New York Times: August 25

Brace Yourself for the Man Who Could Become California’s Governor Elder is a longtime conservative talk radio host from Los Angeles, a fixture of right-wing punditry in the mold of Rush Limbaugh. His schtick is offense and outrage, and over nearly three decades in the business he has minted an oppo-research gold mine of misogynistic and racially inflammatory sound bites that would seem to doom his prospects in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one. ........ On top of everything else — on top of the pandemic, droughts, the wildfires and unbreathable air — this state has a new emergency to worry about. Unless California’s Democrats wake up, in three weeks’ time a Trumpian provocateur could well be chosen to run one of the nation’s bluest states. ......... Elder, who is Black and grew up in South Central Los Angeles, rose to national prominence largely for his paternalistic attitudes on race. He has called Blacks “victicrats” for painting themselves as victims of racism. “In the year 2001, racism is not our major problem,” he once said. “Personal responsibility is.” ........ Like Donald Trump, Elder has a keen understanding of the utility of outrage; when the left attacks him, he goes on Fox News and wears the criticism as a badge of purity, helping him further stand out from the Republican pack. Perhaps that’s why Elder’s standing in the polls has only gone up amid the onslaught of criticism. By making him the face of the recall, Newsom is cementing Elder’s lead, all but guaranteeing him as a successor should Newsom fail to win a majority. It’s a frightening strategy, even if it’s Newsom’s best play......... because the Senate and Electoral College render populous states essentially meaningless, California’s 40 million people are all but shut out of determining the direction of America’s national government. Now it’s clear our state government, too, is rudderless. .......

our poverty rate is the highest in the nation

Is Coffee Good for You? Yes! But it depends on the kind of coffee and the quantity. ....... “The evidence is pretty consistent that coffee is associated with a lower risk of mortality,” said Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute who has studied the beverage. ........ moderate coffee drinking was included as part of a healthy diet ....... moderate coffee drinkers had less cardiovascular disease, and premature death from all causes, including heart attacks and stroke, than those skipping the beverage ........ The potential benefit from coffee might be from the polyphenols, which are plant compounds that have antioxidant properties ........... They were linked to a lower risk of death from all causes, except with instant coffee, the evidence was weaker. ........... Espresso has the highest concentration of caffeine, packing about 70 milligrams into a one-ounce shot, but is consumed in smaller quantities. By comparison, a typical 12-ounce serving of drip coffee has 200 milligrams of caffeine, more than instant’s 140. ........ Evidence suggests there can be a reliance on the drink, and tolerance builds over time. Withdrawal symptoms include a headache, fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and depressed mood. ........ caffeine is a psychoactive drug, and coffee is its biggest dietary source. About a half-hour after sipping a cup of joe, the caffeine kicks in, and is quickly absorbed. Blood vessels constrict. Blood pressure increases. A moderate amount of caffeine can wake you up, boost your mood, energy, alertness, concentration and even athletic performance. On average, it takes four to six hours to metabolize half the caffeine. ....... Caffeine is also linked with delaying the time it takes for you fall asleep, how long you stay there, and the reported quality of that shut eye. ......... In addition to caffeine, coffee is a dark brew of a thousand chemical compounds that could have potential therapeutic effects on the body. One key component, chlorogenic acid, is a polyphenol found in many fruits and vegetables. Coffee is also a good dietary source of vitamin B3, magnesium and potassium. ......... Ethiopia, coffee’s birthplace ....... If you are enjoying the drink in moderation, doctors say continue onward, and savor those sips.

My Auntie Taught Me the Secret to a Perfect Breakfast: Improvise Upma is a simple, delicious South Indian breakfast dish that you can make differently every time. ......... When I was a kid, there was no one cooler. She wrapped her hair in a silk scarf and rode an old scooter through the dusty, pitted streets of Pune to her job as a school principal. She sewed all her own clothes, then repurposed the scraps. She played badminton with friends on the weekends, enthusiastically and maybe even a bit viciously. It seemed as if she knew how to do everything. And because she let me join her for anything and everything, I did. ............ When I make it now, usually on the weekends as a late breakfast or lunch, the plan is no plan. The basic tempering stays the same, and I build the dish as I go, adding whatever I have on hand, from some fried okra, to a bunch of blanched edamame from the freezer, to a whole cob’s worth of sweet-corn kernels.

BEST OF LATE NIGHT Jimmy Fallon: Americans Care More About New ‘Spider-Man’ Than Covid’s Origins “In the trailer, Spider-Man visits Dr. Strange and asks him to turn back time. Then President Biden shows up and asks for the same thing,” Fallon joked on Tuesday. ............. “Well, guys, as I mentioned, today the report on the origins of Covid was completed, and an unclassified version will soon be released to the public. And like everything with this pandemic, I’m sure Americans will fully accept the truth and they’ll put all conspiracy theories to rest.” — JIMMY FALLON .......... “Following the full approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, the company revealed it would start marketing the drug under the name Comirnaty, so now people will start referring to the Pfizer vaccine as ‘the Pfizer vaccine.’” — SETH MEYERS

The School Kids Are Not Alright Virtually every school in the nation closed in March 2020, replacing face-to-face schooling with thrown-together online education or programs that used a disruptive scheduling process to combine the two. Only a small portion of the student body returned to fully opened schools the following fall. The resulting learning setbacks range from grave for all groups of students to catastrophic for poor children. ....... From the start,

elected officials seemed more concerned about reopening bars and restaurants than safely reopening schools

that hold the futures of more than 50 million children in their hands. ......... at a time when the highly infectious Delta variant is surging and the coronavirus seems likely to become a permanent feature of life. .........

the pandemic amplified disadvantages rooted in racial and socioeconomic inequality, transforming an educational gap into a gulf

. ......... Remote instruction was clearly a factor in driving what researchers call disenrollment.

A Supreme Court That Has Gone Wrong very few cases came before the Supreme Court prior to 1953 involving the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution, the ones that provide protections for people accused of crimes ....... while it never overturned any of the Warren court’s major decisions, began hollowing them out ......... the court’s record “from 1986 through the present and likely for years to come, can easily be summarized: ‘The police almost always win.’” ........

Some have been stopped, beaten up and hauled into jail for no other reason than that they were Black and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

...... while the justices, who willfully ignore the racial implications of their cases, rule that police forces can get away with almost anything, their decisions are not binding should Congress or state legislatures, or even municipal governments, enact rules governing police misbehavior .........

an eloquent and damning indictment not only of horrific police practices, but also of the justices who condoned them and continue to do so

Raw Onions Are the Best Food. Let Me Explain. There’s no greater pleasure than biting into a slice of a raw red onion and tasting its stinging sharpness. .........

A single bite contains an entire sensory universe.

....... Pride shimmered in his eyes, but he grew increasingly irritated when I could not muster much enthusiasm for iced coffee and doughnuts. (I did not have it in me to tell him that Dunkin’ also has outposts in New Delhi, the city I left behind.) ........ I am a vegetarian who eats exactly three vegetables. ........ In my early 20s, I lived in a basement apartment, where my “kitchen” consisted of a mini-fridge, a rickety folding table, a cheap dollar-store knife and a plastic cutting board. ........ At Indian restaurants, with my slightly horrified American friends, I would ask for onions, green chiles and salt on the side and proceed to chomp on them in eyes-closed pleasure throughout the meal. ........ I can conceive of no greater pleasure than biting into a slice of a raw red onion and being suspended for a few seconds in a cocoon of sensation: the sound of the primordial crunch as my teeth sink into it, even as it shoots rockets of discomfort up my nostrils. ......... whether you’re peeling it, dicing it, wiping off the sticky tears caused by it or scrubbing your fingers clean of its stubborn fragrance, the onion reminds you at every step that it is alive. ...........