Get a firm grip on the Original Operating Instructions, chart a new course, and aspire to greatness as Americans – ambitious, colorful, curious, democratic, educated, enlightened, high minded, humanist, inclusive, independent, just, reasoning, and tolerant – sailing together (for better, not worse) through time and the universe.

Now that the United States has put itself into full reverse gear with the generational updating of the last generation (Old Left -> New Left ->New Old Lost Left; Republican Conservatives -> Conservative Right -> Far (White?) Right), it’s time to cope with a “cluster”, as one old friend may have put it, of “challenges”, among them the report of a squirrel in Colorado testing positive for Bubonic Plague.

A spokesperson for Jefferson County Public Health told CBS News on Tuesday that someone in Morrison reported seeing at least 15 dead squirrels around the town. Officials tested one, and since it was positive for bubonic plague, they expect others are also infected.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bubonic-plague-colorado-squirrels-test-positive/
7/16/2020

It’s Snopes True but Slate says not to worry: “We have a cure” and “Worldwide, there were only 243 cases of plague and 41 deaths in 2018.”

BackChannels would suggest thinking cautiously because America’s Report Card suggests those 15 squirrel dead in Colorado may have arrived right on time given a national homeless population of about 554,000 and some millions of doped out, hopped up, and missing or unsettled persons floating about the place.

Add squirrels with plague-infected fleas.

Add urban rats.

And hold on to your breakfast: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/08/climatedesk-warmer-weather-ratpocalypse/ (8/25/2017).

A “good time” may be had by all.

Right On Time?

As predominant head-up-butt (always warm and dark in there) COVID-19 policies continue to scour the economy of basic entertainment, service, and special occasion jobs (crippling bars and restaurants foremost) and tax base nationwide turns anemic with lost jobs – USA Today yesterday: “A closely watched gauge of layoffs across the U.S. held steady at a historically high level last week, pushing the total during the coronavirus-induced economic crisis to a mind-boggling 51.3 million” – the squirrels, the fleas, and the homeless would be joined by the soon-to-be-displaced were it not for an opening salvo by a few governors (and a few helpful laws already in place) to forestall evictions during the COVID-19 Pandemic [Refs.: https://kvoa.com/news/2020/07/16/gov-ducey-extends-executive-order-protects-renters-from-evictions-amid-covid-19-pandemic/ (7/16/2020) | https://www.masslegalhelp.org/health-mental-health/covid-19-illegal-eviction (updated 6/15/2020) | https://www.sdhc.org/evictionban/ – effective through 9/30/2020]. Nonetheless, along with the Bubonic Squirrel narrative, let us all keep a lookout on behalf of idled Americans coming related coming emotional and financial desperation.

BakcChannels wager: lives saved in communal-medical responses to COVID-19 may be made up in rising crime, murder, and suicide rates associated with idleness, social separation, and stress.

BackChannels would strongly suggest the development of a nationwide moratorium on the notion of returning to anything resembling the old “normal” — the Ship of State has lost its moorings and “Safe Harbor” appears to be receding into the past.

America appears to be up for political grabs.

What to do?

Get a firm grip on the Original Operating Instructions, chart a new course, and aspire to greatness as Americans – ambitious, colorful, curious, democratic, educated, enlightened, high minded, humanist, inclusive, independent, just, reasoning, and tolerant – sailing together (for better, not worse) through time and the universe.

Related Online

Belluz, Julia. “Bubonic plague cases are on the rise in the U.S. Yes, really.” Vox, October 30, 2015.

Wikipedia: “Kurt Blome” – Nazi scientist who experimented with plague: “Blome worked on methods of storage and dispersal of biological agents like plague, cholera, anthrax, and typhoid, and also infected prisoners with plague in order to test the efficacy of vaccines.”

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