This has not aged well. Is there a Plan B? As always, it’s easier to promise things than it is to actually deliver them. To beat COVID-19, we need a coordinated national response from the federal government — but Donald Trump refuses to do his job. I've laid out exactly what I would do, and I encourage this president to adopt the plan in its entirety: https://t.co/SOVOPL7uPy — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020 Read more →
EppsNet Archive: COVID-19
Which is More Important — Education or Super Bowl LVI?
Schools in Inglewood, CA shut down completely for more than 400 days due to COVID-19, eventually reopening in a “hybrid” model of in-person and distance learning. Kids can be deprived of an education, but in February 2022, Los Angeles will host Super Bowl LVI, mashing more than 100,000 ticket-holders together (plus I don’t know how many ushers, food vendors and other support staff) in a mostly enclosed Inglewood, CA stadium. Draw your own conclusions. Read more →
Garcetti and the Mandate Date
At the LA Fitness I go to in Santa Monica, there’s a big sign standing next to the front desk announcing that Mayor Garcetti has commanded that as of tomorrow, Nov. 4, you’re going to have to show proof of vaccination to enter indoor facilities like gyms, restaurants, etc. (Eric Garcetti is the mayor of Los Angeles.) I ask the girl at the desk, “Can the mayor of Los Angeles tell people what to do in Santa Monica?” “I guess he can.” Ironically, Garcetti just tested positive for COVID-19 himself, which makes me think that he shouldn’t be serving up mandates and telling people what to do like he knows how to avoid COVID because obviously he doesn’t. Read more →
Thomas Jefferson: Why is President Biden So Unpopular?
My fellow Americans – According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki (whom I would nail so hard that whoever could pull me out would be named King of England), the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for President Biden’s poor approval rating, which has fallen to a new low in recent polling. Point taken, but of course Biden and the Democrats campaigned on the pandemic being the fault of Trump and the Republicans, who failed to “follow the science.” And yet after nine months of glorious science-based leadership in Washington, here we are, no better off than before as far as I can see. Psaki also failed to mention the botch-up in Afghanistan, an unprecedented border crisis (including migrants coming in already infected with COVID), inflation, consecutive dismal job reports, and ongoing debt default brinksmanship. Read more →
London Breed: Next Governor of California?
San Francisco, like a lot of places, including Los Angeles County, where I live, has a mask mandate. You have to wear a mask indoors in public places, vaccinated or not. The woman in the photo, second from left, is London Breed, who as the mayor of San Francisco, would actually be the person responsible for issuing mask mandates, but she’s sitting in a club with no mask among a bunch of other people with no mask. I can’t even go into a convenience store and buy a soda unless I’ve got a mask on because someone will throw me out. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, also a mandate issuer, just this week parlayed his “masks are for serfs” philosophy into a decisive victory in a recall election. Which may be why Mayor Breed is not only not apologizing (as Newsom did, sort of), but doubling down on “I… Read more →
A Review of This Year’s Met Gala!
Excerpts from an essay By Glenn Greenwald: When it comes to mask mandates, it is now commonplace to see two distinct classes of people: those who remain maskless as they are served, and those they employ as their servants who must have their faces covered at all times. . . . Last month, a delightful event was hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for wealthy Democratic donors in Napa — the same wine region of choice for Gov. Newsom’s notorious dinner party . . . Pelosi’s donor gala took place as millions face eviction, ongoing joblessness, and ever-emerging mandates of various types. . . . Even though many of the wealthy white donors had no food in front of them and were not yet eating, there was not a mask in sight — except on the faces of the overwhelmingly non-white people hired as servants, all of… Read more →
How to Get Permanently Banned From Twitter
Alex Berenson, conservative commentator, one-time New York Times reporter, and vaccine dissenter has been permanently banned from Twitter for, according to a Twitter spokesperson, “repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules.” According to Berenson, the tweet that got him banned was this: It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it — at best — as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity. It is hard to sift information from misinformation on COVID and any number of other topics but I do NOT trust the meatheads at Twitter to take on that role in my life. Looking at the above tweet, what is the misinformation? My understanding is that the vaccine is intended to be effective against hospitalization and death, but not… Read more →
Woke White Boy: Antifa vs. Anti-Vaxxers
You can have any kind of left-wing demonstration — women’s marches, Gay Pride parades, Black Lives Matter, pro-choice, political rallies — and you never have violent right-wing nutjobs turn up to disrupt them. I don’t know why. But when we hear about right-wing demonstrations like the anti-vaccine Freedom Rally in Santa Monica this weekend, that means it’s time to break out the black togs, bats and bike locks to give those fuckers a nice warm Antifa welcome. [Editor’s note: Isn’t violent suppression of opposing views the actual definition of fascism?] I don’t fucking know. I just know these fuckers better get vaccinated and maybe a good beating is just the incentive they need. [Editor’s note: Shouldn’t there be more fellow feeling for a group that doesn’t want the government to tell them what to do?] No! It’s not the government telling them what to do, it’s Antifa telling them what… Read more →
Movin’ On
“I’m still mad at the former guy for killing 500,000 of us. Anybody else feel the same way?” “I’m actually mad that he kept you alive. Also, there are 3 million global COVID deaths. Who are you mad at about those? Also, aren’t you from Toronto? What do you mean by ‘us’?” “I mean human beings.” “If you care about human beings, then why are you using the 500,000 number instead of 3 million? I get it, you didn’t like Trump. He’s gone. Why are you still spouting the same low-IQ bullshit? Move on already.” Read more →
Nobody Believes in Anything. Problem?
I get a daily email newsletter from the New York Times, in which one of this week’s entries was a conversation with John Schwartz, a Times reporter who focuses on the climate. If Schwartz has any qualifications on the subject of climate science like, say, a relevant degree or something, he modestly omits it from his Times bio. Much of the Pacific Northwest is blanketed in snow. Texas continues to endure frigid weather and electricity outages. Another winter storm is spreading across much of the country. How is this consistent with global warming? Well, as Schwartz “explains” it, when temperatures go up, that’s a sign of global warming, and when temperatures go down, that’s also a sign of global warming. He adds, “We’ve always had floods, fires and storms, but climate change adds oomph to many weather events.” “Oomph”!? Follow the science! Nobody believes anything from the media anymore,… Read more →
Newsom Recall and Signature Matching
Our governor here in California, Gavin Newsom, once considered a rising superstar in the Democratic Party, is suddenly facing a serious effort to get him removed from power. The petition “Rescue California” has gathered over 1.5 million signatures, enough to qualify to put his recall up for a vote; but the State of California is poised to go into overdrive to throw out signatures that do not match exactly. The state of California is controlled by a whole bunch of Democrats. One-party rule. They are going to go through every single signature and throw out ones they don’t like. California’s suddenly renewed interest in strict signature-matching when it comes to the Newsom recall petition contrasts with its comparatively low 0.6% ballot rejection rate in the 2020 election, a rejection rate notably lower than the March primary even though more than twice as many people voted. Donald Trump, of course, would… Read more →
Biden: Nothing We Can Do About Virus
Weird. I don’t remember Biden campaigning on the “nothing we can do about the virus trajectory” platform https://t.co/CqSZ48fV3k — Andrew Mark Miller. (@AndyMarkMiller) January 22, 2021 Read more →
I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine 800,000 Times
Amazon offered to help the Biden administration on Wednesday, shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, with efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, a proposal that the tech giant had not submitted to the Trump administration in the month since the vaccine was approved for public use. — dailycaller.com Amazon also requested that its 800,000 employees be prioritized for vaccination. Read more →
To Quarantine or Not to Quarantine?
I’m reading that Los Angeles County, which is adjacent to where I live (Orange County) is now requiring travelers to quarantine for 10 days. By comparison, I also just read that Sweden, which didn’t do lockdowns, continued to send kids to school, adults to work, didn’t close bars, restaurants, gyms, etc., will have about the same death rate in 2020 as they’ve had every year since 2010. One explanation would be that people tagged as COVID victims were on track to die within a year or so anyway. I looked at COVID death rates for California and found that residents age 80+ are 3% of cases but 43% of deaths. If we go down to age 65+, we see 11% of cases but 76% of deaths. In a large majority of cases, the decedents had one or more comorbidities. Read more →
Two True Stories About 2020
Looking back over 2020, it was a year of fear, suffering, and pain . . . but also a story of courage, compassion, heroism and accomplishment. Do our brains have an automatic negativity bias? It seems we much more easily remember and give attention to bad experiences. But both stories are true. Read more →
No More Lockdown
No more lockdown No more threats No more Imperial College Scientists Making up crooked facts No more lockdown No more pulling the wool over our eyes No more celebrities telling us Telling us what we’re supposed to feel — Van Morrison, “No More Lockdown” Read more →
It’s Only Bad When Americans Die?
“More than 230,000 people have died from COVID! I hope everyone remembers that on Election Day!” “Are you suggesting Trump is responsible for the 230,000 deaths? He’s kept you alive. A dubious achievement, I grant you. But there’s about 330 million people in the US, so why not look at it that way? He’s kept almost 330 million people alive.” “I’ve kept myself alive. I wear a mask, wash my hands, social distancing . . .” “Sure, sure . . . are you saying we can choose whether or not to be infected? Everyone knows what’s safe and unsafe. Did the 230,000 people choose to get sick and die? Or did everyone who’s still here take care of themselves but all the deaths are on Trump? “And by the way, your death count is too low by about a million people. You’re citing the death count for one country. It’s… Read more →
I Don’t Think I Would Be Allowed to Run a Store
The convenience store where I buy sodas in the morning has literally four signs at the entrance saying wear a face covering if you come in the store. This morning a guy comes in with no face covering and a cup. The girl at the register says to him, “You can’t come in without a face covering.” “I’m just going to get a cup of water,” he says. So there’s another problem, which is that nobody knows the provenance of that cup and he’s going to push it into a public water dispenser. “You can’t be in here without a face covering,” the girl says a little more loudly. “I said I’m just going to get a cup of water!” Which he does. When I get to the register, I say to the girl, “I don’t think I could run a store because I would pick up the gun that… Read more →
I Blame Donald Trump
Playlists for Pandemics
Come take a walk on the wild side Come kiss me hard in the pouring rain You like your girls insane So, choose your last words, this is the last time ‘Cause you and I, we were born to die — Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die” Read more →