Oh, so it's been another month of Covid.
Nationally, President Trump at the beginning of the month threatened to use the military to quell violent 'protests' across the country, spurred originally by the death of George Floyd. Though, anyone who pays attention can see that it is no longer about Floyd, but about tearing down the nation instead.
A big change this month for me is finally... finally... I went back to work. Kind of.
After some negotiating with my boss, we set a schedule of in-office hours on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, 12:30pm to 4pm, and working from home the remainder of the week.
For the first week, I came in every day, taking care of some filing and such. Very few people were in the building (I think at most maybe 10 people? Out of 40?)
The second week, Boss Man told me one day I didn't need to come in, so I was only in for two of the 3 days.
The following weeks, I think I came in one day at most, maybe two. Why even bother? I'm an assistant... I need people to assist. If there are no bodies to assist, why is the assistant physically in the building?
Remember when it was 15 days to flatten the curve?
Somehow that's beginning to morph into Hide Until No Cases Exist. It's alarming to see how many people are voluntarily giving up constitutional rights in the name of safety.
Speaking of Floyd, the three police officers in connection with the Floyd murder were charged. Officer Chauvin's charges were later upgraded to 2nd degree murder. Many people believe that 2nd degree isn't warranted, and Chauvin won't be found guilty. With that being said, people think that's why he was charged with 2nd... The trial will drag on until autumn, he'll be found not-guilty, and riots will begin again, all used to hurt Trump during the election season.
Lightening things up again, Julie Nolke is back with a second installment of "Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self." It got pretty woke, so not as big a fan as this one...
On June 5th, Governor DeSantis moved Florida to Phase 2 (excluding Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties). He emphasized that there have been zero Covid fatalities for minors under 18; 85% of all Covid deaths have occurred in seniors over the age of 65; there have been more Covid deaths over the age of 90 than under the age of 65. (Florida was in Full Phase 1 since May 18th). Phase 2 means that there can be 50% occupancy for bars and pubs, while restaurants, retail, and gyms (!) can operate at full capacity, as long as social distancing and sanitization protocols are followed. More importantly, personal services businesses (such as tanning salons, tattoo parlors, and MASSAGE THERAPISTS) may operate while adhering to FLDoH guidance. (Reminder, I've not had a massage since March 25th... I'm in some pain right now).
Not to let a Republican governor tell the County how to live, my county, of course, implemented stricter orders (because, of course, they know better than the medical team the State has...) - so in my county, all businesses opened by the Governor may only open at 50% occupancy, and are subject to OSHA and CDC guidelines. They still require retail, grocery stores, and gyms to remain at a max 50% occupancy load; public gatherings must be less than 10 people; and facial covering in businesses and outside where social distancing is not possible. After many people pushed them on their vague wording, they clarified their terrible grammar; Masks are mandatory inside all businesses, and also outside where social distancing is not possible.
On June 8th, New York City began reopening slowly.(Phase 2 came a few weeks later on June 22).
On June 9th, the City began opening municipal pools, but citizens will still need to wear masks at all times, except when actively in the pool, and must distance while in the pool.
Locally, on June 11th, a large number of migrant workers in the county tested positive, driving liberals to scream louder for a second shut down, and driving conservatives to scream louder for immigration reform.
In a country that is already reeling from weeks of peaceful protests and violent riots, a man named Rayshard Brooks was shot in a Wendy's drive-thru in Atlanta, spurring another round of protests and riots. He was drunk, and he fell asleep in his car. Police were called, and at first he interacted peacefully with the officers, but when one officer turned him to cuff him, he went berserk, fighting off the officers, eventually getting an officer's Taser, slamming one officer's head into the asphalt and shooting another officer with the Taser, until one of the officers had no choice but to open fire. As with other events of this nature, one type of people said he was simply a silly old man who didn't deserve to be murdered for falling asleep in his car, while others of us were pointing out his criminal history and the violence he perpetrated in the event itself. So, of course, those of us who defended the cops were... again... called racist. The following day, June 13th, Brooks' girlfriend set the Wendy's on fire.
The officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in Georgia was arrested on June 17th, and charged with murder and aggravated assault... before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation even finished their investigation. Not shockingly, the Fulton County District Attorney, Paul Howard, is currently under investigation for funneling at least $140,000 in Atlanta funds to supplement his own salary. He is also currently in a runoff election with Fani Willis in the race for Fulton County District Attorney, a contender that Howard has labeled "a friend of police," like it's something abhorrent.
Continuing with the liberal push to make masks normal and good, on June 18th, they begin sharing stories from LaLaLand, Los Angeles.
Eager to get out the vote, Trump held his first re-election rally on June 20th in Tulsa (after an amazingly stupid backlash involving Juneteenth). Thanks to a lot of bragging by his election committee, and assholes from TikTok, he had a very low attendance. Apparently there was a coordinated effort by social media to request tickets to the rally to drive up numbers (which Trump was bragging about), and then not show up. Socialist Barbie, AOC, took to Twitter to thank social media
Locally, on June 23rd, unhappy that the peons dare to defy the mask enforcement, the County began to up the enforcement of masks, including fines, and visits in front of a Hearing Officer. Commissioner Mike Byerly said, “It’s gonna get ugly… the more we do, the more divisiveness we will create, the more it will become a political rallying point…” He said that if you drive outside the county, you’ll see “we are very unusual, VERY unusual… In the grocery stores, in the restaurants [in other counties], very few people wearing masks…” He added that it will “very rapidly become common knowledge that all you have to do” is state that you have an exempt medical condition.Commissioner Hutch added that, when asked what would happen if someone told the Code Enforcement officer that they were medically exempt, he said,“They can explain that to the hearing officer.” So, in other words, he's perfectly fine that people with ADA disabilities being fined and hauled in front of an officer. He proposed issuing warnings for only a few weeks (how magnanimous of him), but eventually word would get out and "it will get them used to the pattern." (In other words, threaten the masses, and soon they'll fall in line.)Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
On June 25th, the CDC estimated that 20 million people in America have been infected with Covid, ten times higher than the number of confirmed cases. So... if that many people have already been infected, and the death rate (in comparison) is still relatively low... why are we all still locked in our homes or having to wear diapers on our face?
To go with the new enforced Mask Mandate, the county also begins to require that all businesses hang signage to make patrons aware of the enforcement.
By June 28th, the worldwide death toll passed half a million people. I'm heartbroken, of course, but in the grand scheme of things, it could be a lot worse.
By the end of the month, there are 146,000 cases in Florida, and 3400 deaths.
Locally, on the last day of June, my county had 1,197 total cases and 12 deaths.
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