Covid - Cumulative Cases by State (with partisan leanings of each state)

 I don’t like to gratuitously put things in partisan terms – though it may seem that way at times. 

The public response to the current pandemic may be one way in which this is inescapable.  This graph shows a running total of the number of cumulative COVID-19 cases by state, since June 1.  Those who made this graphic chose to identify each state by the direction and strength of its party affiliation.  The trends are clear, and likely a reflection of the leadership of each state’s government, and the national political party most influential there. 

It’s worth noting that the data set begins in June, after the situation was better understood than it was initially, and states had a chance to implement programs to address the crisis.  I assume that is why New York and Washington States are not reflected as hot spots. 

If there is reason to doubt the underlying data, I would appreciate knowing it.  If there is reason to believe this view flawed, I will pull this down. 

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/3835611/?fbclid=IwAR12iUoA58E-VgPW7HWf6P-WER2whfPNmH_BA3b6BHdzB9Atr_zBgDz_JUI

Karen vs. Ivanka

I have a few problems with referring to rude, entitled people as 'Karens'.
- Unless somebody is 'in the know', you have to define the term for them. This has only recently become an insult. Which leads to ...
- I know lots of people named Karen - most of whom are very sweet, and have been blind-sided by this.
- There doesn't seem to be a male equivalent, so it might be considered sexist.

If we must use a first name as an insult, there is one which is much less common, and which requires no explanation at all ...
Ivanka!

And there is a perfect male equivalent ... Junior Don!

Chimpanzees and Aberrant Behavior

Nobody blames chimpanzees for their behavior when you go to the zoo. They jump toward visitors, throw feces at each other and at visitors, masturbate in front of children – along with other crude behaviors. It’s embarrassing, and sometimes disturbing, but you know what to expect going in. Over time, they get validation and reinforcement from visitors, who reward the most aberrant behaviors with laughter and enthusiasm. Whether it’s nature or nurture, you don’t blame the chimp. It’s just how chimps behave in that environment.

It would make no sense to take a chimp from an environment where their aberrant behavior was consistently reinforced and rewarded, move them to an environment where these behaviors are less accepted, then expect them to suddenly pivot, and behave more … I don’t know – presidential. The ones to blame are those who moved the chimp.   

AOC and Yoo Hoo

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has, in less than one full term in office, established herself as a giant of commitment, and representation for her wing of the Democratic Party. Representative YooHoo has up to now languished in anonymity, having led an entirely non-distinguished career. It's safe to assume that until this week, most Americans had never heard of him.

It’s not yet determined what people will remember AOC for. But Representative YooHoo instantly went from obscurity to … well, to becoming a verb.

It’s a verb that might be difficult to define in words, but easy in metaphor. I see a chihuahua, angry at a substantial human - leaping up to bite them in the crotch, but falling short, with its teeth stuck in the human’s trousers, at about the knee, unable to let go or get away, and just stuck there.

The silly creature seriously YooHooed.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ted-yoho-lesson-in-decency-on-the-house-floor?utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_source=twitter&fbclid=IwAR3t0DgbWARpTo-LbqsRSghZfi3Fg6IZM17o4t_D6sBM6jjw7U8bVvhsQqc

Arguing with Loud Obstinate Fools

I often have to remind myself to stop trying to reason with loud, angry, stubborn fools.  

There is no changing their minds - at least not durably.  No matter how airtight, even plainly obvious the argument, it’s just a short time until they’ve tuned in to Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, or a clone on hate radio, or one of the many conspiracy mongers who populate the ‘dark web’, and they will re-self-radicalize.  

More importantly though is the incredibly small prize for winning.  The best I could hope for is to have this loud angry, stubborn fool, now angrily spouting my point of view - hardly a prize worth a lot of effort. 

Dumbfuckistan Mask

You know the saying, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’? 

I was at Shurway Lumber the other day, picking up some boards for a project (pictures when there is something to share).  There was a guy in line with a face mask that had the word ‘TRUMP’ in big letters across it.  As if this weren't ironic enough, it gets better.  He was wearing it so that the top covered his upper lip, leaving his big, stupid face-dick just dangled out over the top. 

I was tempted to ask him if I could take a picture, but feared he might think I was ridiculing him … which, of course, I would have been.  The image, though, was as priceless as it was indelible; I only wish I could have shared it.  This one picture sums up why so many western democracies now carefully—oh-so carefully—welcome visitors from each other’s countries; while citizens of Dumbfuckistan are stuck within our own borders. 

Science and Fear

Science isn’t like religion, where people can just agree to disagree, and nobody has to prove what they believe.

Science is not politics, where people with different perspectives can find common ground, and maybe ‘split the difference’.  

Science, and the scientific method form a way of seeking answers to questions that predate the search.  This search doesn’t bend in order to protect the feelings of people who disagree with established scientific consensus, but who bring no new scientific evidence to back up that disagreement.  Science only yields to better science.  

The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.  For the first billion years or so, it was barren, followed by around 3.5 billion years of evolving life.  It’s fine for people to enjoy folkloric origin stories, but science is not going to split the difference with them.  There is a scientific answer (refer back to the beginning of this paragraph).  

Mythology has not always yielded easily to the advance of science.  Galileo’s insistence that the Earth was not the center of the universe cost him a stretch in the Pope’s jail.  There are people among us who fear that learning how life has evolved, and continues to evolve, might land them an eternal stretch in Hell.  

People who have been taught from childhood to fear and distrust science are easy prey for those who tell them that human industrial activity plays no role in our changing climate, or that vaccines may cause people to become autistic.  

In our current, highly-charged time, the predators are out in force, and thriving, as we face the very real fears of the current pandemic.  They prey on an eclectic range of existing fears (science, government, internationalism), and meld it into belief in an incoherent plot to invent or exaggerate the pandemic itself, for some unclear nefarious reason.  Even some people I know, like, and respect seem to have fallen prey to this narrative.  The predators sound reasonable; they couch their conspiracies in the language of science - and may even enlist a rogue scientist to bolster their story.  But it’s what Richard Feynman called ‘Cargo-Cult Science’, which looks real, but has no substance.   I find myself torn between just saying nothing, to avoid insulting my friends, or attempting to help reintroduce reality - all the while knowing that my ‘retail’ efforts at teaching science may well be quickly countered by a return to the nonstop wholesale torrent of propaganda that introduced the conspiracy theories in the first place, and continues to feed them.  

Return-to-Work Demand and Extortion

Many of our fellow citizens are desperate to get back to work, and renew their livelihood.  For some workers, this makes sense, but this desperation is being used by players who don’t give a shit about the workers, but are manipulating them for advantage – and will put many workers in danger, and cost lives.  

When a state reopens an occupation, it’s only superficially voluntary.  Under the emergency declaration, self-employed people—hairdressers, massage therapists, for example—are able to access unemployment insurance payments to tide them over.  But as soon as the state of emergency ‘ends’, so do the payments.  

But, in order to work, these people must wear PPE comparable to what is worn in an ICU.  Being self-employed, they have to procure it themselves. And because much of it is in short supply, they have to compete with hospitals to get it … not a promising proposition.  Oh, and thanks to the tax ‘reform’ a couple years ago, this PPE is not tax deductible, even if they can find it.  

And it’s almost certain that their business will be dismal.  Clientele will be skittish to come back, and are hardly beckoned closer by the image of PPE that hasn’t been changed since the last client.  

This is being sold to desperate workers as an opportunity to return to normalcy.  But it’s not an opportunity at all; it is a no-win extortion scheme, which will deepen the financial suffering of the working poor, regardless of which choice they make.

Mount St. Helens and COVID-19

Forty years ago, when I moved to the Portland area from Bend, Mount Saint Helens had already begun rumbling. It didn’t seem to amount to much, and after a while had become something of a joke. You started seeing people wearing tee-shirts that said ‘I survived ‘Mount Saint Helens - April 1980’, and maybe had an image of a sad little steam plume urping out of a mountaintop.

I guess I’ve always had a bit of a morbid sense of humor. When the volcano blew on May 18, burying hundreds of square miles of timberland, and more than a few people, I couldn’t help but wonder out loud how many victims had been incinerated and buried in their ‘I survived Mount Saint Helens’ tee-shirts. I didn’t think it was funny – just ironic.

They say that ‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes’. As people champ at the bit to get out and mingle, because they assume the worst of the current pandemic is behind us, it feels eerily familiar – the difference being, if they’re wrong, it’s not just them they put at risk; they will bring the volcano home with them, and incinerate their loved ones.

Regrets for Helping with Facts

Many intelligent, educated people must be looking back now with some regret for all the times they offered unsolicited help with grammar or spelling, science facts, or in adding geographical/historic context to current events.

It may have been done with the best of intentions, but without sufficient insight and empathy. Surely, we should have known that when the masses of the ignorant brought a leader to power, they’d remember these kind gestures—not with gratitude, but with humiliation—and would respond with anger and vengeance, attacking anything that represented civility, decorum, intelligence, or order in our society.