Are you OK? Do you need anything?
As we prepare ourselves for yet another week of staying home and staying safe, we need to take stock of the toll this isolation is taking on those around us. I don’t mean trivialities like one’s hair getting shaggy or “needing” one’s nails done. And I don’t necessarily mean our own problems—I suspect most of us think about those every day.
But what about those around us, the neighbors we just know well enough to say “hi” to or the family members we only talk to on holidays? We are surrounded by people who are dealing with the emotional and mental toll of job loss, fear of the disease, quarantine-imposed isolation, and, in all too many cases, loss or illness of a loved one.
Fortunately, there’s good news, as there always is. There’s something you can do to help. It involves asking three simple questions, and sincerely meaning them.
Hi, how are you?
Are you OK?
Do you need anything?
Greet someone who you might not ordinarily talk to, and when you say “how are you” let them know that you’re asking because you want a real answer. Reinforce that by asking if they’re OK, and listen to their answer. Offer to help—“do you need anything?.” Be prepared and willing to help out if you can, or to direct them to a source of help if you can’t.
Maybe there’s an someone in your neighborhood who’s afraid or unable to go to the grocery store—if you’re going, you could pick up what they need. Maybe you’ll meet someone who’s having trouble negotiating the deliberately difficult process of applying for unemployment or other government benefits—you could help with that. Maybe you’ll find someone who’s just lonely and wants to talk—it doesn’t cost anything but time to listen, and most of us have lots of that right now.
And don’t forget the people close to you who may be hiding problems of their own. Sometimes they have a hard time “burdening” others with their problems, but will open up if you make the first move. And they are often the easiest ones for you to help once they know you really mean it when you offer to.
Think of the tremendous power you have—the ability to help someone have a better and happier life. Think of how much better you can make the world just by letting someone know there is hope, or just by helping someone get a week’s groceries or a ride to the doctor.
And here’s a little secret—when you make someone else feel better, you’ll feel happier and healthier too.
You have the power to make things better, even if it’s just for one person. Isn’t that some good news?
So before we get to today’s regular news, let me ask you three questions.
How are you?
Are you OK?
Do you need anything?
If you don’t want to answer in today’s comments, that’s alright. You can send me a Kosmail and stay anonymous if I don’t already know you. Or email me at oldhippiedude at gmail.com. I really want to know how you’re doing and how I can help. Every message will get a response.
NOTE: Inspiration for today’s intro came from the Hi, How Are You Project in Austin, Texas. Check them out. While they’re focus is on mental health, I thought the basic idea of reaching out to people and asking how to help can apply to just about anything.
The photo above is of a mural in Austin created by Daniel Johnston, a local musician, songwriter, and artist who became world renowned despite having schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. You can read about the mural here.
Here’s Wilco doing one of Daniel Johnston’s best songs.
In a lawsuit brought by churches claiming the right to spread a deadly disease because Jesus, the Oregon Supreme Court has overridden a lower court’s decision to end that state’s commonsense public health measures.
The Oregon Supreme Court has kept statewide virus restrictions in place by halting a judge’s order to end them in a lawsuit claiming the governor exceeded her authority when she shut down in-person religious services.
Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff ruled Monday that Gov. Kate Brown erred by not seeking the Legislature’s approval to extend her stay-at-home orders beyond a 28-day limit. Brown’s lawyers appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, which just hours later put a hold on Shirtcliff’s decree until the high court’s justices can review the matter.
Rational people praised the court decision, while a lawyer for the religious nutcases considered a triumph that they weren’t just laughed out of court, which seems a low bar.
In a statement late Monday, Brown, a Democrat, praised the state Supreme Court action.
“There are no shortcuts for us to return to life as it was before this pandemic. Moving too quickly could return Oregon to the early days of this crisis, when we braced ourselves for hospitals to be overfilled,” she said.
Kevin Mannix, an attorney representing businesses in the case, said Tuesday that he was encouraged that the state Supreme Court seemed to be taking the case seriously.
The saga of Texans attempt to make it easier and safer to vote continues, progressing to federal court where Greg Abbott and AG Ken Paxton suffered another setback.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that all Texas voters are eligible to vote by mail to avoid contracting the novel coronavirus amid the pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sided with the Texas Democractic Party in his ruling Tuesday, and agreed that a fear of contracting the virus will limit citizens’ rights to vote in-person and a lack of immunity to COVID-19 “is indeed a physical condition.” Biery’s ruling allows voters under the age of 65 who would normally be ineligible for a mail-in ballot under Texas law to qualify for one.
“One’s right to vote should not be elusively based on the whims of nature. Citizens should have the option to choose voting by letter carrier versus voting with disease carriers,” Biery wrote in his ruling. “’We the People’ get just about the government and political leaders we deserve, but deserve to have a safe and unfettered vote to say what we get.”The decision will now be appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and from there undoubtedly to the US Supreme Court. The suit will be fast tracked since it affects primary runoffs scheduled for July 14. The judge stated in his decision that Democrats will probably prevail in the final resolution of the suit based on statements made by Gov. Abbott.
This decision will now be appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and undoubtedly from there to the US Supreme Court. In the most recent ruling, the judge stated that Democrats are likely to prevail because of previous statements on the law made by Gov. Abbott.
Speaking of Republican goofiness blowing up in their faces, here’s a nice opinion piece from Monday’s Washington Post.
I’m not going out on a limb by positing that there is a unique and enduring bond between African American voters and the first African American president. When Trump yells “Obamagate!,” he’s strengthening that bond, not weakening it, and motivating black voters to turn out in the fall for Obama’s loyal wingman, Biden.
There are analysts who see Trump’s renewed focus on Obama as a move in some game of three-dimensional political chess that we mere mortals cannot comprehend. I find it hard to understand how anyone can construe Trump’s tirades and tweets as anything resembling a strategy. I see, at best, a familiar tactic: He seeks to drag opponents down to his level. He cannot compete with Biden on the basis of ideas, integrity or performance, so he seeks to pull him into the gutter — hence the elaborate attempt to concoct a scandal involving Biden’s son Hunter.
That didn’t work out so well for Trump — he got himself impeached for leaning on the Ukrainian president to announce an investigation into Biden, and failed to drive Biden, the potential opponent he most feared, out of the race. So now Trump is going to try the same move with Obama?
Trump is a know-it-all who is almost impossible to disabuse of boneheaded ideas: Climate change is a hoax; China pays his tariffs; the coronavirus will magically go away. Trump is also racist, and on some level it may be impossible for him to accept that a black man had a successful, scandal-free eight years as president while he has presided over a shambolic mess and faces the likelihood of a humiliating defeat.
So maybe his Obama obsession is not even tactical, but instead purely personal. Maybe Trump just cannot abide the fact that Obama is a Nobel laureate, respected around the world, while he has had to endure being snickered at by world leaders and portrayed as hapless and ignorant by the “fake news” media he claims to hate yet compulsively devours. Increasingly, his imagined victimizer is Obama himself. Trump even tries to blame Obama for his own administration’s botched response to a disease that did not exist when Obama was in office.
I thought everyone knew you don’t tug on Superman’s cape. But apparently Trump still thinks you can get somewhere by spitting into the wind.
And Trump and Abbott aren’t the only Republicans firing a gun aimed right at their foot.
Does anyone else think this might be the perfect song for the GOP national convention?
I’m just going to quickly summarize this article and invite you to read the whole thing. It’s an NPR story about the effect that less driving during pandemic lockdowns has had on ozone pollution. In typical NPR fashion, the headline implies that the effects have been minimal—implying that environmentalism is a lost cause-- while the article describes ozone reductions of 10-20% in many areas. And, by stating that greatly reduced auto traffic has not eliminated pollution, the article’s anti-environmental slant could well backfire by illustrating that individual action is not enough, and that systemic change and strong action against industrial polluters is need.
Hmm, there seems to be something of a theme today of conservative propaganda having the opposite of its intended effect.
Maybe this is why Trump is so mad at the World Health Organization right now. We all know how much he fears investigations into his crimes and failures.
World Health Organization (WHO) member states have agreed to set up an independent inquiry into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The resolution, approved without objection by the WHO's 194-member annual assembly meeting virtually in Geneva, also allows for the inquiry to look into the health body's own role.
The EU presented the resolution on behalf of 100 nations.
What happens when “fiscally responsible” Republicans refuse to allocate funds for marijuana testing? This happens.
The situation comes after the Texas Legislature changed the definition of marijuana last year in order to legalize hemp, drawing a new distinction between two substances that can look and smell the same. The illegal drug changed from the cannabis plant to cannabis containing more than 0.3% THC, the compound in the plant that produces a high.
As lawmakers moved that legislation forward, DPS asked them for additional funding to test THC levels — and thus determine if cannabis is marijuana — in both felony and low-level possession cases. McCraw's letter this month said the legislature did not provide money for testing in misdemeanor cases, so “DPS will not have the capacity to accept those.”
I must say this eases the mind of an old hippie dude who lives in a rural county that depends on the state lab for testing.
polling data continues to point to a big blue tsunami
This is becoming a regular theme of the GNR, and I don’t mean to steal any of hpg’s thunder, but I spent some time looking at the polling averages over the last 4-5 weeks and I made a couple of predictive maps for the Presidential and Senatorial elections. Both these maps are based on all available reputable polls since April 10 as reported by RCP and 538, with extrapolations from previous elections for those states where recent polling is unavailable. I’ve tried to be as pessimistic as reality will allow, but any way you cut it these are bad days to be a Republican campaign strategist. Here’s what I came up with:
I know what you might be thinking about Texas, Florida, Ohio, and maybe Iowa, but this is based on polls taken over the last month or so. This is what the data says right now. No wonder Trump is losing his shit.
I gotta say this one surprised me, but with Joni Ernst and Susan Collins working so hard to lose their seats, maybe it shouldn’t have. I was also not expecting NC to be anything but a tossup and didn’t think Arizona would be so solidly blue, but that’s what the polls seem to be saying.
As I often say, none of this means that the election is in the bag, but it does show that continued hard work can bring victory. Let’s do this thing.
And now, it what is becoming something of a GNR tradition, here’s some funny stuff for ya’.
Anyone working from a home that includes a cat can relate to this.
OK, let’s wrap this thing up. I hope I’ve given you a little bit of encouragement today, and that you will take the opportunity to pay that forward. Each of you is important to the struggle for a better country, and each of you are important to someone, even if you don’t know them yet. Remember, if you haven’t seen enough good news lately, go out and make some of your own. And let’s take care of ourselves and each other. Stay healthy, stay safe.