Coronavirus Lockdown Journal Day 74: Agents provocateur vs. DIY

Is this is what's known as an agent provocateur? If you followed Occupy/Antifa, you know it's in the DHS playbook.

Random solo white guy in head-to-toe PPE shows up and starts breaking windows with a hammer. Protestors are actively chasing the guy down asking, "Are you a fucking cop?"

When a white guy shows up alone to a Black Lives Matter protest dressed like the paranoid penguin and proceeds to smash the windows of the first building to eventually get torched in a riot, and the kids who are confronting him about it and filming ask, "Are you a cop?" what do you think? Is he? 

Whoever it is, they wanted to make trouble.

I don't know Minneapolis, are Eagan and Saint Paul the same?

Why? I guess it's to encourage people who aren't wearing masks when they should be. But really? So you force everyone to do an unnecessary behaviour? A mask within 30 feet? (Yes, they are useful in close contact, and very useful indoors, but a reminder of what my friend who is an actual infectious disease doctor said, "Wearing masks outside is a joke.")

Or as I said in an email "Mandatory masks outside, ain't that some shit.... Watch the walk back today."

Remember what I said about Mission drift away back in the beginning of this whole thing? What exactly is our goal here? If we're aiming to flatten the curve we've done that. If we're aiming to slow the spread, we're also doing that. If we're aiming to eliminate the virus all together, good luck. Our soft quarantine isn't going to do it no matter what kind of mask rules we make.

Currently California's public health response is more aggressive in some ways then what happened in Wuhan China. They locked down for 10 weeks after being first hit by the virus and having 4000 deaths in a month. We locked down for 10 weeks and counting after having a handful of deaths, and now, after two or three months, still don't have 4000 deaths.

This is the right thing to do. Seem overcautious and you're probably being cautious enough. One central-planny problem, theatre isn't on the list at all.

And here comes the national guard, aka tanks in the streets, aka martial law. Not unpredictable. 

But heads up local officials, we're in a tinderbox. If your response to non-violent protests is violent, with tear gas and pepper spray, you're escalating things.

Same goes with cops carrying guns. If you don't want a violent society, don't use violence as your control tool. (Remember the whole stick vs. carrot thing?)

Jack Dorsey vs Mark Zuckerberg. I live within a few miles of both of them, and I can tell you a few things. Dorsey lives in an old-school establishment neighborhood near our retired senator and walks to work downtown, a distance of about 5 miles, Zuckerberg lives in a gentrified hipster neighborhood and has another house closer to his work on the Peninsula. Dorsey wants to fact check dear leader, Zuckerberg is dear leader 2.0. Dorsey has a goatee, Zuckerberg has a rasta dog. Dorsey meditates, Zuckerberg once tried to feed him undercooked meat from a goat he'd killed himself. Oh yeah, Zuckerberg probably also has about ten or twenty times more billions.

Wanted to check in with Mic The Vegan, the guy behind the "corona belt" theory that the virus transmits more in certain weather. Here's his take on the science in Plandemic, which I haven't watched yet.

"When you get basic scientific facts like this wrong, it sort of takes away credibility from your whole argument."

Yesterday, Deb and I were pulled over. I was driving. We were out running gardening errands, and Deb had been driving, and I didn't need to bring my wallet, or so I thought. But I moved the car at the nursery, and then wound up driving to the next place. 

This is all in the town of Colma, a notorious speed trap with mostly cemeteries and big box stores. 

Anyway, long story short, there was construction marked with a butt ton of orange cones and no signage, and I was being tailgated by a cop, when I had to turn to go into a soil place. It was confusing and I wasn't sure I could turn through the construction in the middle of the road, so I went to the next intersection and made a legal u-turn.

At which point a motorcycle cop pulled us over, and asked if we knew what we did wrong. I had no idea, so I said no, sir, and we went back and forth a little, me apologizing and claiming innocent mistake, and him acting like he wasn't doing a ridiculous traffic stop, because clearly if you've pulled over multiple people for doing the same thing, as he said he had done, then maybe the issue is that the cones were laid out in a confusing manner? 

Anyway, he was ready to let us go, but he just had to run my license, because that's what you do. And I explained I didn't have it, and he asked if I had a picture of it on my phone, so I got my phone out from a bag on the floor, and looked, but I don't know why, so I put it away, and he grabbed Deb's license and our out-of-date proof of insurance and registration, because Deb has the current ones in a packet ready to take to the DMV for her federal-chipped "real ID", and came back after a minute and said my license was current and let us go with a "finger wagging," for which we were very grateful, you know, because the alternative could have sucked.

The point being, at no point in this episode were either of us killed, had a gun pointed at us, or put in hand cuffs. My u-turn from the wrong lane and 30mph in a 25 construction zone were baloney, but I was definitely driving without my license on me, which is admittedly different than driving with no license, but still, I'm sure it could have been turned into an issue.

Instead, the guy was pretty nice about things, and I thank him and Deb for keeping it light.

He was wearing a mask. Deb too. I took mine on and off. Nerves. I made Deb drive after.

Man, could you imagine getting killed for that?

Since I hear DIY and how-to blogs get the most readership, and since this journal seems to be evolving in the blog direction, here's an install Deb and I did yesterday. Why not? Here's how to add planters to the sidewalk in front of your house.

Before. The utility companies came earlier to make sure we wouldn't cut through any surprises. You'll need to rent a saw to cut the concrete.

Be prepared to get dirty.

And maybe think ahead about where your waste water is going, a step I had to back track on.

You'll also need some sort of sledge hammer, or in this case, a rotohammer.

Next, we edged the bed. We used steel, but it could be masonry or wood, or whatever you like, or even nothing.

More plants to follow. I think eventually the idea is to have a vine grow over the garage door.

Alright, thanks for tuning in. I had more screencaps, but I think I've said enough for the day.