The governor is not amused.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t bring the BFH* yesterday. But she pointed to the drawer where she keeps it and said, “A lot of y’all lookin’ like nails to me.”
No real surprises there. New Mexicans are acting like The Bug® has had its ass kicked. Nope. The caseload is rising, the numbers are even worse in a couple of neighboring states, and any further tiptoeing toward what passes for normalcy around here has been put on hold.
This is bad news for Herself the Elder, who would like to see some relaxation of restrictions on assisted-living centers. She’d enjoy an in-house sitdown with Herself, or maybe a short outing for some shrimp fried rice, that sort of thing.
Nope again. Not this week. Not as long as New Mexicans insist on wandering around in clusters with their faces hanging out, acting like preschoolers who won’t eat their vegetables.
The gov’ is sympathetic, to a degree. She sez to us she sez: “We do have isolation and COVID-19 fatigue. Everybody wants this to just go away.”
And despite all evidence to the contrary, she said she remains “cautiously optimistic … assuming people wear their masks and limit their traveling around in their communities. Let’s do this together.”
But she kept glancing at that drawer.
* That would be the Bravo Foxtrot Hotel, a.k.a. the Big Fucking Hammer.
Mad Blog Media 
July 2, 2020 at 9:02 am |
Herding cats is never easy. The Plaza is on my route out of town when I do the Tour de Foothills and I see a lot more people and a lot fewer masks milling around downtown. I think two things are happening. One, battle fatigue. Two, younger people don’t take The Bug as seriously as we old farts because statistically, they don’t have the comorbidities and they don’t get as sick, so there is the “what, me worry?” syndrome.
I’m of two minds, as usual. I don’t want to get The Bug, don’t want to keep old folks locked down, but I don’t want to hammer down on all those other people at low risk of ending up in an ICU indefinitely. At some point, we need to have a real conversation again and look at other options to keep the transmission rate down rather than The Governor ruling by decree. I’m a little sick and tired of one person rule. Especially since both Grisham and Kunkel are lawyers, not medical experts.
Some things that are low value need to stay locked down. Having a bar full of drunks at one foot intervals is idiotic. Especially these days when the younguns are all meeting by various social media platforms anyway. In places where we have no choice but to go (supermarkets, etc) keep the shopping density down. The question to me is whether covid is the new normal and if so, we are in for a long haul and I can’t see the government using that hammer indefinitely without severe constitutional repercussions.
July 2, 2020 at 9:27 am |
I think the goal has been to avoid the sort of body count that spirals into a real threat to our way of life. Whether the gov’ (or anyone else) has been successful in that regard remains to be seen.
But it seems to me, as an outsider, that the health-care system is like the bike business — or any other business — in that it is set up for “just-in-time delivery.” It can’t handle an explosion in demand.
When a shop runs out of stock that’s tough shit. You’re just gonna have to wait for your gravel bike. But what happens when the ICU runs out of beds, ventilators, etc.? Start stacking ’em up in the corridors, or send ’em home to infect the kinfolks?
The whole mask deal was intended to buy time, right? Keep the hospitals operating below capacity and the body count down, give the wizards a chance to create a potion? What’s so onerous about that?
Selfishness and shortsightedness are not survival mechanisms. The right to swing one’s fist ends at the other fella’s nose, or should.
That said, some detailed examination of the society we’d like to save is in order. What’s worth keeping, and what do we consign to the hazardous-waste receptacle of history?
July 2, 2020 at 9:54 am |
The “flatten the curve” was to keep ICU and ventilator space available rather than having the old Human Wave Attack to capture the hospital and mortuary. This was in the hope we would either come up with a fix or herd immunity while we kept the transmission rate down. I haven’t heard much lately about the success of either but the transmission rate here in the Land of Entrapment went from about 1 to 1.2.
Your last paragraph is what I was getting at in my last paragraph. If this is to be a major paradigm shift, it has to be something we examine with that old idea of public discourse, not a periodic “do as you’re told” whether it be a Dem or a GOP Fearless Leader. Unfortunately, our part time legislature meets infrequently for their annual circle jerk or for special sessions that the Fearless Leader controls.
My main problem is that I can see the idiot coming down the street weaving his car while texting, as I just did while walking the dog. I can’t see those fucking particles coming at me. So self preservation is tough on a good day.
July 2, 2020 at 11:26 am |
Thing is, this should never have been a response led by individual states, counties, or localities. That’s a recipe for a clusterfuck of epic proportions, which is what we got. A plague doesn’t care whether you’re from Tucson or Tulsa, Republican or Democrat.
This should’ve been a global effort (best) or national (second best). Previous U.S. administrations left playbooks for this scenario. Alas, they assumed that the asylum would not be in the grip of the insane.
“Say, what’s all this rolling downhill into my valley?”
July 2, 2020 at 11:35 am
Yep. This administration tossed that playbook into the round file. Real smart.
July 2, 2020 at 4:37 pm
The biggest fail was thinking that anyone inside the beltway really gives a shit ’bout the common folk. You are useful once every 2, 4, or 6 years. Otherwise, fuck off. Even Fauci is kinda sorta admitting he failed the test early on with the mask debacle. Sneeze in your sleeve right? But, he won’t admit to anything. And he refuses to bad mouth the fearless leader. So, as far as I am concerned he can go pound sand up his ass with the rest of them. As far as the trumpinistas wandering around my hood, if they come up to me maskless, I just tell them I am a nasty old man with a terrible anger management issue, so back up and go away, far away.
July 2, 2020 at 9:26 am |
It’s shitty in Arizona also! Now it up to counties/cities to be the bad guys on masks. Several including Maricopa county did.
Mich better compliance; but not perfect.
Ignorance walking everywhere!
July 2, 2020 at 4:23 pm |
Sierra Vista city council voted earlier this week to mandate masks. But, I see people without them at the grocery and elsewhere, and they are mostly older people. In this state and country of John Waynes, wait, scratch that, Lone Wolves, public health is not a priority. They made science political, just like with climate change, and they don’t care about you or the world. No change, ever, is their mantra. I’m related to 2 of them. So, my interpretation of all of this is get ready for Obama’s death panel. You know the ones the repugs were all excited about. When Arizona runs out of ICU beds, then triage will begin and AGE is a factor. No worries, Arizona has lots of old farts to sacrifice. And if you are selected as expendable, your family can’t sue. Sweet. And the repug governor will approve it.
https://www.12news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/arizona-hospitals-want-more-power-to-decide-who-gets-care-as-covid-19-overwhelms-facilities-staff/75-852d5dd8-097a-441c-be19-da6419c95add
July 2, 2020 at 7:52 pm |
July 2, 2020 at 4:51 pm |
My governor figures this way. At the end of the day, dead is dead. Don’t wanna feel inconveniences or battle fatigue? Try being DEAD that’ll do it. As time marches on over the past 4 decades, Americans have become more selfish and lazy as a whole. It is either the government, governor or even the cops who will have to step in and keep us from shitting in our own bed. Appears as though we are too stupid to be sensible in matters that affect other people. I’m all for beginning to come down hard on those that can’t see fit to wear a damn mask when around others.
It’s not just Covid 19. I get an itchy trigger finger when a guy roars up on a motorcycle at 120+ decibels cause HE loves the sound and looks he gets. Why does HE have the right to infringe on everyone else’s hearing? Or go to a campground about anywhere and find idiots playing rap or usually head banging music at full volume into the wee hours.
Finally before I get down from the rafters, I haven’t heard one single, sensible idea or solution coming from any of the Free-Dumb howlers about how to keep innocent people (like health care workers) from dying of Covid 19.
July 2, 2020 at 7:57 pm |
It’s the “libertarian” mindset, I think. “Fuck you, I’ve got mine, get yours.” Not nearly as poetic as “E pluribus unum.”
“Hey, what is that, Spanish? Speak U-nited States!”
If you were drowning in a sewage lagoon, these FreeDumb® fighters would call you a libtard faggot, toss you a red-white-and-blue anvil, and Facebook Live the whole thing.
And then we have the open-carry shithead who menaces a pet-store employee for following his boss’s instructions and asking Johnny Ringo to wear a mask in the store.
July 3, 2020 at 7:06 am |
And Zuck says, “I’ll live stream it so I can data mine everyone who watches it. Boycott? No worries, we are too big to boycott.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53262860
July 3, 2020 at 7:47 am |
That sure seems to be the case. I still know plenty of people who insist on using Facebutt even though it is clearly possessed by devils. But they’re OK with Zoom, Twatter, and all the rest of it too.
No, thank you, sez I. Already got too many voices in my head.
July 3, 2020 at 11:43 am
As those in the high sierras would say to an egotistical data miner, “Facebook? we don’t need no steenking facebook”. Nope, not for me. Besides, I read somewhere recently that you can catch that nasty conrad-19 virus when viewing certain fazedbook pages. You can get it through your eyes if you are too close to the computer screen. Apparently your ego increases and your skin and hair will turn orange. I sure don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to be “infected”….Nah-ah.
July 3, 2020 at 11:43 am |
As is probably obvious, the voices in my head are mostly pissed off. What to do? Play guitar and drink beer this afternoon. I’m still practicing playing “Hello In There” because those lyrics explain exactly what this country, and I, need right now.
July 3, 2020 at 8:12 am |
it’s because were exceptional. we’re proud of our ignorance. we only learn through pain or money and we got plenty of money and we don’t like pain (unless it’s someone else’s).
July 3, 2020 at 4:11 pm |
Man did you nail it. We only learn or change if our wallets get hammered or someone kicks us in the nads. Notice I said nads since the bulk of our stupidity is male based.
July 3, 2020 at 12:51 pm |
On a different topic, policing. Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviewing Radley Balco.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/885942130/militarization-of-police-means-u-s-protesters-face-weapons-designed-for-war
July 3, 2020 at 1:05 pm |
I listened to that episode. It is not encouraging. Obama was putting the brakes on that program, but the dumpster reversed it. Some Sheriffs in Arizona love that shit.
July 3, 2020 at 4:02 pm |
People love free shit. Well, its free to the cops but not the taxpayer who has to foot the bill for maintaining and repairing an MRAP.
Balco has been a voice in the wilderness on this stuff (1033 program, police militarization, corruption of the police recruiting process) for some time. Maybe now in a post-George Floyd world someone will listen. Nah.