Tag Archives: Social Distancing

Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Trump’s Best Impeachment Defense: ‘I’m a Buffoon and it was all a Joke’

Laying out the evidence, built up over months and leading to Jan. 6th, makes a compelling case, for anyone not considered a clown

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All throughout the so-called “presidency” of DJT bizarre double standards were used, exploited and reinforced by him and his minions. If he made an outrageous, even criminal statement, either on Twitter, or in a publicly available video recording, and outrage or any kind of pushback arose, the go-to explanation was “he was obviously joking”.

Read More: Giuliani’s Wacky ‘Drunk Lady’ is at it again: Running for office in Michigan

No matter if the gaffe was suggesting people inject bleach to combat the corona virus, or when he suggested that the U.S. buy Greenland, there was always a built in escape hatch: he didn’t really mean it, and you are a political hack, or worse, for suggesting that he did.

And, even more ridiculous, if you were a member of the press or a democrat, there were many who would seriously posit that he should not, or could not, be held accountable because he is obviously an idiot or a clown or a criminal mastermind and stable genius that would, therefore, get away with it anyway.

Read More: Don Jr. gasping for breath on Fox News: Ranting & Raving about Impeachment #2

From an interview by NPR titled “What Might Accountability For President Trump Look Like?” with IAN BASSIN, executive director of Protect Democracy:

“But when you look internationally and you look at history, what you find is that the risks of not acting are actually worse. What happens is that abusers return to power often and engage in even more abusive behavior. To put this in terms I think we all could understand, as every parent knows, if a child takes a cookie from the cookie jar when he’s not supposed to, and you just move on, not only will he do it again, but next time, so will his brother and sister.”

Added together with propaganda techniques cribbed from Russia (and others) such as “Whataboutism” and an even more primitive derivative of the idea which comes straight from the playground-bully school: “I know you are, but what am I?”.

”Whataboutism has been common in Putin’s Russia. The Atlantic cited one such example in 2014, noting that when the Kremlin faced criticisms of its treatment of protesters, government officials responded, “What about the United Kingdom? Breaking the law during public gatherings there could lead to a fine of 5,800 pounds sterling there or even prison.”

— DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN for NPR

And then there are the famous Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ well known axioms: “Accuse your enemy of that which you are guilty” and the “Big Lie” theory:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

One valid reason for this unique out-of-office Impeachment proceeding is exposing the limits for the “Buffoon Defense”

This stroll down memory lane brings us to the current Senate Trial that will lead to a vote to convict Trump and, since he can no longer be removed, to bar him from ever again running for, or holding, public office.

Read More: Trump’s Lawyers submit Legal Docs: Misspelling ‘United States’ – Twice

When the evidence is laid out, as if Trump were an actual president and serious person, which is happening, beginning today on live TV, the effect is shock, not that these things happened, but that the gulf between his actions, and the consequences any other person would receive as a result, ever became so incredibly huge.

This was the drift of the impeachment managers presentation; lay out facts, using words, charts, graphs and even video evidence. Facts that, under any other circumstance, and with regard to any other politician, or any other defendant, would yield a 99.9999% likelihood of grave and serious consequences.

Yet in this bizarre case it is being seen and understood as serious and real by, perhaps, the majority, and at the same time is seen as meaningless or worse, some kind of left-wing conspiracy, by the rest.

What does the success of such obvious propaganda and mind control say about our society and situation going forward?

Even among the most discerning witnesses of the last four plus years it remains hard to determine just how much of the propaganda was planned, orchestrated and understood by the perpetrators with Trump as a figurehead.

Or if it was all a big, insane coincidence, that an actual buffoon could be just smart enough to use the “idiot-card” with such success.

Read More: Conspiracy Theories Are Infecting Millions of Brains – Are they all Toxic?

If there is a book being written on Trump’s true legacy or on the mysteries that he left behind, this core mystery, how much his actual stupidity was a key benefit to getting away with so much crime, so much destruction, and, in the end, depending on the outcome, even murder, should be the central premise.

And this trial, with the articulated goal of accountability for real and very serious crimes, must have as a secondary aim, to expose and deconstruct the lies and the methods of avoiding accountability for all the damage and destruction over the entire tenure of the administration.

It remains to be seen if the ability to use the Buffoon Defense will extend to Sedition and Murder, if so, the larger story will ultimately be the insanity of acquitting a man so obviously deserving of finally being made to face consequences, and that will be rightly seen as the larger crime.

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Coronavirus, Observation

Words We Live By, a.k.a How Coronavirus has changed Language and taught us all Some New Words

In an interconnected world consensus happens fast when a new thing needs to be named

The coronavirus is, as we all know by now, properly named covid-19 or at least the novel coronavirus. Could even be the new coronavirus, which is what “novel” is meant to convey. As you also probably already know, it is not named after a Mexican beer, but rather the fact that, presumably under a microscope, the virus looks like a crown or “corona”. And the “19” in covid-19 stands for the year of discovery, 2019, not that it is the 19th pandemic or 19th strain of the virus (go now and tell Kellyanne Conway).

If you are watching an interview on the pandemic and an expert or pundit is opining they are probably an epidemiologist which is a person who studies epidemics and is a word, and a group of people, you don’t hear much about except when the whole world is in the middle of one.

Read More: Lynxotic coverage of the cover-19 pandemic

As you read this you might be at home due to your state, city or county having issued a “stay-at-home order” which is a nice way of saying you are under lock-down. When you go out you will need a mask and, above all to practice social distancing. Oh, and that mask will theoretically need to be an N-95 medical grade one to protect not only others but you as well. But please don’t wear one as they are needed for medical professionals.

The N-95 is necessary because droplets coming from coughing, sneezing, breathing or even loud talking or singing (!) will be hanging in the air for many minutes. See illustration above for a graphic portrait off droplets in action.

Read More: “Deadliest Enemy”, Deep Background on Pandemics and the Danger of a Second Wave

Flattening the curve is a simple and yet complicated concept that has become part of folklore or at least our community consciousness. It refers not to stopping or conquering the virus, which is impossible, but to slowing the rate of new infections down to a tempo that is below the rate at which hospitals and government services can keep pace with the surge of new patients. Spreading the virus more slowly is the real goal of wearing masks, practicing social distancing and observing the stay-at-home orders.

What do we do during lockdown? Go shopping of course!

Also, we must all have at least a cursory understanding of the meaning of essential vs non-essential business and employment. Walmart is essential due to the huge grocery section and the much sought after paper products, but the areas where every other non-essential product are available remain open also. However, if your store looks like Walmart but has no grocery section you are non-essential.

Photo / Lynxotic

Amazon of course is the most essential business of all and it’s soon to be trillionaire owner can decide what products to favor with faster shipping and which to delay or try not to sell, even as they remain on sale. He owns our national supply chain now. but just be sure to use alcohol spray on the boxes and wait anywhere from 3 to 72 hours before opening. And when you wash your hands, which you must do many, many, many times a day be sure and sing happy birthday to yourself. Or set your timer for 20 seconds +.

Both gouging, which is a crime in many states but Amazon wants to be made into a federal crime so it can blame its individual marketplace sellers, and hoarding which everybody does, especially with paper products, are rampant and it’s just something to get used to.

After approximately 2 months, flattening the curve changes to F.U. to the Gov, as long as they are democrats

Anti-lockdown protests, which are never called anti-stay-at-home-order protests are also something to get used to. Noose imagery, nazi swastikas, calls to kill or lynch the governor and, naturally semi-automatic weapons with enough ammo cartridges to re-load at least half-a-dozen times are all ok, even inside the state capitol. Just be sure you are white. If so you will be designated as a “good person” by the guy in the White House.

We are all intimately familiar with that little town of 11 million residents in China they call Wuhan, and we know that they have both a notorious “wet-market”, Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where people occasionally also buy bats they plan to snack on, and we also know that the same little town has a, now famous lab where they had been studying coronavirus strains.

Depending on who you ask, the novel coronavirus, aka covid-19, had its origin in one of these two places and was released accidentally, or on purpose either by the chinese government or by the U.S. military and the they, or the bat eating customers and wholesalers are to blame for everything.

The coronavirus might kill you but when the pandemic is a pin prick to the largest bubble in history you will surely notice it

The outcome of all of this is still very mush uncertain, but the US government and the SBA have already issued stimulus checks, created the C.A.R.E.S. act, created programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program, The EIDL disaster loan program and beefed up unemployment payments by $600 per week, while extending the length in some cases that claims can last. This is all to combat the economic fallout from the pandemic, and, depending on who you ask is a recession or a depression and in any case is really, really bad and getting worse. This has created an unemployment spike as large as or larger than the 1930’s Great Depression peak and make the 2008 Financial Crisis look like a hiccup.

Oh, and they have spent already somewhere between $2-3 trillion dollars, not including the Federal Reserve‘s contribution to “infinite quantitative easing” and other measures. Las week the congress passed a bill for an additional $3 trillion of “stimulus” but this will change as the senate and the prez and not going to agree (not due to the size but because the “wrong” people will get the money).

A sequel to this glossary on the next chapter “post pandemic deflationary depression and words you will need to understand to survive” is in the works and will follow shortly, along with the eponymous depression itself. Cheers.

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Climate Solutions

Earth Day Turns 50: Environmental Activism can Save a World on Fire

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https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/House-On-Fire-768.mp4

“OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE” COURTESY OF FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE / FF LOS ANGELES

Celebrating Earth Day’s 50th must mark a New Beginning for the Next 50

April 22nd, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the original Earth Day. While Earth Day is not technically a national holiday, many people in power recognize the occasion, and its momentum over the past half-century has evoked real environmental change.

Earth Day was first conceptualized in late 1969, when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson hired Harvard grad student Denis Hayes to organize the inaugural event for the following spring. At first, the senator and student imagined the day as a nationwide teach-in to celebrate the natural world, educate about the environment, and push for activism.

According to Hayes in a recent New York Times article reflecting on the 1970 event, the first Earth Day “was not an anti-litter campaign… it was talking about fundamental changes in the nature of the American economy.” The occasion drew over 20 million people to rally in city streets across the country.

The event was a serious push for dire political and economic transformation that eventually proved immensely effective. In the months following Earth Day, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and progressive amendments were added to the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. It also launched America’s environmental movement into full throttle.

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Taking Action and Raising Awareness is Still the Most important Focus for Earth Day

Earth Day’s original incarnation occurred during a far from tranquil period in American history. The Vietnam War was at a tumultuous height, civilian protests were ubiquitous, the Civil Rights movement was ongoing, and the Cold War was far from over. Still, with passion and perseverance, the event turned out being a success and managed to evoke positive change in an unlikely time.

Now, fifty years later, America is on the brink of multiple crisis points at once. Politicians and constituents are ideologically polarized, the 2020 presidential election is starting to boil, and most pressingly, the entire world is working to combat and understand COVID-19.

Just like the first Earth Day, ED-2020 comes at a deeply turbulent time.

Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss as a result of human activity will not stop in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Neither will the political responses to it—Trump, for example, cut fuel efficiency standards right around the same time that the stateside coronavirus shutdowns began.

Simultaneously, Earth Day 2020 has the potential for inspiring a path toward great opportunities.The recent oil crash signifies the possible end for the hegemonic, dangerous and corrupt fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency suggests that investing in green energy right now might be the economy’s best chance at recovery from the COVID-19 stock plummets.

The issues may have changed over the past fifty years. The world certainly has. Nevertheless, Earth Day still fights for the same overall goals that it did back in 1970: an environmentally sound and equitable planet for everyone sharing it.

Although social distancing orders may be hindering Earth Day’s regular festivities this year, its supporters still celebrate with virtual activities accessible from home.

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Coronavirus

To Social Distance is to Save a Life – There are not enough Ventilators if Coronavirus outbreak continues

Why both young and old must practice social distancing amidst COVID-19 pandemic

This is a critical time for all of us to be responsible citizens and practice social distancing.  States and governments have put in place restrictions on mass gathering for a real reason, for our safety and wellbeing. Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic. There is a reason why movie theaters, amusement parks, gyms, dining in at restaurants and casinos are closed and people are hunkering down buying up all the toilet paper.  

A Book on London’s Epidemic “The Ghost Map” Check out Bookshop.org and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also Available on Amazon.

That is because the risk of infection is high among large groups of people. This is why keeping greater than usual physical distance from other people and or objects in public places is so essential. And when maintained correctly can minimize and slow down the transmission of the novel coronavirus. Heavy strain is being placed on hospitals, doctors and medical staff when seemingly healthy people (but carry the virus)  are still going into the public and unintentionally affecting and putting those with compromised immune systems at risk. 

Thus without protective measures, or people living “life as normal” and going into heavily crowded public places and not practicing social distancing – the health care systems WILL NOT have the capacity to care for the sick. Only with protective measures (staying home if sick and steering clear from heavily populated public spaces) can we flatten the curve and allow for our current health care systems to care for the number of cases that require hospitalization. So read a book, listen to an audible, exercise… get creative.

In a widely shared graphic, a tan curve represents a scenario without social distancing measures and where the U.S. hospital system becomes inundated with coronavirus patients. Chart / PBS

Hypothetical yet Realistic

Here is a scenario to better understand the gravity of why social distancing is so important.  Enter  (made up person) Dan, who is a young and healthy man, an extrovert that is use to hanging around with his friends out on the town.  Dan does not like the quarantine restrictions. He shows no symptoms, feels fine and does not know that he is indeed infected with the coronavirus.  Dan goes to a party on a Friday night, a big party with well over 50 people.  The next day, Saturday, 20 of those people from the party feel sick and experience difficulty in breathing and have to go to the hospital.  The hospital at this time is equipped to handle those 20 patients. Again on Saturday night, Dan goes to another big party with over 50 people in attendance, and the cycle repeats – the next day, on Sunday, another 20 people from the party feel sick, have difficulty breathing and have to go to the hospital. Here enters problem – the hospital is now not equipped to handle another surge of 20 people. 

Hospital are equipped with limited supplies and finite number of beds. For critical cases where patiences that are seriously injured or ill are taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) and special medical equipment and services are provided here.

Patients that experience difficulty in breathing, as one of the symptoms of the COVID-19, as the virus attacks a person’s lungs and in severe causes may require the use of a breathing machine also known as a ventilator or respirator. Typically because of the seriousness required to go to ICU – just one ICU bed is usually assigned with a team of medical providers (a nurse, critical care doctor, respiratory technician, phlebotomists, sometimes a nutritionist and/or specialist in infectious disease).

So what happens to the additional 20 people that the hospital cannot accommodate?  Most likely, they have to wait until an ICU bed with a ventilator opens up (which can be up to 2 weeks) or they are sent away.  Even worse, doctors are now being put in situations where they have to choose who to save because of the lack of machines and necessary resources. 

Had Dan not gone to the party on Friday night and heeded to social distancing advice, he would have not affected the first batch of 20 people. Additionally, if Dan would have waited a least 2 weeks between the two parties he attended, that would have also prevented the surge of patients coming into the hospital at the same time and the time gap would have allowed for those using ventilators to get better and free up space for incoming patients. 

Although Dan is fictional, not practicing social distancing does put people in danger, the NY Times reports there currently aren’t enough ventilators to cope with the coronavirus, now imagine it gets worse and people aren’t taking staying at home seriously?

The take away from this is partly cautionary – mostly staying at home is “not fun” – but it is way better to not know what to do with yourself at home (be bored) than be critical ill or dead from the coronavirus.  It is imperative to listen to public health officials and maintain the guidelines of social distancing.  If the collective “we” both young and old can do this, we will flatten the curve, decrease the spread of outbreaks, and take the much needed pressure off hospital and medical staff, and utimately save lives. 

Point blank – there will not enough ventilators to save people if we don’t stop or flatten the curve. Stay home to save a life. Don’t be like Dan.


Emergency Physician Emily Porter, M.D.

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Coronavirus, Entertainment, Lifestyle

Are we all Homicidal Maniacs now due to Cabin Fever brought on by #QuarantineLife?

Jack Nicholson from “The Shining”

Maybe a little levity will help… 

With recommendations to stay inside and social distance, many  people, couples and families in particular have extra time on their hands. What can you do together? Do some online shopping? Read about novel coronavirus or politics? Listen to an Audiobook? Watch TV? Well many have also turned to social media, where there has been an onslaught of creative and funny posts about the real struggles of having to live with other people. Here’s some humorous and relatable content in the form of tweets and videos that have been created while couples/families have been quarantined together.

Running out of things to talk about

https://twitter.com/sarahlostctrl/status/1239657387574910977?s=20

Many of us have busy lives and couples can sometimes use dinner time as a way to reconnect and “check in” on how each others’ days went. With couples spending much more time together – the feeling of having nothing much to left to say can definitely set in.

Work life but at home

Working remote from home has become an option. When you have a family and young children also at home from school, teleconferences and Skype meetings can get a tad bit messy!

Also the whole blaming coworkers has been a quick and dirty way to pass the buck at work (only half joking) but when you’re at home it’s just you and your partner, so creating an imaginary worker to place blame on is the “perfect” solution!

Aggravation and irritation set in – Hard

https://twitter.com/shadylud/status/1239564449188589571?s=20
https://twitter.com/nickusen/status/1239628306967904257?s=20

Usually there is healthy distance between partners. We go to work which is time apart and then normally in the evenings and weekends you spend time together. Having to be together all the time, especially if you live in a one bedroom, frustrations are surely going to kick in. Hopefully ya’ll have healthy communication skills to proactively diffuse any tense scenarios if they will arise. Yet the above are some funny (hopefully very rare and extreme cases!)

The End

https://twitter.com/dorru12/status/1239454636886691840?s=201239628306967904257?s=20
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All joking aside, if you are struggling in your intimate relationship and now have some time on your hands and interested in a good read, check out “Love Sense“. Every day, we hear of relationships failing and questions of whether humans are meant to be monogamous.

Love Sense presents new scientific evidence that tells us that humans are meant to mate for life. Dr. Johnson explains that romantic love is an attachment bond, just like that between mother and child, and shows us how to develop our “love sense” — our ability to develop long-lasting relationships. Also Available on Amazon.

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