Masking the Problem

 We go to the polls in a few days to decide whether to give Trump 4 more years or Biden a turn at bat. The key talking point for the former VP has been how he'd lead us through the pandemic far better than DJT. He's always seen with a mask in public (even when it is not necessary) and constantly holds one up and says by wearing it we can save thousands of lives. He's stated repeatedly that he wants a mask mandate as a way to fight the Covid-19 virus.

Sounds good - and, in fact, he's right. If we all wear masks when we cannot socially distance then the spread of the virus will plummet. We have South Korea as a good example of that. Unfortunately it ends up being a lot of malarkey in this country, and while well intentioned and scientifically sound, it's not going to move the needle here. Here's why.

Unless he is going to go the route of Martial Law to enforce mask wearing, it is up to the governors to enforce his mask mandate. As we have seen, a few governors have been willing to go there (looking at you, Gov. Whitmer) and the populace is not happy about it and push back. American DNA is quite different than South Korean DNA - we are not going to abide long standing and autocratic edicts from the overlords. So it is pretty safe to say that getting significant mask compliance by having the governors enforce it is a pipe dream. Governors whose states are not seriously impacted have no reason to do so, and those with Covid cases run the risk of significant backlash and legal overturn.

OK, forced compliance is out. But then let's at least lead by example and use the bully pulpit to get everyone doing their civic duty to not kill grandma. Biden clearly believes that setting a good example on mask wearing is important - at least when he knows the camera's rolling. I fully agree - one of the things I criticize Trump over is not setting a better example in this regard. But having the guy at the top setting an example is not going to be a game changer. Here's why.

Maryland is a pretty blue state with a fairly educated citizenry. We also happen to have a Republican governor who has absolutely done the right thing in terms of setting a good example to encourage Marylanders to mask up and keep six feet apart. Despite this, Maryland, like much of the nation and the world, is experiencing a significant uptick in Covid cases. According to WBAL radio, health officials announced Saturday that we recorded 145,281 cases of coronavirus, and increase of almost 1,000 cases in one day. We, like almost everywhere else, are trending up. 

From an anecdotal standpoint I can corroborate the general ineffectiveness of getting people to wear masks by leadership example & exhortation. I live near Towson University and in a pretty blue neighborhood. When I routinely go for my 3 mile walk around the campus or my community I encounter people on my way - students, neighbors, and Baltimore County employees. I'd estimate perhaps 30% are wearing a mask, resulting in me giving them a wide berth when passing by (if I can). It was probably 60-75% back in June when we were all more fearful, but the trend is definitely down. This environment is probably as ripe as it gets for being attentive to messages from the governor, the CDC, and PSA promoting mask usage. Despite that, we're way short of compliance. Do you really think in this set of circumstances that the problem lies in Trump not wearing a mask, that if he did the folks not wearing one would suddenly don one?

To be clear, I believe that the media and the leaders (both sides) failed us. They found benefit in making mask wearing a political statement rather than a unifying symbol to save our neighbors and our economy. But if you think Joe Biden's promise to significantly control the virus by his "wear a mask" campaign is going to succeed, you're indulging in magical thinking.

The Internet Privacy Irony

"We got computers; we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed."
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

For some time now scholars and commentators have pointed out the sense of anonymity that one experiences when going online and how it influences us. Many have suggested that it is this sense of being cloaked that unfetters a coarser side of one's nature, tossing off epithets as if you're in the locker room, exploring dark corners of the web that you wouldn't do at the library. Oh there might be the occasional cookie or browser history to contend with, but hey, any modern browser lets one go into 'stealth' mode to deal with that. And I must say that from what I have seen I have to agree that when the possible stigma of being called out for bad behavior is removed then individuals behave differently.

And now we learn (although I have always suspected) that indeed 1984 is here, albeit a few years late. The government is amassing all sorts of "meta-data" about us - our phone records, our social media activity like Facebook, this blog, maybe even our credit card transactions. Couple this with a new gargantuan data center being built by the NSA out in Utah, and it's not hard to see where this is going. The techniques of mining large amounts of data with platforms like Hadoop (which businesses use to gain insight into their customers' habits) is being applied on this treasure trove of data. It is no exaggeration to say that when the supercomputers connect all the dots of your digital breadcrumbs they will have a stunningly complete picture of you. And we simply have to hope that the folks in charge will play nice and not use this information to consolidate their power. You dare to run for office against Boss Hog? Well we'll just see about that.

The grand irony here is that people surfing the net in supposed anonymity are in fact revealing the details of their political views, sexual interests, and only God knows what else. And while that is scary as hell, it pales in comparison to the people I meet whose assessment is "well if you haven't done anything wrong you don't have anything to be worried about." That sort of naivety must be comforting to those in power.

Some Sacrifices

So did you see the second debate last evening? Were you able to lip-synch the responses almost as well as being at a showing of Rocky Horror? But had less fun?

The questions were from the audience and Internet, and one in particular caught my attention. In essence it was along the lines of what sort of sacrifices do you think will be necessary from the American people given our current economic crisis. We got well scripted responses from both candidates, but I think there was a missed opportunity to really speak directly and honestly about some changes in behavior that we have to make. Like...

• You'll need to start saving and stop living on credit. That means working on getting comfortable with delayed gratification.
• You'll need to take education seriously. If you're a student you'll need to study; if you're a parent you'll need to be involved, not autopilot; and if you're a teacher you're going to need to be comfortable with competiton.
• You'll need to start being a wise consumer of health care services and taking care of yourself.
• If you don't speak English you need to learn
• And most of all, you have to start to demand more of your elected representatives - civility, statesmanship, and integrity

Can't vote? Too bad...

February 12th 2008 - primary day here in Maryland and, forgotten in today's modern pc-obsessed world, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. I did my homework in preparation - mainly changing my affiliation from independent so that I could participate since it's a closed primary. Left for work about 6:10 a.m. so that I could depart no later than 4 in the afternoon, more than enough time to get home and to my polling precinct.

When I went to the car it was an omen that there was ice on the door and windshield. The ground was fine but clearly the drive home might be tricky and long - what an understatement that would turn out to be. Traffic heading up Crain Highway came to a crawl just past Route 50 - and proceeded to inch up the road. An hour and fifteen minutes later I had gone about one mile, my car was beginning to overheat, and I was beginning to need a comfort stop. For the life of me I can not understand why people just don't "get it" when the weather's atrocious, nor why the police can't make more of an effort to move damaged vehicles off to the side to allow at least one lane to get by. If misery loves company then it was a love fest yesterday afternoon on northbound Rte 3.

Turned the car around and spent another 25 minutes retracing my route back to the office where I hung out until quarter to eight. After a pit stop for dinner I turned on WBAL to hear them talking about how the polls had been ordered to stay open until 9:30 p.m. rather than closing at the scheduled time. Traffic had thinned nicely and I was buoyed by the thought that I could probably easily make it back home by the new closing time, so I'd get to vote after all. As I'm making my way home, however, the calls start coming in from all over to the radio station from people who are being turned away from the polling places or not allowed in!

I get back to Towson and immediately go to the Towson Presbyterian Church where I vote. It's 9:10 p.m. as I pull in to the parking lot, and the place is dark and locked up tight as a drum. Nothing to do at that point except head home and email my protest to the election board. While I'm disappointed that I lost my opportunity to vote there are some elements here that really irritate me even more than the idiot drivers I contend with every commute:

1) I can empathize with the polling judges. It's got to be a job that you do out of civic devotion more than the cold cash you get, and the weather was pretty lousy. So after a long day I can understand not wanting to stick around. And if I had my guess it'd be that the board of elections didn't contact them to inform them of the judge's decision. Hell, I'll bet that the board really had no plan whatsoever to handle this scenario other than the OMG plan. But it was predictable that bad weather in February could occur and that extended hours might be mandated. So in this day of instant communication, what's the excuse? Furthermore, what’s the penalty for your malfeasance?

2) Even more amazing is that from what I could see on the local television this morning no one's talking about it. It clearly didn't happen just to me - there were multiple callers from around the state relating similar incidents last evening. And without exposing the problem it will certainly be repeated. Maryland, my Maryland - where the bureaucracy reigns supreme and unchallenged.

So primary day has come and gone and my voice went unheard except in the blogosphere. Guess I'll change back to independent and do an absentee ballot in the fall just to be safe.