20200613 - Corona Virus Part 13 - Black Lives Matter Part 2

Howdy and welcome from our little tin can by the sea. Wendy and I weathered last week's tropical storm only to be in another rainy weekend this week as well. That's summer in Florida, though - rain in the afternoon followed by sunshine in the morning. Most of Florida has implemented "Phase Two" of reopening. In this phase, bars, movie theaters, tattoo shops, massage parlors, and tanning salons can reopen, with capacity and distancing restrictions. Thank goodness that I don't drink. It's just a recipe for disaster with the way the corona virus infection rate has been escalating. The chart to the left shows the increase since Memorial Day, when the "planned reopening" commenced. In about a month, there will be an associated bump in the number of deaths. Over the past week, the "Black Lives Matter" protests have taken eyes off of the corona virus, much like the corona virus has taken our eyes from matters like global warming and climate change. The media focuses our vision, so it's best to avert our eyes from that, as well. I only watch twenty minutes of TV each day during the week, while I'm eating a bowl of cereal in the morning. I started doing that some time back, so I could catch the weather and traffic before driving into work, and now it has become part of my morning routine. The town hall meeting at work was centered on Black Lives Matter, as was the Veteran's Social Hour. I'm still working from home, and as I plan for the remainder of this year, I don't believe that I'll be going into work until mid year 2021 at the earliest. My empathy is being split between my realization of the bigotry I've accepted over my life and the love I have for family members that are in the police force. As this unfolds, though, my disdain for unions is showing it's ugly head. I'll address that more in the politics area below.

Cases

Deaths

Scope	Cases	% Inc.	Deaths	% Inc.
Worldwide	7,806,582	13.0	430,111	7.6
United States	2,128,118	7.9	117,088	5.0
Florida	73,596	17.3	2,928	8.9
Pinellas County	2,103	42.3	102	7.4

And on to the numbers, which I've summarized in the table to the left. Generally, the percentages have declined over the past week, with two exceptions: the number of cases for Florida and for Pinellas County. Florida's week-over-week percentage increase went from 13.2% last week to 17.3% this week and contributing to that statistic is Pinellas county's jump from 19.4% to 42.3%! That's crazy! Whatever the plan is here, it's not working.

I haven't gotten out since Monday, but Google tells me that our local 7/11 is selling gas for $2.00/gal. The DJIA had a rough Thursday this week and that has put it in decline over the week. It started on Monday at 27233 and ending on Friday afternoon at 25597. One odd bit of news is that our Treasury Secretary refuses to disclose who received small business loans from the money appropriated by Congress to ease the shutdown caused by COVID-19. This has raised a lot of alarms in the nation'a capital, though I feel that nothing will get done about it. ABC has taken the tact of the freedom of information act, which may be enforceable through the courts.

And that brings me to politics. I'm not a fan of this section, but a lot is happening, so I will write about some of it. First, the Black Lives Matter protests have become largely peaceable. The looting has diminished, though now the rhetoric wheels are moving. One side wants complete police reform, while the other wants to include and advice to dissuade choke holds. There will be a middle ground somewhere, and community by community, we will find one. This is where the PACs and Unions come in. The unions are putting out solidarity messages to their members, and the PACs with them are telling the various candidates what they want. So, the police union is involved with buying political offices. The only argument they present is a tu quoque - "they did it too," pointing to the American Bar Association, AMA, various corporate PACs, etc. So, I'm sick of it. I now realize that these institutions are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

There is no pain, you are receding

A distant ship, smoke on the horizon

You are only coming through in waves

Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse

Out of the corner of my eye

I turned to look, but it was gone

I cannot put my finger on it now

The child is grown, the dream is gone

- David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Comfortably numb, The Wall, Pink Floyd, 1979

Mother, mother

There's too many of you crying

Brother, brother, brother

There's far too many of you dying

You know we've got to find a way

To bring some loving here today, yeah

- Marvin Gaye, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, and Al Cleveland, What's going on, What's going on, 1971