We Are Who We Thought We Are?

 Lots of discussion--"this isn't who we are" or "this is exactly who we are".

The idea of "imagined communities" is relevant.  People imagine what America is, they develop an image of who we are which is based on stereotypes and narratives from the media, schools, movies and TV, etc.  So when a big event happens, it can be inconsistent with the image. That's not necessarily the case however.  For example if we looked at the reactions shortly after 9/11 or the Boston marathon bombing  I'd guess most people thought the reaction to the events was very "American" or "Boston" ("Boston strong").  

Over the long run I suppose the image is sustained if the positive events outweigh the negative events.

Getting Vaccinated

 I suspect one of the big problems in vaccinating the U.S. is the degree to which it relies on bottom-up action.

What I mean is that presumably you can identify the hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities in your state, deliver vaccines to those sites, and rely on their management to get their people vaccinated.  But once you go past that, once you start allowing people who are 65 or 75 and older to be vaccinated, you are essentially asking those people to take some initiative. 

At best, like me, their health care provider, Kaiser Permanente in my case, will notify them when they have vaccine available.  But people who don't have a healthcare provider with resources will have to search out a pharmacy.

As I write I realize the situation is not that different for the flu vaccine. Apparently 60-65 percent have gotten that vaccine in the past.  

Seems as if this is a situation where we don't know until we see the history.

Organic Farming Has a Weakness

 Give credit to Grist for publishing this piece on regenerative grazing (a version of organic farming which reduces carbon emissions from beef cattle by capturing carbon in the soil).

A new analysis says there is indeed a big reduction in emissions, but the problem is the regenerative system requires more land, 2.5 times more land.

I may have blogged on this before--I think this applies to row crops as well.  Doing a rotation among row crops, small grains, and legumes requires more land for the legumes, as well as a market for the hay.

Impeachment?

 I believe Trump deserves to be impeached, again, but I don't believe there's enough time to do so.  I fear setting a bad precedent for future impeachments if we don't devote more time to developing the case, and we don't have the time.  

Nor is there enough support in the Senate to convict.

So my bottom line is for Congress to pass a resolution of censure.

Congressional Review Act Lives!

 Slate notes  that Warnock and Ossoff's victories mean the reviving of the Congressional Review Act.  

I've posted about it before--it briefly allows Congress to revoke regulations passed within the last 60 business days, and makes it more difficult to reinstate them later. That last bit hasn't been tested yet, while the Republicans made extensive use of it in 2017 to revoke Obama's last regulations.

I suspect lawyers will be interested to see how things play out. I know the papers have cited a number of different issues on which the Trump administration has been moving recently. One of the most recent was limiting the basis for regulatory action to research for which the data is publicly available, an issue of big concern on climate change. 

Unbelievable But Not Unprecedented?

 I haven't thought the events at the Capitol today would happen.  So I'm very surprised.

But, I happen to be reading American Maelstorm,by Michael Cohen, on the 1968 election.  It's a reminder that we've had tough times before. We easily forget how much unrest we've had in our past.

Thank You, Joe Manchin

As pointed out here, Joe Manchin won reelection in an incredibly adverse position and time. And his reelection is now key to Democrats winning control of the Senate.

More on Vaccinating

I posted yesterday about a chance un the 1960's to lay the basis for an efficient way to vaccinate the public.

Today a Post article reinforces that--a quote:

Israel’s vaccine success is made possible by its small size (slighter larger than New Jersey) and the efficiencies of its nationalized health system, in which all 9 million citizens hold identity cards and register their electronic medical files with one of the country’s four national health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

Israel also maintains a national vaccination registry, first designed for childhood vaccinations, that will be used in the coming weeks to monitor immediate and long-term progress of the coronavirus vaccine program.

I suspect one of the arguments in the 1960's against a national identity system was the specter of the Holocaust; people being numbered, tattooed, and subject to totalitarian rule, at the whim of the state. 

While I continue to believe that efficiency would have been, and would be, enhanced by a national identity system, I have to concede the disadvantages which are real.  One worth mentioning here: the greater security provided by our dispersion of data--the eggs in one basket proverb--especially in light of the election and the Southwinds hackl 

 

If Only Back in the 1960's

 There was an aborted effort to establish a national identifier in the 1960's, using the Social Security number. IIRC it was some nerds/bureaucrats suggesting it, but it was quickly killed amidst a concern over privacy, not to mention the sign of the beast. 

Over the decades the U.S. has come up with jury-rigged substitutes, Real ID being the latest. In the last century we had a process for passing information on men who were ordered to provide child support between states.  But we don't have the sort of process which bureaucrats would like.  If we did, it would alleviate problems on updating voter rolls and on tracking coronavirus vaccinations. 

We'll continue with our jury-rigging process for the foreseeable future.

More on Gen Perna and Vaccine

 In addition to points in my previous post, a couple of other things occurred to me:

• doing a checklist, or rather a series of checklists, would have been good.  Even though the decision had been made to allow state and local governments to design the system to do the jabs and report the status, my guess is it would have been possible to specify different parts of the operation in detail.  For example, actually giving the vaccination could start with removing the vial from the deep freeze, warming it, etc. etc.  At some point a recording and reporting process would take place.
• one problem with using past processes for vaccinations is that this one has different parameters.  The flu vaccine is requested by the public so you have a sales effort. For covid the attempt is to ration the jabs.  For me, I'm about to hit my 80th birthday, but I've no underlying health condition.  When and how do I learn VA has reached me in the queue? Or do I just call around to pharmacies or Kaiser until someone tells me to come in.  I don't know. 
• I see a report that WV is doing well, perhaps because they gave the job to the National Guard.  I can see how that could fix the notification problem, and perhaps even the checklist point.