bureaucrats as motivators

"great were the confusions at that time and upon this very account, and when people began to be convinced that the infection was received in this surprising manner, from persons apparently well, they began to be exceeding shy and jealous of any one that came near them." deaniel defoe. a journal of the plague year.

by now we have all heard of "asymptomatic transmission"...

and, if you can trust the numbers, the rate at which the number of cases is growing has leveled off...it is still growing arithmetically but the number of new cases each day has leveled off at around 27,000 where before the number of new cases and the rate at which they occurred had both been expanding daily...a sign that social distancing may be having an impact...

big greed wants the country reopened...and the debate over who is actually in control of that rages on while the narcissist in chief plays a blame game because he punted this one ( like so many others ) and someone else has to take the fall because of the self-proclaimed doctrine of presidential infallibility...and those rootless cosmopolitans over at the u n are a ripe target for the xenophobe and his base...on the whole it would seem not to be the time to reintroduce mercantile capitalism on a national scale...money talks here however and one assumes the president and various governors ( including mine ) will acquiesce to capital's needs ( $25 billion to airlines i read...where's my $1200? )...and while we are talking stipends the state has, it says, paid money to the debit card it sent me but the bank has now twice declined the transaction when i have attempted to access those funds...again, i am solvent...what about those who have greater need for this cash? they having the same issues? an email ( polite ) has been fired off...one anticipates an answer sometime in the next month or so...as for that alleged $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits, the state tells me it is not "in place" here yet because they are waiting for "federal guidance"...read "aint gonna happen"...at least not before they can figure out how to take as much of it back by limiting access as they can...

the beeb is asking me if celebrities still matter...well...they were, nearly as i can tell, always irrelevant except to some with a regrettable lack of self-conception that made them malleable and consumed with the sorrows and joys of brad and jen or the saga of meghan and harry...my back yard is more important...we'll leave it at that...

al jazeera wants to remind me that there is a slimy subset of humanity that will take anything they possibly can from anyone...well..they are just mimicking the system...big greed and their leisure service whores in politics do the same...they simply have the advantage of being able to write legislation that underwrites their extractions...scammers are cutting in on the territory and must be stopped...this "crisis" has provided an analytical tool that allows a close examination of things as they are in the intertwined world of politics and economics and an exposition of class interest in action...it could shed some illumination on the forthcoming election...you can, if you like, pin your hopes on it...some cosmetic changes may occur...the system will make every effort to carry on...make a "return to normal"...read "business as usual" in that "normal"...one wonders if that is even possible as the unsustainability of "normal" has been exposed...if you look.