Weirdness overload!

News blues…

POTUS (The Donald) and FLOTUS (Melania) diagnosed with Covid-19!
The entire Trump entourage may have been exposed after Hope Hicks, close adviser to Trump, tested positive after travelling with the entourage on Air Force One (no one masked in an enclosed tube, all breathing the same coronavirus-tainted air for the duration of the trip).
Expect more positive diagnoses.
Dr Fauci anyone? Oh, wait! Trump implies Dr Fauci is a quack, that masks are a hoax, that Covid is a “just like the flu” and will, “like a miracle”, simply ”disappear”.
Time for a Trumpian recalibration?

(Fake) conspiracy theories follow:

• Is a Covid diagnosis a way for Trump to avoid another abysmal debate?
• Is Covid-19 the way Trump choses to save face for losing the election?
• For years, I’ve advised Trump to feign a heart attack to drop out of the presidency. It would be an elegant way both to bow out and garner the world’s sympathy. Perhaps he’s taken my advice – with his own interpretation: claim Covid instead of feign a heart attack?
• Is Covid-19 Trump’s way to allow Pence to become president long enough to pardon The Donald for his many dubious, criminal, and fraudulent acts?
• Is Covid a cover for Trump to pack his gold-trimmed bags and shuffle off to his high rise hotel in Moscow, Russia to live beyond the threat of extradition to the US to face tax and other frauds and avoid paying his $400 million-plus debt?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Trump, as we know, falls into the Covid risk groups: elderly and obese. His diet, however, consists mostly of junk food replete with BHT added as ingredient preserver. With any luck the BHT accumulated in Trump’s adipose tissue (aka “fat”) will preserve him.

Just as one thinks public life couldn’t get any weirder, it gets weirder. At least until tomorrow!

***

The Lincoln Project:
A Zoo Story (0:54 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another rainy day. I’m now two days behind the schedule to paint the house’s exterior façade. If there’s a break in the weather tomorrow – prediction shows the icon for storms – I’ll begin to paint it myself. I’m not a professional, but I can wield a paint roller.

Going woolly

Twenty-eight weeks of Covid-19 Lockdown. I've got to say there's never been a dull moment during lo, these many weeks. And, Internet revived at 1a.m. this morning. I was more than ready.

***

Covid-19 numbers do not look good. Compare today’s numbers with those of a month ago:
Worldwide (Map)
October 1 – 33,881,275 confirmed infections: 1,012,980 deaths
September 3 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths
US (Map)
October 1 – 7,233,199 confirmed infections: 206,940 deaths
September 3 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
October 1 – 674,340 confirmed infections: 16,735 deaths
September 3 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths 

SA is now 10th on the list of countries leading rates of infection, surpassed by (from first to ninth): US, India, Brazil, Russia, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Argentina, Mexico.

News blues…

• Global Covid report: Rio cancels Carnival for first time in a century as global deaths near 1 million 
• One million coronavirus deaths: how did we get here? 
• 'Confounding': Covid may have already peaked in many African countries 
• Neanderthal genes increase risk of serious Covid-19, study claimsStrand of DNA inherited by modern humans is linked to likelihood of falling severely ill 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Focus Group  (0:24 mins)
Le Creimos  (1:13 mins)
With Vote Vets: Our Moment  (1:28 mins)
The Collapse  (0:56 mins)
I’m Smart  (1:20 mins)
She’s back! Sarah Cooper, How to Drugs  (1:03 mins)
Meidas Touch: By Rudy  (0;55 mins)

Healthy futures, anyone?

We all know about plastics and microplastics gumming up our planet, our oceans, our wildlife, our lungs, our digestives systems. Plastic is an indestructible material. It breaks down but never goes away.
That may be changing.

A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two. 
The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated….
The super-enzyme was engineered by linking two separate enzymes, both of which were found in the plastic-eating bug discovered at a Japanese waste site in 2016. The researchers revealed an engineered version of the first enzyme in 2018, which started breaking down the plastic in a few days. But the super-enzyme gets to work six times faster.
“When we linked the enzymes, rather unexpectedly, we got a dramatic increase in activity,“ said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK. “This is a trajectory towards trying to make faster enzymes that are more industrially relevant. But it’s also one of those stories about learning from nature, and then bringing it into the lab.

I’m all for it… well, sort of. We, the people, have a remarkable history of jumping to miracle conclusions before a thorough checking out of new discoveries. Remember Agent Orange. Fertilizer. Genetically modified organisms….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mystery revealed. I’ve noticed, occasionally, what looks like evidence of trampling in areas of the garden pond. I’d hoped it might be otters – clawless otters and river otters frequented the pond before my mother fenced them out to fence in her dogs. I considered it might be a dog, but nah. The dogs aren’t interested in pond life. 

Today, I saw… a pair of woolly necked cranes foraging in the pond, trampling the pond foliage.

Swimmingly

Still no internet. But the end of the month is nigh. Tomorrow, first day of the month of October, my internet service begins again.
I’ve been in South Africa eight, going on nine, months!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Big day! Finally, after almost 7 months with the swimming pool shutdown due to Covid-19, it re-opened and I re-upped my swim pass. It hurts not to swim. At first, it hurts to swim. I’ll push myself through the hurt, start off slow – only 100 meters today – and, if I keep pushing, I'll soon be back in swim shape. And next time I visit the pool, I’ll remember to carry a towel. On a cold day, using one’s shirt as towel after a swim and a shower is no fun.

Club Fed?

Still no Internet. Sigh.

News blues…

The walls are closing in on The Donald. Ironic that, after talking, talking, talking about building walls, it’ll be walls that do him in. His notorious tax dodgery is catching up with him.
Funny how taxes – not paying them – seems eventually to catch up with many a heretofore successful tax dodger. Given how replete history is with stories of the IRS catching up with dodgers, I wonder why tax dodgers think they can outsmart the IRS?

When the Trump-as-president fiasco is over, the Feds can open an entire new wing of Club Fed for Trump, his crooked family, cabinet, enabling congresspeople, Attorney General, and assorted hangers-on – at least the American hangers-on. The Russian, Indian, Chinese, etc., hangers on will escape. Who knows? Perhaps, to avoid justice a la IRS, the Trump entourage will relocate to Russia. Doesn’t Moscow already host a Trump hotel? If not, he’ll have time to build one. He can call it Mal-a-lardo.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Two nights ago, a marvelous, joyous, and loud chorus of frogs in the garden pond. Since then, rain.
I’m not complaining about rain – at least not yet. Plants were parched and dosing them pond water via watering cans gets old fast. Moreover, rain is the best medicine. Then again, the forecast predicts rain every day except this and next Wednesday – that’s ten days of rain.
***
With spring in full swing, birds, bugs, frogs appear, even the occasional mosquito has sniffed then sampled my ankles.
A joyous sunbird supped nectar from red salvia blossoms yesterday. It was the first time I’ve seen a sunbird in action. I was able to grab my camera and photographed it, but the photo shows none of the bird’s spectacular curving beak or iridescent plumage.
Another smaller variety of sunbird has returned to nest on the verandah. This is the third year running it has elected to lay eggs and bring up a family in a shaggy nest hanging off a plant pot on the well-trafficked verandah. Alas, the nest hangs on the dark side of the pot so not easily photographed by an amateur. Nor is it polite to shine a spotlight on a wild creature’s nest to snap a photograph ….
***
My goal was to put my mother’s house on the market on October 1. I’d arranged for a professional painter to come today, but rain prevented that. ***
The good mother and dog news: they’re settling into their new lives. Moreover, my mother is exercising more since Jessica “wants” to walk four or five time a day.
Way to go mom!

Orange is the new orange

Still no Internet. Sigh.

News blues…

Reading the news on my cell phone is better than not reading the (US) news at all. None of it is good for POTUS Trump, or the Trumpettes (Ivanka could go to jail? OMG! ), Lindsay Graham, Moscow Mitch, etc., all staring into the abyss that is The Donald.
One good thing: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – “AOC” – slapped back at those who had a field day squawking about her $250 hairdo. Turns out Trump spent $70,000 (ZAR 1.23 million) in one year for his hairdos.  I wonder how much it’ll cost The Donald to find a hair color that matches the orange jail jumpsuit he’ll be wearing after he’s sentenced for tax fraud? 

***

Comedian John Mulaney , not usually a political funnyman, elegantly delving into politics with a light hand. A horse in a hospital.

***

News viewers who have the luxury of seeing news inside and outside the United States know that that mainstream US news presented to mainstream US audiences is palpably different to the same news presented in, say, the UK, or Europe. That is, the fact are similar, but the manner in which it’s presented in different countries is markedly different. Moreover, the same news outlets frequently presents the news differently. Take CNN, for example. CNN in the US is far gentler – less pointed, more flattering - than CNN in UK. More importantly, CNN UK delves deeper and offers more nuance that the US outlet.
CNN UK also covers a far wider range of news. CNN US covers US news… unless the US is waging war on another country, then that other country is mentioned as a foe.
Fair and balanced?

***

The Lincoln Project Whispers II  (0:54 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Before meeting a friend at a local café today, I accessed the café’s Internet, responding to business emails and glancing at the news.
Having only brief internet connection for someone with my level of regular use is frustrating. At a café, it is more so as access is limited to the goodwill of the café’s manager.

***

After loading years-worth of rubbish into my elderly mother’s elderly China-manufactured Chana pick up, the gardener accompanied me to the local municipal refuse dump. Unlike in California, dumping rubbish in designated spots in KZN is free. KZN’s designated fills frequently were once pretty valleys easily filled with garbage of all sorts.
People work hard at dumps, and few are actually hired and paid to work there. Most workers are freelancers known as rag pickers, people who pick up rags and other waste material from the streets, refuse heaps, etc., for a livelihood. 

Rag picking is a hard way to earn a living anywhere. It is particularly hard at a dump site. It’s easier and there is less competition rag picking in neighborhoods before the municipal refuse trucks arrive to haul away trash. Working solo or with a companion or two, a neighborhood rag picker sorts through bagged household trash and takes anything worth saleable. (Naturally, no one ever takes plastic bags or torn or broken plastic items. Those things eventually end up in the ocean.) Rag pickers at dump sites compete mercilessly to grab discards as they arrive, frequently pulling discards before the delivery vehicle stops. 

I threaded the lightweight Chana uphill through inches-deep mud, following the site manager’s hand signals, dreading the moment the Chana bogged down in mud and avoiding driving into rag pickers already digging through our load.

Unloading wsa fast and efficient as rag pickers examined each item. Who knows what recyclable treasures await? Something could mean the difference between eating and not eating at the end of the day.

Internet down – again!

Another day without Internet. Somehow, by day 26 of 30 of the month, I've used all 30 gigs – despite carefully titrating my use. I’ve experienced the same thing for the last four months: no warning that I’m approaching my monthly capacity – just suddenly no internet. 

It consistently happens on a weekend, too. I’m about done with this.

News blues…

Instead of increasing my level of anxiety about breaking my promise to myself – to post every day of Lockdown – I’ll simply do my best. If I’m late posting a daily pandemic diary, so be it. I’ll post when technology re-establishes my connection to the great wide world.

Healthy futures, anyone?

Review of David Attenborough’s “A Life on Our Planet,” – a stark climate emergency warning 

‘I am David Attenborough and I’m 93. This is my witness statement.” There is a tremendously moving sense of finality about Attenborough’s terrifying new documentary on the climate emergency. It is being marketed as a retrospective, a look back at his life and 60-years-plus career. But make no mistake about its true agenda: Attenborough is here to deliver a stark warning that time is ticking for the planet. It is a personal film – and political, too. There is emotion and urgency in that familiar soothing voice.
[Attenborough warns] …that it’s not too late if we act now. Halt the growth in the world’s population. Create no-fishing zones. Stop eating meat. It’s not about saving the planet, it’s about saving ourselves.

***

Mea culpa. My endless appetite for dark chocolate – and the appetite of millions of others – has bitter environmental consequences 

Cocoa production, catering especially to a wolfish demand for candy in Europe and the U.S. (each American consumes about 9.5 pounds of chocolate a year; in Switzerland, 19.8 pounds) has led to the decimation of forests.

***

RVAT: Packers Fan WRECKS Trump Worse Than Favre Wrecked the Jets  (4:30 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Prepping to sell the house continues. I’ve uncovered a maternal consumption philosophy that is diametrically opposite my ow. I like nice things but I lack the over-consumption gene. My mother's theory: buy in bulk, have other people manage and monitor consumption and – if someone cannot find a purchased item – buy more.
This means this house is full of duplicate items, or items still in boxes having never been opened or used.
For someone who lives on a houseboat, it is unnerving to find myself surrounded by “stuff”. My instinct it to give it away. 

***

My mother’s relocation to the Care Center is complete (sort of) and her – and Jessica, The Dog’s - settling in proceeds. My mother’s sole focus is Jessica’s happiness – and she appears to believe that my sole focus should be Jessica’s happiness, too. (Displacement theory is alive and well: deny your own anxiety and place it upon someone else/a pet – then focus on that creature’s anxiety.) 

Nevertheless, I regularly drive to the Center with freshly cooked giblets for Jessica, Beeno biscuits for Jessica, a non-slip mat for Jessica. (The non-slip mat was an attempt to secure the plastic crate intended as a step for Jessica to mount my mother’s bed. The first step worked well but was too large for the small room. Alas, the crate slipped and Jessica fell spectacularly. Since then she'd ignored the crate, even opting to sleep on the floor. An unheard of humiliation..) I was instructed to return the too-large step.

***
I cancelled today’s visit today as I’m feeling unwell and, with coronavirus, a visit to an establishment catering to the elderly could spell disaster. My potentially compromised health had me delay picking up Jessica’s organic anti-anxiety-med-impregnated collar from the vet. Miraculously, the vet was heading toward the Care Center anyway and she dropped off the medicated collar.
Jessica’s eating habits, a reprise. While my mother and I agreed that Jessica “must” begin the arduous task of transitioning to canned dog food. Jessica, alas, has other ideas: canned dog food? You expect me to eat canned food? I don’t eat no stinking canned dog food!
My mother explained Jessica “doesn’t want it.” Jessica’s refusal scares my mother. What if… the dog starves? … the dog is insulted by the new dietary direction?
I try to lay the ground for Jessica’s transition to the more practical, Care Center-centered diet - whether she “wants it” or not. “Mix small amounts of canned food into Jessica’s high-end giblets meals to acclimate her.”
“But,” my mother tells me, “She doesn’t like it.”
“She will get used to it,” I urge. “Canned dog food is the practical solution. Your job as leader of the pack is to demonstrate to The Dog how to adjust to change.”
Alas, this goes nowhere.
For me, it’s back to carry freshly cooked giblets to the Care Center.

Reality check

Day after day I read the news and become more agitated at the goings on, in the world and, particularly, in the United States. US media ratchets up the anxiety, as do polls, the president, and Congress. I’m reaching the point at which it becomes … mentally destabilizing… to focus on US news for news.

News blues…

The underlying assumption of Donald Trump’s many proclamations about Covid-19: life will immediately return to normal after a vaccine is administered.
Wrong. Again.
Here’s How the Pandemic Finally Ends : A vaccine by early 2021, a steady decline in cases by next fall and back to normal in a few years — 11 top experts look into the future.

“It will take two things to bring this virus under control: hygienic measures and a vaccine. And you can’t have one without the other,” says Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
… Producing and distributing a vaccine will take months, with the average American not receiving their dose (or doses) until at least mid- or late 2021. And while widespread inoculation will play a large role in bringing life back to normal, getting the shot will not be your cue to take off your mask and run free into a crowded bar. The end of the pandemic will be an evolution, not a revolution, the vaccine just another powerful tool in that process.
… Experts’ estimates of the timeline vary, but there seems to be some agreement that the virus could be in decline and under control by the second half of 2021, and that society could see pre-Covid “normal” within two years.

Buckle up – and don’t forget to wear your mask!

***

Daily Maverick webinar: Eskom’s Survival is South Africa’s Survival. Hosted by Sasha Planting with Sikonathi Mantshantsha and Doug Kuni.

Healthy futures, anyone?

The wealthiest one percent of the world’s population are responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015.

Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half.
A report, compiled by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute, warned that rampant overconsumption and the rich world’s addiction to high-carbon transport are exhausting the world’s “carbon budget”.
Such a concentration of carbon emissions in the hands of the rich means that despite taking the world to the brink of climate catastrophe, through burning fossil fuels, we have still failed to improve the lives of billions, said Tim Gore, head of policy, advocacy and research at Oxfam International.
“The global carbon budget has been squandered to expand the consumption of the already rich, rather than to improve humanity,” he told the Guardian. “A finite amount of carbon can be added to the atmosphere if we want to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. We need to ensure that carbon is used for the best.”
The richest 10% of the global population, comprising about 630 million people, were responsible for about 52% of global emissions over the 25-year period, the study showed.

The biggest surprise?
Globally, the richest 10 percent are those with incomes above about $35,000 (£27,000 / ZAR600,000) a year. The richest 1 percent are people earning more than about $100,000 (£78,000 / ZAR1,711,600) a year.
This requires a shift in understanding, particularly if one assumes an annual a salary of $35,000 barely provides a sustainable lifestyle in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. There, an annual salary of $35,000 disallows rental of even a small apartment,, and certainly disallows saving enough money to make a down payment on a home. (The median home value of single-family homes and condos in San Francisco is $1,416,879, with a down payment of 20 percent, that is, more than $280,000.)

***

A note about political ads shared below: US political campaigns spend millions of dollars each year on political ads, and many more millions during presidential elections. This year, for the first time in my memory, Republicans are running political ads against Republican incumbents, particularly against the incumbent Republican president. The ads are diverse, hard hitting, and unprecedented. I share them to express surprise at the anomaly and at creativity. Enjoy!
The Lincoln Project: The Choice  (0:55 mins)
Meidas Touch:
Lying Lindsey  (0:58 mins)
Vote Or Die: You Are Not Nobody  (0:25 mins)
Really American: Trump Destroys Democracy (0:35 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My mother’s relocation to the Care Center is complete (sort of) and her – and Jessica, The Dog’s - settling in proceeds. My mother’s sole focus is Jessica’s happiness – and she appears to believe that my sole focus should be Jessica’s happiness, too. Accordingly, I regularly drive to the Center with freshly cooked giblets for Jessica, Beeno biscuits for Jessica, a non-slip mat for Jessica. (This, to secure the recycled crate upon which Jessica accesses my mother’s bed. Jessica’s first try on the crate resulted in the crate slipping on the tile floor and Jessica tumbling. So far, she’s refused to approach the crate for another try.)
After cancelling my visit today - I’m feeling unwell - and hired someone to deliver Jessica’s freshly cooked giblets.
In theory, my mother agrees that Jessica “must” transition to eating canned dog food. But she reports that Jessica “doesn’t want” to eat it – and frets that Jessica will starve.
I insist that Jessica transition to that more practical diet - whether she “wants to” or not – and advise mixing small amounts of canned food into Jessica’s high-end giblets meals.
“But,” my mother moans, “She doesn’t like it.”
“Your job as leader of the pack,” I urge my mother, “is to demonstrate to The Dog how to adjust to change.” 

Each day allows one to re-evaluate reality. Not an easy task.