We Can't Breath

So much for loopholes. I had avoided the worst of the lockdown in Travis County by shopping and exercising in surrounding counties. No one chided me. Until reported spikes in coronavirus cases provided officials at all levels an excuse to impose new mandatory requirements with heavy fines, right before Independence Day.¹

I learned as much from local media, but Austin Public Health insisted on robocalling in creepy, totalitarian fashion.²

Then I had to find masks for sale. A package of 50 at the neighborhood H-E-B was so expensive I had to invoke my insurance policy. The other customers were delayed as the cashier wrangled on the phone with the claims adjuster.³ And just when I'd clawed back my annual premium for the third time in a row, to just above $1,000, or merely triple what I paid before ObamaCare became mandatory. The ultimate goal, of course, is to get reparation from Obama personally.⁴

My next grocery excursion, the check-out clerk perfunctorily asked how I was.

"I can't breath," I said, pointing to my mask.

"Were you able to find what you were looking for OK?" the clerk asked.

Otherwise, rather than contend with others' goose-stepping chickenshit, I've even resorted to cutting my own hair. I may never patronize barbers again.

Because the local authorities have antagonized the police, they're now relying on merchants and shrieking ninnies among the general public to enforce the continuing lockdown.⁵ The June 26 Statesman reported more than 100 people snitched to the authorities against businesses the first day of the new diktats.⁶

The July 14 Statesman reported only the spring reopenings had slowed the economic skid that's accelerated since the lockdown intensified.⁷ Throughout Greater Austin, revered local businesses continue to close,⁸ and all manner of civic events, festivals, and social pastimes have been called off.⁹ It gives new meaning to "cancel culture."¹⁰ Community Impact Newspaper reports that the pandemic lockdown and general hysteria promulgated by the local power elite has resulted in lapses in pediatric vaccinations.¹¹

If not a fight for our lives, we're in a fight for our way of life.

We're in this predicament because of government actions based on recommendations by medical experts.¹² However, since the lockdown began, medical professionals have increasingly disputed the medical aspects of the pandemic.¹³ Scheduling issues hinder further elaboration of this point.

Regular Austin Death Watch

Rather than the "new normal," the reaction to the pandemic is just an exacerbation of existing trends.¹⁴ Particularly, while we're all at each others' throats over the submissive ritual of wearing a face diaper, an examination of media reports demonstrates the power elite is governing in the same old way. For starters, "in these uncertain times," the Council wants to raise taxes.¹⁵

While the lockdown kills more local businesses, the Travis County Commission approved tax breaks for Tesla Inc. to site a truck factory near Del Valle.¹⁶ Interestingly, Tesla's disregarded coronavirus lockdown orders in California, despite reported infections at its Fremont factory.¹⁷ Moreover, the July 23 Statesman is the latest media source to point out Tesla has "not yet been consistently profitable."¹⁸

Mayor Steve Adler's corporatist cronies want to amend the City charter to give more power to the mayor and eliminate the city manager position.¹⁹ As with street design and zoning, Austin's statists have come full circle to advocate for the arrangements their predecessors fulminated against a century ago:

Among the institutional innovations of this era, the “council-manager” form of local government is noteworthy. The “city manager” reflects the idea that local government should be run like a business; a manager hired by the city council would presumably carry out its instructions and manage the staff, insulating city workers from council politics. The concept was endorsed by the National Municipal League as its “Model City Charter” beginning in 1915 and received rave reviews in a 1940 Social Science Research Council report on its progress. Today the manager form is promoted by the International City Management Association, which receives major support from the Rockefeller Foundation. “[I]t became the orthodox ideal of the municipal reformers.” The notion of a hired chief executive for a municipality is rarely challenged in public administration textbooks or by those who have been “socialized” into the field of public administration. The leading role of “expertise” and the benefits of “depoliticization” appear to be “common sense.” In practice, there is little effective policy making or oversight exercised by city councils, especially since this system frequently is combined with nonpartisan elections. Amateur, part-time, atomized councilors revert to the role of ombudsmen; they are no match for the organized bureaucracy of the manager.²⁰

If only our ancestors had rejected their nostrums, think of the time, energy and wealth that would've been used productively. Now, we submit to lockdowns and humiliating rituals.

The Austin Police Department is investigating an officer on allegations of sexual misconduct.²¹ A Sheriff's Office detective was jailed on felony charges of sexually assaulting a teenager.²²

The City Council originally intended to cut $100 million to $220 million from APD's budget, but has scaled back to $11 million.²³ The July 24 Chronicle reports APD's intelligence center, which shares data with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, oversees a network of local spies.²⁴ The Chronicle scrupulously avoided insinuating a connection between the two stories, but from evidence about other departments' intelligence units, one can reasonably speculate APD used its files to push back against the Council's attempt to curtail its quasi-autonomy in private meetings.²⁵

In federal court, two disappointed ticket holders have sued the parent company of the canceled South by Southwest festival over its no-refund policy. SXSW claims it doesn't have the money.²⁶

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport's planned expansion is on hold because of a $70 million revenue loss.²⁷ Capital Metro has cut about $3 billion from its planned downtown commuter rail.²⁸ Now the proposal's a mere $7 billion.²⁹ Yet the City has closed more streets to vehicles.³⁰

Bevo and Butt-Heads

At UT, graduate students are quailing at the prospect of returning to the Austin campus while officialdom still scaremongers about coronavirus.³¹ I wonder how many of these students are the same ones I saw as recently as February wandering around in the cold in shorts and sandals and coughing deeply in the library without covering their mouths.³²

However, the University of Texas System chancellor said by holding classes solely online, more students would drop out, " which could hurt their chances at graduation." The chancellor also told the Statesman "the decision was not merely a choice between fiscal viability and safety," but translated from academese, it's about the money.³³

UT-Austin will take the biggest financial hit in $78 million of planned UT System cutbacks prompted by coronavirus.³⁴ Also, the Trump administration is banning foreign students, who pay full tuition, from entering the country if their colleges' classes are entirely online this fall.³⁵ Remember, kiddies, when your teaching assistants are exhorting you to hate your own people and our culture and traditions, all you really are to them is a fucking dollar sign.³⁶

A professor who taught about pederasty in the Classical world sued for libel 11 students who accused him of promoting pedophilia.³⁷ I thought that was the purpose of academia nowadays.

Not to be outdone, the Austin Independent School District employees succeeded in delaying their return to campuses until after Labor Day.³⁸ If nobody's willing to use these schools, why are we paying for them? Simultaneously, the AISD proposed budget spends $66 million more than it has. Obviously, government schools aren't where children learn to live within their means.³⁹

Meanwhile, a student is suing AISD for failing to intervene "while he was bullied, assaulted and targeted for being a supporter of President Donald Trump."⁴⁰

From Development Hell to Internet Limbo

Among other impacts, the pandemic forced closure of cinemas and cancellation of theatrical release for many features. Instead, the film industry has distributed them via digital distribution platforms. That's how I've watched all but two since I set up my previous computer.⁴¹

However, as a personal guideline, the films I've watched online and can recommend, no matter how bizarre or obscure, have debuted on a theater screen, either in commercial release ("starting Friday at a theater near you") or at a film festival somewhere. In my experience, made-for-television, straight-to-video, or direct-to-digital releases consistently are of lower quality, and lack the energy or style to compensate for what they also lack in budget or technical craft.⁴²

Nevertheless, in the past seven years I've viewed a few surprising exceptions, that for whatever reason, didn't get a movie screen debut:

Business Roundup

Race agitators are forcing the companies that own the brand names Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth, Eskimo Pie, and Cream of Wheat to discard said brand names because of racial insensitivity.⁴³ Predictably, only trade and business publications address the tough questions: What's the market value of the brand names?⁴⁴ What's the financial impact to these products if the companies can devise substitute monikers? For example, how many brand-name syrups can you name in 60 seconds? I can name four, but two of them face erasure, and if I see the substitute name on the shelf, I'll recall the old name by association. How many people who agitated for the name change still won't buy the product? And how many of those people are also agitated about processed foods?

Political Follies

I tried reading John Bolton's expose of the Trump administration, but Bolton's pompous, turgid writing squelched my interest after 25 pages. If he advises as well as he writes, small wonder the U.S. government hasn't won a war in 75 years.⁴⁵ 

Neighborhood News

Speaking of processed foods, Chuck E. Cheese filed for bankruptcy.⁴⁶ A candle shop at The Domain closed.⁴⁷

A vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian on southbound Research Boulevard near Burnet Road.⁴⁹ KXAN-TV's traffic Web page reported collisions at Highway 183 at MoPac Expressway and at MoPac and Scofield Ridge Parkway on June 23, and at MoPac and Parmer on July 15. The neighborhood endured a power outage for about 75 minutes the night of July 27.

Media Indigest

The Statesman is leaving downtown for a new office park near the airport that I saw being built during my commutes four years ago.⁴⁹

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