July 1, 2020

visualization of the COVID-19 surge in the US

go to link to see US map with the surge areas:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

July 1, 2020

realtor group drops description "master bedroom". will use "primary bedroom"

https://www.newser.com/story/292965/realtor-group-will-stop-calling-bedrooms-master.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top

A realtor group in Texas says it is going to stop using the word "master" to describe bedrooms and bathrooms because of the term's association with slavery. The Houston Association of Realtors says its listing service will now use the terms "primary bedroom" and "primary bath," CBS reports. The group says the change was first considered many years ago, and some homebuilders have already stopped using the term "master bedroom." The group said in a statement said some members considered the term racist, other thought it was sexist, and the "consensus was that Primary describes the rooms equally as well as Master while avoiding any possible misperceptions."

"The overarching message was that some members were concerned about how the terms might be perceived by some other agents and consumers. Based on the discussion that took place, more members viewed the terms as sexist than racist, although some did view them as racist," the group said. The association said it hasn't completely banned the term "master" and members will still be allowed to use it in marketing materials. CNN notes that "master" is also being discontinued in other fields. The Court of Master Sommeliers says it will stop referring to wine stewards as "Master," followed by the last name, but will use the full title "master sommelier."

July 1, 2020

wild brawl at Arkansas restaurant over social distancing

A police report obtained by the news outlet says that a restaurant employee saw a woman wearing a face mask telling two others that they were sitting too close. That worker also claimed that the same woman purposely coughed on other customers.

Cellphone footage shows a woman seated at the bar area tell two men “you’re supposed to be six feet away from me,” before the melee exploded.

According to witnesses and the police report, a man seen in the video wearing a USA shirt then deliberately got even closer, escalating the sitatuion.

The boyfriend of the woman wearing the mask then apparently hit the man with a bottle before dozens of people wound up involved in the brawl, witnesses said.

https://nypost.com/2020/06/30/wild-brawl-erupts-in-arkansas-restaurant-over-social-distancing/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

July 1, 2020

"Most Presidents would try to stop the United States from barreling toward disaster"

Most Presidents would try to stop the United States from barreling toward disaster. But Donald Trump has nothing to say and no answers to mitigate a calamity unfolding on his watch that he seems resolved to ignore.

On the day when the government's top infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci said he would not be surprised to see the US record 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, Trump refused to break his deafening silence.

And the day after his White House described record-breaking new infections that are sweeping the nation as "embers that need to be put out," Trump's campaign claimed credit for the "phenomenal" success of his botched pandemic leadership.

Trump is now pretty much the sole figure in authority in either party -- including his major Republican allies -- who refuse to wear or endorse face masks that are proven to slow the spread of coronavirus but that he has stigmatized as a liberal plot to harm him politically.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus/index.html

July 1, 2020

Huntington Beach restaurant stirs controversy online with anti-mask stance

https://www.ocregister.com/2020/06/29/huntington-beach-restaurant-stirs-controversy-online-with-anti-mask-stance/

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Basilico’s Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach has announced on social media that it opposes asking people to wear masks in public, eliciting both applause and boos from customers.

A red circle with a line drawn through it, superimposed on black-and-white graphics displaying two masked faces, appeared on Facebook on Sunday, May 31 with the hashtag #nomasksallowed. It had garnered more than 44 mixed comments with 71 shares on Facebook and 35 likes on Instagram by Monday, June 29. On Monday the restaurant posted a combined image on Facebook of an American flag and the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled snake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”

On Facebook, two fans also posted American flags and “Don’t Tread on Me” images, showing support for the restaurant, which framed no masks as a patriotic policy. One foe countered with “Don’t tread anywhere near Basilico’s. Give them a wide berth, and instead tread on over to some other Italian restaurant in HB.”

Tony Roman, the restaurant’s owner, stood by the policy online. “Another hit and run coward hiding behind your masked user account and probably your mommy’s dress too,” he wrote in a comment to one social media naysayer that was posted on Yelp by Jonathan Milliken, who handles the restaurant’s social media accounts. The comment was later reposted on Facebook by someone else.

July 1, 2020

Trump Is Boring Now, and He Can't Do Anything About It

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/trump-boring-now-and-he-cant-do-anything-about-it/613654/

Trump Is Boring Now, and He Can’t Do Anything About It
Season 4 of The Trump Show just doesn’t have the zest and sparkle of the previous seasons.

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And Trump’s reaction to it all has been typically self-absorbed and, well, uninteresting. It’s one thing to remind people that the economy is great under one’s watch, quite another to remind people that the economy used to be great under one’s watch—a little bit like Icarus running for reelection on having once flown high. It’s one thing to boast of having done a lot of coronavirus testing, quite another to run on whining that there has been too much coronavirus testing.

When the president is outrageous these days, many people can’t even be bothered to muster outrage. On Sunday morning, Trump approvingly retweeted (and then un-retweeted) a video in which a supporter of his shouted “White power!” several times. The clamor was lucky to make the Sunday talk shows, before fading away by midday. Even grotesque offensiveness is old news.

And Trump knows how important it is to entertain. He has admitted that he has tried to create his persona so as to grab attention. At a 2018 rally in Pennsylvania, in fact, he once riffed that the reason he didn’t act more “presidential” was because it would turn away audiences. “You know . . . how easy it is to be ‘presidential’?” he asked. “But you all would be out of here right now. You’d be so bored. . . .If I came [here] like a stiff, you guys wouldn’t be here tonight.”

Indeed, Trump’s instincts about the presidency rely pervasively on the idea that the president should be entertaining. The country, in Trump’s view, needs to be constantly entranced by the president, or at least the president—if he is to be effective—needs to constantly be entrancing the country.


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Yes, the Trump show still has its core fans, and a lot of them don’t seem to notice that Season 4 just doesn’t have the zest and sparkle of the previous seasons. But outside the fandom, a lot of people have stopped watching. And the ratings are down.


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The White House seems to be road testing some efforts to revive the ratings. Most prominently, Trump has zeroed in on debates over the removal of Confederate monuments and other statues of historical figures with racist legacies. He sent out 15 tweets broadcasting efforts by the U.S. Park Police to identify protesters who vandalized a statue of Andrew Jackson that sits near the White House—some of which he then retweeted days later. And he signed an angry executive order on “Protecting American Monuments,” which had little practical effect but lambasted “left-wing extremists” as adherents to Marxism. Announcing how “tough” his administration has been toward protests over statues, he described to Fox News’ Sean Hannity his feeling that “we should let people know we’ve arrested a lot of people.” Meanwhile, Axios reports that the Trump campaign is attempting to tie Biden to these protests by suggesting that the former vice president is too weak to keep statues from being toppled—a somewhat strange argument, given that the statues have come down under Trump’s own watch.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/trump-boring-now-and-he-cant-do-anything-about-it/613654/