Pizza Friday

 Not to sound like some middle-aged Karen with two kids and a husband in finance ("Well, we're comfortable. We have some little indulgences - the Maserati and Lake Como in the Spring - really,  though, we're just regular folk. . .") but the hardest thing I do on a daily basis is try to decide what to have for dinner. Shmandie, quire reasonably, doesn't want everything to be beef sautéed in pork fat, and I get that. On the other hand, did you read the article about how vegans have more depression than meat eaters? No doy! Anyway, Wednesday when it rained it was beef stew, and yesterday was chicken Tiki Masala - from a jar, what am I, Chef Bhatia? - and Aloo Gobi. Yes, I can follow a simple recipe. Today I'm going to mix it up again (more Beef with Veg), in this case Porterhouse steak, salad, and maybe a side of pesto pasta. Or pizza and save the steak for another day. I remain undecided.

Still no Speaker of the House, and still on the wagon. Do you think there's a connection?

Profiles in Ignorance

 The title of this post is the title of a book by Andy Borowitz, in which he traces the decay of the US Presidency from Dan Quayle onward to Donald Trump. It's a book that is as distressing as it is amusing. In the epilogue, Borowitz offers the recommendation that criticising politics is a mere spectator sport, and is of little intrinsic value, because - oh, I dunno, because everyone has an opinion, I suppose. He cautions that if you really want to have a effect on politics you must get "involved" and engage is such things as deep canvassing, so you and your neighbours can hone a more finely developed hatred of one another - kidding, of course, sort of. I have two non-exclusive responses to Borowitz's suggestion:

1. Borowitz has made a healthy living off of criticising politicians, and in squarely in the circle-jerk of political fundraising, in which he plays a part by selling books to those of us who want to be amused by what assholes the Republicans are in their day-to-day lives.

2. I don't want to be "involved." I have NEVER wanted to be involved. I would have stopped voting a long time ago except that friends and loved ones hectored me into it. I would no more knock on someone's door to advance a political cause that I would pass out "Lighthouse" tracts.

Just sayin'.

Day 3 - No Speaker of the House in sight. Send water and provisions.

You Don't Need a Weatherman

 In today's episode of how screwed up is Congress, Kevin McCarthy is still not Speaker of the House after three votes, and George Santos has disappeared again. Voting resumes today at 3:00. I fully expect to see George Santos show up in a powdered wig, cape, and jodhpur boots, claiming to have amnesia and speaking with a German accent.

In the weather, following some of the coldest days we've seen across the country in late December, comes a 73-degree day in North Carolina and a bomb cyclone set to hit San Francisco, with untold flooding forecast for the West Coast. I'd encourage y'all to sell your trucks and install solar and recycle and shit as I have done, but realistically, it won't help. Global Climate change is a corporate-funded Titanic, and the capitalists are the captains of this ship. The World Wide Working poor: Fucked since 1066 and before. 

At least we have pickle ball.

Incredibly, I'm still sober.

The Eeyore in the Room

 Robert Reich has posted today about the implosion/end of the Republican Party. In the fact-free manner of critics everywhere, may I say that predicting the demise of the GOP is not only premature, it is probably never going to happen. Names may change, new people may come and go, but there are (as I see it) at least four groups of people who are relatively entrenched in American politics: from left to right - 1. Socialists, Social Democrats and Progressives, 2. Moderate (corporate) Democrats, 3. Moderate (non-evangelical/neo-conservativet) Republicans, and 4. Evangelicals, White Supremacists, and assorted Fascists. You can quibble around the edges with this, of course, everyone thinks they're special, but these groups have been around in some iteration since the beginning of the Republic, and they're pretty much here to stay.

In a further welcoming gesture to the soon-to-arrive dystopian future (in which I hope to play no more than a cameo), we have mounted a ring camera/light/motion detector on the corner of our house, so we'll have a record of it when they come for us.

January 2, 2023

   

For the third time, today is the second day of 2023. In an unusual turn of events, not much has happened so far this year. I am going on the wagon today. It is 9:30 am and I have not yet had a drink. I'll keep you posted.

Addendum: I should mention that I am restarting this blog after a 2 3/4 year hiatus brought on by the Trump administration, Covid, and general malaise. It is now 10:22 am and I am still sober. That's the kind of hard-hitting news you can expect to find here.

Trump In The Time Of CoVid-19

I’ve been considering the question that’s clearly before us: Should we stop the extreme measures we’ve adopted to prevent the spread of CoVid-19? Are we causing unnecessary economic damage on top of an inevitable epidemic?

The answer seems to be: it all depends on what’s important to you.

If your well-being is what matters, then we should probably continue on course. While it appears to be true that we cannot reduce the likely number of illnesses, in the long run, what we can do is spread out the infection rate to keep it within our medical community’s ability to respond. This is what they mean when the say “flattening the curve.”

Click here for source

The benefit from flattening the curve is making medical care available to all the acute cases, as opposed to an outcome similar to Italy’s, where severely ill people are simply being allowed to die.

On the other hand, a strong nation depends on a strong economy. Continuing with the current restrictions on industries and movement is going to cause a recession, and it could be a whopper. According to the New York Times,“A one-year epidemic that took just over one million lives, which is consistent with recent projections based on scenarios from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would reduce the nation’s G.D.P. in 2020 by $1.8 trillion — 8.4 percent.”

This is no idle matter. There will be extended and widespread unemployment, the service industry and other sectors may be permanently damaged and the recession/depression could last for years. If the outbreak wanes in the summer (the “sucker” phase) only to return with a vengeance in the fall – this is expected – there would be no financial relief left to give. 

Some note that the government can print as much money as it wants, but inflation bats last. Imagine a $100 loaf of bread.

Personally, I’m squarely on the “I’d like to live, thank you” side of things. Unlike that nutcake from Texas, I’m not willing to die for the economy. But I’m realistic, too – these events could shatter my pensions and shutter social security (try saying that three times fast). We could wind up in $100 bread lines. Until we do, I’m washing my hands and staying home.

Spring 2020

There’s an old saw about the Chinese symbols for “crisis” (or danger) are the same as symbols for “opportunity.” (Like many things of little importance, this is hotly debated by people on Google.) In the present crisis, the important thing is to keep the current administration on their back foot and not considering the opportunity.

Because the opportunity is truly horrifying.

The President has tremendous, almost unlimited, emergency powers. He can direct military control over the state actions (see Eisenhower, national guard, desegregation), he can shut down public protest with lethal force (see Nixon, Kent State), he can incarcerate American citizens on the flimsiest of pretexts (see Roosevelt, Japanese interment). 

Speaking strictly for myself, I’m more than happy to stay home and hide out and avoid as much human contact as possible. That’s because 1) I’m a privileged old white guy who doesn’t need to work for a living anymore, and 2) I’m kind of an asshole sometimes who immediately regrets it when I do asshole things, and introversion has the effect of protecting me from myself. Mostly.

By the way, “He’s kind of an asshole, sometimes” is the best student evaluation I ever got. True fact.

Enough about me. Back to the other asshole in the room. If Trump figures out that this crisis is the true opportunity that it seems to be, you can kiss your democracy goodbye. In the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, Nature batted twice – once in the Winter/Spring and again in the Fall. If this pandemic follows that pattern, the second (and worse) iteration of this illness will conveniently occur right smack in the middle of the 2020 elections. Or, as you might imagine, the “temporarily cancelled” elections.

We don’t need to speculate about what might happen in a few months. Things are playing out now in real time. Fundraisers cancelled, public meetings called off, canvassers turned away, voters refusing to leave the house to vote. Local governments all but on lockdown. 

In the meantime, this administration fumbles its way to making matters worse while hiding the ball on all relevant detail. The CDC refuses to provide data on infections, the White House turns down World Health Organization test kits and refuses to admit what is plainly obvious – all manner of medical supplies, including test kits, are in desperately short supply. The one edict that did come from the Oval – an offhand and irrational limitation on air travel from Europe, excepting mother England (?) – was almost certain to turn airports into frantic petri dishes of returning travelers, and has done just that.

THE SKY IS FALLING! Just kidding. Maybe.

Some take consolation in the fact that the Criminal-In-Chief labelled this pandemic a “hoax,” early on, and many of his True Believers are continuing to party like it’s 1999. That would make me a lot happier if I thought they would merely spread the contagion among themselves, but, unfortunately, that’s not how it works. In the final analysis all they’re doing is making matters worse.

Stay home if you can. Forget about buying guns and toilet paper; buy groceries. Tip, lavishly, the people who are still working because they must. 

Cross your fingers, after you wash your damned hands.