REPOSTING TWO POEMS FOR OUR TIME

This is a critical time in America. We are in a perfect storm of horror: a virus pandemic, the Trump presidency, widespread civil rights demonstrations and protests sparked by continued police killings of Black men, staggering unemployment, businesses struggling and failing, the verge of a recession/depression, global climate change, growing authoritarianism and fascism around the world. 

I've decided to repost two poems from this blog. The first was written in November, 2016, just after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Although I had him in mind when I was writing, the piece has even wider meaning today.  

erosion

Darkness oozes from the widening chasm, 

sulfurous and sinister, 

scorching and obliterating 

as it spreads destruction and fear.

How has it been loosed 

upon this land 

where such hope and aspiration 

newly flourished?

Like spring grain, 

green against the distant hills, 

inspiring such poetic outpourings.

And yet it flows, 

building from some dark place below 

where honest souls dare not 

even imagine.

It builds, 

it solidifies, 

a mass so dark 

so horrible 

it turns hearts cold.

And there it stands, 

a new dominance 

in the landscape of reason and logic 

and truth and kindness. 

Dark, foreboding, 

all light consumed 

in it's shadow. 

Despair... 

Destruction... 

Distress...  

And then the rain, 

drop by drop.

And then the waves, 

breaking, 

breaking. 

The constancy of effort 

eroding 

bit by bit 

grain by grain

the massive monolith 

slowly lessening.

Time

History

Constancy of effort

Will prevail in the end.

Be the rain.

Be the wave.

© paul fishman November 2016

==========================

The next piece was written in 2018 as I fumed over whatever daily insult to humanity The Donald had perpetrated that day. I thought of the American revolution, and the need for another. Again, in the context of today, it is the system, not the titular head, that needs to be reimagined and "overthrown."

THIS IS A CRY FOR REVOLUTION

This is a cry for revolution.

When in the course of human events...

This is a cry for justice.

We hold these truths to be self evident...

This is a cry for equality.

...that all men (sic) are created equal...

This is a cry for democracy.

Governments...deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

This is a cry for acknowledgement.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends...

This is a cry for action.

...it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it...

This is a cry for change.

...and to institute new government...

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 

pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design

to reduce them under absolute despotism,

it is their right,

it is their duty,

to throw off such government,

and to provide new guards 

for their future security.

...history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 

all having in direct object the establishment of 

an absolute Tyranny... 

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has started trade wars with China, the European Union and Canada.

He is putting Russia first over America first.

He prefers Putin and other autocrats over our democratic allies.

He has slashed corporate taxes and greatly increased the national debt.

He has denied climate change, walked away from global climate accords, and promoted fossil fuels.

He is removing environmental regulations, causing dire consequences for human health and the environment.

He has broken the Iran nuclear deal and now threatens war with Iran.

He is steadily eroding the Affordable Care Act. 

He has attacked our free press, labeling them “fake” and “the enemy of the people.”

He has appointed the most incompetent people to direct and destroy federal agencies and deregulate corporations.

He is treating immigrants and asylum seekers like criminals.

He has abducted and abused children of immigrants and asylum seekers.

He has condoned and ignored bigotry and hatred of “the other.” 

He wants to Make America White, Straight and “christian” Again.

He is violating every norm of how a president should behave. 

He is basically violating every norm of decency and justice and fairness for which the United States stands.

We hold these truths to be self-evident....

THIS IS A CALL FOR REVOLUTION!  

—-

© pfishman July 2018

PLANT BASED FOODS

I bought a chicken at the market recently that was labeled "vegetarian fed." I also bought eggs labeled the same. 

I guess this means chicken is a plant based food, right? 

And btw, chickens are not vegetarians, which is one reason I buy pasturd raised chickens and eggs from the same.

---. 

REFLECTIONS ON JUNETEENTH

Like many, if not most Americans, especially white people, I had heard the name "Juneteenth" but never really knew anything about it. Well, 2020 is the year that everyone with half a brain, and a willingness to use it, knows that Juneteenth is a celebration of the emancipation of slaves in the United States. There is a huge rush to memorialize this holiday celebrated by African Americans because of the historic moment we are in, what some call the American Spring. A single spark can light a prairie fire (I think Mao Zedong is credited with  that saying), and so the public execution of George Floyd by a police officer has ignited a growing movement in the USA and abroad for justice and freedom, at long last.

Juneteenth is a celebration based on a General Order (Number 3) issued by Major-General Granger of the Union Army in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. The General Order is short and simple:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, "all slaves are free." This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

 

The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts, and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Slaves in America were actually freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in January, 1863; however, the Texans ignored it. In fact, many Southern slave owners moved their slaves to Texas because it was the state farthest away from the Union and unlikely to follow the proclamation unless forced to do so. The Civil War ended in April, 1865, and General Granger, with about 2,000 soldiers, arrived in Texas to enforce the Union victory.

Freed slaves in Texas established June nineteenth, Juneteenth, as a day to commemorate and celebrate. Over time, the day has been taken up by other Americans as the final day of emancipation, two years after the Proclamation. This is truly a significant day, and it's significance and importance deserve to be understood and celebrated. 

An example of institutionalized racism in America is the simple fact that few people in this country knew anything about emancipation, and certainly nothing about June 19, 1865. This was not taught in American schools. What we all learned was that Lincoln freed the slaves, the North fought the South in a Civil War, the North won, and the slaves were free. Simple. Grossly oversimplified! 

Juneteenth, 2020 has motivated me to study the emancipation and the time afterward in more detail; this I will be doing over time. (For anyone who has not read "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander, it is a good starting point.) General Order No. 3 raises more questions for me than it answers. The subtext, in my opinion, has many facets:

• what "personal rights" did the freedmen gain?
• what "rights of property" did people gain who owned no property?
• did "hired labor'" basically mean the freedmen became wage slaves or indentured servants under the terms of being a sharecropper?
• was the payment of wages enforced?
• what was the reality of "they will not be supported in idleness?" Did freed slaves receive any money or other assistance from the U.S. government? 

One basic question underlying all of the above is: did anyone enforce this General Order? Certainly the white former slave owners had no interest in doing any of this, other than finding some way to use the labor of the freed slaves to continue their cotton or other agricultural endeavors.  Certainly the legal and legislative system of Texas had not much interest in enforcing the Order. So what happened? What did people do who were suddenly, in a moment of spoken proclamation, free people? I already have a basic set of answers to these questions; however, by looking into the details, by finding and reading stories of real people from that time, I will certainly expand my mind and my understanding. 

The failures of Reconstruction, and the establishment of Jim Crow laws were how Southern whites tried, and were mostly successful, to return African Americans to a status in which they were not truly "free." The present movement and awakening in America, emerged from police killings of black citizens, brings a stark reality into sharp focus: slavery in it's many forms and mutations did not disappear from America, it was institutionalized into the very fabric of our society. 

Please don't get the wrong idea from this post, dear reader; Juneteenth is a day to be celebrated by every American to acknowledge the historic official end to slavery, and also to show support of our black sisters and brothers and fight with them, shoulder-to-shoulder, for true equality, justice and freedom for all. It is also important for every American to learn more about slavery, emancipation, and the course of history since that time.

---

STEADFAST: THE END OF RACISM

I was scrolling through digital photos today, and found a few from a kayaking day on the Columbia River. Part of Government Island has been used to place sand dredged out of the navigation channel, and the photo below is a pile of dredge sand weathered by water and wind. This photo reminded me of another set of images, so I searched my thousands of photos and found them.  

IS IT OK TO FIND HUMOR IN A SERIOUS SITUATION?

If you know me, you know my humor, and you know that I find it everywhere. I published a book of cartoons, trumpery: some clowns just aren't funny, in which I make fun of the President of the United States and his family and his Republican supporters. Some, if not all the targets of the cartoons are serious matters, and yet I found humor in them. 

I firmly believe that laughter is good, it is a release, it helps us deal with the serious and tragic moments. Certainly, there are times when a joke is not appropriate, and a humorist is usually aware of these. There are, and have been, comics who purposefully tell jokes deemed inappropriate by large numbers of people; however, this is their point. 

And so today I offer another cartoon in my trumpery series. There was a moment of monumental humor in the midst of a horrible scene a few days ago. Donald Trump, the butt of my jokes, was advised that he should make an appearance outside his bunkered White House to demonstrate to his people that he, well, this is where the humor kicks in; nobody can figure out the purpose of his stunt. The Trump people ordered the police to clear protestors out of Lafayette Park so the POTUS and his entourage of butt kissers could walk from the White House to St. John's Church. The police brutally attacked the peaceful protestors and cleared them from the park. Then Trump and his group walked across to the church where the POTUS posed awkwardly in front of the church and held up a bible (some say it was upside down) for a photo op. And then they went back to the White House. So what was the message? "Hi there, dear supporters. I am your President, and I am holding up a bible in front of a church. Love me." 

A reporter asked Trump if it was his bible. He looked at the book, looked at her, seemingly puzzled by the question, and mumbled: "It's a bible." 

And here is my cartoon:

We are in a time of national crises; a pandemic, cops murdering Black people, many tens of thousands of people in the streets of dozens of American cities protesting these brutal murders and the racism of America. And there was the Clown in Chief, beating up peaceful protestors so he could try some ill-conceived PR stunt that made no sense to anyone. I still find humor when I'm not raging against the machine.

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AMERICAN EXCEPTIONAL-RACISM

I've often taken exception to the term "American exceptionalism" because I've not been certain what it means. Being the cynic I tend to be, I often look at the dark side of our exceptionalism. This week is one of those times when I'm not only looking at the dark side, but being swallowed by it. The exceptional form of American racism is a relentless beast that consumes everything. It subjugates entire demographics of Americans in a multi-chambered trap from which escape is impossible. It chews them up, it spits out the bones. One such victim is the Black American male, and, therefore, we are all victims of the beast.

I make a distinction between bigotry and racism, something I've written about previously on this blog. The cop who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis is a bigot; the system that employed him is racist. This is the plight of Black Americans and other Americans of color, their country was founded on white supremacy and continues as such, often in disguise. But today, in the year 2020, with Donald Trump as president and the Republican Party in control, the disguises are gone, and the racism beast is strutting about, feasting freely. 

Black Americans learn the lessons of racism all their lives; not in school, but by living in it. Every aspect of American society is infused with the beast racism; education, health care, employment, transportation, real estate, access to capital, law enforcement, environment...the list is long. Black folks know this; many white folks are just now learning it, if they are open to this particular form of knowledge. 

The murder of George Floyd, a Black American, who died face down on a street with his hands bound behind his back and with a cop's knee on his neck and two more cops holding him down, has ignited protests and demonstrations and riots in dozens of American cities and others around the world. The bystander cell phone videos of this murder are chilling and horrific. The cop seems nonchalant, his hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face when he turns towards the camera as he chokes the life out of another human being. The three other cops seem to just be hanging out, helping hold down their victim (2 of them) or being the "lookout." It is the stuff of nightmares. 

This happens too often - actually, the expression "too often" is in itself telling - this should never happen, ever. But this murder, this public execution, or symbolic lynching, of a Black man has rightfully unleashed a torrent of righteous rage throughout American society; rage within the Black community, certainly, but also in every other American demographic. This murder, and that of Ahmaud Arbery a few weeks ago, were both captured on video, and both became public on social media. Only the most callous bigots can hide their heads in the sand now. This is real. These were public executions of men who committed no crime other than the "crime" of being Black in America. This is a beast, this is a shame from which we cannot continue to hide. This is America, and the disguise of democracy has been pulled away to reveal the beast within.

So much needs to be accomplished in America to kill the racism beast, and with it the individual bigotries of Americans. Certainly, and foremost at this time, the justice system absolutely has to be reformed from top to bottom. Police departments need to be cleansed of "bad" cops, fraternal culture, unions that protect every cop, militarization, out-dated use of force rules, training that stresses use of force first. Police officers are sworn to serve and protect the community in which they work; they are not sworn to harass and murder people of color. Unfortunately, history shows us that the latter is true more often than we think. 

Attorneys General and District Attorney offices, courts, jails, parole services, rehab services and on and on - all need to be reformed so that they serve people justly, regardless of skin color or class or any other metric. This can be accomplished; however, the people who make policy and who work in these systems have to be invested in making these reforms. 

It is heartening to see so many people in so many places standing up, marching, demonstrating, protesting, and speaking out against racism. It is important that we all focus on the message, not the news flash of the moment about vandals or small groups battling the police, or some idiot standing in front of a church holding a bible upside down. It is incumbent upon everyone, including elected politicians, community leaders, chiefs and officers in police departments, employers, business owners, people in communities to listen to the messages coming out of these mass demonstrations. Listen, discuss, then act. 

I often hear the term "allies" in relation to how white people like me can be part of the solution. To be truthful, I don't like the term; I prefer to use the words "brothers" and "sisters." If I'm an ally I might make political decisions about the actions I take. If you are my brothers and sisters, I will always have your back because I protect my family. To me, this is at the heart of the issue of how to end racism and bigotry; we start with love for all our brothers and sisters. 

I certainly have a lot to learn, and this is certainly a teaching moment for all who are paying attention. I have so many thoughts, so many questions. I would be at the demonstrations if we weren't in a pandemic, and so I am frustrated by being home-bound. This is a strange time in so many ways, and yet this is a critical time for revolution, meaning great change. We can do this. We must do this. Together. 

--- 

THE GATHERING STORM

The sound woke me early, maybe around 5 AM, a low, prolonged rumbling. In my not-quite-awake state I thought airplane, or maybe the heavy equipment being used for the sewer project in our neighborhood. But as I gained more consciousness, I smiled...thunder, very distant thunder. 

I waited, I listened. There it was again, very low, grumbling, rolling and prolonged thunder in the distance. I finally managed to roll out of bed at about 6:00 and go to the open window. More thunder, a bit closer, and finally a few rain drops on the roof outside our window. I splashed my face with water, shrugged on a T-shirt and shorts, turned off the alarm and went out on the front porch to be in it.

Last night, late, we watched the local news to discover that our city, like many others, had demonstrators in the streets. A peaceful vigil had turned into a roving demonstration with the usual, unfortunately, vandalism of buildings - graffiti and broken windows and fires in trash cans. But this time it was different as a small group broke into the Justice Center and could be seen trashing the office cubicles. Suddenly flames appeared; they had set the building on fire. There were no police present, yet. 

The scene then devolved into what we’d been watching in other cities; roving bands of protestors, lines of armored police using tear gas and flash-bangs to push the protestors away and break them into smaller groups. People running, throwing objects, shouting, waving hand-lettered placards, shouting into the news cameras. 

Earlier in the week, a white police officer had killed a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was a public execution, one commentator called it a public lynching, as the cop leaned on the prostrate and handcuffed man’s throat with his knee for almost 9 minutes, as the victim, George Floyd, begged for help and to be able to breathe. A witnesses cell phone video has gone viral, and it is chilling. The cop looks directly at the camera with a smug smile on his face as he slowly chokes the life out of Mr. Floyd. A public execution by someone who was sworn to serve and protect. Last night people took to the streets and American cities burned. 

Oh America, what has happened to you? There is nothing new, unfortunately and shamefully, about bad cops killing people of color, usually with impunity. To be very clear, these are bad people who happen to be cops, and do not represent the vast majority of police officers. But a number of factors are different in this moment. Everyone carries a cell phone that has a video camera, and the bad cops can no longer lie about the reality of their crime. We are in the middle of a global pandemic, and the United States is number one in the world for the number of cases and deaths from this virus. This pandemic has ripped the veneer off the deep fissures in American society, and many millions of people are in deep trouble. And the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is totally incompetent, incapable, and uninterested in being the leader we so desperately need in this time of crisis. We are in a culture war, cheered on by Trump, in which many people have chosen sides: left vs. right, white vs. non-white, native born vs. immigrant, Christian vs. everyone else, capitalist vs. socialist; and the divide has widened to a point where it might not be bridged easily. 

The strange thing about the storm that rolled in this morning was it’s stillness. There was absolutely no air movement; I watched the trees intently and saw no leaf as much as quiver. I stared at the sky and noted the position of the clouds against a fixed point of our building; nothing moved. And yet, the storm rolled in. The lightning was faint and the thunder delayed, meaning the center of the storm was somewhere in the distance. By 6:30 it was raining under a dark sky, and it was eerily quiet. A fitting mood following a disturbing night.

As I write this, savoring the last swallow of coffee from my mug, the sun suddenly breaks through a small hole in the clouds and momentarily blinds me. I still hear rain falling on the deck outside, and our wind chimes are now singing in a breeze. Muffled voices let me know that the radio is on upstairs in our bedroom. Raindrops now glisten on the quivering bamboo leaves outside the kitchen window. Just another Portland morning? No, this one is different.

—-

WE WENT TO THE PARK TODAY AND HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE TRIED TO KILL US

We are still in the grip of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; however, people are now getting out and about. Oregon took the precautionary steps of issuing a stay at home order and closing all non-essential businesses. Now we are cautiously, supposedly, emerging in a planned Phase 1 opening. But there are signs of danger.

Today is a warm, sunny spring Sunday, and here in Portland, Oregon that means people get out. We needed a walk, so we drove to a nearby park, put on our masks, and started down a paved path. There were hundreds of people in the park, many walking, biking, lounging on blankets on the grass, and walking dogs. We estimated that more than 95% of these people were not wearing masks. I think it is OK for people on blankets that are spaced more than 6 ft apart to be mask-less, but it is not OK for people to be walking and cycling and jogging on the paths when there are a lot of other people using them. People like us. 

People like us are the most vulnerable during this pandemic because we are older than 60, and/or have underlying health issues, such as asthma. We were wearing our home-made cotton masks, which protect those around us more than they protect us. We did not feel safe walking in the park on a beautiful day, so we left for the safety of our home. 

Here is the bottom line for me: people need to be more thoughtful and considerate of others. It’s fine if you want to walk around without a mask because you know you will never get this virus (fool that you are); but why do you have so little regard for those around you? You might feel fine, but you can be a carrier of the virus, and you are spewing it in the air space the rest of us share with you. You’re killing us. 

The response in the United States to the novel coronavirus has been dismal and inadequate, which is why we are number one in the world in number of cases and deaths from COvID-19, the disease caused by this virus. Many of the experts keep telling us that we are actually in the early stages of this pandemic, that the virus is not going away any time soon, that we will not have a vaccine any time soon, and that there will be, and already are, increasing outbreaks as we “open up.” We shouldn’t drop our guard, especially now, and we should look out for everyone in our communities. If we had a national strategy that was based on building herd immunity to the virus, and we did it in an intelligent and highly organized way, things would be different. But we don’t have any such strategy. 

Getting ill with COVID-19 is not a walk in the park, but a walk in the park can result in being sick or dying from COVID-19. 

—-

AND THE DARWIN AWARD GOES TO...THE REPUBLICANS

The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!   https://darwinawards.com/

The Darwin Award is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek honor that many of us laugh about. Usually the award involves someone who does something really stupid and dies because of it, thus removing themselves from the gene pool of humans. But I couldn't help thinking about the Darwin Award as I watched the news this evening.

Elected officials who are Republicans, at every level of government, seem to be purposefully and stupidly ignoring the severity of the novel coronavirus now causing a global pandemic. I don't think they realize that one very real and statistically probable result of their actions is their own death. So I would call this "accidental" in the sense that they are only thinking about partisan politics and not the real outcomes.

Certainly everyone in this country who understands the concepts of protecting ourselves from a deadly virus has seen the President of the United States and the Vice-President of the United States flouncing around without wearing protective masks or socially distancing themselves! The POTUS appears everywhere without a mask. He refuses to wear one. VP Pence violated posted rules at the CDC when he was the only person without a mask. He again appeared without a mask delivering PPE supplies (actually, empty cartons) to a nursing home - a nursing home!  What are these idiots thinking? 

A Republican member of Congress, Steve Scalese, was in a video committee meeting snd launched into a rant about how ridiculous it is that the members of Congress are not in D.C. He touted the fact that he was there, and he was on the video conference from a small conference room at the Capitol. He gleefully walked his laptop around to show the room, a rather small, windowless room, with numerous staff people working in it - and nobody was wearing a mask! "Our entire committee could be meeting in this room right now" Scalese stated, "and everyone would be fine, just like we are." Time will tell how many of those folks end up in the hospital with COVID-19. 

And so I nominate Republicans, including everyone in the Trump administration, members of Congress, governors who are opening their states even though they have not met the CDC criteria, to be the recipients of the 2020 Darwin Award. Homo sapiens will be genetically stronger for it.  

---

ET TU, YOUTUBE?

I have been listening to a new podcast titled "Rabbit Hole" by Kevin Roose of the NY Times (see an introduction to the podcast here). To date there are 4 episodes, and I find it very interesting and thought-provoking. Kevin and his team are exploring how the internet changes us, and so far the focus has been on YouTube, using the experience of a single YouTube addict named Caleb. 

I was an early user of YouTube, mostly as a place to put home and work videos and make them available for family, friends and colleagues. After a few years, however, I began to really dislike YouTube, and started using Vimeo for my videos. My biggest issue with YouTube was the "you might like" recommendations and the immediate starting of another video as soon as the one being watched ended. This just felt very intrusive and very annoying. As I listened to Rabbit Hole, the light bulb went off and I remembered my dislike of YouTube, and it now made sense to me. 

I was an early adopter of Facebook, and then joined Twitter when it became popular. Last year I left both of those, and because I never joined Instagram or any of the other "social media" I am now a non-entity on the internet (except for my blog, which you are reading for some strange reason). I am very disappointed with the direction the internet has taken, which is all about profit. And I do not like being surveilled by these giant, obscenely profitable tech companies. I use Signal for texting, and Protonmail for email, and DuckDuckGo for web browsing. This makes me feel like a resister, even though I still have a gmail account, use Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and others that harvest my data and push it back at me as ads. But I look for the rabbit holes, and try to avoid the ones I can.

As detailed in Rabbit Hole, the early and main goal of YouTube was to constantly increase and maximize retention time of users. In other words, capture eyeballs and try not to let them leave the site. It didn't matter what the users were watching, YouTube didn't care about the content, only the retention time. The algorithms build by YouTube pushed content at users based on the prior viewing of each user. It turns out that very large numbers of people are ensnared by this mesmerizing barrage of suggested content and, like Caleb, become addicted. In his case, Caleb at one time spent 12 to 15 hours per day on YouTube. And the algorithm, over time, dragged him to and into a rabbit hole that, in his case, turned him into a far-right extremist white supremacist. Caleb managed to climb back out after a long time down the rabbit hole, but many are not so fortunate.

 

One of the interesting segments of Rabbit Hole is the interviews with Susan Wojcicki, the YouTube CEO. Ms. Wojcicki talked about the early days of YouTube when it's purpose was entertainment, mostly home videos people made of themselves, their pets, and other mostly inane subjects. But YouTube now considers itself to be a media platform that hosts music, gaming, DIY and educational videos in the form of podcasts, informational videos and a variety of other formats.  She talked about recent efforts of YouTube to find and expel the most extreme providers on the platform after YouTube realized that a lot of the platform content was being used for nefarious purposes.  I am happy to learn that YouTube is finally trying to clean up the platform, a very daunting task when you consider the millions of users. 

I still have a problem with YouTube, and I take issue with Ms. Wojcicki about the core of her business; it is still harvesting user data and pushing recommendations made by an algorithm. In my internet searches, I am very often led to YouTube and go there with great trepidation. My basic response is: I do not want your recommendations; I do not want another video to start as the one I'm watching ends; I do not want you to know what I am watching and also harvesting every bit of data from my computer and internet habits that you can glean from my visit. I just want to see the information or entertainment I was looking for. 

The internet is a fabulous technological development, with many positive attributes and uses. That being said, the internet has also become a dangerous place and a technology that giant corporations use to commodify users in order to reap obscene profits. Privacy and security seem not to matter much, only profit. In that regard, we are all down a rabbit hole. 

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WHAT IS A CORONAVIRUS?

It is amazing, from a strictly objective viewpoint, that something as small as a virus can create such havoc in human populations. And from a strictly scientific viewpoint, viruses are fascinating, amazing things. As the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, I began to ask myself numerous questions. What exactly is a virus? Where did they come from and how long have they been around?  What can I learn about their biology? And how is it possible that they can bring human civilization to it's knees?

I’ve taken a very shallow dive into the pool of knowledge about viruses, and this post will be my attempt to provide a hopefully simple summary of what I've learned. A bit wonky, perhaps, but hopefully helpful for those who like wonk. And keep in mind that I am in no way an expert, or even someone with more than a beginning understanding of this science. So take this blog post with a grain of caution that it might not be exactly correct.

As an aside, I had the thought that my quest to understand the viral world is akin to trying to understand the physics of the universe, and that there would be a lot of stuff to read that I would not comprehend. I was correct!

A virus is not a plant or animal or bacterium; in fact, they are not living things, so my wondering about the “biology” of virus is a misnomer. They cannot self-replicate and cannot produce their own energy. So they are things, or agents, and the study of them is chemistry. (Perhaps this is an over-simplification, but I’ll go with it.)

So, let's look at a coronavirus. Basically, it is a tiny bit of genetic material, RNA, inside a capsule. It is called a varian. This particular varian is about 100 nanometers (nm) diameter. A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter. For scale, the diameter of a human hair is about 70,000 nm, so about 700 of these varians laid side by side would equal the diameter of a human hair. Tiny.

(Figure:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065352706660053#fig0005)

Proteins and lipids and RNA; seems quite simple. The spikes, which make the varian resemble a crown, hence “corona,” interact with receptor proteins in the outer membrane of very specific animal cells. In the case of humans, the spikes activate when they contact cells of the respiratory system, in the throat and lungs; however, recent evidence suggests that this corona virus also attacks other cells, such as kidney, intestine, and maybe others.* Once attached, the varian combines with the human cell, either through fusion or invasion. It then uses the mechanisms of the human cell to replicate the varian RNA and expel new varians. The process is open to mutation, wherein parts of the human RNA get recombined with the varian RNA. The vast majority of these mutations appear to be very minor and harmless, in the context of human disease; however, there are exceptions. This process is shown in the next figure, and if you understand all the notations, explain them to me! Basically, the figure shows a varian attached to a human cell, top left, the processes that occur within the cytoplasm of the cell that replicate the varian RNA, and a new varian being expelled from the cell, top right. 

(Figure source: ibid)

The illness caused by the invasion of this coronavirus is COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease 2019). It is typically manifested in three stages in those individuals who get critically ill. It is important to note that, epidemiologically, a large proportion of people who are infected with this virus do not exhibit symptoms and, if they do get ill, have a mild case of the disease.

In Stage 1 of COVID-19, the virus kills the cells it has invaded, and these dead cells slough off and start to clog the lung airways, causing pneumonia. In Stage 2, the body’s immune system rallies to attack the virus and becomes over-active due to the severity of the invasion, and the result is that the immune system starts to kill lung cells. More dead cells are sloughed off, worsening the pneumonia, and as this progresses, it basically eats holes in the lung tissue and scar tissue forms, which stiffens the lungs; this is Stage 3. The result can be respiratory failure, which is why so many critical patients are intubated and put on a ventilator. Changes to lung cell membrane permeability cause the lungs to fill with fluid. As a result of all the above, the lungs can fail to infuse enough oxygen into the patient’s blood, resulting in death.

Sounds pretty gruesome, because it is. 

Where did viruses come from, and when? My surface scratch research suggests that there are several theories about the origins of viruses. One theory is that viruses appeared prior to single-cell life forms, and may or may not be linked to the evolution of living organisms. Another theory posits that viruses appeared within the same time frame as living cells. 

In my simple view, however they originated, viruses developed to take advantage of living organisms by using the organism’s cells to do the work of replication, thereby keeping the varian more “simple” by not needing feeding, reproductive and other systems. I do not think that viruses are simple; they are very complex chemical packets.

Health experts expect this virus to be cycling through the population for more than this cycle. There are some estimates that outbreaks will occur next fall/winter that could be as bad as the current outbreak. In other words, this is not a short-term event. 

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(This post was modified on May 11, 2020 by adding the footnote.)

* There are a lot of unknowns concerning this particular coronavirus, and new information about it is coming out of research labs and groups almost daily. Recent cases have indicated that COVID-19 might be related to strokes in otherwise healthy people in their 30's and 40's. In New York, a number of children who were infected but asymptomatic have developed a mysterious illness, and at least one child has died. 

WHO’S THE IDIOT WITHOUT A MASK ON?

What does everyone in this video know that VP Mike Pence doesn’t? Well, nothing. Prior to his visit to the Mayo Clinic, the clinic let his staff know that they have a mandatory policy that everyone needs to wear a mask. Pence declined to wear one. And Pence is the Administration lead for the pandemic response!

(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-updates.html?referringSource=article)

According to the article:

During the tour, Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, and other administration officials wore masks; all employees around Mr. Pence were wearing face masks, and a patient wore a mask. Mr. Pence stood out as the only person with his face uncovered as he toured the virology laboratory’s labeling area, thanking employees and then participating in a round table with local officials and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

After the visit, the Mayo Clinic tweeted that it had “informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.” The clinic then deleted the tweet.

Mr. Pence defended his own behavior. “As vice president of the United States, I’m tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,” he told reporters.

He said he was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that indicated that masks were good for preventing the spread of the virus by those who had it.

Public health experts said his argument for not wearing a mask in public settings was faulty.

Vice President Pence was demonstrating, once again, that the White House policy for the coronavirus pandemic is to say, as well as do, the things that health experts warn should not be said or done. In other words, as Trump has basically demonstrated since the beginning of this crisis, this thing is not a big deal, we don’t really need to take it seriously, everything will be fine, blah-blah-blah-blah.

Meanwhile, in the United States as of today, at least 1,008,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, and 57,966 Americans have died of the disease. 

Thank you, Vice President Pence, for directly contributing to so many illnesses and deaths! I’ll bet you don’t even wash your hands. Well, the American people can’t wait to wash our hands of you and your boss! 

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IT IS TRULY TIME TO TEAR THIS F**KER DOWN!!

First: peruse this:The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package https://nyti.ms/2VzfL4X

As small businesses and individuals struggle to obtain federal aid, the wealthiest are poised to reap tens of billions of dollars in tax savings.

Does it surprise you? Of course not, it is the proverbial "business as usual" in the United States of America. No matter how outraged I get, I just can't get outraged enough! Every. Single. Day.

How does this end? A dystopian world of the very. very wealthy few and the very, very poor many? Oh, that's right, we already live there! It's called America.

Trump is not, contrary to popular belief on the left, the problem. Trump is the symptom, the messenger, the open, running, oozing sore that we were always too repulsed to look at but that we now have become oblivious to. Trump is the buffoon, puppet string-pulled by the super rich and the big corporations that don't really give a rat's crap about anyone who isn't them. Did you know that the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan are ghost towns because all the rich folk have moved to their country homes, or yachts, or French Riviera villas, or...anywhere but where there are sick and dying people in the lower classes?

Yeah, I know, there are some very wealthy folks who are trying to do good things - they are the ones we know, not the ones we don't know.

And so here we are, in the midst of a pandemic that has killed 196,000 people and counting in the world, including 51,192 dead in the USA - as of today. Congress is scrambling to keep pace with this disaster by passing relief bills as fast as they can. Notice I said "keep pace," they are actually running behind the pandemic curve, but not catching up to it. Piecemeal relief, instead of a comprehensive package that looks forward as well as at the present/past.

And the very wealthy and their corporations? Special provisions in these relief bills to shovel even more of our money to them! Shameful is a very mild word. Criminal is getting better. Reprehensible - maybe there isn't a word strong enough to describe these bloated blood-sucking leeches.

America - wake the eff up, stop scrolling through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, and get pissed. And do something. Number 1, do not re-elect Donald Effing Trump. Number 2, tell Joe Biden and every Democratic politician you can that enough is enough. It stops here; it stops now. Change it. We demand it.

I'm finished.

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LESSONS WE NEED TO LEARN FROM THE PANDEMIC OF 2020

I truly hope that, once this pandemic is behind us and we are trying to return to some sense of normalcy, that we and our elected officials pause to think about what we've learned in this trial by fire. The lessons are many. Here are just a few:

• every person in the United States should have health care, without having to worry about how to pay for it; 
• every working person should receive a living wage, paid sick leave, affordable child care, and paid vacation;
• ​every person in America should live in a clean environment, including air and water - think about what cities look like during the pandemic;
• ​the United States should have a modern, efficient and fast system of commuter and long-distance rail service in and between urban areas, and also serving rural communities;
• ​the fossil fuel economy must end and be replaced by one based on sustainable energy sources;
• the wealth gap in America needs to be drastically narrowed and the standard of living raised for all Americans
• a college education would be available for free, or affordable, and existing student debt  should be cancelled;
• the United States should have a reasonable and comprehensive immigration program, and undocumented people now in the country, as well as the "Dreamers," should have a clear path to citizenship.

And more....

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THE 50TH EARTH DAY

It has been 50 years today since the first Earth Day; are environmental conditions better now?  

That's me, above, 50 years ago on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The location was the relatively new* University of California campus at Irvine (UCI). (Note: if you watch the first Planet of the Apes movie, you will recognize the building in the background.) I was standing next to Trashman, a sculpture my wife, Sherry, and I (maybe others) made out of, you guessed it, trash.

Sherry and I were co-chairs of the UCI Environmental Teach-In Committee that organized and facilitated the first Earth Day, on the UCI campus. We were graduate students; I was in the Population and Environmental Biology program, working on a Ph.D. that I didn't complete (I got as far as being advanced to Candidacy, then got derailed by the anti-war movement - more on that another time).

I still have a copy of the UCI Earth Day program listing the events and participants in multiple panel discussions, presentations, break-out sessions and speeches.  Here is a list of those events:

Panels:
Land Use and Development: Functions and Priorities
Water
Air
Workshop Discussion Groups:
Population
Newport Bay
Pollution Strategy
What Is A Scenic Coast Freeway?
Films:
Project Survival
The San Joaquin Marsh - A Recent Acquisition of the University of California
- keynote address: Environment and the Total Society. Congressman George Brown, Jr.
- Nature Sensitivity Awareness Sessions
- exhibits

As evidenced above, the big environmental concerns of the day were air and water quality, urban development, and human population growth. A few local issues were also included. We did not imagine then that 50 years in the future we would be facing the global crisis of human-induced climate change; or did we? Looking back, we were envisioning the future, but without the terminology of the 21st century. After all, what were the outcomes of unbridled air and water pollution, urban growth and development, and human population growth? An altered climate, among other results. Did we imagine a half-century ago that human activities could actually alter the climate in ways that would change everything? Some forward-thinkers must have; most of us probably not.

Earth Day solidified the burgeoning environmental movement of the 1960's and moved it forward. Great strides were made in environmental regulation, and the United States became a global leader in environmental protection. A new industry developed, the environmental industry, in which I built a career as a consulting ecologist. Air and water quality improved overall, greater amounts of fish and wildlife habitat were protected and conserved, the Endangered Species Act placed protections on plant and animal species that were at risk of disappearing. And yet...and yet.

Here we are, in the year 2020, witnessing dramatic climatic events wreak havoc around the world; events linked to the enormous levels of carbon compound emissions to the atmosphere from human activity. It is ironic that fossil fuels, formed from the remains of plants over millions of years, have become the thing that now threatens human populations. These fuels are the foundation of most human societies on Earth; every aspect of modern societies is intimately connected to fossil fuels.

Could human societies have developed and modernized without fossil fuels? I don't see how. Could we have recognized earlier that our fossil fuel use trajectory was going to result in climate change, and find ways to avoid the crisis in which we now find ourselves? Yes, most certainly; in fact, there have been scientists and others ringing alarm bells for many decades. So why didn't we heed these warnings?

It is truly amazing that, even as the reality of climate change became widely recognized over the past decade or more, we (human societies) have found new ways to extract even more fossil fuels from underground and under sea, and actually increase the carbon loading to the atmosphere. Yes, the efforts to reduce emissions have grown considerably, with governments signing climate accords, setting goals for reduced emissions, the energy sector rapidly increasing the proportion of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources. And yet...and yet.

Turn on the television and watch for awhile How many advertisements do you see for electric vehicles (EVs)? How many do you see for large SUV's and big pickup trucks? People who notice things have noted that there were 3 ads for EVs during the last Super Bowl, an amazing thing. True; however, the ads were for the EV Hummer, EV Porsche sports car, and the EV Audi - all very expensive big or fast vehicles (and they were advertised that way). When will we see ads for regular vehicles that are electric, with the point of the ad being that it is good for the environment and public health, and besides, why do you need a very fast car or monster pickup truck? Yes, I've seen a few of those ads, but they are rare.

I am encouraged by the new environmentalism of the younger generations. Our environmentalism in the 1970's was, to a great extent, born out of understanding new concepts, based on the fairly young science of ecology, and a growing realization that human societies were doing things that would not turn out well. The environmentalism of youth in the year 2020 is born more out of anger and fear; anger at those in charge who let it get to this point (capitalists, politicians, etc.), and fear of a future world so dreadful that many young people do not want to bring children into it. One result of this new environmentalism is policy proposals such as the Green New Deal, and that is positive.

I've saved Trump for the end of this post. Trump, in my view, is a symptom, not the problem. He and his enablers have wrought great havoc on the world, including the environment. These selfish people deny science, deny climate change, scale back environmental regulation, maximize profit for industry, including fossil fuel companies, and do everything that is counter-productive for reducing environmental risk. They will be directly responsible for many millions of deaths, and a future of more human suffering. They are, in my view, criminals. And yet...and yet.

The Earth is not in peril, and climate change is not an existential threat to the human species. The planet will be just fine, thank you, no matter what. And humans will be around for a long time. The climate will be different, resulting in changes to human activities, as well as plant and animal species. Human populations will move around based on rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. These will very likely be huge disruptions of human societies, and future wars based on access to water or farmland; but the human species will adapt and survive. These words are not meant to be comforting; they are not, especially for my grandchildren and the generations after theirs. We humans have made choices throughout our history, and we always have to live with the results.

And so, to the question: are environmental conditions better today than 50 years ago? Was/is Earth Day meaningful? I look up from my computer, sitting in our kitchen on day 43 of sheltering at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. I am amazed that 50 years have passed - a half century!! - since we so optimistically planned and participated in thousands of teach-ins called Earth Day. I have to say that, in my humble opinion, the present and future impacts of global climate change vastly outweigh many, if not most of the environmental advances made over the past 50 years. To a large degree, things like air and water quality and urban development can be worked on at more local or regional scales with measurable results, and many good things have been accomplished. But climate change is in a different ball park, the entire planet, and the solutions have to be at a planetary scale. Time will tell, and there is almost no time left before we pass the tipping points (some think we are already beyond those). I am not very hopeful, but I'm trying to be.

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* The UCI campus was dedicated in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

DONALD TRUMP IS A MASS MURDERER (AND SO ARE HIS ENABLERS)

I have written many things over the years of this blog; some serious, some humorous, many sarcastic or cynical. It's been OK, because few people read this thing. But sometimes I wish lots of people read my blog.

I usually, mostly, think about the words I use here. For this post, I considered words very carefully. I decided that the words in my title are good words, and truthful words; Donald Trump is a mass murderer.

The novel coronavirus that causes the illness labeled COVID-19 is a serious and dangerous disease. Donald Trump and some of his enablers (Rush Limbaugh comes to mind) have said that the COVID-19 coronavirus is just like the annual, seasonal flu, and no big deal. Trump said initially that the coronavirus is a big hoax perpetrated by the Chinese and supported by the Democrats. Wrong. The seasonal flu has a lethality rate of under 1%; COVID-19 has a lethality rate of somewhere between 2% and 5% (the determination is difficult), and that is a huge difference. The U.S. has, as of today, more than 24,000 confirmed new cases per day, and more than 2,000 deaths per day. To date, there have been almost 800,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and almost 42,000 deaths.

Donald Trump did not cause the coronavirus pandemic, but a great many of his actions, inactions and comments have resulted in the U.S. response to the pandemic being greatly delayed and seriously flawed. Here is a good article documenting my conclusion. Trump has politicized the federal government response to the pandemic; he has also failed to provide the leadership and resources needed to minimize the pandemic effect. Trump likes to tout the United States as being Number One. Well, we are number one in the world in the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of COVID-19 deaths. The best responses in the U.S. to the pandemic are at the state level, with a number of governors providing the kind of leadership and resources needed, in spite of federal efforts to undermine them.

As if the above isn't bad enough, the past few days have seen demonstrations in several states against the "shelter at home" and business closing orders. These demonstrations have been organized by conservative right-wing groups that have ties to the Trump campaign, and are taking place in states with Democratic governors. In addition to carrying signs about the social distancing orders, the demonstrators carry signs and wear hats for the Trump presidential campaign, some carry guns and 2nd amendment signs. In other words, these are political campaign demonstrations by Trump supporters. Tragically, most of these demonstrators do not wear masks or maintain a safe distance from each other, with the certain result that the coronavirus is being spread through the crowds and is then carried back into the communities where these idiots live.

Trump not only supports these demonstrations, he encourages them on Twitter, on Fox News, and in his daily statements. "LIBERATE MINNESOTA" he tweets."LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!" The tweet about Virginia was interpreted by extremists as a call to arms! 

It is neither "fake news" nor hyperbole to state that Donald Trump is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans by COVID-19. And so are his many enablers, from Republicans in Congress to hosts on Fox News to the people who throng to these dangerous demonstrations. Trump is an extremely dangerous madman who needs to be removed from office as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our best chance to remove him will be the 2020 elections, and he will continue to murder people and cause other great harms to America and the world until then. 

I mourn the victims of Trump's evil. 

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WHEN LEADERS FAIL US

There are many, many lessons to be learned from the coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2020. It remains to be seen if any of these will actually be learned in meaningful ways. I am not optimistic.

Primary among these lessons is that of leadership, specifically when it fails. The United States has a President who has demonstrated time and again over the past three years that his leadership leaves much to be desired. No, this post is not just about Donald Trump; so much has already been said and written about him that repetition would be wasteful here.  However, the major point regarding Donald Trump is that, in this time of a national and global crisis, he has not just failed as a leader, but failed spectacularly. Trump is uninterested and incapable of being the leader needed in a time of crisis. His basic message is "you are on your own, stop whining, and I'm upset because you don't appreciate me. And how am I going to profit from this?"

We are witnessing other leaders failing spectacularly. A large number of governors waited too long before ordering people to stay home and socially distance. Some of them have yet to fully implement these pandemic mitigation measures, and some have even overruled preventive measures implemented by local governments in their states. 

These spectacular failures of leadership are not just notable, they are responsible for people dying. They are, in my opinion, criminal acts perpetrated by men in positions of power. How many COVID-19 deaths in the United States would have been prevented had these men stepped up and provided the leadership needed to slow the pandemic, equip front-line medical workers with the tools and equipment needed, inspired people to do the right thing, and put in place mandatory rules applicable nationwide? This is a number that could be estimated, and it would be a very large number.

Leadership is both an innate personality quality as well as a learned skill. To lead means to inspire others to follow; in other words, a leader cannot be a single person without followers. And the direction being lead towards is important; there have been many leaders in history who have led their followers towards darkness and evil. As followers, we have choices; who do we choose to follow?

Our system of electing political leaders often results in the election of people into leadership positions who are not the leaders we need. Trump is a prime example of this. And once in power, ineffective leaders like Trump put people into lower positions of leadership who are not good leaders, and who do not threaten the poor leadership of the top dog. This might all seem fine for awhile, until a crisis strikes and the extent and dangers of poor leadership are exposed. The coronavirus pandemic we are now in is such a crisis. 

I truly hope the majority of Americans understands the lessons to be learned from this pandemic once it is behind us. I hope Americans understand the spectacular failure of leadership exhibited by Donald Trump, a number of governors, some federal agency directors and others. And I hope Americans use this understanding to make decisions at the ballot box (or the virtual ballot box). As I said at the beginning, I am not hopeful. I hope I'll be surprised.

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A STARTUP IDEA

There is Instagram.
There is Instacart.
I hope to soon start a new company that will deliver big reptiles that live in swamps:

INSTAGATOR

for people who want to start something

(obviously, I have a lot of time on my hands....)