Chaos reigns

Still raining and foggy here therefore still no exterior wall painting possible. Yet more delays before this house goes on the market although the real estate agents will visit today. That’s something….

News blues…

South Africa is remarkably even-tempered about Covid-19. Each day my cell phone delivers the latest infection numbers, how many tests conducted, and death statistics. The infection rates continue apace: at least 1,000 new infections per day. The death rate remains low, certainly in comparison to rates of infection in the United States and Europe.
Unlike in the US where daily news covers Trump, Trump, and more Trump plus a drumbeat of Covid infection and death rates, local newspapers present more news on South Africa’s corruption problems than its coronavirus infection problems.
Let’s not, however, forget South African families who’ve experienced Covid first hand: ‘Every day gets a bit better’: Lockdown grievers and givers come into the open: Loved ones come to terms with their new reality six months after the pandemic hit SA. 

***

The US continues as a hot mess with truth the ultimate casualty. This is a good overview of the complexities Americans – and the world – face.  

***

The Lincoln Project: Our fight  (0:55 mins)
RVAT: Trump Cut Off Aid for CA Wildfire Victims  (0:56 mins)
Really American: 2 Faced Lidsey  (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Chaos reigns. Today, I must face my mother in the office of the Care Center matron. I must find a kind, not too direct manner in which to let my mother know that, indeed, her house will be sold…and that she will remain living at the Center.
That I will not cave into my mother’s latest whim will be a mind-altering experience for her, acclimated to getting her every whim accommodated.
One tactic might be to raise her awareness about being a good pack leader. That she is projecting onto The Dog her own feelings of sadness and unrest. Her job if she wants a happy dog? Adjust to her new surroundings, perk up, and accept she’s safe if not totally happy. But how does one introduce such a concept to one so resistant to change?
A friend consoled me: “…attempting to escape a nursing home is an inevitable part of moving to a nursing home. That’s why you gotta wait until they’re too old to fight back.”

***

My daily phone call to California was interrupted – again! – by unexpected electricity shut down. The shutdown was not defined as load shedding nor was it on the load shedding schedule the load shedding app states, (sic) “Not Loadshedd since 28 days ago.”
Unexpected, unexplained, unscheduled shutdowns have become the norm. Has Eskom figured out that load shedding is a political hot potato? That it is more politically correct to say nothing, power down at whim, and present a schedule that ignores the company’s dire situation?
Imagine being a small or medium-size business trying to maintain a business under already dire circumstances?

Cognitive dissonance

Not to trivialize The Donald’s travails with Covid-19 – I hope he recovers – but… 

There are now 11 – and counting – Americans, from Trump White House advisers, counselors, and family members, congress people, religious leaders, and a former governor (Chris Christie), linked to one Covid-19 super-spreader event held at the White House . All due to one White House inhabitant – Trump – turning what is a protective device – a mask – into a political and cultural weapon.
Madness.

News blues…

With Donald Trump fighting off the Covid-19 infection, one might want to ease up on, over-ride, conveniently forget how poorly the man and his crew have managed the pandemic. 

Yes, it is appropriate to feel sympathy, compassion, empathy … but do not forget the damage he and his crew have wrought in the US and around the world.
Donald Trump is a manifestly incompetent leader. He’s also a liar who displays willful ignorance with a worldview that boils down to “I’ll do and say anything to win.”
Need a reminder of how he rolls? Watch “Fact-Checking the First 2020 Presidential Debate”  to remind yourself of what’s at stake in less than one month. (6:50 mins) 

And then go out and VOTE!

***

Cognitive dissonance defined: 

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition), they are in a state of cognitive dissonance.

A more apt example: when people believe a sociopath who directs: “believe me, not your lying eyes….”
This video indicates the lengths people go to maintain a fallacy and avoid cognitive dissonance: Home Depot Face Mask Dispute Turns Violent.  (3:30 mins)
Moreover,

Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis has stunned MAGA world, but it hasn’t changed how it reacts to bad news: blame others, accuse the left of craven behavior and cling tighter to the president. 

***

RVAT: Trump Cut Off Aid for CA Wildfire Victims (0:56 mins)
Really American: 2 Faced Lidsey  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

In parts of urban San Francisco Bay Area, goats are herded onto public parks to eat the grass. Thailand, however, expands this concept in a mind-blowingly imaginative way. “10,000 ducks ‘cleaning’ rice paddies.”  (2:14 mins)

• Planetary ‘safety net’ could halt wildlife loss and slow climate breakdown
• Is It Too Late To Stop Climate Change? Well, it's Complicated.  (10:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It is still raining here. And very foggy. I’m frustrated as I’m falling behind schedule on marketing this house. As a former project manager, with the career-borne mantra “on budget and on time”, rain is, well, not something with which one can argue. If only!

***

Yesterday afternoon, I visited my mother, walked The Dog, and returned home to continue clearing the house. I found a buyer for some goods and, I hope, this may lead to selling items and earning higher rates than an auction house will provide.
Then, alas, late afternoon, my mother called. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’m going barmy. I want to move back to the house, get renters to rent out the upper part of the house….”
OMG!
I called a staff member at the Care Center who said she had no idea my mother felt that way. Well, yeah, that’s my mother. On the surface, she’s sweet, easy going, conforming. Behind the scenes? Not so much. But she won’t say a word to anyone about her real feelings (does she recognize know them?) nor try to find a workable, practical in situ solution to her concerns.
Instead, she jumps from discomfort to world-churning solutions without pause, and presents full-formed – in her head – actions that others must undertake – immediately!
Accordingly, I’m supposed to hop to, pull the levers to get her out of a situation that may not be ideal – who wants to live in a care center filled with elderly and frail people – and bring her “home" to a half emptied house. 

Her plan? Become landlord to “nice” problem-free strangers who, she insists, will rent the upper portion of the house, pay on time  (almost unheard of in South Africa), not have lives that conflict with hers - or her dogs - respect her 6am - 6pm alarm lockdown schedule, never make noise, never argue loudly, in short, never act like human beings. Indeed, bliss will be restored. Heaven on earth will prevail.

Aahhhhh!

Time to focus

News blues…

With POTUS and FLOTUS (President and First Lady of the US) positive for Covid-19, expect this news to outdo all other news for the next couple of weeks.
Impatient with predictions – making or listening to – I’ll go out on a limb and predict many more positive diagnoses of White House staff and US Congresspeople. 

Already Kellyanne Conway is positive , as is Thom Tillis …. 

“At least 7 other people who attended event for Trump’s supreme court nominee have confirmed they have coronavirus.”   If I was a conspiracy theorist or fundamental religious, I’d find something revelatory or apocryphal in this news. Instead, my takeaway? Wear a mask! It’s not politics, but simple, no-brainer math: highly contagious airborne virus = need for practical protection.
Unprecedented times.
“No one has *any* idea what happens next….” 

***

The Lincoln Project: Heartland  (0:1.38 mins)
Meidas Touch: Fire Susan: Susan Collins Betrayed Us  (0:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

In parts of urban San Francisco Bay Area, goats are herded onto public parks to eat the grass. Thailand, however, expands this concept in a mind-blowingly imaginative way. “10,000 ducks ‘cleaning’ rice paddies.”  (2:14 mins)

***

Planetary ‘safety net’ could halt wildlife loss and slow climate breakdown 

***

Is It Too Late To Stop Climate Change? Well, it's Complicated.  (10:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It is still raining here. And, so far today, very foggy. I’m frustrated as falling behind schedule on getting this house on the market. As a former project manager, with the career-borne mantra “on budget and on time”, rain is, well, not something with which one can argue. If only!

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!