House Party 2020
House Party 2020 gorodenkoff/gettyimages.com

The New Shaming: The New York Times reports that "it only took a few student parties for a coronavirus outbreak to spin out of control at the State University of New York at Oneonta." Now, because of these students who love partying too much, the school has "more than 500" virus cases and has to cancel in-person courses. "Despite the diligence of the vast majority of our SUNY Oneonta students, faculty and staff," said Jim Malatras, SUNY’s chancellor, "the actions of a few individuals who didn’t comply resulted in the spread of Covid-19 over the past week.”

It is now a thing for newspapers to wag their headlines at students who refuse to sit down, study hard, and return to and stay in their dorm rooms for the whole night. But how are students to blame for the fact that the people elected by a large number adults in 2016 have failed to contain and control a virus whose effectiveness was well understood over six months ago? There were nearly 200,000 new virus cases in the US in the first week of September. There has not been a day in this month that has not seen 1,000 Americans die from the virus. And now there is a model that predicts 400,000 US deaths by December if nothing of substance is done about the pandemic.

But guess what? 50 percent of white Americans still support Trump and will vote for him and GOP Senators who will continue to place the economy above the value of human life. How can you look down on students from the way things are right now? What did they do wrong? If our leaders can't fix the virus, what's so bad about throwing parties? Do not blame the students. Blame only those who refuse to do what it takes to make COVID-19 a thing of the past.

That Said: These students must go back home and prepare for a long winter. Nothing doing, son. Sorry. We will not let you play sports this fall and winter. Maybe summer of 2021. And that's a big maybe. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Get that straight and play Madden NFL 21.

The Seattle Times reports:

[High school quarterback Milton Hopkins, Jr.] and about 120 others gathered at the Capitol building Thursday evening calling on the governor to make sure teams could play this fall. The rally came after a petition — started by the Student-Athletes of Washington (SAW) and signed by more than 28,000 people as of Thursday — asked Inslee to allow school sports.

Not Wearing a Mask?

Trump Is Praising Job Report: Despite that the fact it's showing a deceleration of job growth. July added 1.8 million jobs. June had 4.8 million. At this pace, the economy needs about 12 more million-jobs months to return to something that looks anything like 2019. But the pandemic, which is still raging and bound to get worse with the reopening of schools, is going to make the job market recovery Trump has in mind impossible.

Want to Know Why a Bunch of People Are Suddenly Reading Ijeoma Oluo's Viral Essay on the Most Famous Spokanoid of the Previous Decade, Rachel Dolezal? CNN: "[Jessica A. Krug, a] professor of African and Latin American studies who portrayed herself as Black has now revealed she has been lying... She is White."

Those Smoky Skies Are Here Again: And here for the long weekend. And here because the end of the world as we know it is just around the corner.

WA Campers and Hikers: Though officials are asking that you be responsible and all that, please stay home during Labor Day weekend. It's just not one bit worth it. These are those kind of times.

Seattle, Do Not Worry About Amazon: Bringing "another 10,000 jobs to Bellevue." Bellevue is pretty much Seattle.

No One Cares About Trump: Making "disparaging remarks about fallen World War I troops and John McCain in 2018." Trump is loved not because he is patriotic, or because he's a job-creator, or a faithful husband, or a God-fearing man. His people love him because he knows how to upset the ultimate enemy of the GOP's base, urban liberals.

KOMO:

President Donald Trump said in a tweet Wednesday evening his administration will "do everything in its power" to defund Seattle and other major cities due to ongoing protests.

"My Administration will do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking Federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses. We’re putting them on notice today."

The GOP's base will never let go of a leader who says/tweets things that urban types find frustrating because they are so absurd. There is in these soul-small people a lifetime of joy to be had in the production of urban annoyance.

Again, Fuck the Police:

Oil Is Doing What Now?

Why the fall? According to Bloomberg it's the king of everything happening in 2020, Covid-19. The virus is dragging production down around the world, and also people in rich countries are flying and driving less.

Let's End With: The great Tony Baker. The video he uses is for me something of a metaphor for the American worker. It's not the hand that feeds the frogs that's a problem to the frogs, but the one who gets the one worm first. Let's think about that during Labor Day weekend.