Tier One

The two shot method will start putting a real dent in the virus about April 1.

Two shots of the vaccine make people almost 100% immune, while one shot makes a little more  than 80% of the patients immune. But the one shot method will cover twice as many people. Using the two shot method, 100 out of 100 patients will be immune. Using the one shot method, you would reach 200 people. 160 out of 200 people will become immune. 

I'm not a scientist. There must be a lot more to this discussion. First tier personnel are in great danger, and one shot would not be right for them. I'm in second or third tier, and maybe there is an argument to made.  

The Far Left v. Art

The strength of the far left is empathy. They feel burning outrage at the way our country treats the homeless. That's genuine. But recently I read a call from Rep. Barbara  Lee to take money away from underfunded public art to use in relief programs. 

Have we forgotten the WPA? Art is a language--maybe the first language. Absorb it. Public art is there for everyone.

Lacking Balls

When Republicans gain power, they rampage. When Democrats win, they try to work with the macho Republicans. I am reminded of a call I took while volunteering at Democratic HQ in Santa Rosa some eight years back. A drunken woman got me on the phone, and she said, "Your problem is that you don't have any balls."

Maybe she had a point. Voters respect action, not high-minded, upper-middle-class centrism.

Hispanics

I have not warmed up to Gov. Gavin Newsom, but once again he has gotten out in front on a key issue. He's been doing this since, as mayor of San Francisco, he authorized gay marriage (defying the law at the time). 

Newsom has named Alex Padilla,  a Hispanic, to the senate, a first for California. For some time I have been suggesting that the Democrats set a place at the table for Latin Americans. The national party takes them for granted, but Hispanics matter. Ask Arizona.

J. K. Rowling v. The Transgender

 J. K. Rowling has gotten into a major fight with supporters of transgender women. The argument is about whether transgender women are actually women. Rowling's position, I believe, is that transgender women have some but not all the experiences that shape women, so they aren't women. The counter claim is that trans women are women, which is what they believe. 

On a superficial level (often my level) this has been an argument about diction. How do we define the word "women"?  

The categories into which I put people depend on my purpose. Do I want to reject someone or anger her? Or do I want to accept her?

75 Million Votes for Evil

Here's a post-election question the Democrats might consider. Why did 75 million people vote for tRump, a sociopath? There are many reasons, not one, but consider this reason. 

The Dems realized about 30 years ago that they could take the support of white union members and other workers for granted.  Workers and their concerns could be ignored. They had to vote for Democrats. As voters they had no place else to go.

So the workers started voting Republican.

More recently the Democrats realized that they could take the support of progressives for granted.  Today many Democratic leaders believe that progressives can and should be ignored. Progressives have no place else to go, right? 

I see centrist Democrats attacking progressive Democrats on television, apparently set on driving them out of the party. Ancient Biden is staffing his cabinet with centrists. AOC was been denied the post she wanted by Ancient Nancy Pelosi. 

In 2024 union workers and 30 million progressives will be told that they absolutely must support an organization that considers them stupid and has shut them out of deliberations and decisions. They will be told they have no place else to go.

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The MAGA Cap

 In 1969 I learned that if I pasted an American flag decal onto the window of my car, I could drive through American border crossings while smoking a joint. And looking like Mr. Natural. 

I'd read somewhere that America's white-wing lived on symbols. You could adapt and use their symbols to your own advantage. 

The Fascists are currently attacking our form of government, which is an oligarchy colored with a little democracy. Last week trumpublicans knifed and shot a handful of our citizens and trashed a black church or two. The violence has begun. 

I lived in a safe county, but about noon my wife had to go to the support of a woman being threatened by her Lyft driver, because the woman had backed off when he refused to wear a mask.

If you get threatened by a trumpublican, a safe way out is to put on a stolen MAGA cap. The cap will make you invisible. You can slide away before the knifing begins.

Occam's Razor by David Von Drehle

 Opinion by

David Von Drehle

Columnist

Dec. 11, 2020 at 4:11 p.m. PST

If William of Occam, medieval philosopher, were transported by time-travel to the present moment, he might not find everything to be unfamiliar. Much of his career was devoted to one of the epic election disputes of all time, King Louis of Bavaria pitted against Pope John XXII over control of the Holy Roman Empire — a battle that raged across Europe in the 14th century and echoes to this day in one of humanity’s great works of art, Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”

William’s enduring contribution is the logical principle that bears his name, Occam’s razor, which cuts keenly into today’s election controversy. He teaches that the simplest explanation that fits observable facts is probably the nearest to the truth.

In his plain Franciscan tunic, William steps from his time capsule into 2020, razor in hand, and applies himself to the available facts. For more than four years, the political scene has been dominated by a rare genius of publicity, an attention hog whose personality Americans find almost uniquely compelling. Enrapturing supporters and enraging critics, the incumbent president has stoked such passions that many consider his reelection bid to be among the most important elections in U.S. history. Billions of dollars have been raised and spent to maximize voting. More votes are counted than ever before.

 

Two explanations are offered to old William to explain the numbers. One is that the intensity of publicity and depth of passions drove record participation. The other is that the U.S. Postal Service engaged in a widespread conspiracy to steal ballots and sell them to co-conspirators who filled them out using fake identities and delivered them inside food trucks to counting stations. The FBI and Justice Department know all about it, but are covering it up.

Hmm, says William after a brief contemplation. The first explanation seems a good deal simpler — and thus more likely.

Locked Down

The Chaucer Boys Bike Club called off its bike ride today because it is raining and the county is locked down. What that means is that we'd have a hard time finding a place to buy lunch and then have to stand in the rain to eat it. (This would not be happening in New Zealand.)

I wonder if we could ride without stopping to eat. What would Chaucer think?

(The club consists of descendents of Chaucer plus one guy who is kith, not kin.)

The Modern Hero

 The bad Republicans today are the ones pushing for vote cancelation. They hope to throw out the votes of entire states (to keep in place a minority rule that favors the donor class). 

So degenerate has the Republican Party become that now the good Republicans are the ones who actively suppress voting by people of color but refuse to miscount the votes of those who do manage to cast ballots. 

The Porcupine

My Aunt Tot used to say that in American elections you have a choice between the Evil Party and the Useless Party. She voted Uselessly. 

Ross Douhat, a writer no one should respect, recently defined humans as creatures who naturally believe in conspiracy theories. For once he was right. That is who we are.  More than 71 million  Americans just voted to re-elect a Fascist president who is currently attempting to seize the government by coup.

Voters run on emotion, not reason, and so does a porcupine. 

Rafer Johnson

Rafer Johnson died yesterday.

I met Rafer Johnson at UCLA just before he became the world's greatist athlete. He was a freshman. He would go on to play basketball for Coach Wooden and to set new world records in the decathalon three times. 

Johnson was one of the men who tackled the armed Sirhan Sirhan after he'd murdered Robert Kennedy. 

My encounter with Johnson mostly consisted of one pingpong game in which we were partners in a doubles match. We won!

A Magic Wand

 In pandemic lockdown, Susan and I have finally taken up watching sci-fi, focusing on the comical Mr. Data in Star Trek. In this series the medical doctor is often a good-looking, middleaged woman with a magic wand. If a crew member breaks a wrist, the doctor waves her wand over the arm, and the bones knit together, and all is well. 

I'm here to report that the wand era of medicine has already begun. Yesterday a surgeon removed a minor flaw from my right ear, and then he waved a wand over the wound. I could hear it making a mild roaring noise, but I felt nothing much. 

Apparently the surgeon used an electric wand to cauterize some bleeding capillaries. Don't ask me how. No blood. Magic.