The Bigger Picture

 I'm seeing it too -- the predictions about how our changing climate is going to cause a lot of change to everything. I believe it will. And that doesn't scare me even a little. I still think we should go all out with our efforts to do what's possible to slow down the inevitable in homage to the principle of causing the least harm to the greatest number of people (sort of the contrapositive to doing the most good to the most amount of people). Slower change means more time to adjust and adapt, and less strain on every system.

But here's why I'm not scared. Already in the world there are millions living through the hell we envision, any hell we are capable of envisioning. Millions. There's a real, non-zero possibility of me (or you) running into some situation that would rival sort of existence we imagine when our minds conger the scary scenarios of our climate future. 

But why I'm not scared? Because we have this life, as has everyone else, to face whatever challenges and struggles life throws at us the best we can. Whether it's personal or the whole community or the whole world, we will live through heartbreak, we will watch loved ones die, we can suffer our own disease and injury, our parents, and sometimes our children, will suffer. And like the billions before us, we'll do what we can to live, love and cope with our lot. This is OUR life, this is our world. It's no worse for any given individual than war is. It's no worse than a painful, slow death by cancer or COVID. In whatever future collective and personal battles we'll face, we'll find ways to keep ourselves entertained, to make the most of what we're confronted with, and carry on trying to survive, just like now. 

I'm motivated to somehow be part of the solution and always have been. The only difference might be which problem is facing me now. It's not the Soviets, which seemed the biggest problem when I was a kid. It's not the 1970s energy crisis any more, with our national malaise (thank you, Jimmy Carter -- you were right). And it's not so much COVID anymore -- the only thing standing in the way of us having beaten that down already is our political choices (who'd'a thought?). So, our situation may seem more dire or widespread or high-stakes than it has been in the past, but that's just our lack of perspective and limited vision making us think that. I'm pretty sure some Civil War era folk may have thought the same thing, along with the Michican Indians when Cortez and smallpox brought them down. What civilization and colonization did to Native Americans is no greater than what we've done to the world with our fossil fuel and polluting society. 

We'll be OK, like we always have, like we always will, because we're alive and kicking and we make of our lives what we know how to. Which is exactly what we've been doing this whole time so far. And, in the unlikely event that we extinct ourselves (whether it's global habitability or human fear causing the breakdown of the current order), then it's a shame and still OK, just like our own death.

WWTA* Say? Jesus' take on vaccine scoffers.

[I'm imagining a Christian on their judgment day, meeting their maker (or duly appointed representative). I'm assuming you can't, like, talk shit to Jesus (or God, or St. Peter, or whoever is the acting bouncer to the afterlife) and they'd just be like, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." No, I'm assuming he can see inside your heart, all the way through to your most authentic soul. I hope so, because if They're judging you for an eternity of heaven or hell, it better be legit.

And He's paging through his little record, and he pauses, looks up and says, "Oh, you decided not to be vaccinated?"

And you say, "Yeah, I didn't think it was really that effective."]

Jesus: But, I know you heard the testimony of the doctors and the nurses who said they were burning out in the COVID care clinics and hospitals. And you saw that news report where the ICUs were getting full and some people where actually being turned away because they were full, and so some of them died. It says here you heard that on the radio. And that 90%+ of the patients were unvaccinated -- you knew that, too.

You: But, I didn't believe it.

Jesus: Um, I can see through to the bottom of your soul, and you clearly thought that there was a possibility it could be true. After all, why would all the doctors and nurses caring for people through outrageous hardship be lying? I'm looking at your soul again, and you actually DIDN'T think they were a bunch of whiny babies. You thought there might be some truth to it. But you wanted to ignore it. Can you explain?

You: Forgive me, Father for I have sinned.

Jesus: You know that I told you love your neighbor, take care of the sick, all that? You had ONE JOB! Well, two, but that was the main one.

You: But they tried to make me do it and take away my freedom...

Jesus: Yeah. No. There were months where it was just encouraged. You didn't take advantage.

You: But there were serious side effects. I read it on the internet. It was rushed through.

Jesus: Did you forget who you're talking to? You maybe could convince your friends you believed that, but I TOLD you -- don't BS me.  You know damn well that the rare side effect was utterly trivial compared to the ravages of COVID. You saw the intubated patients. I warned you to have no other Gods before me...or did you forget that? You put your fear of needles and the inconvenience of getting two tiny arm pricks ahead of the lives of your neighbors. What do you think I should do with you? Just say, "Great, ignore my main rule, go on into heaven, enjoy," when you thumbed your nose at my "Love your neighbor" thing? 

You: Well, what can I do to make it better?

Jesus: Not much there on Earth. You're dead now. Maybe you can explain this: You didn't pray to me for guidance on this issue. I mean, dude! I was rejected, tortured, and crucified by my people for YOU. And you can't face a tiny needle? Or the exceedingly rare potential side effect? If you HAD prayed to me, what do you think I would have said? 

You: To get the shots.

Jesus: Mm. Do you want to know how many people you were responsible for killing?

You: Not really.

Jesus: Right. You don't. But does that really matter? You could have been one of the unvaccinated people that contributed to the 100,000 extra deaths, easily preventable. I'll just tell you: some. You killed some. Oh, and you killed some doctors and nurses, too. The work got them, some of them to COVID, some to suicide. Can you imagine if everybody was like you? It would have been millions.  Go sit over there. I'm going to let you sit with your decisions for awhile before I tell you what I'm going to do.

[1000 years later...] 

Jesus: OK, I made up my mind. You're going to have a discussion with each of the people who were killed by people like you, who decided not to get vaccinated knowing deep in their heart that they should. It could take awhile. And when you're done, we'll have another chat and go from there. This is your chance to make up for being a CINO (Christian in name only). You want to continue or just head on down to hell?

* What Would Thomas Aquinas Say? TA would sometimes entertain hypothetical religious ideas.

Syllabus

Did YOU ever read the goddamn syllabus? Fuck that, just pay attention in class, do your fucking work, and get help when you need it. Listen, write that shit down in your planner. Take care of your damn business and try to LEARN as much as you can. Shit. Oh, and don't forget to have fun.

Worries

Worry, like anger, is harmful and not productive. Don't do it to yourself. It's a mental kick in the balls. It's the emotional equivalent of poking yourself with a pin. Most of us wouldn't take an lemon peel and squeeze it into our open eye. Don't do the same thing with your scary thoughts.

If you're religious, for God's sake, follow your faith's teachings. They all preach surrendering your worries to God. But that's easy to say and hard to do (for a lot of us). If you're not religious, consider getting one, or fall back on your reasoning mind and preferred wisdom philosophy. They can often fill that hole in your sole. 

Replace your hand wringing with useful actions that address in real life whatever (the hell) you're worrying about.

Worried about your kids getting COVID at school? Educate them about all the things they need to do to prevent the spread of COVID for themselves (and others). Or, home school. Or take advantage of your school's (district's) distance learning option. 

Worried about climate change? Prepare yourself for the possible results: simplify your life, minimize your physical assets for easy mobility if you have to move. Train yourself for survival in the world you imagine might encounter. 

Worried about something else? Think of a solution that will prepare you for possible eventualities, write them down, start taking action and put the pieces in place to deal with it. Whatever your worry, there are knowledge resources to help you get a handle on the solutions.

Upset over some great wrongness in the world? Get involved in the solution in a real way (outside your online world). You can still use your social media to be active, spread awareness and find organizations to work with. But if you don't actually GO THERE and work with people in real life, and spend the time and effort, and/or money, you're not likely to allay much of your worry.

For all these human challenges, remember that at all times in human history, people have faced problems just as bad. Imagine being a Jew in WWII Germany. An American living in the Civil War South. A slave in any of the slave countries. A current Uyghur in present-day China or Rohingya in Myanmar. How about a Black Plague peasant? Most of us live in amazing security and luxury, and many of us in tolerable comfort. When it's our time to struggle, then struggle we will to the best of our abilities. Here are some general tips that best prepare you for ANY potential future:

• Make friends. Be part of a community that you contribute to and rely on in times of trouble. 
• Develop your faith or philosophy that helps you focus on the important tasks and find peace when times are tough. The daily/periodic practice of religion can really help with this if you don't have your own practice that keeps you centered and at peace.
• Plan and prepare, work and build for anything that troubles your thoughts.
• Make friends with death, your own and the death of your loved ones. Spoiler alert: they all die in the end. In American culture, this is not a normal practice, but it should be. Find resources (books, people, etc.) that can help you if this is not something you're comfortable with.
• Be smart. Stay educated. Read and listen broadly and deeply in many topics that give you general understanding of how everything in the world works. Talk about them with other smart people to help process and own your knowledge. Practice doing new things (crafts, building, fixing things, different sports/ activities, hobbies, technologies, interactions with different systems).

Those things help you with general well being and keep you young. The collateral benefits of facing your worries with action is you can often eliminate the cause of the worries. Acting is learning, too. 

In any case, shut-up your ridiculous worries by getting your pusillanimous ass in gear to vanquish them to your personal historical dustbin.

 

Democratic plot?

The Democrats sneakiest plot yet? Are Democrats putting out false information in Right-wing  information outlets making Republicans vaccine skeptics so they don't get the vaccine, and as a result of more of them dying, it will be harder for them to elect Republicans? 

Not funny? Neither is people equating the risk of vaccines with the risks of COVID. Also not funny: the extra deaths from people not getting vaccinated.

In America today-ish:

32 million cases    570,000 deaths.  That's about 1/56 of people who get it die. If our testing is way off (more people actually got it then were tested positive), let's say 1/200.  That's in just over a year. It might go up over time for "lifetime odds".  Or, if you just take the whole population of the US, about 1/580 of us have died from COVID so far. And the portion varies widely by geography and demography in this country. Some communities are hit WAY harder.

211 million doses of vaccines.  7 deaths (maybe) from the J&J vaccine. That's about 1/40,000,000.  That could go up over your lifetime. let's say it goes up by a factor of 10 (exceedingly unlikely). Conservatively, 1/4,000,000

Let's compare with some other lifetime chances of dying....

Heart disease	1 in 6
Cancer	1 in 7
All preventable causes of death	1 in 24
Chronic lower respiratory disease	1 in 27
Suicide	1 in 88
Opioid overdose	1 in 92
Fall	1 in 106
Motor-vehicle crash	1 in 107
Gun assault	1 in 289
Pedestrian incident	1 in 543

But those are just death statistics. We know there are a lot of people who have serious complications and long term debilities with COVID. And we don't know what the longer long-term effects will be, how it will impact long term health and mortality yet.

And, although we also don't know the longer term effects of the vaccine yet, given what we DO know, they are likely to be vanishingly trivial compared to the COVID long-term effects.

Any way you slice it, mathematically, medically, mortally, autopsically (I just made up that word to be morbidly funny -- get it? "slice it." haha), compassionately (for the protection of your fellow humans)... health-wise, the wise health decision is vaccination. Politically, on the other hand, "I'll get the vaccine when they pry the gun from my cold, dead hands.

By the way, the newer strains could be more contagious and more lethal, and not vaccinating will allow them more opportunities to both spread and mutate further, making it all even worse. Please reconsider if you're vaccination shy for whatever reason.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

The Obvious Reason the Capitalism Needs a Major Adjustment

 There are certain important benefits to free capitalist societies. There are clear existential threats to capitalist societies. How do we keep the capitalism benefits without allowing it to drive itself into certain destruction?

The benefits: innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, freedom to enter. Liabilities: income inequality & poverty (including homelessness, universal access to healthcare, and hunger), environmental destruction, monopolistic effects, worker exploitation.

Are there mechanisms to keep those things under wraps? Yes. Are they used to an appropriate level? No. Why? Greedy plutocracy. How do you solve it? Smart leaders of business recognizing the long-term trends and realizing that if they don't own their responsibilities along with their rights, they will ultimately lose it all, along with the rest of us. Or, enough of the voters understanding the same things and voting in leaders with the political will to enact limitations that can lead to increasing income equality.

Partisanship

 You attribute 30 people coming forward testifying against Trump (knowing the damage it will do to their lives) to a contrived, partisan attack, and you believe any whispered innuendo against someone from the other party. It says a lot about you.

Project ABC: Anti-Bureaucracy Correction

I checked my account. There was an extra $2,400 from the government to help out people suffering from the pandemic financial crisis. There might be more in the future.

Because they needed to get the money out right away to help those who really need it yesterday, they also give a bunch of money to people who are still fully employed. If they had more time, they would have made sure the people who really need it got it (people who need to spend it, not just leave it in savings or put it in the investment account) to provide relief and lubricate the broader economy.

If you know someone who is in dire straits*, or if you know of an organization you trust that is helping those who are struggling to eat or provide shelter, you could hand off your unexpected bonus for its intended purpose! Or half of it? If that seems like a lot, think of the folks who are on the verge of homelessness. You can still remodel your bathroom. Just get the cheaper tile. :)

Not connected to anyone in need or any organizations yet and need some ideas? I recommend somewhere local where you can actually SEE what they're doing or someone you actually know personally. If your company has a program (my school has a process to accept donations to help our students' families in need), this might be an opportunity to contribute a little extra this year!

Here are a few other ideas: 

   https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/index.php

   https://www.standupforkids.org/

   https://afsp.org/

   Your church's outreach programs

   Or you could head downtown with 100 $10 bills (or 10 $100 bills) and give them to people who look like they need them.

If it's awkward to give it to someone you know who needs it... Maybe something like this: 

You: "Hey, the government gave me this money for the COVID relief but, like, I'm still working and that's wack. It's supposed to be for people who could really use it. Do you mind if I Venmo you some of it? It'd make me feel better. I mean, damn, it's not fair and I'd feel like an asshole spending it." 

Hey, look, I know the multi-millionaires and billionaires could fix the whole "people in need" problem in short order, but seriously, if they were the type of people who thought like that, they wouldn't be uber-rich, now, would they, and we wouldn't have a homelessness problem**, or food deserts, and everyone would get basic healthcare. If millionaires and billionaires felt like fixing it, it would be done by now, and it isn't, so they won't. 

If you don't want to give handouts, maybe you could find a "getting people back to work" like the workforce.org, or supporting PPE for all, or any other things that will stop the pandemic, get kids in school, get people vaccinated. Or be creative and find a cause worthy of your excess bounty!

* Mark Knopfler notwithstanding

** I didn't say there wouldn't be homeless people. But it wouldn't be a big problem. It would be a lifestyle choice which, now, it overwhelmingly isn't.

Reporting Vs. Opinion Text Markers

 Is there a way for news organizations to visually tag their reporting different from opinions, ads, everything else. I'm thinking green? So when people reading can get a feel for facts versus analysis. I know the veracity of what should be GreenPrint and other still depends on the integrity of the organization, but at least it would force the readers, writers, editors to give it another thought. And readers would get in the habit of being critical of their consumption.

In the same article, reporters could even differentiate specifically on what are pure facts and what are assumptions, analysis, rhetoric, etc. In the current quasi-truth word we live in, some efforts to find a way to call it out might be in the best interest of the less-discerning public.