take a break .
Okay .
Stay home .
Stay home and don ’ t commit any crimes , ” said the mayor .
“ That way they stay safe and out of jail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and go home to their families .
Okay , everybody chill .
Crooks , criminals , you chill.
” Mr Turner added : “ Wait ‘ til the coronavirus is over and then we ’ ll all be okay .
”

At first, the reality of post-America was only confined to 70 percent black Baltimore, where the black mayor begged citizens to stop shooting each other to make room for Coronavirus patients in hospitals. But now the same scenario is found in Houston, Texas, a 35 percent white city where the black mayor is asking criminals to “stay at home and chill” during the pandemic.
Coronavirus: Mayor mocked for urging criminals to ‘stay at home and chill’ during pandemic: ‘Wait ’til the coronavirus is over and then we’ll all be okay’, The Independent, March 31, 2020
The mayor of Houston has been mocked for telling criminals to “chill”, amid the coronaviruspandemic.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, mayor Sylvester Turner said the safest place for criminals to be during the outbreak is at home.
“Until the coronavirus is resolved, criminals take a break. Okay. Stay home. Stay home and don’t commit any crimes,” said the mayor.
“That way they stay safe and out of jail, and police officers will stay safe and go home to their families. Okay, everybody chill. Crooks, criminals, you chill.”
Mr Turner added: “Wait ‘til the coronavirus is over and then we’ll all be okay.”


vdare--2020-04-01--Germans to Micro-Focus on How Germ Is Spread

Worst-hit German district to become coronavirus ‘ laboratory ’ Study will follow 1,000 people in Heinsberg to create plan for how to deal with virus German scientists have announced what they described as a first-of-its-kind study into how coronavirus spreads and how it can be contained , using the country ’ s worst-hit district as a real-life laboratory .
The virus has spread more widely among the 250,000 residents of Heinsberg – a district in North Rhine-Westphalia bordering the Netherlands – than anywhere else in Germany , with 1,281 confirmed infections and 34 deaths .
/// Over the coming weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virologists and a team of 40 medical students as a sort of laboratory for studying the virus .
The “ Covid-19 case cluster study ” , launched on Tuesday morning , will follow 1,000 people who have been chosen because they are representative of the German population as a whole .
… The scientists will go into 500 households , as well as kindergartens and hospitals , to study how the infection is spread .
They will look at every aspect ofeveryday life , from the extent to which children pass it on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within families – from mobile phones to door handles , to cups and TV remote controls – to whether pets can spread it , and whether it is transferred via certain types of food .
“ If there are ways of preventing the illness from spreading in our environment , we want to know what they are , with the goal of finding out how we can freely move about in the environment together , ” Streeck said .
“ On the basis of our findings we ’ ll be able to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guide their decision-making , ” Streeck said .
“ It could be that the measures currently in place are fine , and we say : ‘ Don ’ t reduce them.
’ But I don ’ t expect that , I expect the opposite , that we will be able to come up with a range of proposals as to how the curfews can be reduced .
”

From The Guardian:
Worst-hit German district to become coronavirus ‘laboratory’
Study will follow 1,000 people in Heinsberg to create plan for how to deal with virus
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Tue 31 Mar 2020 08.11 EDT
German scientists have announced what they described as a first-of-its-kind study into how coronavirus spreads and how it can be contained, using the country’s worst-hit district as a real-life laboratory.
The virus has spread more widely among the 250,000 residents of Heinsberg – a district in North Rhine-Westphalia bordering the Netherlands – than anywhere else in Germany, with 1,281 confirmed infections and 34 deaths. ///
Over the coming weeks the district will be used by leading virologists and a team of 40 medical students as a sort of laboratory for studying the virus. The “Covid-19 case cluster study”, launched on Tuesday morning, will follow 1,000 people who have been chosen because they are representative of the German population as a whole. …
The scientists will go into 500 households, as well as kindergartens and hospitals, to study how the infection is spread. They will look at every aspect ofeveryday life, from the extent to which children pass it on to adults, how it is spread within families – from mobile phones to door handles, to cups and TV remote controls – to whether pets can spread it, and whether it is transferred via certain types of food. “If there are ways of preventing the illness from spreading in our environment, we want to know what they are, with the goal of finding out how we can freely move about in the environment together,” Streeck said.
“On the basis of our findings we’ll be able to make recommendations, which politicians can use to guide their decision-making,” Streeck said. “It could be that the measures currently in place are fine, and we say: ‘Don’t reduce them.’ But I don’t expect that, I expect the opposite, that we will be able to come up with a range of proposals as to how the curfews can be reduced.”


vdare--2020-04-01--Radio Derb Transcript Up For March 27: Pandemic Anxiety, The Jobpocalypse, And The Cuomo Menace, Etc

Radio Derb Transcript Up For March 27: Pandemic Anxiety, The Jobpocalypse, And The Cuomo Menace, Etc.

The Radio Derb transcript is up for March 27 .
Go here to read or listen .
09m19s The Jobpocalypse @ @ @ @ @ immigration moratorium now ? )
13m07s Viruses round the world .
( Turkmenistan leads the @ @ @ @ @ Cuomo menace .
( We have been warned . )
26m08s Still dickering with the @ @ @ @ @ out , Mr President ! )

The Radio Derb transcript is up for March 27. Go here to read or listen.
Playlist:
01m55s Pandemic anxiety, blue v. red. (Tutsis more worried than Hutus.)
09m19s The Jobpocalypse. (Why not an immigration moratorium now?)
13m07s Viruses round the world. (Turkmenistan leads the way.)
18m59s The Cuomo menace. (We have been warned.)
26m08s Still dickering with the Afghans. (Pull us out, Mr President!)
29m17s Swiss conundrum. (Stuff we don't understand about COVID-19.)
30m44s Bamboozling Prince Harry. (Pathological domestication strikes again.)
32m47s Signoff. (With Gracie.)


vdare--2020-04-01--This Day In VDARE.com History, 2008: Coyote Threatens To Cut Off Illegal Immigrant's Fingers

Originally published here on this day in 2008 .
I do n't know if Janet Murguia would call this media malpractice—at least the headline follows the rule that victim is an immigrant , the criminal never .
And in fact , John Ernest Guerrero Jr. , 6 ' 3 '' , 350 lbs , pictured , is probably a native-born American citizen , like George Washington or Paul Revere .
PORT CHESTER - A Texas man was arraigned today after police said he transported illegal immigrants from Texas , held five of them in a Port Chester apartment and threatened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shears if they did n't ante up more money .
John Ernest Guerrero Jr. , 22 , of Pearland , a 6-foot 3 , 350-pound man , was arrested by seven officers after the captives escaped an attic apartment in which they were being held without food , police said .
Police are seeking a second and possibly a third captor .
Two men from Brazil were found on Poningo Street Saturday afternoon , allegedly after escaping from the apartment in 123 Haseco Ave. , a triplex Victorian-style building .
They alleged they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days after being transported there by two men in a white Chevrolet after they crossed the Mexican border into Texas .
Police said the men -ages 30 and 50 - were uninjured despite not having eaten and having been involved in a fight with their captors that resulted in their escape .
The struggle came , police said , after one captor held a small wire cutter to the pinky of one man Saturday and demanded $ 2,000 more than the $ 10,000 they had each paid to get into the United States @ @ @ @

Originally published here on this day in 2008.
I don't know if Janet Murguia would call this media malpractice—at least the headline follows the rule that victim is an immigrant, the criminal never. And in fact, John Ernest Guerrero Jr., 6'3", 350 lbs, pictured, is probably a native-born American citizen, like George Washington or Paul Revere.
PORT CHESTER - A Texas man was arraigned today after police said he transported illegal immigrants from Texas, held five of them in a Port Chester apartment and threatened to cut off their fingers with pruning shears if they didn't ante up more money.
John Ernest Guerrero Jr., 22, of Pearland, a 6-foot 3, 350-pound man, was arrested by seven officers after the captives escaped an attic apartment in which they were being held without food, police said. Police are seeking a second and possibly a third captor. Two men from Brazil were found on Poningo Street Saturday afternoon, allegedly after escaping from the apartment in 123 Haseco Ave., a triplex Victorian-style building. They alleged they had been held there four or five days after being transported there by two men in a white Chevrolet after they crossed the Mexican border into Texas.
Police said the men -ages 30 and 50 - were uninjured despite not having eaten and having been involved in a fight with their captors that resulted in their escape. The struggle came, police said, after one captor held a small wire cutter to the pinky of one man Saturday and demanded $2,000 more than the $10,000 they had each paid to get into the United States.[More]


vdare--2020-04-01--Is CBP Sabotaging Trump's  Border Shutdown?

Earlier , by Allan Wall : Border Closed To `` Nonessential '' Travel .
How Do You Define It ?
Mexican President Still Considers Border Open Is Customs And Border Protection sabotaging Trump 's Border Shutdown ?
Maybe .
Initial reports from Ports-of-Entry ( POE ) , the designated place where persons and goods enter the United States and are inspected or examined , suggest that Port Directors were ignoring President Trump and U.S. Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) management .
How extensive this was is not known , nor is it known if this was deliberate insubordination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in enforcing orders .
Customs and Border Protection officials are defying the Trump administration ’ s directive to block all nonessential foreign travel into the United States from Mexico , allowing noncitizens [ Aliens-Ed . ]
claiming to be on shopping trips to continue entering , according to two officials involved in the implementation of the order .
CBP employees in Arizona told the Washington Examiner Saturday they were instructed Friday night at the start of the executive order and again this morning not to turn around noncitizens who said they were coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or for medical appointments .
By Saturday morning , “ hundreds ” of vehicles that should have been blocked at the port of entry had been allowed through , two officials said .
“ We ’ re letting them through .
And that ’ s pretty much the gist of it , ” one official said .
“ Nobody ’ s enforcing it .
It was put up — the president put it out .
The chief patrol put it out .
And we ’ re just not doing it.
” “ In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shit show , ” said a second official .
“ Nobody followed the directive , a plain and simple directive .
You ’ re trying to keep the coronavirus from going north … yet you just let it bleed through anyway , so you ’ re not doing the job you ’ re directed to .
That ’ s what ’ s aggravating.
” [ Claim They ’ re Going Shopping : Border Officials Allow Hundreds Of Mexican Vehicles To Cross Despite Trump Ban , by Anna Giaritelli , Washington Examiner , March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the story was updated , with the policy then being enforced , at least partially .
Now , Port Directors ( PD ) , those CBP officials from the Office of Field Operations ( OFO ) in charge of POEs , are very powerful and have little direct supervision .
Theoretically , they report to a Field Office Director who supervises each PD in a CBP Field Office .
However , traditionally they act with little or no supervision ; consequently local policies sometimes have little to do with nation-wide directives and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for misconduct and corruption , as well as being too concerned with the local impact of policies , rather than implementing national policies .
Whatever the actions in Arizona , the Arizona Field Office for CBP had little or no supervision of the land POE PDs in Arizona ; Douglas , Lukeville , Naco , Nogales , San Luis , and Sasabe .
We don ’ t know which POEs were refusing to enforce the Trump order , but , as yet again , no one has been fired , which should have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Guadalupe Ramirez , Jr. , the new Director of Field Operations for the Arizona Field Office .
One can not help but think that his loyalty to his fellow ethnic Mexicans was stronger than his loyalty to the United States and President Trump .
Is he a saboteur like Matt Albence ?
Now , other POEs apparently have been enforcing their orders from President Trump , and the Mexican reporters at Reuters have identified illegal aliens as the hardest hit .
The world ’ s busiest land border has fallen quiet as restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mexicans from making daily trips north , including many who work in U.S. businesses .
At least 4 million Mexicans residing in cities along the 1,954-mile ( 3,144-km ) border have been hit hard by the restrictions on non-essential travel .
The measures effectively invalidate visas allowing short crossings into U.S. cities to visit family , get medical care or shop .
While such B1/B2 “ border crossing cards ” are officially recreational , Reuters spoke to nearly two dozen residents of Tijuana , Nogales and Ciudad Juarez who use their cards to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the U.S. side of the frontier .
All said they could no longer make the crossing , dealing another blow to businesses already suffering from shutdowns on the U.S. side of the border , including vital industries like agriculture .
“ I don ’ t know what I ’ m going to do without money .
I ’ m just waiting for a miracle , ” said 28-year-old Rosario Cruz , a mother of two young children who works for a cleaning company that subcontracts with major retailers in California .
[ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With Millions Of Mexicans Barred From U.S. , by Lizbeth Diaz and Jose Luis Gonzalez , Yahoo News/Reuters , March 30 , 2020 ] One of the problems on the land border with Mexico is Border Crossing Card ( BCC ) fraud .
The BCC is issued as a non-immigrant visa for Mexican citizens who live near the land border , but many use it to cross the border to maintain illegal employment in the United States .
This local sentiment is one of the social and economic pressures on Port Directors in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crossers .
The pressure is particularly strong , and effective , on ethnic Mexicans in CBP , like Guadalupe Ramirez , also , to quote Clint Eastwood , known as the rat .
The silver lining here is that this problem is at the forefront .
Hopefully President Trump can use this fake crisis to keep the border with Mexico closed and to demand that the State Department better screen applications for the BCC .
And President Trump should fire Guadalupe “ The Rat ” Ramirez , as well as other Deep State @ @

Earlier, by Allan Wall: Border Closed To "Nonessential" Travel. How Do You Define It? Mexican President Still Considers Border Open
Is Customs And Border Protection sabotaging Trump's Border Shutdown? Maybe.
Initial reports from Ports-of-Entry (POE), the designated place where persons and goods enter the United States and are inspected or examined, suggest that Port Directors were ignoring President Trump and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) management. How extensive this was is not known, nor is it known if this was deliberate insubordination by Deep State saboteurs or just hesitancy in enforcing orders.
First, the problem:
Customs and Border Protection officials are defying the Trump administration’s directive to block all nonessential foreign travel into the United States from Mexico, allowing noncitizens [Aliens-Ed.] claiming to be on shopping trips to continue entering, according to two officials involved in the implementation of the order. CBP employees in Arizona told the Washington Examiner Saturday they were instructed Friday night at the start of the executive order and again this morning not to turn around noncitizens who said they were coming in to shop, visit family, or for medical appointments. By Saturday morning, “hundreds” of vehicles that should have been blocked at the port of entry had been allowed through, two officials said. “We’re letting them through. And that’s pretty much the gist of it,” one official said. “Nobody’s enforcing it. It was put up — the president put it out. The chief patrol put it out. And we’re just not doing it.” “In plain English, it was a giant shit show,” said a second official. “Nobody followed the directive, a plain and simple directive. You’re trying to keep the coronavirus from going north … yet you just let it bleed through anyway, so you’re not doing the job you’re directed to. That’s what’s aggravating.” [Claim They’re Going Shopping: Border Officials Allow Hundreds Of Mexican Vehicles To Cross Despite Trump Ban, by Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, March 21, 2020]
One day later, the story was updated, with the policy then being enforced, at least partially.
UPDATE: Saturday night, after publication of this story, sources used for this article said agents in the areas they were aware of had started turning away Mexicans claiming they wanted to enter to shop or for tourism.
Now, Port Directors (PD), those CBP officials from the Office of Field Operations (OFO) in charge of POEs, are very powerful and have little direct supervision. Theoretically, they report to a Field Office Director who supervises each PD in a CBP Field Office. However, traditionally they act with little or no supervision; consequently local policies sometimes have little to do with nation-wide directives and policies. This is obviously fertile ground for misconduct and corruption, as well as being too concerned with the local impact of policies, rather than implementing national policies.
Whatever the actions in Arizona, the Arizona Field Office for CBP had little or no supervision of the land POE PDs in Arizona; Douglas, Lukeville, Naco, Nogales, San Luis, and Sasabe. We don’t know which POEs were refusing to enforce the Trump order, but, as yet again, no one has been fired, which should have happened immediately. The suspect here is Guadalupe Ramirez, Jr., the new Director of Field Operations for the Arizona Field Office. One cannot help but think that his loyalty to his fellow ethnic Mexicans was stronger than his loyalty to the United States and President Trump. Is he a saboteur like Matt Albence?
Guadalupe Ramirez, Jr., Deep State Saboteur
Now, other POEs apparently have been enforcing their orders from President Trump, and the Mexican reporters at Reuters have identified illegal aliens as the hardest hit.
The world’s busiest land border has fallen quiet as restrictions to contain the coronavirus prevent millions of Mexicans from making daily trips north, including many who work in U.S. businesses. At least 4 million Mexicans residing in cities along the 1,954-mile (3,144-km) border have been hit hard by the restrictions on non-essential travel. The measures effectively invalidate visas allowing short crossings into U.S. cities to visit family, get medical care or shop. While such B1/B2 “border crossing cards” are officially recreational, Reuters spoke to nearly two dozen residents of Tijuana, Nogales and Ciudad Juarez who use their cards to reach jobs or to care for relatives on the U.S. side of the frontier. All said they could no longer make the crossing, dealing another blow to businesses already suffering from shutdowns on the U.S. side of the border, including vital industries like agriculture. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without money. I’m just waiting for a miracle,” said 28-year-old Rosario Cruz, a mother of two young children who works for a cleaning company that subcontracts with major retailers in California. [World’s Busiest Border Falls Quiet With Millions Of Mexicans Barred From U.S., by Lizbeth Diaz and Jose Luis Gonzalez, Yahoo News/Reuters, March 30, 2020]
One of the problems on the land border with Mexico is Border Crossing Card (BCC) fraud. The BCC is issued as a non-immigrant visa for Mexican citizens who live near the land border, but many use it to cross the border to maintain illegal employment in the United States.
This local sentiment is one of the social and economic pressures on Port Directors in CBP to not interfere with Mexican border crossers. The pressure is particularly strong, and effective, on ethnic Mexicans in CBP, like Guadalupe Ramirez, also, to quote Clint Eastwood, known as the rat.
The silver lining here is that this problem is at the forefront. Hopefully President Trump can use this fake crisis to keep the border with Mexico closed and to demand that the State Department better screen applications for the BCC.
And President Trump should fire Guadalupe “The Rat” Ramirez, as well as other Deep State saboteurs.