Nowhere to Hide

The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tragic loss for all of us who believe in equal rights. She led an amazing life and was directly responsible for making this world a better place for all women, including my daughters and granddaughters. 

Her death unleashes a dangerous political battle over the almost unthinkable scenario that a lame-duck Republican Senate majority could approve her replacement before ceding control to the Democrats. If that should occur, the landmark ruling Roe v. Wade, giving women control of their bodies may be at serious risk.

In order to assess tall of his, we'll need a press that does its job wisely and calmly.

Yesterday I railed against the national television networks, especially CNN, for blatant displays of bias in the coverage of the upcoming election.

This isn't something I do lightly; my hope is to somehow get through to the executives at Fox, msnbc and CNN and urge them to clean up their act.

When you have an anchor deliver a piece of news and then make a statement by rolling his eyes like a valley girl, you have left the world of journalism in your rear-view mirror. In the process, you have lost the respect of people like me, because we don't need that kind of condescending attitude from your employees.

No one would dispute that a main theme of this year's election is the outrageous rhetoric of the incumbent president as he seeks re-election.  Everybody sees it but not everybody responds to it in the same way.

Often, it seems like the liberal commentators lump the supporters of the president into one group -- the white supremacist, racist militia-types who move in the shadows of our society. But there is another way to understand Trump supporters. They include millions of people who feel alienated and left behind by the pace of social and technological change that has swept our society.

Of course, they see that Trump is a hopeless jerk who does things they would never do themselves, like sexually abuse women and cheat contractors. But voting for him, in their eyes, is not endorsing that behavior. Instead, they support him for political reasons in spite of his behavior.

Now more than ever it is a time for journalists to adhere to our highest standards and ethics and to fulfill our essential responsibility under the First Amendment, which is to inform our fellow citizens, free from bias. The looming Supreme Court crisis represents a huge challenge in this regard.

After all, the news is bad enough, so let's dispense with the adolescent eye-rolling and smirking.

* Following Ginsburg's death, McConnell says Trump's nominee will get a vote on the Senate floor (CNN)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed a guidance it issued last month about who should be tested. The agency updated its recommendation to call for testing anyone — including people without symptoms — who has been in close contact with someone diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (WashPo)

* Judge issues temporary injunction against USPS changes amid concerns about mail slowdowns (WashPo)

* Trump’s ‘terrific’ health-care plan is so secret his own health advisers don’t know it exists (WashPo)

*  One America News Network is ostensibly a news network, with 24-hour coverage and a multimillion-dollar budget. As the election approaches, it is effectively a media arm of the Trump campaign. Binge-watching shows how it mixes baseless conspiracies with legitimate news to warp viewers' realities. [HuffPost]

* A former model has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1997, adding to the list of more than two dozen women who have publicly accused the president of sexual misconduct or rape.  [HuffPost]

* The United States Postal Service drafted an ambitious proposal in April to send a pack of five face masks to every residential address in the U.S. before top White House officials killed the idea. “There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” an official told The Washington Post. [HuffPost]

* The former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos joined an anti-Donald Trump group being led by former White House officials. Josh Venable, who worked for DeVos from 2017 to 2018, joined the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform as an adviser. [HuffPost]

* Trump on Thursday ramped up his most forceful campaign message: That the coming election is illegitimate unless he wins. (HuffPost)

* TRUMP'S 'PATRIOTIC' EDUCATION PLAN SOUNDS A LOT LIKE FASCISM, SAYS TWITTER (Twitter)

* Trump slams Biden for using a teleprompter while using one himself at Wisconsin rally (MailOnline)

* Democrats are slightly favored to win the U.S. Senate (538)

***

When the blue skies returned to the Bay Area on Thursday, it was the first time after four weeks of day-in-day-out "spare the air" warnings. The virus may have been keeping us inside, but the unnatural heatwave and unrelenting smoke from fires oppressed us even more, leaving us nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.

It's not love, I'm a running from
It's the heartbreak I know will come
'Cause I know you're no good for me, but you've become a part of me
Ev'rywhere I go, your face I see, ev'ry step I take, you take with me yeah
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
I know you're not good for me, but free of you I'll never be, no
Each night as I sleep, into my heart you creep
I wake up feelin' sorry I met you, hoping soon that I'll forget you
When I look in the mirror to comb my hair 
I see your face just a smiling there
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide

-- Martha and the Vandellas

-30-

How Not to Read the News

Just because I can finally see better doesn't mean I like everything I see.

That's because it's increasingly difficult to find unbiased sources of relevant information in this severely polarized media environment. I consume most content online because television news increasingly seems like a parody of itself.

Rather than Walter Cronkite's ideal of unbiased news feeds, the Fox and msnbc TV broadcasts are too blatantly ideological to be of any use to me. What I am seeking are the latest facts, not pre-determined opinions.

Until recently, CNN seemed to be the best option for TV news, but the antics of certain of their anchors are so off-putting that I have to switch the channel off whenever they come on.

If I were their journalism professor, these men would get failing grades. They seem to think they can present the latest Trump outrage and then use their facial expressions to bond with an audience that (to them) has no option but to agree with them.

Memo to team: I'm no fan of Trump but seeing your behavior almost makes me sympathetic to him. Have you forgotten that you are supposed to be at least pretending to be journalists? People don't care about your opinions; they rely on you and your producers to dig out the facts and verify them best you can.

And that means whether those facts conform to your ideological slant or not.

But I have no illusion they will listen to a 54-year veteran of the journalism profession who holds to traditional values. CNN management is clearly encouraging this unfortunate behavior, since even some of the more experienced anchors have been getting in on the act.

Most of the time, thankfully, the network's journalists play it straight. 

Meanwhile, one journalist who is standing above the rest this election cycle is Chris Wallace of Fox News. He is still going out and doing his own reporting, not just reading the prompter and making duck faces.

This is painful for me. I dislike critiquing my industry colleagues in such harsh terms but for me their behavior has gone too far over the top. Please get back to the basics of presenting the news! 

With or without the presenters, the news rolls on. My advice is to ignore the bias of those bringing you the headlines if you can; focus on the content. Much of it is tragic.

* Six months, and a grim milestone: 26th straight week of record-level unemployment claims (WashPo)

* Michiganders urged to stay indoors as officials race to stop the spread of a dangerous mosquito-borne disease (CNN)

* Trump Scorns His Own Scientists Over Virus Data -- A public scolding of the C.D.C. chief was only the latest but perhaps the starkest instance when the president has rejected not just the policy advice of his public health officials but the facts and information that they provided. (NYT)

* Coronavirus Is the ‘No. 1 Global Security Threat,’ Head of U.N. Says -- United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called the coronavirus pandemic the world’s top security threat, and called for greater cooperation in controlling outbreaks and developing an affordable vaccine. (Reuters)

* Multiple women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleged that a doctor unnecessarily removed their reproductive organs, corroborating earlier reports of sterilizations without consent on migrant women from a detention facility in Georgia. (HuffPost)

* FBI director affirms Russia’s aim to ‘denigrate’ Biden ahead of election (WashPo) 

* F.B.I. Director Warns of Russian Interference and White Supremacist Violence -- The testimony contradicted efforts by President Trump and other officials to downplay the threats. (NYT)

* During an appearance on MSNBC, Trump’s former longtime fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen told host Joy Reid that he predicts Trump, if he loses, will claim the Nov. 3 election was rigged and use Attorney General William Barr to invalidate ballots that he will say are “fake” in order to stay in office. “He doesn’t care about the Constitution of the United States.” (MSNBC)

* WHO warns of 'very serious situation' in Europe, with 'alarming rates' of virus transmission (CNN)

* U.S. Pushes Large Arms Sale to Taiwan, Including Jet Missiles That Can Hit China (NYT)

* Human footprints dating back 120,000 years found in Saudi Arabia (AFP)

* Biden is favored to win the election -- We simulate the election 40,000 times to see who wins most often. The sample of 100 outcomes below gives you a good idea of the range of scenarios our model thinks is possible. Biden 76%, Trump 24%. (538)

* Former Pence aide says she will vote for Biden because of Trump’s ‘flat out disregard for human life’ during pandemic (WashPo)

* Pandemic isolation has killed thousands of Alzheimer’s patients while families watch from afar (WashPo)

***

So tell me the truth
Even if it hurts me, even if it's ugly
My heart is open
Tell me the truth
Without the self-protection
Love can mend what's broken
In me and you
Tell me the truth
Even if it hurts me, even if it's ugly
My heart is open
Tell me the truth
Without the self-protection
Love can mend what's broken
In me and you

-- Steffany Gretzinger

-30-

Bring On Greek

Yesterday, I conjured imaginary newsroom discussions between veteran journalists trying to cope with the turbulent 2020 news cycle. It's not like the news isn't always changing in the best of times -- that is why it's called the new(s). But this is the year the pace of change may have finally overwhelmed our ability to cope with it.

You know how you can tell that wishes don't come true? When for 46 years since you first heard of the hole in the ozone you have wished climate change would not prove to be real.

That's a lot of years coming and going for one wish. 

But the wish didn't come true. Climate change is here.

As I soak myself in the daily news much as others enjoy warm baths (I presume), it occurs to me I could easily focus only on the stories and reports of climate change to the exclusion of everything else.

Today's list is mostly like that with a few political and entertainment items thrown in like nutmeg in your eggnog.

* The direct costs of the fires in California could exceed $20 billion this year, according to Tom Corringham, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. That's not counting health care bills, costs of disrupted business, lost tax revenue, decreased property values and what Corringham described as “reverse tourism” — people fleeing smoke or not visiting certain areas because of it. (NYT)

* How Climate Migration Will Reshape America -- Millions will be displaced in the coming decades by fires, hurricanes, extreme heat and rising seas. Where will they go? (NYT)

* Thick, hazardous smoke from wildfires continues to smother West Coast -- While rain began to fall in Oregon, officials warned that air quality will be poor throughout much of the week. (WashPo) 

* The smoke from the  wildfires devastating California and other parts of the western United States have started reaching Northern Europe, scientists said Wednesday. (CNN)

* Tons of space debris is threatening to destroy the ISS and make low-Earth orbit 'too perilous for humans' (MailOnline) Just like on earth, we've made a mess of space. (DW)

* There’s only one name left on the National Hurricane Center’s alphabetical list of storm names and that, improbably, is Wilfred. After him, it'll be time, for names based on the Greek alphabet. And with a good two months left in the formal hurricane season, it’s likely that Tropical Storm Alpha will make an appearance sooner than later. (Miami Herald) 

* A ‘Crossroads’ for Humanity: Earth’s Biodiversity Is Still Collapsing -- Countries have made insufficient progress on international goals designed to halt a catastrophic slide, a new report found. (NYT)

* Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson dismiss scientists’ determination that climate change is a key culprit in West Coast wildfires. (NYT) Of course, they both flunked science in 8th grade. (DW)

* An undecided voter confronted Trump over his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act during a town hall event on Tuesday, asking how the White House planned to protect those with preexisting conditions while actively fighting to undermine protections already in place. Ellesia Blaque, an assistant professor, pressed Trump during a tense moment, detailing her experience with a lifelong disease that costs her thousands of dollars annually in insurance co-payments. [HuffPost]

* Barr Told Prosecutors to Consider Sedition Charges for Protest Violence  -- Attorney General William P. Barr was also said to have asked prosecutors to explore whether to bring charges against the mayor of Seattle for allowing a police-free protest zone. (NYT) 

* Journalist Bob Woodward, whose new book "Rage" about Trump has sparked outcry in the last week, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his interviews with Trump left him doubting whether the president can distinguish between what’s real and what is just in his own head. [HuffPost]

* Senator Kamala Harris met with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime political ally, and other emergency service workers to tour damage left by the still-burning Creek Fire: “When we’re talking about the climate crisis, we are talking about a public health crisis.”  (NYT) 

* Trump health appointee taking medical leave after calling on president’s supporters to prepare for insurrection (WashPo) 

* Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the roots music festival in Golden Gate Park, would have been celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Now it’s doing so online and supporting local artists through its pandemic relief fund. [KQED]

* The Big Ten will kick off its football season the weekend of Oct. 24 after the league's presidents and chancellors unanimously voted to resume competition, citing daily testing capabilities and a stronger confidence in the latest medical information, the conference announced Wednesday morning.Each team will attempt to play eight games in eight weeks, leaving no wiggle room during the coronavirus pandemic before the Big Ten championship game on Dec. 19. That date will also feature an extra cross-division game for each school, with seeded teams in each division squaring off. (ESPN)

* For the first time in 65 years, a California man can see clearly without eyeglasses. "Eisenhower was still in his first term as President the last time I could see this well," he says. (DW)

***

My interest and belief in peer learning received a boost this week, courtesy of my two oldest grandsons. Our 13-year-old is helping a classmate in science and the boy's mom says he is really making a difference.

Our 12-year-old is coaching his 9-year-old sister and her friends in soccer. No better way to learn the sport himself than to teach it!

For the first time in a long time, our skies cleared along the California northern coast Wednesday. The skies were blue and cloudless, reminding us what the pre-dystopian world looks like. Despite the ignorance of the climate deniers, do we still have a chance to avoid destruction by fire?

An early rainy season would help in this regard, but I've heard no predictions of that so far. But even if the smoke lifts for only a while, it's allowing people to resume gathering in safe numbers, masked, at distance under clear skies.

That in itself is a blessing.

***

Hearts are worn in these dark ages
You're not alone in this story's pages
The light has fallen amongst the living and the dying
And I'll try to hold it in, yeah, I'll try to hold it in

The world's on fire, it's more than I can handle
Tap into the water, try to bring my share
Try to bring more, more than I can handle
Bring it to the table, bring what I am able

I watch the heavens but I find no calling
Something I can do to change what's coming
Stay close to me while the sky is falling
I don't wanna be left alone, don't wanna be alone

-- Sarah McLachlan

-30-

Prime Time News

New Year's 2020: Just imagine any old-time newsroom, or a bar across the street, with grizzled veterans discussing what stories to expect from the year ahead.

"It'll be the election for sure," says one. "You got an unpopular incumbent Republican president and a ton of Democratic challengers."

"Plus the economy is strong -- that gives the incumbent an advantage," notes another. Everybody nods.

Then, sometime in March, the group gathers again. "Who saw this coming? An effing pandemic? It's going to be the story of the year by far," one editor opines -- forget the election."

By May, the nationwide protests over police violence against black people have overwhelmed the news cycle, temporarily suppressing both the political and the health news. "This is historic," says one the vets. "It reminds me of the 60s, of Rodney King..."

"What about the economy?" chimes in a colleague. "Unemployment has soared; that's the story now."

But as summer comes, the pandemic strikes back. Then, as summer fades, the worst wildfires on record blanket the West, turning the skies orange and the air putrid with smoke. Millions are affected. "Its climate change -- that's THE story" says one of the journalists over Zoom. "it's finally hit home."

Fast forward to this week. Scientists are discussing the brand new evidence that there may be signs of life on Venus and that a black hole may exist in our solar system. The search for extraterrestrial life has reached the point, from a news perspective, that it just seems likely to pop.

"I've got it," sighs one of the hoary old editors. "Forget all the rest. 2020 is going to be be the year we discover life somewhere in the universe!"

It's been that kind of a year. Our veteran journalists may almost be forgiven for turning off Zoom and calling on their old friends, Jim Beam and Hiram Walker. Almost, but not quite. Because they better stayed tuned for what's going to come next...

As I muse about all this, one of my grandchildren comes over. "Grandpa, why are all of the people in those stupid commercials smiling? Life isn't like that. I don't know much about saving 15 percent in 15 minutes, but it doesn't seem like something to get all gaga about. Don't they know that Covid is out there? And why aren't they masked?"

Seriously, when it comes to news cycles, I'm still puzzled by that item about the man in a jetpack cruising past two airliners at 3,000 feet above LAX recently. Maybe that guy was using the gas found in Venus's atmosphere to propel his vehicle?

Or maybe it was just Amazon perfecting its latest delivery vehicle.

Here is your news:

* Devastating fires inject climate change into the presidential campaign (WashPo). The world is burning and drowning. We have to vote for the planet’s future. (Opinion Page, WashPo)

* Republicans in battleground states like Florida are aggressively pushing absentee voting, trying to clean up Trump’s bogus claims that the practice is unreliable and corrupt. Not surprisingly, since Trump ramped up his tirade against voting by mail this summer, polls have started to show that Republicans are less likely to vote by mail than Democrats. That shift is a problem for the GOP during a time when people may be reluctant to vote in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. [HuffPost]

* A data scientist wrote a damning 6,600-word memo to her colleagues at Facebook on her final day at work expressing dire concern over the way the tech giant fails to properly combat the use of fake accounts to sway politics in smaller countries. “In the three years I’ve spent at Facebook, I’ve found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry,” Sophie Zhang reportedly wrote. [HuffPost]

* Trump boasted of having received “the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award” from Miami’s Cuban community. There is no such award. Later on Sunday, Trump reiterated the award claim, touting his “unwavering devotion to our nation’s incredible Latino and Hispanic American communities.” [HuffPost]

* Trump accuses Biden of taking performance-enhancing substance (Yahoo News). I guess steroids help you in the polls. (DW)

* Karlotta Hicks was ready to teach online. Her handmade Zoom background featured numbers and the ABCs, kindergarten concepts she hoped would jog her first graders’ memories after nearly six months away from the classroom. She’d spoken by phone over the summer to the parents of her 14 students, letting them know that virtual classes would begin right after Labor Day at 8 a.m.“It’s going to be as if the kids were in front of me,” she said confidently a week before classes began at Winans Academy for Performing Arts. But when class began on Tuesday, just one student appeared in her virtual classroom, and his audio wasn’t working. (Detroit Free Press)

* Smoke from the wildfires has drifted so far that it caused a haze in Washington, D.C., and Canada. [New York Times]

* A major fire that has been raging outside Los Angeles for more than a week threatened to engulf a historic observatory and billion-dollar broadcast towers on Tuesday as firefighters struggled to contain the flames. The so-called Bobcat fire was within 500 feet (150 meters) from the 116-year-old Mt. Wilson Observatory, fire officials said in a tweet, adding that crews were in place "ready to receive the fire." Officials at the observatory said all personnel had been evacuated as the fire was "knocking on our door." (Yahoo News)

* Right now, Pennsylvania looks like the single most important state of the 2020 election. According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential forecast, Pennsylvania is by far the likeliest state to provide either President Trump or Joe Biden with the decisive vote in the Electoral College: It has a 31 percent chance of being the tipping-point state. (That’s what happens when you take one of the most evenly divided states in the union and give it 20 electoral votes.) In fact, Pennsylvania is so important that our model gives Trump an 84 percent chance of winning the presidency if he carries the state — and it gives Biden a 96 percent chance of winning if Pennsylvania goes blue. (538)

*** 

I remember seeing this legendary artist perform in San Francisco many years ago.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day

Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day

Look all around, there's nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, there's nothing but blue skies

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day

--Jimmy Cliff

-30-

Teaching One Another

Shadowing my career as a reporter was a second career as a teacher -- in the Peace Corps, at U-C Berkeley, Stanford and SF State. I taught English overseas and journalism here.

Later on, I taught memoir writing to senior citizens as I was beginning to become a senior myself.

Now, at the urging of my journalist daughter, who is also a novelist and former teacher, I may become involved in teaching an online journalism course for high school students. (More on that later.)

My only previous experience with teaching high school was in Afghanistan, a very different environment. There, a major challenge was getting the students to school. They had planting season, harvesting season, and work year round. The weather was difficult and many of them had to walk a long way to get to the school building, which had no roof.

There were few supplies other than what Peace Corps had sent with us.

And literacy was so low that few students -- perhaps ten percent -- had parents who could read or write. But both the parents and their children were highly motivated to learn, so much so that some parents tried to bribe me to give their kids passing grades.

I trust things will be a bit less stressful here.

As all teachers know, you get much more from your students than you give to them, ultimately, but that does not mean that it isn't a ton of work to teach. There are few people whose commitment I respect more than teachers -- at all levels.

I'll have to check my energy level before committing to this new plan, but I am inclined to do it.

***

Later this morning, I am scheduled to have my second cataract surgery. Day by day, my ability to see through my right eye has been improving, so now it's the left eye's turn. My ophthalmologist says for years I have been looking through the equivalent of two jars of honey.

But now I can (literally) see the light at the end of the tunnel, I think.

As for that ever pesky news...

* Two major Antarctic glaciers are tearing loose from their restraints, scientists say --The loss of the enormous Thwaites glacier could trigger the broader collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which contains enough ice to eventually raise sea levels by about 10 feet. (WashPo)

* While Trump defies coronavirus safety guidelines at rally, TV networks exercise caution -- As Trump continues to hold campaign rallies indoors with his supporters unmasked and close together, the major media companies including CNN, ABC and Fox News stopped sending their crews out inside this weekend out of concern for their Covid-19 safety. This is unprecedented in American history. (CNN)

* It's peak hurricane season, and the Atlantic Ocean has five active tropical cyclones at the same time for only the second time in history.The only other time there were five active tropical cyclones -- hurricane, tropical storm and/or tropical depression -- in the Atlantic was in 1971. (CNN)

* Scientists spot potential sign of life in Venus atmosphere -- An international team of astronomers say it has not directly detected life but that the presence of phosphine can only be explained by living microbes. (WashPo)

* Air quality across Oregon was listed as “hazardous” or “very unhealthy,” and a dense smoke advisory remained in effect for much of the state. Similar warnings were issued for Washington state. (WashPo) 

* The fires have have killed at least 33 people in California, Oregon and Washington. (HuffPost)

* Michigan State University has requested that all of its local students self-quarantine for two weeks due to “an alarming surge” in COVID-19 cases. (HuffPost)

* Trump Health Aide Pushes Bizarre Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt -- Michael R. Caputo told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection and accused C.D.C. scientists of “sedition.” (NYT)

* A chunk of ice twice the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland in the last two years (CNN). The country that the Climate-Denier-in-Chief wants to buy suffers from global warming. (DW)

* The Arctic Is Shifting to a New Climate Because of Global Warming -- Open water and rain, rather than ice and snow, are becoming typical of the region, a new study has found. *

* Is There a Black Hole in Our Backyard? -- Astrophysicists have recently begun hatching plans to find out just how weird Planet Nine might be. (NYT)

* The president who says coronavirus will go away makes same prediction about global warming -- On both, science disagrees. (WashPo)

* Shinzo Abe Vowed Japan Would Help Women ‘Shine.’ They’re Still Waiting. (NYT)

* Minnesota Seemed Ripe for a Trump Breakout. It Has Not Arrived. -- Minnesota was a near miss for Donald Trump in 2016. But new polling shows him well behind where he finished four years ago in a state he views as a prime pickup opportunity.(NYT)

***

A guy with bad cataracts runs into a light pole. "Hi honey," he says.

Okay, maybe it's time for a hymn:

Why me Lord, what have I ever done
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I've known
Tell me Lord, what did I ever do
That was worth loving you
Or the kindness you've shown.

Lord help me Jesus, I've wasted it so
Help me Jesus I know what I am
Now that I know that I've need you so
Help me Jesus, my soul's in your hand.

-- Kris Kristofferson

-30-

Mixed-up Signals

We're at risk of losing many things during this pandemic, but let's hope that doesn't include our sense of humor. After all, we certainly can agree at least that life is a joke, albeit at times like this a rather bad one.

As a writer, many of my jokes involve wordplay, naturally, and at the tail end of this post I've included a few grammatically suggestive one-liners from a marvelous list compiled by one whose sense of humor parallels mine.

But most things are not funny at all. It's been a busy week for my EMT son. Just turned 26, he is dispatched throughout the Bay Area, to San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco to respond to 5150s (people considered a danger to themselves or others); people seriously ill from the usual causes, and Covid patients. (EMTs handle a lot of these cases when individuals need to be transferred from one facility to another.)

I often worry about him, of course, but I understand why he is does this work. From an early age, he displayed a deep empathy for other people. He wants to help people and he has the skills and strength to do so. Last year, before he was licensed, when I had to make several 9-1-1 calls, he usually was there before the ambulances arrived.

But no matter what he sees, including my illnesses, he never seems to lose his sense of humor. If a patient is up to it, he jokes with them on the way to the hospital.

Laughter can nourish a person back to health as certainly as any IV drip. We agree that sometimes  the best joke a patient can play on this sick world is by NOT dying when he otherwise might have. Better to live on and see what stupid thing is going to happen next. 

That way, you can keep having dreams, for better or worse.

In my latest dystopian dream the other night, I was stumbling blindly through the embers of a burned-out city when I encountered a disheveled Donald Trump. "It's all Obama's fault," he muttered as we passed in the smoke. 

I woke up in a cold sweat. It's hard to imagine a worse joke than that one. 

***

* As Wildfires Burn Out of Control, the West Coast Faces the Unimaginable -- Firefighters across California and Oregon are bracing for stronger winds that could partly clear the air — but also fan the flames of uncontrolled blazes. (NYT)

* Campaigns battle for women who regret voting for Trump -- White women — especially those who are middle- or working-class and didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in the last election — loom large in a presidential race that could, like 2016’s, be decided by shifts among a few sets of voters. (WashPo)

* The U.S. shows all the signs of a country spiraling toward political violence (WashPo)

* When Good People Don’t Act, Evil Reigns -- Stop thinking that the horrors of the world will simply work themselves out. (NYT)

* In Visiting a Charred California, Trump Confronts a Scientific Reality He Denies -- A president who has mocked climate change and pushed policies that accelerate it is set to be briefed on the scorched earth and ash-filled skies that experts say are the predictable result.(NYT)

* Ohio State University plans to cancel spring break next year to reduce the exposure of its students, faculty and staff to coronavirus. (OSU)

* The paper towel shortage in the United States didn't stop in the spring.Part of the reason for the shortage is people keep hoarding them: there was a massive surge in sales of Bounty paper towels in July, Procter & Gamble (PG) reported, as customers swept them off store shelves. (CNN)

* A new Monmouth University poll finds that former Vice President Joe Biden holds a 51% to 44% lead over President Donald Trump among likely voters. Among registered voters, it's Biden 51% to 42% for Trump. The average of the two, an 8-point Biden advantage, is in-line with the national polling average. If Biden wins by somewhere between 3 and 5 points nationally, he'll be the clear favorite in the Electoral College, even if there is some non-negligible chance Trump could emerge victorious. (CNN)

* Israel heads to a second lockdown as coronavirus cases soar -- The new restrictions on people’s movements for at least three weeks are set to begin Friday, coinciding with the start of a month of Jewish holy festivals. (WashPo)

***

Time to go to the nearest pub:

*A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but
hoping to nip it in the bud.

*The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

*A dyslexic walks into a bra.

*A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little
sentence fragment.

*A synonym strolls into a tavern.

*A question mark walks into a bar?

*Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

-- Jill Thomas Doyle 

***

I close my eyes, then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dreams, my dreams of you

In dreams I walk with you, in dreams I talk to you
In dreams you're mine, all of the time
We're together in dreams, in dreams

But just before the dawn, I awake and find you gone
I can't help it, I can't help it, if I cry
I remember that you said goodbye

It's too bad that all these things
Can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams, in beautiful dreams

-- Roy Orbison

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