Lil Red Takeout and Catering is black food doing the right thing.
Lil Red Takeout and Catering is black food doing the right thing. Charles Mudede

Gov. Jay Inslee Says: Protests have not increased the spread of of COVID-19 in Seattle. This has nothing to do with how Inslee feels about the protests. It's an observation backed by "strong evidence." But why doesn't COVID-19 spread as easily in a Black Lives Matter protest than it does at, say, a Trump rally? Inslee's guess is it's the almost universal use of face masks by protesters. Nothing of the kind happened at the Tulsa Trump rally that likely killed that sorriest of black pizza businessmen, Herman Cain. (He may now be with the God of all Godfathers.) But why is mask use so prevalent at BLM protests? Because they are about democracy. The men and women on the streets are demanding the enhancement of black American rights.

This Means Two Things: one, it's easier for a BLM protestor to accept the obliteration of individualism that face masks entail (it's not about me, it's about you—I'm protecting you from me). Two, the tendency of the virus is to thrive wherever consumerism is unleashed. COVID-19 loves more than anything else the paradises of American consumption. And this is exactly what the BLM protests are not.

The Wildfires Are Back: One began in Coulee Meadows at around 8 pm, July 29, and within "hours the fire grew to 250 acres, moving through fast-burning sage and grass."

KIRO:

The fire is moving west from Moses Coulee Road through terrain that is making it difficult to fight. Firefighters are working to stop the southern progress of the fire at Olson Road. Level one evacuations are in effect for the area.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, we would like to introduce you to a new member of your disaster family, COVID-19. I hope you all can work something out. Remember, there are only so many humans to go around.

Voters, Stick With the Dem Position on the $600 Weekly Unemployment Benefit: Why is this even an issue? The benefit should be extended without a debate. Have you seen the economy? Here, look at the economy:


There be no V-shaped recovery. The jobs will be in this deep hole until at least April, 2021. The Dems are damn right the reject any offer that does not match the seriousness of the present situation. The GOP will, of course, say the Dems are the ones messing up things, holding up the money. But do not begin a matter of this kind in the middle (debating how much the benefit should be) but at the beginning (why is this a debate to begin with?).

Seattle Times:

With aid expiring, the White House offered a short-term extension Thursday of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump’s team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis.


KOMO Is Sad to Report: What a new poll shows: "More than 50 percent of people support defunding Seattle Police Department." How could this be possible? Can you imagine a world without police officers, without the protection, their honor, their heroism? How ungrateful city people are. But, as I alway say, begin at the beginning:

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If You Can Talk, You Can Breathe: That's called the science of policing:

While We Are in Arkansas: White filmmaker Rob Bliss set up a simple trap (a Black Lives Matter sign), in Harrison, Arkansas (the KKK capital) and caught a hella racists in motion. Washington Post has the story here.

Well, hot diggity damn!

Hong Kong Does a Trump: Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam has dealt what might prove to be the “most unkindest cut of all” on the dying body of the city's democracy. She has postponed the Legislative Council elections for a whole year. She blames COVID-19 for the decision.

If You Did Not See this Coming, You Are a Fool: Trump is purposely jamming the postal services two month before the election.

CNN:

Postal workers and union leaders are worried that new, recently implemented procedures — which have led to delays across the country in mail delivery — could impact mail-in voting for the November election, according to a Washington Post report.

Citing multiple postal workers and union leaders, the Post reported that parts of the country are experiencing at least a two-day delay in receiving mail, including for express mail, as a result of the US Postal Service's new policies.

The current backlog is worsening to the point where workers fear they won't be able to locate all voters' ballots in time for them to be processed, the newspaper reported. The new procedures for the USPS were laid out in a memo earlier this month and come under the leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a longtime Donald Trump supporter...

The problem is not that this strategy will work or not. (It likely will not.) The problem is Trump is burning everything down to the ground to stay in the White House. No institution is out of his reach: the mail service, Homeland Security, the Constitution, the State Department, the Department of Justice. When he loses in November, what will be left of the United States?

The Coronavirus Fooled The GOP By First Ravaging Blue States: This is exactly what happened. In the beginning (and always begin your thinking there), the virus spared red states while it spread in blue states. The White House saw in this difference a way out of the crisis that required very little effort (no national testing, no emergency industrial production, no nothing but the sitting on hands) and possible political gains.

The US was reopened for business with the idea that the economy would be revived while the virus continued to ravish cities and states ruled by the enemy, the Dems. Jared Kushner was behind this plan, which, of course, did not work. Something in the virus (its DNA?) seemed to switch on (viral quorum sensing?) in major red states right when things were cooling in blue states and infection rates in the South went to the moon. This is the substance of the new Vanity Fair story: "How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan 'Went Poof Into Thin Air'"

Portland's Planned Parenthood Needs Your Uterus: If you have been exposed to "mystery Fed/Cop gas," that is.

Lil Red Takeout and Catering: Go there. I went there the other day and ordered takeout (oxtail, jerk chicken, sides) and, while eating at home, was made very happy during a very sad time in history.