Shutdown Diary
The latest stats from Washpo are not great:
As I write, the rolling 7-day average has zoomed from a recent 11K or so to over double that, including nearly 38K the most recent weekday. How ironic, with widely available vaccines, we are seeing surges in a number of red (especially MO) and purple states (e.g., NV and FL). Still, vaccinations are down double digits and barely above 1 dose for 1% of the population for the week. Still, we're approaching nearly half the population fully vaccinated.
I'm getting increasingly irritated at purely dumb political kerfuffles, like Tennessee's suppression of youth vaccination outreach (below). I was thinking of embedding a second video on misinformation affecting vaccination rates, but it was overly general, not debunking specific Internet rumors and the like. Now even though as a libertarian, I have been particularly incensed at government overreach, including Draconian economic shutdowns, during the pandemic, facemask politics, and the like. But I really have tapered down, say, strident videos by Ron Paul, Tom Woods and others. Tom Woods, now a Florida resident, has particularly been pushing the virtues of Gov. DeSantis and repetitiously praising the comparative rankings of Florida's lesser regulated state; Do you think he's going to address why Florida's daily caseload has nearly tripled recently? Now, to be honest, Florida is consistent with national vaccination statistics, although significantly fewer are fully vaccinated.
Now most libertarians I know have been tight-lipped over whether they're vaccinated (I've publicly mentioned I've been); I wouldn't be surprised if they have, but don't want to undermine their public positions, e.g., against vaccine mandates, passports, etc. Rand Paul and Tom Massie have refused to vaccinate, citing prior exposure to COVID-19. I have not posted much on the talking points against mandates and passports, because I think that you do not have a moral right to impose your contagious disease to other people, some of them with highly vulnerable health issues. It's not so much whether you are accepting the risk of COVID-19 to your own health, but you could (even unknowingly) spread the infection to others.
I had finally exploded on Massie who vented against rumors of a DoD policy to mandate vaccines in the active military. Dude, this is in the aftermath of the USS Theodore Roosevelt where the number of infected spread from 3 in March 2020 to nearly 1200 about 6 weeks later. You don't think that affected the carrier's mission? Of course, a vaccine wasn't available then. If you agree to join the military, you waive certain rights; you can't disobey lawful orders, decide against overseas assignments (say, in malaria-infected areas). You may live in cramped quarters like a sub. As I've written from personal experience, even gaining weight can land you in a mandatory Fat Boys program. There's an overriding construct of readiness for military duty. Massie was having about military people wanting to quit over taking a jab or two. Seriously, dude? Soldiers like the late John McCain suffered torture as a POW. Bob Dole had limited use of his right arm and lost a kidney. You would take a bullet to save your buddy but not a jab to protect him from potentially fatal COVID-19? I don't mind a fellow lihertarian disagreeing with me, but using his MIT academic credentials to undermine effective COVID-19 vaccines? He's influencing other, unvaccinated people who can get infected, even die!
Readership Stats/Notes
"A watched kettle never boils." I've had weird experiences and complaints over the years with Blogger states. There are improbable stretches of time over the years where I get no blog hits/pageviews/impressions for literally hours at a time--more recently, a 7-hour stretch.. Now when you get up to a few dozen pageviews a day, it doesn't mean they occur at a uniform rate over time. For example, I notice a blip of a few hits shortly after publication. But usually I see an occasional hit or 2 every couple of hours or so. So I'm not sure what exactly is going on; maybe they're doing maintenance on statistics databases; maybe my reader base does go through dry spells for God knows what reason; maybe my account is being restricted. But then, e.g., after work, I checked on my prior 18 hours or so and saw 20-odd hits, disappointing. And then a refresh just minutes later, and it exploded to over 100 pageviews. Not sure what happened; a tweet crossover?
On a more positive note, almost all posts since late May have reached double-digits (eventually). I'll be honest and say I wish my essays would do better than 2-3 dozen readers, but I'm grateful for those who take the time to sample my content.
Twitter is a different beast. They have an annoying habit of interrupting my latest Twitter tweet stats page by reminding me I can review each tweet's stats. (It isn't like I obsessively refresh the page, and I do often manually check individual tweet stats.) It's hard to describe if and when I get triggered on Twitter. Over the past day, I found a bookseller cartel was trying to blacklist some book from Regnery Publishing on trans people on politically correct grounds, even refusing to identity the volume. Familiar readers know I strongly dislike boycotts and often announce buycotts. E.g., during the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis, I deliberately filled up at BP gas stations supporting franchisees who had nothing to do with the oil spill. So in the case I quote-tweeted the bookseller tweet, identifying the author, title, and a link to purchase the book directly, arguing First Amendment and tolerance for trans. I got a fair number of impressions, maybe a few dozen. But then, all of a sudden I couldn't find the tweet on my summary page. Had Twitter removed my tweet? Not exactly. But I had to dig to find it in my archive. And then I found the original tweet "wasn't available". There could be a variety of explanations: they could have deleted the tweet, they could have blocked me (it wouldn't surprise me), they could have protected the tweet, Twitter itself might be censoring me or at least that tweet. (One of their favorite suspension tactics is to let only your followers view your content during the suspension period. At last count I had 7 followers, so that's not going to go far.)
One of the latest Twitter trends involves a revelation of how the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have responded to a Trump coup attempt. I think this was on a George Conway trend. I just exploded at the idea of a coup attempt, suggesting career military would have taken out Trump's crony Chiefs, if not Trump himself. At last check, it pulled in almost 670 impressions. Did I know that for a fact? No; it's all speculative. But all military members take an oath to uphold the Constitution. and there's no one who didn't know Biden had won the election by the US Constitution. Oh, I know a significant number of military active duty/veterans voted for Trump (exit polls showed a 52-45 Biden advantage). But few vets I know put man over country. We'll probably never know for sure, but would the military repress the very people they had sworn to protect, obey the orders of a Traitor-in-Chief? I don't think so.
Life's Little Problems
I got a rude surprise the other day. I'm not going to identify the vendor other than to say it was a "healthier foods" company and I had placed a $50+ plus order with them some time back. No complaints but no immediate plans for a reorder. When all of a sudden I got an email acknowledging my recent reorder and providing a tracking number for my shipment. Say WHAT? I immediately went to the website and couldn't log on. Now I'm pissed; am I really going to have to call my credit card issuer and dispute the charge?
Well, I learned a lesson: read all your emails first. The vendor sent out a follow-up email saying that some emails were sent by mistake; don't worry: your credit cards weren't charged, etc. I've done Internet transactions since before the turn of the century, and no company has ever made this type of a mistake before. I give them credit for acknowledging the problem quickly.
