Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News...

[shadowkat]

1. Regarding Super Tuesday in the States? Basically What He Said.


Clearly now it’s a two-man race, between the 78-year-old man with a heart problem and the 77-year-old man with some clear memory issues. This is, I will say, not optimal from my point of view. I will be voting for whoever becomes the Democratic nominee, to be clear. But neither of these two men fills me with great enthusiasm, and at this point I very much want to see who they choose for their vice president, because I have a strong suspicion whoever it is will be finishing out the term.

Yep.


2. I don't know how other places are handling the coronavirus, but NYC's reaction is to obsessively clean everything in sight. There's a raid on hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and disinfectant wipes - also anti-bacterial soap. The drug stores and grocery stores are selling out. I'm considering buying some hand sanitizers through Amazon. Also the subway today smelled like bleach on the way home. And my church has decided to make their own hand sanitizers (rubbing alcohol and aloe vera, plus lemon juice), and is disinfecting the entire church twice daily. They will provide the hand sanitizers to people upon entering the church.

MTA is Disinfecting Subways and Buses Every 72 Hours

Also cleaning the trains, and the stations across the MTA.

So, after this is all over? Good news? NYC is going to be REALLY clean.

Also our erstwhile Governor announced a new directive Requiring NY Insurers to Waive Cost Sharing. They are trying. I'll give them that.

We have 9 cases in NY, with one guy in critical condition in West Chester - which is mysterious and they are worried about. He's fifty, a lawyer, and had no contact with anyone.

My hands are kind of burning from all of the obsessive hand-washing. I've decided if I'm home alone in my apartment -- I'm safe and do not need to clean my hands constantly. With my respiratory issues - allergies, plus blood pressure - I'm not sure I can survive the coronavirus. I still cough when I exert myself, have gerd, or laugh. I think there's fluid in my lungs. And the virus is not nice to people with respiratory issues. It's a lung disease. Getting the chest x-ray on Friday.

3. Conversations with mother about sick family members..

Mother: So, your brother called and your niece has Mono.
Me: How did she get Mono?
Mother: Apparently sharing a water bottle with a male friend who had it...whether she was actually kissing said friend, I don't know nor want to know.
Me: Oh god. I'm sorry.
Mother: They may have to cancel their plans to come down here in two weeks.
Me: Mono takes a long time to get over...if I remember correctly.
Mother : 4-6 weeks.
ME: And with the coronavirus?
Mother: I didn't think of that.
Me: I'm really really sorry.
Mother: I was looking forward to seeing her. We left a message with our doctor to see if we can handle it. But you may be right with the other thing going around it might not be safe to travel.
ME: So do you have any good news?
Mother: Your brother called -
Me: That falls into the bad news category, mother.
Mother: Oh, you're right, sorry.

Meanwhile my Aunt M has skin cancer on her back. Mother isn't worried -- she told me that half her friends have it and have had it taken care of. I've known a lot of folks with it too.

4. Conversation with IT

IT: So I'm checking back with you..
Me: Are you citrix?
IT: yes.
Me: You fixing the printer?
IT:There's a printer problem?
Me: Yes. (I give them the ticket number). The printers are printing our documents backwards.
It: backwards?
Me: It's a citrix problem, since it only affects the citrix users. The tower or hard drive users are fine.
IT: Hmmm. Oh I know, check the box reverse pages and see if that works.
Me: Okay, wait a minute. I'll be back. ( A few minutes later) It worked.
IT: Do that.
Me: Really? That's your solution?
It: It's a good workaround.
Me: Okaay...I'll tell everyone somehow.
IT: We will still work on fixing it -- but that's the work around until we do.
Me: Okay.

I write up email and discover it does not work with emails.
Me to co-workers: Got off the phone with IT, and (I tell them where to find the reverse pages box in their computer and what to do with it. Noting that it doesn't work with emails.)
Frustrated Screenwriter: So basically our solution is to go backwards? Typical.

One of the managers figures out how to do the email which just requires lots of hunting about...but also works as a work around.



5. I don't know about anyone else? But I feel like I'm in the beginning of a really badly written horror series from the 1980s or 90s. And I want better writers, dang it.

Also, I don't want any more bad news. 2020 has gone way past its quota.

Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News

Comments

[rose_griffes]

My father has had multiple skin cancer lesions removed over the past several years. Apparently not a very big deal--not like melanoma would be.

On the (very small) plus side with the Corona virus--its mortality rate is probably more like .7% rather than 2%, now that it's being identified more quickly and a treatment protocol is in place. China's numbers skewed that rate, for a lot of possible reasons, including lack of health care for the number of people sick.

I put bleach wipes on my pick-up grocery list today, just as a potentially useful thing to stockpile, but--not a surprise--they were out. I did get a back-up bottle of bleach, so that's fine.

As for all those sanitation workers doing overtime, I hope they're getting extra protective gear... but I doubt it. :/

[wpadmirer]

I hope your chest x-ray is clear and that you feel better.

[shadowkat]

Thank you. I've been procastinating.

[shadowkat]

My Aunt said it was melanoma, but I think it's just skin cancer lesions.

Yeah, I've been reading that Corona virus mortality rate depends on various factors. China did not handle it well. They ignored the people suffering and put them under lockdown instead of treating them, and did a lot of treatment with masks, or ignored it. The rest of the world appears to be learning from China's mistakes. Including China. Once China changed it's approach the number of cases dropped significantly.

It's Italy and Iran that are weird.

I bought a couple of disinfectant sprays, because I'm having work done in my kitchen and hallway next week and may want to disinfect the area after they leave. Most of the cases appear to be in upstate NY right now, which is odd. You'd think the cities would be hit? Which means it's not contagious in quite the way they originally thought. On the news they said -- people in close proximity get it, not casual. They've closed the schools that two kids who had it, attended. The neighbor, wife, son, and daughter of the husband who caught it - all came down with it. But no one else.

The sanitation workers have been given gloves and masks, also have gear on. There's OSHA standards that they have to follow or get massive fines. Also everyone is union. And they'll get overtime - time and a half pay. (I know this because I've seen them.)

[cjlasky7]

I'm with Scalzi.

It's remarkable and scary how we've become so polarized that sensible compromise seems to be impossible, even within a political party. We have Sanders, way over on the far left, and Biden, who is pretty much a Rockefeller Republican. These are the choices? What was wrong with Elizabeth Warren (who had practical ideas on how to implement change in our plutocracy, and the political support from her colleagues to put it through)?

Why does it have to come down to the raving ideologue and the "safe" choice?

I suppose Biden has the better chance to carry the swing states Trump carried in 2016. But those presidential debates will literally be torture.

[shadowkat]

I agree with everything Scalzi said. And I'm annoyed, because I switched my affiliation from Green Party to Democrat just so I could vote against Saunders and Biden. Ugh.

But those presidential debates will literally be torture.

Why I've been ignoring them.

If Warren is still on the ballot in April? I'll vote for her. If not - Biden. Saunders isn't electable -- a lot of people, including my Uncle in Michigan (who hate Trump) think he's worse than Trump.

[cjlasky7]

What do we want from our elected officials?

Trump and the Republicans say there's nothing wrong with the system. Leave it to the businessmen, and everything will be fine. Keep the foreigners out and the government out of the way of corporate America. Stop listening to whiners who don't have what it takes to be rich. You buy that, then Trump is your guy.

But from another view...

America 2020 resembles nothing less than pre-collapse Soviet Union (and Russia today): an autocratic central government supporting a select oligarchy at the expense of the rights of the individual citizen. No wonder Trump loves Putin so much.

***********

The reason Trump won in 2016 and Sanders is huge today is that there is a feeling in the American electorate that the status quo is unsustainable. Both men respond to this unease by recalling a glorious past: Trump to an Eisenhower-era white supremacy and Sanders to a Leninist revolution. Neither approach is workable in the long run. Neither takes into consideration fundamental questions about 21st century life.

How do we restructure our society to combat climate change and preserve what's left of the environment? (Has the information age pushed us to the limit of industrial development?) How can we protect individual rights and personal dignity in an increasingly interconnected world?

Trump pretends these questions aren't important. Sanders recycles Bolshevik slogans. But these problems are going to have to be dealt with sooner or later.

Hopefully, not too much later.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, ditto to this. I'm glad you'll be following up.

I was reading about the percentages of demographic groups affected and wondered how many of the fatalities were of smokers. It's become so unusual to see in public in the U.S. that it's easy to forget how pervasive it is in other places, particularly among older generations.

[shadowkat]

I've never smoked. But the persistent cough did stop after I switched blood pressure meds. I'm just afraid my blood pressure went up.

Little nervous about getting the chest x-ray. It's simple enough. But I don't know what I'll do if they find anything.