- Quarantine Day 73
- Another 2.1 million first-time unemployment claims.
- Livermore cases: 50
- Alameda County cases: 3,007; deaths: 93
- U.S. cases: 1,698,000+; deaths: 100,400+
The CDC has now recorded over 100,000 U.S. deaths due to COVID-19.
Trump posted some factually false information on Twitter and Twitter marked it with a “Fact Check” link. Which made Trump absolutely lose his mind claiming Twitter is taking away his freedom of speech. A hard argument to make since Twitter explicitly didn’t remove the false information, just added a mark next to it.
But Trump is turning this into a rallying cry for his base about how the “big bad tech companies” keep “suppressing conservative viewpoints.” By which he means calling out lies and banning bigotry on their private platforms.
It’s funny how the conservative position is that private businesses shouldn’t have to sell a cake to someone if they don’t like the genders of the people ordering it, but other private businesses should be required to allow users to spread lies and bigotry. So Trump decided the best way to preserve his not-under-attack-freedom-of-speech by signing an executive order with the goal of infringing the freedom-of-speech for private businesses who don’t like spreading his drivel. It surely won’t go anywhere, but it makes his base happy that he’s “sticking it to those liberals.”
This is generally the same group of people that are also now losing their minds that some stores are requiring face masks and refusing service to persons not wearing one even in areas that do not have temporary, mandatory-face-mask laws in effect. This is also, somehow, an attack on their fundamental freedoms. Because, again, apparently private businesses should be allowed to discriminate so long as only other people are being inconvenienced by it. The hypocrisy drives me nuts.
They’re also losing their minds in the places with temporary, mandatory-face-masks laws in effect, but at least there it is a government restriction they’re mad about. It’s still extremely stupid to be trying to equate a piece of cloth that helps slow the spread of a deadly disease with being put in internment camps, but that’s what they’re claiming.
I’m so sick of the proud ignorance that’s gained such a stronghold in the country. It’s not anything new, Asimov was complaining about it in 1980, “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” But it sure feels like within the last 10 years it’s really stood up and said, “We’re ignorant, proud of it, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
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Dragon Strike update: Last weekend Jess and Heather played through Gambler’s Pass, ending up fallen into the Red River when the dragon burned down the bridge they were standing on. They woke up in Emrin, rescued by townspeople. After recovering they attempted to deliver the package they’ve been carrying to Reginald only to find him murdered. They helped the captain of the guard investigate the crime and identified a suspect who disappeared in a flash of light and a puff of smoke. This weekend they need to head out to the cemetery to try to find and apprehend the suspect.
On Monday I made a citrus chiffon cake which came out really well. I didn’t take a picture though and it’s almost gone now. It was also really hot this week. 105F on Tuesday, 101F on Wednesday, but now it’s cooling down for the weekend.