Silver linings

The Africa Medical Supplies Platform is coming!
Ubuntu in action.
The AMSP is designed to unlock access to supplies across the continent and save money for African countries suffering high rates of viral infection.
I hope it works.
President Ramaphosa calls it a “silver lining… the glue that is going to bind the continent together.”

“The one-stop shop [will] give the continent a fairer chance in the international scramble for Covid-19 test kits, protective equipment and any vaccines that emerge.” 

Finally, a scramble for Africa by Africans for Africans.

News blues…

Trump, post Tulsa rally.
Click to enlarge.

Portrait of a man beaten - at least, a man temporarily beaten.
Trump, being Trump, will find a way to rebound and reframe and re-rally.
For now, though, even his tie has come undone.
As mentioned yesterday, I’m not a fan but I recognize compassion when I feel it.
Watch the 3 short video memes in this article – set to appropriate music - and tell me you don’t feel a flicker of pity for The Donald as the memes multiply….

Is Donald Trump finally paying “a direct, personal price for his pandemic denial - the possible shelving of the thing he cares about most, the raucous rallies that defined his political rise and are crucial to his reelection hopes”? 

We’ll see.

Sara Cooper passes comment on Trump’s Tulsa turmoil with her latest voice over: How to empty seat. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m not a person who shies from “speaking truth to power” – no matter the power. I’m not very successful at it – no eponymous not-for-profit organization, few interviews on “mainstream media”, little to no income generated from freelance writing, radio show short-lived – four years (Raising Sand Radio), conned by my book publisher, etc., etc.
Moreover, I’m an equal opportunity speaker: I alienate friends and colleagues on the Left and foes on the Right, and on multiple continents, too. (I’m not boasting. I wish I had better control of the conduit between my outrage and my emotional intelligence.)
Overall, though, I’m not someone who gives up. It’s odd, therefore, to find myself locked up in Lockdown, inside looking out.
I follow the rules: maintain social distance, wear a mask, wash my hands, and stay home.
I read online news. I participate in webinars. I read WhatsApp messages from a small circle of friends (one of whom, after I requested that she discern truth from conspiracy theories, deleted me from her group).
While I talk regularly on the phone to friends and family in the US – who follow virus-related safety precautions, stay home, and work online via Zoom - I’m without face-to-face friends.
Nevertheless, I’m relatively cozy: nourished, warm enough, safe enough.
“Out there”: hunger stalks, cold weather unavoidable, and, too often, shelter and security inadequate. Accordingly, I donate small amounts of funds to a local non-profit that provides food and essentials to children and families. It all feels – is – insufficient in the face of reality.

One day a week, I learn from our public-taxi-commuting gardener about the effects of lockdown on him, his family, and residents of his “location.”
(FYI: “Location” usually describes an underdeveloped sub-urban residential area. “Township” denotes larger residential communities built on the periphery of towns and cities that may/may not offer electricity, septic tanks, garbage/rubbish disposal service. “Informal settlements” describes shacks cobbled together on land residents have no legal claim to/occupy illegally and offer no amenities other than what is carried in/out.)
The gardener reports that, to date, no one he knows has contracted Covid-19, that, of those residents who had jobs before lockdown, many still have jobs waiting for them and, for now, income/handouts from those jobs. (I’m happy to hear it although I suspect this is unusual.)

With infections surging in South Africa, I reduced our gardener’s working/commuting days to reduce the risk of contagion for my 87-year-old mother and her two health-compromised, live-in domestic workers (one diabetic, one asthmatic).
I found him another day job in the neighborhood. I offered to place a classified ad in the local newspaper seeking yet another day of work, if needed. He declined: his current schedule suits.
Last week, after work, I sent him home with an assortment of groceries: chicken, rice, apples, spinach, potatoes etc., and chocolate brownies for his two kids.
It’s awkward purchasing groceries across culinary cultures. Would his family like chicken feet or chicken thighs? Canned beans or unprocessed samp? Chocolate cookies or garish pink coconut-sprinkled puff balls?
Whether more to Euro-American than Zula taste buds, he carried the groceries in two ordinary store bags.
This week, I played it safe and gave him one 12.5 kg bag of mealie/maize meal, a Zulu staple.
He asked for a black bin liner.
As I handed it over, he explained the opaque bin liner disguises the contents resulting in fewer strangers hitting him up for food.

***

I’ve two more opportunities to flee and fly:

Opportunity 1: Health Alert: Announcing June 27 Repatriation Flight on Lufthansa – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa.
Event:  The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed [then] 83,890 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
Announcing June 27 Lufthansa Flight
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Lufthansa from Cape Town to Frankfurt and onward connecting destinations on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
Flight information:

• Potential passengers must book their tickets directly with Lufthansa. To make a booking please visit: www.lufthansa.com. Seats are subject to availability and sales close on 21 June 2020.
• IMPORTANT: You must select “ONE WAY” when making you booking online, as this a special repatriation flight and not a regular commercial flight. Only once you have made a confirmed booking for this repatriation flight, you must complete the attached Passenger Information excel document and return this to Lufthansa via the following email: Jnbmarketing@dlh.de
• The flight will depart from Cape Town to Frankfurt, Germany and connecting destinations.
• Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States.
• Once the flight has been closed for sale, all passengers who have purchased a ticket will receive information about the assembly point. This will be provided by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Passengers will be responsible for finding transportation to the required assembly point. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany will issue you with a letter which allows passengers to travel to the assembly point. Thereafter, all passengers will be transported from the assembly point to Cape Town International Airport by bus. Please note that you may not travel directly to the airport yourself.
• For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Lufthansa directly.

Opportunity 2: Health Alert: Announcing June 28 Repatriation Flight on Ethiopian Airlines – U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa
Event: The South African Ministry of Health has confirmed 101,590 cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
We have been notified of a special commercial repatriation flight operated by Ethiopian Airlines to Chicago, United States on Sunday, June 28.
Flight information:

• Interested passengers must book their tickets directly with Ethiopian Airlines by contacting SouthAfricaSalesTeam@ethiopianairlines.com.
• The flight will depart from Johannesburg and then Cape Town on Sunday, June 28 before proceeding to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and onward to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, United States.
• Passengers will be responsible for travel to their final destination in the United States from Chicago O’Hare.
• 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 by Ethiopian Airways prior to the flight departure.
• Travel permission letters for U.S. citizens and green card holders are not required unless you will be crossing provinces to arrive at the assembly point. If you must cross a provincial border to join this repatriation flight, please write to SAEvacuation@state.gov requesting a travel letter. Include your name, passport or greencard number, current address, and flight confirmation.
• For any questions regarding availability, cost, baggage allowance, or other flight details, please contact Ethiopian Airlines directly.
  ...

U.S. Mission Repatriation EffortsIf 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.
To date, over 30 repatriation flights have departed to the United States in coordination with airlines and friendly mission partners since the government lockdown, returning over 1500 U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and visa holders to the United States. For questions about other potential upcoming repatriation opportunities, please contact the airlines directly for details.…

Despite my personal drawbacks and the public health situation, I’m mentally-emotionally unable to depart.
Certainly, travel restrictions affect my decision – how do I make my way to Cape Town? Or Johannesburg? – but restrictions hamper only if I allow them to hamper.
Rather, I appear to have accepted/intuited that I’ll remain here until the expected surge – August? September? – has receded.
In other words, the conduit between my brain and my emotional intelligence has presented a solution I can live with – at least psychologically.
Yet, I must figure out how to vote in the US presidential election, 3 November.
Silver linings, indeed.

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Capitalizing on capitalism

The planet is on the cusp of 9 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 with almost half a million dead.
A month or two ago such numbers seemed wildly unlikely.
Now? Not so much.
As confirmed cases keep multiplying - South Africa heads towards 100,000, Brazil 1.1 million, and the US 2.3 million – we humans adjust, albeit reluctantly. Some adjust by increasing their humanity to fellow humans. Others adjust by increasing their net worth.
Back in 1981, Pink Floyd’s music alluded to the power of money over the human psyche:

Money, it's a gas/ Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash…
Money, get back/ I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it's a hit/ Don't give me that do goody good bullshit

(Listen to “Money”  - 6:29 mins)

Maybe I’m full of “that do goody good bullshit” but… I’m still shocked by revelations that nursing homes are evicting frail, poor/low income elderly humans in favor of elderly humans who bring in more … money.

… in America, nursing homes have come to symbolize the deadly destruction of the coronavirus crisis. More than 51,000 residents and employees of nursing homes and long-term care facilities have died, representing more than 40 percent of the total death toll in the United States.
But even as they have been ravaged, nursing homes … are taking on coronavirus-stricken patients to ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals — and, at times, to bolster their bottom lines.
… They are kicking out old and disabled residents — among the people most susceptible to the coronavirus — and shunting them into homeless shelters, rundown motels, and other unsafe facilities…
Many of the evictions, known as involuntary discharges, appear to violate federal rules that require nursing homes to place residents in safe locations and to provide them with at least 30 days’ notice before forcing them to leave.
… Medicare often pays for short-term rehabilitation stints; Medicaid covers longer-term stays for poor people.
Nursing homes have long had a financial incentive to evict Medicaid patients in favor of those who pay through private insurance or Medicare, which reimburses nursing homes at a much higher rate than Medicaid.
RC Kendrick, an 88-year-old with dementia, was living at Lakeview Terrace [where his] family had placed him there to make sure he got round-the-clock care after his condition deteriorated and he began disappearing for days at a time.
But on April 6, the nursing home deposited Mr. Kendrick at an unregulated boardinghouse — without bothering to inform his family. Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Kendrick was wandering the city alone.
… According to three Lakeview employees, Mr. Kendrick’s ouster came as the nursing home was telling staff members to try to clear out less-profitable residents to make room for a new class of customers who would generate more revenue: patients with Covid-19.

News blues…

Trump held a re-election campaign rally – and nobody came!
Trump claimed a million people would show up at the venue that has a capacity of 19,000. Only 6,200 showed up.
Naturally, he and his team blame the media, “thugs” aka protesters, this, that, and the next thing.
Turns out, he was punked by savvy teenagers. 

The Lincoln Project quickly responded to the failed rally:

Donald Trump kicked off his re-launch in Tulsa. And, like the man himself, it was a disaster, and much smaller than he promised.
But, as soon as he started talking, he did exactly what we thought he would do: lie, praise the Confederacy, and then lie some more.
Every time Trump opens his mouth, we need to be there to hit back with the truth.
What a failure.
He's losing.
We can see it in the polls, and now Donald Trump can see it in his own crowds: His numbers are shrinking.
He can’t deliver on COVID-19 testing. And now he can’t even deliver crowds.
Millions are turning away from Trump….

Watch the ad, Shrinking (0:45 mins)

I admit that I am not only not a Trump fan but I am the opposite of a fan, something Merriam Webster defines “nonadmirer”, “belittler”, “carper”, “critic”, and “detractor.”
I’d accept “nonadmirer” and “critic” but my lack of fan-dom is more complicated than simply pasting the correct term on my feelings.
I also harbor a smidgen of compassion for The Donald.
His narcissism combined with his craving to be loved means he’s both where he wants to be – the center of attention – and where he hates to be – publicly lampooned around the world.
For a world class narcissist, this is psychological torment.
I agree with Trump’s former friend, Howard Stern, SiriusXM radio host, who claimed during an interview with Steven Colbert, that Donald Trump didn’t really want to be president.

“I firmly believe that Donald did not want to run for president, I don’t think it was serious…. I knew him. He had a great life at Mar-a-Lago. He was running around town. He played golf. He had a good time.”
Stern said Trump was trying to negotiate more money from NBC for “The Apprentice” and ran for president as a tactic to get a raise.

Ouch. Instead of The Apprentice and a hefty raise, Trump’s known as Ass, Buffoon, Bully, Bunker Boy, Clown - and at least 25 other names.

I’ve a solution: Trump should feign a heart attack and give up the presidency – out of the goodness of his heart, of course.
A fake/ faux heart attack would earn him sympathy rather than antipathy. From his palatial sick bed he could Tweet how it’s not his fault that he can no longer carry the world upon his shoulders, how unfair it is that the American People are deprived of his bigly deal-making skills, how he’ll MAGA from the 100th floor of Trump Tower or his Mar-a-Largo suite….
A faux heart attack would solve Trump’s president problem – and the world’s Trump problem.
It’s a win/win for the world and a zero/sum game for Trump.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My soft spot for vervet monkeys comes from a childhood with a young male vervet as a pet. Jacko went everywhere with me and my brothers – for long hikes and horse rides in the veldt (grasslands), swimming, bathing, sleeping….
The closest I come to befriending the monkeys in this neighborhood is admiring them and talking to them as they pass.
Once largely considered vermin in South Africa, vervets are protected by national and provincial conservation legislation and national animal protection legislation. They’ve been on the Cites (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) list since 1974 although were only declared "protected" in September 2004.
Injuring or killing vervet monkeys is a jail-able offence. That does not mean, unfortunately, that people do not harm them. (This 3-egged monkey lost a hind leg to accident, trap, or injury)

A troop of at least 37 vervet monkeys visited the garden today, in dribs and drabs – some raided the avocado tree and some the bird feeder while others dashed to-and-fro along the aerial electrical cable (amazing how they use their tails to balance on the narrow cable).
Winter is in full swing and monkeys are hungry. Feeding them is not an option: they become more dependent, more of a nuisance, more likely to become aggressive towards other species and humans, and more likely to be injured or killed by irate humans.
Moreover, wild monkeys are highly susceptible to diseases from human hands and can die from bacteria transferred from a human hand that has no ill effect on the human.
Feeding creates a dangerous dependency on humans that diminishes the monkeys’ survival abilities.
Contrary to the stereotype, bananas are not the preferred food of monkeys in the wild. Bananas, especially those containing pesticides, can be upsetting to the monkeys’ delicate digestive system and cause serious dental problems that can lead to eventual death.
Feeding interferes with the monkeys’ natural habits and upsets the balance of lives centered on eating wild fruits, seeds, small animals, and insects.
Most interestingly, monkeys need to travel an average of 17 kilometers each day to be in good physical condition. If they know that food is available in a particular location, they will not leave that area.

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Smart, at last!

Happy Father’s Day and happy solstice!

News blues…

In South Africa, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that in the past 24 hours, “the cumulative number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 92,681. The mortality rate is 2 percent.”
These numbers are alarming – particularly as South Africans, like Americans, appear to have decided the risk of contracting the virus is more welcome than suffering further lockdown tedium.
The people of Tulsa, Oklahoma, however, displayed unexpected wisdom and didn’t budge from home.
After weeks of controversy about Trump’s first campaign rally to take place in months “and held against the advice of Trump’s own coronavirus task force, which had urged White House officials to nix the event amid fears it might spread coronavirus,” Americans elected to watch it on TV.
Perhaps it was the message that:

“potential rallygoers would participate in the event at their own risk [or that the] registration page for the rally included “a legal disclaimer that said attendees could not sue Trump or his campaign if they found themselves infected with COVID-19” [or that] the Trump campaign confirmed that at least six Trump rally staffers [had] tested positive for the coronavirus [and were]...immediately quarantined.”  

Whatever kept you home (an expected audience of 925,000!) We the People salute you!
I paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr.: Smart, smart at last, thank the gods, you’re getting smart at last!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Focusing on something other than lockdown continues to challenge. With domestic conundrums waking me each day with tense neck and shoulders muscles and tension headaches, I’m running out of new obsessions. (“Symptoms of Lockdown Fever.”)
The change to cold weather has subdued my garden and garden pond obsessions (goldfish are hiding; pond weed paths now covered with cypress needles; canna plants eradicated, cat’s claw eradication ongoing).
Alas, like nature, human brains abhor a vacuum, so this human brain is revisiting ideas for remodeling Otter Pop, my pontoon houseboat.
Currently, alone and unvisited, Otter Pop docks in a small marina on the San Joaquin River in California’s Sacramento Delta.
Until January, when I departed the US, I’d maintained the boat, the outboard motor, a deck garden with pots of basil, tomatoes, and parsley, and several hummingbirds that dropped by to sip at the feeder hanging off the bow.
On this winter solstice, I long for Otter Pop, summer temperatures (upper 30s, even low 40s C / 90s into 100s F), birds and otters and fish, fellow mariners, glorious sunrises and sunsets, even the islands of invasive water hyacinth that float through the marina's channel.
Instead, I’m cold, locked down, and isolated
All is not dismal, however: I’ve begun a virtual remodel of Otter Pop.
I’m researching materials with which to upgrade the deck – exterior and interior, how to clean two pontoons, or who I could hire to de-foul and maintain the pontoons, if necessary.
Besides overall maintainance, I plan to enlarge the “head” – the shower/toilet space – replace the too-small kitchen sink, and insulate interior walls with spray-on foam insulation.
Not sure when I’ll board Otter Pop again, but when I do, I’ll have plans aplenty.

Click to enlarge.
(c) Susan Galleymore
Jabula Arts

Sculpture on my mind.
Last week I mentioned my interest in returning to work in clay, or clay-like material.  The experiment conducted with cement/peat didn’t work: the mixed material is too soft and requires too much set up time.
The yen to work clay, however, hasn’t diminished.
As I figure out my next move on how to satisfy this yen, I revisit past sculptures, a handful of which exhibited in the San Francisco Bay Area (Link to my Heedlessness series. )
This series grew out of meditating upon a line of Rumi poetry: "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend.”
Apt, no?

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Avoid the “3 Cs”

Scientists around the world are sharing more of their findings about Covid-19.
Japanese research, for example, advises humans avoid the “3 Cs”: closed environments, crowded places, and close-contact settings.
Moreover, “Any one of us could unknowingly be a superspreader.”

News blues…

Reality check:

• Covid-19-related deaths rose to 1,831 across South Africa, including 60 deaths reported in the Western Cape, 27 in Gauteng and seven in KZN. 
• Brazil is now the world's second worst-hit country with more than 1 million COVID-19 cases, and nearly 50,000 deaths. 
• India reported 14,516 coronavirus cases and 375 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Remember, avoid the “3 Cs”, wear masks, wash hands, measure distance between people, and stay safe.

***

Ouch, The Lincoln Project is ramping up on Donald Trump. Their latest hard-hitting ad, “China”,  will drive The Donald crazy. (Well, crazier than usual. That whiff of smoke you detect wafting in Washington and Mar-a-Largo? That’s Bunker Boy’s Twitter account sizzling as he tries to duck and cover….)

***

Week’s Webinars
Daily Maverick: “Risks and Rotisserie Chicken: How safe is our food during Covid-19?” 
Hosted by Estelle Ellis with food expert Professor Lucia Anelich.
Takeaways:

• No current evidence the virus is transmitted via contaminated food and food packaging. (Coronavirus is a primarily a respiratory, not digestive, illness.)
• Do not disinfect your groceries with soap and water (soap is toxic to humans’ digestive systems).
• Virus is susceptible to drying out.
• Refrigeration and freezing prolongs virus survival.
• Virus does not fare well in higher temps, above 30 or 32 Celsius.
• Sunlight: virus “seems not to like sunlight,” but person/item would have to be in sunlight for “a few hours” to negatively affect virus.
• Virus only replicates in the host cells – not outside cells, surfaces, etc.
• Gloves: not a good way of dealing with Covid-19, particularly when dealing with food. Often give a false sense of security: hand washing is more effective than wearing gloves.
• Supermarket trollies and baskets: wipe handles down before use.
• Safety glasses: okay but be vigilant and do not rub eyes.
• Disinfect shoes? WHO says virus not transmissible via shoes and disinfecting streets not useful.
• Dogs: no indications that strangers touching/patting your dog spreads virus.
• Taking temperatures and listing names: food industry does/must take temps; person taking temp should be protected with mask and regularly sanitize hands.
• Handling money/cash: sanitize hands after handling/handing over/accepting money – both paper and coins.
• Air con: consensus that virus is not aerosolized in office environment – distribute by large droplets within a meter of person shedding droplets.
• Disinfection booths: avoid them.
• Be aware. Practice safe food handling. Wear masks, correctly; Wash hand, correctly (20 seconds at least).

Mail & Guardian: “COVID-19 & WFH: Best practices for employers and employees to adapt work-from-home as the new normal.” 
Moderator: Melody Xaba, Learning & Development Consultant & Co-Founder of My Future Work. Presenters: Colin Erasmus, Modern Workplace Business Group Lead at Microsoft; Bronwyn Williams, Trend Translator & Future Finance Specialist at Flux Trends.
Takeaways re (Working from Home) WFH:

• Pros: flexibility for employees; employers can save costs; requires trust;
• Cons: small children at home, not at school, cuts down on productivity; requires trust;
• Review of Tools, systems, contractual obligations, technologies; Using devices (headsets, laptops, phones); Security; Generational challenges; Types of work.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Warmer weather, and sunshine!
Neighborhood walks resumed; neighborhood dogs woof and howl as I pass by; neighborhood vegetation looking peaky but not frozen.

***

What, I wonder, are the statistics on infection rates of passengers on repatriation flights? Reviewing the risks of transmission during air travel makes me (somewhat) happy I’ve stayed put.

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Heedless

The numbers, this week and last week:

• June 19 - worldwide: 8,489,000 confirmed infections; 454,0007 deaths
  - June 12 - worldwide: 7,514,500 infections; 421,460 deaths
• June 19 - US: 2,191,100 confirmed infections; 118,435 deaths
  - June 12 - US: 2,043,500 infections; 114,000 deaths
• June 19 - SA: 83,890 confirmed infections; 1,737 deaths
  - June 12 - SA: 58,568 infections; 1285 deaths

March 29, 1968, Memphis Tennessee. 

US National Guard troops block off 

Beale Street as civil rights marchers 

pass by during the third consecutive 

march led by the group in as many days. 

© Bettman Archive/Getty Images.

Click to enlarge.

Juneteenth – a combination of the words "June" and "19th" – is the primary holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
The date is tied to a speech given by Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, in 1895, in Galveston, Texas. In "General Order No. 3, Gordon declared that, owing to the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln more than two years earlier, "all slaves are free."
The order did not end slavery overnight in Texas, just as Lincoln's earlier proclamation had not ended its practice in other Confederate states. But a few years later, formerly enslaved people of Texas, particularly in the area around Galveston, began to celebrate Juneteenth as the day of slavery's abolition.
Alternatively known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Cel-Liberation Day, is often marked by parades and public ceremonies.

News blues…

A recent post mentioned an amorphous, white supremacist, far-right anti-government movement called Boogaloo and its adherents, Boogaloo Boys/Bois.
In our current world of extreme prejudice and whackjobery, the word “boogaloo” is shorthand for stimulating a second American civil war. The name may reference a 1984 film, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, glamorizing armed conflict with authorities and law enforcement. (Ironically, in the 1960s, boogaloo was a genre of music and dance popular in the US - a fusion of popular Latin, African American rhythm and blues and soul.)
Boogaloo (the xenophobic group) has been deeply involved with disinformation activities following the lockdowns related to COVID-19.
Now, Boogaloo Boys have been specifically mentioned in charging documents filed against 32-year-old Steven Carrillo in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
US Air Force Sergeant Carrillo, a leader of an elite security force from a nearby military base, was charged with killing other security force members. He ambushed Santa Cruz deputies and threw pipe bombs at police on June 6, killing Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller and wounding four other officers. He has also been federally charged with the murder of federal security officer Pat Underwood, killed in a drive-by shooting on May 29 in Oakland. (An area close to where I work when in California.)

Whackjobery: it’s bottomless

Disinformation is the emergent weapon of choice of dis-informers, aka conspiracy theorists (aka “bullsh*t Berties”).
The current crop of dis-informers takes it cues from the president of the United States.
We’re not talking the usual kind of agit-prop put out by politicians and political parties. We’re talking nasty sh*t designed to dog whistle the easily swayed and the dangerous.
Latest pro-Trump gambit? Facebook ads displaying a red inverted triangle with text asking Facebook users to sign a petition against antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement. (See post “Change in political and economic power.”)
In a tweet on Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said of the symbol:

“The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive.” The Facebook ads were run on pages belonging to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and also appeared in ads and organic posts on the “Team Trump” page.

I fear this is the beginning of an even more virulent disinformation campaign by an increasingly desperate Trump team. Essentially, he asking, “Boogaloo anyone?”

***

Despite a political worldview far from Republicanism, I promote the work of The Lincoln Project , a self-described Republican group focused on ousting Trump and Trumpism.
How is The Lincoln Project different from run-of-the-mill agit-prop generators?
Jennifer Horn, co-founder of the project, explains.
The Lincoln Project responds to Trump’s first rally since the start of the pandemic. It’s to be held tomorrow in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The ad, “Tulsa.” 

***

Chickens, home, roosting, etc.
On the eve of Trump’s first re-election campaign rally since the start of the pandemic, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford, warned wanna-be attendees at high risk from the coronavirus:

“… if you have comorbidities, if you are older, or you have other health issues, don’t come. …Watch it on TV.
Lankford stopped short of joining public health experts who have condemned the Trump campaign’s decision to host the event indoors at the 19,000-capacity BOK Center, saying the president is “always welcome” to come to the state.
Lockdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus were eased in Oklahoma weeks ago and a fresh surge in infections was expected, Lankford said. He said the rise in cases wasn’t accompanied by an increase in hospitalizations or deaths.
People seeking tickets to Trump’s rally had to acknowledge a waiver on the Trump campaign website that they won’t sue organizers if they contract the coronavirus at the event.
The Trump campaign said it will hand out face masks and hand sanitizer to attendees. The president himself flouts Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines by refusing to wear a mask in public.
Lankford said wearing a mask would be “an individual decision” for rally attendees.
“The hard part about it, and I’ve tried to explain this to other folks, when you’re at a large gathering like that, as you know, it’s hard to be able to hear sometimes,” he said. “So there’s going to be times, they’re gonna pull masks on and off. That’s why I really encourage people, if you have other health issues, I discourage you from coming to the event. But a lot of folks are coming, and the state is very excited about receiving the president.”

What to say?
Perhaps take a lesson from Arizona’s pro-Trump Republican sheriff, Mark Lamb? Back in April, Lamb refused to continue enforcing Arizona’s coronavirus lockdown order.
This week, he announced he’d tested positive for Covid-18 during a visit to the White House where he’d been invited to join President Donald Trump at a campaign event.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My vehicle’s 2020 license was due for renewal by the end of April. The deadline has been extended, but my past experiences at the department leads me towards pro-action. Accordingly, I’ve dropped by the municipal offices and enquired about renewal.
First, I was told the office would open for business the following week.
The following week the gate was shut, and the security guards advised, “Come back next week.”
The following week, the gate was closed and, since then, remains closed.

Meanwhile, the saga of cancelling my mother’s Telkom telephone account continues. (See post, “Boiling frogs”)
I’ve cancelled the account online – as per Telkom voice instructions. Nevertheless, my mother continues to receive bills. Calling Telkom directly frustrates as I’m directed to “use the app” – except the app is an malfunctioning endless loop. I’ve repeatedly cancelled online, also as directed. I suspect cancelling her Telkom account will become another burr under my saddle of SA bureaucracy. It reminds me of a joke:

A man dies and goes to hell.
There, he discovers each country has its own version of hell.
He decides to go with the least painful version.
At the door to German Hell, he is told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."
Not liking the sound of that, he visits American Hell, Russian Hell, Norwegian Hell, and many other countries versions of hell. All are gruesome.
At the door to South African Hell, however, a long line of people waits to enter.
Amazed, he asks, "What do they do in this Hell?"
A woman tells him, "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the South African devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day."
"But that's the same as other countries. Why are so many people waiting for that?"
“Ah,” she smiles, "Because of load-shedding, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable. And the South African devil was a civil servant, so he comes into work, signs his time sheet, then goes back home to run his own business.

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He speaks!

President Cyril Ramaphosa came out of hiding last night and presented a pandemic update.  (35:18 mins)
Along with clarifications and updates on continuing Alert Level 3, Ramaphosa addressed the epidemic of violence against women in this country. He recognized – by name – at least two dozen women and children recently murdered by the men in their lives.
Over the last weeks, I’ve grumbled about the dearth of Ramaphosa updates.
When he does update the nation, however, he consistently does a good job, certainly far superior to those of Trump, in terms of topic, tone, substance, focus, and, yes, in absence of lies and “other” bashing.
Staying with Trump for a moment who, mercifully, has refrained from personally presenting any of his lie-laden updates. This, largely because he’s pretending the pandemic is over, done, finished and klaar.
Indeed, both Trump and toady VP Mike Pence posit that, if “we” didn’t test, “we” wouldn’t have an increase in cases.
Pence – after disbanding the coronavirus taskforce – now praises “all 50 states for beginning to reopen in a “safe and responsible manner,” while both he and Trump accuse the media of “fear mongering” and being in “hysteria mode.”
(To quote Joe Biden: “malarkey!” Numbers of cases are spiking, particulary in states that followd Trump's advice on reopening.)

Anyway… good to hear from Ramaphosa who presented infection numbers, rates of increase, forthcoming challenges, and, yes, hope.
Let's hope he makes his next update sooner rather than later.

News blues…

Apparently South Africa is refloating a plan for more nuclear energy after the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) “to enable it to assess nuclear technologies.”
Why?
Why spend any more money on an energy source that presents such challenges, particularly to a low-tech country?
Why not spend the money on renewable energy rather than a energy source whose by-product and waste present insurmountable problems even to high-tech countries?
Take the US, for example, that has more than 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste requiring disposal plus, ditto, for another 80,000 metric tons of waste produced by its commercial power industry.
US Government Accountability Office (GAO) states, “highly radioactive waste is currently stored at sites in 35 states because no repository has been developed for the permanent disposal of this waste.” (Read GAO’s issue summary and the map of current disposal sites.)
Imagine relatiely small South Africa seeking permanent disposal sites for incredibly toxic waste.
Moreover, back in 2016, South Africa’s proposed nuclear build program was estimated to cost at least ZAR3 trillion. It was “estimated South Africa will have to borrow R1.2 trillion for the deal. Think of it: ZAR1 trillion would build 100 million RDP houses - with running water, sewage systems, etc.
Why, when the world knows so much about the problems of nuclear energy - financial and environmental costs, contamination, disposal, etc. - would any country, let alone low-tech South Africa, grow a nuclear industry?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Weather here today is out of the California winter playbook: cold, rainy, and overcast.
No neighborhood walk.
Just hunkering down - and repeating to myself: “this, too, shall pass!”

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Only connect

“Study the science of art. Study the art of science… Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

…seeing the interconnectedness of diverse aspects of the world went out of fashion after the Renaissance, when Western thinkers largely adopted a more atomistic, analytical approach to science and philosophy pioneered by scientists such as Galileo and philosophers such as René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes [who viewed] the world in terms of individualised foundations or building blocks, which could be best understood through analysis rather than integration. The new approach was: if you want to know how things work, take them apart and examine the pieces.” 

We humans can take things apart. It’s examining them – or not – and putting the pieces back together with coherence that challenges us.

News blues…

Poisoned vultures
in Mozambique.
Photo: Andre Botha/AP
Click to enlarge.

At least 87 critically endangered birds died in Mozambique after eating poison planted by poachers in the carcass of an elephant.
[In India]… from 1992 to 2007, [the] most common three vulture species declined by between 97% and 99.9%... only once the vultures had gone did people realise the crucial job they had been doing in clearing up the corpses of domestic and wild animals. Rotting carcasses contaminated water supplies, while rats and feral dogs multiplied, leading to a huge increase in the risk of disease for humans.
…a decade [later]… the key cause [of vultures’ deaths] was confirmed… feeding on animal carcasses containing diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug routinely given to domestic cattle but poisonous to birds.
… a similar story is unfolding in Africa … home to 11 of the world’s 16 old world vulture species. … From Kenya to Ethiopia, Botswana and South Africa, these birds have been a reassuring and seemingly permanent presence wherever big game animals roam. But now there are signs that Africa’s vulture populations are also plummeting at an alarming rate.
…while deliberate poisoning by poachers does occur, other cases are unintentional. “Pastoralists and rural farmers try to protect their livestock from wild dogs, jackals, lions and hyenas by poisoning predators, and vultures are the unfortunate collateral damage.”
“Another fundamental problem is the rapid economic growth and accompanying consumption and construction of infrastructure,” he says. Power lines and wind turbines are a particular problem if safe design principles are ignored. Vultures – due to their large size – are especially vulnerable to colliding with them, or being electrocuted when perching.
…“Vultures play a vital role within human ecosystems that most people are unaware of, and so they don’t class their conservation as important. We only have to look to Asia as an example of what could happen in the face of continued vulture declines in Africa.”

Making connections

…scientists have referred to the diversity of life on Earth as “biological diversity”, or just “biodiversity”….[defined] as operating at three levels: the diversity of genes within any particular species; the diversity of species in a given place; and the diversity of habitat types such as forests, coral reefs, and so on. But … [a] fourth level has been almost entirely overlooked: cultural diversity.
Culture is knowledge and skills that flow socially from individual to individual and generation to generation. It’s not in genes. Socially learned skills, traditions and dialects that answer the question of “how we live here” are crucial to helping many populations survive – or recover. Crucially, culturally learned skills vary from place to place. In the human family many cultures, underappreciated, have been lost. Culture in the other-than-human world has been almost entirely missed.
… in many species, survival skills must be learned from elders who learned from their elders. Until now, culture has remained a largely hidden, unrecognised layer of wild lives. Yet for many species culture is both crucial and fragile. Long before a population declines to numbers low enough to seem threatened with extinction, their special cultural knowledge, earned and passed down over long generations, begins disappearing. Recovery of lost populations then becomes much more difficult than bringing in a few individuals and turning them loose.
…Cultural survival skills erode as habitats shrink. Maintaining genetic diversity is not enough. We’ve become accustomed to a perilous satisfaction with precariously minimal populations that not only risk genetic viability of populations but almost guarantee losing local cultural knowledge by which populations have lived and survived.
…What’s at stake is: ways of knowing how to be in the world. Culture isn’t just a boutique concern. Cultural knowledge is what allows many populations to survive. Keeping the knowledge of how to live in a habitat can be almost as important to the persistence of a species as keeping the habitat; both are needed. Cultural diversity itself is a source of resilience and adaptability to change. And change is accelerating.

***

Daily Maverick Webinar Exclusive, “Influence: From South Africa ‘94 to Trump ‘20, how elections are manipulated & monetised across the world.”

In 1993, Western strategic communications specialists were brought in to help political parties prepare for South Africa's first democratic election. Their work in part paved the way for the development of a lucrative and far-reaching new business model: the commodification of democracy, through the manipulation of election campaigns.

Join Influence directors Richard Poplak and Diana Neille in conversation with Nigel Oakes on what went on behind the scenes of the '94 election; how it helped establish a host of new weaponised communications tools for geopolitical processes in the 21st century, and what we can expect in the lead-up to the 2020 election in the United States.

Nigel Oakes is a British behavioural thought leader and defence scientist, whose ideas have laid the foundation for many significant developments in both military influence and population analysis. He is the former CEO of SCL Group, which was the holding company for Cambridge Analytica, and is the current Chairman of the Behavioural Dynamics Institute. Oakes was one of the consultants who helped prepare for the 1994 elections.

I urge you to watch this webinar.
Nigel Oakes describes himself as “amoral” – and, indeed, that’s his excuse for doing things that would be better undone.
After the webinar, read Christopher Wylie’s book, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America. (Get the kindle edition at your local library or buy at Amazon  )

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Time to hibernate.
Little overnight frost last night and none predicted tonight.
The garden looks gray, burned, and exhausted.
I’ll prune frost-burned plants later in the season. For now, what remains of the damaged plants – blackened and shriveled buds, leaves, and limbs - provide shelter for undamaged plants.

Uniform gray, burned, and exhausted plants and gardens in evidence throughout the neighborhood during my (mercifully uneventful) daily walk.
Overcast weather was cold enough that, despite wearing a heavy faux-sheepskin jacket and thick pants, I did not overheat.
Dogs barked. I barked back. Dogs barked more. I passed by. Next household’s dog barked…

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