covid diary: day 52

Hello, and congratulations on making it through the first four decades of 2020! It's May! Do you feel 40 years older than you did in January? I certainly do!

Imagine going to your work job and seeing this:

photo credit: Seth Harald/Reuters

Imagine trying to do your job, work with your colleagues, and make good decisions for the people you represent ... and looking up to see this:

photo credit: Sen. Dayna Polehanki via Twitter

Imaging doing your job, knowing that just outside the building, armed protesters are marching around with signs like this:

photo credit: Craig Mauger/Detroit News

I happen to love very much someone who works in that building: my aunt Chris, better known as Madam Floor Leader in the Michigan House of Representatives. I'm scared for her. I can't imagine what it took for her to go to work yesterday, what it will take for her to go to work today and tomorrow and all the days that follow, with these terrorists trying to bend her and her colleagues to their will with an obnoxious show of firepower. I'm scared that soon, one of them will do more than display his gun. And I'm pissed right off that they're even allowed to do this. Look at those pictures again, and mentally replace all those white faces with black ones, or Latinx ones, or Asian ones. What do you think would happen then? Would protesters of color be allowed to get anywhere near the seat of government, let alone inside it, armed to the teeth? No. Of course they wouldn't. Most likely, all of them wouldn't make it home alive. These white assholes are trading on the systemic racism in this country to take terrible actions that nobody else would be allowed to take. Yet they're the first ones to cry "reverse racism" (that isn't a thing!!!) when they feel like their "freedom" is being impinged upon.

Oh hey, look what I found! And honestly it didn't take much searching at all. Here are two pictures from the Georgia state capitol from November 13, 2018. As reported by NBC, these folks are getting arrested for the "crime" of being unarmed and chanting "count every vote." Count. Every. Vote.

both photos by John Bazemore/AP

Today I'd like to draw your attention to three quotes. Here they are, in chronological order:

1. Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, speaking during the impeachment trial to clarify why the Ukrainian quid pro quo was so awful, December 4, 2019:

Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that's prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if you lived there and your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, "I would like you to do us a favor? I'll meet with you, and send the disaster relief, once you brand my opponent a criminal." 

Wouldn't you know in your gut that such a president has abused his office? That he'd betrayed the national interest, and that he was trying to corrupt the electoral process? 

2. Adam Schiff, closing argument of the impeachment trial, February 3, 2020:

Can we be confident that he will not continue to try to cheat in [this] very election? Can we be confident that Americans and not foreign powers will get to decide, and that the president will shun any further foreign interference in our Democratic affairs? The short, plain, sad, incontestable answer is no, you can't. You can't trust this president to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can't. He will not change and you know it. ... What are the odds if left in office that he will continue trying to cheat? I will tell you: 100 percent. A man without character or ethical compass will never find his way.

3. Donald Trump, on whether the states deserve any financial aid during this crisis, April 30, 2020:

We're going to look at it [funding for the states]. I think we want to take a little bit of a pause. But if we do that, we'll have to get something for it.

You cannot trust this president, you cannot count on him, and if he creates (through his inaction, utter incompetence, and agenda of cruelty) a public health crisis that leads to a complete economic meltdown, you certainly cannot believe that he will allow the federal government to carry out the purpose for which it was created and support the states. He will not. He will let us all die first, and brag about it while he's doing it.

Yesterday, unemployment numbers were released showing that 3.8 million more Americans filed last week. That brings the total up to 30 million Americans out of work in the past six weeks. To put that into perspective for you, that's one out of every five people in the workforce. This isn't "just" a depression; it's a coma.

There are still six more months until the election. I seriously wonder how much there will be to save by then.

Today the governor announced that the stay-at-home order will expire for most counties at midnight tonight. We're going from "Hunker Down Hoosiers" to "Back on Track Indiana" (I assume that's an Indy 500 pun there, nice job, governor). It looks like starting next week, manufacturers will open, retail and restaurants will open at 50 percent capacity, and hair salons and tattoo parlors can reopen by appointment only and with social distancing guidelines (what does that even mean when someone is that close to your body?). By the end of May, restaurants and retail will operate at 75 percent capacity, movie theaters at 50 percent capacity, office workers can all go back to work, and recreational sports leagues can start. Oh, and people 65 and older can start resuming social activities then too. By July 4, basically everything will be open, and fairs and festivals will be happening, and they'll decide what to do about the next school year.

Fairs and festivals for the Fourth of July. What a rosy future that is! Let's see if it comes to pass. (I will not be attending any fairs or festivals in July.)

On the home front, an elearning day (10 more to go!). Max was busy with Chinese and social studies and integrated chemistry and physics. Liam was busy showing me a $100 graphing calculator he will need for next year. (And doing his work, but I'm not sure what that entailed because he just did it on his own.) Henry had a class meeting and a couple loose ends to wrap up, but then he announced around 10 that "since there is a lack of chocolate chips in the house," he had looked up a recipe on the internet and intended to make sugar cookies. This is pretty ambitious, because usually the boys make cookies or brownies from box mixes, and I definitely didn't have time to help him. I went in the kitchen once to help him find the baking soda and baking powder (and take a picture of him mixing his ingredients), but other than that, I stayed in my office working until I was eventually presented with a plate of three perfect cookies. Great baking, Henry!

Late afternoon, Mike and I took a walk out in the pasture and had some close encounters with red-winged blackbirds, and then we sat out on the front porch for a while talking and watching the birds. Eventually, we all got hungry and decided to order food (which we don't usually do, but it's been a week around here). We ordered online from Hacienda and paid with a credit card, and Liam drove me to pick it up. When I got there I found a bag on a table right inside the door with my name on it, picked it up, and came back home, with zero human interactions along the way. I guess that won't be the case much longer, but it sure felt reassuring today.

Nationwide cases: 1,103,225. Deaths: 64,808.