(Steven Hayward)
• Cast your mind back to the early weeks after 9/11. Who was the person who dominated the scene as New York City coped with the aftermath? Mayor Rudy Giuliani, of course, so much so that Time magazine made him its Person of the Year for 2001.
Now look at New York City today. It is the most hard-hit city by the coronavirus crisis, and the dominating figure in dealing with it is. . . Governor Andrew Cuomo.
That tells you all you need to know about the essential mediocrity of Mayor Warren Wilhelm Bill de Blasio.
Chaser: Case in point about de Blasio—the feel good story of the day:
De Blasio’s Social Distancing Tip Line Flooded with Penis Photos, Hitler Memes
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to snitch on each other for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints including “dick pics” and people flipping the bird, The Post has learned.
Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter.
• I don’t know whether to be amused or frightened at this news story:
German Humanities Scholars Enlisted to End Coronavirus Lockdown
In the struggle against the new coronavirus, humanities academics have entered the fray – in Germany at least.
Arguably to a greater extent than has happened in the UK, France or the US, the country has enlisted the advice of philosophers, historians of science, theologians and jurists as it navigates the delicate ethical balancing act of reopening society while safeguarding the health of the public.
First of all, “German humanities” comes close to being an oxymoron. Hitler proved easy to overcome compared to the lasting damage of the Frankfurt School, Heidegger, Habermas, etc. Second, what could possibly go wrong?
• It seems to me that our data is still very poor, and the models are still very poor. There’s been a lot of well-formed criticism of the study last week out of Santa Clara County that concluded the infection rate had been much higher than previously estimated, but now there’s a similar study out of Los Angeles that finds much the same thing:
The Covid-19 outbreak in Los Angeles County could be up to 55 times bigger than the number of confirmed cases, according to new research from the University of Southern California and the LA Department of Public Health.
The data, if correct, would mean that the county’s fatality rate is lower than originally thought.
• New flash—Harvard actually capable of shame:
Harvard blinks, university won’t accept $9M in coronavirus relief
Harvard is grudgingly giving up nearly $9 million in coronavirus relief after President Trump called out the elite university over federal aid awarded to schools as others are fighting for their economic lives.
The university announced Wednesday afternoon the school “has decided not to seek or accept the funds allocated to it by statute” as part of the nation’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.
Both Stanford and Princeton universities have already rejected the bailout.
Harvard’s decision to walk away from the money comes a day after Trump lambasted the Cambridge university for even considering the matter — especially with the school sitting on a $40 billion endowment.
It must have killed them to give Trump another so-much-winning moment, and no, I’m still not tired of it.
