Yes, Mr. President, the Streisand Effect really is still a thing...

Since poetic justice is the only kind that Trump will face for at least another hundred days, I intend to enjoy every minute of this, as reported by Business Insider:

#ThePresidentIsACrybaby and #TrumpleThinSkin became top Twitter trends after Trump complained about mean Twitter trends

TrumpleThinSkin... I love it.

The hashtags #TrumpleThinSkin and #ThePresidentIsACrybaby appeared on the site after the president tweeted that negative trends about him were "really ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair!"

The full tweet [...] said: "So disgusting to watch Twitter's so-called 'Trending', where sooo many trends are about me, and never a good one. They look for anything they can find, make it as bad as possible, and blow it up, trying to make it trend. Really ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair!"

Since this tweet, the hashtag #TrumpleThinSkin has been used 121,000 times and #ThePresidentIsACrybaby 40,300 times, according to Twitter's trending list about 12 hours later. 

Both terms appeared in the top 10 US topics.

This is a perfect example of the Streisand Effect in action, with Trump's complaints about the negative nature of Trump-related trending topics having the effect of making this perceived problem much, much worse, almost immediately.

For the record, Mr. President, the reason that your trending topics were all bad is that you've been doing a terrible job, and are a horrible human being in the bargain. Complaining about the fact that people have finally figured this out is not going to reverse the trends, or help your plummeting poll numbers. Just saying.

Changing the name

Having recently turned fifty, I figured its about time to call this blog what it is.

Changing the blog's name also addresses another problem I've had, namely that the topic du jour that I want to sound off about isn't really political. I mean, it usually is, because everything is political these days, but for those things which didn't quite fit into a political frame... well, I'm not planning to stop yelling at clouds anytime soon, and three blogs is already two too many.

And now, back to cloud-watching. Happy Friday, everybody!

Grading on the curve: Israel's rushed school opening was a COVID-19 disaster

As reported by The Daily Beast:

JERUSALEM—Israel’s unchecked resurgence of COVID-19 was propelled by the abrupt May 17 decision to reopen all schools, medical and public-health officials have told The Daily Beast.

[O]n May 17 in Israel it appeared the virus not only was under control, but defeated. Israel reported only 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the entire country that day. [...] On June 3, two weeks after schools opened, more than 244 students and staff were found to test positive for COVID-19.

According to the education ministry, 2,026 students, teachers, and staff have contracted COVID-19, and 28,147 are in quarantine due to possible contagion.

Just in the first two weeks of July, 393 kindergartens and schools open for summer programs have been shuttered due to cases of COVID-19.

In case you were wondering if schools should be reopening in a month and a half... the answer is no. No, they shouldn't, unless you're keen to put your children at the epicenter of a super-spreader event.

China's new troubling security law has far-reaching design

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, as well as ending exports of sensitive military items to the region. As reported by CBC News:

Canada's relationship with Hong Kong, including freer trade and travel than is allowed between Canada and mainland China, depends on that principle, Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a separate statement.

"This process demonstrated disregard for Hong Kong's basic law and the high degree of autonomy promised for Hong Kong under the 'one country, two systems' framework," Champagne said.

This was a noteworthy enough event, but we're now learning that there are even more reasons to sever this link between Canada's justice system and China's lack of one. As reported by Axios:

The draconian security law that Beijing forced upon Hong Kong last week contains an article making it illegal for anyone in the world to promote democratic reform for Hong Kong.

Why it matters: China has long sought to crush organized dissent abroad through quiet threats and coercion. Now it has codified that practice into law — potentially forcing people and companies around the world to choose between speaking freely and ever stepping foot in Hong Kong again.

What's happening: Article 38 of the national security law states, "This Law shall apply to offences under this Law committed against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region."

• In other words, every provision of the law applies to everyone outside of Hong Kong — including you.

Yikes. And apparently, this seemingly alarmist take isn't overblown:

Several experts in Chinese and international law confirmed this interpretation of the law to Axios.

• "It literally applies to every single person on the planet. This is how it reads," said Wang Minyao, a Chinese-American lawyer based in New York. "If I appear at a congressional committee in D.C. and say something critical, that literally would be a violation of this law."
• This means that anyone advocating democracy in Hong Kong, or criticizing the governments in Hong Kong or Beijing, could potentially face consequences if they step foot in Hong Kong, or have assets or family members in Hong Kong.

To say that this represents something of an overreach by the Chinese government is something of an understatement. China has been flexing its economic muscle, and sometimes its military presence, for a few years now, but this security law literally criminalizes the exercise of free speech in countries other than China, and maintaining extradition links to Hong Kong, or to mainland China, would have given them the ability to extend that oppression into countries like Canada through official channels.

With this as the new global geopolitical reality, is it any surprise that countries like Canada are willing to risk their trade with China in order to preserve their basic sovereignty? Because make no mistake, that is the choice here. It's simply surreal to think that the simple act of writing this blog post from Canada now means that I can't travel to China, or to any country with an extradition treaty with either China or with Hong Kong, for the rest of my life, but that's the reality.

The world needs to start standing up to China. Donald Trump won't, and can't; for all his posturing, and the incredibly stupid one-sided trade war he started which helped precipitate this crisis, his own position is far too precarious for him to risk actually taking meaningful action now. He's alienated every single one of America's normal allies, and needs to normalize trade with China, and thus the American economy, in order to have any hope of winning reelection in November.... which he's also clearly shown is the only thing he cares about. Trump's weakness is the chum in the geopolitical waters, here; a strong America, with strong relationships with their traditional allies in the EU, and the UN, would have been able to keep China in check. Trump's America cannot, so the rest of the world must now do it without American help.

That's a daunting task, and it's going to take more than just Canada to do it. The UK, having left the EU and thus isolated themselves as well, are not going to make much of an impact by offering UK citizenship to every resident of Hong Kong, either; for one thing, most of those people are not going to be able to leave, now that China has brought the hammer down, and its unlikely that they'd want to abandon the only home they'd ever known, anyway.

What we need is for the EU to stand up, to speak with a single, unified voice, and to denounce China's actions here. This will, unfortunately, turn Trump's ill-advised trade war into a global thing, and one which will be impossible for the U.S. to resolve on its own, even if/after Joe Biden takes over as President, and we can't afford to wait for Joe Biden; if the world wants to avoid becoming nothing but vassal states to an oppressive Chinese overlord in president-for-life Xi Jinping, then they need to be willing to risk some economic pain in the name of preserving that independence. Because Xi isn't going to listen to anything else; making toothless statements, without backing them with the threat of suspended trade, clearly isn't going to sway Xi one millimeter from his chosen course here.

Well, it's not like the Trumpians were listening to them, anyway

Le sigh.

As reported by The Hill:

The White House has officially moved to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a senior administration official confirmed Tuesday, breaking ties with a global public health body in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. has submitted its withdrawal notification to the United Nations secretary-general, the official said. Withdrawal requires a year's notice, so it will not go into effect until July 6, 2021, raising the possibility the decision could be reversed.

Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted that the administration informed Congress of the withdrawal plans.

"To call Trump’s response to COVID chaotic & incoherent doesn't do it justice. This won't protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick & America alone," the senator tweeted.

I would call this the stupidest news I've heard all week, but we are talking about the Trump administration, and it is only Tuesday: one thing you can be certain of, is that stupider news is still coming. There is absolutely no substantive policy defense for this move; it's 100% politics, red meat for Trump's most ardent, isolationist, racist supporters.

The good news is that even Trump's supporters seem to be tiring of his shtick, so a Biden administration could still walk this back. The bad news is that the damage will mostly have already been done by then, as reported cases surge across the U.S., with several states' health care systems running at or above capacity... with collapse likely not far off, since the nature of exponential growth basically guarantees that the situation will get much, much worse before it improves even slightly.