I’m getting a reminder of why I like my own four walls and a top floor apartment in this motel room. Somebody upstairs has been banging around since around 3 a.m., walking heavily on my ceiling.
I mean, really, at three o’fucking clock in the fucking morning? At least I’m caught up now.
COVID-19 Pandemic
To the best of my knowledge, I still haven’t gotten COVID-19 despite ongoing exposure to folks who fervently believe that vaccine and mask refusal demonstrate fealty to Donald Trump and a lot of others who just don’t give a damn anymore.
Although I’m fully vaccinated and double-boosted, the protection offered by vaccines against the latest variants is decreasing, and so I suppose it’s possible I’m ‘super-immune.’ My history is that I just don’t get sick—not common colds, not the flu, not any of this shit.
But I was only tested for the first time the other day, in preparation for the trip I’m now on, driving across country to visit my aging and presumably much more vulnerable mother (who thankfully also hasn’t caught COVID-19, to the best of our knowledge). And there is that nagging—‘haranguing’ might be a better word—possibility I’ve merely been asymptomatic. Of these possibilities, only ‘super-immunity’ is mentioned—dismissively—in this Washington Post article.[1] So what’s really going on here is we don’t know if I’ve been infected.
I’ll be tested again in Sacramento, just prior to arrival at my mother’s house.
Ellen McCarthy, “Meet the covid super-dodgers,” Washington Post, July 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/21/no-covid-yet/
Gilead
Gun nuttery
Hannah Wiley, “Newsom signs gun law modeled after Texas abortion ban, setting up Supreme Court fight,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-22/newsom-signs-gun-bill-modeled-after-texas-abortion-ban-setting-up
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Jon Allsop, “The January 6 committee revolutionizes democratic storytelling,” Columbia Journalism Review, July 22, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/january_6_committee_review.php
David Lauter, “Jan. 6 hearings have wounded Trump, and more decline may be ahead,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-07-22/jan-6-hearings-have-wounded-trump-more-decline-may-be-ahead-essential-politics?sfmc_id=1348269
Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri, and Eric Tucker, “Jan. 6: Trump spurned aides’ pleas to call off Capitol mob,” Associated Press, January 22, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-panel-hearing-3e3dc618ed8cee37147cf6a792c0c0fa
Spencer S. Hsu, Devlin Barrett, and Katie Mettler, “Steve Bannon found guilty in Jan. 6 contempt of Congress trial,” Washington Post, July 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/22/bannon-january-6-trial-friday/
- [1]Ellen McCarthy, “Meet the covid super-dodgers,” Washington Post, July 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/21/no-covid-yet/↩