Touch of reality?

News blues

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Trump and the Trumpies attempting a coup in the US Capitol. Here’s the actual, real, and legitimate US vice prez and prez – Harris and Biden – addressing the nation >>  (33:04 mins)
Here, too, is comedian Stephen Colbert’s memories of the day a year ago when “the fecal matter truly hit the oscillator”…  (10:43)
And from Mary Trump: “He must be feeling the walls closing in…” >>  (6:06 mins)
It’s been a year of Trump and Trumpies pushing “Stop the Steal”  and The Big Lie  about his failed re-election. (Genesis of The Big Lie in “real life”.)
Amid the libraries-worth of journalism written since then, politically centrist journalist Jennifer Rubin presents an important opinion piece: “Trump idolatry has undermined religious faith”,

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Back to Covid: Has Omicron peaked or plateaued in some regions? Experts say there are early, tentative signs that the omicron wave has peaked, or is plateauing, in the places that were among the first to be hit hard by the variant. 
Despite the mixed messaging, confused communication, and often conflicting information presented to the public about Covid-19, the pandemic, and the many viral mutations, thoughtful humans still seek further information. Lucky for us, researchers oblige. Next week we might have information that conflicts, but here’s the current knowledge on symptoms and severity of Omicron – at least for this week.

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The Lincoln Project: Biden  (1:55 mins)
Which is it, Ted?  (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Life on vanishing coasts – photo essay >> 

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“Postcards From a World on Fire” >> 

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More calls for the US to address its plastic waste:

Environmental organisations across Latin America have called on the US to reduce plastic waste exports to the region, after a report found the US had doubled exports to some countries in the region during the first seven months of 2020.
The US is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter,  although it has dramatically reduced the overall amount it exports since 2015, when China – previously the top importer – said it “no longer wanted to be the world’s rubbish dump” and began imposing restrictions. Elsewhere around the world imports are rising, and not least in Latin America, with its cheap labour and close proximity to the US.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The past seven months in California have been disorienting, partly because the pandemic began while I was gone and American culture moved on, partly because this is my first winter in California in four years and, cold weather coupled with Omicron, produces involuntary isolation.
Amid what feels like waves of crazy – mounds of conspiracy theories, lies, and corruption, and unimaginably large numbers of Americans remaining in Trump’s conspiracy cult of the absurd, do I perceive a glimmer to push back from Biden and Attorney General Garland? Both men, heretofore appearing like deer-in-the-headlights, issued strong statements yesterday. 

What will today and tomorrow bring?
One issue? American perception. One article on Garland, for example, states, “Garland is under increasing pressure from the left.” In fact, Garland is under pressure from all Americans concerned about the country’s direction. That this is described as “the left” is an indication of how far right the country has become over the last decade.
All in all? Life and living is increasingly precarious these days.

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Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:06pm
Cold, foggy, and drizzly.

 
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:07am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining ….

Lockdown disorientation

Ah, the joys of lockdown. Forty-eight, going on 49, weeks.

Somehow, amid the ongoing monotony of lockdown, I lost track of days and dates. Yesterday’s post assumed it was Sunday. But it was Monday… evidenced by the gardener’s appearance to garden. After all, why would he show up to work on Sunday?
Every day, for 334 days (and counting) I’ve posted something about macro and micro aspects of the pandemic that concern this human:

• a beautiful and bountiful planet poorly managed by capitalist thinking (use it all up, suck out the wealth, ensure ROI - return on investment),
• a pandemic that, essentially, is the result of capitalist thinking shrinking and toxifying the wild places and stressing the world’s creatures,
• and the resultant zoonosis.

For 334 days,  I’ve posted about aspects of my small, personal life amid a global crisis.
How much longer can this continue?
(Impressive, indomitable Dr Fauci suggests that “we” - those of us who actually wear masks - might still be wearing them in 2022.)
Famous pirate, Long John Silver, puts things in perspective: “shiver me timbers…”

News blues…

More than half a million Americans – confirmed - dead of coronavirus.

The milestone [and magnitude] based on a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html , came just over a month after the nation's death toll passed 400,000 and as public health officials train their sights on new, more contagious coronavirus strains that have been reported in almost every state and threaten to tax already stressed local health systems.

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Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide 

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Let’s remember how We the People got to the current toll of half a million Covid-19 deaths: 

The big lie propagated by former President Donald Trump, involving the coronavirus pandemic systematically downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and the utility of face masks. It very likely resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
To understand the genesis of this lie, remember that the coronavirus arrived in an election year. Despite a rancorous initial three years punctuated with an impeachment, the former president's path to reelection was bolstered by one unimpeachable accomplishment: a robust economy. The coronavirus threatened that. The resulting interplay between politics and the pandemic created an irresolvable conflict that influenced the Trump administration's coronavirus response for the remainder of his term. 

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The Lincoln Project is back – at least temporarily. Let’s enjoy their humor while we still can:
Book your Mexican Getaway Now!  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A slight modification of Benjamin Franklin reported words, “A Republic, if We Can Keep It”: a bountiful planet, if we work at keeping it….

Health means many things to many people. Often it means an absence of illness, but to the World Health Organization (WHO), health does not just mean freedom from illness, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. This concept of well-being became translated into the language of biodiversity in a significant way through the work of the Millennium Assessment. 

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Learn about GLEWS - Global Early Warning System - for health threats and emerging risks at the human–animal–ecosystems interface. The Joint FAO–OIE–WHO project to inform prevention and control measures, through the rapid detection and risk assessment of health threats and events of potential concern at the human-animal-ecosystems interface.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trying to sell a house during a pandemic is bad. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic in South Africa is worse. Trying to sell a house during a pandemic to South Africans is a nightmare.
I’ve shared many bleak observations about South African tradespeople who make appointments then never show up, never warn that they’ll not show up, and never apologize for either.
Similar thing happens with home buyers. They make appointment to show up at an agreed upon time then, at the last minute, change their minds and make a different appointment time.
If I had nothing else to do but sit around sipping sundowner cocktails, perhaps I’d be more understanding.
Instead, last minute changes of mind based on apparent whim force me to reset my own appointments - and appear to disrespect someone else’s schedule.
It’s madding for someone with control freak tendencies who has lived for decades in the “time is money” US to appear as flaky as other South Africans.
It’s a live and learn world….