Hey, everybody. How was your long weekend?
I slept in. I made some pork chops with some amazing fruit I picked up Saturday at the Palm Springs Certified Farmers’ Market. I took a lovely, mask-on walk through downtown Palm Springs. I had drinks—socially distanced—with friends in a backyard. So, all in all, it was pretty good.
Well, except for the parts when I watched members of our community pointlessly tear each other to shreds on Facebook.
Look … I get it: We’re all facing down a series of interconnected threats that are truly life or death matters: The virus, the effects of the lockdown, livelihoods, etc. This is serious shit.
But … does going on social media and attacking each other really do anyone any good?
I personally find the reopening process to be scary and exciting and disturbing and wonderful all at once. I am scared that it may be happening too soon. I am excited to see out-of-work friends getting their jobs back. I find it disturbing to see pictures of throngs of people in close proximity without masks. I find it wonderful to drive through parts of our valley and see life again.
I’ve never had such mixed feelings before about anything. Really. I suspect a lot of you feel the same way.
Regardless: It would behoove us all to remember that, save a few psychopaths and ne’er-do-wells, all of us are on the same team. We all want to be able to get together again. We all want jobs and stores and concerts and gatherings back. All of us want the same things.
When we forget that we are on the same team and want the same things … well, not only are the resulting attacks causing angst and doing nobody any good; they’re playing right into the hands of the people who want to see us fail. According to Business Insider:
As parts of the U.S. have lifted shutdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a fierce argument online about the risks and benefits of reopening. New research suggests that bots have been dominating that debate.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers analyzed over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 and related issues since January and found that roughly half the accounts — including 62% of the 1,000 most influential retweeters—appeared to be bots, they said in a report published this week.
Wash your hands. Wear a mask. And be kind. Please. We really are on the same team here.
Today’s news:
• The big state headline: California will allow churches to reopen—with extreme restrictions, including a 25 percent cap on capacity for at least the first three weeks.
• The Washington Post today published a major story on the U.S. meat industry … and it’s not pretty: More workers are getting sick, and shortages may get worse.
• From the Independent: Matt King talked to the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert, the Coachella Valley History Museum and the Palm Springs Art Museum for an in-depth piece on what people can expect when they’re finally allowed to reopen. Two take-aways: Two of the three likely won’t reopen until the fall—and things will be quite different at all of them when their doors are open again.
• Protests demanding that the state reopen are, in some cases, getting larger—with a large dose of white supremacy thrown in, according to the Los Angeles Times.
• OK, let’s see here … the CDC has issued a new warning, and it’s says … holy crap, now we have to be on the lookout for hungry, aggressive rodents?!
• The New York Times analyzed where people were dying of COVID-19, and how those places voted in the last presidential election. The results may surprise you—and they may help explain the political divide developing over the reopening processes around the country.
• I am just going to type this headline, shake my head, sigh and then go make myself a cocktail: “More than 40% of Republicans think Bill Gates will use COVID-19 vaccine to implant tracking chips, survey says.”
• What will be in that cocktail, you ask? A mixture of Bulleit rye, a delightful shrub I made out of fresh strawberries, and a little bit of club soda. If you don’t know what a shrub is, Independent cocktail expert Kevin Carlow explains in this informative column from our archives.
• The Trump administration has announced its big testing plan: Leave it up to the states, pretty much!
• Fear of the virus is causing some people to skip needed medical procedures—up to and including forgoing needed organ transplants. The New York Times explains.
• NBC News reveals that the Trump administration is often awarding government contracts not based on merit, and with little to no oversight.
• Man, this pandemic is hurting sooo many businesses … including the drug cartels!
That’s enough for today. Join me, please, in a toast to the brave men and women who have died fighting for this country. Be safe. Wear a mask. If you can spare a buck or two to support fine local journalism like Matt’s museums piece, Kevin’s cocktail-shrub primer and this Daily Digest, please consider becoming a Supporter of the Independent. Oh, and one last thing: Please be kind! We’ll be back tomorrow.