A fireman and an arsonist shouldn’t meet in the middle

I downloaded Michigan’s coronavirus data this morning. This is the third week in a row in which the number of new cases per day has gone up The high four weeks ago was 1150 new cases in one day. In the last week there was a day the state topped 1900 new cases. Deaths per day has stayed under 25 for two weeks. Four weeks ago Gov. Gretchen Whitmer eased some restrictions, such as opening indoor seating at restaurants to 25% capacity, then 50%. She and the GOP controlled legislature are still battling it out with them withholding money from vital recovery efforts until she gives up her emergency powers, which she isn’t doing. Some guy in the legislature said something about the state should promote personal responsibility – which is what caused the big spike in cases in November. I’m pretty sure the cases per day will go up until the number of people in the state who are vaccinated is enough to start curbing the spread of the virus. That makes me think the Legislature is making a last attempt to sicken and kill off as many people as possible before we’re all vaccinated. Fortunately, Joe Biden says that we should get enough vaccinated people in three months. I’m sure Sen. Ted Cruz was being snarky when he tweeted a picture of Biden with the phrase “Boring but radical.” Leah McElrath responded:

“Boring but radical” is kind of ideal for a politician, to be honest.

Others replied boring is good and ready for that to be a campaign slogan. Monty 61 added:

Boring But Radical is perfect. Boring = not seeking media attention every minute of the day, but actually doing the hard work that needs to done to put Democracy in America back together. Radical=not waiting for the GQP to get onboard to pass wildly popular legislation.

Responding to an article in the Washington Post Greg Sargent tweeted:

“Democrats should have done more to win bipartisan cooperation” is not a policy-neutral or ideologically-neutral observation. It necessarily embodies a preference for one policy/ideological outcome over another one.

Hoarse Whisperer added:

Ya know, this is elegantly simple and yet it never occurred to me in this simple way. Criticizing a lack of bipartisanship implies that a lesser policy position would have been a better one. A fireman and an arsonist shouldn’t meet in the middle.

Back on February 28 Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa, in a Gaslit Nation podcast said what they think of Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney who has been given the nasty guy tax returns. I later heard the term “justice porn” – giving people the indication that justice is coming, but never intend to deliver – and think the term applies to what Kendzior and Chalupa were talking about. In response to a tweet gloating that Cy Vance had those tax returns and would soon give out punishment, Ben Franklin tweeted:

the endlessly gullibility of our side to trust people who don't deserve to be trusted, like cy vance, is very soul crushing. we're not getting any smarter over time and this will be used against us time after time again. even worse, there are sponsored content accounts who are being paid to tell us that Cyrus Vance, the guy who accepted a bribe to leave the trump kids alone and who spent his career covering for VIP sex criminals, is a hero who will save that day. do you see what's going on? ... Once you understand that there is an active effort to keep us pacified by hyping up saviors, none of whom ever come through and hold the bad guys accountable in an impactful way, using a stable of paid shills, the tactic loses its power. Think.

Responses to Franklin’s thread say that Vance has decided not to run for another term. Hunter of Daily Kos wrote about the efforts of Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to bring a civil rights focus to transportation issues. That started with an acknowledgment that highways had been deliberately built to eliminate black neighborhoods. Along the way Hunter wrote:

First and foremost, however, is that our highways are no longer a physically sustainable infrastructure plan no matter how much money we throw at them. ... In American metropolises, the space devoted to roads, highways, garages, parking spots, setbacks and related structure takes up so much space that it makes the islanding of each neighborhood a fiat accompli. You could not walk to a grocery store or other services even if you were motivated to do it, but need a car simply to drive past all of the infrastructure devoted to cars between you and it. Mass transit becomes less viable because the roads and parking spaces have imposed a cap on population density surrounding each stop, stretching out the fabric of each city and forcing transportation planners to either put an interminable number of people-collecting stops on each line or to decide that the majority of each neighborhood will simply not be served. We need our cars just to navigate all the spaces in America devoted to cars.

Commenters suggest the work at home trend, hastened by the pandemic, might also ease transportation issues.