Archives for May 2020

Day 1208 – The Illusion of Progress

Sunday May 10, 2020 

175 Days until the election on November 3^rd

255 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

The software I use for posting these screeds updated its software. The result is that what I like, want, and need to get my screeds out is buried several clicks deeper. It took me three days of sitting, and not getting really pissed off, to figure out where they had hidden everything. (This is hunting to find what I want I now call, “Okay, you fuckers, where did you put it THIS time.*”)

* Like John Belushi on the Blues Brothers album where he’s singing Rubber Bisquit, “What did I do to piss you off this time?”

This is not a new phenomena. It happens all the time. I asked a friend about a company that does software IT tracking on a corporate wide basis. The company had been touted by Motley Fool. My friend wrote back that remember an earlier company that did the same sort of thing? Yeah, well that stuff sucked. It got bought out and the guys who got bought out founded the company Motley Fool likes. Their software sucks too, but not as bad as the earlier company. 

I guess that’s progress. I’m always amazed at how some folks can get away with this level of horse shit, but there ya go.

I’ve got a Sony mini-cam. It has a side port. That port is a micro-cdmi port (or is it USB?)  I wanted to attach my fancy lapel style microphone to the camera. Sony in its wisdom didn’t provide a microphone jack. Maybe, this side port could do that. As I dug deeper into the issue I could find no documentation as to what that port is used for. There is a cable that can be used to translate the sony mini-cam port into a microphone plug. Great. But the manual for my camera, which you have to go on-line to read, says specifically that the cable in question doesn’t work on my mini-cam. So I began to ask, “What is the purpose of that port?” I could find not explanation. 

Is it some weird left over appendage from earlier designs?

I finally got wires and plugs to the point where I had the camera wired and plugged into my computer. I was please to see that then when I turned on the camera the LED screen on the camera showed what the camera was pointing at. I had to stop for a second to realize that this is how the camera is supposed to work. The cables and plugs did nothing. 

Maybe if I find some software on my computer that accesses the USB port that the camera is plugged into …

The quest continues.

Okay, moving on. Donald Trump. What is Barr up to?

I got a glimpse of what is to come last night. I turned on the TV for a second. Frank Figliuzzi was on. He was the assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence team. He knows from what he speaks. He laid out in exacting detail what Barr has done and what we can expect from Trump. I don’t think I have to watch the news for the rest of the summer and fall except to stroke count the instances of what Frank said.

The dropping of charges, or whatever they call it, is based on the idea that what Flynn lied about and plead guilty to was immaterial. That is the lie wasn’t important. The example I heard elsewhere was if an FBI agent asked, “What did you have for breakfast?” and you said, “eggs,” when in fact you had cereal that’s a lie but it’s immaterial. Who cares what you had for breakfast?

In the case of Flynn, he lied about talking to the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. 

Talking to the Ambassador is not a crime. Talking to him about foreign policy is. That is when you aren’t the government (but soon would be.) This is treason. Or borders on it. It is at a minimum – materially lying.  So why lie about your discussion with the Russian Ambassador? Because you know you were committing a crime when you did it? I’d say so. Then the question is, “Who directed you to tell whatever it was you told the ambassador?” It had to have been Trump.

So Flynn lied to cover up the crime that he did at the behest of Trump, and the Attorney General is trying to say that this isn’t material.

Okay. Now we know the reason behind the crime and the crime. What’s next?

Next will be an all out assault on the rule of law, like this wan’t enough. It will be an attempt to undermine and discredit the Mueller Report and anyone associated with it. This will include: Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, Barrack Obama, and Joe Biden.

At the same time Barr was doing this the House Intelligence Committee released transcripts and evidence in their investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential campaign. The evidence shows that the Trump campaign and the Trump family knew very well what the Russians were doing. They encouraged it and the coordinated their messaging to be in line with it.

We now have to survive not only the pandemic, but this assault on our Constitution. All the while resisting the assault on our democracy by the right wing plutocrats.

Have a nice day. I’d be in the field, but this virus …

PS The big linga

Day 1207 – Godot Ain’t Coming

Saturday May 9, 2020 

176 Days until the election on November 3^rd

256 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

My dad once told me about a time he was out in California on a job. It was in terrible shape. His company’s sales team wanted to bring the job back east to the company headquarters. My dad asked why. He then stated that the best minds in the world for solving the problems on this job were sitting right in the room.

They were faced with the terrible reality that they had to figure it out.

I heard an interesting thought experiment yesterday. I guess that’s what you’d call it. Imagine that at the beginning of World War II the President had said, “The Federal Government will serve as a back up. I’m calling on each governor to send to Europe by whatever means they can come up with their state militias.”

I’ve wondered in these screeds what it is that Trump does all day. It seems that after he has whatever public display and ceremony that he goes back and does nothing. Only to come out the next day and say whatever he thinks will get him by until the next day. Be it: “The virus will be gone” to “Anyone can get tested” to “They have all the ventilators they need.” He then goes back and does nothing. If that were only true. He seems to go back and do thing to damage and hurt the efforts of others. When he’s not doing that he’s suppressing the work of anyone he doesn’t agree with or like, and he’s scheming to figure out ways to get his pals off the hook.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but that is where we are.

And he is being backed up by Mitch McConnell who seems equally incapable or disinterested in addressing the problem. Instead, he’s pushing through yet another ideologue judge. 

The virus marches on. Our leadership twiddles its thumbs. We have to hold out for nine months until, hopefully, we get new leadership.

Some are likening this to the Great Depression and Herbert Hoover. Hoover did a lot of great things before he became President. Many people forget that. Trump? We now know that he’s failed at many businesses. He had a successful TV show based on the illusion that he was a great businessman. His career has been marked by lies, cheats, cons, and deception. 

I have to wonder if he deceives himself? It seems in the day to day he does, but there is some reality that he isn’t the great business person (or anything else) that he purports to be. Why else would he hide so much about himself? 

In my fantasy world, I wonder what would happen if:

If he and Mike both came down with the coronavirus and had to be put on ventilators. Maybe with Mitch too. Nancy would be in charge. Can you imagine the world they would wake up to? Ah me, one can dream.

I saw an article that talked about the problems we have are in many areas and that they’ve been coming on for a long time.

Business, health, food supply, law – They all show signs of not only disfunction but rot.

The most striking were two figures. One was a map of the U.S. Showing male obesity in 2001. Most of the country was yellow – as in warning. The next figure was male obesity in 2011 – most of the country was pink and red – as in really bad. I have seen anecdotal pictures of a U.S. Crowd from the 40s and 50s. Underneath there will be a caption like “No one here is fat. What happened?”

Indeed what happened?

What happened to our food supply, our health care system, our health, our governance, our law, our businesses. What happened?

There was a piece I saw on Paul Krugman that talked about how he has been fighting “zombie ideas” for decades. It’s the same stupid ideas coming back over and over again.

When I was growing up, we were the greatest nation on earth. The greatest nation ever. We led the world. 

Now?

What have we become? Fat, bloated, uncaring, and unable? Really? Really.

Stop with the silly mindless false headlines. 

Stop hoping, pleading cajoling, to try and get the guy in the White House or the one in charge of the Senate to do anything resembling what we expect. We have enough data. It’s not going to happen.

What will happen is clear. Thousand more will die due to a failure of leadership.

The cover of Rolling Stone had Andrew Cuomo in black and white with the caption “Cuomo Takes Charge.”

That’s got to really gall the pres. Maybe, we should send extra copies to Jared and Donald and the White House? Maybe have big posters blown up and held outside the fence so that every time he looks out he sees what a real leader looks like?

Then there’s the weird Kabuki theater taking place in the midwest. In Iowa and Nebraska the governors are saying everything is fine. They are setting to reopen their states, which were never really closed. Meanwhile, the meatpacking plants are having skyrocketing rates of infection. The governors are doing what they can, and by that I mean muzzling their health officials. WTF?

PS Jared, Donnie, and The Man in Charge

Day 1206 –  What Lies Ahead

Friday May 8, 2020 

177 Days until the election on November 3^rd

257 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Do you remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show? Mr. Peabody was a dog that had a “Wayback Machine” allowing him and the boy Sherman to travel back in time to various events in history and to visit famous people from the past.

I, through the magic of the internet and mainly magic, have been able to find, reproduce and rewire the WABAC as it is referred to in nerd circles to go into the future. Unfortunately, it has a very limited capacity in this regard. So far, I can only get it to take we about fourteen or fifteen days forward. I therefore call it The Stumble Forward Machine or TSFM. 

• Here is a bit of my screed two weeks hence:

################## Begin:

Friday May 22, 2020

A huge wave of new coronavirus outbreaks are now gripping the nation. The death toll has soared as has the infection rate. This is happening mainly in rural and red states due to the fact that those governors have opened their states up for business.

“No on saw this coming,” commented …

################## End

Okay, let’s leave it right there. Yes. People saw this coming. Many people. People like doctors, epidemiologists, and scientists.

• Continuing on with the May 22^nd Screed:

################## Begin:

The president has said that he felt the states were opening too soon.

################## End

Okay, BS on that. As you may recall from yesterday May 7^th the president was hailing those governors. Now, he’s letting them twist in the wind.

Moving on to the present. Oh boy. We keep being stunned by the depths to which this guy can sink. Just when you think he can’t go any lower, he finds a way.

This one is a doozy. Okay, just in case you haven’t heard; you better sit down, and tighten your belts. It is stunning; and not surprising all at the same time.

The Attorney General of the United States of America wants to drop charges against Michael Flynn and is arguing that the FBI was not within their bounds to question Flynn as to the things that he ended up lying about.

Depending on where you are on the opinion scale about Flynn let me say that most people rate him on two different scales. One rates him a traitor and the other rates him a piece of excrement. Take your pick, or say “both.”

Flynn has pleaded guilty in public court, twice, to lying to an FBI agent. He was lying about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. 

Talking with the Russian ambassador is not a crime. Lying to the FBI is.

Why was he lying?

That question has never been truthfully answered.

The best guess is that he was told by Trump to tell the Russians something. That something may have been illegal.

If for instance Flynn was telling the Russians not to react to Obama’s sanctions because “they” would soon be in charge and “they” would undo all those sanctions then there is cause for concern on Flynn’s part, and Trump’s. You are not allowed to carry out U.S. Foreign policy unless you are in the U.S. Government. An incoming administration is not the U.S. Government. Making promises to foreign officials as the incumbent or as the potential winner of the presidency is illegal, because it violates the idea that there can only be one government at a time.

This did not stop Nixon, Reagan, or George Bush from doing it and therefore, as far as I am concerned, they are all traitors, but that’s just me in my strict constitutionalist mode, which I would think people like Ted Cruz and Sean Hannity would love due to their constant chest puffery around such issues.

So one day, if I ever get the TSFM to look farther forward than two weeks, or I live long enough, then maybe we’ll learn what old Donnie told Mikey to do that was so illegal that Mike had to take the fall.

For now we’ll have to be satisfied with the revealing of the House intelligence Committee’s revealing of the notes and conversations among Trump family and campaign staff concerning the Russian interference. These notes and conversations reveal that the family and campaign were well aware of the Russian efforts and actively courted them.

A final note: Many of my conservative friends in Virginia are posting pictures of Amanda Chase with the bi-line “Our Next Governor”. They are also making disparaging remarks about our current Democratic Governor, Ralph Northam. Mainly, these are ad-hominem remarks about the current governor.

Dr. Northam is a medical doctor. Amanda Chase is known for carrying a gun in her purse, being pro-life/anti-science, Bible loving, and bitchy to security authorities around the State Capital where she has been a State Senator. There were several incidents. She wanted to park her car near the entrance to a door to the capital building. It was a no parking zone. She was told she couldn’t. She responded with several defamatory statements and with the old “Do you know who I am?” statement. She said that she did not feel safe parking in the garage. (What? She’s carrying a gun. WTF?)

So let me ask you, in a time of pandemic crisis who would you rather have as your governor a medical doctor or a gun carrying, bible believing, anti-science stated person?

177 Days until the election on November 3^rd

257 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Space Cakes! 

Day 1205 – The Devil’s Choice for The Poor

Thursday May 7, 2020 

178 Days until the election on November 3^rd

258 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

I have to wonder, and am continually amazed, by the arrogance, stupidity, and callousness of many in power.

The use of The War Powers Act to try and force people working in meat packing plants back to work while their employers are making little attempt to arrest the outbreaks of Covid-19 means, for the workers, “Work and Die or Don’t and Starve.” 

The meatpacking companies have made sure to insulate themselves from liability. Even if people die at their facilities from this virus they can’t be sued.

What kind of country have we become?

The answer has been staring me in the face for decades. This is not a mistake. This is what the Republican Party is and has been for as long as I have been alive. They’ve just, up until now, done a better job of hiding it. Yes, there have been some truly empathetic representatives of the party, and some have done some good things, but on the whole their purpose has been to serve the rich and powerful – public be damned. 

They wrap themselves in the flag, or in the 2^nd amendment, or the pro-choice movement but those are all chimeras for their real intent – to enrich themselves and to stay in power. Nothing else seems to matter. They will and they have embraced many nutty economic and social ideas. They will accuse their opponents of terrible things all the while doing exactly that which they claim is so awful.

They delude themselves with false stories, with quack theorists. It is now to the point that when faced with the truth they don’t recognize it. If the truth doesn’t fit their narrative they ignore it; they bury it; they attack it.

The virus doesn’t care.

The virus is here and it will stay here until we deal with it. 

I fear we will need to see a lot more of the reality that this virus can bring before we are done with it.

In the meantime, let’s have another press conference.

178 Days until the election on November 3^rd

258 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS “One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small…”

Day 1204 – We Are Being Stalked

Wednesday May 6, 2020 

179 Days until the election on November 3^rd

259 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

There was that really bad movie about some creature that would kill you if you made a sound. So the couple decides to have a baby. Really stupid. Who knew, in a weird way, that it would be a harbinger of what we are now to experience?

The virus is out there. Waiting. Lurking. And our government is going to pretend it’s all over.

Last night’s Rachel Maddow Show and Laurence O’Donnell’s “Last Word” Show were jam-packed with facts and warnings. I could call it overwhelming, but I won’t. Instead I’ll try to list what Rachel brought up and some of what Laurence brought up. At first viewing I didn’t understand the reasoning, but in reviewing The Last Word, I got it. I understood the motivation behind what Trump is doing in one area. In the other areas he and his administration are doing nothing to help. If anything disparaging is getting out, like factual information that they believe reflects badly on them, they squash it if they can.

Let’s start at the beginning with Rachel’s Show. I’m not going to comment much, just present the facts, Sergeant Joe Friday style. (Look him up.)

1. Ruth Ginsburg hospitalized with infection

2. NYT headline “Coronavirus in the U.S.: An Unrelenting Crush of Cases and Deaths”

3. Almost 25,000 new cases of coronavirus are identified, that the U.S. has the highest number of cases in the world with more than a million – is expanding at 2% – 4% daily.

4. Trump goes to Arizona to visit a mask making facility. Doesn’t wear a mask. This on the day that Arizona reports the highest number of cases it has ever had in a day.

5. The nationwide graph of cases looks like the U.S. Is doing well. However, if you drop out New York it shows that the cases are rising in the rest of the country. (Probably if you drop out California and Ohio it would be even worse.)

6. Trousdale, Tennessee has a prison. In ten day this county of 11,000 saw its number of cases rise from 27 to 1,344.

7. What is Trousdale, Tennessee going to do? They are opening up their businesses.

8. Trump cheers on governors that are opening up their states. While none of those states have met the White House guidelines on coronavirus.

9. White House guidelines – don’t open up until you’ve seen a two week decline in new cases. This is being ignored. (The result is obvious.)

10. The Smithfield plant in South Dakota opened up on Monday.11. The Governor of South Dakota said all businesses had to wear masks except Smithfield.

11. The Governor of South Dakota said one of the most effective things they could do was to test employees at the Smithfield plant. She then said that this was “optional” and “not a requirement to return back to work.”

12. When the Governor of South Dakota was asked why she turned the question over to her health person who said Smithfield decided not to do it.

(It should be noted that the Governor went on Fox in mid April when Rachel first pointed out the plant’s problems and told Fox that the believed in “freedom and liberty” and therefore wouldn’t issue stay-at-home orders.

I have to wonder, “If you are dead how much do you care about freedom and liberty?”)

13. A judge ruled that they can’t overrule the presidential executive order forcing worker to go back to work at meat packing plants despite not following OSHA guidelines. 

14. The FDA reversed itself and now says that the 100 antibody tests it allowed onto the open market without testing their effectiveness, must now must meet emergency guidelines. (Apparently, there was a hew and cry that maybe the FDA should take a look and see if the tests actually worked.)

15. Pork supply may be down 50%.

16. Perry, Iowa’s Tyson’s plant has a 58% infection rate.

17. Rachel – There aren’t that many meat packing plants in the U.S. Fix the problem. If you don’t you’ll have to shut down because the workers will all be sick.

18. Trump replaced the HHS acting deputy who reported that there were severe shortages of PPE.

19. Jared Kushner’s team of volunteers to help get needed supplies to hospitals had “little success” due to the fact that “none of the team members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply chain operations.”

“Additionally, none of the volunteers had relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules.”

20. Trump is winding down the pandemic task force.

21. William Barr is working to get rid of Obamacare, which will leave millions without health insurance.

22. The Federal guideline for nursing homes are having their rules on infection “relaxed.”

23. Trump’s pick to oversee the national stockpile killed off an initiative to create a machine that could make 1.5 million N95 masks a day and instead put the money into buying smallpox vaccine from a company that used to pay him. And, oh yes, sold at a significant markup. (to be fair, this was before the great need for masks.)

24. Dr. Rick Brice head of developing vaccines for the U.S. And who has trained his whole life for this job was removed from that post because he would not approve chloroquine for use without any data to backup its effectiveness. 

25. Despite Dr. Brice’s objections the White House went ahead with a plan to distribute chloroquine. In their own reports there was mention that this drug could have negative consequences. (Like death.)

26. Dr. Brice has filed a whistle-blower complaint alleging among other things – incompetence and corruption at the highest levels within the administration.

27. When Dr. Brice was silenced he felt he had no other choice but to go to the press to warn of the dangers of chloroquine. For this he was relieved of his duties. 

28. From the whistle-blower complaint filed by Dr. Brice:

“Dr. Brice hoped that by shining a light on HHS’s reckless and dangerous push to make this drug available, Human lives would be saved.”

“Brice was removed … because his efforts to prioritize science and safety over political expediency and to expose practices that posed a substantial risk to public health and safety, especially as it applied to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine…”

“Time after time, I was pressured to ignore or dismiss expert and scientific recommendations…”

“I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have…”

“Ultimately, I was removed…”

29. Detroit has 9400+ cases, 1,100+ deaths. It was one of the highest rates in the country. They were hit hard in a two week period of time, but their mayor Mike Duggan got busy with Rapid Testing. He first tested the police department and found a 26% infections rate. Quarantining those infected and putting the others back to work he then started testing nursing homes: all of them, every resident and their staffs. One quarter of those infected showed no signs. He is now testing workers that work in grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations. He has brought the infection rate down so that half the hospital beds are empty.

He was able to do all this because he got a private donor to give money and Quicken Loans turned over 40 people in their call center to take calls to arrange appointments to get tested.

The mayor says he spends no time on politics and all his time on tracking down tests, testing equipment, and results. He has a background in working at a large hospital (the Detroit Medical Center) for nine years. In 2009 he was working on the H1N1 crisis. Many of the people who worked with him at the hospital he brought over to the mayor’s office.

30, And in a fitting piece of irony, it was pointed out that while Trump was touring the mask manufacturer Guns ’n Roses “Live and Let Die” was blaring.

Here endeth Rachel’s show and Laurence’s begins.

31. There is a theme with two stories. The theme is “The Suppression of Information by the Trump Administration.”

32. Story 1) is the turning down of funding for a surge in medical supplies for the coming pandemic. This was in January.

33. Story 2) The pandemic task force is being disbanded. 

34. A new task force is being set up to get the country back to work. Shockingly, there is no strategy. (Surprised? No? I thought so. What did you expect?)

35. Trump says Dr. Fauci can testify – once – to the Senate. Because they are Republicans, but no to the House because it is filled with “Trump Haters,” (ie Democrats?)

36. Laurence made the astute observation that the task force was really done when Trump asked Dr. Birx did not tell Trump that ingesting disinfectant would kill you but rather said she had never heard of that as a treatment.

By the next day Trump realized what a catastrophe he had created with his comment and he stopped the press briefings.

37. What I hadn’t understood, and what Laurence O’Donnell explained was that once the TV show briefings were ended, Trump no longer needed the cast. Hence, the experts are faded to the background.

Please note:

The virus hasn’t stopped.

It is still out there.

Nothing has changed.

Stay home, Wash your hands.

The death toll has passed the number killed in Vietnam and there is no end in sight.

179 Days until the election on November 3^rd

259 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2020

PS It’s out there. Waiting for you.