Willful Amnesia

I'd like to expand a bit on my post about Slavery just below this one...  

A friend of mine and I were talking about Slavery, especially as it applies to the U.S. here in 2020.  He sent me a link to an interesting article on a website called "The World," which is a part of PRI (Public Radio International). You can read the article HERE. 

The article is about Africa's role in the slave trade, and how it's only recently that Blacks have begun to come to terms with it.  It focuses on the story of one woman, Mona Boyd.  Ms. Boyd and her husband were both successful business people in Boston, Massachusetts before deciding that they did not want to raise their son in the U.S.  So they moved to Ghana. 

Blacks don't like to talk about the role that their own ancestors played in the slave trade.  But for every buyer, there had to be a seller.  And who was selling their own countrymen to the European buyers?  Right, African kings and tribal leaders.  Here's an interesting section of the article:  

“There is a willful amnesia about the roles that we played in the slave trade,” said Nat Amarteifio, a local historian who’s also a former mayor of Accra, Ghana's capital.

Let's be honest, the U.S. didn't invent modern Slavery.  It had been going on for centuries, certainly well before the 1400's when the Portugese arrived in Africa with guns to trade for people.  This was, we might note, also well before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Now, eventually the British colonies in "the New World" (later, the United States) would become a major participant in the slave trade, for sure.  So it's not like we're completely blame-free.  And we ultimately did abolish Slavery - at great cost. 

The point of all of this is that we need to keep things in perspective.  Attributing the blame for Slavery to the U.S. might make you feel good, but...  Remember who it was who willingly sold their countrymen into Slavery in exchange for guns and things that would help them in their never-ending wars against other tribal leaders.  It's time that somebody stood up and said, "Whoa...wait a minute...there are two sides to every story."

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-08-20/willful-amnesia-how-africans-forgot-and-remembered-their-role-slave-trade?fbclid=IwAR1lieSw-87upXxJiI_9kdqxm1-UuFmzPHBarNW3o_3qu49RVrwNZbUGXxo

Black Privilege

There are these things called unintended consequences.  It's when you do something, and it has the desired effect.  But then there are..."other" things that happen as well that you did not predict.  Sometimes the unintended consequences are good...sometimes not.

Let's take Slavery.  Bad, right?  No question.  A horrible stage in American history...something for which we should be deeply ashamed but at the same time glad that we rectified a terrible mistake.

But...with Slavery, like with most things, it's not that simple.

First, let us acknowledge that America did not invent Slavery.  It had been going on for centuries and for the purpose of our discussion here, its origin is not important.  But let's also admit that for the concept of Slavery to work, there had to be complicity among the African leaders of the nations which supplied the slaves.  I mean, white Americans didn't simply sail over to Africa, round up a bunch of Black people..."Hey, you wanna go for a little boat ride?  Come on, it'll be fun!"...and ship them off to the States by the millions.  No, it wasn't called the "slave trade" for nothing; slaves were purchased from their original, uhhh, owners.  

So there had to be a certain amount of cooperation by those in charge at the time...meaning: other Black people.  Let's say it out loud: Black people sold each other into Slavery.

Okay, never mind the sordid history.  We all know that Slavery was a grievous mistake.  It was corrected.  And like it or not, the United States has ultimately become one of the richest nations in the world...a democratic republic in which anybody can pursue their dreams and "make something" of themselves....the place where everyone wants to be.  In fact, to be born in America is a huge advantage over being born anywhere else.  You don't see hordes of people risking life and limb, marching down to and jumping over the fence to get into, say, Honduras.

Modern-day Blacks are still angry about Slavery.  But we must ask: Where would they be without it?  Would they be living in Africa somewhere?  Would they even have been born to begin with, and would they have survived?  And if so, why would they even come to America?  (That one's easy: To pursue the American Dream, the equivalent of which did not...and still does not...exist in most of their home countries.)  

The unintended consequence of Slavery is that modern Blacks have a life that is infinitely better than they would have if Slavery had not existed. 

I'd say...and this may sound like perverted logic...but I'd say that Black people here in the U.S. ought to be damn glad for Slavery!  It was that horrid, despicable institution that paved the way for them to be born here in the greatest country on the planet.  One might even go so far as to say that today's Black people have, well, "Black Privilege."  

But don't tell them that!  They're too busy being angry, and telling us what an awful country the U.S. is, and demanding reparations.  Hmm, come to think of it, maybe they really should be demanding those reparations from the descendants of the African kings and tribal leaders that sold their ancestors into Slavery in the first place.

CORONAVIRUS: Jumping The Gun?

With regard to my post just below this one - in the interest of fairness I may want to rethink things.

I posted something similar on my Facebook page about the decreasing number of new cases and deaths here in Florida.  But ultimately took that post down.  I may have spake too soon.  A friend reminded me that the coronavirus testing centers in South Florida were closed for a couple of days to an approaching tropical storm.  So...fewer tests means fewer results, right?  And fewer results means fewer positive on the chart, right?  Right.

Now, given that it usually takes up to a week or more for the average person to receive their test results, I'm not at all confident in the currency of the published data.  In other words, if Florida reports today that there are, say, X-amount of new cases, how recently were those tests administered? 

As the storm trucks off to the north, and the testing resumes in South Florida, it will be interesting to see what happens to the numbers.  I will keep you posted.

CORONAVIRUS: Gambling In Florida

I think it was silly to assume that the coronavirus could ever have been stopped.  Yet many Americans did just that.  "If we'd only just stay home."  "If we'd only just wear our damn masks."  "If we'd only blah blah blah."  But viruses go where viruses go.  You can't stop them.

Anyway, "Flatten The Curve" was never about stopping the virus.  It was the philosophy dreamed up so our national health care system would not become overwhelmed with COVID19 patients taking up all of the ICU beds and ventilators.  It was we dumb Americans who made the leap from "Flatten The Curve" to "We Can Stop This Virus From Spreading!" We cannot; all we can do is slow it down a bit.

Here in Florida, our Governor DeSantis must be the biggest gambler in history.  He's hoping that our New Cases/Deaths curves will soon mimic those of New York State, Sweden and Italy (which are virtually flat).  For those places, the coronavirus is simply not an issue anymore.  Apparently, enough people have gotten it and gotten over it.

Governor DeSantis has got to be sweating bullets right now.  The number of new cases and deaths in our state has been steadily increasing, and he's taking a lot of heat.  By not implementing another statewide lockdown, and by not issuing a mandatory mask order, DeSantis has bet the rent, the power bill, the car payment, and probably his cigarette money on this pandemic ending soon for us.  Every morning, he must wake up to check the latest numbers, and while waiting for the site to update he's praying, "Come on, herd immunity...come on, herd immunity!"   

Well, maybe we're there...or we're about to be.  Check out the latest graphs below.  Florida seems to have hit a plateau, with new cases and deaths on an apparent downward slide.  We have to keep our fingers crossed that these trends continue.  Governor DeSantis surely has a lot riding on it happening sooner rather than later. If we're through the worst of it, he'll look like a hero. But if the trends reverse and start going back up, he will soon be known as the former governor of Florida.

Well, That's Bullshit!

Some of my Facebook friends seem perplexed that the American public just won't take the word of the government or government experts on some things.  Specifically, they bring up this hydroxychloroquine issue.  The government says the drug has no value in treating the coronavirus.  Some doctors and recovered COVID19 victims disagree.  My FB friends just can't seem to understand why people won't discard conflicting information and simply believe the government!

Well, I'll tell you why: It's because we've come to distrust the government.  We don't believe what they tell us, and don't believe that "the government" has our best interests at heart.

Take the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci.  As recently as a couple of months ago, Fauci publicly stated that Americans didn't need to be wearing masks.  Now he says that we all should be wearing masks.  Why the switch?  Well it turns out that his previous stance was because he wanted to preserve PPE (personal protection equipment) for health care workers, the people who needed it the most.  Ohhhhh, I see.  He lied.  But we are asked to understand and excuse that lie, because it was, you know, justified.  A "good" lie.

And the American people go, "Well, that's bullshit!"

We are told during this pandemic that we cannot go to church...cannot have funerals.  And yet people ranging from George Floyd to Congressman John Lewis get to have...not just one funeral, but MULTIPLE services in different states!  It's a double-standard that doesn't make much sense no matter how you look at it or try to justify it.

And the American people go, "Well, that's bullshit!"

I could go on.  Remember the THREE YEARS that the government spent trying to prove that President Trump was a Russian spy, and that his campaign actively solicited and accepted help from the Russian government to win the 2016 election?  And remember that even the Mueller Investigation couldn't come up with anything substantial to prove those claims?

And the American people go, "Well, that's bullshit!"

So, my naive Facebook friends, do not wonder why the American people have become so skeptical and cynical about what we're being told.  We see the duplicity.  We see the inconsistencies.  We see the double-standards.  We know bullshit when we see and hear it. 

And we see and hear it a lot. 

CORONAVIRUS: Sweden Update

Sweden never really had any drastic lockdowns, quarantines or mask-mandates.  The attitude of their government was to let nature take its course so that their citizens could quickly reach the so-called "herd immunity."  It was controversial because it was counter to the way nearly everyone else on the planet was dealing with the coronavirus.

As time wore on, Sweden's rate of infection and "case fatality rate" stayed high while in other countries (like Italy) their numbers had dropped off drastically.  The number of cases and deaths in Italy peaked around the end of March.  But then things started dropping off, and by the end of May, Italy was basically done with the coronavirus.  On July 19th Italy was down to just three deaths.

But in Sweden, by the middle of June, there was a lot of second-guessing and second-thoughts.  There was dissention within their government.  It looked like something different would have to be done.  And then...

On June 24th, the number of new cases in Sweden peaked at 1,803.  By June 28th it was down to 475.  Jump forward to July 20, Sweden is down to just 36 new cases. 

But what about deaths?

Sweden's death rate peaked in the middle of April and then began steadily dropping.  On July 20th Sweden had zero COVID19 deaths.  They are, for all intents and purposes, done with the coronavirus.  

Sweden has 10,330,000 people.  They are reporting a total of 78,048 COVID19 cases and 5,639 deaths.  If we look at the raw numbers, Sweden's "case fatality rate" is 7.2%, which seems quite high.  But really only 0.055% of their population has died from the virus.  The current number for the U.S. is 0.043%.  

So the situation in Sweden is not as bad as it seemed.  And at this point they are basically done with the coronavirus while the U.S. keeps struggling with increasing infections and deaths.  So in the long run, will Sweden look like the smarter people?

CORONAVIRUS: Media Hype Versus Reality

Long-time CNN reporter Gary Tuchman went out to Gulf Shores, Alabama during the Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-26). The beach was open and jam-packed full of people, young and old, who'd been cooped-up in their homes for the last couple of months.

Tuchman opens his report with an alarming falsehood. Coronavirus cases in Alabama are going the wrong way. They are trending up.  But the state is wide open for business."

Well...let's look, shall we? Here's the graph of the number of COVID19 cases in Alabama from March 20th until now.

As you can see from the above, during the month of May the number of new cases was up and down with maybe a slight upward trend.  But it was hardly enough of one to warrant Tuchman's dire opening statement, which was clearly aimed at making people panic.  (Then again, it's CNN so what did we expect?)

Then, sure enough, as we got into June, the number of new cases in Alabama did double, from about 500 per day to 1,000 per day.  But again, it was not a "big spike!" as the media is so often prone to breathlessly describe things.

As he walked around the beach, Tuchman was especially peeved that nobody seemed to be wearing masks. He interviewed many of them, acting at times like an angry parent upbraiding an impudent child. He asked one girl if she wasn't worried about catching the coronavirus? She said no. "There's enough wind and air, and it'll clear it all out of here." 

Doctor Tuchman (he's not a real doctor), clearly annoyed replied, "The wind and the air don't clear it away - there's no proof of anything like that!"

Well, maybe he's right.  So if that's the case, let's look at the number of deaths in Alabama since March.

Hmm.  There were plenty of deaths in April, but then they settled down to about 20 or less per day through the end of May and through June.  On a few days in June, Alabama logged zero COVID19 deaths. 

Well, this is a dilemma...for CNN.  Because here too, the number of people dying from COVID19 in Alabama does not seem to be related to the number of people on the beach at Gulf Shores over the Memorial Day Weekend.  I mean, it's been over a month; you'd think the number of deaths would have started increasing by now.

(Some have claimed that the beachgoers that weekend were made up of people from out of state, not just Alabamians.  But from the random people Gary Tuchman interviewed, it seemed as though the majority of them were locals.)

Here's the problem: People are not stupid.  People understand that they are being fed conflicting information about this coronavirus.  They know intuitively that wearing a mask outdoors...like out on a public beach...is just useless and stupid.

City officials in Gulf Shores (and neighboring Orange Beach) pushed back against the CNN report.  They took issue with its accuracy and reporter Gary Tuchman's agenda.  You can read that story HERE.  It's got the both the original CNN report and the Gulf Shores mayor's response on local TV station WPMI.

Parenthetically, people were quick to point out that the CNN reporter Tuchman was only wearing a mask when he was on camera or interviewing people.  His cameraman wasn't wearing one at all.  Hypocrite much, CNN?

People get to feeling like they're being deliberately lied to.  People don't know who to believe, so they believe no one.  Young people, especially, see through the bullshit and hyperbole.  People saw New York Governor Cuomo panic unnecessarily.  They see with their own eyes that even if we did nothing, this pandemic would not have been nearly as deadly as the so-called experts told us it would be.  (Obviously, I'm inclined to agree.)

Those in the media jump up and down and screech, "It's not the flu!  This could kill you!"  But it's not killing young people; it's not even making them sick.  To them it's basically, well, like the flu.  (Sorry.)

Since I live in a Florida beach town about 30 miles east of Gulf Shores, I can tell you that much like our neighbors in Alabama, Pensacola residents do not see the COVID19 as such a huge threat to their safety and well-being.  They have a certain fatalistic attitude towards the coronavirus, which seems to be, "If you're afraid of catching the disease and don't want to catch it, just stay home."

Here in Florida, the number of new COVID19 cases has been steadily and sharply increasing.  Thankfully, most of them are in the southern, most-populous part of the state.  Governor Ron DeSantis must be holding his breath, nervously watching the numbers.  I'm sure that every morning when he wakes up, the first thing he does is check the COVID19 hospitalizations and deaths.

The governor has re-tightened some of the statewide restrictions that had previously been relaxed.  Here in the panhandle, our beaches are still open.  But it may only be a matter of time until they're closed again.

Or maybe not!  As I've said all along, we shall see...