Recall madness

The state of Missouri is known as the ‘Show-Me state’ but perhaps it should be renamed as the ‘Don’t bother to show me, my mind is already made up’ state. It has one of the lowest rates of vaccination in the country and some of the counties have extremely low rates. Naturally covid-19 cases are surging there. But the good citizens of the small town of Nixa have more important concerns.

Nixa, which has about 21,000 residents, is located about 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) south of Springfield, where hospitals are overflowing with COVID-19 patients.

Health officials are blaming low vaccination rates and the delta variant, first identified in India, for the surge. Just 44.8% of the state’s residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, compared to 54.9% nationally.

And the rate is even lower in southwest Missouri. Christian County, where Nixa is located, has a vaccine rate of 35.2%. Some nearby counties have rates in the teens.

The mayor of Nixa instituted a face mask requirement in October of last year, under a mandate authorizing him to do so issued by the city council. The mandate was lifted in April. Now he is facing a recall because of his action. The recall will cost the small town between $10,000 and $15,000. But it appears that for the good people of Nixa, no price is too high to pay for having the freedom to act stupidly contrary to the evidence.

Oc course, the people of the state of California have no reason to feel that smug. They have been able to get enough signatures for a recall election of the governor because of his actions to curb the pandemic.

A surprisingly early California recall election has Gov. Gavin Newsom looking to capitalize on his momentum and Republicans trying to catch up.

State officials have called the election for Sept. 14, and ballots will hit mailboxes weeks before then. The short timeline, enabled by Democratic allies of the governor, buoys Newsom’s prospects as he looks to convert a rebounding economy and stabilizing poll numbers into a vindicating victory. His conservative foes, on the other hand, have just two weeks to declare their candidacies and a tight window to cut into Newsom’s overwhelming fundraising advantage.
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It has been clear for months that voters would decide Newsom’s fate in 2021 after anger over his Covid-19 restrictions led two million Californians to sign recall petitions.

What a waste of time and money.

Caffeine addiction

My daily caffeine intake consists of one regular-sized cup of instant coffee (with milk and sugar) in the morning and one regular-sized cup of black tea (with milk and sugar) in the late afternoon. This would not normally be seen as a sign of caffeine addiction except that on the days that, for whatever reason, I cannot get my morning cup of coffee (in the case that I have spent the night at some place where I cannot get one first thing), I feel a little unsettled and will often go to some lengths to find a coffee shop where I can get a cup.

Food writer Michael Pollan says that that feeling first thing in the morning is indeed a sign of caffeine addiction, that my vague need to drink a cup of coffee is because the caffeine withdrawal symptoms are kicking in and I need to suppress them.
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If you pay people more, they will come

The latest jobs report showed healthy growth in hiring. But more importantly, it also showed a rise in wages.

In an encouraging burst of hiring, America’s employers added 850,000 jobs in June, well above the average of the previous three months and a sign that companies may be having an easier time finding enough workers to fill open jobs.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department was the latest evidence that the reopening of the economy is propelling a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession. Restaurant traffic across the country is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, and more people are shopping, traveling and attending sports and entertainment events. The number of people flying each day has regained about 80% of its pre-COVID-19 levels. And Americans’ confidence in the economic outlook has nearly fully recovered.
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Churchgoing after the pandemic

During the height of the pandemic when things were pretty much locked down and all but essential workers were required to work from home, there was considerable speculation as to whether some of the changes in work and lifestyle might become permanent. Particularly in the case of work, many people found the absence of a tedious commute a very positive benefit. Some business found that they could dispense with the offices in city centers for which they were paying high rents. As a result, there was speculation that some employers might continue the practice even after things opened up, adopting at least a hybrid model of some days at home and some in office. It is too early to see whether those speculations will pan out or whether businesses will go back to the old ways.
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Punitive prison sentences

The US criminal (in)justice system has at least two major flaws. One is some police and prosecutors prioritizing convictions over justice, and the other is them seeking extremely harsh penalties for even minor crimes. Combine that with racial prejudice and the combination is deadly because you can end up with innocent people serving extremely long sentences and even being executed.

As an example of the first type, I wrote recently about how many police line-ups are conducted in a way that witnesses are subtly influenced by the police officers who have arrested a suspect to pick the suspect, instead of using a double-blind method.

As an even more extreme example of the two flaws together, Emily Bazelon writes about a case in 2012 in which 19-year old Yutico Briley was wrongfully convicted of a crime because the prosecutors were more interested in getting a conviction than justice.
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“It is what it is”

This phrase started becoming very popular a few years ago and I had a colleague who was particularly fond of using it.

(Pearls Before Swine)

I must admit that when I first heard people using it, I had the same reaction as Rat. It seemed like an irritating banal tautology. After all, if something is, how can it be anything else? But over time, I have come to terms with its use as a statement of resignation about a situation that cannot be changed. It can even be viewed positively as a call to accept the current situation and take action based on it, rather than simply whine about something that cannot be changed.

It is akin to “what will be will be”, though that carries a sense of fatalism, that we have no agency over the future.

Racist focus in the midst of erratic behavior

It is a measure of how racist sentiment has been inflamed in recent times that people who appear otherwise normal can suddenly act in ways that seem erratic except for the choice of targets of their behavior, as in this case.

An American man who crashed a stolen lorry into a house before shooting two black bystanders was a suspected white supremacist, police say.

Nathan Allen, 28, fatally shot retired policeman Dave Green and military veteran Ramona Cooper in Saturday afternoon’s attack in Massachusetts.

Investigators later found racist and anti-Semitic writings by Allen, who was shot dead by officers at the scene.

He was married, employed and had a PhD and no criminal history, police said.

According to CBS affiliate WBZ-TV, Allen walked through a marsh to a garage in the city of Winthrop where he stole a plumber’s lorry. He crashed the vehicle into an unoccupied home, causing extensive damage.

He then climbed out of the wreckage and attempted unsuccessfully to carjack another vehicle.
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Investigators said they found “troubling white supremacist rhetoric” in the gunman’s handwriting.

Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins told a press conference on Monday that Allen is believed to have acted alone.

The prosecutor said he had “likely appeared unassuming” before unleashing his attack with a firearm that he legally owned.

Her office’s statement said: “This individual wrote about the superiority of the white race. About whites being ‘apex predators’. He drew swastikas.”

The statement added: “He stole a box truck, crashed it into another vehicle and a property, walked away from the wreckage interacting with multiple individuals and choosing only to shoot and kill the two black people he encountered.”

This person was clearly having some kind of breakdown that resulted in him doing seemingly random things. And yet in the midst of it, he was able to think lucidly enough to pick out among all the people he encountered the only two Black people to kill.