20200704 - Corona Virus Part 16 - Black Lives Matter Part 5

Happy fourth of july from our little tin can by the sea. Wendy and I are doing well, just surviving through the corona virus pandemic. I've been on vacation this past week, which has been nice. I really didn't sleep in as much as I had hoped, but you take what you get when it comes to sleep. We had the fan installed in the lanai this past week, but it has been really hot, so we haven't had a chance to use it much. Right now, we just have a couple of light chairs in there, but we are expecting a couch and bigger chairs later in the month. As I think about it, it was listed on backorder, so we'll deal with it when it comes. It will require some assembly, which is like an erector set for adults, and I'm looking forward to that. I've used the side deck in the morning from time to time this week. When there's a southern breeze, it's heavenly on the deck. I got one of my pet projects done this week - we have a new TV in our bedroom. That's been in the works for over a year. There's a very long story to it, which involves me wanting to replace the TVs in both our bedroom and the guest bedroom, then ordering two TVs, only to get one working and one damaged, then being reimbursed for both, then being charged for one, then figuring out how to send payment, then looking for another seller of that model of TV, then forgetting about it for a while, then finding a seller and ordering, and it arrived and sat, and sat, until I put it in this past week. Well, maybe not so long of a story. It felt good to have the old CRT TV out of the house. My daughter got me a robot for father's day, which I've had time to assemble. It's a small R2D2, and it's fun to play with it. It's difficult to control it when it's coming toward you, but I think that's the nature of any R/C model. We've had a big batch of dust from the sarhara in our air this week, which is why the sun is so muddy in the above screen capture.

Cases	Deaths

Scope	Cases	% Inc.	Deaths	% Inc.
Worldwide	11,219,793	12.9	529,601	6.4
United States	2,891,267	13.2	132,112	3.5
Florida	178,594	45.2	3,686	9.5
Pinellas County	7,697	51.0	183	29.8

Data and Digits! New data; same analysis. We are doing terrible, and now it's another holiday weekend. Cases are way up! In fact, the US and Florida set records for the number of COVID-19 cases in a single day. Judging by the trend, there's more records to follow. In Pinellas county, our death count continues its meteoric rise. Our population base is older folks, many with multiple susceptibilities to this particular virus. Statewide, the death rate has plateaued. Largely, this is due to doctors, nurses, and technicians improving their skills with regard to this virus. The elimination of techniques that caused inflammation, as well as the use of steroid anti-inflammatories have dramatically improved survivability once a patient contracts COVID-19. However, as the number of cases rise, so do the number of hospitalizations, and the number of deaths. Once the level is reached that hospitals are saturated with no more equipment, beds, and staff, the deaths will skyrocket. It is a grim tale and I expect it to begin playing out before the end of the month. Meanwhile, Europe is reopening. I do hope that they fare considerably better that we have.

There has been a lot of activity for Black Lives Matter, from more examples of excessive force by police to demonstrations of stupidity by homeowners and reckless drivers plowing into peaceful demonstrations. One of the continuing themes is that the looting and destruction is largely being promoted by whites. I hope that they catch some of them and try them. There is a mural in Boynton Beach, FL, that has two black faces in it that have been rendered as white by the muralist. That's just crap - why would you do that, and why would you accept that work? Unfortunately, congress went on summer vacation without passing a police reform bill. That implies that one won't be passed this year. Once they return in the middle of July, it will be full press partisanship, since it will lead into the national conventions and then the presidential election. 

The above chart demonstrates how deep we have waded into global warming. Enough talking, time for action is long overdue. First item is to discover and reward energy solutions that involve acceptable discharges - no heavy metals, no radiation, no carbon, no nitrates, no etc! And the solution to pollution is NOT dilution! We have become sheep waiting for others to develop and engineer technologies for the energy sector. It's time to lead!

On the economic front, gas was selling at $2.09/gal at the local 7/11 this week. The DJIA had an increase this past week, opening at 25642 on Monday morning and closing at 25832 on Friday afternoon. The increase is attributable to pharmaceuticals talking up this or that version of vaccine. One ray of sunshine was that 2.5 million jobs were created last month, but that leaves over 20 million unemployed. The real time bomb is when the wage assistance runs out at the end of this month. Right now, there is insufficient agreement within the legislature to support extending any of these benefits, so the clock is ticking. Meanwhile, the labor department has removed a protection for excessive overtime. It used to be that over 40 hours was OT and payable at time and a half. If not payed, a court could order the OT to be paid at three times the OT hours. That is now gone, and it turns into a loan minus court fees. 

The object to the right is an Amsler Grid. Due to ailments with my vision, I have stared at these very often. However, I would like to offer a different use for these grids. Prior to the election, make a list of the issues. First choose two pro's and consider the vertical axis to be one of them and the horizontal axis to be another. Your opinion is the central dot. Map the stances by the candidates relative to your opinion. Now, choose two con's and do the same. Keep doing this and you will begin to see the candidate that has stances similar to your values. I'd like to promote this because we too often find one issue that a candidate is over the moon about, and we may be just leaning in agreement. That would show a large disparity on the grid. If anything, it is a self-assessment of your values and how the candidates stack up with what matters to you. Politically, the big news was that the Russians appear to have offered bounty on American lives in Afghanistan. I say "appeared" because this is politics, and nothing is black and white. The question now is why hasn't the president done anything about it? His statement is the Sgt. Schultz quote - I know nothing. It's a play for plausible deniability. Mr Teflon seems to have a doctorate in accountability avoidance. I have a lot of other notes from this past week, but I'm sick to my stomach from the misrepresentation of our current cast of characters in government.

If I gave you everything that I owned

And asked for nothing in return

Would you do the same for me as I would for you?

Or take me for a ride

And strip me of everything, including my pride

But spirit is something that no one destroys

And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound

Of the low spark of high-heeled boys, heeled boys

- Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi, The low spark of high-heeled boys, The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Traffic, 1971

End note: I fell in love with this picture of a couple in Italy. It makes me well up every time that I see it. It conveys the wishes of love and hope shared between a husband and wife despite COVID-19.

 

credit to Emilio Morenatti/AP.