Tag Archives: Corona virus

Death and taxes.

December 18, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

Anyone who’s been reading this blog and listening to my podcast Strange Sound for any length of time knows that I’m a sometimes harsh critic of the institutional Democratic party. That same anyone would be aware that I am even more critical of the Republican party. The reason for this is fairly simple: whereas the Democratic party has some individuals within it – albeit a minority – who are principled progressives who want to make a difference in people’s lives, the Republican party is now literally a death cult that wants to cut rich people’s taxes. This week we exceeded 300,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, and you would barely know it by listening to GOP lawmakers or their idiotic president. (And yes, he is their president, lock, stock, and cracker barrel. I’m of the opinion that Trump is the purest expression of Republican values – selfishness, ignorance, bigotry, and self-aggrandizement.)

I know both parties have a lot to answer for, but frankly, Republican politicians are almost universally out of their minds. As I write this on a day when more than 3,400 people died of this virus across the country, we’ve seen further evidence that the administration was explicitly pursuing a strategy of “herd immunity” with regard to the Coronavirus. As reported in Politico, part-time Canadian college lecturer Paul Alexander was helping to press the CDC into adopting a strategy of having everyone become infected … or as many people as possible. This was the crack-head notion they shared with Dr. Atlas that somehow everyone getting the disease was a good thing. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how “herd immunity” should work – the idea is to keep people from getting a disease by inoculating large numbers of them against it. Infecting people to prevent disease is like jumping off a building to avoid falling. These people are seriously cracked.

I can’t quite work out why Trump would choose to align himself with these people and take the hands-off approach he took to this virus when to do the opposite – investing heavily on safety and prevention – would possibly have made him a much more popular president and perhaps earned him re-election. The only thing that seems likely to me is that he thought the emergence of this novel Coronavirus was just unfair, and that like a five-year-old he didn’t want to accept it. And of course, because he is, as president, the head of his party, Trump set the tone for everyone else. But make no mistake – the Republican political class would have gone there anyway. As I’ve said before – every time they come back, they’re worse. Reagan was worse than Nixon, Bush Jr. worse than Bush Sr., and Trump worse than them all. Each one of these presidents was backed up by a party that supported practically every move they made.

With all of the challenges we are facing, we need to keep them out of power. We can no longer afford to play defense on these terminal issues.

luv u,

*Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.*

Political Rants

The expendables.

May 8, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

Sounds like a Bruce Willis movie from 1987, right? Well, it might as well be. The president appears to be okay with the notion of thousands upon thousands of us impaling ourselves on the altar of a boom economy; this after he left the door wide open to COVID-19, taking cues from the likes of Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton and other reactionary conservatives bent on shrinking the administrative state to a size that can be easily drowned in a bathtub, as Grover Norquist was fond of saying back when he was relevant-ish. Congratulations, America! Guess what? You’re all warriors now! Time to take a bullet for President Little Lord Fauntleroy, whose idea of sacrifice is taking uncomfortable questions from a relatively supine White House Press Corps.

Seriously, does anyone want to die for Donald Trump? Does anyone want to sacrifice a parent, a sibling, a child, a grandchild, an aunt or uncle, a neighbor … anyone for the betterment of Trump’s political fortunes? Because make no mistake about it – COVID-19 kills, and there’s no telling who it will kill next. You might be spared … or you might not. We simply do not know this virus very well yet. If we listen to the President and some of these red state governors and force people back to work (on pain of losing their unemployment benefits), more and more people will get seriously ill, the hospitals will be quickly overwhelmed (particularly in more rural states, where there is even less excess capacity in terms of ICU beds), and thousands more will die. Judging by the degree to which people are avoiding those establishments that have reopened, I would say that most people understand this dynamic fairly well.

Of course, we all know who is particularly expendable in the minds of our leaders. Elderly people in nursing homes? They’re expected to die at regular intervals – this much I know from experience. But the true expendables are the folks who take the crappy jobs – the meat packers, the farm workers, the restaurant workers, etc. People of color, mostly, and a lot of women. They are being compelled to return to work because the establishments they work for are being told to start up again, or because their bosses are getting impatient, and practically none of these companies are inclined to invest in protection gear or protocols that would keep their workers safe and well. Wealthier, whiter knowledge workers can work from home, no problem. Meat packers, not so much. There’s a greenhouse in a neighboring county to where I live – they tested their employees for COVID and more than 100 of them were carrying it. That’s an enormous number in a rural area like this. Multiply that by thousands and you’ll get some idea of what we’re looking at.

Trump wants to keep the cheeseburgers rolling. Trouble is, when you force meatpackers back to work, it’s likely that they’ll get sick. And when they get sick, they can’t work, so you’re right back to where you started from. We can either address the public health problem, or we can expect a massive level of disruption from here on out. Up to us.

luv u,

Political Rants

At the COVID Hilton.

April 17, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

Spent most of the week in the belly of America’s healthcare beast. And it started with something in my belly. Suffice to say, I needed an ambulance ride to the ER and emergency surgery for something totally unforeseen, unrelated to but in the midst of the current COVID crisis.

I will tell you that the nurses, orderlies, custodial and food workers were all kind and dedicated professionals, and I couldn’t be more grateful to them. But there were some truly bizarre moments, and I want to share one of them with you.

I’m lying on a gurney in the ready room at the COVID Hilton, my gut scrubbed and primed for incision. The bemasked surgeon enters the room and asks the nurse attending me, “Where is the other doctor?”

“Jeremy is here,” she says, tapping away at the roll-away laptop next to my bed on wheels.

“Jeremy,” the surgeon repeats, looking around. He turns to me and asks if I’m ready. I say something vaguely affirmative, but he’s distracted. He sits down at a desk across from me and takes out his phone.

The surgical nurse arrives, introduces herself to me, then starts helping the attending nurse with her data entry. “You can’t confirm the post op care plan because it hasn’t been entered yet,” she’s says. “See? They haven’t done it.”

“Where is the second doctor?” the surgeon barks into his phone, his legs up on a chair.

“Scroll down,” says the surgical nurse. The accounting system is giving them an argument. “It won’t let you confirm until you put something in here,” she says.

“When the patient dies, who’s going to call the family?” asks the surgeon.

Another guy in scrubs and hairnet arrives. The surg nurse hails him. “Jeremy! Where did you come from?”

“My mother,” Jeremy says. “Always.”

It seemed we were ready. On the way into the operating theater, the orderly sang, “We’re off to see the wizard!”

When I was discharged on Thursday, I was asked to sign an agreement that, if I were to return to the hospital with any additional problems related to this health issue, I would need to do so by noon the next day or it would be considered a second incident and, therefore, be charged separately (i.e. not be covered by insurance). This is America’s health care system in a nutshell. (As it turned out, I went back the next day at 4am. Plenty of time!)

luv u,

Political Rants

Donnie’s hour.

April 3, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

The COVID-19 crisis is a major disaster in several respects. First, it’s a health disaster of the first order, one that is going to cost many thousands of people their lives over the coming weeks and months. That would be more than bad enough on its own. But it’s also an economic catastrophe for individuals, families, businesses, and organizations all over the country. This aspect, too, will be the undoing of many of its victims. It’s hard to imagine how people on the edge are going to get through these next few months. It’s just as hard to imagine that small businesses won’t fold by the million as the economic shutdown, by necessity, continues. This crisis has the potential, as many have said, to reshape our economy and our society in fundamental ways, and not clearly for the better.

Take the response (or “CARES”) package passed by Congress and signed into law by the moron-in-chief. David Dayen has laid this out in detail in the American Prospect. Simply put, the funds being directed to poor and working people are going to be way too slow in coming. If you aren’t set up to receive tax refunds via EFT, you could be waiting a long time for that check to arrive. People in the informal economy (including many working musicians, as it happens) may not get any help at all. Small businesses can apply to get loans through the SBA that would become grants if they retain their workforce, but the SBA is a slow-moving entity and not resourced to handle the national crush of requests that will be coming its way. On the other hand, major corporations will benefit from a $500 billion bailout, $425 billion of which will be vested in the Federal Reserve to provide base capital for up to ten times that amount in low-interest loans to big business, financial institutions, etc. That money does not require workforce retention – companies can use it for downsizing, mergers and acquisitions – everything short of stock buybacks, which are barred for the term of the loan.

That combination of factors will greatly advantage larger players over smaller ones in this economy. That auto shop on the corner? He’s history. Bring your car to the dealership. That’s what this could look like. Meanwhile, the president is having the time of his life. He’s bragged about the ratings his 5pm daily Coronavirus update is drawing, and he’s treating these press events like it’s a reality show, bringing on the My Pillow nutcase, picking fights with journalists, spewing garbage like a leaky barge. Two weeks ago, he was talking about ending the social distancing measures, but now he’s seen the advantage of just riding with it. And to some extent, the American people, in their infinite wisdom, are rewarding him with marginally higher poll numbers, despite the fact that Trump’s inaction over the last three months has blown this pandemic threat into a full-fledged national emergency that, at best, will kill well more than 100,000 Americans, and likely multiples of that number.

Trump thinks 100k deaths would be evidence of his competence. It’s anything but. He needs accountability, and we need to keep this country from slipping into the oligarch’s paradise he’s always dreamed of.

luv u,

Usual Rubbish

Zombie playdate.

March 20, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

I think I saw them coming up the road, just past the post office. Did you see them, too? No? Maybe I’m imagining things. Or …. maybe you’re gaslighting me! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE! SPEAK!

Oh … hello, readers. We were just, um … going over the household accounts. Seems the electric bill is overdue again. Just like last month … and the 120 months before that. (Maybe that’s why the lights are off.) Okay, I will own up to the fact that we are getting a little squirrel-y here in the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill, now that we’ve been ordered to shelter in place. Actually, the order doesn’t apply to us because, well … we’re not supposed to be living here, but what the law doesn’t know won’t hurt it. Still, in these plague times, it’s best to heed the warnings of public health officials. We’re masking up, donning the rubber gloves, and eating out of an autoclave.

Now, I’m not super fond of hoarders. That said, one of our number, and I’m not saying who (ahem … anti-Lincoln), came home with a boatload of canned soup, pasta, and toilet paper this past Tuesday. I know you’re going to tell me that he’s doing it for our own good, but you are so wrong, my friend – he’s keeping it all for himself. Anti-Lincoln has essentially walled himself off in the east wing of the hammer mill, cloistered in with his cache precious supplies, cackling through the brick walls at our hunger and privation. It’s not for nothing that he’s the anti-matter doppelganger of old honest Abe. I mean, think about it – would the great emancipator ever act in such a selfish way? Even when he was running for re-election?

As the COVID-19 pestilence has closed in on our forgotten corner of the world, people appear to be heading for the hills. Our nasty upstairs neighbors lit out this week, lugging their high explosives and trained pole cats with them. Meanwhile, people from the low country who consider this “the hills” keep showing up at our door, seeking shelter. Some of them appear to think this is some kind of country estate, like in Boccaccio’s Decameron, where they can ride out the pestilence. They march out of the woods like zombies, hoping for a playdate, at least, if no apocalypse presents itself. We’ve stationed Marvin (my personal robot assistant) out in front of the mill as a sentry. Thus far, he has neither stopped any intruders nor invited anyone in, so on balance, I’d call that a success. (He did lose his balance once. Those gimbals need adjusting.)

Okay, well … back to the accounts. WHERE ARE YOU, YOU MISERABLE GUTTER SNIPE! I’VE GOT AN ACCOUNT TO SETTLE WITH YOU!

Political Rants

Plague times.

March 20, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

Greetings from my corner of our national COVID-19 quarantine. As someone who is not unaccustomed to a certain amount of social isolation, I can say with confidence that this new normal has even me a bit more than creeped out. When I was in my teens and twenties, I wasn’t a big believer in psychology, but perhaps the only real advantage of advancing age is that it gives you an opportunity to discover the things you were wrong about earlier on – for me, one of those items was the fact that psychology is a thing that affects me. So, while my life is not all that different from the way it was before this crisis, I feel a lot different … and not in a good way.

Part of what I find disturbing about this pandemic scare is the degree to which so many people in my community are acting out of fear. I don’t mean to single central New York out in any way – similar effects are being seen all over the country. But when I go to grocery stores now, in particular, the evidence of panic buying is all around. I went to the supermarket at 7:30 a.m. last Saturday – half an hour into their business day – and there were gaping holes throughout the inventory. Because it’s kind of a white-dominant bedroom community, the missing items read like Ozzy and Harriet’s shopping list: iceberg lettuce, white bread, cans of tuna fish, jars of tomato sauce, canned soup, frozen vegetables, etc. Of course, paper products were cleared out entirely … 30 minutes into the business day!

Weirdly, it didn’t seem like there were all that many people in the supermarket. And people didn’t seem frenzied, and they didn’t appear to be buying any more than I would have expected to see in their carts on an ordinary shopping day. Strangers were even interacting with me, in a friendly way, which was encouraging. And yet … the shelves were bare, as if Visigoths had marauded through the place a half hour earlier. Like the Coronavirus itself, panicked citizens seem like an invisible menace; you seldom actually see it, but you can see its effects. Then, of course, there are the follow-on effects: when people know their neighbors are buying everything in sight, they then go to the store and stock up before the goods are all gone. Selfishness starts to rule the day as people compete for consumer items suddenly in short supply. This is what late-stage capitalism looks like: very similar to the capitalists’ own distorted stereotype of socialist privation – empty shelves, desperate consumers, valueless scrip.

Of course, now that capitalism is in crisis (businesses shutting down, the stock market crashing), it’s time again for socialism! Trump and the Republicans, along with corporate Democrats, are reaching for massive state intervention in the economy, cutting billions of dollars in checks to individuals, back-stopping banks with enormous credit guarantees, dumping public cash into enormous, well-connected private corporations. All of the television austerians have come to their collectivist Jesus, much like they did in 2008-09. (Elect a Democrat, and trust me, they will be deficit hawks once more.)

So, no, you’re not hallucinating. This is all actually happening. Please stay safe, wash your hands, etc., and don’t freak out. We rely on each other to keep our heads – that may be the most effective thing we can do right now.

luv u,

Usual Rubbish

Keeping distance.

March 13, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

Okay, closer. A little closer. I said a little! Right, so push the tray this way. That’s good enough. Great, thanks. Now get away from me, you scavenging ghoul!

Oh, hi. I should have thought someone would be reading this blog today, as there is precious little else to do now that we live in plague times. (I’m sure someone out there is doing something more useful, like writing their own latter-day version of the Decameron.) Frankly, this is when it pays to live in a podunk town. New York’s governor has banned events with audiences of 500 people or more. While that’s a huge problem down in Manhattan, that’s like falling off a log up here. Hell, there aren’t even 500 people within five square miles of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill. Safe as houses! It pays not … to get paid.

Here inside the hammer mill, we’re taking drastic steps to respond to this crisis. Well, maybe “drastic” is too strong a word. Big steps. We’re stepping bigly, particularly when we see someone coming towards us. In other words, we’re practicing social distancing. In a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, our mad science advisor Mitch Macaphee has determined the precise distance we need to keep from other human beings in order to remain safe from COVID-19. That’s 47.5 inches. Kind of a problem, as our corridors here in the mill are about seventy inches wide. So to remain on the safe side, we’ve adopted a single-user hallway policy for the foreseeable future. That means everyone walking in the same direction, like those mysterious figures in that M.C. Escher drawing, ascending and descending, except all one way.

Unfortunately for anti-Lincoln, the local St. Patrick’s Day parade has been canceled. That said, I think he fully plans to roll down main street in his log cabin float made entirely from bricks of expired government cheese. He’s agreed to fly the Big Green banner as a way of signalling that he’s not just some random crazy person, but in fact an antimatter ex-president from the nineteenth century representing a bunch of random crazy people. In the meantime, Anti-Lincoln plans to wear his float around the mill as his own version of social distancing. Marvin (my personal robot assistant) has been recruited to serve as his flag man, so that he doesn’t keep crashing into the hallway walls. Hey, we all cope as best we can.

So no worries, folks – we’re not sick yet. At least not in that respect.

Political Rants

Hand washing.

March 6, 2020 Joe Leave a comment

What happened to all the hot water? What the fuck, man. There’s no soap, and the hand towel is missing. This place!

Well, friends, like most of America, all members of the Big Green collective are ready for the onslaught of the dreaded Corona virus. That is to say, we’re as ready as anyone else around these parts. That means a lot of hand washing, and nearly as much hand-wringing. Sometimes it’s possible to combine the two, so long as you use liquid soap. It’s a little hard to wring your hands with gusto when there’s a bar of Ivory in the way. Of course, you can never be too careful. Even Marvin (my personal robot assistant) is obsessively dunking his hands in the sink. And when I say “hands”, I mean rudimentary claws. He’s a robot, you see.

We’re trying not to obsess about this thing. I know that seems unAmerican, but that’s just the Big Green way. That said, I can tell you that anti-Lincoln is deeply depressed by this whole thing – much more so than anyone else in our circle of acquaintance. Is he a high-risk individual? Well … no, not for the virus. It appears that he’s despondent over the drop in the stock market. He was working with Mitch Macaphee, our mad science advisor, on some complex variety of derivative, one built on debt value that increases as time moves backwards. (Yes, I know … that sounds impossible, but that’s why he needs Mitch.) Apparently he’s been pouring money into this financial instrument with the intention of making himself rich back in the 1860s. It’s kind of like a money portal, sending gold back in time. Wild!

Well, that didn’t work out well for anti-Lincoln. That’s what he gets for playing the damned market. He should remember what happened to Lincoln during the panic of 1857. (Indeed he should … because I don’t. At least he was there … in a sense.) To cheer him up, I tried to interest him in the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade. My suggestion was that he pull together some kind of parade float. Maybe it could be shaped like a log cabin and made out of discarded government cheese. Or …. maybe something else. Now, he never showed any interest in St. Patrick’s Day, but he has always been fond of drinking, so there’s a chance he’ll drown his sorrow once the Grand Marshall strikes up the band down on main street.

Knock yourself out, anti-Lincoln! Just stay about three feet clear of everyone else in the parade, and you’ll be just fine.

BIG GREEN

Tag Archives: Corona virus

Death and taxes.

The expendables.

At the COVID Hilton.

Donnie’s hour.

Zombie playdate.

Plague times.

Keeping distance.

Hand washing.

Official site of the band Big Green