Sheriff Barr is gettin’ a mite bit envious of them Banana Republics down South o’ th’ Border. They asked Congress to authorize indefinite pre-trial detention. You can see Mother Jones’ coverage at Trump’s Justice Department Proposes Indefinite Detention in Emergencies—Like…
Buckle Up: It’s Gonna Be Like This For A While
So, the U.S. is pretty much on the same trajectory Italy took with this thing. And that is bad. Italy’s health system was in better shape than ours is, and had more hospital beds per capita; lots more when you…
Kinsa Thermometers: Maybe A Good Thing Right Now?
This is a weird one. So, apparently there are these IoT thermometers out there. And like most Internet of Things devices, their privacy is really bad, so the maker (Kinsa) is now sitting on a database of body temperature readings…
What’s The Problem: Math From The Back Of An Envelope
A lot of folks, including many of the public faces of government response, don’t seem to really understand what’s going on here. Pandemic. Scary word; very scary problem. So let’s look at what that problem is. I’ll use my local…
Niftyness: The Mainstream News Is Catching Up
I’m so excited: the mainstream news (Bloomberg, no less!) is finally calling for an end to free corporate bailouts. I know; slow down; breathe. This is a drum that I, and many others on this side of the political spectrum,…
More Stupid Secrets: Why Were These Briefings Classified?
There’s something missing from this Washington Post story titled “US intelligence officials early warnings to Trump about coronavirus went unheeded“. Go ahead; give it a read. I’ll wait. Did you catch it? They do a decent job describing a series…
You Should Read This: A New Use For Vacuum Cleaner Bags
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones reports on How To Make a Homemade Mask If You Absolutely Have To. The result may surprise you … … but not if you read this post’s title. (The original paper he discusses is here.)…
Disrupt The State: Monolithic Governments Need To Go Away
There are a lot of things that need doing, but that many of us just don’t trust the government to do. Fair enough. But that still leaves a bunch of stuff that needs doing: health care, identity management, election security,…
A New Normal: Business In A Time Of Pandemic
This is gonna take a while. A long, long while. So yesterday a new study came out that predicts abound 2 million deaths in the U.S., if everyone tries to just go about their business as usual. That’s … really…
Don’t Get Comfortable: Quarantine, Evacuation, And Curfew
It’s still important that we don’t normalize this. Just to start this off properly, they are correct this time: You should stay at home. You should keep about ten feet away from other people. You should minimize your contact with…