Guest Blogger on the Novel Coronavirus

 

For just the second time in its nine-year existence, Frank-Incensed welcomes a guest blogger. I first met Ed Butdorf years ago when we both found ourselves in Las Vegas. Ed’s brother Doug was a work colleague of mine for several years, and Ed and I spent a day together while Doug was working a trade show. We have been social media friends ever since. He is 50 years old, an electrical contractor from the rural Ohio town of Wooster, and a husband, father, and avid outdoorsman. Significantly, he had no underlying conditions prior to his infection. Ed is the second of my friends to become critically ill with Covid 19, and he detailed his experiences in a series of Facebook posts. With his permission, I have lightly edited them and reformatted them into a single (and extremely compelling and emotional) blog post. Take it away Ed!

 

 

Infection

 

October 30th: I woke up feeling ill. I had a low-grade fever (in the 99.5 range). I had not yet been able to get out for a flu shot and had assumed that perhaps I managed to grab a case of the flu. My body was a little achy, but nothing too serious. I stayed home in bed all day and tried to recover.

 

October 31st: This day I woke up to a higher fever and I was starting to feel considerably worse. My fear that it might be Covid was setting in. I am one of the very fortunate people in this world who is not only a patient of my doctor; he is also my friend. I hated to do it but I texted him and he called me back quickly (I think he understood my concern). He told me to come to the office on Monday to get swabbed and we would find out for sure if it was Covid. I have in the past had some issues with sinusitis so my doctor prescribed some antibiotics just in case it was a sinus infections. He also gave me a steroid because that was a good thing if it turned out to be Covid. I spent the rest of the day in bed with fever and fever-related issues (body aches, etc.) I was able to get downstairs to watch the Buckeyes with Brenna and Manny. Please understand that we were as smart as we could possibly be around the house during this time of not knowing. All wore masks and stayed 6+ feet apart.

 

November 1st: This day was pretty much exactly like the day before. I couldn’t keep my fever down so I started taking 2 Tylenol every 8 hours and also taking 2 Motrin on alternating 4 hour shifts. This was generally enough to keep it down around 100.5 or so. I was able to go downstairs to watch the Browns game but as I recall, I spent a lotof time asleep. Body aches and fever just made me want to be asleep.

 

November 2nd - November 5th: I got up on the 2nd and felt pretty much the same. I drove to the doctor’s office and a nurse came out to the car and swabbed my nose. I felt the same way and used the same treatment regimen of Tylenol and Motrin for the next few days. I mostly slept. I finally got my test results back late in the day on the 5th. I was Covid 19 positive. I was feeling very scared. So much uncertainty and danger. Hopefully I am young and healthy enough to survive this without serious lifelong problems. Hopefully I won’t end up on a respirator. I had so many terrible thoughts racing through my mind at this point. I was unbelievably concerned that I would infect Brenna or Manny and kill one of them. The emotional distress, guilt and anxiety were nearly unbearable.

 

November 6 - November 11th: My condition continued to decline. The fever became more and more difficult to control. Brenna was a saint! I could have very easily just accepted death at this point but she continued to nurse me and encourage me. I could not have done it without her. When we sent Jake off to college, we were very concerned about Covid and so Brenna bought a couple of pulse oxygen monitors. One for the house and one for Jake to take to school in case he started feeling ill. I monitored my blood ox level very closely and tried to control the fever. I felt AWFUL and most of my time was spent sleeping. There were times when I would feel a little bit better for a few hours but then I would revert back to feeling shitty again. My blood oxygen level was slowly starting to drop and I was doing everything I could to keep it up. My respiratory therapist friend Renee (a saint, by the way) told me to keep using the spirometer that I had brought home from my foot surgery because it would definitely help. I did, I used it and there’s no doubt that it prolonged my time at home before going to the hospital. Ultimately on the evening of November 11th I woke up in the night and couldn’t breathe. I checked my pulse ox and it had dropped to 86 while I was sleeping. It was time to go to the hospital. Brenna loaded me up and hauled me in. 

 

 

Hospitalization

 

November 11th: Brenna dropped me off in the middle of the night at the WCH (Wooster Community Hospital) ER. I didn’t realize that this would be the last time I would get to see her face for the next several days or I would have taken a picture or two. My blood ox level was down to 86 and my fever had been getting up to the 102-103 range. The amazing people at WCH ER quickly hooked me up to about a million machines and started to stabilize my oxygen level very quickly. I remember that even as my ox level came back up, the machine continued to beep at me because my breathing rate was too high. It was like I had been jogging and couldn’t catch my breath even though I was just laying there. It was very scary. I got hooked up to an IV and they started drawing blood and doing tests right away. It seemed like they drew about 20 vials of blood and then I was told that the policy is to be redundant so they then started all over again. I have no real idea what all they were testing me for. At this point I just didn’t care. A little while later the radiology folks came in with a machine and gave me a chest x-ray. This confirmed that I had viral pneumonia. At this point the decision was made that I needed to be admitted to the hospital in a regular Covid room. Once I got to my room the regular team of doctors started to come and check me out, talk about my test results and treatment options. First came the hospitalist, she explained my situation and who my team was going to be. Next was the pulmonologist, he explained that Corona isn’t really a lung issue but a circulatory issue and that this was not going to be an easy battle. He ordered a CT scan of my lungs to better assess what was happening in there. Turns out I had a lot of “Covid crystals” and blood clots. They immediately added a blood thinner and blood pressure pill to my medication list. Last came the infectious disease specialist, who explained the disease and the experimental treatment options available including Remdesivir and the convalescent plasma. At this point I was unbelievably tired and just wanted to sleep. I was starting to feel a little relieved because my blood ox level had started to level off.

 

November 12th: As the doctors came through to check on me, I let them all know that if it wasn’t too late for it to be effective, I want to proceed with both experimental treatment options. They all agreed that it was not too late and that we would get it moving right away. The first thing they had to do was draw some blood to figure out my type. In the afternoon the nurses came in with the first of 5 doses of Remdesivir. It is 250 ml of fluid that gets pumped in through the IV. It was supposed to take about 2.5 hours. I think that is right but honestly I slept most of the time. It really didn’t have any side effects except that i seemed to be a little more thirsty than I was before. The convalescent plasma took a while longer to get. The hospital had to call the Red Cross, who finds some blood with antibodies in my type, then they transport it to the hospital and the lab has to spin it into plasma. It was the evening before they hooked up the plasma to my IV to pump it in. I don’t know if it was the combination of the two drugs or just a side effect of the plasma but my body seemed to go into total shutdown mode that night. I remember tremoring in an almost convulsion-like state throughout the night. I barely slept and the nurses must have been pretty worried about me because they were in there a lotthat night. I really thought about calling Brenna and saying good bye because I felt like there was a good chance I would not live. The nurses were the voice of reason here, thank God, because I can’t imagine how bad that call would have been for Brenna. I continued to just try to sleep and not die the rest of the night.

 

November 13th - 15th: After a VERY tumultuous night of not much sleep I was very tired and lethargic. My team of doctors came in to check on me and they all talked about how bad that night was. They explained that the convalescent plasma started a battle in my body between good and evil. It was a serious war being waged in there and it was going to take some time to get through. They were right. The plasma jump-started my immune system and the Remdesivir stopped the multiplication of Covid in my body, but at this point, Covid was winning and it was not going to give up without a hell of a fight. I spent the next couple of days feeling REALLY bad. At times i was ready to just go and be done with it. It was absolutely exhausting. My mind raced with fear and anxiety and guilt. Each day I got some blood drawn to keep an eye on my kidney and liver function and every day I got another dose of the Remdesivir. I continued to feel pretty bad. On the plus side, my fever had come under control which was a great sign that my body was winning the war with the virus.

 

November 16th: I got my last dose of Remdesivir. My fever was staying at bay mostly by itself with just an occasional Tylenol. I was starting to feel like I had turned the corner and would hopefully get to go home at some point soon. I was very relieved!

 

November 17th: I got to go home today. I can’t explain my relief even though it is clear that I am still in for a long road of recovery. I have to quarantine inside the house away from Brenna and Manny through November 20th and I am still on oxygen. When resting I need about 3L to keep my level stable. When I get up and around to shower and so forth I need to crank it up to 5L. As the blood clots and Covid crystals subside in my lungs I should get off the oxygen. I don’t know how long this will take. Could be days, weeks or months. That first night at home I slept 13 hours. It was clear that I needed a good night in my own bed. My dog was incredibly happy to see me. She snuggled next to me in bed and just licked me for almost an hour. It was clear that she knew something serious was wrong. Dogs are amazing.

 

November 18th - 19th: I am still quarantined in the bedroom but feeling pretty good. I have a table up here and am able to do some paperwork for a couple of hours at a time and then I lay down and rest for a bit. My bride has been an absolute saint and brings me up water and food and so forth. I know this has been a tremendous pain in her ass and I can never thank her enough for the amazing care she has offered me. I love her more than anything!

While I feel like I most likely will make a full recovery, I am begging each and every one of you to take this thing more seriously. Wear a mask, wash your hands and stay socially distant. I did all of the above and still ended up with it. I have A type blood so I was more susceptible and suffered worse than many will. Don’t take the precautions for yourself if you don’t want but PLEASE take the precautions for other with similar conditions to mine. If I was 70 and got this I probably would have died. PLEASE don’t kill someone just because you don’t know their blood type! Wear the mask, wash your hands and stay socially distant. You could save a life and not know it. Consider yourself a superhero for saving lives, it really does matter!

The People

 

Now I will talk about the people who helped me deal with COVID-19. This is by farthe most important part of my story!

 

First, I want to take a minute to address all of my friends, family and loved ones. Loved ones are your loved ones because they love you and you love them back; that being said though, it was unbelievably comforting to me to get all of the many text’s, PM’s and good wishes via social media! It was very difficult to sit in a room by myself for many days without visits from loved ones. The Text’s, PM’s, etc. reallyhelped. Even if it seemed like I was being short with only a thumbs up or a quick “thanks”, all of the wishes helped me survive and I appreciate all of you for doing it!

 

Second, I want to offer a big thank you to the housekeeping staff, sanitation people, and even the boiler operator who came to my room and fixed my TV before the NFL games on Sunday. 

 

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, THE NURSES. These ladies and gentlemen are SAINTS! They are ROCKSTARS! They are unbelievably over-worked! They are putting their lives and the lives of their families at risk every single day to come in to a job and take care of the unlucky!!! I can never say enough thanks, I can never do enough to repay their service!

 

Fourth, the doctors: This is a difficult position even for a trained professional. I could sense that they could feel my despair, my anxiety, my loneliness. They too are putting their health and the health of their families at risk every single day. I was lucky enough that my main hospital doctor is friends with my primary care physician. The two of them chatted and thanks at least in part to the fact that my PCP is also my friend, seemed to create a very nice connection between us. It was obvious that she sensed my despair the most. She had also contracted Covid back in April or May and she also has Type A- blood. She also struggled for about three weeks with recovery. She is many years younger than I am and she is in far better physical condition (cross fit nut). She was a breath of fresh air every day. She placed her hand on me every day to reassure me. It really meant a lot. I am forever grateful.

 

Fifth, my friend and saint Renee. To know Renee is to love Renee! She is the kind of person the world needs more of. She is a respiratory therapist at the hospital so she can kind of covertly cruise around there at will. She brought me pictures of my family, she brought me clean underwear, she brought me good tidings from Brenna. She was Brenna’s eyes and ears to my physical condition. The most important thing Renee brought me though was a hug every time she came to see me. It was the only real human contact I was able to have and even though she looked like she was in a movie scene with all of the PPE, it meant more to me than she could ever know. Every time she hugged me I wept after she left the room. Hell, I’m tearing up right now thinking about it. Thank you, Renee, more that I can ever tell you!

 

All of these people had a huge impact on me. All of these people risked their health and the health of their own loved ones to take care of me. This is why we need to be so, so diligent right now. Forget about yourself, forget about your own loved ones, think about these health care providers. Let them live, let them stay Covid-free, let them go on about their lives as painlessly as possible. PLEASE, wear the mask, stay socially distant, and wash those hands as often as possible.

 

Lastly, don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you may have. I am certainly NOT a health expert but if any of my advice can help to settle your nerves, I will be happy to oblige. edbutdorf@gmail.com

Portland, OR

November 24, 2020

 

 

 

 

An Ordinary Joe: The Right Man at the Right Time

Although I was born in San Antonio, TX, into a military family, my parents and grandparents were from Wilmington, Delaware. So I consider myself a native Delawarean, and as such have been very familiar with Joe Biden for many years. I am ten years younger than he, and I attended the University of Delaware nine years behind him. I consider myself an independent-leaning progressive, but nowhere close to a radical leftist. As such, up until early February I believed that the very last thing the Democrats needed in a presidential candidate in 2020 was an old white guy. Of course, like the majority of Americans, I wanted first and foremost a candidate who would put an end to the reign of King Donald I. As I listened to the prospective candidates, I thought there were a few, primarily progressive moderates like Mayor Pete, Amy Klobuchar, and Kamala Harris, who could overcome their relative inexperience and were smart enough to do it by surrounding themselves with experienced players. They were also highly effective communicators who could clearly articulate real policies without being preachy.

I don’t have to tell you what happened next. Our government botched the response to the Covid 19 pandemic worse than literally any nation in the world, and by a huge margin. The subsequent economic collapse, followed by the nationwide, continuing protest of police brutality towards minorities rounded out an unlikely and disastrous trifecta of crises. Our populace is in a state of simultaneous numbness and shock, with people’s reactions being everything from totally ignoring it all (although it’s pretty hard to ignore the economic impacts) to panicked self-isolation. We appear rudderless, not to mention woefully incompetent, to the rest of the world. I’m not going to list all of the honest mistakes, petty disputes and culture warring, and criminal negligence that have resulted in almost 140,000 American dead as of today; far better pundits than I are doing that work daily. We look at other countries’ successes and we still fail to realize that we know how to fix this; we just don’t have the national will to do it. Of course, the leadership vacuum is a huge contributor to our failure as a nation, but we ourselves are most to blame.

So that’s what we lack, but what do we need? Well, let’s imagine that we elected a leader with 40 years of experience in the labyrinthine ways that our government actually works. Who has eight years of experience as our Vice President. Who was hired in that role because of the decades of hands-on experience in foreign policy and cordial relationships with our allies, not to mention the begrudging respect of our adversaries. Of one thing you can be sure: If elected, he will assemble a team of experts in their fields, listen to their advice, tolerate their dissent, and base decisions on carefully thought-out logic and accepted science, rather than surround himself with fawning, spineless sycophants living in daily fear of (and often contempt for) their leader.

Oh, but you say, “What about all his shortcomings; his questionable votes on so many issues; his shameful handling of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in 1990?” Joe Biden would be the first person to admit that he’s been wrong and made mistakes, but even his fiercest adversaries across the aisle never question his patriotism and loyalty. No one can work for 40 years at the highest levels of our government and not make serious mistakes. “But, he’s old and senile, or worse, suffering from actual dementia.” Almost anyone who has followed his career, and certainly anyone from Delaware, will tell you that Joe has been the master of the malapropism since he first entered the senate in 1973 at age 31. A comparison of his current speaking and writing ability with our current president would serve him very well, to say the least. He is in excellent health for his age, exercises regularly, and is not overweight. I don’t call the current president nasty names. I still have respect for the office, though it appears tarnished and cheapened to me, most of my countrymen, and people around the world, to the dismay of our allies and the joy of our foes. 

But there is one outsized reason that I changed my mind about Joe for president, fully acknowledging his mistakes and shortcomings.

And that is empathy. Joe has been through hell and back in his personal life, losing a wife and a one year old daughter just weeks after his election to the senate, and his beloved son Beau to cancer in 2015. Due to these and other experiences, Joe has deep and genuine empathy for all those who are suffering grief and any kind of loss, not just family deaths. He deeply cares about the plight of minorities and women, and is the perfect man to battle the Coronavirus to its knees. He is by nature not a cynical man. He is the anti-Trump when it comes to empathy; that much is indisputable.

It's time we put our faith and our fate in the hands of an ordinary Joe.

Portland, OR

July 14, 2020

(And watch Joe's new Texas ad here.)

Stop Saying “Defund the Police”!

Words matter.

And nowhere more so than in the world of political sloganeering. The truly effective political slogan is ideally just three words, or occasionally four. The slogan is literal, iterative, and must subtly evoke a counter-narrative. This is why Black Lives Matter has been so universally successful in our current national racial moment. It is all of the above. One need look no further than the rhetorical gymnastics of the right-wing punditry to see this clearly. They are tying themselves in verbal knots claiming that there is more to the slogan than, well, what it says. But what it does not say is equally important. It does not say Black Lives Matter More, much less Only Black Lives Matter. Then there’s the popular retort, All Lives Matter! It’s true, obviously, but it lacks the critical implied counter-narrative of Black Lives Matter, which is just that because you need to say it, there exists a certain segment of our society where black lives don’t matter, or at a bare minimum they matter less.

There are plenty of examples of effective political sloganeering. Way back during the Vietnam War, protesters had literally hundreds of slogans, many of them long and confusing (Anybody remember “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”) Out of all of them arose the simplest and most effective: End the War. It checks all the boxes, including the implied counter-narrative that there was something intrinsically wrong with this war that made stopping it necessary. Take a look at Trump’s many slogans, because he and his team are really very good at it. The Granddaddy, Make America Great Again, is four words, not three, but the fourth word is what gives the slogan it’s context and, more importantly, its counter-narrative. How much weaker and unfocused would Make America Great be as a slogan. Never mind that he stole it from Reagan; the powerful counter-narrative is that America has deteriorated and needs to be restored. It plays to several levels of fear and concern among disparate groups of his supporters, as do Build the Wall and even Lock Her up, although less impactfully.

So now we get to Defund the Police. It would be hard to come up with a more ham-handed and inaccurate political slogan. Look at the definition of “defund.” To prevent from receiving funds. Not “reduce funding to the police.” Not “transfer some funding from police budgets to social and mental health programs.” No, the defunding of police departments literally means eliminating them, a proposition that only the most radical left-wing nutjobs and imbecilic anarchists would embrace. Everybody knows that we need police in this country, especially since literally anybody can easily amass an arsenal of deadly weapons with which to commit crimes against persons and property. The right-wing responses in the press and on social media have been quick and brutal (and correct in that literal sense), all principally revolving around some form of “What happens when you are a crime victim and no one answers your 911 call?” The progressive protesters have handed the 2020 Republican election campaign an incredible gift, beautifully wrapped and secured with a big red bow: their talking point to retake the currently faltering support of the elderly and indeed anyone concerned with crime in our country. It makes no difference how many times the media qualifies the slogan by saying it really doesn’t mean what it literally says; the damage is done.

Defund the Police fails on every point discussed above. First, it’s not literal. As noted above, virtually no one wants to eliminate police departments. The argument is that strong words are needed, since people have been blathering about “police reform” for decades as police militarization and racial bias culture gets worse and worse. But coming up with a blunt slogan that in no conceivable way represents what you are actually wanting is ludicrous at best and irredeemably irresponsible at worst. Plus, just as important, there is no implied counter-narrative. None.

There is very good reason why I am not a political slogan writer; I don’t have a three-word answer that implies redirecting some funds, changing police culture, and demilitarizing our police departments by stopping the purchase and utilization of surplus military vehicles and weaponry. If you can think of one, I’d love to hear. Put it in the comments below.

And finally, not to put too fine a point on it, but if your slogan literally says something ridiculous and untrue, why in the hell do you keep saying it?

Portland, OR

June 9, 2020

American Suicide 2020

It should have been a 9/11 moment in America. A WWII-like show of national unity. And make no mistake, there is plenty of “Let’s put our differences and politics aside and work through this together” going on around the nation since the Covid 19 pandemic invaded our land. But there exists a sizable and very angry and vocal minority who have effectively turned a public health crisis and national emergency into another chance to throw one of their juvenile temper tantrums, throwing around words like “liberty” and “tyranny” while having not the slightest clue as to the nuanced meanings of these important concepts. If you ever would have told me that the simple and empirically effective tactics of social distancing and mask-wearing in public would become a political and cultural war, I would have requested that you share whatever you were smoking. But look at the protests, social media assaults, and yes, real assaults that are occurring daily because some dumb, impotent, assault weapon-toting white assholes, who have never tasted real oppression in their lives, are throwing hissy-fits over not being able to visit the barber shop or tattoo parlor. Oh, the tyranny!

Although admittedly suffering a bad case of “outrage fatigue” like most conscious Americans, I truly never thought it possible to rise to the DEFCON 1-like level of total absurdity to which the current administration has sunk. Ignoring specific and repeated warnings from medical experts and scientists from around the world for almost two months, not even trying to conceive, much less implement, a plan to prepare the nation they supposedly serve, and blatantly lying about the nature and scope of the pandemic, Trump and his cult have unquestionably promulgated a disaster of cosmic proportion, the effects of which will be felt for years, if not decades.

And it continues.

Week after week over the last three months, the situation has worsened, and to a degree far outstripping our worst original fears. And we get nothing but lies, incompetence, and stupidity from our so-called leaders. Lies like claiming the virus is under control, that no one could have ever predicted such a thing and blaming the previous administration for their lack of preparedness (the Obama administration left a 69-page playbook literally titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents”), among literally hundreds of others. Incompetence like utterly failing to get out in front of the virus’ spread by aggressively pursuing and implementing a national testing plan, completely botching the acquisition and distribution of PPE and other medical supplies without any kind of coordinated plan, going so crazy far as to have Jared Kushner construct a shadow organization to control said distribution. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but Kushner has zero experience in this field and completely blew the mission.) And stupidity? Too harsh? How about repeated claims that the virus would “disappear like magic”, that “no one understands what the virus is “(we do), and of course, possibly the dumbest thing Trump has ever said – and that’s a high bar – which deserves to be quoted in full:

 "So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you're into that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn't been checked but you're gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that too, sounds interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we'll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that's pretty powerful."

Absent a vaccine or even a proven drug therapy, we know how to confront this pandemic. We know from the success of many other countries, who (all but one, Sweden) have committed to early and aggressive testing, tracing, and isolating, immediate near-total lockdown, and a national commitment to social distancing and mask-wearing. What we have implemented on a completely scattershot basis due to the absence of any national plan has been weak, incomplete, and only partially effective. Where other countries have made a national commitment to eradicating Covid 19 from their nation, our catastrophic failure to act early and decisively has doomed us to mitigation efforts to “flatten the curve.” That this is the best we can do is a direct result of the president’s failure to lead.

And what to make of his constantly changing and frequently contradictory statements on the coronavirus? Searching for some thread of consistency in his typically unhinged remarks and tweets, I have noticed a few things. First, he has never really believed in testing, primarily because it will make his “numbers” look worse. Face it folks, he doesn’t care a whit about you, me, or how many people die. It’s obviously all about his reelection, which looks increasingly unlikely. Second, he is an anti-vaxxer, and has been for years. He has frequently claimed that both testing and vaccination are highly overrated, and that “we may not even need a vaccine.” And third, it is painfully obvious that he does not believe in even the weak and unspecific guidelines that came from his own task force. A very interesting editorial in the New York Times last week by Thomas Friedman (I am not normally a fan) posited: Has Trump Decided to Follow Sweden and Just Not Told Us? Friedman says:

“Sweden has chosen moderate social distancing, keeping a lot of its economy open, while trying to protect the most vulnerable and letting those least vulnerable — those most likely to experience the coronavirus either asymptomatically or as a mild or tough flu — continue to work, get the virus and develop immunity to it. Then, when enough of them are immune, they can sound the all-clear for the vulnerable. That’s Sweden’s strategy, but it is too early to say it’s the right answer.

If you listened to Trump last week you heard a president who was all over the place. One day he talked as though he wanted to follow Sweden in getting a lot of people back to work, even if many more would get infected. Another day, he boasted that we’re testing just like China — only more so. Another day he disputed the need for testing at all.

In brief: Trump talks like China, envies Sweden, prepares for neither and insists that his strategy is superior to both."

I think Trump is trapped. He's doing his best to distract the populace with his shiny objects, the latest and most ridiculous of which is his Obamagate fantasy. He knows there will more deaths, and probably lots more, but he feels that he needs the economy to rebound if he is to have any chance at all in the fall. How else to explain the “opening” of the country, when not a single state has achieved even phase one of the three-phase guidelines provided by the task force. As I’ve written before, the choice between battling the pandemic and restoring the economy is a false and dangerous one. Virtually every expert has decried this move. Even Time Magazine, in their May cover story, weighs in with an article called “There’s a Right Way to Reopen America: This Isn’t It.” But even the liberal media like CNN, as they report the experts’ opinion, will not come out and say the truth: this is suicide for the America we know and love. Plus, the disinformation, already an epidemic on its own, has worsened. Completely predictably, people are already pointing at the lack of a spike in infections in Georgia, the poster child for stupidity in “reopening, after just one week. The incubation period for Covid 19 is up to two weeks. You don’t have to be a scientist to figure out what happens next.

I am typically a glass-half-full optimist, but the only slight ray of hope I see is that maybe enough people will be smart enough to wear masks and continue rigorous social distancing and lobbying their leadership for a real testing regimen for workplaces and particularly schools. In fact, over two thirds (68%) of Americans feel that the states are relaxing restrictions too soon.

Trump famously claimed that he could "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody" and "not lose any voters." Epidemiologists have estimated the 90% of the deaths in the USA form Covid 19 could have been prevented by early action from the national leadership. Today we stand at 86,537 deaths in the USA; 90% of that number is 77,883. To the Trump cult and the conscience-challenged Republican party, I say: Maybe your boy could shoot "somebody" and not lose your vote, but what if he let 77,883 of your fellow American die in loneliness and agony?

Does he still get your vote?

Portland, OR

May 15, 2020

The "Economy" Does Not Exist ...

Many of us are intelligent enough to realize that the choice between health and the economy is a false and dangerous one. It is in no way a binary choice; rather, it is a series of interconnected risk/reward paradigms in which the actions of a few will have far-reaching effects on the many. This Salon article says it best.

Portland, OR
May 2, 2020

A Dispatch from the Left Coast

To say these are some strange days would be the understatement of the century. We are all challenged by this new normal of “shelter in place,” a term which I seriously dislike and is virtually meaningless. How about “self-isolation?” That seems a bit more literal to me. In any case, I have been self-isolating since Friday, March 13^th. 22 days as of today, April 2^nd. I am not quarantined; I have been to the supermarket twice, ditto the liquor store, and go for a walk around our local park once a day, rain or shine. We have also picked up to-go food once a week or so, mainly to support our neighborhood restaurants. It’s been quite the adjustment for a guy who follows the euro model of shopping for groceries every single day, composing the evening meal as I wander the aisles.

As someone who enjoys socializing, I miss our near-daily happy hour glass of wine at The Fields Bar and Grill, a small, upscale sports bar just a block and a half from our Pearl District condo here in Portland, OR. Communication by text, Facebook, and FaceTime has been a decent substitute, and I can’t imagine what it would be like without any electronic communication capabilities. Our daughter has set up a weekly family get-together via Zoom, where we play games, have trivia contests, or share a family dinner, all in the virtual world. Like anyone who has been paying attention, I wish I would have bought some Zoom shares about a month ago!

When the schools first closed and the stay-at-home order for Oregon was issued, I was appalled when, on my daily walkabout, I saw 20 or 25 children all playing in close proximity on the playground, with a dozen or so parents congregating with no regard for social distancing. Then Oregonians started to die, which put an instant end to the cavalier attitudes of some folks. I am extremely proud of my Pearl District neighbors, 100% of whom are taking self-isolation and social distancing very seriously. 

If you feel frustrated by your states’ “doubling rate,” where state-wide cases double every 2-5 days, take a look at the west coast states as illustrated in the graph above. Washington, the first and one of the hardest hit states, has dramatically slowed the growth of the virus, and California is in the process of “flattening the curve” as well. But look at Oregon. As of yesterday, we had over 600 cases of Corvid 19, compared to over 6,000 in Washington state and over 10,000 in California. We have seen 19 deaths in Oregon so far, with none of the deceased under 65 years old (more than 2/3 over 80) and all 19 (100%) had underlying medical conditions. As testing in Oregon has dramatically increased over the last two weeks, the new cases and deaths per day have not doubled, much less skyrocket as i states like Louisiana and Florida. We have yet to have a single day with over 100 new cases, and the cases per day have been fluctuating between 40 and 80 per day, but most significantly have not been going up every single day, and there is, so far, no doubling rate here. At least for now, our curve has been flattened.

Obviously, all that could change very quickly, but there is reason for optimism. I point these numbers out not to gloat over my state’s performance, but rather in the hope of driving home the point that if we all rigorously adhere to the stay-at-home directives and maintain social distancing, there is indeed a light at end of this very dark tunnel.

Stay safe and healthy, all of you.


Portland, OR
April 2, 2020

An Open Letter to a Facebook Friend

Disclaimer: If you think you recognize yourself in some or all of this post, please understand that it is not directed at any one specific individual Facebook friend. Rather it a composite of a lot of the behaviors of a surprisingly large number of my Facebook friends, which I find deeply troubling.- FS

Dear Facebook Friend,

What has happened to you? Although it has been years since we spent any real time together in person, I have followed your life events and learned your opinions on many topics through the magic of social networking. I remember you as always being opinionated, and sometimes strongly so, but you always stayed a respectful conversationalist and someone who didn’t take himself too seriously. Because of this, all of our interactions featured your easy style of humor.

Over the last several years I have been alarmed by the drastic if gradual changes in your tone of voice, not to mention your opinions themselves. You now frequently speak of yourself in the third person. Your posts never begin with “I think …” or “In my opinion …”; rather, everything you say is presented as incontrovertible fact, giving no quarter to, or even admitting the existence of, the opinions of others. In fact, when differences of opinions are acknowledged, they are dismissed as being “stupid,” or the other person is characterized as a “dumbass.”  My friend, these are the classic symptoms of narcissism. Look it up.

You consistently claim to be a staunch defender and admirer of strong women, but under your posts’ attempts at humor lurks the unmistakable odor of cynicism and more than a little sexism, conscious or unconscious. Your avowed hero is a self-confessed sexual predator who has called women the most crude and degrading names. You disproportionately target women in general and women of color in particular for your critical political posts. These are a few of the classic traits of the misogynist. Look it up.

You have chosen to follow your avowed political party down a dark road, blindly supporting a corrupt and fundamentally dishonest leader. Why is this? In my opinion, many of the president’s supporters are longing for simplicity in all things, and embrace a shallow, reassuring worldview. You are a climate change denier. You are fiercely anti-immigrant. You see conspiracies everywhere, no matter how thoroughly they are debunked. From where I sit, it looks like deep inside yourself you realize that you do not possess the intellectual horsepower to deal with the complexities of the real world, which accounts for the shallowness of your reasoning and your parroting of conservative media tropes. You have failed consistently in most if not all of both your professional and personal relationships, and looking at your posts over the years it is painfully obvious what emotion has come to dominate you: hate.

All of this makes me deeply sad, since the friend I remember exhibited none of the above traits. But the saddest thing for me is the perverted, intensely hypocritical nature of your claims regarding religion. The majority of your nasty, hateful posts are directly contradictory to the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly your posts on immigration, welfare, and minorities. The hypocrisy here is so glaringly obvious that it’s hard to believe that your friends (and likely even you if you are at all self-aware) don’t see the creeping cynicism, racism, sexism, and hate that permeates your posts. I can only hope that your God will find a way to open your eyes to these truths, even as your posts become pettier and more misanthropic.

Look it up.

Your friend,

Frank

Portland, OR

March 4, 2020

War and Sin

In the whirlwind of lies, outrages, and catastrophes that make up our out-of-control news cycle, it is no surprise that some of the most important and significant stories get lost or buried. One such story is that of Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher. His actions were so blatantly criminal and murderous that his own men reported him to his superiors. He was accused of the cold-blooded knife murder of a sedated teenage Iraqi prisoner, among numerous other offenses, including a string of indiscriminate killings of unarmed civilians.

He was court martialed and eventually – and quite suspiciously – acquitted on all but one change, that of posing for a picture with the teenager’s corpse, a charge that he could hardly be cleared of because, well, the photo itself. A horrible story indeed, but one made infinitely worse by the subsequent actions of our erstwhile Commander in Chief, who has made a mockery of both our military justice system and our long-held belief that we are above the barbarism of many of our enemies. In pardoning Chief Gallagher and restoring him to his former rank for retirement, as well as unilaterally ruling that he can keep the cherished and symbolic Seal Trident Pin, Trump has announced to friend and foe alike that we are not bound by any sense of honor or justice.

The New York Times has reported extensively on this, including acquiring the videotaped testimonies of six other Seal team members, in which several of them break down in tears. It bears mentioning that these are not some snowflakes; they are the most highly trained and deadly fighters in the world.

Now Chief Gallagher, instead of being demoted and disgraced, has become a right-wing talking head, starting a “lifestyle” brand of Seal-themed clothing and partying with Trump and friends at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He is frequently mentioned by the president at his rallies, praising him as “one of the ultimate fighters.”

My late father, Major Francis Sadowski (USAF, Ret.), who fought three wars for our country, told me years ago that there is such a thing as a just war. He said: “Fighting and killing in a just war is no sin, but there are countless opportunities for heinous sins in any war, even a just one.” When my father fought in WW2, he was a navigator/bombardier on multiple bombing missions over Germany, and certainly killed many people. He was involved when the bombing was restricted to German industrial and military targets, and was home with a Purple Heart after being shot on a mission when the strategy changed to fire-bombing German cities to "break the will" of the German people, questionable morally at best.

Lionizing the heinous wartime actions of Chief Gallagher is not only a new low for our leader, but represents a seismic change in the morality of our faltering constitutional republic. And it is a sin.


January 7, 2020
Portland, OR