Pumpkin Diary Entry 3

All that Constitutional sanctity and American exceptionalism horseshit that was rammed down our throats growing up is really coming back to bite us on the ass.

People know we have a constitution, and they know that it's important, they just don't know specifically what's actually in it, the limits of what's in it, and how the things that are in it can be amended. They also don't seem to realize that a constitution isn't some magical thing unique to the USA.

Thinking that America is the greatest, most infallible nation on earth has just led to regressive thinking and has made it impossible for anything to actually change or get better. A theme that was always hammered home to me was "America might not be perfect, but we're still the best and American style capitalism is still the best for everyone"... Any suggestion that our policies or attitudes should be different and/or more in-line with how the rest of the world does things (when those things are proven to work) is met with belligerent hostility and ignorance. They don't even have a frame of reference to what they're arguing against.

C19 Diary Entry 1

I suppose for today this is just going to be some informally structured random thoughts from the last week or two.

My grandmother is in the hospital + for covid19. She can breathe on her own, as of right now things are looking up. I've just been trying to distract myself since there's nothing I can do. Can't visit hospitals right now.

Yes, Trump is making things worse, but we knew that would happen. This thing may not have gotten so out of control so fast if his #1 priority wasn't the stock market. The map of the US with all of the various hot zones? That's the price of capitalism-at-any-cost. Governors and local leaders in mostly red states are taking a combative attitude toward CDC advice. This is the cost of ignoring science and adopting a general anti-scienctific attitude and mindset. Scores online believe dangerous conspiracies that are going to kill people. This is the cost of allowing right wing trolls free reign to try and shape the reality to their liking. ... the point I was really trying to make is that it's not just Trump fanning the flames, it's the millions of people that put him in office as well.

C and I were talking about what "good" might come out of all of this. Though the dolphins appearing in Venice story was fake, one does wonder what the net affect of the recession/depression is going to be on the environment. I would certainly never promote the human suffering of a depression for the purpose of advancing some sort of "Green rebirth" idea (sorry conspiracy theorists, nobody wants that)... but, since everyone in our government seems hellbent on making all of this worse and we're just watching this slow-motion train wreck. We already know that cases of sickness from smog in Beijing and elsewhere in China is way down and they estimate there will be thousands of lives saved from pollution related respiratory illness. Could this whole experience be a turning point in the climate change battle (for the US anyway)? A depression won't single-handedly fix the problem, but it might be enough of a kick in the ass to make us change course. 

Mixed messages about face masks. Now the CDC says everyone should have them in most public situations. Guy on FB posted about having some that his company started making and I found myself frantically emailing this guy back and forth (he didn't have a shopping cart set up). I hated that I got that nervous about finding a particular supply. I still don't have any gloves. Not much hand sanitizer.

Oh yeah, the white house said the other day that Federal stockpiles of emergency equipment isn't for states to use. Because states aren't actually a smaller subset of the United States. The crux of the argument seems to be that if they let states use the stockpile, then they'd no longer HAVE the stockpile, and we can't have that. Nobody seems to have a good answer on what the point of stockpiling this stuff was if we're not going to use it for EXACTLY the purpose it was intended. Later they changed the definition of what the stockpile is "for" on the official gov't website to match the bullshit Kushner or whoever let fall out of their mouths.

That's about all I've got the energy for right now.