Random Thoughts: How to Wear a Face Mask

Tweets from August, 2020:

• 2020-08-01: During all that bus time, maybe the Marlins could work on how to wear a face mask.
• 2020-08-03: @JohnCornyn in other words: "Who are you gonna believe, me or your own lying eyes?"
• 2020-08-04: Crip Camp (2020): Documentary about a 1970s camp in the Catskills for disabled youth run by hippies. Fun, games, brotherhood and independence. What they learned at Camp Jened prepared them to fight the government for rights for the disabled, culminating in the ADA. Inspiring. B+"
• 2020-08-04: @jonathanvswan: "Oh, you're doing death as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about death as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.?
  @realdonaldtrump: "You can't do that."
  Swan: "Why can't I do that?"

After the jump, more random thoughts.

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• 2020-08-04: Trump is really bad at math. He's also bad at logic. If Trump got his way and reduced testing, the number of deaths as a proportion of cases would go up, making Trump's preferred statistic look worse, not better.
• 2020-08-04: The "vehicle" they were looking for was a motorcycle with the same tag number but from another state. First mistake. Then they abuse this family first and ask questions later. Second mistake. Waiting to hear if this behavior is standard policy. If so, policing is out of control.
• 2020-08-05: Missourians voted to expand Medicaid, giving 230,000 additional people access to health insurance, overruling their Republican state government's denial of this health insurance for the last 10 years. Come on Texas. It's past time to join Missouri and 37 other states on this.
• 2020-08-05: Ted Cruz is a lawyer. He should know never to ask a question whose answer is only going to help the other side. I think Donald Trump's stable genius might be rubbing off on him.
• 2020-08-07: "In January, 2017, when Trump was inaugurated, total non-farm employment in the United States was 145.6 million. Last month, it was 139.6 million." So much for "the JOBS president."
• 2020-08-07: Texas conservatives are at war with themselves, not about how to protect Texans' health, but 'murica's freedom, y'all.
• 2020-08-09: Received another email from Trump: "CONGRATULATIONS! MARK IS THE TRUMP PATRIOT OF THE WEEK!" He must be hemorrhaging supporters badly if he's down to me for Trump patriot of the week.
• 2020-08-09: Remember the old days when we could count on governance from Washington? Oh sure, there was politics now and then, every 2 or 4 years at election time, but in between, we could count on governance. Now it's all politics all the time. I prefer governance once in a while.
• 2020-08-09: Donald Trump is a champion of evangelical Christianity. None other than Jerry Falwell Jr has attested to that. Oh wait.
• 2020-08-10: Without football, college is just...higher education.
• 2020-08-11: Even Trump likes Kamala Harris so much that he donated money to her political campaigns.
• 2020-08-12: The Umbrella Academy - Season 2 (TV 2020): It's 1963. The siblings face another apocalypse. Time travel, civil rights, religious cult, JFK conspiracy, office politics in the commission maintaining the universe's timeline, and more family issues. Fast-paced. Never predictable. B+
• 2020-08-12: Got an email from Mike Pence. "For the sake of American strength, jobs, law and order, our lives, and our liberties, we must defeat this radical duo on Election Day."
  On each measure, we are weaker today than 4 years ago, with the exception of our "liberty" to ignore facemasks.
• 2020-08-12: I got 5 emails from Trump in 24 hours, including this: "Joe Biden picks PHONY Kamala Harris as running mate." I lose the betting pool on which ethnicity Trump would choose to slur Kamala Harris with a nickname.
• 2020-08-12: New email from Trump: "It's only a matter of time before the Fake News comes out with a PHONY poll. It's no secret that their results will be pro-Biden-Harris and totally biased. 1/2"
• 2020-08-12: "In order to get the TRUTH, we just launched our Official Presidential Issue Poll - the ONLY accurate poll out there.
  Who will you vote for in November?
  o President Trump and Vice President Pence
  o Sleepy Joe Biden and Phony Kamala Harris" 2/2
• 2020-08-14: Today's Trump email says "President Trump really wants YOU on his team as an Official Trump Text Member." What's in it for me, I wonder. Well, Trump says by giving him my phone number, "You'll be one of the President's most trusted advisors." Can a West Wing desk be far behind?"
• 2020-08-14: Another Trump email: "Kamala Harris is the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful, MOST LIBERAL of anyone in the U.S. Senate, and I cannot believe that Joe Biden would pick her as his running mate."
• 2020-08-14: Language question: My phone has a list of contacts. When A-L is on the screen, but I want to see a contact whose name starts with S, what do I have to do? Choose all the answers that are correct.
  A. Scroll down.
  B. Scroll up.
  C. Swipe down.
  D. Swipe up.
  E. Go down.
  F. Go up.
• 2020-08-15: Thanks Montana and Senator Jon Tester for saving our mail boxes in Texas and throughout the US.
• 2020-08-15: I wonder if, before calling for a day of fasting, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson consulted the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association.
• 2020-08-15: Headline: "Arctic fires set record as sea ice, ice shelves melt."
  We have 79 days to get rid of Trump, but then we have get back to dealing with the big crisis he's ignoring -- global warming.
• 2020-08-16: "Someone born in Aukland is not eligible to be President. The Constitution is very clear on that...oh wait. What? Oakland? Never mind."
  -- Emily Litella
• 2020-08-17: Project Power (2020): Bad guys do field tests on a new drug that gives people superpowers for 5 minutes at a time. Good guys have to find the source. Violence ensues. Gets a passing grade only because of Dominique Fishback. Oh, and its two Clint Eastwood jokes. C+
• 2020-08-17: "Dan Patrick blames the presence of Texas Confederate monuments on Democrats." Well he's half right. Dead Democrats put 'em up. But it's living Republicans who fight to keep 'em up.
• 2020-08-19: Babylon Berlin - Season 3 (TV 2020): German. Economic crash, police brutality, public protests, political corruption, a looming fascist takeover, and mobsters. Babylon Berlin is set in Berlin in 1929, but it speaks to America in 2020. Intricate subplots. Rich characters. B+
• 2020-08-20: Last Tango in Halifax - Season 1 (TV 2012): Drama about three generations of an extended dysfunctional family in northern England. Not really a comedy, but there are scenes that are hilarious. At heart, it's about looking for love, sometimes against your better judgment. B+
• 2020-08-20: Breaking: @AOC orders vanilla latte at Starbucks and fails to endorse Joe Biden with her order.
• 2020-08-20: Another Trump boat parade.
• 2020-08-20: Another email from Donald Trump:
  "Mark,
  I emailed you.
  The Vice President emailed you.
  My son, Don Jr., emailed you.
  Lara emailed you.
  Diamond and Silk emailed you.
  And now I'm emailing you. Again."
  
  He had me at "Diamond and Silk.
• 2020-08-20: The Postal Service processes as many as 500 million items each day. There were 130 million votes cast in 2016, not all by mail. The USPS can handle vote-by-mail in 2020. If your ballot doesn't get counted, it's not because the USPS is overwhelmed."
• 2020-08-21: Stutterers for Biden. America for Brayden.
• 2020-08-22: "If you would like to submit public comments, they will be read during the meeting. It takes a long time to read them so make them pithy and to the point." Said without irony."
• 2020-08-23: This Joe Biden tweet is from October, 2019. Bush, Obama, and Biden all warned America to prepare for the inevitable pandemic. Trump gambled it wouldn't happen on his watch. 176,579 Americans died, and counting.
• 2020-08-24: Email from Trump: "The Democrat Party held the darkest, angriest, gloomiest convention in history last week."
  Fun pastime: for any Trump statement, flip it around to its opposite and see both how true it is, and what Trump is worried about today.
• 2020-08-25: Jayhawkers (2015): Biopic of Wilt Chamberlain at U of Kansas. Basketball, racism, and surprisingly, jazz. Director makes the most of a small budget and wooden acting. B&W, dark and harshly lit basketball scenes with a jazz score occasionally raise this sports pic to art. B-
• 2020-08-26: Trump's America. Not some hypothetical future. Today.
• 2020-08-26: I've long advocated for Trump putting his name on face masks. It would get his supporters to wear them when nothing else would. Side benefit: it makes it easy to tell which side people who don't know how to wear a face mask are on.
• 2020-08-27: More voter suppression tactics.
• 2020-08-27: Headline: "State Fair of Texas will open on weekends in September and October, selling drive-thru fair food." My unpopular opinion? "Fair food" is an oxymoron."
• 2020-08-27: Trump's America.
• 2020-08-28: Shtisel - Season 1 (TV 2013): Israeli. Drama about 4 generations of an Orthodox family in Jerusalem. Some humor, more friction, lots of duty and tradition. Brief glimpses into what family and religion mean to each of them. For me, it opens a window on a fascinating culture. B-
• 2020-08-28: On top of it all, they had the wrong guy.
• 2020-08-29: DMN headline: "Credibility of FDA, CDC at risk." At risk??? How about ruined, lost, chucked, dumped, pitched, scrapped, shucked off, threw away, tossed? Face it, DMN, their credibility is gone, gone, gone until Trump is."
• 2020-08-29: California's wildfires are bad, and now expected annually. No one is surprised by earthquakes -- the "Big One" is long overdue. But how many people are even aware of the coming biggest disaster of all: "The Biblical Flood That Will Drown California."
• 2020-08-29: "Texas officials want to cut millions in funding for women's health services while preserving an anti-abortion program." Because of course they do.
• 2020-08-29: From the story: "In a tuxedo, he'd emcee an event in Richardson called Spectacular Senior Follies, a popular musical revue starring volunteer seniors. There, he charmed a theater filled with his clients and, more important, potential clients."
• 2020-08-30: I'm beginning to feel like we're living in Weimar Germany. (If you don't know what I mean, watch "Babylon Berlin." Television for our times.)
• 2020-08-30: Facebook conversation where I think "A" unintentionally reveals a little too much about his bias:
  A. Stop watching sports bc they all support blm.
  B. Well, don't their lives matter?
  A. Who?"
• 2020-08-30: 182,885. Keep your eye on the real problem, America. Don't let the President's provocations distract you from the fact that a thousand Americans are dying every day from a disease the President is trying to gaslight you into thinking he cured.