20200505

Tue May 5 06:00:02 EDT 2020 ======================================== Slept from eleven to seven. Woke briefly around five. Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 50s. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. Work ---------------------------------------- - 11 AM disaster plan review Done. - Call Lori back Done. - Follow up with Dell rep about laptop availability Done. - Review Entrata migration reports Done. - Review invoices No. - Schedule quarterly disaster follow-ups for the next year (1.5 years?) No. - Ask Scott not to throw shade, especially in writing No. Twenty-five-minute walk at lunch. Cooler and overcast. A handful of trees with fully-formed leaves now. Saw a dead robin. Home ---------------------------------------- - Call Mom, Yvonne Talked to Mom for almost forty minutes, but didn't get a hold of Yvonne. - Change sheets and towels Done. Hmm, a modern-setting kaiju story with added Lovecraftian gods and wicket sorcerers? Changed towels, washed dishes, changed sheets. https://kottke.org/20/05/the-plan-is-to-have-no-plan https://pressthink.org/2020/05/the-plan-is-to-have-no-plan/ > The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible — by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence. > Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign.<Paste> https://www.thestreet.com/phildavis/news/what-are-the-reopen-protesters-really-saying > Despite the economic toll the lockdowns are taking on America’s poor, no protesters put their own poverty on display, such as posting signs asking for help. > Instead, they held signs with more general language, like “Poverty Kills,” or expressed concerns like the restaurateur in Phoenix, Arizona, who told a passing videographer he was worried about his 121 “suffering, devastated” employees. > Their messages made clear that they didn’t want to ask for a handout or charity – but they were asking to be allowed to work. Protesters across many states asserted their work – or even all work – was “essential.” > > Despite alarming news reports that protesters were ignoring social distancing, many of the protesters observed safety guidelines. Photos showed at least some people wearing masks. A TikTok video recruiting participants for Michigan’s Operation Gridlock encouraged protesters to be safe; drone footage shows that most participants at the state capitol stayed in their cars, away from other people. > Protesters’ signs didn’t really downplay the threat of the virus, but rather compared it with potential harm from the lockdown. For instance, a sign in Denver was headed “Trading Lives” and featured a scale with virus deaths on one side, with unemployment, suicide and homelessness on the other. > > There were protesters at several rallies who wore anti-vaccination T-shirts and held signs suggesting they don’t trust public health experts and scientists. > But only one protest was dominated by that theme. At that one, on April 18 in Austin, Texas, hundreds of attendees chanted “Fire Fauci!” referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been a frequent public face of the federal government’s efforts to fight the virus. That was also the rally where right-wing radio host Alex Jones, who runs a conspiracy-theory website, drove around in a truck egging on attendees’ chants through a megaphone. > At the other events, it appeared protesters had been expecting higher numbers of infections than actually happened. Rather than seeing that as evidence of the success of social distancing, they seemed to interpret this as saying the science was no longer valid. “The models were wrong” was on more than one sign, suggesting protesters had paid attention to the scientific models at first but had come to believe the disease’s seriousness had been exaggerated. > > Even when protesters acknowledged the threat of the virus, few of them were calling for medical experts to provide the solution. I saw none of the demonstrators calling for more widespread testing, for instance. > When they did express concern, protest signs coupled it with a desire to fight the contagion. In Boise, Idaho, one sign read “Freedom over Fear.” In Denver, one said “Don’t let your mask be your muzzle.” > However, the protesters wanted to fight the virus in ways that were more familiar to them and, perhaps, more empowering: In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a giant green truck had “Jesus is my vaccine” scrawled on its side. > > In many of the events across different states, protesters objected to what they called “tyranny,” and held up the Revolution-era “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flag to symbolize their resistance to government rules. They were not objecting to President Donald Trump’s April 13 declaration that, as president, his “authority is total” over the nation. > Instead they were objecting to governors’ lockdown rules, which they highlighted as overreaching their power. Many protesters likened the government’s behavior to Nazis, with protesters adding “Heil” before Democratic governors’ names. > > One clearly visible theme in the #Reopen protests is how white the attendees are – but not just in terms of their own race. Their compassion also seemed limited to fellow white people. Watched a couple episodes of House of Cards. Some of the numbers from the last couple days look a little suspect, but it all averages out eventually. On the plus side, Michigan's case growth starts to bend more logarithmic than linear, maybe. US new tests (We want at least 500,000–5,000,000 tests per day.): 149,831 → 315,927 → 192,012 → 232,225 → 271,256 → 206,403 → 190,443 → 202,233 → 230,442 → 220,522 → 305,118 → 253,431 → 248,125 → 231,812 → 259,150 (today) (three-day averages: 219257 236628 207706 259690 246362) US new deaths: 2674 → 2133 → 1886 → 1772 → 2194 → 1184 → 1163 → 2198 → 2700 → 2041 → 1793 → 1651 → 1158 → 938 → 2527 (today) (three-day averages: 2231 1717 2020 1828 1541) MI new tests today (How many do we want? Michigan's population is about 10,000,000. Whitmer threw out 10% — 1MM!?): 428 → 999 → 10096 → 7975 → 7748 → 6962 → 6754 → 7045 → 7547 → 7915 → 10238 → 11204 → 10823 → 9661 → 643 (today) (three-day averages: ) MI new tests positive percentage (We want 10% or less.): 28% → 100% → 13% → 17% → 7% → 8% → 6% → 15% → 15% → 12% → 10% → 8% → 5% → 2% → 70% (today) (three-day averages: 47 11 12 10 26) MI new deaths: 232 → 113 → 164 → 108 → 189 → 41 → 92 → 160 → 103 → 119 → 77 → 154 → 29 → 86 → 130 (today) (three-day averages: 170 113 118 117 82) Oakland county new deaths: 20 → 26 → 12 → 19 → 13 → 15 → 10 → 12 → 7 → 14 → 10 → 10 → 6 → 4 → 1 (today) (three-day averages: 19 16 10 11 4) Beaumont 4/23: COVID-19 patients: 701; COVID-19 ICU patients: 174; all patients bed occupancy: 57% Beaumont 4/27: COVID-19 patients: 613; COVID-19 ICU patients: 237; all patients bed occupancy: 66% Beaumont 4/30: COVID-19 patients: 559; COVID-19 ICU patients: 248; all patients bed occupancy: 71% Beaumont 5/04: COVID-19 patients: 449; COVID-19 ICU patients: 226; all patients bed occupancy: 70% Servings: grains 7/6, fruit 1/4, vegetables 1/4, dairy 2/2, meat 3/3, nuts 0/0.5 Brunch: apple, egg and cheese wrap, coffee Lunch: salami sandwich, pickle Dinner: rice with broccoli and potatoes, popcorn 116/76

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