By just about any measure the Swedish “no lockdown” policy for handling COVID-19 is a failure. Not as bad as the US, though. From The Dispatch.

“While Sweden’s death numbers compare favorably to the U.S., they stand in stark negative contrast to our Scandinavian neighbors who introduced lockdown measures: Per capita, we have nearly five times as many deaths as Denmark, nine times as many as Finland, and more than ten times as many as Norway.

COVID-19 and the Failure of Swedish Exceptionalism

How is this even legal? Certainly it is embarrassing to the governor and his associates. I’m told it is even worse at the, um, national level. From the Texas Tribune.

$1.7M for George Strait, six-figure bonuses: Months later, a lawsuit forced Texas to release details on inaugural spending

Perhaps we are at some juncture. People are finally questioning the “Reagan Revolution” which was supposed to help everyone by helping businesses (whether they even needed help is a different question). From Robert Reichs twitter posting. Another decades old piece of data that should surprise no one.

So, shifting tax burdens from wealthy to non-wealthy people helps wealthy people. And it took fifty years to figure this out? Even the premise is bizarre. Give money to rich people. Why not give money to people born in November? Or with last names that start with “G”? Makes as much sense.

A huge study of 50 years of tax cuts for the wealthy suggests ‘trickle-down’ economics makes inequality worse

Another pizza gate, except this time it was well funded by a prominent right wing donor. From the Texas Tribune.

Former Houston police captain accused of violent attempt to prove election conspiracy was hired by GOP activist’s group

We’ve had a Tesla Model 3 for about two years now. About a week ago I noticed the music sounded a bit off. First, I have to add that I’m not a big car guy and not a big car stereo guy, but this car has a noticabley nice sound system. Messed around with the controls and realized the back speakers were out. Damn.

Went on-line to the Tesla forums and found lots of people with similar problems. Seemed like a software update related to using a bluetooth phone. But I don’t use a bluetooth phone in the car. Ok, wait, I went to pick up some take out and the call went over bluetooth about the time I noticed the problem.

Tried some of the magical fixes from the forum and nothing worked. Got into the Tesla app and scheduled a maintainence appointment. Probably have to go drop it off someplace. Groan.

They texted back and asked for a short video of the problem. Ok. No problem. Afterwards they texted and asked if the front speakers were working. I went out and checked. Nope. The ones in the very front by the windshield were working, but not the ones in the door.

They were going to come out and try to fix it. After lunch I moved the car out of the garage and parked it in the driveway. Got a text that someone was on the way. After a few minutes I noticed they had left. Went out and checked and all was working! And the best part, no charge!

Not used to saying nice things about car companies, and even less so about car repair departments.

Woke up at 1am with one, possibly three, cats chasing each other across my face. Surprisingly, I knew exactly what was going on. We have three cats that noisily chase each other around in various combinations. I touched my chin and it was definitely bloody. A look in the mirror showed a pretty deep cut on my chin, and some more on my lip and cheek. More blood than I would have thought. Didn’t want to go to an ER so I patched it up with a few band aids and watched some Jaime Oliver reruns on PBS. Doesn’t look too bad this morning. Otherwise, just the usual pandemic life. Picked my tomatoes, started Hanukkah, been cooking a lot, made a big fire in the fire pit. Hung some new solar LED lights on the patio. Turned 58.

And we aren’t done yet.

1 In Every 800 North Dakota Residents Now Dead From Covid