Sexless Bitch

That was the name given to women who men did not want to fuck. The Spinster, the Old Maid, the Virgin Queen who are women not having active sexual relationships are now apparently female incels. Jesus I did not think it could get worse but that pretty much covers it.

Once again trigger warning I read an article in the Washington Post where a woman was raped on a train in public in the seats as fellow passengers did nothing, as in nothing but some may have filmed the episode, they failed to intervene or call for help. Wow just wow.

So when I read this article in the Guardian I was saddened as that is my story. I am done with trying to pretend that having a companion in my life is humanly possible. When one ages that is already one strike, the other is the nicely packed bag I carry with me regarding my assault. I will never recover from that and we can see why. Daily stories about one after another assault that leaves women alone, neglected and not believed. Ask these hospitals why they continued to employ this psychotic maniac posing as a Doctor for years as he raped and abused women.

And now we are back to where? The one group of MeToo has since shut shop as they collaborated with Cuomo over his scandal. The same with the head of the Human Rights Campaign an organization that is dedicated to the rights of the LGBQT community. Well there is always Dave Chappelle right? WHOOPS. Funny I actually believe that Dave would be more compassionate and supportive of me than RAIIN was at the time. They did fuck all nothing for me then and I will certainly not do anything for them in the future. But the reality is that people are not believed, not even when it is right in front of you. It is easier to do nothing and so during my dinner last week when I told my neighbor my role in any movement is non-existent as I know personally how they pick and choose the cases and situations they engage and involve. Those passengers are a better reflection of the greater whole of society than one thinks. At least I would have called 911 as I jumped off the train or moved cars. But I would have not stayed and watched I have some dignity.

And for the record I would not ever refer to myself as an “involuntary celibate” I wear my celibacy as a proud statement about owning my sexuality and no man will ever take that away from me again. Men are redundant and a waste of my time and energy and there are none willing to prove me wrong. So there you go. You are more than your dick but you don’t get it, you really don’t.

‘I feel hurt that my life has ended up here’: The women who are involuntary celibates

What is it like to go without a partner when you long for one – and when even a fleeting sexual connection feels impossible?

When a woman named Alana coined the term “incel” in the late 90s, she couldn’t have predicted the outcome. What started as a harmless website to connect lonely, “involuntary celibate” men and women has morphed into an underground online movement associated with male violence and extreme misogyny.

In 2014, Elliot Rodger stabbed and shot dead six people in California, blaming the “girls” who had spurned him and condemned him to “an existence of loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desires”. There have since been numerous attacks by people who identify with incel culture, including Jack Davison, who killed five people in Plymouth this summer, before turning the gun on himself. In the darkest corners of the internet, incel groups have become a breeding ground for toxic male entitlement, putting them on hate crime watchlists across the UK.Advertisement

But it is not just incel men who struggle to find sexual connections in the modern world. Some young women are turning to online “femcel” spaces to discuss the challenges they face as involuntary celibates.

Theirs is a non-violent resistance. Rather than blaming the opposite sex for their unhappiness, as some of their male counterparts do, femcels tend to believe their own “ugliness” is the root cause of their loneliness. Posting anonymously on platforms they have designed for themselves, they argue that they are invisible due to their abnormal appearance, and that our beauty-centric, misogynistic culture prevents them from being accepted. There is anger and open grappling with self-esteem, but no extreme hatred and no sense of entitlement within the community.

Meanwhile, a far greater number of women would not describe themselves as femcels, but live unintentionally celibate lives. They share many of the femcels’ concerns.

Caitlin, 39, doesn’t call herself a femcel, but she hasn’t had sex for almost eight years and doesn’t think she will find another sexual partner. “I’m not conventionally attractive and I never get approached by men,” she says. “They don’t look at me. I’ve had therapy to try to address these issues, but dating feels like a barren wasteland. It’s worse as I get older, because I’ve missed that short window to marry and have a family.”

She never tells people that she is celibate, because it makes her feel “abnormal” and inadequate. “I feel a lot of anger and hurt that my life has ended up this way. I struggle to cope with the fact I may never find a partner. Society makes it harder because, after a certain age, people tend to pair off and form their own insular units and life gets lonely for single people.”

Although Caitlin is not morally opposed to casual sex, it is not an experience that feels right for her. She has had two short-term relationships, which ended in heartbreak. There is a popular notion among incel communities – and even in wider society – that women are privileged because they can get sex at any time. Not only is that untrue, as many women will testify, but also, as Caitlin points out, not all sex is enjoyable. “Generally, men who aren’t in a relationship with you don’t make it a pleasurable experience,” she says. “The risk of rejection afterwards is high, which makes the sex even less enjoyable. As a woman, you want to be desired, not treated like a piece of meat.”

Caitlin is aware that men also struggle with self-esteem issues linked to appearance, but believes the pressure is greater for women. “I’m not especially drawn to someone’s looks or height. I prefer to get to know someone and develop an attraction. But I feel that a man who didn’t find me attractive straight away would never learn to become attracted to me. I see lots of beautiful women dating men who aren’t good-looking, but rarely the other way around. Men have more ways to attract a partner than looks.”

Appearance-based discrimination, termed “lookism” by femcel communities, is not the only reason that some women struggle to find a sexual partner. The risk of male violence has always been a concern, but the semi-anonymous nature of app-based dating has increased these fears for many women.

Jane, 49, has been single for eight years and celibate for five. Although she would love to have a sex life, she is not prepared to compromise her principles by seeking a casual relationship with someone she has just met online. “I don’t want to invite someone I don’t know into my home, as you never know the risks.” She was once followed home by a man after their date. “I saw his car behind me and he said he was curious about where I lived. It made me extremely uncomfortable.”

In addition to safety concerns, Jane says apps make it hard to find the type of connection she is looking for. While this is also true for men, she believes they tend to be more comfortable with the “fast-food”, casual-sex nature of online dating. Dishonesty is a common theme; she says it is impossible to build trust with a man who lies online. “Pictures will be 10 years old, or not an accurate representation of the person,” she says. “I look for men who take care of themselves physically, who are emotionally available, open and honest. You can’t see that on a profile.”Advertisement

Since giving up on apps, Jane has stayed active through a walking group and has tried many other activities in the past few years. “I meet a lot of great women, but I never meet single men at classes or events. It’s hard to meet men who share your interests.”

This is also Mary’s experience. She is 53 and has been celibate for five years. “A lot of us feel that we’re not expressing ourselves sensually. It’s important to use the word ‘sensual’, not ‘sexual’. For women like me, it’s not about the act of sex. It’s about having the intimacy of emotions, as well as physical experiences.”

Like Jane, Mary has little interest in casual flings, but misses physical intimacy. She has even considered using escorts. It is a far cry from the close relationship she desires, but she would feel more comfortable with the idea of a no-strings sexual encounter if she knew exactly what it entailed. “I’m not really sure that safe, secure sex-worker services exist, but in a way it would be preferable to one-night stands. At least it would be a safe, secure transaction for which you and the man involved knew exactly what you were signing up, with no risk of violence, STIs or emotional hurt and confusion.”

Mary also refuses to use dating apps, due to the number of married men seeking affairs and the difficulties she has in building connections. “The #MeToo movement was extremely important, but, at the same time, it created polarisation in society,” she says. She believes that, as men attempt to “relearn” the best ways to approach women so that they feel safe and comfortable, it can discourage some from making a connection at all. “It’s like nobody knows how to date any more and the fast-paced culture of apps means nobody has the patience to get to know someone.” She says the men she encounters are almost always looking for someone younger than themselves.

According to Silva Neves, a sex and relationship psychotherapist with the UK Council of Psychotherapy, it is not uncommon for women to struggle to find a partner they find physically attractive, especially as they get older. “Society places a higher importance on women’s beauty,” he says. “We absorb and internalise this misogyny on every level and even women are more likely to criticise another woman’s body than a man’s. You often see women putting more effort into their appearance as they age because they have been taught it’s important in a way that men haven’t. But a lot of women complain that they struggle to be attracted to men, because they have let themselves go.”

While many men still prioritise beauty, Neves says women’s other successes, such as education, wealth or a good career, may be deemed threatening. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Richard Vedder, an economist and senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a libertarian US thinktank, said that men make up only 40% of the university student population in the US. Women are outperforming their male peers academically and delaying having families in pursuit of financial independence and a career. While this might be considered a positive step forward for society, it has left some men feeling adrift.

Elaine, 37, who has been celibate for five years, feels her successful career has played a role in her dating difficulties. “Men don’t like the fact I don’t cook or clean, even though I pay for someone to do both jobs,” she says. “The stereotype of male hunter-gatherer remains quite prevalent and at times I think they feel they don’t have a role.” Like other women, she is seeking an intellectual equal and is not interested in finding someone who will take care of her. “If you don’t fit in a Barbie box and do all the domestic duties, it can be quite upsetting for some men.”

Yvonne, 28, recognises the same traditional values in men her age. Despite numerous attempts at dating on and offline, she has never had a relationship and doesn’t engage in casual sex. “I don’t necessarily need to be with a man who has a degree, but I want to meet someone who is intellectually curious, with the same values,” she says. “I think men can be intimidated by education and career success. In online dating especially, it always seems to come down to appearance only. I even know people who get professional pictures done as they know looks will be the first thing men see. As a Black woman, this can be especially hard, as even Black men seem to prioritise light-skinned women.”Advertisement

Although she experiences loneliness, Yvonne is determined to stay positive. She has an active social life, enjoys a wide range of activities and subscribes to Nicola Slawson’s Single Supplement, a weekly newsletter that celebrates the joys of single life and supports people through the more challenging aspects. She also reads the work of the US author Shani Silver, who writes candidly about single life. “There are lots of women who are joining communities of other single women and sharing their experiences,” she says. “It’s certainly a much healthier approach than some of the toxic, woman-hating platforms that some men inhabit.”

Femcels and women who struggle to find relationships are sometimes accused of misandry, especially by male incels. Yvonne counters that any resentment women feel is more likely to be turned inwards. “The biggest difference between men and women seems to be that men feel entitled to sex and relationships, so it’s the fault of women when they can’t get it,” says Yvonne. “Women seem to internalise the issues and be more likely to blame themselves.”

Neves argues that while misogyny and misandry are both unacceptable, they have very different roots. “Misogyny is an ideology which dictates that women should be seen as objects, without the same rights as men. Misandry is mostly a reaction to misogyny and informed by evidence. We shouldn’t put all men in the same bag, but at the same time it’s hard to criticise women who have had negative experiences.”

Like Yvonne, he believes that women are more likely to devalue themselves, rather than others. It is one of the reasons he would like to move away from the term “femcel”: “When women label themselves as defective, it becomes part of who they are and how men define them, rather than something that can be overcome.” Although he doesn’t underestimate the trauma that some women experience due to bullying or poor self-esteem, he is hopeful that there will be healthier ways for women to fight back in future.

On Instagram, for example, which is known for perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards, a growing number of women are resisting these norms. Campaigners such as Lizzie Velasquez, who was bullied due to a congenital condition, and Katie Piper, who survived an acid attack, are building online communities for people who don’t fit beauty stereotypes, while others are raising positive awareness about skin conditions and different body types. “I appreciate it can be incredibly difficult, but I would encourage women to surround themselves with these accounts,” he says. “You can have surgery or change your looks, but ultimately it shouldn’t be linked to your value as a person.”

It is something that Caitlin is exploring. “I’m trying to become more positive about finding alternatives to a sexual relationship,” she says. As well as channelling energy into building her self-esteem, she is trying new activities and communicating with other women. “Of course, not all male incels are involved in extremist online forums, but those that do are feeding off their hatred of women, viewing us as possessions or something to conquer,” she says. “Involuntary celibate women seem to be handling their anger and hurt in a more evolved way, throwing themselves into work, life and healthy communities where single life is celebrated. I hope it can inspire me to feel more confident in my own situation.”

Mix and Match

Well the weather here is frightening, but not as bad as elsewhere. In Tennessee home of the deniers of science, climate included, has had flooding that has led to over 20 dead. But hey don’t ask the Legislature to do anything about infrastructure as well they will take that Government check and promptly build some monument to a White Supremacist over doing needed repairs to roads, bridges and flood controls on the rivers despite the 200 year old floods that now are Decade new ones. Hey they have mask mandates to overturn, civil rights to oppress and open carry laws to pass. Priorities people! (Yes folks I hated every waking minute living in Tennessee and that will not change, no absence and heart not in the least fond)

That said Memphis was a cover story in The Washington Post with regards to the issues of hiring and how it is affecting small businesses, mostly those owned by people of color. Memphis is largely a chocolate city and perhaps unlike most of the other racist cities in the State it is the one that truly reflects the concept of Southern Hospitality. I loved it there and cannot wait to return but this issue is one I am seeing everywhere. From Bridgeport to Newport the swath of Help Wanted signs is why many of the businesses have permanently closed, from small business, to major ones you see CLOSED on many doors or limited days and hours. And no folks it is not the extended UI benefits as again as a study has shown that employment in states that ended in earlier versus those still in the plan have a slight difference in that trajectory, the irony is that the states which have elected to keep the extended benefits hiring is up and most notably the workforce has changed, to one of teenagers; a group that has found in the past few decades the lowest employment, go figure. What this says to me is that is what these jobs truly are, low wage entry level which for years have been the jobs that were the ones that we have neglected with regards to paying a living wage and filled by Immigrants and Women. As for those other jobs, such as child care and home care health workers, we pay them poorly as well but those cannot be held by teens and much like the ongoing Nursing and Teaching shortage, little will change until they stop paying in change.

Then we have another Tennessee tale, Phil Valentine, the Covid denier is dead, from Covid. Irony much? May Governor Greg Abbott of Texas join him soon. He has a colleague from a Texas town who thought it was all bullshit too, waiting to greet him. Not so much bullshit now is it? Well can’t suppress voting rights from six feet under! Okay, I have zero problem wishing the deaths of men who are largely enabling people to die from something preventable. Sorry folks pity for the ones who did not do anything wrong and died or became seriously ill thanks to the bullshit peddled by assholes like these. Hey but in Florida it is a new way to defund the Police, kill them with Covid.

Next up on the hit parade is the riots and mayhem in the streets of Kabul. What? You mean Portland. Oh yes same difference, angry men fighting to prove who are the bigger meaner men. One is about religion and the other about religion. Christianity vs Islam when it comes to that issue it is literally a race as in a color of skin and gender. Men swinging dicks with guns as the condom. Oh wait these shitholes won’t wear masks so would they wear condoms? No love no glove or mask. Wow you know this mask thing is kinda sexy folks, and the Proud Boys do love some cosplay costumes there. Funny that at least the women in Afghanistan are more than masked. Yes we women are the problem.

And Trump had a rally in Alabama. Was Jeff Sessions invited? Guess not. Odd, he promoted vaccines. Well he has to as he needs his Trumptards alive. They are going old school Japanese and doing it Kamikaze style. Just say NO. Wow we are back in the Reagan years!

And lastly in this the Country of Old Men, great movie btw, we have my beloved Joe Biden doing the right thing and upholding the deal Trump made and getting eviscerated for it. Again this war was useless and we knew this and The Washsington Post had long uncovered how the Military had obfuscated this fact for decades.. yes all two of them we were there. The link is to the NYT and it in turn has the link to the Post and they are a must read, so anyone who truly believes we are handling this wrong, needs a dose of Fox News and a recall back to another decade of my life that was all GOP all the time, the Nixon years and Cambodia. Kissinger is still, well, alive and I am sure railing that we should have stayed there too. War kills all living things.

And then we have the R. Kelly trial (number one)going on in Brooklyn. There is so much luggage there to unpack I am not sure what to make of this. But the Doctor who diagnosed Kelly’s Herpes but never took a payment from him in exchange for free tickets and comped show travel seems to have some problems with being a licensed Physician. As stated in the trial: Dr. McGrath said that he had first believed that Mr. Kelly could have had herpes in 2000. He had first begun to serve as the singer’s doctor around 1994, but did not charge him for his services, he said. (Instead, he testified, Mr. Kelly invited him to about a dozen concerts, sometimes flying him across the country and paying for his accommodations.)

And to hear one former employee describe working for R Kelly as being in the Twilight Zone you realize how money and access to fame color our vision when it comes to men doing harm to young women. And in turn enabling toxic workplaces such as former Governor Cuomo (who assured all of us or reassured us that he would still be leaving office today as scheduled, despite the weather. Yeah a bitch to move during a Hurricane) or Scott Rudin who did not sexually harass anyone (and apparently Gay and married which makes this one a glass ceiling breaker and steadfastly unusual) who did discriminate in his abuse, women and especially those of color the targets of his abuse; however it seems that regardless he was a Grade A asshole across the boards, literally across the boards as he became one of Broadway’s most notorious or most voracious, either/or, none of it good. What we tolerate in the search of money and fame – herpes, death, rape and beatings by a computer keyboard. When does it stop Mommy?

To demonstrate my quest to prove equality when it comes to abuse can we discuss Naomi Campbell? Yes folks, phones were thrown but the Guardian is right, someone has to work with these people. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

Father Figure

I have spent the better part of the last weeks traveling to Rhode Island to attend a day at the Newport Jazz Festival. The irony that two of the artists I wanted to see are also new fathers and had their now year and near year old babies with them to celebrate what is the essence of life for me, music. And with other artists they too had families, sons and fathers in the band so it was a full circle of life in celebration. The women were there too and of course my favorite song was one by Catherine Russell, I like my men like I like my Whiskey, aged and mellow. No truer songs could have been sung to remind myself why I travel alone. But with that I am able to meet interesting individuals whose paths I would not have crossed had I not.

My seat mate to RI was a man nearing 60 who owns a business manufacturing plant in Queens and was heading home. He and I could not be more distinctly different in the spectrum of politics but we found an engaging conversation that included such facts as his sister was in NXVIM for seven years and he had Covid in. March of 2020. He found himself driving back to RI made it Fall Rivers, MA and stopped at hospital and was there for four days when they said he was to be put on a respirator, or as he and I agree the kiss of death, so he got a private Nurse and O2 tank and went home to recover. He was very sick but he again took control and got through it. That is money folks right there and the distinct ability to tell a hospital to go fuck themselves and they probably were relieved and needed the bed space. So that is again a reflection of the health care system, rich or poor, when they need you gone they will do whatever it takes. Yikes how many did they send home without the kit they needed to survive? Anyway he is also unvaxxed and when he said, “You will try to talk me into it.” I said, “No, I am a great believer in preventative medicine and I blur the line between the metaphysical and physical so I am all about anything that will keep me out a hospital, including prayer and I am an Atheist. So, no you are on your own but with that drug it will keep me out as for you, you figured it out on your own before you will do so now.”

He was a much more interesting traveling companion that the Big Game Hunter or as I call the serial killer I met going to Raleigh NC. Truly I will never understand that mentality of killing innocent animals and mounting their skins on a wall as a trophy. Really? Said Ted Bundy.

Then this week another Big White Daddy made an appearance at the final show of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall. Mr. Bennett turned 95 on Tuesday and is suffering from Alzheimer’s and they had managed to cut what will likely be his last album during the past year. I had seen the two a few years ago at the Hollywood Bowl which was a magical evening and I knew this would be as well. As we had to get their early to check our Covid vaccination status and check our phones so they could not be inside the auditorium which led many in the line to shove them down shirts, pants and bury them in bags. I tucked mine in my wallet and used it in the restroom so it was just to not film/tape the event as it was being done so for broadcast. Gaga’s father was there in the front tables they had set up and there were some on the stage as the rest of us filed into seats in the amazing Radio City for a night of music and memories, ours being of the greatest jazz singer still alive and his paring with a dynamo who crosses musical genres with ease. It was from Tony I learned what a gift Gaga possesses and I am now a big fan of this amazing woman. And then we waited, and waited and waited some more. Three G&T’s in finally the reason we were waiting arrived, it was Bill Clinton. No, he was not with Hilary it appears that it was his daughter and her husband included in his entourage. Another famous/celebrity wandered in shortly after but by then we were sorta kinda over it as what was at 8 pm start now was 9. I was furious as it interrupted my plans and in turn thought HOW RUDE as this man performing is likely also on a schedule and needs to be well managed and organized. Thankfully when Gaga arrived on stage wearing all white and said, “Hello, I see you Mr. President.” I laughed and thought of another era with a similar star and the girl next to me said, “Well at least it is not Trump.” How true and the show began and ended with my tears seeing Tony Bennett still singing tunes he had for years and fighting the good fight to the end.

This week it is Pink Martini on a rooftop a band with its own tragedy’s and history and then next week to Connecticut to see Kings of Leon. I am filling my time with as much music as I can and thankfully now the requirement of vaccinations that we had to have in Newport has extended to NYC which has traumatized the anti vaxx set. You know the same people that demand personal liberty unless of course it is a woman’s vagina, no. Sorry folks you women folk cannot have your own body and your own choice unless it is about masks and vaccines.

America led the way on preventative medicines/drugs, we supposedly have the best treatment and care in the world (which I will debate to my death on that one) but we have no CURATIVE treatments for most disease and little on the front of Covid. So go ahead test that one out I have a man in RI who fucking got out with a tank and his life, you many not be so lucky there daddy!

And speaking of Big White Daddies, Andrew Cuomo’s report on his behavior with women came out and showed he was a hypocrite, speaking one thing in public and in private demanding to see/touch women’s privates. Your body my choice kinda thing. Nothing changes there when it comes to powerful men and their ambition and lust for one thing – power. Basically the toxic masculinity that one carries inside their briefcase is like Pandora’s Box and once opened it spreads into the culture of the workplace and many become enablers if not equally predatory in all to preserve their own power. We have seen this with Trump and Cuomo is not different. And like Jeffrey Epstein, women are used to cover and shield much of this in the same way Ghislaine Maxwell did for her keeper and Melissa DeRosa did for Cuomo. Is it deflection or fear or sheer ambition that enables this and proves that women clearly are breaking the glass ceiling, just not the one we need right now. Again Hilary not at the concert told me all I needed to know about that marriage. Maybe she and Melinda Gates need to get together and have some tea, I am sure there is a lot to spill on both sides of that table. I wonder what Mrs. Tucker Carlson has to say about her husband being the big white daddy to White Supremacists as he is Hungary touting Totalitarianism? She must be a fucking moron or an abused spouse, either/or. And the same goes for Mrs. Ron deSantis, the Governor/Autocrat of Florida. What is with that state? No seriously that entire state.

And lastly we have the environment who is joining Covid in kicking our respective asses. The fires that began out west have extended to Greece and Turkey. Floods now are now a problem in Germany and China and we are of course waiting out the worst summer on record with immense heat problems that are in turn causing serious health problems and deaths. Yeah, Covid is a bitch, meet Mother Nature. One town in California is now totally out of water. Mendocino is where Oprah and Harry/Megan live, so they better have wells, just saying. But compared to this one, at least you can breathe, sort of. The fire in the air travels as I found out a few weeks ago in North Carolina, and with it created its own weather pattern. This is truly the long hot summer folks and not in a fun vaxxed way. Well thanks to the Delta variant that put the kybosh on that one but again the bioweapon that Covid has become seems to be working against the very individuals determined to let that fly. America the great – ish. Yes in America until it happens to you its all bullshit, smoke and mirrors. Hello Covid, my old friend its back to meet me once again. Ask this dipshit how his journey ended. He was lucky he lived. Some not so much. Or these fuckwads. Or this idiot.

We love our big white Daddies, from those in the sky to those on the planet and yet all of them repeatedly fuck us without dinner or lube. They are the big game hunters on the prowl to kill anyone or anything that could enable them to have a trophy to mount on the wall and prove what big dicks they are, whoops I mean have. It exhausts me at this stage as from the beginning we have known exactly who or what they are and yet we expect them in a crisis to fix it all. They cannot they live their entire lives in crisis mode so they can enable and obfuscate the truth, they are incompetent assholes. And we on planet earth pay for their sins which will never be forgiven, even the Sky Daddy is starting to say, hey coming up here isn’t going to fix it.

Take 2 Call Me in the Morning

The pandemic has been very very good to the Medical Industrial Complex. This is contrary to the public messaging that had Governor’s daily scolds as a way of reminding us Covid is killing the world and that once you get Covid, hospitals will be overrun and you will not get care because they cannot help you. The news put story after story showing crowded waiting rooms, hallways filled with patients and the daily count rising as if at any moment Covid will come through the door and kill you like a home invader.

Meanwhile smaller hospitals on the brink of closing for lack of funding did just that, close. Hospitals outside major cities were overrun while others were not. Tents were erected, special boats sailed in, larger public arenas were commissioned to be overflow sites and then within weeks they packed their tents, sailed away and the arenas closed awaiting a new use as a massive injection site. The Javitz Center was open and closed in a week for such use, much like a badly reviewed Broadway play as there were simply not enough vaccines available in which to run such a massive scale operation that was to run 24/7. They should have tried slot machines.

Much of the political jockeying and manipulation was based in truth as Hospitals that are run by major corporations were ill prepared for this virus. They had insufficient PPE and of course space and equipment needed to handle a major uptick in admissions. The lack of information, consistent data and of course actual understanding of Covid and how to treat it led to many Medical Personnel overworked, utterly confused and abandoned as they tried to piece together everything from their own PPE to how to treat a virus that seemed to manifest itself as a different disease with each admitted case. Sounds like AIDS in the nascent days but then again media and news on that plague was centered slightly differently.

But to put it in perspective this was Hudson County the largest densest county in NJ where I live. And this was the info at the worst at three hospitals:

These CarePoint Health hospitals have admitted one of the highest rates of COVID-19 cases, approximately one out of every 82 positive cases in the country, according to CarePoint Health. Out of the more than 95,000 positive cases in New Jersey, the three hospitals had nearly 1,200 admissions through April 18.*** this works out to .12 of cases.. not 12.. 0.12. That is not as overwhelming as one was led to believe during the height of pandemonium.

And the same said for staff related Covid illness. As they found in one with 1,100 staff only 14-15 tested positive. Meaning again 0.1 percent. And yes the health care workforce were unprepared and lost workers and some to suicide which also crossed into the other fields of care. But this mental health issue is not one they faced alone. And the total of Covid deaths by healthcare workers was 3,000 in 2020. By December 26, 2020 the total deaths recorded by the CDC from Covid was 22,574. Total deaths 81,394. So that was 0.27 percent of deaths from Covid. And we can agree that the secondary totals that included death from Covid related causes increases that count and we will never have fully accurate numbers. That again parallels AIDS as many died from the secondary illnesses that were the result of contracting HIV. Again putting this in perspective: The Institute of Medicine report estimated 98,000 Americans were dying annually due to medical errors. Estimates of annual patient deaths due to medical errors have since risen steadily to 440,000 lives, which make medical errors the country’s third-leading cause of death.

So we applauded these workers as heroes. As many went out nightly to honk horns, bang pots and clap for the front line workers, the back of the house was cutting staff, closing doors and cashing checks. The bailout was a money maker and many wealthy hospitals found themselves cashing in on that as if the slots had finally pulled a winner.

This from The Washington Post discusses how many facilities turned this nightmare into gold thanks to the Cares Act bailout. The idea was intended to offset all costs of treating infected patients, including purchasing ventilators, masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment. Congress further authorized hospitals to use the money to compensate for a drop in revenue when they shut down elective surgeries and non-emergency treatments to prepare for the anticipated deluge of covid-19 patients. The money, referred to as the Provider Relief Fund, helped many poorer hospitals avert cash crunches, layoffs and bond rating downgrades. And many hospitals did close as they had already received negative ratings by Moody’s prior to Covid; however, the idea was that in fact, this lifeline was to prevent it. And what resulted was even with the targeted aid, recipients included well-endowed academic medical centers and major urban hospitals. Only $14 billion took profitability into consideration, HHS documents show. HHS restricted those payments to hospitals with 3 percent or lower profit margins.

Wealthy hospitals also benefited because HHS used a broad definition of lost revenue. If a hospital earned less than in the year before, or simply less revenue than it had budgeted for, it could chalk up that difference to the pandemic and apply the relief funds to it. The implications garnered little attention at the time as they were overshadowed by the concerns about how HHS was doling out the money rather than how it could be used.

And then we have today and testing issues that still have to be addressed as with contact tracing. Those two issues are again in the new stimulus package but it has not prevented hospitals for well doing what they do best – overcharging. And this article from The New York Times found that many hospitals are charging excessive fees for the basic Covid test even within themselves. Say you are getting one from your Physician or their own Urgent Care within the building but the ER facility will process said test and the costs then double down. Or in this case in New York, Lenox Hill, one of the city’s oldest and best known hospitals, repeatedly billed patients more than $3,000 for the routine nasal swab test, about 30 times the test’s typical cost.

And this is not uncommon as the Times has found out. They has been asking readers to submit bills so that we can understand the costs of coronavirus testing and treatment. So far, more than 600 patients have participated. Their bills have revealed high charges and illegal fees, as well as patients who face substantial medical debt for coronavirus treatment. State-run testing sites in New York do not charge patients or collect health insurance information for the coronavirus nasal swab tests. A study published last year found that a swab test at a hospital can run from $20 to $850. Some independent laboratories have charged more, billing $2,315.

And while it appears that may be the case across the country, it is not one consistently applied across the country. Emergency room fees are common in the American system but rare in the world of coronavirus testing. At The Times’s request, the data firm Castlight Health analyzed insurance claims for 1.5 million coronavirus tests.

It found that less than 4 percent of coronavirus tests are billed through emergency departments. The vast majority of those tests are associated with large claims that have many charges, suggesting the nasal swab was incidental to a more complex visit.

And this brings me to of course my favorite target of this the biggest hero of the time, Andrew Cuomo. As more comes out about this asshole I cannot say enough about how America drank that down like a milkshake from Shake Shack. Sorry he was no better than Trump and with that, we have a crisis that transcended just the White House. Some Governor’s really stepped up and the numbers and losses prove that by just doing the work, the work gets done. We have a crisis right now, Covid is with us. There are variants in place and the sheer lack of vaccines along with testing and tracing will mean this will continue. Yesterday I watched several drunk morons board the PATH, they were unmasked and they gradually found one and then a young girl had lost hers so the idiot boy with her removed his shirt. That is when I departed the car for another one. A woman followed me as another man also was naked faced. These people are assholes and idiots. Again ignorance is not bliss it’s ignorance. I have already shared my thoughts on the non-vaxxers as my exchange with Barista Brian on Friday seemingly played out in a skit on Saturday Night Live. I found it funny, but then why should I?

Welcome to “Will You Take It?” 💉 pic.twitter.com/mecvqzMK8C

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 4, 2021

The Electric Slide

This is a dance that seems to perpetually be done at Weddings and other markers of celebrations. Why? I have no idea but it beats two boots scooting boogie I guess. But the title is about how I feel right now as if I am on a slide that is akin to two pulling apart sheets from the dryer. That friction of motion and the slight shock is something you never really get used to despite it happening regularly. And that is my response to the shooting in Atlanta this week and another at a nightclub in Texas last night and another in Syracuse and another in Chicago. And there are others, some with victims, some with Police or by Police as there were two in Nashville the last week and some were just random shots fired. What this tells me is that all of them have one thing in common – guns. The ease in which one can purchase a gun, as the Atlanta boy bought his a few hours before going on his rampage, and the same reason guns seem to confuse Police into responding with force as they assume all encounters have an element of risk and risk means guns.

As this study found:

Police shootings of civilians are more likely in states with high rates of gun ownership, according to a new styudy by researchers from Northeastern and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“The take-home message from the study is that when people live in places where guns are more prevalent, the police officers are more likely to shoot and kill them,” said co-author Matt Miller, professor of health sciences at Northeastern and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. “The relationship is pretty strong.

“The two factors that we looked at that were most strongly predictive of whether a citizen would be legally shot and killed [by police] were the overall rate of violent crime in that state and the overall rate of civilian firearm ownership.”

The Atlantic addresses this in this essay: The Overlooked Role of Guns in the Police-Reform Movement. And the author notes: Something is weirdly absent from the general discussion about police violence in America: the weapon most commonly used to inflict it.

The role of guns and weaponry was a key element to the insurrection attempt on January 6. Many of the “proud boys” and they are surely that, is a fear of having their guns taken from them. The endless hysteria of the Government taking away their arms. Why anyone thinks this is largely due to the drumbeat of media who frequently mentions this post shooting. Yes we have a problem with guns. How many goddamn guns does one need to feel safe? Apparently many as none these fuckwits can seem to leave their house without a varying types to fit every mood and match every outfit. They are to guns what Carrie of Sex and the City was too shoes.

Then we have men who fear that with the rising tides of Immigrants washing across the shores and plains, the ability of women to work and control their child production and in turn their body, that individuals can now change gender and those of the same gender can have a family, they will lose their dicks. Their dicks will just fall off and away and they will be Ken, Barbies non-binary man friend.

While many Americans seem to think Canadians are what Americans should be, think again. They are not less racist, more feminist and better at equality, they just are like us and play hockey better but other than that distinction no, no they are not a superior human life force. And I point to three men who have been in the news of late that define toxic masculinity. Peter Nygard, the Canadian Jeffrey Epstein. Jordan Peterson, the Canadian Dr Oz, only more annoying. And Gavin McInnes, Male Chauvinist. Wow that NAFTA treaty really opened the door to this border crossing and in turn they exported the rapists and murders that Trump warned us about, just the wrong border.

I did want to make a moment to talk about Jordan Peterson, who of late has been ignored as his role as a missionary in this movement of white small dick energy cannot be ignored. Part YouTube therapist and part raging asshole he has he same verbiage and messaging that adorns much of the web sites and messaging that the Alt-Right crowd embraced. I recall when Crazy Ethan saw that I had his book he asked what I thought and I only mentioned that he is hardly saying anything new but he is doing it in a new way which I found interesting. I neglected to mention that I thought he was much like all online evangelicals, just another crazy peddling bullshit masked as steak. Peterson has been busy after being the “it” boy and has a new book where he neglects to mention he became the very person he loathed and mocked.

I am not sure what to make of online Evangelicals, be they male or female, but they are just as flawed and as hypocritical as the tele-vangelicals were 20 years ago. I am missing Tammy Faye that is sure. But the male gaze is a strong as ever and it is focused now on men. Again the creepy almost strange gay thread that these men have going is not lost, from their theme songs to the the cos-play outfits and living with their mothers while espousing misogynistic language is not lost. When you are confused about your own identity you lash out at those who seem confident in theirs.

So as we try to tilt windmills to solve the dilemma of society we are actually debating on who Daddy HATES more. Does Daddy hate Women, Asians, Black people, Immigrants, Muslims, Liberals or himself. That last one seems to be the winner but what does it matter if Daddy hates one, there is likely that one is a member of another. No one is perfect and as my Mother said, “The perfect person is dead.” So that may explain why they want to kill them. My Mother used to talk a lot about jealousy and with that I agree as there is that aspect as well. Trump just wanted to be famous, liked and to belong. He never did until he found a group that loved rejects as they were also rejected by a larger society. I just want to be different like everyone else and conformity like familiarity breeds contempt, or is that security?

The idiot in Atlanta was “sex addicted.” So was Tiger Woods. So was Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, David Duchovny. Jack Nicholson, Robbie Williams, Billie Bob Thornton, Colin Farrell and many many more, some real hot so hey where are those meetings I may have a problem. I bet Armie Hammer will be there! But not of them were members of the Crabapple Church that pretty much put the nail and the hammer in the head about sex and sexuality. They are adherent to very conservative and oppressive views with regards to sex and that includes masturbation which the shooter had fixated on as destructive to his relationship to God. The issues of race were never mentioned by his roommate in the home he lived that was “treating” his addiction that clearly had no treatment but enabled him to hate himself more. And what is tragic is that he frequented the massage parlors and they were clearly providing him a sexual outlet and we need to realize that as he was a customer at one and in fact was inside for an hour prior to shooting the guests and workers. So we can imagine that perhaps things did work out as he wanted and that rage only further fueled his self-loathing. And out came his other dick and he jizzed the bullets and let the blood wash his anger and shame away. Just like Jesus. Religious kooks see Jesus in everything they do.

And one of the salons had been on the radar by Police in Atlanta so we can continue to ignore the reality that these women, three of them over 60 years old were working in the sex trade. How tragic. How grim. How pathetic. This is the real tragedy that we marginalize women and especially those who are not the “typical” model stereotype Immigrant. But do we really need to say or distinguish what kind of crime it is, it is a HATE CRIME. It was directed to women, who were Asian and were working in an industry affiliated with sex trafficking and prostitution and even if none of the women sexually serviced him or any men that day it is still about women and the perception of them as disposable and sexually deviant for encouraging, enabling or servicing a man. No wonder I don’t fuck anymore as frankly all sex at this point is work.

Which is why I am exhausted by all this male toxicity that seems to be everywhere all the time and I the endless shocks to my skin are blistering which cannot seem to heal. The documentary about Allen and Farrow and now the Andrew Cuomo scandal is just what has always been, powerful men not being held accountable for their actions and when called on it they flip the message switch and the victims become the perpetrators who caused the harm. Women are vindictive, mistaken, on a crusade or are slutty, stupid and what? Disposable.

The Cuomo nightmare is only shocking as it comes from the world watching this paternalistic asshole who love bombed the airways daily with his endless scales, numbers, scolds and warnings. Much we know now was false, was badly handled, that he doesn’t respect experts, more died than needed and then lied about those who died and frankly was incompetent from the get go. I don’t think any single leader in the United States handled this pandemic well and that is largely because of the failure by the U.S. Government led by Trump to actually take command and do their job properly. It allowed and enabled this bizarre piecemeal strategy put together by Governors with their ever rotating list of health care experts and some minimal if not constantly contradicting and changing CDC guidelines. And that has not changed but most of hit the wall and are going forward with re-opening their economies with little or no idea if this is a good idea or not. It is why I went ahead registered for a vaccine and pushed the “truth” in which to do so. There was no one going to be my advocate better than me. And that is what we have seen this repeatedly that few if any of the women from the Spas in Atlanta to the women who worked in the Cuomo office did either. Petty jealousy, arrogance and more important willing ignorance is why we have women 60 years old’s giving hand jobs to idiot religious crackpots and women in their 20’s wearing stiletto heels to get the Governor’s attention and respect. All while not even calling you by your given name or knowing the name of you, important colleagues or co-workers. Truly both are environment’s of abuse and disgrace, just one is in a statehouse the other is in a strip mall. We are all sliding down the electric slide and we are burned and scared from the trip. So what is a hate crime? The reality is that it took me 60 years to realize how as a woman I have been seriously ignored, and when not ignored mistreated. And often by women. To those women I go fuck you. To the men, go fuck yourself its hard work let’s see how good you are at it.

The Woman Problem

I was listening to the podcast Hidden Brain discuss how Gay rights managed to move toward a positive trajectory in public opinion in a rather brief time, 40 years, versus other issues such as Race, Misogyny and Ageism which of the latter two will take 140 and 160 years, respectively to overcome in the same manner. Good to know. There was much speculation and theorizing why this was so but it fell to connections and familial concepts, such as marriage equality that enabled people to find acceptance to this once marginalized group. It was an interesting discussion as of late I am reminded so much of AIDS and the fight for medical care, diagnosis and treatment as we are today doing so over COVID. The reality is that Homophobia is still very much with us and while there seems on the surface an overwhelming success of achievement I suggest they look into States that are working hard to oppress Gay rights, which the Supreme Court upheld in the infamous cake baking case, Masterpiece Cakeshop, where the owner refused to bake a cake for a Gay couple citing religious freedom. Ultimately the decision enabled the cake maker to refuse those with whom he did not share similar beliefs:

The Court found that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had expressed impermissible hostility to religion and thus violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

The Court especially focused on a statement made by a commissioner at a subsequent meeting: “Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be—I mean, we—we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others.” 

Justice Kennedy said that this was “disparaging” to religion and thus showed hostility. He wrote: “To describe a man’s faith as ‘one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use’ is to disparage his religion in at least two distinct ways: by describing it as despicable, and also by characterizing it as merely rhetorical—something insubstantial and even insincere. The commissioner even went so far as to compare Phillips’ invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust. This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s antidiscrimination law—a law that protects against discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation.”

This case was not mentioned in the podcast, nor were the laws made in several states to prohibit adoption or at least not require religious service based organizations to refuse to assist Gay couples in fostering and/or adopting children. Tennessee has never stopped trying to pass numerous hate crimes into laws. And they are moving like many others in this country over the issues of Trans rights which are seen as tangential to the Gay Movement but not one necessarily embraced by the Gay community as their issue is undergoing numerous challenges and laws in which to further oppress their rights. So I guess having a white male, Bruce Jenner, a conservative as well, did little to move that line forward. When in fact there were many trail blazers long before. Christine Jorgenson anyone? As anyone who knows their history on this subject is was a Black Trans Woman, Marsha P Johnson, along with Sylvia Rivera who were at Stonewall the night of the riots. But they are of course are marginalized being both of color and women. So yes they have another 100 plus years to wait on that one. But what did change hearts and minds (well no one has actually done that it is an individual thing) But who did – was white men. And one was actually Gay and died because of it, Harvey Milk. But who really did it? Conservative white men. The two Attorneys, David Boies (a Harvey Weinstein attorney threatening women, now oddly the Attorney for Jeffrey’ Epsetein’s victims) and Theodore Olsen who changed California’s law cannot be ignored. And that the Gay Movment’s larger than life Activists were always white men who were often Business Owners and strong figures in their community did not hurt either.

But in reality the true Gay icons and leaders are not infamous names, familiar to many as we have made legend. The reality is they were Poets and thought leaders, women and men and Gay and of Color and until a the Gay Community has a museum in Washington the size and scale of the African American Museum, I am not sure it is time to rest on the laurels of success there.

Then we have Women. Well we have 150 years left to get that right and we did get the Vote before Civil Rights passed and that is where we are next, old people. I am a woman and I am old and trust me if you want to know invisible be those. Being at least of Color you are seen. Anyone who says they don’t see color means they are literally blind, not color blind, blind. And we have that issue, the Disabled who again are so on the fringe they are under the couch. We have so many competing issues and matters related to these issues as if they are exclusive. Yet one hand cannot go without the other. You can be a Woman, one of Color, you can be disabled and you can be Gay or Trans and you can be OLD or will be at some point. They are not mutually exclusive.

I am exhausted from the endless data collection, reflection and of course endless theorizing on what and how we all came here. We are here now and what are we doing now to change it. Well nothing. We have gone through the Courts and then we have some laws, they are immediately circumvented in the States so they go back to the Courts and round and round we go nobody knows and we start it all over again. There is the endless argument about Abortion and of course the South is the most aggressive. Alabama tried, as did Missouri, Tennessee has given it a shot and now Arkansas has stepped up to the plate to find one more way to stop women from making decisions about their rights to choose with regards to their body and pregnancy. The same people who want Planned Parenthood closed, which ironically could prevent said pregnancy from occurring, debates and issues regarding sex education in schools, the ACA act that allowed women access to contraceptives and family planning removed, under that same notion of religious freedom in the Holly Hobby case, goes on and on. A Merry-go-Round of will she jump on or off and just shut the fuck up, stay home and get knocked up to prove she is a worthy woman, is one fucked up ride. No wonder men say, “Would you like to ride my dick?” They think it is entertainment. FUCK ME.. not not really, I am off that ride, thanks

Well if Hidden Brain is right, I will spend the rest of my dotage trying to avoid Conservatorship like Brittney Spears who was placed in it at age 30 so go figure. And her father, a lovely white man with a ladies name refuses to change that despite numerous attempts to do so. And then to have of all people, a Conservative White Man, Matt Gaetz, step in to resolve the issues about the ease in which one can suddenly be shoved into this perpetual cycle of dependence, means he also saw on Netflix, I Care a Lot, which confirms how corrupt and easy it is to remove an aging person’s rights away, even more so if you are a women, as we make up the largest portion of an aging population.

And women are really afraid of aging, of being alone, of not being sexually desired and in turn disappointed in their hetero-normal relationships they announce they are Gay, Bisexual, Binary or whatever the current term is somehow oddly ignoring the mantra that was embraced by the Gay community as “Born this Way.” I was born straight, I cannot stand the idea of a man laying his hands on me, but I have no interest in feigning attraction to women as I was not born that way. I, have never kissed a girl or even dabbled in same sex encounters. Not my thing and this is from a woman who for years knew few straight people, male or female. But the one thing my Gay friends understood better than any were boundaries about sexuality. We straights need to not be so uptight and perhaps we could reduce some of the crimes that surround sexual assault. We will never end them but some of them we might if that topic was not one we are so afraid of discussing.

Which brings me to share two editorials that I read this last weekend about Women and sex. One was called, The Empty Religions of Instagram, of women embracing faux Christian leaders who have embraced their new sexuality and life while still espousing religious views. The primary one being a woman whom I had never heard of (Glennon Doyle-Melton)until a Real Housewife decided she too was an alcoholic and Lesbian. (This is not really Bravo material and yet it fits that horrific franchise) And the question posed was: How do influencers become moral authorities. Again, another ride I will not be getting on thanks. We are desperately seeking some affirmation from our life choices to our voting decisions via people who in real life would not know your name let alone come to your home, so why I would care about a “virtual” strangers opinion is beyond me. I can often identify with writers and certainly that is healthy, but changing my life, no. The same goes with Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat Pray Love who suddenly found a new sexuality after all that eating, praying and loving. Then she becomes a widow after coming out, that woman never can win; However, I note that both women are white and of privilege, are successful writers so going to the local Piggly Wiggly and dealing with the clerks or getting a job is not an issue. Funny I never heard any debate over any issues regarding Women of color and their sexuality as Zora Neale Huston, kept that under her covers in every way. I think you pick your battles. It is already hard enough as Shirley Chisolm said that being a Woman was by far more challenging than being Black. We all choose our crosses to bear. That is truly what religion means, being a martyr. No thanks. Which may be why Beth Moore a prominent Evangelical leader has now announced she is leaving the Southern Baptist Church. On this – about time. Will she become the next Instagram Prophet? I don’t know but I suspect where there is money there is the both time and willingness.

As we speak of Evangelicals, another Minister is a rapist and of course this too will be debated not in the Courts as the Church avoids such public airing of dirty laundry. We know that from the Farrow Allen HBO documentary and the Meghan and Harry, Oprah interview. The Royals are the head of the Church of England and in turn it was easier to chop off women’s heads then have to listen to them. That shuts them right up! We like our women complacent and supine.

Which brings me to the other op-ed, regarding the issue of consent: You were duped into saying yes. Is that still Consent? The debate is with regards to when a man lies to negotiate sex is that lie a factor in removing the consent from that sexual encounter? This in my mind is a tough one as we all lie to get laid. From age to marital status, to work and income who doesn’t lie when it comes to tapping that ass? I am sorry, but when you are invited out by a man who lies and says he is not married and you drop your panties, you have consented. If he gets up after he has ruined your sheets and says, “Thanks I got get home to put the kids to bed, thanks for the fuck.” (This actually might even be more words than most me say after fucking, so you are already ahead, I mean a thanks!!?) I am not sure you have grounds for legal action. Maybe in Civil Courts where this could be breach of contract.

And that brings me to Andrew Cuomo who for whatever reason is now being exposed as the asshole he always was. That he says and does things to women that veer the line of harassment, not shocking. In some of the encounters, the one at the wedding, I would say inappropriate but not illegal. With the employees that he touched, asked to play strip poker, yes. Asking women or men co-workers about their sex lives is another. Again, that could be about exposing them to disclosing a relationship or sexual identity that they would rather not. Not everyone wants to be open about that issue and those boundaries don’t always mean you are closeted or afraid, just private. I mean a Mormon Big Love scene is not something actually legal. Or you are in a Green Card marriage or I don’t actually give a flying fuck who you fuck. What.ever. But the inquiries seemed predatory, but if Cuomo subjects the men who work for him to the same level of inquiry than he is an annoying jerk, along with being an asshole. But we as women have only 160 some years before we achieve recognition, so good luck with that. Hidden Brain came up with that number and again we know from Cuomo numbers lie.

Do we have it all? Or do we create more problems in the pursuit of our own interests over those of the greater community. I don’t know anymore, I do know that we have little interest or willingness to see the whole. The only time we do anything is in our tribe and they have little interest in mixing tribes, fighting, however, is not a problem. We seem to love the idea of fighting those who we think our against us versus with us. That is the real problem, putting aside our chosen identities and labels to find larger one that will bring more into the room. The room is big enough. This is not a competition between us, if anything it is a collaboration that must be among us. We all have a membership in this Venn Diagram of life so the color of our skin, the gender we are born with or decide to belong or our sexual identity, our faith and our age at some point will become overlapped. Yet we cannot forsake one over the other. Let’s cut that time span of evolution down by half or even three-quarters. Let’s see progress on race and age and gender, sooner versus later. We all grow-up, well some of us, eventually.

As it Was, Ever and Will Be

The daily Covid Chronicles continue with two more significant points: Data Not Complete and Costs and Coordination for Medical Facilities

Here in the hot bed of Covid, the Three Stooges ran around commandeering Naval ships, public parks, conference centers and other facilities to house the thousands of Covid patients expected to arrive on the shores.  They failed to provide adequate testing, tracking and tracing and more importantly do adequate coverage and protections for those in more confined situations that are petri dishes for the virus – the old folks homes, prisons, public housing and veteran facilities. Well that takes time and we are at war with Trump so off with their heads!

By the time you are now tested a week or longer has passed and you have passed on the virus to your two friends and family and they have passed it on and finally when the results are back or quarantine for  you have ended you are onto the next.

Again the mysterious Covid parties are apparently another urban myth with little substantiation, the other, “we never left the house” is actually another myth, as someone did at sometime and they brought back with the essentials a little something extra.

The states have always had odd numbers and data collection from those who test positive to deaths as we have counties and cities not complying nor compiling in any consistent manner.  The reality is that those who have died from “covid related” symptoms are still charted on death certificates as cause of death the primary reason so again not Covid.

Then of course the private Physicians who have tests and in turn do not release the data nor are required to thanks to HIPAA or that again we have everything from false positives to false negatives gumming up the numbers so the real count is just that an anathema.   Shocking, I know. Not really.

We will never know the full numbers and we have a President and his administration that simply refuse to actually take responsibility and accountability for the failures that have continued now well into the year when this all began.  But the question remains: Would this have been any different regardless? And given what we are seeing world wide with regards to stockpiles, surpluses, inventories of needed PPE to even drugs just a basic crisis would have exposed the system as a piece of shit.   Then we have the horrific red tape, lack of communication and coordination systems that have been repeatedly tested and repeatedly failed and never once dealt with. This includes the deluge of Unemployment claims that States across the country demonstrated our outdated systems.  The curtain pulled back, the rock is now overturned and the soft underbelly exposed. And I have not seen or heard anyone discuss this with meaning, intent and a plan. Same as it ever was, is and will be.

Former CDC chief: Most states fail to report data key to controlling the coronavirus pandemic
Not a single state reports on the turnaround time of diagnostic covid-19 tests.

The Washington Post
By Lena H. Sun
July 21, 2020
Six months after the first coronavirus case appeared in the United States, most states are failing to report critical information needed to track and control the resurgence of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to an analysis released Tuesday by a former top Obama administration health official.

The analysis is the first comprehensive review of covid-19 data that all 50 states and Washington, D.C., are using to make decisions about policies on mask-wearing and opening schools and businesses. In the absence of a national strategy to fight the pandemic, states have had to develop their own metrics for tracking and controlling covid-19. But with few common standards, the data are inconsistent and incomplete, according to the report released by Resolve to Save Lives, a New York nonprofit led by former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden and part of the global health organization Vital Strategies.

Some essential information that would show response effectiveness is not being reported at all. Only two states report data on how quickly contact tracers were able to interview people who test positive to learn about their potential contacts. Not a single state reports on the turnaround time of diagnostic tests, the analysis found. Week-long waits for results hobble efforts to track real-time virus spread and make contact tracing almost irrelevant.

“Despite good work done in many states on the challenging task of collecting, analyzing, and presenting crucial information, because of the failure of national leadership, the United States is flying blind in our effort to curb the spread of COVID-19,” Frieden said in a statement. “If we don’t get the virus under control now, it will get much, much worse in the coming months.”

Publicly available, standard dashboards with information on life-or-death metrics can make more of a difference than anything else U.S. officials can do in the weeks and months ahead, he said. Of the hundreds of projects the team has done since January, Frieden said Tuesday’s report was the most important.

His team and other public health leaders are recommending that states and counties report 15 indicators they say are essential for an effective response. The metrics were drafted with input from states and public health organizations and modeled after practices from around the world, Frieden said. States should be able to report on nine of the metrics now and the other six within several weeks.

The nine include information about confirmed and probable cases, rates of hospitalization per capita, and emergency department trends showing people who have symptoms of influenza-like illness and covid-19-like illness.

While almost all states report cases, 20 percent of state dashboards did not report same-day data by 5 p.m. local time. Kansas updates data only three times a week.

The CDC, in a statement, said it has been working since the beginning of the outbreak with states and other partners “to collect, analyze and report out data critical to formulate the nation’s response to this unprecedented public health crisis.”

The CDC is already tracking, or has plans with the states to track, 14 of the 15 indicators, the agency statement said. The CDC said the data is posted on its website and many states are also tracking some indicators on their state websites. The statement added: “CDC is always looking at best practices for ways to enhance, consolidate and report data, to make it easier for states and the public to access.”

The CDC said it has no plan to calculate data on the percentage of people wearing masks correctly in public, one of the metrics included in the report.

Without a national coordinated strategy, public health experts say consensus from governors will be vital to suppress and eventually recover from covid-19. That includes agreement on common metrics, a regular system for reporting data, and triggers for implementing social distancing policies and stay-at-home orders.

Most states are not collecting most of these measures, or if they are, reporting on only a small fraction, said Tom Inglesby, an infectious-disease physician and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

“The more we agree on the targets for response that states should achieve, the better the public will understand what it’s going to take to bring this epidemic under control,” Inglesby said in an email. If the target benchmark for a state’s diagnostic test positivity rate should be below 5 percent, for example, but if the state is reporting a positivity rate of 20 percent, that’s a sign that “things are going quite badly.”

Similarly, if a state is reporting that only a small fraction of new covid-19 cases can be linked to prior cases, “things are not going well no matter what a national or local leader might say.”

The D.C. health department published that key metric for the first time Monday. It said the percentage of new coronavirus cases linked to already known cases is just 2.8 percent — meaning most people contracting the virus aren’t aware of who might have exposed them. The city’s goal is 60 percent.

Groups representing state public health officials support the measures.

“Having some standard metrics to compare across the country will make a big difference in identifying where things are going well and where there is need for additional resources and improvements,” said Michael Fraser, chief executive of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, said the organization supports using consistent indicators to give people information that will help them change behavior and understand the threat of the pandemic.

It’s also important, she said, that Frieden’s team recognized the relative importance of each metric and that “the optimal target may change based on the local status of the pandemic.”

While they praise the effort, public health experts are also concerned that overwhelmed state and local health departments don’t have the resources to report some of these measures at a time when the pandemic is surging and states are experiencing record numbers of infections and hospitalizations.

“Some of these data are going to be very very hard to get without a workforce dedicated to just charting these metrics week by week,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.

“If we had this as a road map at the start in confronting the pandemic, that would have been the bomb,” she said.

And across the country today, cities are looking to shut down in States from Los Angeles to Atlanta, the outbreaks are not following the protocol established by the varying Governors, Medical Advice and of course the Millennials who are the largest cohort simply not giving a shit.   Meanwhile we are paying the price for this, in more ways than one.  When it comes to hospital bills this one is a whopper.

This Hospital Cost $52 Million. It Treated 79 Virus Patients.

Red tape and turf battles marked the race to create temporary hospitals for the coronavirus onslaught in New York.

By Brian M. Rosenthal
The New York Times
July 21, 2020

The Queens Hospital Center emergency department has a capacity of 60, but on its worst night of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 180 patients lay on stretchers in the observation bays and hallways. Alarms rang incessantly as exhausted doctors rushed from crisis to crisis.

Less than four miles away, a temporary hospital opened the next morning, on April 10. The facility, which was built at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to relieve the city’s overwhelmed hospitals, had hundreds of beds and scores of medical professionals trained to treat virus patients.

But in the entire month that the site remained open, it treated just three patients from the Queens Hospital Center emergency department, records show. Over all, the field hospital cost more than $52 million and served only 79 patients.

The pandemic has presented unique challenges for officials grappling with a fast-moving and largely unpredictable foe. But the story of the Billie Jean King facility illustrates the missteps made at every level of government in the race to create more hospital capacity in New York. It is a cautionary tale for other states now facing surges in cases and for New Yorkers bracing for a possible second wave.

Doctors at the Queens Hospital Center, a public hospital in Jamaica, and at other medical centers wanted to transfer patients to Billie Jean King. But they were blocked by bureaucracy, turf battles and communication failures, according to internal documents and interviews with workers.

New York paid as much as $732 an hour for some doctors at Billie Jean King, but the city made them spend hours on paperwork. They were supposed to treat coronavirus patients, but they did not accept people with fevers, a hallmark symptom of the virus. Officials said the site would serve critically ill patients, but workers said it opened with only one or two ventilators.

“I basically got paid $2,000 a day to sit on my phone and look at Facebook,” said Katie Capano, a nurse practitioner from Baltimore who worked at Billie Jean King. “We all felt guilty. I felt really ashamed, to be honest.”

As the coronavirus spread in March, the federal government, state leaders, city officials and hospital executives all began creating their own temporary medical facilities, at times competing against each other. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office oversaw most transfers to the centers, but city officials say the state did not closely coordinate with other players.

The federal government’s biggest contribution, the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort, arrived in New York with great fanfare but initially did not accept coronavirus patients at all, prompting one hospital executive to call it “a joke.”

Even once the Comfort began treating people with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, the hospital ship and another overflow facility run by the state, located at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, mostly accepted patients transferred from private medical centers, not from the public hospitals that were the most besieged, according to government data.

Billie Jean King, the only emergency hospital built by the city, should have been a success story: It opened at the height of the pandemic, with a full staff eager to treat virus patients.

An aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio who helped oversee the site, Jackie Bray, said the city acted quickly to open it but ultimately concluded patients were best treated at existing hospitals, even if they were crowded. She added that she expected the federal government to reimburse the city for the cost of the facility.

Officials with the city and the state said Billie Jean King and other temporary sites treated so few patients because New York’s statewide shutdown curtailed the virus and hospitals expanded their own capacity, reducing the need for extra beds.

“The alternative space was less used than we expected it to be because we broke the curve, thank goodness,” Ms. Bray said.

Doctors disagreed.

“The conditions in the emergency room during this crisis were unacceptable and dangerous,” said Dr. Timothy Tan, the director of clinical operations at the Queens Hospital Center emergency department. “Knowing what our patients had to endure in an overcrowded emergency department, it’s frustrating how few patients were treated at facilities such as Billie Jean King.”

In past disasters, such as during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the state created a unified system across multiple agencies to transfer patients between hospitals. That did not happen during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving hospitals in low-income areas overwhelmed, while some wealthy private medical centers had open beds.

Instead, with projections forecasting a severe shortage of beds, officials focused on building field hospitals.

The largest facilities opened in Manhattan in late March — the Comfort and the Javits Center. They treated about 1,400 patients, although only about 300 came from public hospitals, data shows.

Hospitals also opened overflow locations, including a Central Park tent hospital that treated 300 patients from Mount Sinai Hospital. The city’s public hospital system created a wing at a nursing home on Roosevelt Island.

Facing a projected shortage of 50,000 beds, federal officials spent more than $320 million to build facilities at two state colleges and the Westchester County Center, and the city spent about $20 million on a center at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, records show. In the end, reality never neared the dire projections, and none of those facilities opened.

The only makeshift hospital the city opened was at Billie Jean King.

The complex, home of the U.S. Open, is at the site of the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows and is one of the largest tennis centers in the world.

Officials put out a call on March 18, saying they needed a contractor that could open a hospital in seven days and run it. Only one vendor said it could do it: SLSCO, a company from Galveston, Texas, best known for helping build part of President Trump’s border wall.

SLSCO had spent $90,000 annually to lobby New York in recent years and received contracts after Hurricane Sandy, records show. The company referred questions to city officials.

The contract paid SLSCO whatever costs it incurred for creating and operating 470 beds for “Covid-positive patients of medium and high acuity” — plus an additional 18 percent for profit and overhead, the deal said. The final bill is still being tallied; it could top $100 million.

“This is a war effort,” Mr. de Blasio said in a news conference at the tennis center in late March, announcing it would open April 7. “This facility will be crucial.”

The site opened on April 10, during the grimmest week of the pandemic, with records in statewide hospitalizations and deaths.

The night before, the patients in the Queens Hospital Center emergency department included 66 who were so sick that they had already been admitted and were waiting for beds, according to a hospital log.

City officials said emergency department patients were inappropriate for Billie Jean King. The site did not have all of the equipment, drugs and services available at a permanent hospital, so it was not the best place for unstable patients, they said.

Dani Lever, communications director for Mr. Cuomo, said the Queens Hospital Center transferred 11 patients to the Javits Center that night, and could have sent more. The state accommodated every transfer request from hospitals, Ms. Lever said.

Other nearby hospitals were also in crisis, including Elmhurst Hospital Center and several small private hospitals.

SLSCO had recruited hundreds of workers from across the country. It paid most doctors about $600 an hour, or $900 for overtime, according to the contract — far more than the typical rates at hospitals. Registered nurses made more than $250 an hour, as did pharmacists and physician assistants.

But in the early days, they spent hours in orientation to learn computer systems, waiting to get fitted for masks and looking for equipment, workers said. They also said they had to complete repetitive paperwork.

“Extreme dysfunction,” Dr. Kim Sue said about working there. “Bureaucracy and dysfunction, and all kinds of barriers to serving patients.”

But the biggest barrier was simple: Hospitals did not send many patients to Billie Jean King.

The city did not allow ambulances to take 911 calls to Billie Jean King because health officials said they did not trust the facility to triage patients. The site had its own ambulances, but they could not pick up transfers because, according to some workers at the site, hospitals had exclusive agreements with ambulance companies. So doctors had to wait for transfers. Few came.

In interviews, doctors at overwhelmed private hospitals said they were told they could not transfer to Billie Jean King because it was only for patients from public hospitals.

Several doctors at public hospitals said they believed their bosses did not want to transfer because the hospitals in the public system each had their own budgets, and they did not receive revenue from patients they sent away. Some said they were told Billie Jean King could treat only people with extremely mild symptoms.

There were at least 25 medical conditions that disqualified patients from being transferred to Billie Jean King, including “spiking” fevers, a city spokesman acknowledged. The Javits Center had similar rules.

At Billie Jean King, seven workers said in interviews that even with limited ventilators, they could treat most severely ill patients. They said they grew increasingly frustrated to report every day to a sea of empty beds. Several mentioned that three men with mild symptoms died while quarantining at a Manhattan hotel.

“We were sitting on all of these beds with hundreds of people trained to watch over patients exactly like that, and these people died,” said Elizabeth Ianelli, a social worker at the site. “That was preventable.”

City officials said the men were not sick enough for Billie Jean King’s level of care. They said all hospitals could transfer to the site, which had enough ventilators, and said the ambulances did not pick up because they needed to be available in case patients at Billie Jean King deteriorated and needed to be transferred. Nobody was thinking about patient revenue, they said.

“The thing that saved the most lives was to treat them in expanded capacity in the hospitals, and bring staff into the hospitals, and that’s what we were focused on,” said Matt Siegler, a senior vice president at the city’s public hospital system, which oversaw the site.

Mr. Siegler said he could not think of anything the city should have done differently.

On April 27, the city amended the contract to pay SLSCO for only a 100-bed facility for patients with “low to moderate” needs, records show. The site became a quarantine location for homeless people, and some staffers left to work in other hospitals.

Billie Jean King closed on May 13, and workers returned home.

Covid Chronicles

I feel that should be a new daytime drama on the networks or just title the endless press conferences State and Federal Governments endless bullshit Covid pressers that are less about Covid and more about dick waving.  Yes Andrew your mother loved you best.  Honestly Andrew Cuomo needs a big dose of shut the fuck up.  That and an art curator for the bullshit he pulls out as “art” projects, from the mask medley, to the strange art poster of yesterday, his new visual aid obsession is much like an eighth grader doing a science project and dad spent all night crafting this shit to ensure his prodigy gets an A.

This is what living in a pandemic is with men at the helm.  And meanwhile New Zealand is at zero.  Yeah they flattened it alright, as did Taiwan, another country with a woman leader. Her official title, Her Excellency.  Appropriate.  And to think it is not a member of WHO and is a Chinese colony in the way Puerto Rico is or was if Trump ends up selling it.  Are there any perverts looking for an Island to hide money and girls? So what was the deal with the woman President? Was it just THAT woman?

I used to count the days and fuck that they blended like a Margarita on a hot day.  If I read one more fucked up study about drinking I am going to smash those researchers heads in with an empty bottle.  Again we get it and could you spend your time doing something worthwhile, like curing Covid? Or Cancer or whatever is killing us? Booze is the one thing we know kills us so let us die drunk or at least with a buzz.  Where are we going? Nowhere right.?  What else is there to do? Read books? Fuck that. Look at this Millennial.  At least he went out partying, sort of, as you are drugged up prior to the hospital killing him via a ventilator as I seriously doubt right before signing out he spoke to the Nurse in clear coherent manner, “I thought it was a hoax” then fades away. END SCENE.

Meanwhile we really don’t know anymore about Covid then we did four months ago, five months ago or six months ago when it first showed up on American shores.  We know its a virus. Good. We know it is bad. Good. The variations of bad we don’t know why some are asymptomatic, or have minor affects or some are just DOA.  Bad.  We know that surfaces and touching is the least method of transmission.  Good.   We know it affects the brown folks more severely but we don’t know why. Bad.  We know it doesn’t go away like the flu during the seasonal shift.  Good. We know it is a virus. Good. Whoops said that already but at this point repeating myself is better than of late where I lose my train of thought mid thought and that along with Covid, alcoholism, OCD to worry about I can worry about Alzheimers.  Good. No BAD!

We think it is airborne but how airborne? Is it like LeBron James or more like Michael Jordan? Is it a rebounder or more like a floater that just stays aloft like a ball in free throw? I really haven’t thought about basketball in decades so this is just an attempt for an analogy that seems relevant.  This is now the time of Covid where we are grasping at anything to sound interesting in conversations with ourselves.

What we do know is that people are stupid and that most of the current spread is tied to events, such as parties, weddings, and my personal favorite Church.  Let’s not forget bars and rubbing elbows, shoulders and virus droplets. And perhaps Charlie Daniels funeral will be a super spreader event, I mean one party in Michigan is responsible for over 43 cases.  Hope the food was good as for some it might be the last meal.

This was from the New York Times Magazine, Why We’re Losing the Battle with Covid-19.  I highlight this passage:

Shah and his team had not been particularly well armed for any of these fights. Decades of research shows that a robust national public-health system could save billions of dollars annually by reducing the burden of preventable illnesses and keeping the population healthier over all. But like most public-health departments across the country, Harris County’s was grossly underfunded

The same goes here in the New York/New Jersey area. The New York Times has covered extensively the missteps, the underfunding and the way the Covid crisis was handled in the area demonstrating how funding and location regarding one’s real estate affects care. Not new news but in this crisis it only proves that we loathe social services as it might keep brown people alive!

And with that issue is the one of public education another critically underfunded public resource that has a history of educating the best and brightest in the globe until the arrival of Voodoo Reagan and that ended that when the Welfare King and Queen said “off with their heads” and destroyed the role of public in education.

This odd story about the dead Teacher had me concerned. As they are municipal essential workers most I knew who were working were required to get tested every two weeks.  So were these women tested before they went to work, and considering one woman was high-risk, I am unclear why they thought this was a good idea.   I am shocked that was not discussed about protecting her from the virus as well as each other. Was this, “Oh she will not like me!” You want to work in the same building, do so,  just across the hall and you can talk across it or on the phone. My god folks this is all again so odd.    And again the time frame for still being positive is now at the 21 day plus mark, which again shows another marker being added to the field of confusion and chaos.  But one of those women came in positive and passed it in an enclosed space with shitty ventilation. In other words a typical public school.     And having been a teacher why would I do this “team teaching” in the same room, regardless. Wasn’t that what Zoom was created for?  Something about this story is where I go, “See back in the day Journalists would do that job of answering this question!”  Another casualty of covid, the loss of true meaningful news and reporting. ***

***On a side note the moron Barri Weiss, exited the building and by building I mean the home of the great gray lady, The New York Times.  She is an example of how opinion and bullying is described as news and she is on the masthead of the paper, in the most influential page, Opinion.  The legacy of great writers who have graced that section deserve better in memory than that self-entitled brat.  And on that note, speaking of bitches, that horrid self hating, Queen, Andrew Sullivan, is also leaving another journal  of which I subscribe (kids that means PAY FOR) New York Magazine.  It’s a double decker exodus!  Two for the price of more to follow, I hope.  Again I don’t confuse Journalism with a capital J with writing and opinion.  That is an entirely different skill set and in fact education.  Journalism is its own skill of which you should be both trained and educated and in turn work one’s way up with dogged reporting and writing skills.  There are many who have entered through a back door in that career but they have stepped up to the challenge.  This is to you in memorium, David Carr. ***  And double side note, Weiss and Sullivan are hacks always on Bill Maher, a man who doesn’t let any word get in edge wise of his.  Cannot wait for the return of that show aired from his faux Playboy pad in the Hollywood Hills.  Maybe he will hit the velvet robe next time and accidentally let it swing open. I am sure Weiss would be as thrilled as Andrew. He seems though to have dick envy.  Wonder whose is smaller. They both seem to have tiny dicks. 

And this brings me to the fall season. Another six weeks away but we can only hope!  But to add to the list of what we know that kids have Covid, don’t have Covid, can’t get Covid or transmit if they do.  Remember the paralysis disease they thought was Covid which was early June I believe in the daily hysteria reports on the nightly news.  Remember they don’t have the money to give the time to actually research any story, find conflicting data and ask salient questions, like this one:  WHAT THE FLYING FUCK? WHERE DO YOU HAVE PROOF?  Ah the good old days. So at this point we are not sure as Europe, which by the way is not America and therefore cannot be used to compare or contrast. As really do you need to ask why? Schools have reopened in Europe and at this point no one again knows shit but hopes this works out.  It won’t.  Nothing they have said about Covid has been accurate yet, other than its a virus.  So K-12 schools starting soon? Maybe or most likely not.

That debate is ongoing and of course another opportunity to politically posture so let the dick swinging begin. What I love is that Betsey DeVos’ dick is a metaphor but she has the BIGGEST DICK, Donald Trump, standing alongside her swinging it away, like a golf club.  Look a double metaphor!  I am bored, really bored.

And the media has become a cheap whore sucking that dick daily. Truly cocksucking is the special of the day on the agenda as Trump’s press conferences are nothing but propaganda and we have no business being subject to that under the guise of news. Is this what vulture capitalism has done to the industry. Really? Leave that to the Professionals, and by that I mean Hookers.

As for Colleges and Universities I don’t see much happening there as they are ill prepared, have no clue and don’t give a shit until the check clears. In other words, same as usual.  For the record Teaching is a craft and not everyone practices said craft at the same level. Like Journalists and Writers do or more importantly don’t.  And that is the difference between writing and reading other than the ability to do it on a basic sixth grade level

What is more alarming is that again public schools let alone colleges have proper medical and nursing care and services available. This is from the Washington Post that discusses how many campus medical services make basic seem the equivalent to your mother dressing your broken ankle with sticks and duct tape.  As they say in the subtitle: The coronavirus pandemic will be the biggest challenge yet for campus health services.

But medical care again is running itself into the ground and exposing its anal warts as Gorilla’s do in the zoo as they really don’t want anyone in its business.  The Medical Industrial Complex is much like a massive Ape den where all the biggest thump chests and make noise all to get fucked and in this case they turn that around and fuck us all with tiny tiny dicks over and over and just to make it stop we pretend to care and immediately write a check as that is the way to make it stop.  I wish all men would simply do that all the time. Right Bill Maher?

Hey and if Covid did not kill your aging Vet relative, this bitch might have.  What this points out AGAIN is that from health care to child care, we have the most undertrained, unsupervised and lowly paid individuals minding us literally from birth to death.  The current state of pre-K schools are right now another good example of how that model works and in the best of times grossly insufficient, in the worst of times, utterly inaccessible if not impossible.

And here is another charming tale of Nursing Homes and their inability to hire/train/keep competent professionals:

A 71-year-old man was found dead on Sunday at a coronavirus testing site in Utah after nursing home employees brought him there.

A nursing home caretaker and driver brought a patient to Intermountain Healthcare’s testing site, a clinic in North Ogden, Utah, Intermountain said in a statement. Less than 45 minutes later, by the time the nursing home’s van reached the testing tent, the patient was found to be unresponsive and cold to the touch and appeared to have died.

Fox 13 in Salt Lake City reported that a deputy fire chief said the man was discovered in “cardiac respiratory arrest,” which can be caused by a variety of medical reasons, including complications from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, or a heart attack.

“We don’t diagnose in the field,” North View Fire District Deputy Chief Jeremiah Jones told Fox 13. “Our job is to just treat the symptoms that we see and the signs that we see. We don’t make any diagnosis.”

Intermountain Healthcare’s caregivers called 911 immediately, the clinic said in a statement, but emergency responders couldn’t revive the man. Local news outlets identified the patient as a 71-year-old, but his name has not been released.

Intermountain said the testing center was fully staffed and fewer people than usual sought testing there on Sunday, with a wait time averaging less than 45 minutes.

“Anyone who is seriously ill should call 911 for help or go directly to a hospital emergency room, not to a COVID-19 drive-thru testing center,” Intermountain said in a statement.

As we wind down these days of our lives I am going to stream a yoga class to offset the pot chocolate I found during another massive clean so I elected to get high and nap as what else is there to do? Go to church and get Covid? Uh God doesn’t care where you pray, so try converting a closet to an alter and go there.

And on that note, pray that this fuckwit gets God’s wish.

Mr. Satterwhite, the pastor in Oregon, said that scrutiny had fallen unfairly on churches, while businesses with outbreaks did not face the same backlash. “I think that there is an effort on the part of some to use things like this to try to shut churches down,” he said, adding that he appreciated Mr. Trump’s supportive remarks about churches being essential.

When weighing his responsibility as a faith leader, Mr. Satterwhite said, he returned to his beliefs. “My personal belief is, I have faith in God,” he said. “If God wants me to get Covid, I’ll get Covid. And if God doesn’t want me to get Covid, I won’t.”

Marshall’s Law

Martial law is a very specific and rare phenomenon outlined in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution. There, it is defined as the suspension of the trial by one’s peers guaranteed under the Bill of Rights in favor of military justice, or tribunals. It exists only for “cases of rebellion or invasion” in order to maintain “the public safety.” Nationally, only the president (with an act of Congress) can declare it, though it can be imposed on a lesser scale at the state and local levels through a governor’s use of the state National Guard or through the state National Guard’s federalization by the president.

Where did we see that of late? New Rochelle, New York.

Democracy as we know it is under threat, Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote a great editorial on the subject of Authoritarianism  and there is little to disagree with as we are reading more and more reports on the utter fiasco’s of the Trump White House, the bickering in New York of DiBlasio and Cuomo (which is still ongoing) to the endless orders that are being signed daily by the Governor of New Jersey.   Again the denial of civil rights and personal freedoms under this concept of safety is veering close and to keep saying to me “STAY HOME” “SHUT IT DOWN” means what exactly?  Careful what you wish for as if I am to stay home then so should you punk don’t you dare tell me to stay home who are you to tell me to.  If you are that afraid you first.

Again the histrionics on social media contribute to the rising paranoia and of course misinformation which fuels rage and in turn violence. Again if walking in the park can cause death then why you are allowing guns to be sold in a crisis?  Or booze as that incites violence in the home?  Or well anything that is not under the concept of basic essential needs.  So bitch please careful what you wish for.

Martial Law Would Sweep the Country Into a Great Legal Unknown

The prospect, while still remote, is not purely hypothetical in the current crisis, and the risk is great.
March 27, 2020 The Atlantic
Stephen Dycus
Professor of law at Vermont Law School
William C. Banks
Professor emeritus at Syracuse University College of Law

The last time martial law—military control of the government—was declared in the United States was December 1941, just hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The territorial governor, acting under a turn-of-the-century statute, handed the government of the Hawaiian islands over to the commander of U.S. forces there. The military governor, as he styled himself, immediately ordered the closure of courts, shut down schools, froze wages, suspended labor contracts, and imposed censorship of newspapers, radio, and civilian mail. He also decreed a curfew and blackout, as well as a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages—a wildly unpopular measure that was quickly reversed. Despite the fact that there was no threat of a Japanese invasion after the Battle of Midway in 1942, martial law remained in place for another two years.

In 1946, after the war ended, the Supreme Court ruled in Duncan v. Kahanamoku that the statute authorizing martial law in Hawaii did not enable military trials of civilians, and it warned against the “subordination of executive, legislative and judicial authorities to complete military rule”—but it offered no further guidance about the circumstances that would justify a declaration of martial law, or about the consequences of such a declaration. Nor has Congress ever tried to clarify the criteria for or limits of martial law.

So what would happen if, amid the panic of the coronavirus pandemic, the president tried to declare martial law? Without question, military forces directed by state governors—and perhaps even, in extreme cases, by the president—may be uniquely able to help get us through the current crisis. At least 20 state governors have now called up their National Guard to assist with delivery of food and medical supplies, clean public facilities, and adapt some of those facilities to house patients if hospitals become overwhelmed. Guard personnel could also help enforce quarantines ordered by state governors, and even arrest violators. But their role is to support, not replace, civil authorities. The states’ legal power to do all this is clear; it is not martial law.

The fact is that there’s no guidance in the Constitution or the statutes, and only a limited historical record, to indicate what justifies a declaration of martial law. If martial law were invoked, the government would be conducted ad hoc by the president or a military commander based entirely on his or her opinion of what was needed to meet the emergency, unbound by any laws and with no transparency or public participation, and probably no accountability afterward. The result would be entirely unpredictable and unprincipled, a dangerous threat to American democracy.

The prospect of martial law, while still remote, is not purely hypothetical in the current crisis. Donald Trump has called himself a “wartime president.” His likely Democratic opponent in November, Joe Biden, describes efforts to stem the pandemic as “akin to war.” And last week Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, suggested that martial law is not necessary “at this moment”—implying that it may yet be considered. In a time of panic, statements like this naturally lead to questions about the authority of the president or state governors to deploy troops at home. Aware that the specter of martial law has arisen, Peter Gaynor, the head of FEMA, was at pains during the White House Coronavirus Task Force press conference on Sunday to emphasize that the use of the National Guard to help with the emergency “is not martial law.” And when Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed on Monday that President Trump had activated the National Guard in three states through Title 32—under which the state governors control the troops while the federal government pays for them—he emphasized that “this is not a move toward martial law, as some have claimed.”

The president’s powers to use federal troops (or National Guard forces called to active duty) are more limited than governors’. The president has announced that the Navy will use its two hospital ships to provide needed hospital beds, and the Defense Department has said that it will share critical medical supplies—ventilators, masks, and other protective gear—with civilian health-care workers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has also asked the Army Corps of Engineers to provide additional hospital beds for the acutely ill. What federal military forces may not legally do, however, is engage in law enforcement, except by following statutory procedures to suppress an insurrection, violent civil unrest, or an unlawful combination or conspiracy. The law says that job is left to state and local police and National Guard personnel, even in an emergency like the one we now face.

It’s true that federal troops have been deployed domestically a number of times in our recent history: to help integrate the Little Rock schools in 1954; to restore order following the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968; and to quell the violence in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict in 1992. But all of these deployments were authorized by statute—and all were used to support, not supplant, the law.

Craig R. McKinley and James Winnefeld: The right way to activate the National Guard

Yet as the crisis mounts, some worry that governors or the president might declare martial law, using soldiers to replace civilian government for a time, and with it the rule of law. Given his amply demonstrated predilection for breaking with long-established norms, Trump, if confronted with the “worst-case scenario” he has referred to, might be tempted to invoke martial law to free himself to act without legal constraints, using it to postpone or call off the November election, close down critical media, take control of medical supplies and food, or curtail travel. Nevertheless, under any conceivable circumstances growing out of the current crisis, a declaration of martial law would represent a flagrant abuse of the president’s power. America’s experience with martial law makes this clear.

Although martial law has been invoked in this country only rarely, the concept was well known to this nation’s founders. Although its use had long been barred by the British Parliament, martial law had been imposed in Boston and in Virginia during the American Revolution, and the great English legal scholar William Blackstone, on whom the Founders relied heavily, described martial law as “no law, but as something indulged rather than allowed as law.” Still, no record exists of the Framers having discussed martial law at the Constitutional Convention. Early Congresses passed several laws allowing the deployment of state militias and federal troops in emergencies—but only to help enforce the law, not displace it.

Martial law was first invoked in the young nation during the War of 1812 by General Andrew Jackson in New Orleans. Laws “must sometimes be silent,” he wrote, “when necessity speaks.” But despite Jackson’s heroic defense of the city against the British, his suspension of civilian government there—which continued even after the war officially ended—was widely criticized as unnecessary.

State or territorial officials also declared martial law several times in the early days of the Republic. When a full-fledged revolt broke out against the Rhode Island government in the Dorr Rebellion, in 1841, the Supreme Court in Luther v. Borden approved the imposition of martial law, saying that the Court would not question the state’s authority. One justice dissented vehemently, however, warning that under martial law “every citizen, instead of reposing under the shield of known and fixed laws as to his liberty, property, and life, exists with a rope round his neck, subject to be hung up by a military despot at the next lamp-post, under the sentence of some drum-head court-martial.”

During the Civil War, President Lincoln declared martial law with regard specifically to “rebels and insurgents” and certain other disloyal individuals. Although Lincoln limited the application of martial law (it did not apply to the general population), in 1866 the Supreme Court ruled, in a case called Ex parte Milligan, that his order to try such persons by military commission was illegal where civilian courts remained open and operating.

In its decision, the Court laid out criteria for invocation of martial law:

If, in foreign invasion or civil war, the courts are actually closed, and it is impossible to administer criminal justice according to law, then, on the theatre of active military operations, where war really prevails, there is a necessity to furnish a substitute for the civil authority, thus overthrown, to preserve the safety of the army and society; and as no power is left but the military, it is allowed to govern by martial rule until the laws can have their free course.

And, the Court said, “As necessity creates the rule, so it limits its duration.” The Court warned of allowing this extraordinary measure under other circumstances: “Civil liberty and this kind of martial law cannot endure together; the antagonism is irreconcilable; and, in the conflict, one or the other must perish.”

The Court apparently failed to consider the possibility that the courts might be closed by military order. In such a case, of course, no one would be left to judge the legitimacy of the military’s actions.

The objective criteria set out by the Court—the presence of war, actual insurrection or invasion, effective closure of courts, displacement of civil authorities, and no alternative to protect the Army and society—left plenty of room for judgment about when martial law could be proclaimed. Yet they revealed the kind of extreme conditions that might justify its use.

Martial law was declared a number of times in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at the state level, by governors acting as commanders in chief of their militias or national guards. Most often the declarations resulted from labor disputes. In a 1903 miners’ strike, for example, Colorado Governor James Peabody declared martial law in San Miguel County, where Telluride is located. He closed the saloons, imposed a curfew, censored the press, collected guns, and suspended habeas corpus, although the civil courts remained open. He also ordered state troops to arrest and detain Charles Moyer, the president of the Western Federation of Miners. In the Supreme Court’s 1909 decision in Moyer v. Peabody, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes upheld the legality of Peabody’s use of martial law, writing that “the governor’s declaration that a state of insurrection existed is conclusive of that fact … When it comes to a decision by the head of the state upon a matter involving its life, the ordinary rights of individuals must yield to what he deems the necessities of the moment.”

In 1932, however, the Court reversed course when Texas Governor Ross Sterling declared martial law in several counties. The governor claimed that he was acting to quell an insurrection, but his real purpose was to halt oil and gas production, in an effort to arrest falling prices caused by an oversupply of petroleum. He argued that “the court was powerless … to intervene,” and that his order had the quality of a “supreme and unchallengeable edict.” But in Sterling v. Constantin, a unanimous Court struck down the declaration, concluding that otherwise “the fiat of a state Governor, and not the Constitution of the United States, would be the supreme law of the land … Under our system of government, such a conclusion is obviously untenable.” How to challenge the legitimacy of a declaration? “What are the allowable limits of military discretion,” the Court wrote, “and whether or not they have been overstepped in a particular case, are judicial questions.” Still, the Court offered no new clues about when martial law might be justified.

Over the years, the Department of Defense has issued various statements and regulations that emphasize (as one 1960 Army lecture had it) the idea that civilian deference to military authority is “repulsive to the American concept of government.” A 1941 War Department field manual declared, channeling the Supreme Court’s decision in Ex Parte Milligan, that martial law could be invoked only when “the machinery of the civil government has broken down, and the courts are no longer properly and unobstructedly exercising their jurisdiction.” (And when it is invoked, “the civil and criminal laws continue in force, except insofar as their actual enforcement may be suspended for the time being by inability of the civil authorities to function, or in specific particulars, as a matter of military necessity, by order of the President or of the military commander acting by authority of the President.”) A more recent Defense Department regulation stated,

Martial law depends for its justification upon public necessity. Necessity gives rise to its creation; necessity justifies its exercise; and necessity limits its duration. The extent of the military force used and the actual measures taken, consequently, will depend upon the actual threat to order and public safety which exists at the time. In most instances the decision to impose martial law is made by the President … However, the decision to impose martial law may be made by the local commander on the spot, if the circumstances demand immediate action, and time and available communications facilities do not permit obtaining prior approval from higher authority.

But this regulation was inexplicably removed in 2008 and not replaced, so current military rules pertaining to martial law are not known.

In the absence of any further clarification from the courts, or from Congress, or even from the military itself, we cannot rule out the possibility that in an acute domestic crisis like the one we face now, the president or a military commander might, like Lincoln or Jackson, decide to take matters into their own hands. Any court test of these actions would almost certainly be retrospective, if it occurred at all. Even if courts continued operating during military rule, judges have always been reluctant to second-guess the military, especially during wartime.

But Trump’s “wartime president” rhetoric notwithstanding, invocation of martial law would be utterly unjustified and lawless. The coronavirus threatens the health of many citizens, and it may wreck the economy. But civilian government is adapting to the crisis. Courts remain open and operating, with modified procedures. And there has been no hint of insurrection, no widespread lawbreaking or domestic unrest. None of the conditions used to justify martial law in the past are present today or are likely to arise.

Not long ago a top civilian official in the Pentagon declared, “Our goal is not to declare martial law and take control. Our goal is to avoid that at all costs.” His statement reflects our understanding that martial law would threaten not only civil liberties but also democracy itself.