I'm text-banking for the Democratic Party. I'm glad I finally found my participation niche. I can do this far better than say, phone banking or canvassing. I tend to go blank and lose my attention when nervous, and both make me nervous. I'm also going to be a poll worker on Election Day. Obviously this election is going to be an event of history. I hope Trump is shut out, 0 electoral votes, but that's probably hoping too much.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Being politically active
Sunday, September 6, 2020
In case I haven't said this before
We cannot have a representative government with democratic rights and allow people to hoard as much money as they can grab. You cannot have an impartial judiciary, a cogent legislature, or an un-corrupted president. Not while the government power has to compete with economic power, and not when government is so easily captured by moneyed interests. Economic power is too easily leveraged into political power.
I remember the definition of money given in high school classes as a "medium of exchange." Wikipedia defines money just:
"Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context.[1][2][3] The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.[4][5] Any item or verifiable record that fulfils these functions can be considered as money."
I beg to differ with experts about this: money is power, first and foremost. If power in human affairs is defined as the ability to get others to follow your will/wishes, whether to compel them or persuade them in other ways, money is power. It's different from other types of power in that you can count it because laws of mathematics apply to it.
Money is also the world's oldest sustained social program. The first coins were issued by Lydia. The king's head stamped on it meant the King was guaranteeing the amount of gold or silver in the coin. James Burke in his 1970s PBS series Connections tells how the touchstone could be used to determine the amount of gold in a coin.
At the time, it democratized power and diversified the ways of getting it through production of goods and providing of services that earned it. Early accounting also provided a means to determine the responsibility. "Follow the money" is a practice as old as currency itself. It also multiplied the ways people could cooperate. Contracts became written, with the exact amount of money specified.
A neglected quality that money has that shouldn't need to be expounded, but does is due to the fog of ideology: money is a government program.
Libertarian efforts to uncouple currency from government have so far failed, and I think they will continue to fail, miserably. Bitcoins are good scams, ransoms, and money laundering, but not much else. They're also good for speculating if you like to gamble at unknown odds. By making all transactions private and closed to scrutiny, it becomes somewhat like having a tree falling in the woods. The transaction doesn't exist until it's exchanged out of bitcoins and into a real currency. Going into why they'll is really beyond the scope of this essay.
But now we find ourselves in a position of such great wealth disparity that our system has stagnated and is breaking down. Think about this: any solvable social problem we have always hits and impasse in the same place: taxing the wealthy. Since the wealthy are the only people today who have substantial money, if tax revenues can't be collected from them, or their wealth can't be bounded, social progress will stagnate. This is what happens with any national or international issue you raise. It happens with our crumbled infrastructure, it happens with health care, it happens with criminal justice reform, it happens with environmental problems. We use the word "corporate" to shift blame to a faceless entity, but the wealthy are behind the corporations.
Our country, our society is going to collapse if excess wealth can't be controlled. Right now, the financiers and banks are the gatekeepers to wealth. They know what sort of person they'd trust with a loan. People Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who are obsessive and fanatical about making money, no matter the cost to the workers and to their environment. In other words: conservative capitalist. They'll also capture government agencies and elected officials.
The notion that billionaires are better than everyone else has to die. This is difficult to do, because they're powerful people, and human beings are awed with power no matter the source and means.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
A prediction (A hope?)
For left-leaning people or centrists who think defeating Trump will heal the country, I have bad news: a single election isn't going to do it. The Democrats have to be committed to creating landslides from here on out.
Biden is far from my first choice for president, but he's the best one to run for this election. The Left might think Trump's disastrous term affords a grand opportunity to guide the country Left, but no, it isn't that. It's just a chance to stop the hemorrhaging.
(BTW, I laugh off suggestions that Biden has dementia. Maybe he's short of sleep some days, but dementia is nonsense. I also laugh it off the same suggestions about Trump. People think it's easy to diagnose a syndrome that's only positively identified by autopsy, and when diagnoses are most difficult tasks physicians have.)
The GOP must be defeated, and it must be in a landslide. They had a chance to remove Trump and they cynically refused. If I were religious, I would see God's judgment in how right on the heels of Trump's acquittal, both COVID and an economic recession both hit us. (Yes, the recession started in February, independent of COVID.)
For their support of Trump, their failure to remove him, GOP's in Congress and everywhere deserve ignominy. For the corruption of our government, for backing Trump in his incompetent response to COVID, I hope they continue to lose subsequent elections to the point where they become a regional party at best.
If that happens, I expect the Democratic Party will split between the liberals and the centrists. The GOP's ideological and electoral competition are the only forces keeping the two factions together. The unity isn't viable in the long run.
I see Biden as transitional. Since guys his age are known to frequently die, Biden is probably transient as well. Yes, he's a centrist. He (and/or Harris) will have to make the choice whether he's going to screw the wealthy by taxing them, or screw his base by embracing business interests. It might seem he's already made the choice, but I don't presume that, despite indications of leaning toward the wealthy. The wealthy are used to getting their way, so they're easy to pwn. He knows it's not viable to maintain Clinton/Obama triangulation. So, either his voting or his financial constituency is going to get screwed.
However, he won't have that choice if the GOP remains competitive.
I give a disclaimer to all my predictions: we live in an intrinsically unpredictable universe. Guesses about the future that aren't scientifically tested are almost always wrong.
Also, if Trump stays in power, nothing I've predicted here even applies. My predictions on that contingency are all uniformly dire.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
The infamy of the Trump presidency
Trump says the Corona Virus is "ashes." More magical thinking, more ignoring, more avoiding. More criminal negligence.
We now have, by official count, 115,784 deaths from CV-19. This is with 584 dying just so far today.
By comparison: In World War I, the 116,516 US soldiers killed.
The number of US deaths from Corona will surpass our country's World War I deaths either today or tomorrow.
The Trump administration has now been demonstrably worse for America than a World War. Simultaneously, he's probably also worse than the Great Depression.
He is THE WORST president ever, and it's not even close. It's hard to think of a worse person we could have entrusted the office of the president. 😡
https://factba.se/topic/calendar
Trump says the Corona Virus is "ashes." More magical thinking, more ignoring, more avoiding. More criminal negligence.
We now have, by official count, 115,784 deaths from CV-19. This is with 584 dying just so far today.
By comparison: In World War I, the 116,516 US soldiers killed.
The number of US deaths from Corona will surpass our country's World War I deaths either today or tomorrow.
The Trump administration has now been demonstrably worse for America than a World War. Simultaneously, he's probably also worse than the Great Depression.
He is THE WORST president ever, and it's not even close. It's hard to think of a worse person we could have entrusted the office of the president. 😡
https://factba.se/topic/calendar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
Thursday, March 19, 2020
The drum beat accelerates
The current CoronaVirus report.
Worldwide with 179 countries reporting cases:
Worldwide with 179 countries reporting cases:
- 245,613 cases; 230,588 cases this morning.
- 10,048 deaths; 9,390 deaths this morning.
- 88,437 recovered; 86,261 recovered by this morning.
- 14,299 cases; 10,816 cases this morning (It's double what it was on Tuesday.)
- 218 deaths; 161 deaths this morning.
Trump's dismissive denial & lethargy has put us on Italy's curve
Here are today's stats on the Corona Virus:
Worldwide with 177 countries reporting cases:
U.S.
Notes CV-19's exponential growth:
This is scarier than any horror story I can come up with. I could only say please don't commit suicide. We're going to need every person we can spare to get through this crisis.
Place the blame on Trump. He didn't have to fire the White House Pandemic Response Team in 2017, nor cut the CDC budget for epidemic response. He knew about it happening in China as early as December, and at the very latest, should have responded to the first US case. Instead, he dismissed it, called it a hoax, called it fake news, and asserted it was all about attacking him. He pissed away at least 9 weeks, then responded at first by appointing a task force for spin control. That time lost will cost us hundreds of thousands of lives, and leave us with an economy that will cost us more.
Italy, which is suffering the worst from this pandemic reported 470 people died of it yesterday alone. (It's not certain that number includes people who died complications like bacterial pneumonia.) Their medical system is in total collapse, and it was rated as excellent by WHO. Like Trump and the US, they were dismissive of the virus at first. Like Italy, we are two months behind an exponential curve. There's no way we're going to catch up on the curve before our healthcare system collapses from the strain.
Meanwhile, the markets are showing their confidence in Trump, dropping whenever he announces another measure. Never mind that he's using the war powers act to take over industries. Trump's poor administrator, and there's no doubt of this. I also fear that after years of cuts and humiliation from Republicans, the US government is no longer structured to handle such an emergency. Add to that: Trump hires for personal loyalty and nothing else. His other hires have been clueless or careless. Trump putting himself in charge of our industries is like Tsar Nicholas II taking personal command of Russia's military during World War I. All he's going to do is turn it into a clusterfuck and discredit him even further.
Worldwide with 177 countries reporting cases:
- 230,588 cases, 219,217 as of last night,
- 9,390 deaths, 8,966 last night
- 86,261 recovered (1/3 of the total cases)
U.S.
- 10,816 cases, 9,417 last night.
- 161 deaths, 154 last night
Notes CV-19's exponential growth:
- The world's first known case of CV-19 occurred sometime in November 2119.
- The US identified its first confirmed case on January 21st.
- By Friday last week, the US had 2,882 cases.
- According to Rachel Maddow, the US's growth curve is very similar to Italy's
- No measures implemented now are going to have an effect for at least a month.
- On the current growth curve, US could expect ~40,000 cases by Thursday next week.
- Also on the current growth curve, 10 million cases by this day next month is plausible.
This is scarier than any horror story I can come up with. I could only say please don't commit suicide. We're going to need every person we can spare to get through this crisis.
Place the blame on Trump. He didn't have to fire the White House Pandemic Response Team in 2017, nor cut the CDC budget for epidemic response. He knew about it happening in China as early as December, and at the very latest, should have responded to the first US case. Instead, he dismissed it, called it a hoax, called it fake news, and asserted it was all about attacking him. He pissed away at least 9 weeks, then responded at first by appointing a task force for spin control. That time lost will cost us hundreds of thousands of lives, and leave us with an economy that will cost us more.
Italy, which is suffering the worst from this pandemic reported 470 people died of it yesterday alone. (It's not certain that number includes people who died complications like bacterial pneumonia.) Their medical system is in total collapse, and it was rated as excellent by WHO. Like Trump and the US, they were dismissive of the virus at first. Like Italy, we are two months behind an exponential curve. There's no way we're going to catch up on the curve before our healthcare system collapses from the strain.
Meanwhile, the markets are showing their confidence in Trump, dropping whenever he announces another measure. Never mind that he's using the war powers act to take over industries. Trump's poor administrator, and there's no doubt of this. I also fear that after years of cuts and humiliation from Republicans, the US government is no longer structured to handle such an emergency. Add to that: Trump hires for personal loyalty and nothing else. His other hires have been clueless or careless. Trump putting himself in charge of our industries is like Tsar Nicholas II taking personal command of Russia's military during World War I. All he's going to do is turn it into a clusterfuck and discredit him even further.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
How bad is this?
For those calling the Coronavirus a hoax, reality's rebuttal came fast.
The Senate just passed $8.3bil in funding to fight CV-19.
Note 1: It passed 96-1.
Note 2: the Senate is Republican and pro-Trump. They'd blame a conspiracy if they could.
Note 3: By comparison, in 2018 the budget for the entire National Institutes of Health was $37 billion.
Note 4: Also by comparison, the NIH budget for Alzheimer's research was only $1.8 billion.
You might call this funding for CV-19 "significant."
https://thehill.com/.../
Also, the WHO has put the mortality rate much higher than initially thought, at 3.4%. [Added on edit: 0.4% for this season's flu, which is moderately severe.] Trump says he thinks it's a "really false number," then quotes his "hunch" as saying it's less than 1%. He says people are getting sick and never go to the hospital. Shouldn't he ask first if health researchers don't consider that before he reports his "hunches"? They're professionals, of course they have.
Ten thousand deaths from the flu this year? That's actually only moderately high for the seasonal flu, which has never been a joke, BTW. Its death rate is only 0.1%. [0.4% this year]. That's news, but not news enough to grab the front pages.
Note: At 3.4%, CV-19 mortality rate is 𝟑𝟒 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 [seasonal] 𝐟𝐥𝐮 [is normally, and [it's] about as contagious. [Note: it's 9 times as fatal as this year's flu.] Take a moment to wrap your mind around that. Unless something lucky happens, the deaths from CV-19 could be in the hundreds of thousands or millions. If 80 million people in the US catch this, a completely plausible number, 2.7 million people could die. Everybody left alive will know somebody who died of this. We are in 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 trouble.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/
Hell of a way to run a government, with a president denouncing expert data because he considers a conspiracy to wreck his own unsullied record more likely; because he presumes people must be thinking about him at all times to the dearth of all other crucial matters. Any possible "shadow government" or "fake news outlet" would also be afraid for their own lives, and therefore would want accurate news about this.
To prevent the spread: wash your hands. I would also recommend using hand-sanitizer. Do your best not to touch your face. Cough or sneeze into your shirtsleeve. If someone coughs or sneezes in your presence and doesn't cover, leave the room or the area. Use disinfecting wipes to clean surfaces other people have touched, otherwise, get some gloves and wear them. This is especially true for shopping carts.
The virus can live up to nine days on surfaces. So, if you get a box delivered, handle it with gloves. I might recommend a mask for opening the box. Otherwise, I generally wouldn't. Tearing the box open will make particles fly, so open carefully. Cutting instead of ripping will reduce airborne viruses. Clean the removed item thoroughly after its unwrapped. Then wash your hands and face.
As an alternative, you could allow the box to sit for nine days before opening.
Given the contagiousness of this disease, everybody will catch it ultimately. However, it's best that it happen later than sooner. Slowing the spread will give it a chance to mutate into less virulent form, and will allow herd immunity to eventually take hold. Or even a vaccine and treatments might come about.
This is going to be terrible. It's possible that every survivor will know somebody who dies of this, but we will get through this.
PS. I don't write these things to spread panic. And I don't think I'm a pessimist. I think there's a cult of over-optimism in this society, a social pressure toward it, that needs to be confronted. Over-optimism about Trump is what powers his support. Optimism is good for supporting hope which maintains our daily function. Pessimism is good for recognizing when caution is called for. But they're both ill-advised and disadvantages if they're kept as general rules.
I write this so people could take a sober look at Trump and what he's done, and what we might expect in the coming year. Remember this on Election Day.
Note 1: It passed 96-1.
Note 2: the Senate is Republican and pro-Trump. They'd blame a conspiracy if they could.
Note 3: By comparison, in 2018 the budget for the entire National Institutes of Health was $37 billion.
Note 4: Also by comparison, the NIH budget for Alzheimer's research was only $1.8 billion.
You might call this funding for CV-19 "significant."
https://thehill.com/.../
Also, the WHO has put the mortality rate much higher than initially thought, at 3.4%. [Added on edit: 0.4% for this season's flu, which is moderately severe.] Trump says he thinks it's a "really false number," then quotes his "hunch" as saying it's less than 1%. He says people are getting sick and never go to the hospital. Shouldn't he ask first if health researchers don't consider that before he reports his "hunches"? They're professionals, of course they have.
Ten thousand deaths from the flu this year? That's actually only moderately high for the seasonal flu, which has never been a joke, BTW. Its death rate is only 0.1%. [0.4% this year]. That's news, but not news enough to grab the front pages.
Note: At 3.4%, CV-19 mortality rate is 𝟑𝟒 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 [seasonal] 𝐟𝐥𝐮 [is normally, and [it's] about as contagious. [Note: it's 9 times as fatal as this year's flu.] Take a moment to wrap your mind around that. Unless something lucky happens, the deaths from CV-19 could be in the hundreds of thousands or millions. If 80 million people in the US catch this, a completely plausible number, 2.7 million people could die. Everybody left alive will know somebody who died of this. We are in 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 trouble.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/
Hell of a way to run a government, with a president denouncing expert data because he considers a conspiracy to wreck his own unsullied record more likely; because he presumes people must be thinking about him at all times to the dearth of all other crucial matters. Any possible "shadow government" or "fake news outlet" would also be afraid for their own lives, and therefore would want accurate news about this.
To prevent the spread: wash your hands. I would also recommend using hand-sanitizer. Do your best not to touch your face. Cough or sneeze into your shirtsleeve. If someone coughs or sneezes in your presence and doesn't cover, leave the room or the area. Use disinfecting wipes to clean surfaces other people have touched, otherwise, get some gloves and wear them. This is especially true for shopping carts.
The virus can live up to nine days on surfaces. So, if you get a box delivered, handle it with gloves. I might recommend a mask for opening the box. Otherwise, I generally wouldn't. Tearing the box open will make particles fly, so open carefully. Cutting instead of ripping will reduce airborne viruses. Clean the removed item thoroughly after its unwrapped. Then wash your hands and face.
As an alternative, you could allow the box to sit for nine days before opening.
Given the contagiousness of this disease, everybody will catch it ultimately. However, it's best that it happen later than sooner. Slowing the spread will give it a chance to mutate into less virulent form, and will allow herd immunity to eventually take hold. Or even a vaccine and treatments might come about.
This is going to be terrible. It's possible that every survivor will know somebody who dies of this, but we will get through this.
PS. I don't write these things to spread panic. And I don't think I'm a pessimist. I think there's a cult of over-optimism in this society, a social pressure toward it, that needs to be confronted. Over-optimism about Trump is what powers his support. Optimism is good for supporting hope which maintains our daily function. Pessimism is good for recognizing when caution is called for. But they're both ill-advised and disadvantages if they're kept as general rules.
I write this so people could take a sober look at Trump and what he's done, and what we might expect in the coming year. Remember this on Election Day.
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