 |
| My little Strawberry Tikka (Taken 9.7.2020) |
Darren and I had quite the night last night over-imbibing during our self-imposed quarantine. We finished watching Lodge 49 and it was just as confusing an ending as I knew it would be when I realized my friend Andy Siara was one of the writers. The plumber is getting closer to finishing our bathroom and I'm trying to stay positive but he has a lot of sheet rock replacing and caulking and hopefully painting, too, before it looks like a normal bathroom again. Last night I couldn't take it looking like a Grapevine gas station bathroom anymore and cleaned it down, but it's still gonna take a deep cleaning after all is said and done. I don't really understand why anyone would remove well-built fixtures for plastic, but whatever, the guy seems to know what he's doing and hopefully he can properly seal all the gaps and exposed sections before the weekend is here.
We're still low-key quarantining but as I said before, Nova was stung by a bee so we think her fever was a reaction to that. It's funny that on Monday when I was out shopping I picked up a no-touch thermometer at Ross not knowing that we'd all be using it dozens of times that night and numerous times since.
So we're just kicking around the house a lot. Darren popped his rotator cuff while doing stuff around the house, so it's actually convenient that we're all laying low, though I may need to find a sling for him until it gets better. Today I watched the county briefing, skipped the confirmation hearings, caught up on my Bravo shows, and watched American Murder: The Family Next Door which is so insane but put together so well. Shanann Watts certainly documented her life in fine detail. Now I'm watching Upload on Amazon which is way more chill. Hope everyone is doing well out there in the big wide world. We'll be joining you in it soon enough.
- California COVID-19 Stats:
- 2,666 New Cases/855,072 Total Cases (0.3% increase)
- 58 New Deaths/16,639 Total Deaths (0.3% increase)
- 2.6% 14-day test positivity rate
- San Diego County Media Briefing and Stats
- If COVID-19 Symptoms Arise, Don’t Wait to Get Tested - County News Center (10.14.2020)
- County Reinvesting CARES Money:
- $3.8 million T3 efforts
- $5 million Behavioral Health including rental assistance
- $1.6 supporting youth in Child Welfare system including childcare stipends
- $7 million economic stimulus grants for businesses
- $3 emergency rental assistance
- $2 million for food banks
- $1.6 million for Great Plates (any leftover will go to food band)
- Board was updated by four organizations that have partnered on contact tracing and flu vaccination
- Good news is that County has stayed in the red tier, but the bad news is we're still rising in cases and teetering on the edge of purple.
- County and County Board of Education will be coordinating reporting of what schools are open, in what configurations, and how to report outbreaks and cases
- State Data:
- 278 New Cases/51,026 Total Cases
- 14 Deaths/840 Total Deaths
- 7.2 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 10/3, Assessed on 10/13. Unadjusted Case Rate Using Linear Adjustment)
- 3.5% Test Positivity (Based on week ending 10/3, Assessed on 10/13)
- County Data:
- 303 New Cases/51,327 Total Cases
- 4 New Daily Deaths/844 Total Deaths
- 3% Daily Test Positivity/3.1% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/3% Test Positivity (14-day average)
- 6.8 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 10/3, Assessed on 10/13. County is reporting unadjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons)
- Case Investigation is 96%
- 4 New/47 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
- 2 business
- 1 restaurant
- 1 restaurant/bar
- Health Equity Investment Plan must be submitted to the state on Thursday.
- Immediate Strategies:
- Testing
- Contact Tracing
- Isolation & Treatment
- Worker Protections
- County is working with County Office of Education on school openings
- 27 districts open to some/all
- 6 districts opening in October
- 3 districts opening in January 2021
- 1 district working to identify date in Oct or Nov
- 2 yet to determine opening date
- Get a flu shot. County is offering free vaccines at 6 different locations on different dates. Flu vaccines will be provided between 10:00-4:00
- October 22, 2020 (Thursday)—North Central Public Health Center
- October 24, 2020 (Saturday)—South Region Public Health Center
- October 27, 2020 (Tuesday)—North Coastal Public Health Center
- October 28, 2020 (Wednesday)—Central Public Health Center (VIP Trailer)
- October 29, 2020 (Thursday)—East Region Public Health Center
- November 3, 2020 (Tuesday)—North Inland Public Health Center
- Media Questions:
- PLNU has 12 new cases. County is working with the university for surge testing capability tomorrow.
- Serological survey would provide information of how many people have antibodies versus how many confirmed cases the county reports which helps to know how widespread virus is, how many people were actually exposed, and for planning future vaccine distribution
- Genome sequencing to learn how many viruses are circulating and within outbreaks.
- Expanding deployment of pre-assessment outbreak teams
- Deaths related to pandemic but not COVID can be caused by people's fear of or prolonging acute care, avoiding surgeries, skipping prevention strategies. Can't really be measured in real time.
- Fiesta Island event: safe reopening compliance team didn't get information until after the event, so there was no investigation for compliance
- Universities:
- SDSU COVID-19:
- 415 on-campus | 781 non-residential (12 faculty, 13 visitors) | 1,196 total cases
- Please note: Of the 13 confirmed cases added to the total case count on Oct. 11, 6 are new cases. The remaining 7 cases were previously reported to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), but only recently identified, through continued cross-referencing between San Diego State University and HHSA, as having an SDSU-affiliation.
- Check other stats: UCSD COVID-19, USD COVID-19, CSU San Marcos, PLNU
- COVID-19:
- Trying to reach herd immunity is ‘unethical’ and unprecedented, WHO head says - The Washington Post (10.13.2020)
- White House embraces a declaration from scientists that opposes lockdowns and relies on ‘herd immunity.’ - New York Times (10.13.2020)
- How Do People Catch Covid-19? Here’s What Experts Say - Bloomberg Prognosis (updated 10.14.2020)
- Risk Assessment and Testing Protocols for Reducing SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in K-12 Schools - Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
- Other Reading/News:
- You can be a Hero, Adopt a Hurricane Dog! - County News Center (10.14.2020)
- Clarence Thomas' surprise - Popular Info (10.14.2020)
- California, Reject Prop 22: Gig workers deserve the dignity of fair compensation. - New York Times (10.14.2020)
- No Mail Ballot Yet? Contact the Registrar’s Office - County News Center (10.14.2020)
- The Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Hearings Are an Enlightening Sham - The New Yorker (10.14.2020)
- MUSIC NEWS:
- Phoebe Bidgers, Michael Stipe, and More Paid Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “Honor Her Wish” celebrated the legacy of the trailblazing Supreme Court Justice. - FLOOD (10.13.2020)
 |
| Click image for full schedule |
- SOSFest Released the Schedule. You can watch here.
- Drunk Rant. This is something I wrote on Tuesday night under the influence of Costco vodka freeze pops, intending it to be the top of my post today, but it's a little too long and a little too hostile, but I thought I'd post anyway
I have a friend who took four tries to pass the California Bar Exam before finally doing so, and she's made her career of helping low-income people fight for tenants' rights, get restraining orders in cases of domestic violence, and fighting for the underdogs in all the other really crappy parts of the reality in which we live. Becoming a lawyer is hard. Being a lawyer is hard. And being a judge is even harder, I imagine.
The really frustrating parts about watching the current Supreme Court confirmation hearings is you can't say that Barrett is dumb, or ignorant, or stupid. But you can see her speaking out of both sides of her mouth. Calculating, manipulative, and completely undeserving of the nomination solely based on how many of Obama's nominations and appointments never saw the light of day, let alone a hearing. But one thing hyper-illustrated, because I don't have access to watch general C-SPAN hearings with senators for other procedural hearings, is how many completely deranged old white men are running and ruining this country by trying to maintain the status quo or worse, erode to some nether place in history where "god-given" rights were bestowed on white men. They're obvious in the abstract, but hearing them and watching them during these hearings makes my stomach turn and my skin crawl.
Which leads me to my next point. Yes, it is so crucial that anyone who can vote does vote. But we are a tragically uninformed electorate. Seeing my friends take positions defending corporations, fighting much needed propositions and supporting others that are advertised often but bad for the majority of us makes me so sad. Either I didn't realize I have so many rich friends who need to protect their own wealth or those friends are so easily persuaded to vote against their own self interest that they're not doing the work to even question their positions. And I understand, we all want to vote in our self interest, but when we're so gaslighted and made to not contextualize what our actual votes even mean; i.e. yes means no and no means yes, we're in a very dangerous place, and I guess we get what we vote for, even when it actually hurts us or means minority rules. This is super obvious with Prop 22. Let me be clear: my partner (and many friends) are Uber & Lyft drivers. This proposition does nothing for anyone else under AB5, but it does mean that if this had been enacted pre-pandemic, NOT ONE DRIVER WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS because those corporations are not paying into the system. This proposition absolves them from that responsibility, and any driver who has benefitted from EDD (unemployment insurance) this year will not ever get that benefit again. So when it all came tumbling down, you either keep working during a pandemic, at risk to you and your family with no PPE or support were you actually to get sick, or you stop working with nothing to fall back on, i.e. unemployment insurance. Darren became an "app" or "gig" driver because they brought the taxi business to its knees: no buying medallions, no carrying $1m insurance, no franchise fees. Darren had to join them because there was no fighting them. They had and still have VC's supplying millions of dollars counting on a return on their investments... drive the cost of drivers, insurance, and liability down while creating profit for those venture capitalists, the stocks, and the bosses running the sub-minimum wage labor, while making those laborers feel like they're free and have choice and want to rule their own destinies. Meanwhile, AB5 guarantees minimum pay, unemployment insurance, and protection if they're involved in collisions while they're "apped on." (see, I was so buzzed that I just ended there without finishing the rant. Vote no on 22.)
The really frustrating parts about watching the current Supreme Court confirmation hearings is you can't say that Barrett is dumb, or ignorant, or stupid. But you can see her speaking out of both sides of her mouth. Calculating, manipulative, and completely undeserving of the nomination solely based on how many of Obama's nominations and appointments never saw the light of day, let alone a hearing. But one thing hyper-illustrated, because I don't have access to watch general C-SPAN hearings with senators for other procedural hearings, is how many completely deranged old white men are running and ruining this country by trying to maintain the status quo or worse, erode to some nether place in history where "god-given" rights were bestowed on white men. They're obvious in the abstract, but hearing them and watching them during these hearings makes my stomach turn and my skin crawl.
Which leads me to my next point. Yes, it is so crucial that anyone who can vote does vote. But we are a tragically uninformed electorate. Seeing my friends take positions defending corporations, fighting much needed propositions and supporting others that are advertised often but bad for the majority of us makes me so sad. Either I didn't realize I have so many rich friends who need to protect their own wealth or those friends are so easily persuaded to vote against their own self interest that they're not doing the work to even question their positions. And I understand, we all want to vote in our self interest, but when we're so gaslighted and made to not contextualize what our actual votes even mean; i.e. yes means no and no means yes, we're in a very dangerous place, and I guess we get what we vote for, even when it actually hurts us or means minority rules. This is super obvious with Prop 22. Let me be clear: my partner (and many friends) are Uber & Lyft drivers. This proposition does nothing for anyone else under AB5, but it does mean that if this had been enacted pre-pandemic, NOT ONE DRIVER WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS because those corporations are not paying into the system. This proposition absolves them from that responsibility, and any driver who has benefitted from EDD (unemployment insurance) this year will not ever get that benefit again. So when it all came tumbling down, you either keep working during a pandemic, at risk to you and your family with no PPE or support were you actually to get sick, or you stop working with nothing to fall back on, i.e. unemployment insurance. Darren became an "app" or "gig" driver because they brought the taxi business to its knees: no buying medallions, no carrying $1m insurance, no franchise fees. Darren had to join them because there was no fighting them. They had and still have VC's supplying millions of dollars counting on a return on their investments... drive the cost of drivers, insurance, and liability down while creating profit for those venture capitalists, the stocks, and the bosses running the sub-minimum wage labor, while making those laborers feel like they're free and have choice and want to rule their own destinies. Meanwhile, AB5 guarantees minimum pay, unemployment insurance, and protection if they're involved in collisions while they're "apped on." (see, I was so buzzed that I just ended there without finishing the rant. Vote no on 22.)
No comments:
Post a Comment