Author Archives: helenaworthen

When I think about how bad can it get, I think about Kangaroo Island, a big long island off the coast of Australia that burned a few months ago. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/kangaroo-island-bushfires-before-and-after-destruction/11970788 It was mainly a nature reserve and tourist destination and the reason people went to it was to see the koalas and kangaroos. My brotherContinue reading “The American Century and Kangaroo Island”

Many days I don’t write. Partly because I feel confused. I know what’s happening in my little cohort, probably on my street and in my family; I watch a few minutes of CNN at night but can’t stand the sight or sound of Trump; I read the Chronicle in the morning, especially the national andContinue reading “Long train”

No, but I’ve heard the question asked. Just because people aren’t going to work doesn’t mean they are on strike. Occupy attempted to pull of general strikes, and the big Occupy day in Oakland in 2011 did close about 30% of businesses, but it wasn’t really “general” although it was a strike in the senseContinue reading “Is this a general strike? and Negotiating communication channels”

On Wednesday afternoons at 6 pm we go out on our street and “wave” at our neighbors. Some bring bottles of wine or beer. We have started to wear masks this week; some people have surgical masks, some use scarves or bandannas, one family has made a project of sewing pretty masks. If I knewContinue reading “Week 4 for us, 11 for Ho Chi Minh City”

I am having a hard time getting used to the way WordPress works now. It used to be that I could just open a new page and write and pull in pictures. Now it’s all these blocks and you have to do things with blocks. I think this was intended to make it easier forContinue reading “Warning”

Right now we are shut down, locked down, sheltering-in-place, quarantined, whatever, for the purpose of flattening the curve, the curve being the rate of increase in the number of cases that come to some hospital. The rate, at least as of last night, had not started to bend into a curve — it was stillContinue reading “Near future and further future”

March 24 Bernie lost a bunch of states, came in about even in Washington; Elizabeth “paused” her campaign, Bernie and Biden debated to an empty room, with Biden doing better than I’ve ever seen him and Bernie seeming a bit weary but still able to hit the main points — that he’d voted the rightContinue reading “Three ways of looking at a pancake”

Today Washington State, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Mississippi and Democrats abroad are voting. Bernie has spent most of the week in Michigan, which he won in 2016 but where he is predicted to “have problems” this time. Cory Booker is out campaigning for Biden. So far, all the other ex-candidates of note (except ElizabethContinue reading “March 10 primaries”

Now things pivot to it being a two-man race –two old white men. Bernie has to make a different kind of speech — not his regular stump speech that covers all his issues. Now he’s got to differentiate himself from Biden. Here he is in Arizona on March 6, before going to Detroit for theContinue reading “March 8, the two-man race”

The delegate count is now 664 to Biden 573 to Sanders. A difference of 91. Still counting in California. Biden creeping up. The COVID-19 virus, we are told, will eventually reach everyone. The best website information is at: cdc.gov And today, in case anyone was wondering if we do or don’t need a full-on nationalContinue reading “Friday March 6 2020”