May 2020 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Risk in the midst of a pandemic

There is a cost/benefit analysis in opening up the country in the midst of a pandemic. Donald Trump (R-now of FL) and Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) both acknowledge it. We’re dealing with a risk assessment. The more people go out, the greater the risk. So the logical person would be engaged in what is known as risk mitigation.

But because the people in the United States seem to live in different realities, this has become very difficult. As an editorial in Axios noted: “Far from being the unifying force other catastrophes have been, the COVID-19 pandemic is tearing a divided America — and world — further apart.”

Former President George W. Bush released a video urging national unity in fighting this coronavirus pandemic. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat… We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.” While I personally applauded the effort of someone I never voted for, it wasn’t universally appreciated. The tweeter-in-chief, for instance, whined that W should have spoken up to defend him during the impeachment event.

Mask averse

Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) has been a reasonable voice in this discussion. He has recommended masks, but won’t require them because he says it goes too far for his citizenry. Also in Ohio, a lawmaker refuses to wear a mask because God?

Stillwater, OK rescinded its mask requirement because of the pushback. And a restaurant in Texas FORBIDS masks being worn by their employees.

I understand the tension between being safe and going back to normal, between complete lockdown and or doing nothing at all. Perhaps the restrictions have made people crazy. In what civilized society does someone wipe his nose on an employee’s shirt? Or push someone into a fountain? Or shoot someone in the head? The victims’ crimes? Asking people to engage in physical distancing behavior such as wearing a mask! A couple of teenage employees were shot because the McDonald’s dining room was closed. We’re in screwed-up territory. And we’re screwing ourselves.

I had foolishly, it appears, believed that when people went out, they would engage in appropriate social distancing and take reasonable precautions. Pictures of crowded beaches belie that theory. Polling suggests that many people rejected the number of the sick and the dead, including a significant one. They certainly dismiss as untrue projections a month out. Perhaps, as a result, anywhere between a sixth and one-third of the populace are already deciding not to get a vaccine when it becomes available.

Like it’s 2016

The Boston Globe reports that it’s memes, text chains, and online conspiracies that have fueled coronavirus protesters and discord. This is similar to what took place in 2016. “Only this time, the online manipulation campaigns… could be deadly.”

We can have disagreements about what’s the appropriate course of action. My friend David Brickman makes a modest proposal about New York’s reopening. “Where will art museums and galleries fit into this plan?” He thinks they should be among the first businesses to reopen, in part because many small museums or galleries could easily maintain social distancing protocols.

But these are not just differences of opinion I’m seeing in America. It’s nearly civil war at a time when we should have a common enemy, COVID-19. We’ll see very soon how the virus is winning, and we’re all losing.

More COVID Linkage

CDC Guidance for Reopening Is Deep-Sixed by the White House.

More Cases Among Viewers Of Fox News Host Who Downplayed Pandemic.

Not An Emergency Once He Found Out Who Was Dying.

How He Left the Country Dangerously Unprepared.

To understand the danger of outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry’s history.

Does Anyone Still Want to Be a Doctor?

A Guide to Reading Facial Expressions Behind Protective Masks.

‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership.

How to Avoid Burnout in the Middle of a Pandemic.

7 Ways Travel Will Change for the Better in a Post-Pandemic World

Read NOTES FROM THE PANDEMIC.

Plandemic: one of those Internet things

Can’t I just ignore it?

techniques of science denial — From a Creative Commons license

Recently, I repeatedly kept seeing a reference to a video called Plandemic. I have not viewed it. Mostly, the message is “See it before THEY take it down again.” The video has reached cult status. It’s like the outlaws in the Wild West. Or the gangsters like Bonnie and Clyde in the 1920s and 1930s America. Plandemic has achieved, it seems, folk hero status.

So much so that Forbes has posted a piece by Tara Haelle called “Why It’s Important To Push Back On ‘Plandemic’—And How To Do It.”

Plandemic interviews a scientist who was appropriately discredited for scientific misconduct and fraud. [Judy Mikovits] is a known, established anti-vaccine advocate (despite her denial in the film), and she presents a long list of unsupported statements that involve COVID-19, various vaccines, HIV/AIDS, Anthony Fauci, pharmaceutical company collusion and other elements of an elaborate, long-running cover-up. It’s a doozy, checking nearly every box in the long list of conspiracy theories and disinformation circulating about the coronavirus.

Politifact fact-checked eight of Mikovits’ most misleading claims in the film. It’s one of several links debunking the video in the Forbes piece.

Ubitquitous

Forbes asks: “Why is this video suddenly everywhere? Why are so many drawn to it?” And answers it:

First, it taps into people’s uncertainty, anxiety, and need for answers—common reasons anyone is attracted to a conspiracy theory. Second, it is packaged very professionally and uses common conventions people already associate with factual documentaries. Third, it successfully exploits ancient but extremely effective methods of persuasion.

Oh, and why is it being removed? YouTube keeps taking it down because it violates community guidelines for false and misleading information.

Someone named ZDoggMD reacts to the “crazy” viral video. He says, “Don’t waste your time watching it. Don’t waste your time sharing it. Don’t waste your time talking about it.”

Forbes takes a different tactic: “Why should I bother saying anything at all? Can’t I just ignore it?”

Conspiracy theories like those in this video are actively, directly harmful, and dangerous. They can influence people’s behavior in ways that harm those people and public health—including you personally—in general. We can’t afford to let these ideas run unchecked.

If you don’t push back on them, even to those you love or don’t want to upset, you’re enabling them. You’re allowing people to spew harmful, dangerous nonsense that kills people and demoralizes the millions of health care providers trying to save lives.

And the writer has some tips on how to debunk, ideally without alienating the people. She points to the Atlantic article by Liz Neeley, How to Talk About the Coronavirus.

See also, from Politifact: A documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus.

Sometimes, you just need your mother

balance of justice

Carol and Lydia Here’s a picture of my daughter with her mother in December 2015. My friend Alice took it. Perhaps my daughter was just tired. Or maybe she needed her mother’s shoulder.

It’s interesting how the demarcation of emotional responsibilities in our household lies. I’d like to think of myself as the Cool Dad. Yet it was my wife who managed to remember the names of the seven members of BTS and tell them apart, back when my daughter was into them heavily in the past couple of years. While I catch a greater number of my daughter’s current lingo references – though by no means all – my wife picks up some things from her students that simply was oblivious to.

MIL

After my father-in-law died in April 2020, I think her three serving children were worried about their mother. But, in many ways, she’s been surprisingly resilient. And pragmatic. In some ways, my wife is very much like her mother. In the past, when I pointed this out, my wife resisted the comparison. Now, she pretty much owns it.

My mother-in-law and I get along pretty well. She refers to me as her favorite son-in-law. Of course, I’m her ONLY son-in-law. But I’ll take it anyway.

Trudy

I continue to miss my own mother. This Mother’s Day is a lot easier than the holiday in 2011 when I was dealing with being an Orphaned Adult for the first time. It’s odd, but my recollections of her as my mom when I was growing up are spotty.

Part of that, I suppose, is because she worked outside of the home, primarily in the accounting department of McLean’s department store in downtown Binghamton, NY. In fact, I remember walking downtown and going to her office on the fourth or fifth floor, often enough that her co-workers recognized me after a while.

The one specific “mom” thing I remember involved me playing baseball in Valley Street park. I was pitching, and the batter, Aline, hit the ball back at me and hit me in my left temple. She called the doctor who told her that I might have a concussion. So every couple of hours, she’d come into my room and gently wake me up.

Mother’s Day

The history of Mother’s Day is as Day of Peace. Here’s part of Julia Ward Howe’s proclamation in 1870:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!… We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”

Sometimes, you just need your mother.

Those wartime #1 hits of 1940

Glenn Miller The United States Census of 1940 determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people.

Europe and Asia were embroiled in World War II by 1940. The United States was allegedly staying out of it. But as my daughter’s European history class reminded me, the US was providing significant military supplies and other assistance to the Allies by September 1940. The Germans had taken Paris and were bombing London.

“On September 2, 1940, President Roosevelt signed a ‘Destroyers for Bases’ agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the United States gave the British more than 50 obsolete destroyers, in exchange for 99-year leases to territory in Newfoundland and the Caribbean, which would be used as U.S. air and naval bases.”

America needed music

In the Mood – Glenn Miller, 13 weeks at #1 and a gold record. It was re-released in 1943 and went to #20.
Frenesi – Artie Shaw, 13 weeks at #1. Both Woody Herman and Glenn Miller recorded the song in 1941 and got to #16.
I’ll Never Smile Again – Tommy Dorsey, featuring Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers, 12 weeks at #1. The Glenn Miller cover went to #16 in the same year.

Only Forever – Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, 9 weeks at #1. Tommy Dorsey’s version reached #7 the same year.
Tuxedo Junction – Glenn Miller and his orchestra, 9 weeks at #1 and a gold record
Scatter-Brain – Frankie Masters, 6 weeks at #1. Benny Goodman and Freddy Martin also recorded this.

The Woodpecker Song – Glenn Miller, featuring Marion Hutton, 5 weeks at #1. Andrews Sisters and Kate Smith were among the artists recording this. It’s based on Reginella Campagnola.
South of the Border (Down in Mexico Way) – Shep Fields, featuring Hal Derwin, 5 weeks at #1. Guy Lombardo and Frank Sinatra (#18 in 1953) had hits with this tune.
Sierra Sue – Bing Crosby, with John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, 4 weeks at #1

Make-Believe Island – Mitchell Ayres, featuring Mary Ann Mercer, 2 weeks at #1 . At least four other recordings charted that year.
Where Was I? – Charlie Barnet, featuring Mary Ann McCall, 2 weeks at #1
The Breeze and I – Jimmy Dorsey, featuring Bob Eberle, 1 week at #1. That year Jimmy Dorsey celebrated his ninth birthday. He was born on February 29, 1904. In 1954, Vic Damone got to #21 with the song.

There were relatively few major record labels in those days. Of the songs above, Shaw and Tommy Dorsey were on Victor, Crosby and Jimmy Dorsey were on Decca, and Masters was on Vocalion. The others were on Bluebird. Columbia was the only other label with songs that got into the Top 4.

Buying my first house, finally

“up, up, UP!”

house It wasn’t until May 8, 2000, that I purchased my first house. My now-wife had bought a two-family dwelling on Manning Blvd. in the early 1990s. When we got married in May 1999, I moved in with her. This was not a particularly good idea.

Even though I had gotten rid of a LOT of stuff, including a sofa I’d purchased only a couple years earlier, the first legitimate furniture I ever bought, the place was still crowded. My dresser was literally on top of hers. This was “inspired” by a fellow on an HGTV show that my wife and MIL were watching; unfortunately, I was also present. The guy said that, when you have limited space, you have to build “up, up, UP!”

I hated it. My sense of claustrophobia was high. More to the point, when I would discuss this with my bride, she’d say, “But I made room for your stuff.” And was the problem. She was making room from her stuff for my stuff.

To his credit, our former pastor had suggested early on that we needed to have a place of our own, where our stuff would reside. In the early fall, we saw a house we really liked. But my wife had returned to graduate school, and it was just too expensive for us.

Adorable

Then we found another place, on Kent Street, that we thought was charming. A lot of personal touches built by the late pater familias. But a look-see by a home inspector noted a bulge in a wall caused by water damage. He estimated that it would cost about a grand to fix. We asked the owner if she could knock $1000 off the price, or alternately, get the wall repaired first. neither were viable options for her, so we walked away. (You should always be willing to walk away.)

We looked at the previous house we had liked and noticed that the price had gone down about $6000. And we bought it. My wife could not make the closing because of grad school, so she granted me the power of attorney at the closing. We had scraped every dime we had to get the certified check we needed. But as the process went on, I was told that the amount of our down payment was $1800 short, a math error by our attorney.

I was nonplussed. It wasn’t as though we had any more cash. The papers were signed nevertheless. Somehow, and I no longer remember how, my wife and I finagled the rest of the down payment the next day. About a week later, after the semester ended, we hired movers, even though we were going only six blocks away. We had our home.

The obvious: CSNY, Madness.