2020

Nothing, on any level, will ever get better in the United States until the United States adopts a single-payer health care system. Everything revolves around that.

I keep seeing headlines that read (I’m paraphrasing) Biden campaign brings in $300 million (Clinton brought in $150 million in same time frame)

The fact this kind of money is needed to win anything is depressing1 because I imagine there are many folks out there with fantastic, live-changing ideas will never be able to raise that kind of money.


  1. It’s also hella gross. ↩︎

📰 Every single newspaper should be calling for Trump to resign1. Who is controlling Biden? “People that you’ve never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows.”

This is the talk of a person unfit for office. Everyone knows it, but no one is saying it. As soon as one big newspaper prints it, others will follow.


  1. 100s of newspapers did this to Bill Clinton. ↩︎

Justin Townes Earle

I have two stories about meeting Justin Townes Earle. They aren’t amazing stories and I guess I’m writing them down so I remember (or at least remember what little I remember). The first time I “met” Justin was... I actually don’t remember. It was about 20+ years ago in Manhattan. Jen and I went to a Steve Earle show at the Beacon Theater in the upper west side of Manhattan. It was the first time I recall Steve mentioning his son.

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😍🎶👩🏻 I just watched Linda Rondstadt: The Sound of My Voice and damn it was great.

If you are not familiar with Linda Rondstadt, you are in for a treat. Not only are you going to hear some fantastic music and get a crush on a woman (the from the 1960s on), you’re also going to see what a real singer sounds like and how a true professional acts.

🏫👩🏾‍🦱📓 Reopening in-person teaching in grade schools now is premature. There is no vaccine and there aren’t enough treatments of symptoms. I’m fully aware of the hardships parents face and I understand young children could see some social developments hindered.

Nevertheless, opening schools in facilities that were, even in the best of times, merely adequate, will show us the devastation of this virus. To be clear, it’s not just the facilities that are the issue. Young children will not be able to not closely interact with one another. And it’s not their fault. Young children should run and play and hug... so we have to step in until science figures this out.

If NYC teachers go on strike, I will support their decision. My children were fortunate to have some completely wonderful people as their teachers (and one child still does). Stay strong teachers, I love you.

I dropped off my daughter (she’s the oldest) at college today. It was a weird feeling of being proud, being the sad kind of happy, and being anxious because the United States is full of fucking morons about this virus.

She decided to take what’s probably considered a low class load of four classes. I told her I don’t care how long it takes her to get her degree. College shouldn’t be rushed and full of stress. I want her to enjoy her gradual ease into adulthood and study at a pace that she can maintain. There is no need to rush.

Anyway, I’m proud of her and want her to enjoy learning. But I still have a bit of the sad kind of happy.

“These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson told Cox. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

Either Republicans leaders don’t understand the science or they don’t give shit. Ha, just kidding. They know the science1. They just know if they say what their constituents want to hear, everyone will be happy. Some will die, of course, but… (see footnote).


  1. Also, they don’t give a shit. ↩︎

👱🏼‍♀️🏫☠️ If school districts insist on opening without an honest-to-goodness plan in mind that centers around the health of everyone (teachers, paraprofessional, staff, and students), then the entire country’s teachers’ union should go on strike.

What the hell is the point of a union if it can’t, if nothing else, protect you from unsafe working conditions?

Schools are NOT babysitters.

If people wear masks, we’ll be able to make it long enough to deal with the virus. If people quit Facebook, we’ll be able to make it long enough to deal with what’s happened to our democracy.

My daughter is supposed to start college in the fall (2020). All the schools are talking about going back into session (that is, having students back in campus) but I honestly don’t see how it’s going to happen. Same for all schools (not just college).

No vaccine, no in-person learning.* It’s really that simple.

*Shhh… don’t get me started on this distance-learning. It’s more like distance-assignments. I don’t blame the teachers. This virus-caused distribution is just another thing we plop onto the plate of underpaid and over-burdened people.

Wouldn’t it be something if hospitals were as prepared to help us as police departments were to beat the shit out of us?