Big Bastard Buys Big Boy Camera

A couple of months ago, so right-wing nincompoop asked me, "How is Brandon working out for you?"  I responded that I was doing well, that the high gas prices (still much lower in the US than in the rest of the world) weren't affecting me that much because I drive a small car, live in a region with top-notch public transportation, and dwell in a neighborhood in which I can conduct the vast majority of my errands (and recreational activities) on foot.  I made fun of MAGAs for driving oversized pickup trucks with immaculate beds because they were invested in performative masculinity to cover their insecurities.

I have to note that I am still doing well in the Biden Economy, well enough that I was able to indulge in some crass consumerism... I actually bought a good camera, the sort of camera one buys when one wants to learn the rudiments of serious photography.  Here is a picture of the camera, a Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR (say that ten times fast), taken with my cell phone camera:

My primary reason for purchasing this camera is the presence this year of some really spectacular birds at my various worksites.  I figured I owed it to them, to my readers, and to myself to take better photographs of them, and the other fauna and flora onsite.  

Right now, I am learning how to use the camera as a camera, and hope to learn how to use the camera as a data storage/transfer device in the coming days.  Hopefully, I'll have some good photos by week's end.  In the meantime, one of my coworkers (the all-around Good Guy who takes care of Ginger when she's on medical leave) is very knowledgeable about photography, and told me to ask him for advice anytime.  Another coworker told me that she had a similar camera sitting in her office, and needed to practice how to use it effectively.  I joked to them both that we should form a workplace camera club.

Thank you, Brandon!

Upper Class Twit Sends Warning

There are few people on this planet worst than the UK's Prince Andrew, serial sex pest and all-around disgusting person.  I have to note that one of his exes is pretty bad as well... a certain Lady Victoria Hervey a paranoid gun nut who totes a gun around Los Angeles because she is terrified of the proles committing crimes against her.  In a particularly disgusting bit, this member of the UK nobility has a warning about proposed post-Uvalde gun control measures:

Lady Victoria said the Texas shooting was 'terrible' but claimed taking the right away  [to carry guns] 'could be disastrous'.

She controversially claimed: 'It could lead to mass genocide if the government was to go to war against its people.'

Mass genocide, eh?  Of whom?  Countless millions of Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Irish, and Bengali people couldn't be reached for comment.

Perilous Pride

Given the fact that right-wingers in the US have tried to spark a new satanic panic, featuring LGBTQ Americans (transpersons in particular) as the current scapegoats,  researchers monitoring the far right have warned that Pride events could be under attack this year.

In Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, this is precisely what happened, as various far-right groups decided to menace a Pride event.  In a surprising, though heartening, turn of events, the police (not known to be simpatico with LGBTQ persons or, indeed, left-of-center individuals) actually arrested members of neo-Nazi group Patriot Front, who had apparently brought weapons to the vicinity in a rental truck.  Thirty-one fascists were charged with conspiracy to riot.

Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote an in-depth article on far-right efforts to turn Idaho into a fascist fiefdom, also appearing on the QAnon Anonymous Podcast to discuss this issue.  Put succinctly, Idaho has a serious neo-Nazi problem, but I have no doubt that other Pride events in smaller cities nestled in the bosom of Trumpland could also face potential attackers.  Fascists disrupted a Pride event in Dallas last weekend.   Here in the NYC metro area, there is a critical mass of LGBTQ individuals and their allies that I'm not overly concerned about Pride events here, though such attacks certainly occur even in the most gay-friendly neighborhoods.

It's depressing, this Culture War which once seemed won by tolerant people, has been jolted back to life, pushed by righty media giants as well as neo-Nazi edgelords.  I don't believe the regressives will win, but I'm sick of the fact that these 'last gasps' never seem to be the end of the bullshit.  Stay safe, people, protect each other, and defy these assholes with every fiber of your being.

Sanctuary in NYC's Southeastern Suburbs

The Biden administration still manages to surprise me in pleasant ways, such as the proposed creation of a marine sanctuary in the Hudson Canyon, an underwater trench approximately 100 miles (180 kilometers) southeast of New York City.  The Hudson Canyon originated as the former mouth of the Hudson River, carved out by erosion during the Ice Age, when ocean levels were lower than the present levels.

The video from NOAA concerning this announcement is gorgeous:

A few years back, I attended a special presentation at Yonkers' own Hudson River Museum which celebrated the Hudson River, including a topographic representation of the New York Bight, including the Hudson Canyon.  The Hudson Canyon also came up in a couple of Secret Science Club lectures, one by Columbia University's Dr Vicki Ferrini about mapping the ocean floor, and one by Dr Mercer Brugler of CUNY's City Tech about using submersibles to explore the ocean depths.  It's gratifying to see the Biden Administration moving to protect this region, so close to the metro area I love so much, and the interesting, diverse residents of this suburban neighborhood.

Career Advice

Yesterday, I received a phone call from an old friend, a guy I'd gone to high school with.  He's a hapless sort... every friend group seems to have one of these, but generally well meaning.  He called me to tell me that the CVS chain of drugstores was administering COVID vaccine booster shots.  Readers of mine will recall that I had already gotten my COVID booster on Monday.  Like I said, he's generally well meaning.

In the course of our conversation, he decided to give me some career advice, even though he's been unemployed for four years.  THANKS, BUD!  Although he's never heard me complain about work or money in all the years he's known me (I had a big mop of curly blond hair when we met back in MUMBLEMUMBLE), he told me that he thinks that I would get higher pay and a better benefits package if I took a job at the Yonkers Raceway Casino.  Please note that he has no idea what my pay and benefits are like.  I noted his concern, and told him that I preferred working in a position which gives me a lot of outdoor time in the fresh air, observing the flora and fauna, and (when she's not out on sick leave with a cone) playing with a delightful cat (Ginger should be out for another week-and-a-half) than working in a windowless building, probably in a dark room watching camera monitors for the subtle hints that someone is tampering with a slot machine.

Of course, he's not the sort of person who ever takes advice himself- for instance, a mutual friend told him to pare back his resume to one page, and even offered to edit it, but he declined her offer because he thinks that someone in a Human Resources department cares about his high school extracurriculars.  Yeah, he's smarter than everybody around him, as is evidenced by the sound decisions he has made throughout his life.  Every friend group seems to have one of these guys.

As an aside, the pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to this guy- he was just about to lose his last unemployment extension when COVID hit, and he was able to receive a pandemic-related continuation of his unemployment benefits.

Gonna Catch up with the Hearings Later

This morning, the DJ on the local commercial music station made an offhand comment about having to use the split-screen feature on his television to watch the Rangers playing in the NHL conference finals and the 1/6 hearings simultaneously.  Me?  I'm taking a night off for bar trivia (it's my weekly ritual with good friends, well, ONE weekly ritual with good friends, along with a weekly online game night).  I figure that I can catch up later, no matter how important it is... we'll be dealing with the aftermath of 1/6 for years to come.

The importance of the hearings into 1/6 can be gauged by the responses that even 'polite' Republicans have to it- via Tengrain, we have the oleaginous David Brooks:

Using the events of Jan. 6 as campaign fodder is small-minded and likely to be ineffective. If you think you can find the magic moment that will finally discredit Donald Trump in the eyes of the electorate, you haven’t been paying attention over the last six years. Sorry, boomers, but this is not the Watergate scandal in which we need an investigation to find out who said what to whom in the Oval Office. The horrors of Jan. 6 were out in public. The shocking truth of it was what we all saw that day and what we’ve learned about the raw violence since.

Yes, David, the horrors of Jan. 6 were out in public, but the networks that put those horrors into motion were not out in public, and that's what the hearings are about.  The big players who funded the insurrection and transported the perpetrators are still out there, still in positions of power.  Damn right, the events of Jan. 6 are campaign fodder.  Hell, the campaigns of politicians who participated in the insurrection in any way should be suspended, and the roles of those politicians cannot be ascertained without the hearings.

I'm sure it will be riveting television, but a ritual is a ritual, so I will have to watch it in reruns.  At any rate, I think I deserve a night off.

Conservatism Kills

Put succinctly, Conservatism kills.  Sure, right-wing policies towards firearms kill, but the culture of death goes even deeper, on a more basic level.  There is currently a 'mortality gap' between heavily Democratic and heavily Republican counties and it is widening. 

The team compiled data from more than 3,000 U.S. counties in all 50 states and found mortality rates decreased by 22% in Democratic counties but dropped only 11% in Republican counties, according to the study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal.

This gap is apparent across a wide range of pathologies, medical and social:

Mortality rates in Democratic counties dropped from 850 deaths per 100,000 people to 664, but in Republican counties, mortality rates declined from 867 to 771. The mortality gap widened across leading causes of death in the U.S. including heart disease, cancer, drug overdoses and suicide.

Democratic counties also saw greater reductions in deaths from chronic lower respiratory tract diseases, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease.

The driver of this mortality gap is a disparity between health incomes for white Democrats and white Republicans, with health outcomes being better for white Democrats.  Black and Hispanic Americans tend to have worse health outcomes than white Americans, but their death rates are falling more rapidly than those of white Republicans.  

The Affordable Healthcare Act, aka Obamacare, played a role in the decreasing mortality rate in Democratic leaning counties, but personal choice also plays a role.  Democrats are more likely to engage in healthy habits, such as receiving vaccinations, exercising (we love our bike lanes), and eating well (unlike Republicans, we don't think that eating vegetables is 'gay' and don't see hamburgers as a lifestyle).  

As a progressive, I really want to see an improvement in longevity and quality of life for all Americans, but if Conservatives insist on remaining in a death cult that is killing them, can't they speed things up in time for the November midterms?