The WHINING.

Make it stop:

https://twitter.com/katiehugscats/status/1272957475247931392?s=21

Some thoughts on this:

1.) That clip isn’t funny. It’s horrifying that some Americans actually think this way.

2.) Would you say that a person who lives in a country where they’re not allowed to vote is more or less free than a person who is required to wear a mask in a grocery store? How about a person whose elected officials can’t pass important bills because one guy from an insignificant state is sitting on them and won’t get off of them unless or until he is voted from office or loses his slim majority? Is making all of the other majority votes in the country irrelevant conferring more or less freedom than being required to wear a mask?

3.) I get it that a lot of businesses deemed “non-essential” we’re forced to close for what looks like an indefinite period of time and that seemed like an unreasonable violation of their rights. If I had been governor and had more time to make decisions some of those businesses would have stayed open. There just wasn’t time. But are we more free than New Zealand that got back to work after 4 weeks by using a strict lockdown procedure? We would have to say yes, we are more free than NZ, whose politicians didn’t have a choice. On the other hand, they’ve pretty much kicked their Covid habit with spotty traceable outbreaks while we will be repeating cycles of large outbreaks, followed by lockdown until this plague is over. Sooooo, stitch in time and all that.

BTW, the gig and freelance workers have it worse because they don’t always get state employment benefits. So, you know, it depends on what you do. Freedom is more important to a freelancer I’m betting.

If it were me, I wouldn’t require the Trump Republicans, as they proudly call themselves (for now) to wear masks. As long as I’M wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, disinfecting everything someone else might have touched and ritually cleaning my bank card after each use in the reader, then my risk is substantially reduced. Sure, it would be better if the lady above would quit whining and wear a mask so I don’t have to further reduce my exposure to her but if she really doesn’t want to wear one, don’t wear one, lady.

Even better would be if grocery stores and other stores would set aside a couple hours a day for the non-mask wearers so they can exercise their freedom and liberty and share germs amongst themselves without getting the rest of us involved. That would suck for cashiers but maybe businesses could amp up the shields and air circulation and other PPE for them.

They could always use instacart but if that interferes with their constitutional freedoms then let them have the hour after the seniors and maybe the hour after rush hour in the evening. It would be nice if businesses’ sprinkler system could be retrofitted to disperse a fine mist of disinfectants or if UV lights could be used to flood the store after they leave. Of course, this might cost more money to the store but that’s ok if it’s factored into the additional fee tacked onto the maskless’ total bill. Sure, let them have a few hours all to themselves so they’re not trampled upon by the dirty feet of the liberal nanny state.

Speaking of dirty feet, did you know that there’s no public health ordinance in any state that requires a patron to wear shoes in a store? Or a shirt for that matter. Those rules are at the discretion of the proprietors and really do seem to be violating constitutional rights since they were originally created to keep hippies out. Discrimination much?

So, I’m totally fine with some irate Americans to go maskless if they want. It’s like having sex with strangers without a condom but hey if that’s your kink, knock yourself out. I’m wearing my mask and keeping my distance.

But that’s not really the problem is it? Because if you give in on the masks, they’ll just be back at the council meeting the next week with more visual aids and a new rendition of God Bless the USA. (I dare one of them to sing This Land Is Your Land)

It’s like Lincoln said in his Cooper Union speech about the people in slave states issuing demands. You can give in to them and accommodate them and bend over backwards to not hurt their fee fees or take away their freeance and liberdom. But they’ll be right back asking for something even more outrageous the next day. There is no pleasing them and that is the point. The point is to create as wide a chasm between the two sides of the debate as possible.

“But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional rights.

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing.

When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed Constitutional right of yours, to take slaves into the federal territories, and to hold them there as property. But no such right is specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right has any existence in the Constitution, even by implication.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.”

Now, who benefits from that?

Photo du Jour

There is so much wrong with this pic. Hard to know where to start.

Demilitarize EVERYONE.

We are not each other’s enemies. But there are powerful, unscrupulous people who want us to feel like we are. The chaos and instability lets them go unaccountable.

If Jacinda Ahern were POTUS.

First, let’s acknowledge that New Zealand is not the United States, a fact that makes Kiwis sigh with relief, I’m betting.

But each individual state could have behaved like New Zealand if we didn’t have a rogue party that was intent on making its base completely intractable pains in the asses.

Jacinda Ahern is the prime minister of New Zealand. I know NZ is a small country but from small places great leaders can sometimes emerge. Ahern is young, she’s unmarried, she and her partner have a child *out of wedlock*! {{get the evangelical ladies some smelling salts}}. She just happens to kick ass in every conceivable way from the day to day running of her country to handling a mass murder of Muslims with compassion, determination and immediate gun control. And now coronavirus.

New Zealand had a very strict lockdown. But it only lasted 4 weeks. Yep, 4 weeks of freezing everyone in place with one of the strictest isolation rules in the world. Then they opened up. Their new cases and fatality rate are extremely low. From what I can tell, New Zealand is still a Democratic country with freeance and liberdom. There aren’t furious right wing crazies with semi-automatic rifles showing up in government buildings demanding their god given right to infect themselves and others. Maybe that had something to do with the gun control laws.

In any case, the government paid businesses to stay closed and urged everyone to pull together and be patient. And it only took … 4 weeks.

Imagine if our “President” had set an example, wore a mask, threw the resources of the federal government at testing, worked with governors to keep businesses solvent and the populations calm, we might also have gotten through our lockdowns in 4 weeks and change.

None of these things happened here. This is only one of the many reasons why Trump and his ornery Republican allies have to go in November. Their lack of leadership and cooperation have cost people their livelihoods, living quarters and lives. When a country like New Zealand can do so well, it’s a mystery why each state of the Union wasn’t instructed to do likewise.

Actually, it’s not. Trump is no Jacinda Ahern. Damn, I wish she were running for President.

BTW, the author of that WaPo column, Clare Alexander, is in New Zealand on a work visa. She’s a writer and an editor. Really, New Zealand?? How is that possible? Does New Zealand have an actual shortage of writers and editors? Where can I apply for a visa??

Practical realities whether we like them or not.

Defund the Police is setting the twittersphere all noisy. I prefer the term “demilitarize” but that attracted a lot of insistently earnest tweeters who say it has to be DEFUND or nothing.

Ok, let it be nothing then. It will be the 2020 version of Medicare for All. Medicare for All sounds like a fix for all that ails us, pun intended. But there are other types of national health care programs that might work as well or better for the U.S. Maybe we could allow more people into Medicare or Medicaid. Maybe we can create a real public option. Oo! Oo! I know! Maybe we could try real cost control and regulation of hospital prices. That’s something that Obama never even considered when he duct taped the ACA together. It’s just when you say it has to be Medicare for All or nothing, you might just end up with… nothing. The reason is, you probably can’t win the election if you don’t present workable alternatives. And if you can’t win elections, you got no power to do squat.

Same with “Defund the Police”. If I were a right wing operative and that phrase didn’t already exist, I would have to invent it. Then I would create sock puppet accounts on all social media outlets posing as young, earnest, Bernie lefty voters and whip that sucker to death. I’d jump on anyone who wants to slow this down and think it over carefully and consider the pros and cons for each city.

Demilitarize is a much easier case to make. And why is that? It’s because the police and their paramilitary budgets swelled in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Patriot Act. Did the local police departments have to become their own armies? We thought so. We thought we would be fighting off terrorists, or at least that’s how it was sold to us. That didn’t really materialize because it turns out that we got better with national security and intelligence.

So, we ended up with police departments armed and trained to take down terrorists and no terrorists. Plus, racial tensions were deliberately inflamed by the right wing media (oh, let me count the ways) and the person who claims to be our current president.

We have seen what they do. They are prepped to see anyone as a threat to the American way of life. The problem was there before George Floyd. Yes, black citizens have been massively and disproportionally targeted. But in the last week, we have seen that anyone can be made to submit with varying degrees of pain and bodily harm. This is a predictable outcome. It’s like giving someone like Trump access yo the nuclear football and fielding his question about “why do we even have nukes if we’re not going to use them??”.

If you were an overarmed cop given a target, and a narrative that all black people are potential threats and no good wasteful takers of taxpayer dollars, what would YOU do?

If you have unaccountable power, it takes a very principled, disciplined person to not use it. We shouldn’t have militarized the police. For that matter, I have a problem with remote control drones killing people in war zones too. It’s way too easy to start seeing wedding parties as terrorist training grounds. And who knows? Maybe they are. But to kill people like this without facing them when they are too far away to be physical threats to us feels more like an execution. I think you should face your adversaries for a fight to be fair.

Think about that for a minute. Aren’t we all weirded out by that rag tag justice department “federal” forces battalion who watched over Trump’s babygate? They should have been clearly marked and identifiable. Otherwise, there is no way to hold bad actors accountable.

I think the vast majority of voters can agree with this. Police should be demilitarized and forced to take it down a notch. They need an attitude adjustment. And with all the money we would NOT give them for hummers and other equipment of war, we could reallocate to making neighborhoods safer by addressing the root causes of crime.

If you keep pushing Defund the Police, you are going to make a lot of voters very uneasy. It sounds like firing police and whole departments and leaving citizens vulnerable to criminals. It takes more time to explain that’s not what you mean and by then their Fox News thought stopping programs will start running and they’ll be accusing you of being Antifa. (PSA: Antifa is not an organization in any traditional sense of the word. In broad terms, Antifa stands for anti-fascist. Find me a person who is anti anti-fascist and you should avoid that person like coronavirus.)

Anyway, you can’t save anyone or make structural changes unless you 1.) have a successful revolution or 2.) win elections. If you start a revolution without first demilitarizing the police, you will have a very difficult time winning elections. With the current people in charge crackdowns and canceled elections will happen. You can bet on it. Who’s going to stop them? So, the practical reality is that we need to win elections. And we’re not going to win elections by making voters fear for their personal safety.

So, demilitarize the police.

In the category of what should be a completely unnecessary post.

Yesterday, Robin Givhan at WaPo wrote a piece about the white House of Representatives members who took a knee while wearing Kente cloths that were gifted them by the Congressional Black Caucus.

Instead of writing something that was relevant to the fashion beat she covers, like “everybody looks good in a Kente cloth”, Givhan went on for way too many paragraphs lecturing readers about how those clueless white reps did not even consider how those scarves came from GHANA. GHANA is a country in AFRICA. The Kente cloth has a rich tradition and meaning and damn it, those reps are culturally appropriating it. Why didn’t they think before they put them on?? Who did they think they were? Omg, somebody please give Ghana a heads up. It hasn’t been this ill treated since the US sent Shirley Temple as an ambassador.

Before you start lecturing me that I’m beginning to sound like JK Rowling pointing out that there is a word for “people who menstruate”, let me just say I’m not at all saying that Givhan didn’t have a point. I just mean to say she should have stopped with saying that the cloths are from Africa and maybe offered some fashion tips on when and how to wear one. As a scarf? Definitely. They seem to enhance everyone’s complexion and show respect for black lives. As a tie? Ehhh… not so much.

{{excuse me while I yell at all of you wearing pink ribbons}}

But here’s why I think Givhan isn’t doing her f#%*ing job. Culturally appropriating cloth objects to show support for a cause has precedent. Back in the 90s, all of Manhattan it seemed was wearing Keffiyehs as scarves.

In case you didn’t know, keffiyehs are those Arab headdresses that people like Yassar Arafat used to wear. For the younguns out there, Yassar Arafat was the leader of the Palestinians who was one of the people that US presidents negotiated with to bring about Mideast peace before the big orange sent Jared to do it – or to figure out a way of squeezing the gulf states out of some much needed loan money. (Nice progressive oil state you got there with US bases on it. Be a shame if something happened to it)

Yassar Arafat died some years ago but back in the 90s, the Palestinians who were crammed into refugee camps in Gaza and elsewhere had an uprising called an Intifada. Yep, Manhattan, where you can find as many Jews as there are in Israel (may be an exaggeration but you get my point) started to feel that maybe the crackdown on Palestinians back then might be excessive and counterproductive. So a lot of New Yorkers started wearing keffiyehs to show their support for the intifada and as a way to call attention to the humanity of the Palestinians.

Here is an example of how to wear a keffiyeh as a scarf:

They come in a variety of colors, black and white or cream being the most prominent combinations. You can dress them up as you see here with oversized glasses and a statement bag. Or pair them with a black T for a comfortably chic laid back look as this dude from NJ in a band called Arizona shows us.

You know, he was probably a little kid in elementary school during the intifada. Maybe he doesn’t even know why we wear scarves like this but I know and I’m sure a lot of coastal elites remember those keffiyehs when they see them and still support an end to hostilities in the Middle East with a two state solution. Take that Jared.

All fashion is derivative. No matter what you’re wearing, you can be sure that someone three thousand years ago was wearing it first either as a part of their folk tradition or as a symbol of conquest. These days, we can track the origins and tell the story behind the keffiyeh and the kente cloth. Those are good stories, Robin. They show our humanity for other human beings and our determination to support people who fight for freedom from oppression.

What we need isn’t a lecture and tut tutting about cultural appropriation. What we need are suggestions for how we can show them off to their best advantage so that they become the colors of our landscape in this election year.

****************

And now, more of that hottie in his keffiyeh. Betcha can’t watch this video now without thinking of Palestine. That’s how effective a piece of clothing can be. (you can buy them on amazon):

The last of the Mackettrik supplicants

Does anyone remember this from Ghostbusters?

I know right?? Completely unhinged. But we can forgive him because he’s possessed and doesn’t know what he’s saying.

Unlike the president, who apparently gets his news from the corner of the internet where Goser the Traveler’s disciples hang out.

I’m not going to repeat his tweet here. None of us should be paying any attention to his outrageous tweets. He does it to get attention whether he really believes this stuff or cynically like any other preacher with his hand out.

In either case, the assertions he makes defy the laws of nature. Also, It is pure speculation that Mr. Gugino is a member of the Voldronai.

Timely stuff.

1.) There are studies being published that say that if you have Type A Blood, you have a higher chance of getting seriously ill from Covid19. The B negative blood types are breathing a small sigh of relief. I have no idea how the O’s are reacting. In any case, keep wearing those masks. The WHO says that pre-symptomatic people are significant spreaders of their disease. And if it turns out that B and O blood types get milder cases, we have to be even more careful of our A friends.

2.) I have no idea what helpful thing Trump could possibly say about race and police issues but this much I know is true. Trump never does anything if he doesn’t think it will help him personally. Trump is all about winning. So, how does he think he can win this?

Well, there’s a lot of unity right now. Lots of people are supportive of the protests and are horrified by police brutality that they have been witnessing.

Unity is bad for Trump. It’s not a winning formula. So, I’m going to guess that he’s going to zero in on the whole “defund the police” idea. I see that Biden has already distanced himself from it.

So, Democrats, let’s change this to “demilitarize the police”. There are all kinds of reasons to do this and the money saved from buying and maintaining paramilitary equipment, and paying out huge settlements for a paramilitary cop feeling his Cheerios, will have a lot of downstream benefits to the budget and from down regulating the domination attitude.

The good thing about changing the words is that you don’t scare the bejesus out of sensitive Americans who may be easily frightened by Fox News video loop of dead white women, child abductions and rioting.

Just a suggestion.

He’s losing

Here’s the latest poll results:

After the last four years there are still 38% of Americans who think Trump is doing a good job as president.

It’s always stuck at 37-38%.

There is probably nothing anyone can do to change their minds. It’s like they have no free will. They are incapable of responding to their environment.

I used to think that there could be something that would shake loose a few more people, that surely, some of them still had values that they weren’t willing to compromise.

Apparently not.

We’ve got to get through this with the other 62%.

I’d be happy with demilitarizing the police

That’s where my defunding goes. There’s no reason why they need to be paramilitary units seeing everyone as a terrorist. That’s a result of the Patriot Act in the wake of 9/11. It was unnecessary. I’m not sure what the bill writers were imagining when they gave police the money. Did they think we were going to have an Al Qaeda in Kandahar situation here in the US? None of the terrorism scenarios materialized. The regular SWAT teams could have handled it.

You might think, well, there are a lot of guns out there and out of shape dudes with Rush rage and itchy trigger fingers looking for liberals who are trying to overturn an election. (Oh, if only that were possible) But really, the posses and militias they can get together are no match for the arsenals, protective equipment, sophisticated face recognition software, etc etc of your well funded police units. There will be no Cold War detente. This is asymmetric warfare.

I don’t expect the police units or their union to give up their weapons without a fight. But that is what we need. Let’s go back to the days when police had an advantage but not a brutal “we will dominate you” advantage.

That’s what I mean by defund.

Oh, and get rid of any police who think it’s ok to push a 75 yr old man so hard that he hits his head on the sidewalk. If someone has to explain to you why this is unacceptable, maybe you need an new job in another line of work.

Out of Tune

I have to take a break from all the news. The past week has been a long time coming. We had to see it with our own eyes. Now that we know what we’re up against, we can’t relax for very long.

But relax we must occasionally.

So, I have some nice discoveries from youtube that I want to share. Let’s start off with the Joan Chamorro Quintet and Scott Hamilton’s version of Desafinado. The Chamorro quintet showcases some of the best music students from Spain. The singer here is Rita Payes from Barcelona. She also plays trombone. At the time this was recorded, she was all of 14 years old but she swings a bossa nova in Portuguese in a way that reminds me of Elis Regina crossed with Billy Holiday.

It looks like Joan Chamorro mentors a lot of young female musicians both as singers and instrumentalists. They’re all amazing. If you like Bossa Nova and jazz, look them up. You won’t be disappointed.