Reopening America

First things first. Download the CDC’s recently published Guidelines for Reopening America (pdf).

This is intended for all Americans, whether you own a business, run a school, or want to ensure the cleanliness and safety of your home. Reopening America requires all of us to move forward together by practicing social distancing and other daily habits to reduce our risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19. Reopening the country also strongly relies on public health strategies, including increased testing of people for the virus, social distancing, isolation, and keeping track of how someone infected might have infected other people.

***

A spoof or not a spoof? That is the question
The lines between reality and farce increasingly blur as The Don and his wrecking crew refuse evidence-based, scientific, medical, research-oriented data.
And, our life and times become increasingly surreal.
Donald Trump tweeted this video of a grotesquely transformed scene from the 1996 movie “Independence Day.”
Watch for faces of spell-bound Republicans – including Sen Ted Cruz (shedding tears of joy?), Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr. – superimposed over actors’ faces.
The Donald is the hero lip-sync’ing original movie script lines that he’d never think of actually saying.

Trump apparently viewed the manipulated clip as calling Americans back to a reopened economy amid the COVID-19 crisis. But the speech could also be interpreted as a call to Americans to fight for their lives.
The twisted version uses [original movie actor Bill] Pullman’s …voice, but images of Trump’s head have been superimposed on [Pullman’s far sleeker] body. Spectators enraptured by his speech include Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson of Fox News, a teary-eyed Sen. Ted Cruz, Ivanka Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and others.

In the clip, Trump, the man who couldn’t care less about actual humans, mouths,

“Mankind. That word should have new meaning for us today… We’re “fighting for our right to live, to exist.”

Indeed, with 4,716,520 million infected and 315,225 dead, Trump got something right, even if unintentionally.
We are in the fight of our lives – and getting little help from a chaotic wanna-be hero.

News blues…

Trump names Moncef Slaoui his COVID-19 vaccine czar/ “chief scientist” for Operation Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccine development. Slaoui, former pharmaceutical executive of Moderna, owns 155,000 Moderna stock options, totaling more than $10 million.
Conflict of interest, you ask? What conflict of interest?

Moderna last month announced that it received $483 million in federal funding for vaccine development, which sent its stocks up 15 percent, CNBC reported.
On Friday, when Trump introduced him in a Rose Garden press briefing, Slaoui said the president’s aim to have a vaccine by the end of the year was “credible,” though it would be “extremely challenging.”

Hmm, what if the challenge proves too challenging?
Microbiology Society’s report, “The current challenges for vaccine development” states:

…there is still a great need for new vaccines and these are emerging far more slowly than we would wish. Despite the massive expansion in understanding of immune responses to infection, research is often hindered by a lack of understanding of the immune responses required specifically for protection, or by a lack of approved adjuvants and delivery systems to induce the required responses. In addition, the financial commitment required to license new vaccines is significant, and the more lucrative markets are often not those with the greatest need.

How soon before Trump fires Slaoui for promising a vaccine and didn’t deliver? Or Trump, notoriously truth-averse, tells Americans that Slaoui never, ever said a vaccine was possible by the end of the year?
Enquiring minds ….

Whackjobbery*: it’s baaack

Journalist for News 12 Long Island, Kevin Vesey covered a pro-Trump, anti-stay-at-home protest. There,

... a protester without a mask and wearing a red MAGA hat and Trump T-shirt deliberately advanced on Vesey (who was wearing a mask).
“I think you need to back away from me,” the reporter told [the protester] on video, turning his face away.
“No, I’ve got hydroxychloroquine,” said the unidentified protester as he strode closer. “I’m fine.”
The drug, touted by Trump, has not proved to be effective against COVID-19 and can have lethal side effects.

 Kevin Vesey writes, “The level of anger directed at the media from these protesters was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today.”
Despite all captured on film, Donald Trump slammed the report as “fake news.”

***

Eric, son of Trump
Last Friday, I shared Eric Trump speaking “fluent Donald.” Eric is an echo chamber of “fluent Donald,” too.
Taking a page from dad’s playbook, Eric insisted in an interview with Fox News uber-Trump-groupie Jeanine Pirro that:

COVID-19 will “magically” disappear — after election day.
He indicated that the coronavirus [that has killed 315,000+ people around the globe — including nearly 90,000 Americans] is a ploy cooked up by the Democrats to stop Donald Trump from rallying his supporters at campaign events.
[Middle son maintains] Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden “loves this. They think they’re taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every time.” [BTW, Trump has never had 50,000 people in any American arena.]
“You watch,” Eric added. “They will milk it every single day between now and November 3rd.”
“And guess what – after November 3rd, coronavirus will magically, all of the sudden, go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen.” He called it a “very cognizant strategy.”

Gosh, is Eric a poopagandist* who believes his own poopaganda*?
[FYI: In English “cognizant” is defined as “having knowledge or awareness.”]

*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.

***

Recently, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned against people misbehaving during the COVID-19 period.

"God has a lot of work,” he said. “[God] has the whole world to look after. He cannot just be here in Uganda looking after idiots...."

President Museveni, can you extend that warning to anti-mask, anti-stay-at-home idiots in the United States? And, to the current inhabitants of the White House and Trump Tower?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Still struggling for sufficient aerobic exercise -  and trying to keep busy - during lockdown, I’ve taken up Weed Walking.
This entails laps around the garden while wearing gardening gloves (and other clothing). I walk, I notice weeds. I pluck an armful of weeds and, at the end of the lap, I place them into a wheelbarrow.
When full, I push the wheelbarrowful through the security gate, along the road, and dump contents into the burn pit.

Blackjack seedpod.
© Something over Tea 

This time of year, the predominant weeds is the almost indestructible (not easily compostable) blackjack - Bidens Pilosa. Originally native of South America, each tenacious blackjack plant “bears about eighty flower heads that can produce over 3,000 seeds in a single generation.” Designed to persist, seeds “radiate outwards and have sharp awns that hook onto passing animals and people as an efficient means of dispersal.”

In the garden, Weed  Walking keeps me ahead of blackjacks’ seeding phase.
With lockdown preventing outside garden care, weeds run amok and blackjacks are in Blackjack Heaven.
I return from the short trip to the burn pit covered in blackjack seeds. Before re-entering the garden, I pluck seeds from my hoodie, my pants, socks, shoes, gardening gloves, and hair.

Perhaps the only living thing currently more reproductively successful than blackjacks is the nightmare coronavirus.

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Going cuckoo

After brief Internet connection, I’m disconnected. Again.
A “problem with the tower.”
The tower ain’t got no power!
Coming from California – close to hyper-urban, hi-tech Silicon Valley – to KZN’s rural low-tech Midlands demands patience.

News blues…

Uneasy about being cut off from US news during one of the most significant domestic moments of the New Millennium, I grimace… grumble … grouse…
Friends and family text me their local news:

• I’ve been watching videos of cops and undercover cops inciting violence. One video showed an undercover cop breaking windows. Another showed people intentionally pushing other people into the cops from behind then running away. What’s fascinating is that they used to get away with all this stuff but now it’s all captured on video so all can see the tactics.
• Resistance [to heavy-handed cops] is already happening. In Minneapolis a bus driver refuse to drive arrested protesters to jail. In a couple of places cops even joined protesters. This has never happened before - so it’s a good sign.
• [Congressman] Seth Moulton, a Democrat and a [war] vet just called on the military to “lay down arms” if ordered to confront protesters.
• As per the UN International Human Rights Standards of Law Enforcement pocket handbook, soldiers have a duty to refuse unlawful orders: “All measures for the restoration of order are to respect human rights.”

Leaders of the City of Alameda, an island city of approximately 74,000 souls and my home for 20 years, alerted residents that:

A curfew is in place…tonight and tomorrow night, June 1 and 2, from 8pm to 5am. If extended, we will continue to update the community.
Last night, May 31 into June 1, the East Bay was hit hard by widespread incidents of looting, burglaries, and violence. Here in Alameda, we experienced a dozen incidents from 9pm to 5am, and arrested 7 individuals. What we experienced was less severe than in neighboring cities, but damage was done to our community.
These unfortunate events will also further complicate statewide and regional efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19.
We have substantially increased the number of officers we have on duty and have contingency plans in place to address changing circumstances.
Curfew regulations…include that it is unlawful for any person to travel or be upon a public street, sidewalk, or public place within the City during dates and hours designated, unless you are exempt. Exemptions include essential workers and individuals traveling to and from work, seeking emergency care, fleeing dangerous circumstances, or experiencing homelessness.
The Alameda County Sheriff issued a curfew order for the entire County [1.67 million people] beginning tonight at 8pm and extending through June 5 at 5am.

Hmmm, nothing about banned cigarettes, rationed alcohol, or wearing/not wearing short-sleeved white undershirts.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 2 of Lockdown Level 3. Except for masks covering many but all faces in public, and the occasional store clerk holding an infra-red thermometer to customers’ foreheads, life here appears back to normal. Heavy traffic, crowded taxis, crowded shopping malls, crowded stores, crowded pavements.

***

The live-in domestic worker who took ill yesterday suffered, not a stroke, but a form of lockjaw!
She reports that a fellow patient in the communal ward where she spent the night suffered similar symptoms … and he succumbed. Dead.
I’m trying to get further details on the malady.
No one knows nothin’.
Without Internet, I can’t even consult the Internet’s diagnose-from-a- distance “health experts.”

***

Further symptoms of Lockdown Syndrome.
Sunday’s post admitted my growing obsession with the graphs displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
Today, I admit my daily Weed Walk resembles the anxious lope of a Bored Zoo Exhibit. The swaying elephant… poop-tossing baboon… cage-circling wolf… breast-feather-plucking cuckoo….
Come 3 o’clock, I don walking shoes and pluck weeds while I prowl: over mown and unmown lawns, up the stairs and turn right or down the stairs and turn left (last minute changes of direction add variety), around and around, up and down, down and up, over and under, under and over – over and over and over.
Vehicles passing on the dirt road poof clouds of dust that settles onto my hair and shoulders.
Hadidah ibis roosting on the electric pylon observe and chuckle raucously.
The dogs that once alleviated their boredom by following me no longer bother.
On the plus side, Weed Walking has eliminated garden weeds.
At 3:30, I dust off the dust … and visit my mother for a cup of tea and a dose of Judge Judy.

Click to enlarge.

End of day, I review the graph displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
Love the pattern!

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“Change in political and economic power”

Protestors demonstrate in 

Columbia, S.C. in response 

to the recent killing of 

George Floyd at the hands 

of law enforcement. 

Sean Rayford, © The New York Times

Click to enlarge

Fourteen thousand miles/ twenty-three thousand kilometers from the US yet I feel, and sympathize (non-violently) with the anger in the streets of my adopted country.
I’ve lived, worked, and engaged with events in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, including the 1992 Rodney King riots, the 2010 Oscar Grant riots, the 2003 anti-war protests, and the 2011 Occupy encampments.
What protesters say now was true then: We, the People, protest injustice and mobilize for change yet our protests go nowhere - beyond police banging up protesters, shooting with rubber bullets, and arresting hundreds.
We get labeled, too.
Once upon a time, “Communist” was the worst Boogieman name to label Americans. These days, “socialist”, even “Democrat”, thanks to Trump - are in the running, but both lag behind the current worst naming label: “Antifa.”
Antifa lends itself to amorphous projections that imply all the bugaboo lables: communist, un-American, traitor, terrorist, domestic terrorist, socialist, Democrat, radical, Left, far-Left, and ultra-Left. It implies youth: dissatisfied, disengaged, disenfranchised, disempowered. And, dare I say it, it implies poor “people of color”…
In fact, Antifa is an abbreviation for something truly American: anti-fascist.
Pronounced an-tee-fah, and defined as “a political protest movement comprising autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology.”
If Antifa is made up predominantly of young people (no proof of that) then these young people are among the most politically engaged Americans. They’re willing to risk their health and well-being to demand progressive change in our country.
South Africans know how to protest – effectively, too. Yet, for me right now, KZN seems so, so far from the current round of protests in the US that:

…shook more than three dozen [American] cities on Saturday as crowds expressed outrage over the death of George Floyd…. Demonstrators shut down freeways, set fires and battled police batons and tear gas…the pain and frustration of the moment spilling out into the streets.
In Columbia, the city where Mr. [Joe] Biden delivered his victory speech after the South Carolina primary just over three months ago, demonstrators on Saturday said they were demanding more than what it seemed like an election in November would deliver. Not only justice for the death of George Floyd, but change in political and economic power that would prevent the death of another black person in police custody, another brutal video going viral.

Ah, “change in political and economic power”….
“Change” is a tough enough ask of politicians.
Add “in political and economic power”… and you’re wandering into the realm of “ain’t gonna happen” – at least not without sustained protest.

News blues…

“Willing to kill democracy”?

…we can focus this simply on Trump or we can also focus on all of those folks that have enabled Trump: the Republican leadership, the corporation that may make statements in support of this work but, on the other hand, do all sorts of things to prop up, support, donate to Donald Trump. You don’t get Trump and Trumpism without a whole host of institutions and individuals that support and enable him.”

***

The Lincoln Project reports that Republican Senator Mitch McConnel responds to their ad, “Rich Mitch”  with a page from Trump’s playbook: tweeting insults.
McConnell roundly denounces the team who created the ad with name calling: inane, ridiculous, etc. But the Gentleman from Kentucky does not refute their central claim, that Mitch enriched himself at the cost of Kentucky.
To be fair, Mitch’s second wife Elaine Chao, inherited money after her mother died in 2007. That marriage would have increased Mitch’s net worth on paper. He balanced those books by elevating his wife to Transportation Secretary.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Further symptoms of Lockdown Syndrome. Yesterday, I described a growing obsession with the various patterns displayed by my iPhone’s Last Charge Level.
Today, I recognize my daily Weed Walking  around the garden resembles the anxious lope of a Bored Zoo Animal.
Limited access to Internet news and limited exposure to public behavior under Lockdown suggests South Africans view Lockdown Level 3 as an opportunity to socialize again.
Accordingly, I elected to delay until next week the gardener’s return to work, and then he’ll work only one day. Returning to/from work via public taxi one day a week poses a risk of Covid-19 infection; returning three days a week is a greater risk, one I’m unwilling to take.

***

Yesterday, one domestic worker suffered a medical episode that’s a repeat of an event eight years ago diagnosed as a stroke.
Her face swelled up and her upper lip was rigid. Swelling is not a feature of stroke, nor is moving around easily.
An ambulance transported her to a provincial public hospital.
This raises a dilemma.
South Africa’s notoriously under-funded and over-crowded public hospitals cater to, well, ill people, including people carrying, knowingly or unknowingly, coronavirus.
Today, I sought advice from a “sister” – an advanced nursing professional – on how safely to incorporate the worker back into the household.
The domestic worker returned – unexpectedly by public taxi – to quarantine.
We’ll all take necessary precautions.

***

Another round of canna removal.
The succulent garden I imagine slowly takes shape.

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“Going herd”

First time in 2 months of lockdown that I felt my enthusiasm flag. I’ve no peep into my future in California, no idea when I can see my American family and friends, or maintain my houseboat, or actively respond to responsibilities there.
This morning, writing the daily blog post felt daunting.
What more to write?
Who cares?
Then, the miracle of whackjobbery!

Paralleling the coronavirus pandemic is the pandemic of whackjobs and whackjobbery*.
Whackjobs believe in the illusion of support offered by populist, know-nothing-much, wanna-be authoritarian leaders. This false empowerment, the illusion of power over one’s life direction, lulls a growing number of humans into believing they/we are stronger and safer than reality indicates.
It’s tough when one’s friend/s fall into the suffocating bog of false empowerment and conspiracy theories.
I love my friend for her independence and internal strength and I’m concerned that she’s falling into this bog. Most recently, she messaged the following (with flashing bright red and green icons, not shown):

INTERNATIONAL 🔴 ITALY
IN ITALY THE CURE FOR CORONAVIRUS IS FINALLY FOUND *
The Italian doctors disobeyed the WHO world health law, not to make an autopsy on the dead coronavirus and they found that it is not a VIRUS but a BACTERIA that causes death. This causes blood clots and the patient to die.
🔷Italy beats the so-called Covid-19, which is nothing but "disseminated intravascular coagulation" (Thrombosis)
And the way to fight it, that is to say, cure it, is with "antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants". ASPIRIN, indicating that this disease has been poorly treated.
This sensational news to the world was produced by Italian doctors by performing autopsies on corpses produced by the Covid-19.
…It is in our hands to carry the truth and the hope of saving many lives… SPREAD this message…!

I’ll not share the entire harangue here. (You’ll likely get your own version soon…) This fantastic “news” goes on and on, mocking the stupidity of everyone who believes or understands science, medicine, and pharmacology.

Outcome?
I’m no longer flagging.
I’m rejuvenated; ready for more lockdown.
Another week?
Another month?
Bring it on….

For once, it's not just whacky Americans on this crazy train.

For the ninth week running, thousands gathered in European cities to vent their anger at social distancing restrictions they believe to be a draconian ploy to suspend basic civil rights and pave the way for “enforced vaccinations” that will do more harm than the Covid-19 virus itself.
...The alliance of anti-vaxxers, neo-Nazi rabble-rousers and esoteric hippies, which has in recent weeks been filling town squares in cities such as Berlin, Vienna and Zurich is starting to trouble governments as they map out scenarios for re-booting their economies and tackling the coronavirus long term.

*Whackjob/whackjobbery: term popularized by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project  to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism or Alex Jonesism, or Rush Limbaughism or ….

News blues…

The small Indian Ocean island of Mauritius makes remarkable progress in protecting its public from Covid-19.
Sweden, on the other hand, hoping to achieve herd immunity, decided it was everyone for her/himself.

Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden decided early on in the pandemic to forgo lockdown in the hope of achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus. While social distancing was promoted, the government allowed bars, restaurants, salons, gyms and schools to stay open.
Initially, Sweden saw death rates from COVID-19 that were similar to other European nations that had closed down their economies. But now the Scandinavian nation’s daily death toll per 1 million people is 8.71 compared to the United States’ 4.59, according to online publication Our World in Data. Sweden's mortality rate is the highest in Europe. 

The Donald refers to Sweden’s decision as “going herd.”
Talking about herds, Millions of farm animals culled as US food supply chain chokes up:

Covid-related slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US are leading to fears of meat shortages and price rises, while farmers are being forced to consider “depopulating” their animals.
More than 20 slaughterhouses have been forced to close, although some have subsequently reopened. On Tuesday President Trump issued an executive order to keep slaughterhouses open which would, he said, help solve liability problems for meat companies.
At least two million animals have already reportedly been culled on farms, and that number is expected to rise. Approved methods for slaughtering poultry include slow suffocation by covering them with foam, or by shutting off the ventilation into the barns.
A nationwide advisory issued last Friday by the US Department of Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said state veterinarians and government officials would be ready to assist with culls, or “depopulation”, if alternatives could not be found.
The advisory was described … as a clear indication of a national farm animal emergency… chickens are most at risk, followed by piglets. “Chickens are bred for speedy growth and are meant to be slaughtered at between 42 and 47 days. After that they die.”
Political leaders in Iowa – the biggest pig producing state in the US - have warned that producers could be forced to kill 700,000 pigs a week due to meat plant slowdowns or closures.

Did you note the sentence: "President Trump issued an executive order to keep slaughterhouses open which would, he said, help solve liability problems for meat companies”?
This refers to

…meatpacking plants have become coronavirus clusters, infecting as many as 5,000 workers industrywide and killing at least 20.
But the language in the executive order offered little in the way of further clarity. In the days after the order was issued, pundits savaged the president, saying it was part of a plot to “indemnify corporations in advance” for what might happen to their employees. That is, the companies would be able to avoid being held accountable for exposing their workers to a potentially fatal virus.
… there’s been a lot of chatter from politicians and business owners about the need for “liability shields.”
…[in] New York, for instance, where real estate and hospitality interests are pushing for legal immunities that have been afforded to doctors and hospitals. It’s happening in statehouses … And… Washington, D.C. [where] majority leader Mitch McConnell has demanded business liability protections in the next stimulus bill, citing the prohibitive costs of warding off hundreds of coronavirus-related lawsuits that have already been filed. “This epidemic of lawsuits …is going to impact our ability to get back to work.”
… Legal experts … say that language is deliberately vague—and meant to achieve rhetorical goals as much as legislative. A “liability shield” could be a way to limit employees’ claims for coronavirus-related medical bills. It could be a way to end consumer lawsuits. Or, some say, it could be a Trojan horse for tort reform.

Ah, capitalism….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

(c) Madam & Eve
Click to enlarge

I’ve upped my Weed Walking routine – fast walking and occasional stooping to pick weeds - to twice a day and extended the range. Judging by our conversations as I walk, visiting monkeys and hadidah ibis approve. I find it difficult to persuade my mom’s dogs to leave their warm beds and accompany me. Blackjacks and other weeds prefer I stay in my warm bed.

Winter’s first freeze is due next week. Odd to be in freezing KZN when California experiences record high temperatures.

Telkom update: Telkom emails continue, apologizing for my problem…and explaining why it’s the responsibility of some other department to assist.
Kafka would love this.

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Distracting the Distractor

Spot Quiz: “We’re dealing with people who have to get their act together, for the good of the country.”
Which politician recently said this?
 Donald Trump
 “Moscow Mitch” McConnell
 Nancy Pelosi
Sounds like something Nancy Pelosi would say.
But it was Donald Trump…in response to Nancy Pelosi saying that Trump

“could be at greater risk of complications from taking an unproven coronavirus treatment because he is ‘morbidly obese.’ [She added] that she didn't anticipate he would be ‘so sensitive’ about his appearance…. [After all]‘He’s always talking about other people's ... weight, their pounds." 

The president, consummate distractor, has met his match in Pelosi.

In a recent attempt to distract the public from his dismal coronavirus response (1.258 million known Americans infections; 92,000+ dead), Trump said he was self-medicating with hydroxychloroquine. Pelosi’s statement about Trump’s weight – ‘morbidly obese’ – has thrown him off-stride.
We, the People microwave the popcorn in anticipation of the Trump Tweet Tirade (you know it’s coming). Meanwhile, enjoy a Randy Rainbow intermission: his latest parody interview and song, “Distraction!”
***
“You’re fired!”
Donald Trump has a well-documented history of not paying workers and contractors for services and stands “Accused of Routinely Stiffing his Own Employees”.
Before his presidency, Trump

…received at least 3,500 official complaints for failing to pay employees, contractors, and other business affiliates money owed…at least 60 lawsuits, 24 instances where Trump failed to pay overtime and minimum wage, and countless out-of-court settlements. Among those to whom Trump owed money, according to USA Today: dishwashers, bartenders, painters, real-estate brokers, and ironically, even his own lawyers.
In 1990, a casino commission audit of the Trump Taj Mahal, then about to open, revealed that Trump owed an astounding $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors.

Before the presidency, Donald Trump had become “a reality television sensation” on “The Apprentice.” At the end of each episode, Trump would send one contestant packing by turning his hand into a finger gun, fixing it on the contestant, and saying, “you’re fired."

As president, he continues his proclivity to fire people – often just before they’re eligible for retirement benefits.

Andrew McCabe, a 21-year veteran of the FBI, was forced out in 2018 amid an internal investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into his approval of unauthorized disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.
McCabe’s firing would have posed a significant risk to his pension benefits and financial future. 

© AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Click to enlarge.

Now, Trump is jeopardizing the futures of more than 40,000 National Guard members currently under federal orders known as Title 32.
The troops are under local (state) command, but the order grants them federal pay and benefits for helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace the spread of infections in 44 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. This effort is the largest domestic deployment of National Guard since Hurricane Katrina.

Trump administration’s order ends deployments on June 24, just one day … shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits…. [T]housands of members who first deployed in late March will find themselves with only 89 days of duty credit, one short of the 90-day threshold for qualifying for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill.
…Governors and lawmakers in both parties have been pleading with the White House to extend the federal order for several more months or until the end of the year, warning in a letter to Trump that terminating federal deployments early in the summer just as states are reopening “could contribute to a possible second wave of infection.” 

"Nobody knows more…"
Juxtapose Donald Trump’s history with his view of his brain and of himself: “nobody knows more about anything than “Me!”

Feeling all warm and fuzzy towards this man now, aren’t you?

***

News blues…

South Africa’s numbers grow more alarming as:

… confirmed cases of Covid-19 rose to 17,200 on May 19, modellers said the number was likely to grow to 30,000 cases by the end of May at a best-case scenario and 54,000 cases in a worst-case scenario. 

Ekurhuleni metro in Gauteng, eThekwini metro and iLembe District in KwaZulu-Natal, Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay metros in the Eastern Cape as well as the Cape Town City metro and the Cape Winelands district in the Western Cape have the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the country. 

This is based on the average number of active cases between 2 and 8 May per district, which is then compared per 100 000 people of the population.

***

After causing havoc in the Philippines, the typhoon renamed Super Cyclone Amphan, approaches the Bay of Bengal. It’s just the second super cyclone to hit the Bay of Bengal since records began.

During the last super cyclone in 1999, nearly 15,000 villages were affected and almost 10,000 people were killed.
The super cyclone is due to make landfall on the India Bangladesh border on Wednesday evening, near the Indian city of Kolkata which is home to more than 14 million people

The whackjobbery* just never ends…

Poopagandist “mommy bloggers” are rebranding as coronavirus skeptics or deniers…

[Mommy bloggers] are uniquely well-positioned to open people’s minds to dubious and false information. It’s a sobering sign of far-right ideologies creeping in from the fringes of social media amid a colossal “infodemic” that’s causing real-life harm.
In recent weeks, HuffPost has reviewed the Instagram accounts of more than a dozen seemingly radicalized influencers who have been propagating COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Only a few returned requests for comment, including Cohen, who accused this reporter of being “part of the DeepState agenda.”

What to say?
Poopaganda is powerful.
Free your mind.

*Whackjob: term coined by Steve Schmidt of The Lincoln Project to denote virulent Trump supporters who’ve given up common sense in favor of Trumpism.
*poopaganda – a quasi-genteel term for virulent bull-s**t “truthiness” masquerading as self-empowering info.
*poopagandist – one who perpetuates poopaganda and then complains that social media and “fake news” is trying to silence contrary views and/or conservative voices.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I was supposed to depart South Africa today and return to San Francisco. I’m still here. More than a month ago, I received an email from British Air cancelling the second leg of my return flight. I’ve heard nothing at all about the first leg and none of my eight emails to the travel agent have enlightened me about how or when I’ll get back to California.
Being left hanging in this way is the most disempowering feature of lockdown I’ve experienced. (Yes, I recognize I'm living la dolce vita conronavirus .... nevertheless....)
Emails and phone calls go unanswered.
Has the travel agency packed up and decided not to mention that to customers?
Enquiring minds wanna know…

Despite my personal trials and tribulations...daylight hours growing shorter and winter approaching, 55 days of lockdown have left my anything but bored.
I’ve built into my day, Weed Walking, pond weeding, fish feeding, dog, bird, crab, monkey chatting, and the occasional foray into town for necessities. (So far, I've not built in feeling sorry for myself.)
Today I continue researching cell phones for my elderly mother.

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No ‘net, no posts

Catching up on late post for Wednesday April 29

My mother’s house nestles in a shallow valley with lush trees and undergrowth. It’s lovely but it offer lousy Internet and wi-fi connectivity.

My first visit here – 2014 – was maddeningly frustrating. It reminded me of the early days of the Internet - before many of us had been spoiled by technology! 

I’d hoped connectivity would improve over the following year. Instead, a visiting ISP technician explained that the “height of the trees blocked the signal.” 

I took to visiting a local café where I confined my Internet use to an hour a day. 

Competition between businesses to provide customer service isn’t much of a thing here, at least in this part of the province. Apparently, neighborhoods are divided into sectors with one ISPs “owning” the right to provide services to all residences in that sector. Residents are hostages to the efficiency and professionalism of their neighborhood’s ISP. 

After three years I found an ISP that provides most of my needs. Until recently, I paid for 20G per month but used far less. Pandemic anxiety switched that around and, these days, I regularly run out of bandwidth! I “topped up” another 10G mid-month, then used that up by 27 May. I had two options: 1) pay for another 10G (for the remaining two days of the month), or 2) wait until 1 May.  

I opted to wait. 

Internet withdrawal is nasty!  

Imagine being stranded on a tiny desert island with an active and curious brain, no access to online library e-books, no cellphone, and no intelligent friends. 

Add pandemic lockdown anxiety, only Clorox at hand, Donald J Trump making decisions – and you get an inkling of my Internet withdrawal! 

Thoughts on pandemic 

Much news these days about stir-crazy people contravening stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders. Unless one is directly impacted, it’s easy to assume the pandemic is relatively under control. 

A trip outside quickly shows pandemic anxiety is alive and well, and that nothing virus-related is under control. 

A week since my last foray into town, this week I planned a trip to: fill my mom’s monthly pharmacy scrip; convince the vet to sell meds for my mom’s dog’s skin irritation without bringing the dog in for examination; purchase hardware store items; purchase a new tire (tyre in SA) for my mother’s car; find a technician willing to troubleshoot my mother’s Telkom wireless landline phone. (She’s been incommunicado for 3 weeks.) Plus, a big ask of local police: permission for the gardener to return to work at least one day a week. 

I phoned some places before I set off. 

A clerk at the hardware store answered – good sign: the store was open – and he explained that only essential businesses – plumbers, electricians, etc., – could purchase. He added stores would be fined up ZAR30,000 (US$1,700) for contravening this rule. 

Since I had him on the line, I asked if he knew whether the local tire repair shop was open. (Front passenger tire has slow leak that I’ve had repaired three times in the last three years. Time for a new one.) Alas, only emergency tire repair service is available.) 

Backstory: My mom has been advised not to drive but…stubborn … she drives when she decides a dog needs veterinary care. Scary truth: when I’m not here, my mother is the only person in the house who can drive. (This is one feature of my mother’s puzzling decision not only not to downsize for retirement, but to burden herself, her family, and her domestic workers with a large house and garden, too many dogs, etc.) 

My first week back this year, I drove my mother, one domestic worker and an assortment of dogs to the vet four times – for minor issues such as skin irritation. 

Following that, I drove my mother and a domestic worker to the vet to euthanize two elderly and ill dogs, 2) drove solo to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains, 3) drove solo again to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains that hadn’t arrived according to the first schedule. 

When it comes to dogs and vets, I thank the gods for lockdown! 

***

I’m delighted by simply wiping the dust off my vehicle, strapping on the seatbelt, and exiting the security gate.

I’m thrilled with having a valid reason to experience life outside the security fence. 

Potholes, once objects of frustration and derision, now warm my heart – like running into a long-lost friend. 

Full parking lots at mini malls present an opportunity to ponder human behavior. Are those shoppers really shopping? Or are they enjoying liberation? Maybe I should escape more often?

At the vet's clinic, I bought two bottles of dog skin irritation muti (Zulu word for medicinal concoctions cooked up by songoma/ "witchdoctors”). 

While we waited for the vet to agree to dispense meds without seeing the actual dog, the receptionist and I agreed that, yes, indeed, people locked down in houses have unrealistic views of what’s going on “out there” until they visit “out there”. 

Lockdown underplays the potential threat from coronavirus. We agreed that the elderly and frail seem least willing/able to grasp the concept of lockdown. 

By the way, I noticed the skin muti cost about the same as “the kit” of injector pens for whose purchase I’d felt soundly berated. 

My quest to ask police permission for the gardener to travel failed utterly. 

I handed over the letter describing our household’s need for a strong male to perform certain tasks for a frail 87-year-old. 

The officer’s refusal wasn’t adamant. Rather, she looked at me as if I’d asked her to become president of the United States: bemused. 

(After I returned home, I contacted the neighbor who’d described another frail 87-year-old’s success requesting the same of the police. I learned that after police received that woman’s letter, they visited her home to confirm her need. Hmmm, I doubt police visiting here would result in permission.) 

My visit to the police station had an unexpected bright side. Angels’ Care, a center that feeds and supports underprivileged children, is located right across the street. 

Last week, I’d tried, unsuccessfully, to donate funds online to Angels’ Care. Seeing the facility right there felt like divine intervention. I dropped by, explained my online experience, and the office admins cleared a path to successful donation. 

***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… 

Humans who live in the cushy west routinely discard items that could easily be reused/  recycled/ composted. 

I grew up on rural KZN before the widespread use and abuse of plastic, before municipal services, at a time when precious water was pumped from a stream and stored in tanks; when septic tanks were common; when food waste was fed to pigs or composted; when only refuse that couldn’t be recycle was burned in burn pits. 

I’m grateful for running water, electricity (unless Eskom is load-shedding!), and flushing toilets - although my houseboat hosts a composting toilet. 

Convinced the contemporary world is wasteful, I try to conserve. I carry my own shopping bags and complain to grocery store managers about frivolous use of plastic containers. 

Do I sound like a stuffy ideological puritan? 

I’m not but I try to act on my belief that mindless cycles of consumption and dumping threatens people and planet. 

My latest pro-compost action? 

Recycling that soft pond weed (I’ve described in earlier posts) and making a footpath through long grass. 

Background: Swamp cypress grow in wetlands and send up aerial roots that act as secondary lungs when the area is flooded. Grass and weeds also grow think and fast under these beautiful trees. The combination of lush grass, weeds, and aerial roots create tripping hazards. Bushwhacking the area is difficult but not impossible – at least for the gardener. The bushwacker contraption is too heavy for me. To cope while he’s away, I laid a footpath made of pond weed and clumps of invasive waterlilies.  

***

First thing in the morning, after I step outside, I check my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, strap on my camera, and call the dogs for a walk around the garden. 

Two of seven dogs accompany me (the rest hunker on beds under blankets). I carry a big stick while walking and wave it in front of me as I apologize to spiders for breaking the webs they spun overnight. 

This wards off spider bites and furthers my reputation as Neighborhood Crazy Lady. 

Pond weed path.

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Wild ride

The pandemic has reinforced humans’ need to neutralize the horror of the unknown by predicting the future.
Predictability makes the world go round. We save money for a “rainy day,” plan events, have babies – because we believe in tomorrow.
The unpredictable frightens.
But popular yammering on and on about coronavirus, what it will do, how it will do it – or not – is detrimental to mental health.
Not needing to know, not managing anxiety by making predictions, presents an opportunity to develop a mentally healthy relationship with not knowing. The challenge is training oneself to “hold”, mentally and emotionally, the unpredictable without denying its power.
Think of it as a form of meditation: clearing the “monkey mind” and simply… being, holding the moment’s challenges rather than having to “do something.”
Having said that, let’s hear what the “experts” predict.

News blues…

Experts warn that it is only a matter of time before the rest of South Africa reaches the surge in Covid-19 coronavirus cases currently being experienced in the Western Cape.
Epidemiologists, as well as experts in infectious diseases and vaccinology, spoke to City Press this week . All agreed that a change in social behaviour was the only way to halt the increasing speed at which the virus was spreading.
Just this week, South Africa recorded the highest increase in new cases, with a jump of 3,267 new infections identified from the previous day. Friday also saw a large increase of 2,642 new cases from the previous day.
Numbers of confirmed cases went up another 2,112 overnight, with today’s total close to 53,000.

***

We don’t really know when the novel coronavirus first began infecting people. But … it is fair to say that Sars-Cov-2 has been with us now for a full six months.

What we know
At least 100 scientific teams around the world are racing to develop a vaccine.
That’s about it for the good news.
The virus has shown no sign of going away: We will be in this pandemic era for the long haul, likely a year or more. The masks, the social distancing, the fretful hand-washing, the aching withdrawal from friends and family — those steps are still the best hope of staying well, and will be for some time to come.
“This virus just may become another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, warned last month. Some scientists think that the longer we live with the virus, the milder its effects will become, but that remains to be seen.
Predictions that millions of doses of a vaccine may be available by the end of this year may be too rosy. No vaccine has ever been created that fast.
The disease would be less frightening if there were a treatment that could cure it or, at least, prevent severe illness. But there is not.
Remdesivir, the eagerly awaited antiviral drug? “Modest” benefit is the highest mark experts give it.
Which brings us back to masks and social distancing, which have come to feel quite antisocial. If only we could go back to life the way it used to be.
We cannot. Not yet. There are just enough wild cards with this disease — perfectly healthy adults and children who inexplicably become very, very sick — that no one can afford to be cavalier about catching it. About 35 percent of infected people have no symptoms at all, so if they are out and about, they could unknowingly infect other people.
Enormous questions loom. Can workplaces be made safe? What about trains, subways, airplanes, school buses? How many people can work from home? When would it be safe to reopen schools? How do you get a 6-year-old with the attention span of a squirrel to socially distance?
The bottom line: Wear a mask, keep your distance. When the time comes in the fall, get a flu shot, to protect yourself from one respiratory disease you can avoid and to help keep emergency rooms and urgent care from being overwhelmed. Hope for a treatment, a cure, a vaccine. Be patient. We have to pace ourselves. If there’s such a thing as a disease marathon, this is it. 

***

Tasteless and tone-deaf: What is it with white guys wearing black face?
For readers not familiar with the term, blackface describes a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person.
I was tempted to write, above, “old, white guys” assuming such antics happened way back when, in the dim days of the colleges they attended as teenagers.
Alas, the young and apparently hip do it, too. Canada’s Liberal Justin Tradeau, for example, admits “he can't recall how many times he wore blackface makeup.”

Click to enlarge

Perhaps Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. wore blackface as a college student. If so, he has not learned a thing since then.
Indeed, just the opposite.
Running one of the largest Evangelical Christian colleges in the world, junior Falwell recently went steps beyond tasteless.

Falwell, an enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump who opposes wearing masks, posted an image [in May] of a facial covering he said he would wear. It featured a picture of a person in blackface and another in a KKK hood.
Along with apologizing on Monday, Falwell deleted the May tweet. However, it was preserved in screenshots.
Nearly three dozen Black pastors, ministry leaders and former athletes ― including several former NFL players ― who graduated from Liberty sent Falwell a petition that was co-signed by thousands more on Change.org.
It read in part:
The KKK robe and hood and blackface face mask tweet may seem funny to you, but this tweet is the action of a political commentator or activist and is not fitting nor acceptable for the leader of one of the largest Evangelical Christian schools in the world. A review of your social media and statements during your presidency would lead many to believe that you care much more about politics than Jesus Christ, Evangelism, and the discipleship of students.

Hear, hear!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another repat flight announced, another repat flight not taken.

Health Alert: Announcing June 14 Repatriation Flight on South African Airways – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa (June 8, 2020)
Location: South Africa
Event:  The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 48,285 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.

[Editorial: adding increasing numbers of cases feels like a warning: “now is your moment to do-like-a rat and abandon ship”]

Announcing June 14 South African Airways Flight
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight to the United States operated by South African Airways on Sunday, June 14.
Flight information:

• The flight will depart from Johannesburg and then Cape Town on Sunday, June 14 before proceeding to Washington Dulles International Airport.
• Passengers will be responsible for onward travel to their final destination in the United States.
• This flight is open to U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and visa holders who have received DHA approval to depart South Africa.
• Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point, which will be communicated prior to the flight departure.
• For any questions regarding cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact SAA directly.

To confirm your participation in the June 14 South African Airways special repatriation flight, you MUST express your interest by completing this form by 11:59pm on Wednesday, June 10. Note that completing the form does not guarantee you a seat. Please complete the form even if you have filled out a previous form with the U.S. Mission to South Africa – this will confirm your interest in this specific flight only and does not track interest in future flights. SAA will sell tickets directly to passengers who have completed the above form.
… If you would like to depart South Africa, we highly recommend you avail yourself of any available opportunity, even if it is not your desired flight route.  We cannot guarantee frequency of special repatriation, nor can we guarantee that previously scheduled commercial flights will depart as planned.  We do not have further information about when regular international commercial flights will resume.

Despite the ominouos sound of that last line: "We do not have further information about when regular international commercial flights will resume" (will I get out of this country alive?), I’ve pretty much given up the notion of a repat flight to California, my family and friends, and my houseboat.
I can’t justify departing during a pandemic and leaving my 87-year-old bed-ridden mother, seven dogs – three elderly and incontinent – two live-in domestic workers, one-to-two-day /week gardener.
Crazy, I know. I should simply vamoose…
Yet….

Instead, I will take my own advice and train myself to “hold”, mentally and emotionally, the unpredictable nature of this moment without denying its power.
Gardening, Weed Walking, walking the neighborhood, writing a blog entry every day, isn’t enough.
In real life – California - I’m a ceramic sculptor. Here, I’ve neither clay nor studio.
I can either look around for a ceramic studio to join (not holding my breath on finding one) or test cement-powder-based recipes (plenty of cement-powder here) and create a sculpting medium.
Goals are good.

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See photos  Spying on Garden Creatures 

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