Black man and mask don’t mix

Last Sunday I mentioned that I was starting work on my garage. I’ve pulled down the rest of the old paneling. A couple decades ago a friend said the reason why people put up paneling is because they have something to hide. And they did. I found a couple large holes in the walls, making me wonder what previous owners were doing in the garage – kickboxing?

I also found an electrical box up near the ceiling. It has a wire coming in spliced to a wire going out. I have no idea what for. My brother, the handyman, says such a box should not have been hidden under the paneling. So now I need to buy a cover for it.

I spent much of the evening on the phone with that brother, which is why I’m not writing much this evening. Now that the paneling is down I need to order drywall mud – and while I’m at it primer and paint and everything else I’ll need. As I perused the Home Depot website I had an important question: How much of this stuff do I need? Brother was able to guide me into appropriate amounts. So tomorrow I’ll put in an order and sometime I’ll be notified to go to the store to pick it up.

I heard the weather forecast for next week. Alas, much of the week will be too cold for drywall mud.



A little bit of news:

Another 6.6 million people applied for unemployment over the last week. That’s about 17 million in three weeks. State unemployment systems were swamped – they’re used to a quarter million in a week. Meteor Blades of Kos says this economic shutdown prompted by the coronavirus is showing weaknesses in the current unemployment system. Several progressive groups are now putting out proposals to fix it. Blades lists a few put out by the Brookings Institute. I’ll let you read them.



Aaron Thomas, a black man, wrote for The Guardian, saying he didn’t have an actual medical mask and realized an improvised mask would likely be deadlier.

I, a black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandanna covering the greater part of my face if I also expect to walk out of that store. The situation isn’t safe and could lead to unintended attention, and ultimately a life-or-death situation. For me, the fear of being mistaken for an armed robber or assailant is greater than the fear of contracting Covid-19.

David Corn, in Mother Jones, asks: Will Trump and His Enablers Ever Face Accountability for the Coronavirus Massacre?

They misrepresented the threat. They disregarded experts. They did not prepare adequately. And thousands of Americans died.

And they got away with it.

The implementers, cheerleaders, and enablers of the catastrophic Iraq War were never punished for their actions. It’s not too early to wonder if Donald Trump and those who joined him in discounting and downplaying the coronavirus threat or who were part of his lethal mismanagement of the crisis or who echoed his false statements and absurd claims of winning will ever pay a price for conduct that has led to a current death toll of 12,000, which could end up a magnitude of order greater.