Why should you wear a mask? Wrongoâs FB friend (an MD) explained it well:
 âWe donât wear the mask to keep ourselves safe or even to make other people comfortable. We wear masks so the germs that spill out of the holes in our faces via water droplets and aerosols get caught in the mask and donât get into other peopleâs eyes, nose or mouth or land on their wounds, clothes, hands or face….That way transmissions end with us. We stop the spread and can go about life almost like usual. Masks are also a great visual reminder of whatâs going on…people stay back a bit. I actually wonder if that visual reminder is what so many people hate about masks. Do they want to pretend this is not happening or not a big deal or that they arenât utterly failing society in every way?â
âDemocrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say that masks should be worn always (63% vs. 29%). Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that masks should rarely or never be worn (23% vs. 4%).
Republicans also are less likely than Democrats to say they have worn masks in stores or other businesses always or most of the time in the past month.â
Fact Tank says that only 49% of conservative Republicans say they have worn a mask all or most of the time in the past month, compared with 60% of moderate Republicans.
All of this explains where the virus is expanding:
Wearing a mask is more threatening than an attack by terrorists:
Europe thinks we should wear masks:
A tough year gets tougher:
Times like these call for better drinking choices:
The presidential race is shaping up to be a real fight:
Mt. Rainer from the Whiteriver campground â 2020 Â photo by np2fast
Good morning fellow disease vectors!
Now that Florida and Texas have again closed their bars, youâre probably wondering: âCan Joe Bidenâs lead in the polls get any biggerâ?
Hereâs your answer. On Thursday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. They did this without any plan for replacing it, at what appears to be the height of new cases of the COVID pandemic. From Charlie Pierce:
âImagine, for a moment, youâre a Republican. You already know that your party has hitched its wagon to the biggest ass in the history of American politics, and that he has proceeded to bungle a response to the worst public health crisis in a century, touching off a deep recession in the bargain….Perhaps youâre thinking to yourself this morning, yâknow, maybe this isnât the best historical moment to take healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans.â
Political gurus say that timing is everything.
Trump is doing this despite the fact that 487,000 new people signed up with HealthCare.gov last month after losing their company-provided health insurance coverage because of the pandemic-induced recession. That was an increase of 46% in sign-ups compared to the same month last year.
And Trumpâs trying this stunt in the week when the US hit a new record for the highest daily total of reported COVID-19 cases â more than 45,500! Heâs picked the perfect time to try again to throw an estimated 20 million Americans off of their insurance coverage.
This has been the GOP plan all along: weâre trimming the rolls of people on entitlement programs. Weâre doing it through the courts, through legislation and by allowing the COVID-19 infection to spread.
Itâs no longer clear which is the greater threat to lives in America: The Coronavirus, or Donald Trump.
This should remind all of us that we need to make Medicare for All, or another form of single payer insurance, a top priority after the November election.
âAmazingly, he [Trump] still hasn’t grasped the most basic fact of this [COVID] crisis: to fix the economy we have to get control over the virus. He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him. All his whining & self-pity…his job is to do something about it.”
We desperately need new leadership. Maybe weâll get it next January.
Now itâs time to forget the Sahara Dust storm for a few minutes. You should also ignore the fact that the Dixie Chicks changed their name to âThe Chicksâ. How exactly does THAT rebranding improve our world, or their career?
Time to take our masks off, sit at an appropriate physical distance, and kick back: Itâs time for our Saturday Soother.
Letâs start by brewing up a huge mug of Ethiopia Nano Genji Agaro Gera coffee ($21.00/12oz.) from Sacramento CAâs Temple Coffee roasters. The roaster says you will experience notes of nectarine and apricot with your first sip.
Now find a comfortable lawn chair, and settle in to listen to âSummertimeâ, written by George and Ira Gershwin, and Dubose Edwin Heyward, in 1935. Itâs performed here by George Winston from his album âRestless Windâ:
It was also memorably performed by the late, great Sam Cooke in 1957, released as the B-side on the single of Cookeâs big hit, âYou Send Meâ.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Sunrise, Green County WI – June 2020 photo by Keith D. Leman
Last Tuesday, VP Pence rejected the idea that the country was seeing a second spike in coronavirus cases as the pandemic continued. He wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled âThere Isnât a Coronavirus âSecond Waveââ. Â
Maybe he thinks thatâs the case.
The US and the EU have comparable populations, but the current state of their respective COVID-19 outbreaks are vastly different. New data released by the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that there are around 3,000 new COVID cases in the EU each day.
In America, weâre now recording about 30,000 new cases of the virus each day, ten times higher than Europe. And while some US politicians in the US say the difference is due to discrepancies in testing, the US and the EU are conducting roughly the same number of tests per million people.
It looks like a second US wave is on its way, regardless of what Pence or Trump says. Everything out of the White House on the pandemic has been bullshĂt. The pandemic has revealed that we have no leadership, no self-control, and no willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
The federal government’s response to the virus has been misguided. We could have undertaken a national effort to produce N95 masks for every person. With those masks, which reduce the chances of inhaling the virus by 95%, along with proper instructions on how to wear and handle them, the country could have remained open, and people remained safe. Of course, that assumes mask wearing isnât considered an affront to our freedoms.
Now, the country has opened back up. We are almost as ill-prepared as when the pandemic started. Many of us have gone back to our former ways, pretending the virus is gone. Yes, we can go back to work, but we need the protection of high-quality masks.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020: Come because you love Trump. Leave with the Trump virus. Wrongo isnât a futurist, but as this is written on Saturday, thereâs reason to be concerned that there may be an increase in COVID-19 infections in Tulsa:
âSix of President Trumpâs staffers, who were part of the campaignâs advance team for the presidentâs Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have been quarantined after testing positive for the novel coronavirus…â
Wrongo has a bad feeling about the aftermath:
People are coming from several states, some with rapidly-rising hospitalizations
It’s indoors, with no way to effectively distance
There will be cheering, singing, and chanting
Some attendees will have spent hours, possibly days interacting with each other outside the venue, and will spend an hour or two in line just to get in
These arenât people who have a belief in masking and distancing
Morning surf casting, Nauset Off Road Beach, Orleans MA – May 2020 photo by Chef Bob
Happy Summer Solstice fellow disease vectors!
The political scene remains in flux. There are 135 days to go until the November election, and while things look encouraging for Biden, thereâs plenty of time for Trump to mount a successful counter-attack. Weâll see the start of that effort tonight in Tulsa.
The 2020 Senate races are the most important to Wrongo. If Biden wins, Democrats need to pick up just three seats to control the Senate. If Biden loses, they need four seats, actually five, since Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) is likely to lose his seat.
The Cook Political Report just moved Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s race against incumbent GOP Sen. Steve Daines to toss-up status from âleans Republicanâ. A race of the two Steves. Daines won the seat in 2014 by 18 points.
Montana has become competitive in part due to Bullockâs successful handling of the COVID-19 issue, and because the pandemic has limited campaigning. Bullock has seen his approval ratings rise to 75% in one poll. Montana has one of the lowest per capita infection rates (49th out of 50), with only 20 deaths as of June 17, and Bullock has gotten credit for closing the state early. From Cook:
âRecent private Democratic polling in the contest gives Bullock a small lead and finds that Bullock’s approval ratings are more than 20 points higher than Daines…â
Thatâs fine, but Cook also reports that:
âGOP polling also shows that it’s a close race, but one where every internal poll for them has still shown Daines leading. â
Remember that Trump won Montana by 20 points in 2016. Democrats argue that Biden isnât as toxic in Montana as Hillary Clinton was in 2016, and that Obama only lost the state by 2 points in 2008, so if Biden could get close, heâll help Bullock.
Bullock has outraised Daines by about $2.1 million in the first fundraising quarter, and again outraised Daines ahead of the June 2 primary by a nearly two-to-one margin. But Daines retains a $1.6 million cash on hand advantage.
The national state of play: There are now five GOP Senate seats rated as toss-ups: Daines, Susan Collins in Maine, Cory Gardner in Colorado, Thom Tillis in NC and Martha McSally in Arizona.
There are another four Republican seats in play, albeit where they have leads in the polls. Both Georgia senators (Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue), Joni Ernst in Iowa, and Kansas’s open seat could swing to the Dems. That totals nine Republican Senate seats within reach.
Notice that Mitch McConnell (R-KY) isn’t in the Dem’s competitive column.
If you gave money to centrist Democrat Amy McGrath, she’s trailing progressive opponent Charles Booker in the polls for the chance to go against McConnell despite raising $41 million.
Itâs nearly certain that the GOP picks up Jonesâs (AL) Senate seat. Theyâre expecting to hold on to the four seats above, so the Dems would have to win all five of the toss-ups to gain Senate control if Trump won reelection.
That could be a heavy lift. Remember that the GOP gained two Senate seats in 2018, despite the Democratic wave moving control of the House to the Democrats.
Enough calculating about what may be happening in a few months. Itâs time for our Saturday Soother!
The summer solstice is Wrongoâs least favorite day of the year, since the days start growing shorter tomorrow. Temperatures at the Mansion of Wrong look to be in the high 80s to low 90s for the next week, so summer seems to have finally arrived.
In honor of summer letâs make a cold brew. Try The Dredger ($16/12oz.) from Jersey City, NJâs Modcup brewers. The Dredger is said to have a deep toffee like sweetness and a slight fruity undertone. Note that Modcup refuses to sell any coffee 18 days after its roast date.
Now take your cold brew, settle back at an appropriate physical distance, and enjoy the hot sun. Today, you can hear a classic pop song that speaks about the power of “dreamersâ in honor of the Supreme Courtâs decision on DACA.
Here is Carly Simonâs âLet the River Runâ from the 1989 soundtrack of the movie âWorking Girlâ. Simon won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for it. At the link, youâll see throwback haircuts and shoulder pads on womenâs clothes from the 1980s and a few poignant scenes of the WTC:
Sample lyric:
We’re coming to the edge
Running on the water
Coming through the fog
Your sons and daughters
Let the river run
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation
Come, the New Jerusalem
 Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Great Falls, VA – photo by Zev Steinhardt Photography. These falls on the Potomac River are about 15 miles west of DC.
A few distressing stories about police and their relationship to our society came up in the past few days. First, the NYTreported on a claim that anti-police employees at a NYC Shake Shack restaurant had “intentionally poisoned” three officers who ordered milkshakes.
The story was initially broken by the Detectivesâ Endowment Association in New York, who claimed on Twitter that the officers had been targets of an attack:
âTonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack…â
The NY Police Benevolent Association (PBA) chimed in, insisting that the attack was part of a larger, nefarious anti-police crusade:
“When NYC police officers cannot even take a meal without coming under attack, it is clear that [the] environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level. We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment.”
Numerous media outlets then reported that NYC officers had been poisoned on purpose.
But, the story was misleading. NYPD found that no crime had been committed. The problem may have been that the milkshake machine wasnât properly cleaned. Eric Boehlert:
âThe false story played right into a right-wing fantasy portrayal of police critics and the Black Lives Matter mindset â the idea that activists are plotting ways to poison and kill members of law enforcement….the mainstream media is too quick to buy into the false portrait and to embrace bogus stories that support that characterization.â
So much paranoia. Who knew police are such snowflakes?
The WaPo reported that Vince Champion, the southeast regional director of the International Brother of Police Officers said:
âThis is not an organized thing, itâs not a blue flu, itâs not a strike, itâs nothing like that…What it actually is, is officers protesting that theyâve had enough and they donât want to deal with it any longer.â
The âblue fluâ is a de facto police strike in which a large group of officers simultaneously call in sick. Essential state employees, like police and first responders, are legally forbidden from actually walking out on the job in many jurisdictions.
These police are protesting about no longer being automatically above the law in Atlanta. This is a form of extortion by some police who fail to perform their duty; it is another form of abuse that is being shown by elements of the police in our nation. Trump gave them air support on Fox News:
âI hope he [the former officer] gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country…â
Once again, the myth that police are the real victims persists. The road to reform will be long and torturous. We will not succeed in reforming the police by calling it âdefunding”, or “reimaginingâ them. We have to start by taking away their military style weapons and by holding them accountable for their actions.
In other words, we have to defang the police.
Law enforcement has simply been allowed by towns and cities to rot. The problem has lasted because people of color are the policeâs primary targets. White people aren’t harassed by the police anywhere near as much as people of color. So if something doesn’t affect you, you tend to ignore the problem, or do nothing to eliminate it.
Cops and their supporters keep going on and on about the supposed “good apples”. Yet those supposed good cops seemingly keep protecting the “bad apples”. How is it possible for them to be “good cops” when they keep protecting the bad guys.
We have to start by DEFANGING the police, but it wonât be easy.
Letâs remember that the last person to successfully break up the police was Sting.
Genesee River, Letchworth State Park, 60 miles southeast of Buffalo NY â photo by Donnelly585
Trumpâs crusade against Vote by Mail is hard to explain. He of course, votes by mail. And, thereâs every reason to believe that in the battleground states, he might benefit from it. From the Washington Monthly: (brackets by Wrongo)
âAccording to the Florida Department of Stateâs Division of Elections, [in 2016] 1,080,808 Republicans cast their votes by mail compared to 1,053,254 Democratsâ a net advantage of 27,554.â
Trump ultimately won Florida by about 113,000 votes, not a truly significant margin going into 2020.
Trump world is taking what their leader says about vote by mail very seriously. The Detroit News reported that this happened last Friday:
âPeople burned letters informing them that they can vote by absentee ballot in future elections during a protest near Grand Rapids. The applications were burned…during an event called Operation Incinerator….Many people had flags, shirts and signs showing support for President Donald Trump and Republicans.â
The protestors were offended that Michiganâs Secretary of State mailed absentee ballot applications to all registered voters. They may have been misled by Trumpâs false claim that actual ballots were mailed instead of what was mailed: applications for ballots.
But, itâs widely believed on the Right that making voting easier benefits Democrats.
Many Republicans also believe it will make it easy for the Democrats to commit voter fraud. This belief has also been stoked by Trump. And yet, Pennsylvania voters got mailers from the Republican National Committee encouraging them to apply to vote by mail. The flyers described the option as âconvenient and secure.â
At stake for both Parties is what an expansion of mail-in voting this summer means for the November election. If more people vote by mail now, they will likely prefer to vote the same way in the fall. Trump has said:
âMail ballots, they cheat. People cheat.⊠Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because theyâre cheaters.â
Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are all vital to Trumpâs reelection, and he is sabotaging himself in each of them. Itâs important to remember that Trump won those states by a total of just 77,000 votes. Those states all have subsequently amended their election laws to be more permissive for absentee ballots.
Floridians may be less influenced because so many there are already used to voting by mail.
It seems to be an article of faith on the Right that voter suppression is a key to victory, but that seems to have backfired in Georgia. Urban polling stations were subject to serious problems. So youâd think that making urban voters wait several hours to vote would discourage them, that many would give up and leave.
âDemocratic turnout in Georgiaâs primaries skyrocketed â with three times as many votes cast in the Senate primary as in 2016. With 91 percent of the vote in as of Friday, nearly 960,000 voters had cast ballots in the Democratic Senate primary race won by Jon Ossoff, compared to 310,000 who voted in the Senate primary in 2016.â
It appears that for every Georgia vote the Republicans tried to suppress through active and passive means, they somehow created several more actual votes! This result doesnât make their tactics any less odious, but it calls into question whether as constituted, they actually will work in November.
Itâs hard to see a scenario where Trumpâs campaign against vote-by-mail wonât make it harder for him to win, particularly since he seems at cross-purposes with many local Republican organizations.
If his lying messaging helps to limit him to one term, please proceed Mr. Trump.
Bright Angel Trail, in the middle foreground, Grand Canyon NP â photo by glowrocks
The chickens are coming home to roost. Michael Flor was originally the longest-hospitalized COVID-19 patient. Somehow, he survived. He came close enough to death that a night-shift nurse held a phone to his ear while his wife and kids said their final goodbyes.
Today, heâs recovering at home in West Seattle, WA. Thatâs the good news. The bad news is that he just got the bill. From the Seattle Times:
âThe total tab for his bout with the coronavirus:…$1,122,501.04, to be exact. All in one bill thatâs more like a book because it runs to 181 pages.â
More from the Seattle Times:
â…the charge for his room in the intensive care unit was billed at $9,736 per day. Due to the contagious nature of the virus, the room was sealed and could only be entered by medical workers wearing plastic suits and headgear. For 42 days he was in this isolation chamber, for a total charged cost of $408,912.
He also was on a mechanical ventilator for 29 days, with the use of the machine billed at $2,835 per day, for a total of $82,215. About a quarter of the bill is drug costs.â
Those charges donât include the two weeks of recuperating he did in a rehabilitation facility.
Since Flor has Medicare, it is unclear how much he will actually have to pay out of pocket. Further, since Congress set aside more than $100 billion to help hospitals and insurance companies defray the costs of the pandemic, itâs possible that Mr. Flor may not have to pay even the out-of-pocket charges normally billed by his Medicare Advantage policy, but that remains to be seen.
The insurance industry has estimated treatment costs of COVID-19 could top $500 billion, so unless Congress steps up with more money, co-pays for COVID will soon become injurious.
One outcome of the pandemic may be that America takes a closer look at universal health insurance. There are many detractors in Congress, but the sticker shock that so many families will see from COVID-19 cases may restart the discussion. Medicare for all could work: A single payer with a set system of prices would be good for employers and employees alike.
It will be hard. Universal health insurance is such a tough problem to solve that only 31 out of 32 developed nations have managed to do it.
A second issue for today is the killing of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta over the weekend. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
âOfficers were called to the restaurant after receiving a complaint about a man asleep in his vehicle, which forced other customers to go around his car to get their food at the window. The man, Atlanta resident Rayshard Brooks, was given a field sobriety test, which he reportedly failed…â
Brooks grabbed a copâs Taser. More:
â…surveillance footage from the Wendyâs appeared to show Brooks turn toward the police and attempt to fire the Taser as he ran away. Thatâs when the officer chasing Brooks pulled out his gun and shot him…â
Tasers are a form of de-escalation instead of using firearms. The Taser momentarily incapacitates, but ultimately doesnât threaten life. So shouldnât it follow that if a suspect steals a copâs Taser and threatens to use it, the cop canât just shoot him dead since heâs being threatened by an ultimately harmless weapon?
The cops had his car, itâs likely they knew where he lived. They could have picked him up at any time. Instead, they killed him. The police tried to do something, the suspect resisted, and in the heat of the moment, the cop escalated to show that heâs in charge. It was a terrible reason to kill someone.
Time to wake up America! We have both out-of-control policing and out-of-control capitalism harming our society. To help you wake up, listen to Sly and the Family Stoneâs 1969 song, âEveryday Peopleâ. This is Playing for Change again, along with Turnaround Arts students. Trust Wrongo and watch:
Sample Lyric:
Sometimes I’m right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I’m in
I am everyday people, yeah, yeah
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Ooh, sha sha
We got to live together
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
Of course there was racism back in 1968, but the musicians were preaching integration. Despite the racism back then, people were optimistic. Compare that to today.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Is âDefund the Policeâ a gift, or a curse for the GOP?
Irony is lost on the police:
The fight continues:
Wrongo is somewhat conflicted about the statues. OTOH, the Confederacy only lasted for five years. It isnât Ireland where families lived and died fighting for their freedom from England for centuries. The band Nirvana lasted two years longer than the Confederacy. People who say theyâre proud of five years of an ancestorâs life really are just white supremacists. They should stop pretending there’s something else they like.
Spring in Grand Teton NP, WY â photo by MaxFoster098
Posting on her Instagram, AOC answered a question that read: âWhat does an America with defunded police look like to you?â AOCâs answer:
âIt looks like a suburb…â
She continued:
âAffluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing etc. more than they fund police. These communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police but b/c they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime.
Why donât we treat Black and Brown people the same way?â
Words to live by.
On to the issue for Saturday. From the WaPo: (brackets by Wrongo)
âFederal officials responsible for spending $660 billion in taxpayer-backed small-business assistance [PPP Loans] said Wednesday that they will not disclose amounts or recipients of subsidized loans, backtracking on an earlier commitment to release individual loan data.â
Since 1991, the Small Business Association (SBA) has previously released detailed loan information for the federal 7(a) program, on which the PPP is based. More from WaPo:
âThe SBA initially intended to publish similar information for the new coronavirus-related loans. An SBA spokesman told The Washington Post in an April 16 email that the agency âintend[s] to post individual loan data in accordance with the information presently on the SBA.gov website after the loan process has been completed…â
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is saying that the Treasury Department wonât disclose the recipients of more than $500 billion in bailout money delivered to 4.5 million businesses through the PPP, because that the information is âproprietaryâ and âconfidentialâ.
âIn one sense, of course, the money is âproprietary informationâ and weâre the damn proprietors. Itâs our damn money.â
According to filings with the SEC, nearly 300 publicly traded companies received $1 billion in stimulus funding. That led to a subsequent ruling from the SBA that public companies with access to credit elsewhere didnât qualify. Many of those businesses subsequently returned the money, although the SBA has declined to say exactly who, or how many did so.
The reversal on disclosure comes amid a waning belief that the $2.2 trillion pandemic relief package approved by Congress in March will be subject to any oversight. The GAO, which is responsible for preparing a mandated report on the relief spending by the end of June, has requested loan data for both the PPP and a separate program for economic âdisasterâ loans, but has not been told if or when their request will be honored.
Republicans are not even trying to hide their true intentions any more. The overlap of people who believe in “small government” and people who do not object to Trumpâs handing out $500 billion in unmarked bills is total.
But, weâve had enough body blows for one week. Time to take a few minutes, and escape from all of the worldâs chaos. Itâs time for our Saturday Soother.
Weâre expecting a beautiful weekend in Connecticut, and Wrongo hopes thereâs fine weather wherever you are reading this. Start your weekend off by brewing up a cup of Ethiopian Suke Quto coffee ($19/12oz.) from the Greater Goods Roasters of Austin, TX. This is the fourth time they have been featured in the Saturday Soother.
Now, settle back in a physically-distant chair in the shade, and listen to Playing For Change (PFC) perform Marvin Gayeâs âWhatâs Going Onâ. The message in his song is as relevant today as it was in 1971:
PFCâs focus is to record musicians performing in their natural environments as part of a series called âSongs Around the Worldâ.
Sample Lyric:
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Ya, whatâs going on
Ah, whatâs going on
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Morning surf casting, Nauset Off Road Beach, Orleans MA – May 2020 photo by 
