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<title>06 April, 2024</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Care-full Collectives and their Care Practices</strong> -
<div>
In my dissertation, I examine different collectives and their practices through different applied theories of care and theorize on new organizational structures and rituals. This is a study of how people came together during the first wave of Covid-19, myself included. It studies these coming-togethers through different “do-ings” and “be–ings” and juxtaposes them with different theories of care. Theories that include Annemarie Mol’s “Logic of Care”, Ella Myers’ “Worldly things”, Jenna Grant’s “Repair as Care”, Sara Ahmed’s “Fragile Connections” and Lucy Suchman’s “Relocating Innovation”. These different theories come from places like medical anthropology, STS, queer theory, and more. I give an honest account of my journey through these collectives and these theories. I also start to propose an alternate way of organizing institutions for mutual aid through two tools - archetypes and axioms.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ds39u/" target="_blank">Care-full Collectives and their Care Practices</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Incidence and risk factors of omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection among vaccinated and boosted individuals.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective against infection and severe COVID-19 disease worldwide. Certain co-morbid conditions cause immune dysfunction and may reduce immune response to vaccination.  In contrast, those with co-morbidities may practice infection prevention strategies. Thus, the real-world clinical impact of co-morbidities on SARS-CoV-2 infection in the recent post-vaccination period is not well established. We performed this study to understand the epidemiology of Omicron breakthrough infection and evaluate associations with number of comorbidities in a vaccinated and boosted population.  Methods and Findings: We performed a retrospective clinical cohort study utilizing the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse.  Our study population was identified as fully vaccinated adults with at least one booster. The primary risk factor of interest was the number of co-morbidities.  Our primary outcome was incidence and time to first positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular test in the Omicron predominant era. We performed multivariable analyses stratified by calendar time using Cox modeling to determine hazard of SARS-CoV-2.  In total, 133,191 patients were analyzed. Having 3+ comorbidities was associated with increased hazard for breakthrough (HR=1.2 CI 1.2-1.6). During the second half of the study, having 2 comorbidities (HR= 1.1 95% CI 1.02-1.2) and having 3+ comorbidities (HR 1.7, 95% CI 1.5-1.9) were associated with increased hazard for Omicron breakthrough. Older age was associated with decreased hazard in the first 6 months of follow-up. Interaction terms for calendar time indicated significant changes in hazard for many factors between the first and second halves of the follow-up period. Conclusions: Omicron breakthrough is common with significantly higher risk for our most vulnerable patients with multiple co-morbidities. Age related behavioral factors play an important role in breakthrough infection with the highest incidence among young adults. Our findings reflect real-world differences in immunity and exposure risk behaviors for populations vulnerable to COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.24305293v1" target="_blank">Incidence and risk factors of omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection among vaccinated and boosted individuals.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Constructive and Destructive Power of Social Norms in the Presence of Authoritative Influence</strong> -
<div>
A randomized survey experiment (N=2,868) was conducted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the effects of information provision on individuals’ cooperation with social distancing measures. Employing a 2 × 2 factorial design, the study examined the influence of social comparison and a powerful messenger. Using an online sample of approximately 3,000 Japanese respondents, it was found that participants demonstrated greater cooperation with social distancing measures when they perceived that they had spent a relatively <em>long</em> time outside the home compared with prevailing social norms in the previous week. Conversely, individuals who spent a relatively <em>short</em> time outside the home, exhibited the opposite effect. However, these results were observed solely in conjunction with the influence of a powerful messenger. The study also explored heterogeneous responses based on personality traits. In conclusion, the results highlight the challenges of changing behavior through informational interventions, emphasizing the role of both the characteristics of the sender and recipient of the information.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/rsbmz/" target="_blank">The Constructive and Destructive Power of Social Norms in the Presence of Authoritative Influence</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Distinct Type 1 Immune Networks Underlie the Severity of Restrictive Lung Disease after COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The variable etiology of persistent breathlessness after COVID-19 have confounded efforts to decipher the immunopathology of lung sequelae. Here, we analyzed hundreds of cellular and molecular features in the context of discrete pulmonary phenotypes to define the systemic immune landscape of post-COVID lung disease. Cluster analysis of lung physiology measures highlighted two phenotypes of restrictive lung disease that differed by their impaired diffusion and severity of fibrosis. Machine learning revealed marked CCR5+CD95+ CD8+ T-cell perturbations in mild-to-moderate lung disease, but attenuated T-cell responses hallmarked by elevated CXCL13 in more severe disease. Distinct sets of cells, mediators, and autoantibodies distinguished each restrictive phenotype, and differed from those of patients without significant lung involvement. These differences were reflected in divergent T-cell-based type 1 networks according to severity of lung disease. Our findings, which provide an immunological basis for active lung injury versus advanced disease after COVID-19, might offer new targets for treatment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587929v1" target="_blank">Distinct Type 1 Immune Networks Underlie the Severity of Restrictive Lung Disease after COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Within-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 across animal species</strong> -
<div>
Infectious disease transmission to different host species makes eradication very challenging and expands the diversity of evolutionary trajectories taken by the pathogen. Since the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has been transmitted from humans to many different animal species, and viral variants of concern could potentially evolve in a non-human animal. Previously, using available whole genome consensus sequences of SARS-CoV-2 from four commonly sampled animals (mink, deer, cat, and dog) we inferred similar numbers of transmission events from humans to each animal species but a relatively high number of transmission events from mink back to humans (Naderi et al., 2023). Using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identified 26 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that tend to occur in deer – more than any other animal – suggesting a high rate of viral adaptation to deer. Here we quantify intra-host SARS-CoV-2 across animal species and show that deer harbor more intra-host SNVs (iSNVs) than other animals, providing a larger pool of genetic diversity for natural selection to act upon. Within-host diversity is particularly high in deer lymph nodes compared to nasopharyngeal samples, suggesting tissue-specific differences in viral population sizes or selective pressures. Neither mixed infections involving more than one viral lineage nor large changes in the strength of selection are likely to explain the higher intra-host diversity within deer. Rather, deer are more likely to contain larger viral population sizes, to be infected for longer periods of time, or to be systematically sampled at later stages of infections. Combined with extensive deer-to-deer transmission, the high levels of within-deer viral diversity help explain the apparent rapid adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 to deer.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587973v1" target="_blank">Within-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 across animal species</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Exploration of the link between COVID-19 and gastric cancer from the perspective of bioinformatics and systems biology</strong> -
<div>
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a global pandemic. Gastric cancer (GC) poses a great threat to people's health, which is a high-risk factor for COVID-19. Previous studies have found some associations between GC and COVID-19, whereas the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Methods: We used a bioinformatics and systems biology approach to investigate the relationship between GC and COVID-19. The gene expression profiles of COVID-19 (GSE196822) and GC (GSE179252) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. After identifying the shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for GC and COVID-19, functional annotation, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, hub genes, transcriptional regulatory networks and candidate drugs were analyzed. Results: A total of 209 shared DEGs were identified to explore the linkages between COVID-19 and GC. Functional analyses showed that Immune-related pathway collectively participated in the development and progression of COVID-19 and GC. In addition, there are selected 10 hub genes including CDK1, KIF20A, TPX2, UBE2C, HJURP, CENPA, PLK1, MKI67, IFI6, and IFIT2. The transcription factor/gene and miRNA/gene interaction networks identified 38 transcription factors (TFs) and 234 miRNAs. More importantly, we identified ten potential therapeutic agents, including ciclopirox, resveratrol, etoposide, methotrexate, trifluridine, enterolactone, troglitazone, calcitriol, dasatinib and deferoxamine, some of which have been reported to improve and treat GC and COVID-19. This study also provides insight into the diseases most associated with mutual DEGs, which may provide new ideas for research on the treatment of COVID-19. Conclusions: This research has the possibility to be contributed to effective therapeutic in COVID-19 and GC.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587916v1" target="_blank">Exploration of the link between COVID-19 and gastric cancer from the perspective of bioinformatics and systems biology</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery of orally bioavailable SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease inhibitor as a potential treatment for COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), 3C-like protease (3CLpro), and papain-like protease (PLpro) are pivotal components in the viral life cycle of SARS-CoV-2, presenting as promising therapeutic targets. Currently, all FDA-approved antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 are RdRp or 3CLpro inhibitors. However, the mutations causing drug resistance have been observed in RdRp and 3CLpro from SARS-CoV-2, which makes it necessary to develop antivirals with novel mechanisms. Through the application of a structure-based drug design (SBDD) approach, we discovered a series of novel potent non-covalent PLpro inhibitors with remarkable in vitro potency and in vivo PK properties. The co-crystal structures of PLpro with leads revealed that the residues E164 and Q269 around the S2 site are critical for improving the inhibitor's potency. The lead compound GZNL-P36 not only inhibited SARS-CoV-2 and its variants at the cellular level with EC50 ranging from 58.2 nM to 306.2 nM, but also inhibited HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-229E with EC50 of 81.6 nM and 2.66 M, respectively. Oral administration of the compound resulted in significantly improved survival and notable reductions in lung viral loads and lesions in SARS-CoV-2 infection mouse model, consistent with RNA-seq data analysis. Our results indicate that PLpro inhibitor is a promising SARS-CoV-2 therapy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587743v1" target="_blank">Discovery of orally bioavailable SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease inhibitor as a potential treatment for COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative analysis of serological assays and sero-surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 exposure in US cattle</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to pose a significant threat to public health globally. Notably, SARS-CoV-2 demonstrates a unique capacity to infect various non-human animal species, documented in captive and free-living animals. However, experimental studies revealed low susceptibility of domestic cattle (Bos taurus) to ancestral B.1 lineage SARS-CoV-2 infection, with limited viral replication and seroconversion. Despite the emergence of viral variants with potentially altered host tropism, recent experimental findings indicate greater permissiveness of cattle to SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant infection compared to other variants, though with limited seroconversion and no clear evidence of transmission. While some studies detected SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in cattle in Italy and Germany, there is no evidence of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in cattle from the United States or elsewhere. Since serological tests have inherent problems of false positives and negatives, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of multiple serological assays on over 600 cattle serum samples, including pre-pandemic and pandemic cattle sera. We found that SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus neutralization assays with a luciferase reporter system can produce false positive results, and care must be taken to interpret serological diagnosis using these assays. We found no serological evidence of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection or transmission among cattle in the USA. Hence, it is critical to develop more reliable serological assays tailored to accurately detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in cattle populations and rigorously evaluate diagnostic tools. This study underscores the importance of robust evaluation when employing serological assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection in cattle populations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587933v1" target="_blank">Comparative analysis of serological assays and sero-surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 exposure in US cattle</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Visualization Guardrails: Designing Interventions Against Cherry-Picking in Interactive Data Explorers</strong> -
<div>
The growing popularity of interactive time series exploration platforms has made visualizing data of public interest more accessible to general audiences. At the same time, the democratized access to professional-looking explorers with preloaded data enables the creation of convincing visualizations with carefully cherry-picked items. Prior research shows that people use data explorers to create and share charts that support their potentially biased or misleading views on public health or economic policy and that such charts have, for example, contributed to the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Interventions against misinformation have focused on post hoc approaches such as fact-checking or removing misleading content, which are known to be challenging to execute. In this work, we explore whether we can use visualization design to impede cherry-picking—one of the most common methods employed by deceptive charts created on data exploration platforms. We describe a design space of guardrails—interventions against cherry-picking in time series explorers. Using our design space, we create a prototype data explorer with four types of guardrails and conduct two crowd-sourced experiments. In the first experiment, we challenge participants to create cherry-picked charts. We then use these charts in a second experiment to evaluate the guardrails’ impact on the perception of cherry-picking. We find evidence that guardrails—particularly superimposing relevant primary data—are successful at encouraging skepticism in a subset of experimental conditions but come with limitations. Based on our findings, we propose recommendations for developing effective guardrails for visualizations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/4j9nr/" target="_blank">Visualization Guardrails: Designing Interventions Against Cherry-Picking in Interactive Data Explorers</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Misleading Beyond Visual Tricks: How People Actually Lie with Charts</strong> -
<div>
Data visualizations can empower an audience to make informed decisions. At the same time, deceptive representations of data can lead to inaccurate interpretations while still providing an illusion of data-driven insights. Existing research on misleading visualizations primarily focuses on examples of charts and techniques previously reported to be deceptive. These approaches do not necessarily describe how charts mislead the general population in practice. We instead present an analysis of data visualizations found in a real-world discourse of a significant global event—Twitter posts with visualizations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, violations of visualization design guidelines are not the dominant way people mislead with charts. Specifically, they do not disproportionately lead to reasoning errors in posters’ arguments. Through a series of examples, we present common reasoning errors and discuss how even faithfully plotted data visualizations can be used to support misinformation online.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ky6th/" target="_blank">Misleading Beyond Visual Tricks: How People Actually Lie with Charts</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Multi-ancestry GWAS of diarrhea during acute SARS-CoV2 infection identifies multiple novel loci and contrasting etiological roles of irritable bowel syndrome subtypes</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A substantial proportion of acute SARSCoV2 infection cases exhibit gastrointestinal symptoms, yet the genetic determinants of these extrapulmonary manifestations are poorly understood. Using survey data from 239,866 individuals who tested positively for SARSCoV2, we conducted a multi-ancestry GWAS of 80,289 cases of diarrhea occurring during acute COVID19 infection (33.5%). Six loci (CYP7A1, LZFTl1/CCR9, TEME182, NALCN, LFNG, GCKR) met genomewide significance in a trans-ancestral analysis. The top significant GWAS hit mapped to the CYP7A1 locus, which plays an etiologic role in bile acid metabolism and is in high LD (r2= 0.93) with the SDCBP gene, which was previously implicated in antigen processing and presentation in the COVID-19 context. Another association was observed with variants in the LZTFL1/CCR9 region, which is a known locus for COVID19 susceptibility and severity. PheWAS showed a shared association across three of the six SNPs with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and its subtypes. Mendelian randomization showed that genetic liability to IBS-diarrhea increased (OR=1.40,95%,CI[1.33,1.47]), and liability to IBS-constipation decreased (OR=0.86, 95%CI[0.79,0.94]) the relative odds of experiencing COVID19+ diarrhea. Our genetic findings provide etiological insights into the extrapulmonary manifestations of acute SARSCoV2 infection.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.24305274v1" target="_blank">Multi-ancestry GWAS of diarrhea during acute SARS-CoV2 infection identifies multiple novel loci and contrasting etiological roles of irritable bowel syndrome subtypes</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ready-To-Use Investigational Stem Cells, MiSaver, in Patients with Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction, 1 year follow up from a Phase 1 Safety Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Abstract: Objectives: This study aimed to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of MiSaver stem cells in enhancing left ventricular ejection function and functional activity among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of global mortality, with heart attacks and strokes accounting for a significant portion of deaths. Recovery of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) post-myocardial infarction (MI) is crucial for prognosis, as patients with poor LVEF recovery face increased risks of sudden cardiac arrest events and mortality. Stem cell therapy offers regenerative potential for cardiovascular diseases, yet accessibility remains limited. This study investigates the safety and efficacy of MiSaver, a prefabricated stem cell investigational product, in recent AMI patients, aiming to enhance accessibility and patient outcomes. Methods: Patients who were admitted for AMI within 7 days and had reduced LVEF (≤45%) were eligible for the study. MiSaver were matched for blood group and administered in participants in cohorts of five, each receiving escalating dosages (0.5x10^7, 1.6x10^7, and 5.0x10^7 cells/kg, respectively). Patients were assessed for symptoms of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and treatment-related adverse events (AE). LVEF measured by echocardiographic on admission, at 6 months, and at 12 months after treatment. Patients functional activity status evalution ( using the New York Heart Association (NYHA) and Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) classification systems. Results: Out of the initially planned 15 participants, eleven were enrolled in the study. The trial was halted prematurely due to challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and impractical transportation logistics. During the 12-month follow-up period, no study-related adverse events or signs of graft-versus-host disease were reported. At 12 months post-treatment, both the low and middle dose groups, as well as participant 11, showed improved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), accompanied by enhanced Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) class grades compared to baseline. Conclusion: Intravenous infusion of MiSaver stem cells in AMI patients demonstrated safety and tolerability for low and middle dosage groups, suggesting potential for improving left ventricular function following AMI. However, further research with larger cohorts and controlled placebos is necessary to confirm these findings and address trial limitations encountered.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.01.24305125v2" target="_blank">Ready-To-Use Investigational Stem Cells, MiSaver, in Patients with Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction, 1 year follow up from a Phase 1 Safety Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effect of Paxlovid Treatment During Acute COVID-19 on Long COVID Onset: An EHR-Based Target Trial Emulation from the N3C and RECOVER Consortia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Preventing and treating post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), commonly known as Long COVID, has become a public health priority. In this study, we examined whether treatment with Paxlovid in the acute phase of COVID-19 helps prevent the onset of PASC. We used electronic health records from the National Covid Cohort Collaborative (N3C) to define a cohort of 426,352 patients who had COVID-19 since April 1, 2022, and were eligible for Paxlovid treatment due to risk for progression to severe COVID-19. We used the target trial emulation (TTE) framework to estimate the effect of Paxlovid treatment on PASC incidence. We estimated overall PASC incidence using a computable phenotype. We also measured the onset of novel cognitive, fatigue, and respiratory symptoms in the post-acute period. Paxlovid treatment did not have a significant effect on overall PASC incidence (relative risk [RR] = 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.95-1.01). However, it had a protective effect on cognitive (RR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.84-0.96) and fatigue (RR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.91-0.98) symptom clusters, which suggests that the etiology of these symptoms may be more closely related to viral load than that of respiratory symptoms.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.20.24301525v2" target="_blank">Effect of Paxlovid Treatment During Acute COVID-19 on Long COVID Onset: An EHR-Based Target Trial Emulation from the N3C and RECOVER Consortia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ready-To-Use Investigational Stem Cells, MiSaver, in Patients with Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction, 1 year follow up from a Phase 1 Safety Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Abstract: Objectives: This study aimed to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of MiSaver stem cells in enhancing left ventricular ejection function and functional activity among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of global mortality, with heart attacks and strokes accounting for a significant portion of deaths. Recovery of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) post-myocardial infarction (MI) is crucial for prognosis, as patients with poor LVEF recovery face increased risks of sudden cardiac arrest events and mortality. Stem cell therapy offers regenerative potential for cardiovascular diseases, yet accessibility remains limited. This study investigates the safety and efficacy of MiSaver, a prefabricated stem cell investigational product, in recent AMI patients, aiming to enhance accessibility and patient outcomes. Methods: Patients admitted for AMI with reduced LVEF (≤45%) were eligible. MiSaver stem cells, matched for blood group, were administered to participants in cohorts of five, with escalating dosages (0.5x10^7, 1.6x10^7, and 5.0x10^7 cells/kg) 2-5 days post-AMI onset. Echocardiographic assessments were conducted upon admission, at 6 months, and at 12 months post-treatment. Results: Out of the initially planned 15 participants, eleven were enrolled in the study. The trial was halted prematurely due to challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and impractical transportation logistics. During the 12-month follow-up period, no study-related adverse events or signs of graft-versus-host disease were reported. At 12 months post-treatment, both the low and middle dose groups, as well as participant 11, showed improved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), accompanied by enhanced Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) class grades compared to baseline. Conclusion: Intravenous infusion of MiSaver stem cells in AMI patients demonstrated safety and tolerability for low and middle dosage groups, suggesting potential for improving left ventricular function following AMI. However, further research with larger cohorts and controlled placebos is necessary to confirm these findings and address trial limitations encountered.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.01.24305125v1" target="_blank">Ready-To-Use Investigational Stem Cells, MiSaver, in Patients with Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction, 1 year follow up from a Phase 1 Safety Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disease diagnostics using machine learning of immune receptors</strong> -
<div>
Clinical diagnosis typically incorporates physical examination, patient history, and various laboratory tests and imaging studies, but makes limited use of the human system’s own record of antigen exposures encoded by receptors on B cells and T cells. We analyzed immune receptor datasets from 593 individuals to develop MAchine Learning for Immunological Diagnosis (Mal-ID), an interpretive framework to screen for multiple illnesses simultaneously or precisely test for one condition. This approach detects specific infections, autoimmune disorders, vaccine responses, and disease severity differences. Human-interpretable features of the model recapitulate known immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, Influenza, and HIV, highlight antigen-specific receptors, and reveal distinct characteristics of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Type-1 Diabetes autoreactivity. This analysis framework has broad potential for scientific and clinical interpretation of human immune responses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489314v5" target="_blank">Disease diagnostics using machine learning of immune receptors</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Probiotic Strain Lactobacillus Paracasei PS23 on Brain Fog in People With Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Brain Fog; Cognitive Change <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Lactobacillus paracasei PS23; Dietary Supplement: microcrystalline cellulose <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fascial Tissue Response To Manual Therapy: Implications In Long Covid Rehabilitation</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Guidebook; Other: Guidebook and Myofascial Reorganization® (RMF). <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of the State of Santa Catarina; Larissa Sinhorim <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of the Impact of Rehabilitation Strategies and Early Discharge After Respiratory Failure</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Acute Respiratory Failure <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Standard of Care; Behavioral: Rehabilitation <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises for Post-COVID-19 Diaphragmatic Dysfunction (DD)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Usual care of traditional treatment; Other: Specific DB program/Diaphragmatic manipulation program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Minnesota <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunoglobulin G4-related disease and B-cell malignancy due to an IKZF1 gain-of-function variant</strong> - CONCLUSION: Heterozygosity for gain-of-function IKZF1 variants underlies autoimmunity/inflammatory diseases, IgG4-RD and B-cell malignancies, the onset of which may occur in adulthood. Clinical and immunological data are similar to those for patients with unexplained IgG4-RD. Patients may therefore benefit from treatments inhibiting pathways displaying IKAROS-mediated overactivity.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Toll like receptor 4 mediates the inhibitory effect of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on proximal tubule albumin endocytosis</strong> - Tubular proteinuria is a common feature in COVID-19 patients, even in the absence of established acute kidney injury. SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S protein) was shown to inhibit megalin-mediated albumin endocytosis in proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTECs). Angiotensin-converting enzyme type 2 (ACE2) was not directly involved. Since Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mediates S protein effects in various cell types, we hypothesized that TLR4 could be participating in the inhibition of PTECs albumin…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coordination chemistry suggests that independently observed benefits of metformin and Zn(2+) against COVID-19 are not independent</strong> - Independent trials indicate that either oral Zn^(2+) or metformin can separately improve COVID-19 outcomes by approximately 40%. Coordination chemistry predicts a mechanistic relationship and therapeutic synergy. Zn^(2+) deficit is a known risk factor for both COVID-19 and non-infectious inflammation. Most dietary Zn^(2+) is not absorbed. Metformin is a naked ligand that presumably increases intestinal Zn^(2+) bioavailability and active absorption by cation transporters known to transport…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 and the Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 Receptor: Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor/Angiotensin 2 Receptor Blocker Utilization and a Shift Towards the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System Classical Pathway</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, uses the surface angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor as the site of entry into host cardiac, respiratory, intestinal, renal, and nervous system cells. Predisposing risk factors such as cardiovascular disease increase the risk of developing severe disease. Hypertension is characterized by the stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ipsilateral and contralateral coadministration of influenza and COVID-19 vaccines produce similar antibody responses</strong> - BACKGROUND: World Health Organisation (WHO) and USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) recommendations now allow simultaneous administration of COVID-19 and other vaccines. We compared antibody responses after coadministration of influenza and bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in the same (ipsilateral) arm vs. different (contralateral) arms.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of the RLR signaling pathway by SARS-CoV-2 ORF7b is mediated by MAVS and abrogated by ORF7b-homologous interfering peptide</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and characterized by dysregulated immune response. Studies have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 accessory protein ORF7b induces host cell apoptosis through the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) pathway and blocks the production of interferon beta (IFN-β). The underlying mechanism remains to be investigated. In this study, we found that ORF7b facilitated viral infection and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TRAIL and IP-10 dynamics in pregnant women post COVID-19 vaccination: associations with neutralizing antibody potency</strong> - INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to investigate changes in TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and gamma interferon-induced protein 10 (IP-10) after COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant women and to explore their association with neutralizing antibody (Nab) inhibition.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Assessment of the activity of the immune system in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and asymptomatic COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: The increased concentration of IL-2 may result from its regulatory role in inhibiting excessive activation of the immune system; however, considering the studies of patients with severe COVID-19, its role in the initial phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection requires further research.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quercetin inhibition of porcine intestinal alpha coronavirus in vitro and in vivo</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, this study provides compelling evidence that quercetin has great potential and promising applications for anti- SADS-CoV action.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and efficacy of VLA2001 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection in male cynomolgus macaques</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that the VLA2001 adjuvanted vaccine is immunogenic both in mouse and NHP models and prevent cynomolgus macaques from the viruses responsible of COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A rigorous theoretical and numerical analysis of a nonlinear reaction-diffusion epidemic model pertaining dynamics of COVID-19</strong> - The spatial movement of the human population from one region to another and the existence of super-spreaders are the main factors that enhanced the disease incidence. Super-spreaders refer to the individuals having transmitting ability to multiple pathogens. In this article, an epidemic model with spatial and temporal effects is formulated to analyze the impact of some preventing measures of COVID-19. The model is developed using six nonlinear partial differential equations. The infectious…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A randomized trial to assess the acceleration of viral clearance by the combination Favipiravir/Ivermectin/Niclosamide in mild-to-moderate COVID-19 adult patients (FINCOV)</strong> - CONCLUSION: Viral clearance rates did not differ significantly between the FPV/IVM/NCL combination therapy and FPV-alone groups of individuals with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, although the combined regimen demonstrated a synergistic effect in vitro. No discernible clinical benefit was observed. Further research is required to explore the potential benefits of FVP beyond its antiviral effects.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 endoribonuclease antagonizes dsRNA-induced antiviral signaling</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 has caused millions of deaths since its emergence in 2019. Innate immune antagonism by lethal CoVs such as SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for optimal replication and pathogenesis. The conserved nonstructural protein 15 (nsp15) endoribonuclease (EndoU) limits activation of double-stranded (ds)RNA-induced pathways, including interferon (IFN) signaling, protein kinase R (PKR), and oligoadenylate synthetase/ribonuclease L (OAS/RNase L) during diverse…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why have SGLT2 Inhibitors Failed to Achieve the Desired Success in COVID-19?</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged towards the end of 2019 and caused a major worldwide pandemic lasting at least 2 years, causing a disease called COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 caused a severe infection with direct cellular toxicity, stimulation of cytokine release, increased oxidative stress, disruption of endothelial structure, and thromboinflammation, as well as angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) down-regulation-mediated renin-angiotensin system (RAS) activation. In addition to glucosuria and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In vitro suppression of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus by Panax notoginseng saponins: assessing antiviral potential</strong> - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes severe diarrhea and high mortality in neonatal suckling piglets, leading to significant economic losses to the swine industry. Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) are bioactive extracts derived from the P. notoginseng plant. In this study, we investigated the anti-PEDV effect of PNS by employing various methodologies to assess their impact on PEDV in Vero cells. Using a CCK-8 (Cell Counting Kit-8) assay, we found that PNS had no significant cytotoxicity…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nayib Bukele’s Authoritarian Appeal</strong> - El Salvador’s President has targeted critics, sent troops into the legislature, and violated the country’s constitution to maintain his hold on power. Why is he still so popular at home and abroad? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/nayib-bukeles-authoritarian-appeal">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Chinese Students Experience America</strong> - COVID, guns, anti-Asian violence, and diplomatic relations have complicated the ambitions of the some three hundred thousand college students who come to the U.S. each year. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/how-chinese-students-experience-america">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Hottest Restaurant in France Is an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet</strong> - Les Grands Buffets features a seven-tiered lobster tower, a chocolate fountain, and only what it considers traditional French food. Gourmands are willing to wait months for a table. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/les-grands-buffets-and-the-art-of-all-you-can-eat">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>So You Think You’ve Been Gaslit</strong> - What happens when a niche clinical concept becomes a ubiquitous cultural diagnosis. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/so-you-think-youve-been-gaslit">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Brazilian Special-Forces Unit Fighting to Save the Amazon</strong> - As miners ravage Yanomami lands, combat-trained environmentalists work to root them out. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/the-brazilian-special-forces-unit-fighting-to-save-the-amazon">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Talented Mr. Ripley is a perfect striver gothic. The Netflix adaptation is lifeless.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A black-and-white still of a man sitting at a bar counter, looking somber." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YnRhUKHLjz8BfIH9xOqGDBRnYg0=/450x0:3150x2025/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73260031/Ripley_u_S1_E1_00_04_40_02_R.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley in Netflix’s <em>Ripley.</em> | Courtesy of Netflix
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Ripley fails to capture what makes Highsmith’s book so compelling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Zo9jL">
First, the bad news: <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a>’s new show <em>Ripley</em>, based on Patricia Highsmith’s immortal novel <em>The Talented Mr. Ripley</em>, is a snooze.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="maxAvb">
It’s shot beautifully. Under the auspices of showrunner Steven Zaillian (the screenwriter for the movie <em>Schindler’s List</em>, among others) and Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, <em>Ripley</em> renders its exquisite Italian landscapes and architecture in gorgeous, sinister black and white. The camera is forever panning across a Caravaggio or a palazzo, leaving your eyes time to linger. Each frame is elegantly composed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vw6saj">
Yet everything happening within those frames is so boring that it feels like a waste of beauty — not to mention a waste of a more than capable cast. Andrew Scott, who has been so charismatic and emotive in <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/22/18634838/fleabag-season-2-review-amazon-phoebe-waller-bridge"><em>Fleabag</em></a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/18/14295716/sherlock-season-four-review-plot-holes"><em>Sherlock</em></a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23875200/poor-things-boy-and-the-heron-anatomy-of-a-fall-tiff-nyff-venice-telluride"><em>All of Us Strangers</em></a>, plays Ripley with a careful detachment, as if he’s been warned not to try to make the audience feel anything. Likable Johnny Flynn (<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/2/28/21153314/emma-movie-sex-autumn-de-wilde-jane-austen-anya-taylor-joy-johnny-flynn"><em>Emma</em></a>., <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/1/8/16853922/lovesick-netflix-review"><em>Lovesick</em></a>), in the less showy role of Ripley’s callow mark Dickie, has himself so reined in that it becomes difficult to understand why Ripley is so drawn to him in the first place. The spark between them that is meant to set the whole plot ablaze ends up feeble and barely visible. (It doesn’t help matters that both Scott and Flynn are over 40, making it difficult to buy them as the sort of just-out-of-college gallivanters whose worried parents might plausibly be keeping a too-close watch on them.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9JGAz3">
The biggest waste, though, is the waste of the story itself. Highsmith’s <em>The Talented Mr. Ripley</em> is a particularly stylish entry in a highly specific grouping of stories that are currently having a bit of a moment. Besides Netflix’s <em>Ripley</em>, last fall’s <em>Saltburn</em> launched <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/is-saltburn-stupid-in-a-good-way-or-a-bad-way.html">a thousand internet arguments</a>. Donna Tartt’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/5/8/21250613/vox-book-club-the-secret-history-donna-tartt-week-1"><em>The Secret History</em></a> remains the darling of the dark academia readers of <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok">TikTok</a>. This is the genre I’ve started to call “striver gothic,” the stories of pretenders striving to make it among the careless and idle wealthy, even if they have to kill to do so. They are stories about how even for the smoothest operator, the sheer force of <em>wanting</em> can eat you alive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pZWJ3v">
Highsmith’s <em>The Talented Mr. Ripley</em> is a perfect iteration of the striver gothic. Netflix’s <em>Ripley</em> does not stick the landing. Looking at the ways it falls apart can tell us a lot about why these stories appeal to us.
</p>
<h3 id="2nRJfV">
Toward a working definition of “striver gothic”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rxtfq4">
Striver gothic is a term I developed with my friend Kirsten Carleton to describe stories that pull from a specific set of tropes. Here are the basics:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBNmYS">
An outsider main character is desperate for inclusion in a rarified upper-class world. He (and this character usually is a he) is the striver, and it is his desire to ascend from the bourgeoisie to the upper class that powers the story. The upper class is represented in metonymy by a friend group or family with intense, almost cultish insider dynamics. Frequently their group dynamic was formed within the cloistered walls of a school, creating some overlap between this genre and dark academia. They are either Ivy League or Oxbridge — or they borrow the aesthetic.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K0a0wi">
A country house or manor represents sanctuary, prize, and inclusion within the group.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uqrIS7">
The main character is obsessed with the leader of the group, frequently with queer undertones: Do I want to be him, or do I want to be with him?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OGSuMV">
Identities are doubled and doppelgängers abound.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o7Ac3U">
There will be at least one murder, committed either by the striver or by the group he is trying to infiltrate. The boundaries of this world are guarded fiercely, and any attempt to break them ends in death.
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YgVBOz">
The nonnegotiables of the striver gothic are a striver and a murder. Everything else you can fiddle with.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CjTu1C">
For its part, in Netflix’s <em>Ripley</em>, Dickie, his girlfriend Marge, and his friend Freddie are the upper-class friend group that striver Tom longs to penetrate. In his attempt to get there, Tom murders Dickie and takes over his identity, then murders Freddie, too, to cover the whole thing up. <em>Ripley</em> doesn’t quite have a country house (Tom does briefly move into Dickie’s Italian country home, although he prefers city palazzos), but the rest of the tropes are all there. Tom doesn’t have to long for Dickie’s house when he can simply take over Dickie’s whole identity instead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rU0A6p">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/24/18236254/magicians-season-4-episode-5-recap-escape-from-happy-place-quentin-eliot-brideshead-revisited"><em>Brideshead Revisited</em></a> set the template for this genre. It is not a striver gothic in and of itself; it’s not gothic and it contains no murders. It is nonetheless a striver story, with middle-class Charles seduced into a corrupt and decadent wealthy world via his love for aloof, androgynous Sebastian and the enchanted realm they build together at Oxford in the 1920s. In some ways, all the striver gothic stories are attempts to play out the subtext of <em>Brideshead</em>, to bring its suppressed gay longings and its numbed wartime rages out into the light of day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vxrywv">
That is in part what happens in <em>The Secret History</em>, perhaps the most complete entry in the genre. There, Richard the pretender makes his way into the rarified world of his college’s classics students by helping them commit and cover up a murder so that they’ll let him stay at their picturesque country lake house. In <em>The Secret History</em>, Richard’s desire for inclusion in the group crosses the line into sexual desire more than once, and the group’s aversion to anyone who betrays the aesthetics of their class is what turns them murderous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2USCa">
Meanwhile, <em>Saltburn</em> wears its derivative nature on its sleeve and straightforwardly places the action of <em>Ripley</em> into the setting of <em>Brideshead</em>. It’s a movie that cannot quite decide if it’s going to be a pastiche, a subversion, or a straight iteration of the striver gothic, which is part of why it’s such a mess.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="76OYic">
I haven’t made a conclusive list here. Tana French’s <em>The Likeness</em> and arguably Daphne du Maurier’s <em>Rebecca</em> are both striver gothics with female strivers. The movie <em>Bodies, Bodies, Bodies</em> parodies the genre, and the most recent season of <em>You</em> sends the murderous Joe Goldberg into a <em>Secret History</em>-style world. Popular culture abounds with strivers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pWpEj">
But Tom Ripley is unique. Where <em>Brideshead</em>’s Charles is too earnest, <em>Secret History</em>’s Richard too opaque, and <em>Saltburn</em>’s Oliver simply too psychologically improbable, Tom Ripley is endlessly, delightfully fascinating. That’s probably why people have told his story so many times.
</p>
<h3 id="GeDfSd">
Tom Ripley is the ultimate striver
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NL424d">
Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley is a man who is always hunting or being hunted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dU9GQb">
Highsmith drops us straight into Tom’s paranoid, obsessive head from her first page. Her novel opens with Tom fleeing from one bar to another, certain that he’s being followed by the police and that they’re going to arrest him for one of his many petty crimes of forgery and fraud.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VnCLD">
Tom’s right that he’s being followed, but his pursuer isn’t a police officer. He’s the father of Dickie Greenleaf, an old acquaintance of Tom’s, who thought he recognized Tom and wanted to come say hello. As soon as Tom understands this, he pivots effortlessly. He stops worrying about what his pursuer might have on him, and he starts thinking about what he might be able to get out of his pursuer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6scJX">
In this case, it turns out that Tom can get quite a lot out of Dickie’s father. Dickie, it develops, has been in Italy for years, refusing to come home to New York, no matter how much his parents beg him. With the gentlest of pushes from Tom, Dickie’s businessman father hits on the plan of having Tom go to Italy to persuade Dickie back home — all Tom’s expenses to be paid for on the Greenleaf dime.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vqjHe7">
That’s how Tom Ripley works. He sees the world in a binary of hunter and hunted, target and prey, and always, he is determined to come out ahead. His philosophy is not to worry about the future because something always comes up, and as such, he burns his bridges merrily and without hesitation. It’s nothing new to Tom to have angry people after him, and someone new will always happen along whom he can use to get himself out of one bad situation and into a new one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H0G1fG">
There are a lot of sociopaths in literature, but Tom is a peculiar one, an intelligent man who acts almost purely on instinct. He is suave enough to grant the reader pleasure at his exquisite taste, but always wrong on one or two telling details that the truly wealthy observer will inevitably pick up on, marking him as a class pretender. He’s self-aware enough to be funny, but he’s emotionally obtuse enough to miss the subtext in half his conversations and to lie to himself about the other half.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DWkqEh">
Tom’s contradictions, his combination of playfulness, methodical care, and murderous caprice, are part of what make <em>The Talented Mr. Ripley</em> stand out among its peers in the striver gothic. Tom is a striver among strivers, at once fiercely focused on his goals and incapable of considering them too closely. When Tom decides that what he wants, more than anything in the world, is to make Dickie like him, he doesn’t bother to consider closely what it is about Dickie that attracts him, whether he longs for Dickie’s wealth and easy lifestyle or whether he longs for Dickie’s love and admiration for their own sake. He simply identifies his target and acts to reach it.
</p>
<h3 id="SigaOM">
Why <em>Ripley</em> fails
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rd4r32">
Netflix’s <em>Ripley</em> is the third major adaptation of Highsmith’s novel and, in some ways, the most faithful. It is also the weakest artistically.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bUunvS">
In 1960, the French director René Clément transformed <em>Ripley</em> into <em>Plein Soleil</em>, marketed in the US as <em>Purple Noon</em>. There, Tom becomes a suave and beautiful con artist, more Thomas Crown than Tom Ripley, and he murders his friend less out of frustrated desire than out of rage at his sadism. In Clément’s hands, the story is no longer striver gothic, but it is a sun-soaked and brutal piece of filmmaking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LNn374">
Probably the most successful adaptation is also the most famous: Anthony Minghella’s 1999 <em>The Talented Mr. Ripley</em>, with Matt Damon as Tom and Jude Law as Dickie. Minghella’s film doesn’t match entirely with Highsmith’s version of the characters. After Highsmith’s Tom murders Dickie, he falls asleep that night “happy, content, and utterly, utterly confident,” but Damon renders Tom a vulnerable sweetheart of a character who weeps as he kills. Moreover, while Highsmith’s Tom is utterly isolated, Minghella invents two new characters he can talk to, through which the audience can learn exactly what the enigmatic Mr. Ripley is thinking. Through those conversations, and through Minghella’s ecstatic camera as it pans over his beautiful actors on luminous Italian beaches, we can see exactly how Tom’s obsession with Dickie takes seed and blossoms, until he feels he has no choice but to murder in the face of Dickie’s rejection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YHM8Lj">
<em>Ripley</em> is a straight adaptation. It contains barely a scene that does not appear in Highsmith’s book; hardly a scene that does appear in Highsmith’s book gets omitted. What gets left out is Tom’s sense of playfulness, the fun he finds in lying and deceiving. Where Highsmith’s Tom is prone to giggle fits when he thinks of his crimes, Zaillian’s stays sad-eyed and grim. Under Zaillian’s restrained touch, the emotional connections that drive Tom to kill are barely sketched in. Instead, we spend inordinate amounts of time watching him cover up his crimes: lugging bodies painfully and silently around and then scrubbing up the blood.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AV8HTY">
Highsmith, too, pays attention to the details of Tom’s coverups. But she writes about those details with panache. She delights in the elegance and thoroughness of Tom’s work. She makes it glamorous. Zaillian makes it hard and dull and unpleasant. This is doubtless an emotionally accurate depiction of what it’s like to dispose of dead bodies, but who comes to <em>Ripley</em> for that?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KrdzdV">
We come to <em>Ripley</em> for Tom Ripley himself. Tom’s flair, his playfulness, his social adroitness mixed with profound blindness regarding his own desires for human intimacy — these are the elements that make this subgenre compelling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3bcQmb">
One of the pleasures of the striver gothic is the deep ambiguity about why, exactly, the striver is working so hard to get in with the group he’s targeted. Is he doing it because he genuinely likes them? Or because he likes their lifestyle? By extension: Is the genre about how much we long for intimacy from the people we admire? Or is it about how much we long for their money and their beautiful things?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kX3P3T">
Well, after all, asks Tom Ripley: Why can’t it be both?
</p></li>
<li><strong>The right-wing scammers who paved the way for Trump</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A close-up of a gold high-top sneaker with Donald Trump smirking in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a3hOKfLvYNDk5Sps9-MsqwOIgx8=/532x0:4791x3194/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73259965/2018509941.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Donald Trump introducing his shoe line at SneakerCon in Philadelphia on February 17, 2024. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A new book shows how conservative grift started long before branded bibles and $400 sneakers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6siOkH">
During his time atop the Republican Party, <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>’s lifetime habits of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/nyregion/trump-bond-deal.html">fraud</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/federal-court-approves-25-million-trump-university-settlement-n845181">grifting</a> have fused seamlessly with conservative politics. In 2024 alone, Trump debuted <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-sneakers-sneaker-con-philadelphia-4de093eda6f8d1c68baf8fe8095f777b">$399 gold sneakers</a> emblazoned with the American flag, sold a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/27/1241186975/donald-trump-bible-god-bless-usa">$60 “God Bless the USA” Bible</a> endorsed by singer Lee Greenwood, and convinced <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/trumps-social-media-potemkin-village">millions to purchase stock</a> in Truth Social’s unprofitable parent company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8dZvhN">
Trump is often treated as a political hijacker who rerouted the Republican Party to his own self-interested ends. Surely that’s part of the truth. But at the same time, there’s a decent case that, when it comes to grifting, his hijacking attempt could only succeed due to the conservative movement’s ingrained scammy tendencies.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pJtGmG">
From <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/874d79c6e042f1acd361b33fffc48057/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&amp;cbl=18750">paranoid anti-Communist lecture series</a> in the 1950s to <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/02/the-birther-scam-continued.html">crowdfunded birther investigations</a> to <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-orders-alex-jones-stop-selling-fake-coronavirus-treatments">Alex Jones peddling fake coronavirus cures</a>, there’s a <a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con">long and storied history</a> of elites peddling fear and paranoia to make a buck. The problem has gotten so bad that, in the past several years, many <a href="https://www.joemygod.com/2023/09/erickson-cpac-is-a-grift-operation-with-gay-cruising/">prominent conservatives</a> have <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-real-problem-conservatism-faces-today/">publicly bemoaned</a> the omnipresence of grifts in the conservative ranks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EEaXom">
But where did this culture come from, and how important was it to Trump’s rise?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2mSmG">
These questions are at the heart of <em>The Longest Con</em>, a forthcoming book on the history of right-wing scams and frauds. The book’s author, Joe Conason, is a veteran New York journalist; he personally knew some of the key figures in the scammy right’s history, like <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/">mobbed-up lawyer and Trump mentor Roy Cohn</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bhnbeK">
Conason locates the origins of the grift tradition with Joe McCarthy, whose anti-Communist campaign proved that paranoid lies could be a ticket to popularity on the grassroots right. Cohn, who worked for McCarthy, figured out a way to transmute that popularity into profit: exploiting fears of Communism to, among other things, finance a lavish trip to Europe.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IjIqZpA4LGBNzdnd2mfm9lFxrio=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25375319/962171754.jpg"/> <cite>Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Donald Trump, right, with Roy Cohn at the Trump Tower opening in 1983.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vUtEOt">
“The template for right-wing grift … followed in McCarthy’s wake,” Conason writes. “By creating such an atmosphere of utter dread — and then promising that they alone could prevent America’s doom — [hucksters] induced thousands of suckers to hand over large wads of cash.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lRzAbI">
As the conservative movement grew, the grifts grew with it. Conason pinpoints Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential run as a key turning point. The campaign produced a massive mailing list that scammers could solicit for donations to alleged political causes that mostly lined their own pockets. When these “direct mail” scams proved immensely profitable, they expanded, normalizing an ethos of grifting on the right that, ultimately, would reach its apogee in Donald Trump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FI95hp">
I spoke to Conason about this fascinating, hidden-in-plain-sight history: about how it started, why it succeeded, how it paved the way for Trump’s rise, and whether there’s any equivalent grifting culture on the American left. What follows is a transcript of that conversation, edited for length and clarity.
</p>
<h4 id="XcuMGC">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tTt1rd">
So Roy Cohn. He starts his career as this corrupt New York lawyer, bridging the worlds of Democratic politics, high society, and mafiosos. When does he make the jump to the right, and how important is he in the rise of conservative grift culture?
</p>
<h4 id="xtTPUy">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3NQwpl">
I think pretty important. The people who tolerated him for the longest time — William Safire, very respectable, Bill Buckley, very respectable. These people, they knew what Roy was. They knew he was a crook and a con man and a liar and a cheater, and yet, that was okay. To me, that was a sign of something very wrong in conservative culture, looking back, that that guy would be not only tolerated but celebrated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a5UZOe">
As I say in the book, they would have big parties to celebrate him. Ronald Reagan had Roy to the White House, and when Roy was sick, they bent the rules to get him treatment that nobody knew about, even though he was pretending not to have AIDS. Roger Stone, who became very powerful in the conservative movement, was a protégé of Roy’s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="be6SfX">
He had some kind of charm or attraction or something for these conservatives, who otherwise I think would’ve told you that they themselves would never contemplate doing the kinds of things that Roy did, which is basically stiffing the IRS for 20 years or 30 years or however long it was, and not paying his creditors, which is a thing that Trump seems to have picked up from him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z3rOwT">
He was a rogue, and I think [they thought] “Oh, he was a roguish fellow. Wasn’t he fun?” But at some point, you catch a little of the disease yourself. And I think the willingness to overlook Roy’s deep, deep corruption was — let’s just say it was a bad sign. I can’t tell you that that caused anything, but it was not a good sign about the moral character of that movement in its earliest days.
</p>
<h4 id="bdeaKw">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="duBmdW">
Let’s talk about the expansion of this, because obviously, grifting in the conservative movement isn’t just a Roy Cohn story — though he was a pioneer in some of the earliest versions of these ways of grifting, about selling fear of communism.
</p>
<h4 id="v3l5uQ">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tcr7zX">
In the aftermath of McCarthy, the impulse and the marketability of anti-communism as an ideology did not go away. To turn it into a business, you would sell lectures. There were a series of them that I profiled in the book that had different ways of marketing a hysterical version of anti-communism to middle-class and upper-middle-class people who were terrified. They would pay a lot to go to a lecture, they’d buy lecture tapes, they would buy books. It could cost them hundreds of dollars, which in 2024 dollars is thousands of dollars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xsCOeb">
This got so bad that J. Edgar Hoover — who was considered the greatest authority on communism on the right, had a whole apparatus to root out communism in the country — was appalled by these people. I found communications between Hoover and his deputies about some of these individuals they thought of as grifters and con men and crooks, and they investigated them. That’s how bad it was: J. Edgar Hoover thought “these guys are crooks and they’re giving anti-communism a bad name.”
</p>
<h4 id="vEBmZY">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6eaFfD">
During the Cold War period, how central was the grifting and con man stuff to the conservative movement? The standard history is that, sure, maybe there were some cranks on the side, but Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley defined a new and principled way of thinking about American politics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FmkIsR">
Your book offers an alternative history, positioning the profiteering and swindling as something that grew with the post-war conservative movement. Just how deeply intertwined is the grift with the more committed side of the movement?
</p>
<h4 id="wRuu9W">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f6IOzG">
What I would say is that the grifting side — the side that doesn’t really believe in anything very much except its own enrichment — has grown. It wasn’t necessarily the dominant portion in the beginning at all. But there’s a point in the book where Richard Viguerie discovers direct mail and how he can use the Goldwater movement [in 1964] to build a huge direct mail industry. I’d say that was a turning point.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LOTxDI">
Richard Viguerie was a guy who had been brought into the direct mail business with the Buckley crowd — Young Americans for Freedom, which was their central organization, aside from the National Review, for raising money. He realized that you could just ask people for money and they would give it to you.
</p>
<h4 id="3c3LZ5">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2EC6d8">
You don’t even need to be selling them anything physical, right? That’s the innovation here, you just send them a mailer promising to fight for what they believed in.
</p>
<h4 id="OvyQPT">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zlqtWW">
Yes. But the problem was that in order for that to be really effective on a national level, you needed lists of names. And lists of names of conservatives just didn’t exist until the Goldwater campaign in 1964. Viguerie realized that the donors to the Goldwater campaign comprised a national list of conservatives who would donate money. He said [it] was like a key to Fort Knox. It turned out he was right: Those people would give money. And it built from there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CzMFMk">
People who are giving you money don’t really know what you’re doing with the money. You’re telling them you’re doing this and that, and maybe you are and maybe you’re not. In many cases not, and they don’t have any way of knowing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CooJYo">
What they know is that they have grievances and concerns that you’re addressing, or you’re telling them you’re addressing. They’re willing to give money to make themselves, I guess, feel better about that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2D68R">
Now, it took a while for it to take over. But once that starts, it was impossible to stop. It takes over a larger and larger portion of the conservative movement, to the point where we now have Trump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R09775">
One of the reasons I wrote the book is you can see how, over time, this impulse to swindle and grift became a bigger and bigger part of conservatism. And the honest conservatism — the ideological and philosophical [principles], what they considered moral virtue — has been stripped away.
</p>
<h4 id="SOBoC6">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jhAr6v">
So you just jumped from Viguerie in the ’60s all the way forward to Trump in 2016. There’s a wealth of time during which this spreading happens. What are some of the key events in between, the ones that fueled the rise of right-wing grift culture?
</p>
<h4 id="62RyhD">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M4baUf">
It takes different forms over time. One is the religious right: Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority, Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition. Now the Prosperity Gospel types who are around Trump, who are just straight-up grifters. That becomes a big element in it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WIdlze">
Then you have the Reagan administration, which I describe as the most corrupt in history — up until Trump at least — in terms of the number of prosecutions and scandals. There were quite a few people who found ways to profit from government programs that they were supposedly going in there to end or reduce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ba5zY9">
One of the most interesting is Paul Manafort, who turns up much later as Trump’s campaign manager. James Watt was another. A Western conservative who supposedly was against big government, he was just finding ways to get paid off and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/01/03/watt-pleads-to-misdemeanor-in-hud-case/9a977277-e65c-4507-99b3-35628b4fd640/">almost went to prison for it</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mq9f3i">
Then we come to the period just before Trump arises: the Tea Party and the birther movement. That too was a grift: There were certainly grifters getting people to give them money to prove that Obama shouldn’t be president or was not qualified to be president, but the lead figure in that was Trump. And so, logically, Trump becomes a force within the Republican Party, and meanwhile, the Republican Party is kind of losing its way in general and becomes very vulnerable to someone like him.
</p>
<h4 id="N8vATA">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rq5LDW">
What I think is novel here in your book is seeing this history as laying a unique kind of pathway for Trump. You had these generations of people who built an expanding empire of profit grafted onto conservative ideology, and then Donald Trump comes along and he’s like, “Wait, I can just make the movement fully into that — an extension of my efforts at brand-building.” That’s a core part of what allows him to succeed in Republican politics: that brand-building and profiteering have already been built into it over the course of decades.
</p>
<h4 id="zhSIR4">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jueW3P">
I would point out that the creator of Trump, in a lot of ways, is Roger Stone, who’s been in the grifting business of conservatism for a really long time. Stone saw that Trump was a really outstanding possibility for the kind of politics that Roger represented, which was a hollow politics of demagoguery with more than a touch of racial paranoia and hate, and that could be perfectly flexible in terms of positions and issues and viewpoints and rhetoric.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JzXQCT">
Roger got to know Trump during the first Reagan campaign through Roy Cohn. And he figured out this was a guy who had real potential. They had a model, a way of conducting themselves politically that was both effective on a certain segment of the public and highly profitable. They had thought about it for many years before Trump finally agreed to run for president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HQVYpG">
Trump was a perfect candidate [because] he had shown he would get involved in any kind of grift. He’d gotten involved in multilevel marketing. Trump University was a type of scam: the fake real estate investment seminar, which would get people to pay big money and promise them that they would make a lot of profit on real estate themselves. Trump had a perfect brand to get into, and so he did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W71gKp">
Roger Stone and others around him realized, “Hey, this is our guy. We can capitalize all of this that’s been built in the past and discard anything that’s inconvenient about conservatism because who cares?”
</p>
<h4 id="wOgRBD">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iPy2wV">
So now, we get the leading Republican presidential candidate hawking multi-hundred-dollar sneakers and an America-themed Bible as a means of making money — a full integration of political party with scam ventures. There’s nothing like this level of mainstream hucksterism on the Democratic side, as far as I can tell.
</p>
<h4 id="IV6zG3">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="osHtci">
In writing the book, I went out and looked for examples of this on the blue side. I think people get swindled by all kinds of things all the time, whatever their politics are.
</p>
<h4 id="rEWmEJ">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MnDwI1">
I think you have some pretty solid examples of people on the left in your introduction who have grifted liberals. We can also talk about the Democratic machines in cities that are less ideological and more focused on maintaining power.
</p>
<h4 id="HreKAH">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zLYDwN">
Look, we have a Democratic senator right now who’s [been indicted for] <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gold-bars-featured-bob-menendez-bribery-case-linked-2013-robbery-recor-rcna128006">hiding gold bars</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="RxvVWl">
Zack Beauchamp
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zOPSir">
Right.
</p>
<h4 id="KwdEdE">
Joe Conason
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCNQui">
I would never pretend that corruption or mendacity or greed is confined to the right, and I hope I didn’t give that impression in the book. But there are certain themes on the right that seem to lend themselves to these kinds of crooked schemes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="crcsUw">
Roger Stone said long ago that one of his rules of politics is that <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/25/roger-stone-last-dirty-trick-224217/">hate triumphs over love</a> in politics, that hate is the most saleable thing in politics. All of his campaigns have been based on that rather curdled insight, and a lot of the merchandising comes down to that as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pTFIVj">
It’s what they now call “own the libs,” but it’s been the same emotion for decades and decades now.
</p></li>
<li><strong>What to do during an earthquake, for people who rarely experience them</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="People in NYC walking in front of the World Trade Center." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DdAh8KDL-iS2Yj1MfyNDAOvgQ_Q=/667x0:6000x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73258398/GettyImages_2141108719.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cities like New York rarely experience large earthquakes, but its older buildings are vulnerable when the ground starts shaking. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why we need to take seemingly small earthquakes seriously
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5qYrcQ">
A <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00sbh3yv/executive">magnitude 4.8 earthquake</a> rocked the East Coast midmorning on Friday, sending high rises swaying in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ooxryl">
Californians and other West Coasters may scoff at the alarm expressed by their East Coast counterparts from a seemingly small quake. But this tremor struck the most densely populated region of the US, rocking some of the oldest buildings in the country, and alarming people who often take it for granted that the earth doesn’t move very much. So it’s worth taking seriously.
</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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Can’t believe I got it on camera lol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/earthquake?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#earthquake</a> <a href="https://t.co/OevQ5q30ZF">pic.twitter.com/OevQ5q30ZF</a>
</p>
— jared (<span class="citation" data-cites="jareddemel">@jareddemel</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/jareddemel/status/1776263525310009821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a>
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</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2pUUSA">
The East Coast is indeed much less geologically active than the Western US, with fewer active fault lines that cause major earthquakes. There are, however, frequent smaller tremors. The US Geological Survey notes that the eastern part of the country has experienced <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/2011-virginia-earthquake-infographic">more than 400 earthquakes</a> with a magnitude greater than 3.5 over the past 50 years. As recently as 2011, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/10-year-anniversary-uss-most-widely-felt-earthquake">a magnitude 5.8 quake</a> that struck Virginia caused shaking to be felt along the East Coast and some damage to buildings in Washington, DC.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Map of US seismic hazards" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xx08W1bySmbsFRi8ZiLPKU03csM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25374954/2018nshm_longterm.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/2018-long-term-national-seismic-hazard-map" target="_blank">US Geological Survey</a></cite>
<figcaption>
The Eastern US experiences less frequent and severe earthquakes compared to the West Coast.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="dq9thS">
Why the East Coast quakes hit different than the ones out West
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B10itU">
One distinction between earthquakes in the eastern and western US is the nature of the ground below. The rock beneath the eastern US is older and denser than the subsurface out west, so waves of shaking Earth travel further.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="frNeat">
“In the Western US, the ground under us is warmer and it’s chopped up by faults and seismic waves get attenuated (filtered out),” said <a href="https://www.shakealert.org/contact/">Robert de Groot</a>, who leads public outreach for the US Geological Survey’s <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/science/early-warning">ShakeAlert</a> earthquake early-warning system in the western US, in an email. “Think of the subsurface as a hall of mirrors and lenses. Waves get scattered, redirected, etc.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gy4jOl">
As with any earthquake, there is a chance of <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/oaf/overview.php">aftershocks</a>, though they are often weaker than the preceding quake.
</p>
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</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rHWIIV">
The West Coast also has a long history of designing structures to tolerate earthquakes. Though tremors tend to be weaker in the East, over the years, states along the Atlantic coast have <a href="https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/VEBC2018P1/chapter-a4-earthquake-risk-reduction-in-wood-frame-residential-buildings-with-soft-weak-or-open-front-walls">revised their building codes</a> so homes, offices, stores, and warehouses can better withstand shaking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7DsJqe">
But these new codes only apply to new buildings, and there are a lot of aging, historic structures that are still used today — especially in cities like New York. “Your community probably has many older structures that are not protected against earthquakes,” the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/earthquake/seismic-building-codes">Federal Emergency Management Agency</a> (FEMA) writes on its website. “These existing buildings are the single biggest contributor to seismic risk in the United States today.”
</p>
<h3 id="anDMMf">
What you should do when you feel an earthquake
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4JiXYj">
While earthquake safety is old hat for people who grew up on the West Coast, many in the Northeast had no idea what to do when the ground started shaking. (Other than <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=twitter+earthquake&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Esearch">tweeting</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2523bs">
The old advice of getting under a door frame right away no longer holds. “In modern houses, doorways are no stronger than any other part of the house, and the doorway does not protect you from the most likely source of injury: falling or flying objects,” according to the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/uwem/preparedness/know-your-hazards/earthquake/what-not-to-do-during-an-earthquake/">University of Washington’s emergency preparedness department</a>. “You also may not be able to brace yourself in the door during strong shaking. You are safer under a table.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zDhEMU">
There is instead a new mantra: “The best advice is <a href="https://www.earthquakecountry.org/step5/">Drop, Cover, and Hold On</a> if you feel shaking,” said de Groot. What that means is get to your hands and knees, cover your head and neck with an arm while you get under a table or desk, and hold onto a piece of furniture. Avoid exterior walls, windows, and hanging objects. Don’t get in an elevator, take the stairs, or try to run out of the building.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YGbVtY">
If you’re in bed, stay there. Lie face down, and cover your head and neck with a pillow. If you’re outdoors, move to an open space away from buildings. If you’re driving, pull over and set the parking brake, avoiding overpasses, trees, and power lines. Earthquakes are surprising and they can be dangerous and destructive, but with proper precautions, they don’t have to be deadly.
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Indian men’s hockey team suffers 1-5 thrashing at hands of Australia in first Test</strong> - The Australians controlled the tempo of the match from start to finish. The Indian team showed some sparks in the final quarter but it was too late by then.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL-17: LSG vs GT | Rookie pacer Mayank Yadav in focus as Lucknow Super Giants eye third consecutive win</strong> - In his debut match against Punjab Kings, the 21-year-old Mayank Yadav returned impressive figures of 3/27, stunning England batter Jonny Bairstow with his searing pace.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL-17: MI vs DC | Suryakumar back in mix as faltering Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals desperate to arrest slide</strong> - With three losses in a row, MI are languishing at the bottom whereas Delhi Capitals have spiralled down to the ninth spot in the 10-team points table</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Morning Digest | India will enter Pakistan to kill terrorists who flee there, says Rajnath Singh; India abstains at UNHRC on vote calling for Gaza ceasefire, and more</strong> - Here is a select list of stories to start the day</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s Bluemed vs. Knotty One in the Welcome Trophy</strong> -</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Panur bomb blast opens a new battlefront between CPI(M) and Congress in Vadakara LS constituency</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Warangal Railway Police catch two women with over 200 kg ganja</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hyderabad police seize ₹75.7 lakh unaccounted cash in three cases of vehicle checking</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BRS stages protests demanding relief to farmers in distress due to crop loss</strong> - Ex-Ministers, MLAs, MPs, others lead protests across the State</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rare disease patients seek inclusion in BJP’s manifesto for funding</strong> - Patients and caregivers have requested equal weightage and priority to all notified disease conditions under the National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv kill six - officials</strong> - Attacks on the closest big city to the Russian border have been intensifying in recent weeks.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ibiza locals living in cars as party island sees rents soar</strong> - “All the work you could want, but there isn’t anywhere to live,” say those struggling on the island.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Serbia police search for two-year-old girl’s body</strong> - Two men hit the girl named Danka with their car and then took her body to a landfill site, say police.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Thousands evacuated as dam burst worsens Russia floods</strong> - Authorities say they are working to stem flooding in Orsk, about 1,800km southeast of Moscow.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Six Russian planes destroyed by drones - Ukraine</strong> - Security sources tell the BBC another eight bombers were badly damaged in the attack.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Claims of TikTok whistleblower may not add up</strong> - He only worked there 6 months and many of his allegations are improbable at best. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2015275">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA knows what knocked Voyager 1 offline, but it will take a while to fix</strong> - “Engineers are optimistic they can find a way for the FDS to operate normally.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2015200">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>$158,000 ALS drug pulled from market after failing in large clinical trial</strong> - The drug is now unavailable to new patients; its maker to lay off 70% of employees. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2015321">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple now allows retro game emulators on its App Store—but with big caveats</strong> - It’s probably not the Wild West of game emulation you’re hoping for. Here’s why. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2015269">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV</strong> - System would detect paused content on external devices and show ads on top. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2015217">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A blonde walks in a bank to get a loan. “I need to borrow $100 for a month,” she says.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The banker frowns, but takes her information anyway. He runs her credit but can’t find a report. “I’m sorry,” he says, “but in the absence of a credit record, we’ll have to charge 20% interest on the loan, and you’ll need to put up collateral.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What does that mean?” the blonde says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“It means,” the banker says, “you’ll have to repay us $120, and you’ll need to give us something more valuable to hold onto until you pay us back.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Something more valuable?” The blonde says. “How about my Ferrari?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The banker nearly snorts his coffee all over his desk, but he prides himself on customer service so he soldiers on. He runs the title on the Ferrari and what do you know, the blonde owns it free and clear. “Okay, he says, “I’ll print out the papers.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Just so I understand,” the blonde says, “I give you my Ferrari and you give me a hundred dollars, right? And then in a month, I give you $120 and you give me my Ferrari back?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes,” the banker says, “that’s the deal.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She signs the paperwork and hands him the keys. He counts out $100 for her and watches her saunter out the door.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A month to the day later, he’s sitting at his desk when the blonde saunters back in. She hands him $120 and says “I get my car back, right?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yep, he says as he hands her the keys. She turns to go but he stops her. “Miss, I really have to ask, why did you use a $140,000 car as collateral on a $100 loan?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh!” The blonde says. “I got called out of town unexpectedly on business. How else can I park a Ferrari for a month in Manhattan for only $20?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/New2RedBeNice"> /u/New2RedBeNice </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwxi4b/a_blonde_walks_in_a_bank_to_get_a_loan_i_need_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwxi4b/a_blonde_walks_in_a_bank_to_get_a_loan_i_need_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A kung-fu student comes to his master…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A kung-fu student comes to his master:
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Master, why do I seem not to properly develop my kung-fu skills?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The master takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and says:
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My student. Have you ever noticed the flaming seagulls flying beneath the sun on sunset?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes master, I have.”
</p>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But have you closely watched the waterfall and the way water falls on rocks without moving them?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes master, I have watched them with immense attention”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The master takes another deep breath, and asks:
</p>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
HAVE YOU… watched how the smallest creatures may thrive even on the most inhospitable habitats?
</li>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes master. I have noticed them.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
That’s why. You keep looking at that shit and don’t train.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/smokedfx"> /u/smokedfx </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bww96a/a_kungfu_student_comes_to_his_master/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bww96a/a_kungfu_student_comes_to_his_master/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An old man in Mississippi was sitting on his front porch watching the sun rise. He sees the neighbor’s kid walk by carrying something big under his arm. He yells out “Hey boy, whatcha got there?” Boy yells back “Roll of chicken wire.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Old man says “What you gonna do with that?” Boy says “Gonna catch some chickens.” Old man yells “You damn fool, you can’t catch chickens with chicken wire!” Boy just laughs and keeps walking. That evening at sunset the boy comes walking by and to the old man’s surprise he is dragging behind him the chicken wire with about 30 chickens caught in it. Same time next morning the old man is out watching the sun rise and he sees the boy walk by carrying something kind of round in his hand. Old man yells out “Hey boy, whatcha got there?” Boy yells back “Roll of duck tape.” Old man says “What you gonna do with that?” Boy says back “Gonna catch me some ducks.” Old man yells back, “You damn fool, you can’t catch ducks with duck tape!” Boy just laughs and keeps walking. That night around sunset the boy walks by coming home and to the old man’s amazement he is trailing behind him the unrolled roll of duck tape with about 35 ducks caught in it. Same time next morning the old man sees the boy walking by carrying what looks like a long reed with something fuzzy on the end. Old man says “Hey boy, whatcha got there?” Boy says “It’s a pussy willow.” Old man says “Wait up … I’ll get my hat.”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bx6w26/an_old_man_in_mississippi_was_sitting_on_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bx6w26/an_old_man_in_mississippi_was_sitting_on_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A young man asks a lazy Kungfu-master to teach him Kungfu..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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‘’Master can you teach me Kungfu?’’ The young man asks. The lazy Kungfu master takes a look at him and says ‘’I don’t think you are ready, your body is not in shape for my training, go and work out for 5 years and come back when you are in shape.’’ The young man returns 5 years later with a body sculpted like a Greek God. ‘’Will you teach me Kungfu now master?’’ The lazy master tells him ‘’It is good that you are now in a good shape, but you also need to have the right state of mind. Go and meditate for the next 5 years watching the sun during sunrise and dawn every day, then come back to me.’’ The man does as the master asks and comes back to him 5 years later. ‘’Master I have done as you asked, my mind is now at peace, will you teach me Kungfu?’’ The lazy master says ‘’Just one last step, now combine what you have learned through your body and mind, go and train until you can meditate and levitate above the ground 5ft.’’ The man leaves for 5 more years and comes back. ‘’Master I have done as you asked.’’ He sits on the ground and starts meditating, then levitates 5ft above the ground. ‘’Holy shit!’’ exclaimed the Kungfu master.
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​
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Kadajko"> /u/Kadajko </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwxe5t/a_young_man_asks_a_lazy_kungfumaster_to_teach_him/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwxe5t/a_young_man_asks_a_lazy_kungfumaster_to_teach_him/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man in a grocery store notices a woman with a 3 year old girl in her cart.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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As they pass the cookie section, the little girl screams for cookies. The mother says, “Now Missy, we only have a few more aisles to go. Don’t throw a fit, it won’t be long.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In the candy aisle, the little girl whines for candy. She takes one and puts it into the mother’s cart, but the mother calmly puts it back on the shelf and says, “Missy, don’t cry. Two more aisles and we’ll be checking out.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
When they get to the checkout counter, the little girl howls for gum. She once again grabs one and places it in the cart, and once again her mother places it back on the shelf. The mother says reassuringly, “Missy, we’ll be done in 5 minutes, then you can go home and have a bottle and a nice snooze.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man sees all of this and is absolutely stunned at the mother’s incredible patience with her screaming child. After what seems like ages, the mother finally checks out. She goes to her car and starts packing everything into the trunk, but then the man runs out and stops the woman to compliment her.
</p>
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“I couldn’t help but notice how patient you were with little Missy,” he says. “She was very annoying but you acted perfectly.”
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The mother then says with a smile: “My little girl’s name is Francine. Missy is <em>my</em> name.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Hipp013"> /u/Hipp013 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwjkmh/a_man_in_a_grocery_store_notices_a_woman_with_a_3/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1bwjkmh/a_man_in_a_grocery_store_notices_a_woman_with_a_3/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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