To start from the beginning, click here.
It’s September. Two months until the election. Everyone on both sides is talking about what happens when the election is contested and (violent) conflict grips the nation… Everyone has their own set of facts for everything. Everyone’s opinions now differ so wildly that there is no more charade of “what’s your opinion?”, now it’s just “who do you believe?”
The sky in California is orange.
A gender reveal party-gone-wrong sparked massive wildfires. That is not a joke.
Covid struck, and all of a sudden TRILLIONS were spent to keep businesses alive. Skies turn orange and crickets. Highest unemployment in the country’s history and everyone got $1200 plus some extra unemployment benefits for 3 months. 90 million Americans uninsured, but we can’t afford to spend more on healthcare. I give the orange man credit for drawing us out of the middle east, and many of our military commitments abroad… but I am all the more puzzled as to why we now spend more on the military than before these accomplishments. Getting close to a TRILLION per year on defense.
We love guns, maybe it’s as simple as that. A 17 year old murdered 2 protesters in kenosha the other day. A counter protester was murdered in Portland a few days later. More videos of black men killed in police custody or shot in the back turn up every day. Trump has discussed the insurrection act. The military has stated that it won’t get involved in resolving a disputed election. Everything is fine.
A new Stanford/UCLA study (not yet peer reviewed) finds that public perceptions of the dangers of COVID are very overblown. Both the transmissibility (virtually zero when outdoors), and the fatality rate, are much lower than initially thought, but judging by Los Angeles’s decision to cancel Halloween this year, policy is still being made based on initial panicked perceptions which were justifiably formed before much data existed.
A leading drug trial was just halted because one of the test subjects died of spinal issues.
You and the partner just enjoyed a 3 day vacation in Virginia farm country hiking, drinking local drinks, and letting the dog run around. Down is up, fair is foul, and there is joy to be found amidst the mayhem. Somehow you are safe, healthy, employed, and cultivating one heck of a garden.
