Our piece of crap President just said he wants the 21 suffering patients on the cruise ship to remain at sea because he said "I like the numbers where they are" in reference to the current death total for the USA. If they die at sea, they don't count as US deaths and he said "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship."
"One of the hardest things for me to accept is the fact that Kevin Graham has blonde hair, blue eyes and an English last name. This ugly truth blows any arguments one might have for actual white supremacism out of the water. He's truly a disgrace." - Ajax
honorentheos wrote:Calling people you disagree with boomer is bigoted behaviour.
I think it's hilarious that "boomer" is regarded a scathing insult. I'm not quite old enough to be one, but the label wouldn't bother me either way. I'm not that keen on my own generation, either.
That's what's funny about it. I'm squarely in a non-boomer age but don't care and have a deep antipathy due to the fact most demographic labels originate out of marketing constructs so “F” 'em. But hey, if whipper his snapper smokes wants to believe whatever it is he believes he's welcome to his views. He's just ignorant and vocal. Oh, here he comes again...
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
It was totally intentional. I'd be really concerned if I typed in W-H-I and my phone thought, "Oh, honor usually follows that up with '-pper his snapper' so let me fix that for him."
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
honorentheos wrote:It was totally intentional. I'd be really concerned if I typed in W-H-I and my phone thought, "Oh, honor usually follows that up with '-pper his snapper' so let me fix that for him."
Report from morning shopping trip: lots of bare shelves and cranky people. Pro tip: the poor kid stocking shelves has absolutely no control over inventory. We live in a world of "just in time" inventory systems. They aren't built to handle panic buying. Try to buy a little extra each trip. And don't yell at the store employees.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
for what it's worth, I posted this on Facebook a couple days ago:
Rambling thoughts on our current crisis.
Our institutions do not have much slack in them. Businesses use just in time ordering systems. Hospitals don’t have floors of unused beds or teams of nurses hanging out just in case something happens. Governments don’t have warehouses full of masks or lab equipment sitting around just in case.
There’s a little slack for bad things that happen often enough that we can reliably predict them. But there isn’t enough slack for this. Both market forces and political choices have created this situation. And we can’t change that right now. We have to work with the institutions we have. The ones with not enough slack.
Every doctor, first responder, nurse or governmental official you interact with had a full time job before COVID-19 showed up. And now they have two full time jobs. Or maybe three. They’re under tremendous stress and are having to make decisions with little time and not enough information.
What this means is we can’t sit back and act as if this is the government’s problem to solve. Or the doctors. Or the scientists. Or Amazon and Microsoft. This is our problem to solve. All of us together.
Every epidemic has a kind of bell shaped curve. If the curve is steep and high, Covid patients overwhelm the healthcare system and lots of people die because there aren’t enough beds. Or equipment. Or nurses.
But we can spread that curve out over time and lower the peak by slowing down the speed that the virus moves from person to person. If we lower the peak enough, the bit of slack we have in the system will be enough to get folks the medical care we need.
So, we need to work together to increase slack in the system for those who need it.
First, have a plan to slow the virus down in your household. That’s what the hand washing and social distancing about. If someone in your house becomes ill, make those viruses work hard to infect the other household members. Slow those suckers down. Every time you do, you are slowing the spread and dropping the peak.
That’s winning.
If you have a high risk member in your household, have a plan to isolate them if anyone else gets sick. The longer you keep grandma healthy, the more slack you are creating. That’s winning. And you you keep her from becoming infected, that’s double winning.
Ok, you have organized your house hold to add slack to the system. Now think about how to add slack out side your home. Can you telecommute? If you need medical advice that doesn’t involve COVID, can you use telehealth? Can you efficiently organize errands to minimize time away from home. Can you change meetings into teleconferences, postpone travel. For every thing you do, ask your self “am I adding slack to stressed systems or am I using up slack?”
I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy next week. As much as I love colonoscopies, it can wait. I reduce the risk of becoming infected. And I’m not using medical resources. Adding slack. My favorite game pub has cancelled large events that would allow the virus to more easily travel from person to person. Adding slack.
Are there vulnerable people in your neighborhood that need someone to walk their dog or run errands or buy groceries? Are their volunteer groups that provide backup for first responders? Adding even more slack.
Stuff that uses up slack. Repeatedly calling the hotline set up for people with symptoms to ask why the schools aren’t closed or to demand to be tested. Calling the health department to ask questions that are answered on its web page. Making multiple derogatory comments on social media in response to posting of announcements or guidance by local authorities.
During my lifetime, Americans have always seen themselves as a people who can rise to any challenge. We come together and help each other in a crisis. I hope we haven’t lost that.
We have plenty of time to argue about who did what terrible thing and how much you hate Trump or Inslee or big pharma or the rich our immigrants or Biden or Bernie or liberals or conservatives.
Just think about what you can do for yourself, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your community. Don’t be a slack thief. Give our people and institutions as much slack as possible.
We’ll get through this. But we’ll get through it lots better if we put differences aside and work together.
You'll all be where I am in a week or three. And I'll be in a place that's much worse. Best of luck and stay healthy.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
Thank you for the like, Shades. My daughter is in South America, so this will help me monitor the spread there.
"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” Psalm 145:18-19 ESV
His private messaging doesn’t seem to work either. He’s backed up all over the place!