"There's something obscenely American about refusing a vaccine that millions around the world are desperate to get." ~ George Takei
What I've Learned
I'm Shocked. Shocked I Tell You!
Can You Get Behind This?
Karma
Absolutely.
A Common Thread
ESPECIALLY Items #1, #3 and #5.
Quote of the Day
Let's start calling these vaccine avoiders what they are: freeloaders. The only reason you're somewhat safe now is because other people got the shot. You're the person who heads for the bathroom when the check comes at the restaurant. You're the lady who takes home the centerpieces from a wedding you weren't invited to. You're the guy who brings five napkins to a potluck dinner. That's you." ~ Jimmy Kimmel
So True
FYI, I'm Wearing a Mask Outside Forever
In this instance, I'm not going to follow CDC guidance. There is no way of knowing if the unmasked person in line behind you at Kroeger's is truly vaccinated or just a maskhole taking advantage of these new guidelines. When will my mask come off? Hard to say, but I will readily admit this is the first time in many years I did not come down with my usual case of winter bronchitis, and that alone is worth it.
Too Soon?
Heh… "Plague Rats"
Submitted Without Comment
Submitted Without Comment
I've Got News for Them…
…Californians aren't the only ones.
From CBS News:
Californians want to keep working from home post-pandemic
Working from home could be one of the pandemic practices that's here to stay, CBS Los Angeles reports. A new survey from the University of Sothern California and the California Emerging Technology Fund explored Californians feelings about remote work, remote learning and telehealth after more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers say they have found hesitancy about each of these practices have been swept away.
"Now we're seeing a seismic shift in the way people want to work, learn and manage health visits among those who have broadband access. Those changes give us a real opportunity to cut congestion and carbon emissions," Hernan Galperin, the study's lead researcher and an associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said in a statement.
The survey found that 42% of current, full-time remote workers want to keep working from home. Another 21% who also want to keep working from home say they are willing to go into the office one or two days a week. However, 17% of those surveyed say they want to go back to their workplaces five days a week.
However, the opportunity for telecommuting was not evenly distributed among workers. People between 18 and 34 were found to be the least likely to be able to work from home, with the perk being most available to people earning $60,000 or more a year. College-educated women were most likely to be able to work from home, according to the survey.
In distance learning, one-third of Californians 18 or older said they took an online class or training during the pandemic. Two thirds of those surveyed said they would continue distance learning if they have the opportunity, with the likelihood increasing with age.
Use of telehealth during the pandemic also jumped, with just over half of respondents to the survey being able to access their healthcare by phone, smartphone or computer. However, usage was also uneven in this area — people of color were less likely to use telehealth services, while seniors 65 and older used it the most, despite their lower levels of internet connectivity and tech savvy. The survey also found that Los Angeles County showed the lowest level of telehealth participation at 46%.
Wider adoption of telecommuting, telehealth and distance learning could drastically impact traffic across the state, the survey found. More than half expected to cut their commute at least once a week after the pandemic, while 70% of respondents who used telehealth services anticipate cutting their medical-related car trips by at least half after the pandemic.
Submitted Without Comment
It's a Simple Question
Me Too.
I Had the Same Reaction!
And Still No 5G Antennas!
But this second dose knocked me on my ass. I was fine all afternoon and evening, but I started noticing some soreness when I went to bed. When I woke yesterday morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. I went downstairs and fed the kiddos and then came back to bed, where I slept for the next 9 hours. My fever peaked at 102, but taking a hot shower and actually getting out of bed knocked it down to just under 100, where it remained for the remainder of the evening.
I'm not feeling great today, but at least I'm somewhat functional. Everyone tells me I should be totally back to normal by this afternoon.
And still no sign of those goddamn antennas! I feel cheated!
One Year
Well, it's been one year since we went into lockdown at work. While it took a bit of adjustment at first, I came to love it and I dreaded having to return to the way things were.
Thing is, none of us was in any hurry to return to the office full time. But as I wrote previously, our society is too entrenched in the thought of getting everything back to "normal," that any lessons we might've learned, or insights we gained over the past year in regards to doing things differently have been tossed out the window.
The old "normal" wasn't working, but we'll be damned if we make any changes.
Remember how nice it was those first few weeks? Little to no traffic on the streets? The quiet outside? The fact that wildlife was—albeit cautiously—returning to our urban enclaves?
Sure, nothing was open and we were all with a heightened sense of caution regarding pretty much everything we came in contact with outside our home (Ben and I still carry hand sanitizer in our cars, something that—along with our religious mask wearing while outside our home—has undoubtedly attributed to the fact neither one of us has gotten any of our usual winter respiratory infections this year), but for us personally, it was a welcome respite from the madness that had been society previously.
I enjoy getting up an hour later than I had been prior to COVID. I don't miss the commute. I appreciate the added security of being home when packages are delivered. And lord knows the dogs have certainly grown used to (probably codependently so) me being home. I think they're going to have the hardest time readjusting.
I can't afford to retire for another four years at minimum, so we stumble back to what we were all doing a year ago, acting like nothing happened at all over the past twelve months to possibly—just possibly—move us all in a different direction.
And that makes me sad.
I Hope Not!
Wear a mask, you filthy animals.
All The Cool Kids Are Doing It
I can feel Bill Gates' our alien overlords' nanobots swarming through my bloodstream, but it's been two days and I'm still waiting for my 5G antennas to start sprouting. I wonder if my reception will be good enough with just those, or if I'll still need a tinfoil hat…
There is a welt at the injection site that forms "666," so I'm not giving up hope just yet.
You're Not Imagining It
Death Becomes Them
Seriously?!
KENNETH IN THE 212: Why are so many people, and gay men included, behaving so irresponsibly now that COVID-19 is actually at its worst? Most people are not yet vaccinated, and the hospitals are packed, yet I have friends boasting about weddings they're hosting, trips to Puerto Rico, Puerto Vallarta, Tulum, Hawaii — and few or no masks in sight. Kenneth calls out White Party promoter Jeffrey Sanker, who is holding bashes for NYE in Puerto Vallarta with zero mention of safety. People also pointed out that Shangela is in P.V., hanging on people without a mask.
Two not unrelated notes: That gay male nurse who nearly died of COVID-19 after attending a circuit party in March, the one who wasted away to nothing and collected $20K in GoFundMe cash, is currently partying in Mexico. He disabled his social media to escape the condemnation. Also, how many IG influences and OnlyFans accounts do you follow that are nothing but gay men having anonymous hookups in a pandemic?
Nobody is perfect, and many who are doing all the right things are still getting sick—but why are so many people this willfully, proudly oblivious? I guess because they think their chances of getting desperately ill or dying are low, and they couldn't give a fuck about the people they infect whose chances are high?
And we can't even say we'll hold them accountable when this is all over because … who is the we? It feels like most people are sliding into a giant shrug.
#truth
It Was a Cautionary Tale, Ignored
The Virus Didn't Defeat America, Freedumb Did
From John Pavlovitz:
COVID beat America—completely, unequivocally, and historically.
There's simply no way around that truth.
We have been decimated far beyond even the most dire calculations back in the Spring of 2020.
The sickness has been unfathomable and the death toll staggering.
We have been the planet's most egregious cautionary tale on what not to do, how not to navigate this crisis—on how patriotism can become nationalism and nationalism can become deadly to a nation.
It's no mystery how we got here: a nonexistent Federal response headed by an unprepared, ignorant sociopathic president who had neither the capacity nor the inclination to prevent loss of life. But these massive liabilities alone wouldn't have been enough for the virus to defeat us so fully. It needed a boost. It needed an accomplice. It needed one more fierce ally in its brutal assault on America: it needed Americans.
It needed the flag-waving, chest-beating, bottle-rocket, Don't Tread On Me, MAGA bluster of hundreds of millions of people raised to believe personal freedom trumps everything: Science, facts, humanity—even life itself.
And so, when the warnings came they cried "conspiracy!"
When the restrictions arrived they marched like star-spangled martyrs on Governor's mansions with guns waving.
When healthcare workers pleaded with them for restraint, they tore off their masks; imagining themselves some heroic modern Tea Party patriots defending liberty against manufactured tyranny.
When the case and death numbers climbed, they attacked the "Deep State" and doubled down on the well-curated myth of their oppression.
When the second wave began, after a first wave that never ended—they complained about restrictions not working the first time, never mentioning the fact that they didn't abide by them to begin with.
And now here, in complete and utter devastation they refuse to admit that America got its collective behind handed to it, because they had to "live free or die"—or at least, they had to live free and kill lots of strangers. They are so intoxicated with the drug of American greatness, that they can't admit that in the face of this virus we have been brought to our knees because we insisted on it.
Today, I spoke with a friend in Taiwan about the response there to the COVID crisis, one they largely have in their collective rear view mirror. It is a story repeated all over the world:
She said "We got control of it here because we follow orders here, we do what we're told." She talked about the initial lockdowns and the way people did the hard work aided by wise leadership, and they got the upper hand early.
I talked about MAGA Americans and their chest beating, flag-waving anti-mask "freedom" stance that inexplicably still has them marching defiantly unmasked through grocery stores and still refusing to adjust their behavior.
She replied, "Today, I don't have to wear a mask and I can go to the movies and see my family and travel and live a normal life without restrictions. So who has freedom now?"
That's the hard truth America is going to have to reckon with: our ceremonial, showy, hollow "liberty" has caused us actual freedom:
to do the work we enjoy,
to make a living,
to see the people we love,
to make plans,
to be spontaneous,
and to fully enjoy these days.
We have lost an entire year of our individual and collective lives, because nearly half our country has ignored restrictions, flouted safeguards, refused medical expertise, and given a strident middle finger to the efforts of intelligent people prepared for exactly this kind of disaster—all because they wanted to protect a red, white, and blue facade of American exceptionalism by owning the Libs, even if it killed them. In their lust for personal liberty they abandoned the responsibilities of living in community with other human beings with whom they are interdependent.
In the coming year, these myopic, short-sighted practitioners of a religion of nationalism will try to rewrite history. They will spin the numbers and deny the crisis and blame the incoming Administration, but they will not be able to change what happened or why it happened and they will not be able to redact the real story:
The virus defeated America because their phony patriotism and cheap liberty was the greatest friend it could have ever had.
They were exactly what it needed to win.
God bless America.