Concussion Protocols

Concussion protocols, truly, the stakes are high
Punch drunk, the injury that sparks a debate
Undoubtedly every player would want to continue
A grand stage it may be, but impaired judgment is the danger

Stunned, weary and dazed after the clash of heads
A misguided notion, this business of grin and bear it
To stand in judgment, weighing the shelf life of a human being
Out of a sense of obligation, the point is not to indulge machismo

When caution comes up against commerce, there's a world of trouble
Conflicting imperatives at work, the reluctance is understandable
Surely though, it's best to take the decision out of their hands
The mind may will it it wants, but the body is the ultimate arbiter

Concussion Protocol, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Concussion by Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
• Punch Drunk by Sade
• Struck by You by The Bar-Kays
• Warriors don't cry by Beres Hammond
• Sit Down and Hurt Awhile by Denise LaSalle
• Blow to the Head by Abram Wilson
• Hard Knock Life by Jay-Z
• You can't stop the prophet by Jeru the Damaja
• Stop in the name of love by The Supremes
• Carry On by Jean Knight
• Caution by Maxi Priest
• Hard Knocks by Joe Cocker
• We Carry On by Portishead
• Hard Knocks by Elvis Presley

After: Punch-Drunk Slugnuts: Violence and the Vernacular History of Disease by Stephen Casper


File under: health, standards, best practices, concussion, brain, biology, sports, policy, culture, observation, perception, poetry, toli

Writing log: December 18, 2022

Default Deny

Default deny is a very simple policy
Easily defended on grounds of complexity
What with the ease of implementation, even if cruel
With the golden excuse, we were just following the rules

Insurance companies often take refuge in it, it's a frequent addiction
Imposing on their customers by default, as it were, this untoward friction
Cynical, in their time of loss when they need rapid compensation
They instead offer up the burden of these inconvenient fictions

In the full knowledge that many won't bother and simply drop it
Their bean counters salivating in the back office thinking: profit
Mind you they're quick to pretend that the end result was not intended
And that it is perfectly normal to shy away from services rendered

Even if the sheer outrage is hard to countenance
It speaks to the perils of living with your fellow man
It's the injustice of it, all those years you duly paid those premiums due
Then it turns out that, all along, they were taking you for a bloody fool

Hence the importance of norms, rules and regulations and enforcement
But also the stick of tort, laws, oversight and, ultimately, punishment
The constant need to redress the wrong and put them on notice
To do the right thing by default and resist the temptation

And shame too has been known to work its charm
Applying the fear of god to prevent such harm
Brand damage remains a powerful tool for compliance
Eternal vigilance being the price of soul insurance

II. Coda

Default deny is also well known in networking technology
Firewalls, those gatekeepers, often turn to this strategy
Out of the box it gets you up and running very quickly
It's the low hanging fruit, good enough, the poor man's security
Protection from without but, sadly, it doesn't cover every layer
'Tis quite the pity, you still need to guard against bad actors
The real world is complicated, it's merely the start of a fight
Trust in Allah, goes the proverb, but always tie up your camel at night

Default Deny, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• You Can't Deny It by Lisa Stansfield
• Turned Away by Chuckii Booker
• Strategy by Archie Bell & the Drells
• You Can't Turn Me Away by Sylvia Striplin

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: humour, strategy, culture, observation, policy, insurance, economics, friction, regulation, law, standards, capitalism, incentives, outrage, networks, technology, security, poetry, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log: September 18, 2022

Gee Doctor Fauci (Once Again)

Gee kindly Dr Fauci they tell me you retired
But this pandemic is still a raging fire:
Everyone at work is out sick
Oh, some say "personal responsibility",
It's on them, they could have worn masks
But better ventilation would have been cheaper clearly
Is that really too much to ask?

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci
Have a talk with the folks at the CDC
They won't listen to a comment coming from me
They seem to have forgotten their mission statement
Surely it's better for public health to try to prevent
Than to give in and manage the aftermath
Of mass disabling events

Gee kindly Dr Fauci
The issue is rather emotive
There's a nagging sense that it's all about the profit motive
Have you seen the price, these days, of a course of Paxlovid?
And the insurance won't cover it if you keep getting sick
Sticker shock for my colleague,
In the thick of it

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci
They say that every day is for the thief
And viruses too, I guess
All that's left for us is tears
The great object lesson of the past few years:
That it's far easier for many to stick to pleasant beliefs
Than accept that no one is coming to give us relief

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
Do you remember?
The good old days
A sentimental sort -
I was thinking back with nostalgia
Remembering the second wave
Back then vaccines were coming
We really thought that we might be winning
Ah well, reality will always prevail over wishful thinking

Gee kindly Dr Fauci please put the issue to bed
They've been saying for years now that the pandemic is over
Repeating it and shouting it increasingly louder
This may be the case, but hear me out instead
Was it Keynes, that prescient one, who once said
In the long run we are all dead

Gee kindly Dr Fauci
What's really in a name?
Is naming destiny?
Or is it simply easier to blame?
In math class, they taught us about irrational numbers
Yet they won't name any new variant Pi
Hmm, makes you wonder
Those three musketeers of fate again:
Irony, infamy and goddamn lies

Gee kindly Dr Fauci I think it was Belloc who once said
Apropos irony, that altogether sublime form of jest,
That it was in the nature of irony
That it should avenge the truth
But there's no consolation as yet
The cowboy never came to save America
They say that he died in his boots

Dear kindly Dr Fauci I confess that I rather miss the joys of indoor dining
And movies, and nightclubs, and the fun of entertaining
It's a bit like swallowing a bitter pill
A part of my life sadly forsaken for fear of falling ill
Instead, prudence, it's takeout and Netflix and Chill

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci, consider a play in two acts
For, in this day and age, we need some relief
Between an audience and writer there exists a kind of pact:
The suspension of disbelief
Between a population and a virus there is a matter of fact:
The immutability of the laws of grief

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci please give me a break
After seventy stanzas I thought this must be a mistake
That our conversations were surely complete
Instead, I've had to admit a miserable defeat
And call you up for yet another consultation
For this pandemic shows no sign of ending...

Soundtrack for this note

A few playlists that the good doctor and I have enjoyed over the pandemic

• The Grand Reopening of Texas, a playlist (spotify version)
• Herd Immunity, a playlist (spotify version)

...

See previous consultations with Doctor Fauci:

• The Grand Reopening of Texas
• Gee Doctor Fauci (Remixed)
• Telemedicine Consultation
• Gee Doctor Fauci (Revisited)

This lament with the good doctor is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: humour, satire, culture, observation, coronavirus, pandemic, politics, rogues, public health, policy, strategy, hatchet job, Observers are worried, Buyer's Remorse, covidious, poetry, toli

Writing log: February 16, 2024

Operation Urgent Fury

Barracks
Truck bombings
Bad optics

Casualties
In a foreign land
French and American marines

Contingency plans
Swift change of the narrative
Operation Urgent Fury

Small island, little scrutiny
Marxist Bishop, revolutionaries
"Visit America before America visits you"

Structural adjustments
Our sphere of influence
Washington consensus

Destabilization strategy
Of brutal leftist thugs
A base for aggression

Scripts readied
Protection of the free world
Prime time address

Rollback of influence
Strategic vision of democracy
Liberation, security in our hemisphere

This is a dangerous situation
The threat posed to our nationals
For their safety is paramount

We decided on preventive action
Moving forward to restore freedom
And bring about regime change

Rapid troop deployment
Our special forces
Armed intervention

Simply responding to an appeal
A formal request for aid
This morning's invasion



After Grenada, 1983

Soundtrack for this note

• B movie by Gil Scott Heron

See also: Excellent Discussions


File under: culture, observation, perception, rogues, USA, war, blood, imperialism, politics, Reagan, policy, strategy, Grenada, language, cold war, Great Game, hatchet job, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: September 4, 2022

Gee Doctor Fauci (Revisited)

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
This strange life is such a mess
Look around, our streets are paved
With discarded rapid tests
Far too many think the pandemic's over
So cavalier and reckless
That we have staffing shortages galore, employee turnover
That's the price you pay for being feckless

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci, you know, I'm ailing
I'm really finding it hard to be a believer
The kid came home from school Friday, sniffling
Just hours later, we found out that he had a fever
What a life, even though the rapid test came back negative
We're all wearing N-95 masks just to be safe

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci
In this minefield of mixed metaphors,
I'm forever drawing a blank
Or, to hearken to pirates of old,
It feels like I'm walking the plank
True, the virus sets the timeline for this crisis
But it's hard to keep living on the precipice

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
You know, I really can't cope
With this covidious business
Daily navigating the tightrope
We are canaries in the mine
Harried, our faces drained of hope
While outside, observers are worried
Waiting for the white puffs of smoke

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci,
They keep making the same mistakes
Behaving, for all intents and purposes,
As if their mind was a clean slate
When you act, without a care,
As if there's no community transmission
If you're lucky, in the best case,
You'll live to regret the decision

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
Please give me a break
A word to the wise:
Open your windows and ventilate
Wear a mask in crowded rooms
Get boosted, don't tempt fate
Lest you end up in the emergency room
Lying in state
And the doctor reminds your kin
That you said "Do not resuscitate"

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
We're really going through the wringer
The former president said it will all just go away by Easter
That we should shine ultraviolet light
And drink bleach; best of luck!
Sure, we voted him out and impeached him
But it's now two years later, what the fuck?

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci
I think it's going to take a miracle
For humanity to abide, as it were,
With the mosquito principle
Those ghouls instantly latched on
To those fateful words: herd immunity
And continue to hold fast, despite the cost,
The very definition of insanity

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
When will they come to their senses?
This plague has so many unintended consequences
On election day you thought you'd take a chance
Now the whole world is strangely out of balance
It's really a tragedy of the commons
When you submit to the rule of morons

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
The latest research confirms
That the plague's most common side effect
Is to make wives unhinged
And husbands truly reckless
Officials at the CDC
Now call these symptoms learning loss
The index case in the study?
The family of Justice Thomas

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci, we're living out Hollywood realities
If you go by how they're managing the pandemic
It's rather like being passengers on the Titanic
Every man for himself, we're not all on the same boat
And then the fat lady sang, "That's all", she wrote

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci I hate to take you to task
I hear you fell prey to the disease and dropped your mask
By lowering your guard at your college reunion
You forgot for a moment and were imprudent
But, as you know, the virus really doesn't care
Indeed, it spreads readily through tainted air

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci
At this point I'm so dispirited
The handling of the pandemic
Needs to be revisited
A postmortem on how our leaders botched it
So many infected, they lost it
Due to their incompetence and misrule
Now millions are lying six feet under
Because of these fools

Gee kindly Doctor Fauci, I counted
I'm now up to 60 stanzas, disenchanted
For we're no closer to finally
Finding, a cure for this cancer
Ambivalence, I keep going round in circles
The same themes, concentric
Dissonance, my rhyme scheme meandering
Heavy-handed and more eccentric

Dear kindly Doctor Fauci
Truth be told, I think it's really pathetic
To observe their preferred strategy
For dealing with the pandemic
I daresay that it's a sin and rather odd
Because it's plainly not effective
Indeed it's quite akin
To using the Rhythm Method
As a contraceptive

Soundtrack for this note

I give you three playlists that the Doctor and I have enjoyed over the pandemic

• The Grand Reopening of Texas, a playlist (spotify version)
• Herd Immunity, a playlist (spotify version)
• Telemedicine Consultation, a playlist (spotify version)

See previously The Grand Reopening of Texas, Gee Doctor Fauci (Remixed) and Telemedicine Consultation

This lament with the good doctor is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: humour, satire, culture, observation, coronavirus, pandemic, politics, rogues, public health, policy, strategy, hatchet job, Observers areworried, Buyer's Remorse, covidious, poetry, toli

Writing log: September 3, 2022

Wishful Thinking

It is always a relief to believe what is pleasant, but it is more important to believe what is true.

— Hilaire Belloc, The Silence of the Sea

The Sound of Anticipation

I guess I anticipated that the private sector would have engaged and helped develop it for the clinical side.

— Robert Redfield, director of the CDC Congressional testimony (March 12 2020)

I keep coming back to this statement delivered, with a straight face, by Doctor Redfield in response to a rather sympathetic congressional audience. I assume that the congressmen and women's eyebrows arched violently at this verbal eruption. My eyebrows certainly assumed McDonalds' golden arch proportions when I read that soundbite.

Most American politicians only throw softballs - the business about scrutiny and oversight of the executive is mostly a fiction, and even the lawyers among them barely cross examine at the best of times. Even if you wing it and come unprepared, you should be able to dodge their inquiries. And yet this is the answer that a friendly congressman's pitch elicited: "I guess I anticipated that the private sector would have engaged..."

Slightly related: The Ayn Rand Institute bootstrapped its way to a PPP Loan of at least $350K. The institute's leadership had clearly done a close reading of their eponymous subject's The Virtue of Selfishness

In the hearings, there was not much more urgency, the outlines of the botched US federal response were already clear six weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. The main outrage in early March 2020 was that CDC did not have the testing capacity, nor indeed did it look as if there was a plan to increase it. This, of course, in stark comparison to the war footing that China, Taiwan, Vietnam and other countries had taken. And so, for example, the Democratic congresswomen were complaining that passengers on cruise ships were not being notified that they might have been exposed to the fast spreading clumps of viral RNA even weeks after exposure and so might have been unwittingly contributing to superspreading events.

If the leader of the public health response was freely signalling his belief that it was all a matter for private sector engagment, we were clearly in troubled waters. This seemed to be a foundational sin: the United States's public health response to our covidious predicament was flawed at conception.

Then I read the delicious sentence in the Financial Times that "Dr Anthony Fauci – the infectious disease expert and now household name – is widely known to loathe Redfield, and vice versa." I am up to 25 stanzas imploring Dear Kindly Doctor Fauci to step in and sort things out, but perhaps he might have had reason for his assumed assessment of Dr Redfield. With hindsight, when you watch the footage of Fauci and Redfield testifying while seated next to each other, you note that Redfield calls Fauci, Tony, whereas it is always "Doctor Redfield" in the other direction. Not to digress further, but one wonders if sharp-elbowed bureaucratic infighting is part of the reason for the dysfunction we have witnessed. Reading that CDC testing guidelines were relaxed only when the good Doctor Fauci was in surgery is of a piece with this pattern of neglect.

Still, one shouldn't personalize things since I am using "Redfield" as a shorthand for a kind of evidence-free, faith-based ideological thinking. It's a marker for a blindspot of sorts, an Anglosphere take on magical realism. Others have followed this line of thinking

Here were two men wondering aloud why reality had failed to conform to their ideology. Where was the private sector, exactly, during these eight weeks? How odd that these companies, whose only responsibility is to their shareholders, had failed to make up for the incompetence of this administration.

Redfield seems to have been selected to run the CDC not only because he was a prominent virologist, which made him appear qualified for the job, but also because of his hard-line politics, which made him qualified to serve in this Republican administration. Even at the time of his appointment, a few experts tried to warn the administration that, as concerning as his dodgy politics were, his complete lack of experience in public health administration was even more disturbing. His politics, as it turns out, matter much more than his expertise when it comes to making a vital agency function.

The adherents of this kind wishful thinking will always observe in a crisis that "the private sector was too slow". They are forever singing the Dazz Band's chorus: "do I hear the sound of anticipation?" in advance of the second wave.

The next day, Congresswoman Katie Porter had had enough and brought out the whiteboard while questioning Robert Redfield and eventually got him to commit to free coronavirus testing. Her basic point was that the good doctor had ample authority in the context of a public health emergency to actually regulate the health care system. But it took relentless questioning, and she had to frame it like a game of The Price is Right to get him to admit that it might be a touch difficult for an uninsured American to pay the then-estimated $1,331 out-of-pocket cost of a coronavirus test, and that perhaps this might be an impediment to the WHO's injunction to "test, test, test" in light of a highly contagious disease to which humanity had no immunity.

Note: that it would take until September 1st for the full implications of actually exercising that regulatory authority to start to show. All of a sudden, we heard that the CDC could impose a moratorium on evictions, that it was well within its capacity to do so. There was no explanation on why it had taken more than 6 months to make that determination, and, as for all those lives that had been upended in the interim, the families put on the street, those made unemployed or forced to return to work in unsafe Smithfield plants for fear of the bread line, oh well c'est la vie. A blind man could see the need for even these half measures, as the Godfather of soul sang. Or perhaps, we can turn to Upton Sinclair

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

John Kenneth Galbraith was less cynical but no less piercing in outlining the workings of wishful thinking when he cast his eye on The Great Crash of 1929:

By affirming solemnly that prosperity will continue, it is believed that one can help insure that prosperity will in fact continue. Especially among businessmen the faith in the efficiency of such incantation is very great.

As with public health so with the economy. I've previously pointed to the figure of Alan Greenspan whose lifelong herculean efforts to tilt the playing field in the economy towards the rich were shown up to be similarly catastrophic in fomenting a modern Depression. Even his mea culpa has proven to be ephemeral

"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Pardon my visceral reaction. GTFOHWTBS

It was a strategic retreat however, in light of the Great Recession and the housing bubble. Still, the rehabilitation campaign for this disastrous legacy was immediately launched and, more importantly, there was no restitution or move to address the fundamental inequality that Greenspan advocated and, indeed, enabled. The great cheerleader of unrestrained capitalism had set the system in place and the rigged game continues apace.

There is, of course, a difference between the theory and the practice of free markets. Charicatures of Adam Smith notwitstanding, Bagehot's caveats are always ignored as inconveniences. As I wrote at the outset of the pandemic:

We'll be hearing a lot about the "lend freely" aspect of Bagehot's premise in the coming bailouts. We'll conveniently hear less about the "at a high rate" or the "solvent merchants" qualifiers. But those are the rules for banks foremost, and for businesses writ large.

When it comes to bailouts for labor, moral hazard suddenly leaps to the front of the political arguments. The language is of handouts and welfare. Means testing inevitably raises its head. Social insurance has always needed better PR if not crises of power (Bismarck, FDR, Bevan)

A difficulty for the rest of us is determining whether the Redfield-Greenspan outlook was a sincere belief or a convenient cover story. It's a puzzle: are they in on the con or merely naive? Are they a mark or is it part of the long con? Should we consider them like the character played by Robert Redford in The Sting, actors in double and triple crosses? I do not mean to suggest Robert Redfield should be played by the Sundance Kid when the tales are told by Hollywood, but it's quite the ambiguous adventure.

Perhaps it doesn't matter, because the end result is the same grift, it's a shell game nonetheless, and one should protect oneself accordingly. We should fight the good fight against the soi-disant abstract magic of the market, even as one expresses one's outrage.

The pessimistic view is that we are dealing with gremlins, per Ezra Pound's Hugh Selwyn Mauberly

usury age-old and age-thick
and liars in public places.

The optimistic viewpoint is more charitable albeit that it is is a matter of routine greed. We can turn again to John Kenneth Galbraith for insight

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

Returning to Belloc's thought about wishful thinking, we can hear its rhyme with Francis Bacon's aphorism:

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

In any case, the die is cast, the pursuit of herd immunity was the chosen tactic and we are all paying the cost in flesh and blood. 'Tis quite the pity that, in this pandemic, wishful thinking has lead the public health intervention.

"I guess I anticipated that the private sector would have engaged and helped develop it for the [insert topic here]" should be the epitaph of the wishful thinkers.

Wishful Thinking

Wishful thinking has been revealed as the bottom line
Their font of magical realism in a covidious time
An age-old shell game full of mystical narratives
The rhetoric of pocket book common sense and tough love
Merely masked the underlying impunity and strife

Force majeure, they vouchsafed bailouts for finance
But look, all of a sudden, central bankers turn to doves
Then the quick turn, post-haste, to restore the balance
We started hearing of moral hazard and hard choices.

For businessmen with hard noses, it's called strategic default
For your ordinary Joe, it's eviction and the bread line
Rent is due, sucker, it's your fault, not mine
Public health can wait, let's have a grand reopening
Never mind The Mosquito Principle or social living

Individual choice will save us, communal thinking is in the tank
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, there's always the food bank
Governments can socialize the losses, of course, for the bosses
Meanwhile you're on your own, the workers can pay the cost
There's the incantation of free enterprise almost to the point of rapture
When the abiding principle is really that of regulatory capture

Crush the unions, we worship at the altar of the free market
Still, the world is watching, the crisis is having a clarifying effect
It's proving hard to deny the phantom thread of greed
When our human infrastructure is shown to be in dire need
Everything must change, this is school of hard knocks
Essential workers and labor are shown to be in the dock
The spokesmen of capital momentarily in a state of shock
Revealingly, the operative phrase is "human capital stock".

Soundtrack for this note

Let's have a soundtrack for this worldview. What to call it though? Regulatory Capture is argumentatative as well as being a mouthful. Free Markets doesn't get to my intent and Lightweight Regulation reeks of irony. It's not quite Social Darwinism and I already have a Manifest Destiny and a Shell Games playlist. Arggh let's go with Wishful Thinking. In the context of the US and UK responses to our covidious predicament, it clearly fits the bill.

Wishful Thinking, a playlist

The sounds of magical realism in the human marketplace. (spotify version)

• Magical Mystical Way by Omar
• I Wish by Dwele
• Magic by Amel Larrieux
• Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth by Charlie Hunter
  Mugged by reality in Mike Tyson's parlance with the incredible guitar of Charlie Hunter. One hopes America has the sense to follow through on its buyer's remorse instead of doubling down on wishful thinking.
• Anticipation by Bar-Kays
• Regulate by Warren G ft Nate Dogg
• Wishing Well by Terence Trent D'Arby
• I Wish I Knew by Ahmad Jamal
• Market Place by Hugh Masekela
• You Can Make A Wish by Mica Paris
• Blind Man Can See It by James Brown
  Paid the cost to be the boss
• Human Market Place by Third World
• Free Enterprise by Rick Ross ft John Legend
  The album is called Black Market
• Market Place by Etta James
• I Wish by Stevie Wonder
• Nigerian Marketplace by Oscar Peterson Trio
• When The Party's Over by Alexander O'Neal
  The walk of shame is in order.

Further Reading

Amitav Ghosh's excellent Ibis trilogy spends some time musing about the traders of the East India Company and the Opium Wars in River of Smoke and especially in Flood of Fire. Indeed it ought to continue further just for the sheer exuberance of the linguistic invention. Why stop at three novels?

The logical endpoint of free market thinking is the hypocrisy of empire.

I realised this was the inaugural moment in the wars of what you might call Free Trade Imperialism. These merchants were the first generation of people for whom Adam Smith’s ideas were like a religion. They really thought they were laws of nature

"The profit motive has always existed, nowhere more so than in China and India, but Adam Smith created the idea that the economy is separate from human society and driven by its own internal forces. For the merchants, the market was not subject to any ethical constraints. Nobody in America [today] would suggest that Colombia has a right to push drugs in their country. But this was exactly what the Free Trade Fundamentalists were saying back then." In this, opium was uniquely suited to Smith’s purposes. “The whole point about capitalism is to try to persuade people to buy things that they don’t need," Ghosh argues. "It necessarily began with addictive substances. Tobacco, rum, tea, opium."

And the band played on...

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time

File under: shell game, con, capitalism, grifters, gremlins, culture, observation, perception, USA, markets, economics, politics, policy, public health, Observers are worried, poetry, covidious, greed, Buyer's Remorse, toli

Mixed Metaphors

The COVID-19 risk guidelines in Austin, Texas present a design dilemma and a case of the blues (and more on that anon, see if you can spot what I mean). They also started with a political handicap when they were unveiled a few months ago. These are local city and county guidelines, drawn up by the Austin Public Health department, that were always likely to be ignored and run roughshod over by Texas's governor who was early in hailing The Grand Reopening of Texas, and has steadfastly proclaimed Positivity in the face of all contrary evidence.

The earlier color-coded threat level Homeland Security Advisory System in the US has also been handicapped since its inception. While some critics focus on its bureaucratic unwieldiness, what irks me most is a catastrophic user interface and design failure. The failure, as you'll note, continues into the present.

The reason is that, in order to have green be the colour for the "all-clear" threat level, the natural spectrum of light, as normally seen in rainbows, has been altered in the Homeland Security scheme. Thus ice cool blue has been promoted to "guarded" whereas tropical green has been demoted to "low".

A bureaucrat or marketing person's intelligent design is at odds with evolution, physics and reality. Blame Osama bin Laden perhaps, but any number of people in the US government signed off on this mishap. Further, we are still living in this era of Recent Non-Specific General Threats almost two decades later.

The messaging and visual branding in the covid guidelines suffers from the very same flaw with the inversion of the colors of the rainbow spectrum. You can almost hear the designer's brain ticking: let's start with a traffic light metaphor, Red-Yellow-Green. But wait, they want 5 levels, let's add in orange and blue. Oh no, what about green? Argh, I give up, let's just invert green and blue. Mixed metaphor much?

Everytime I look at these charts, I suffer cognitive dissonance, there's something not quite right. I don't have to be color blind to be confused; I get a case of the misplaced blues. Could it be so hard, I ask myself? When I bought some paint to go after Tom Sawyer, things seemed easy, I ordered my 5 cans of paint and got a nice rainbow spectrum:

When I looked at my bookshelf at my stack of Unesco General History of Africa books, I noticed that there was a similar confusion if you organized things chronologically. I suspect the editors of that wonderful series weren't visually inclined but, in mitigation, they weren't dealing with a global pandemic and coming up with an urgent public health intervention. Still, the learning exhibited in that series stands the test of time. Even if later scholars have access to more material these days, those historical tomes were a real benefit for humanity. It was certainly wise to have the red volume be Africa under Colonial Domination. The blood of colonial era lingers on the ground. Alfred Adu-Boahen's opus of historical scholarship stared with clarity at the heart of darkness and eschewed Africans as scenery in the race to Fashoda.

But back to our covidious guidelines and rules and regulation... Once you move beyond the blue in green, as it were, a further problem is with naming and comprehension. If you use numbers for different phases, you have to consider the order. Do increasing numbers mean an easing of restrictions or an intensification of the lockdown? Are you considering opening or closing? In Austin, it looks as if Stage 1 is the all clear whereas Stage 5 is the fullblown lockdown stage, but I could see the reverse making sense too. Leaving aside the blues, where do epidemiologists stand on endianness and indeed on numerology?

Mind you, an interesting thing to note is that the misplaced blues is not a universal design failure. The Texas Medical Association coronavirus risk assessment of activities is at least in line with the rainbow spectrum. Different designers, most likely working down the hall from each other, came up with different solutions. No wonder humanity is afflicted with version hell and the Tower and Babel.

The designers behind Harvard Global Health Institute's Global Epidemics site went with the Rule of Four instead, with the graphics for their Key Metrics for Covid Suppression. There is still the notion of the rainbow, but to avoid the case of the misplaced blues while fitting in with the traffic light metaphor, they added orange but decided that the blues could wait.

The British government in April was considering The traffic light exit strategy to free the UK from lockdown. A new economics paper suggested "a red-amber-green solution to safely ease us out of coronavirus restriction". That would be The traffic-light route to ending the economic lockdown by Gerard Lyons and Paul Ormerod (April 5 2020). It was noted at the time that this academic had sway in the past with Dominic Cummings so Mister Johnson was likely to pick up on this metaphor.

A few weeks later would read Coronavirus: 'Traffic light' system to lift lockdown in Wales

Ending lockdown could be in phases,"like a traffic light in reverse". There would be a move from red - some "careful and controlled" relaxation - to green, which would be "much more like the lives we had before the crisis hit". The amber zone would see more restrictions lifted and, if the virus is not re-emerging, Wales could then move to the green zone.

The UK would unveil its covid alert system in June rollowing the traffic light metaphor - the blues of the worst excess mortality were seeping in

By July we were reading Coronavirus: Quarantine scrapped for arrivals from 'low risk' countries to England, a constrained reopening was in prospect

Last weekend the government said a traffic light system would be introduced, with countries classified as green, amber or red, depending on the prevalence of coronavirus... the Join Biosecurity Centre – which was set up to coordinate the government’s response to the pandemic – will be categorizing countries with a “traffic light” system.

Each country will be rated green, amber, or red. This will depend on the prevalence of coronavirus, the trajectory of the disease, and the center’s assessment of the data’s reliability. The quarantine will only apply to those countries rated red.

The UK Government Traffic-Light Quarantine System was said to be red amber and green.

Chile launched its five step coronavirus prevention program to gradually reopen the country. They didn't bring in color to the mix, it was steps and numbers.

Seven Santiago neighbourhoods will transfer to Step 2 — they will be allowed to leave their houses freely on weekdays, with local shops allowed to reopen. The quarantine remains in place on weekends and holidays, along with a nighttime curfew every day.

La Araucanía joins fellow southern regions Los Ríos and Aysén in Step 4 of the prevention program. Here, rates of infection are significantly lower than other parts of the country. Restaurants, cafés, shops and cinemas can reopen with up to 25% capacity, while bars, clubs and gyms remain shut and the curfew stays in place.

If you were lucky enough to take advantage of lower interest rates caused by the downturn and attempt to refinance your mortgage, you would have faced the hard sell and the kind of mixed messages that ensue whenever traffic light meets rainbow, we always seem to get a case of the misplaced blues.

California's governor Gavin Newsom is hip to this game

The governor said that the new four tier color-coded system would match a color to each of the four tiers with purple representing the highest “widespread” risk level for a county with more than seven new cases per 100,000 residents and more than 8 percent positivity rate. Red will represent “substantial” risk, while orange represents “moderate” risk and yellow the lowest level, “minimal” risk, with those lower levels being determined by reduced numbers in case and positivity rates.

“We don’t put up green because we don’t believe that there’s a green light that says just go back to the way things were or back to the pre-pandemic mindset”

The shiny Silicon Valley solution eschews the misplaced blues using purple instead, deftly forgoes green to flee the traffic light metaphor, and embraces the rule of four in pointing to simplicity for its color-coded county guidelines

Througout this pandemic, there has been a lot of mixed signals and confusion in the messages that the public has been inundated with. This inconsistent messaging goes against the best practices of public health messaging. The public is necessarily conflicted: stay home except when you shouldn't, wear a mask although you don't need to says the governor or the sherrif. Bleach and disinfectant is first presidentially recommended, and then immediately reviled and universaly ridiculed. This is the stuff of confusion, and I won't get into the stranger turns of hydroxychloroquine, or indeed the numerous cases of drinking of hand sanitizer - that last was a bridge too far for me, to mix my metaphors.

Colors abound in the discourse, yet the only consistent message is that red is bad, the hot zone or the torrid zone of infection. Heat is also at work; hot is bad, cool is good. And if some states go with colors, some with phases, some with steps, and yet others go with levels or stages. And when it comes to numbers, some go with high numbers while others prefer low numbers as the warning. Numbers are probably better than colors but again everyting is up for debate. Is higher better or worse?

One interesting thing is that we don't hear about black much in the messaging. We don't get black or white. The implied binary choices are too stark. Life or death, Stop or go. Perhaps it is because binary choices have an immediacy that force us to reflect on mortality. Three or more states is best, there are shades of gray in this business - these shades imply some degree of human flexibility and agency. Designers reached with intent into their toolkit and came up with traffic lights, with the rule of four, and always remember, as a best practice, if five or more states are needed, we should heed the actual rainbow.

Graphic designers are having a tough time achieving clarity during this coronavirus pandemic. There's no easy living when you have mixed metaphors in a covidious time.

Mixed Metaphors

Traffic lights
Full circle rainbows
Prevention steps
Priority zones
Stage guidelines
Lockdown levels
Threat areas
Risk tiers
Confused warnings
The misplaced blues

Mixed Metaphors, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note, here's hoping we can find the blues or some black gold of the sun somewhere over the rainbow. (spotify version)

• Over the Rainbow by Patti Labelle & The Bluebelles
  Each performance of this song brought the house down, Patti's fierce voice, back with Nona Hendrix. The version here, introduced by Otis Redding, is a treat but any later performance broadened the spectrum with diva histrionics and emotion.
• The Blues by Tony! Toni! Toné!
  Spending all my time pleasing you (Doctor Fauci)
  All you ever give me is the blues
• Rainbow by Shinehead
• Mixed Signals by Ruth B.
• Blue in Green by Miles Davis
• Over The Rainbow by Ben Webster
  The versions on the See You at the Fair and the Live at the Jazzhaus albums are excellent and full of mixed emotions.
• Mixed Messages by The Bangles
  Manic Monday musings.
• The Rainbow Children by Prince
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead
  In Rainbows was my soundtrack for a few years.
• Soundtrack to Confusion by Black Thought
  Our premier lyricist has been on a roll of late
• Blues After All by Jimmy Smith
  This is a soul jazz thing.
• Blues Grinder by Ronny Jordan
• Mixed-Up Confusion by Bob Dylan
• Chasing Rainbows by Blue Magic
• I Can Sing A Rainbow (Love is Blue) by The Dells
  Having Blue Magic and The Dells back-to-back is pure falsetto magic
• World of Confusion by Michael Prophet
  Roots reggae never sounded so good.
• Look To the Rainbow by Al Jarreau
  Jarreau was a unique artist, that voice is eternal.
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Ray Charles
• Blue in Green by Bill Evans Trio
• So Much Confusion by Morgan Heritage
• Over the Rainbow by Dave Brubeck
• Confusion by Fela Kuti

A ball of confusion is perhaps a good description for the novel coronavirus

See also: Colors, a playlist (spotify version)

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: visualization, metaphor, marketing, design, confusion, policy, comprehension, color, abstraction, technology, usability, culture, observation, perception, coronavirus, pandemic, public health, human factors, covidious, toli

Broken Record

The rainy season is so-named because it comes every year, hence one would expect that the authorities would plan for it, but this was the scene on the front page of the Daily Graphic in 1960 when the rains came to Accra with the resulting floods. The headlines 56 years later will likely be the same even with last year's disaster relatively fresh in our minds.

The satirists have already laid their bets: Accra mayor begins ritual of dusting off his annual 'flood speech' as rains set in. Of course the collateral damage has already been felt this year. One prays this year's death toll will be minimized.

Now I hear you: it's complicated. Flood management is difficult even if you're not in the Third World (and you don't have to go the extreme of mentioning Katrina and Sandy and other extraordinary acts of nature to make the point). Flash floods do happen. And yes, you can't simply throw out all the people who have encroached and built on the areas that are ostensibly meant for drains. You need to find a sustainable solution. Oh sure, after every disaster, the bulldozers appear and the Accra Metropolitan Authority workers along with the police knock down the kiosks and other dwellings that have sprung up upending home and livelihood for the unfortunate. And sometimes it is just a matter of excessive garbage, blocked drains and/or the negligence of those who got the juicy contract to maintain the same. Or... I know, I know: everything is local. And anyway why worry about such things from a remove of 6,479 miles?

My mother has accumulated dozens of newspaper columns on this very topic over her 50 year career. And as evidenced by the 1960 front pages, the headlines were writing themselves long before she started. It's a matter of meteorology (it always rains heavily), geography (Kwame Nkrumah circle was always a flash point; the location of the rivers and lagoons in the city), physics and architecture (the design, placement and configuration of streets, houses, roads and drains), engineering (how well those roads and drains were constructed, whether corners were cut after the no-bid contract was awarded, whether proper materials were used) and ultimately slum politics (the perennial tension between the drainage of the Korle lagoon and the growth of the nearby slums full of voters - whether you call one of those touchpoints Agblobloshie, Old Fadama or Sodom and Gomorrah features into the lens through which one views this intractable issue).

But there is a difference between an act of god and an eminently predictable seasonal occurrence. We'll bemoan the lack of a maintenance culture, pay emergency rates for things that ought to be run-of-the mill repairs. Before and after the fact, everyone "knows" what needs to be done. At what point does damage move from collateral to intended? We cheapen Ghanaian lives and compensate with congratulatory funerals while patting ourselves on the back about our unique culture. I dissent. The refrain I've grown up with is that history should not keep repeating itself. And yet we keep sounding like a broken record when the rains come to Accra.

And for bonus points note the other headline on the 1960 front page: "Fast Train Services Planned". We're still waiting for Godot on that front. It's not as if the plans haven't been there as far as the development of Accra goes. Through each era, under each government, no matter how progressive, incompetent (as currently) or indeed how repressive (as thankfully in our past), the plans have always been there. Sisyphus must have been the patron saint of urban planners in Accra.

Lamentable, a playlist

A lamentable soundtrack for this note(spotify version)

• Gotta Broken Heart Again by Prince
  I should feel bad repurposing this sweet pop trifle but it fits better than New Edition's N.E. Heartbreak.
• From A Whisper To A Scream by Allen Toussaint
  Esther Phillip's version was my introduction to the late Allen Toussaint's great song. It's perhaps serendipitous in the context of this playlist that there's also a horror movie with that name.
• Lament by Miles Davis
  Stately yet mournful blues from my favourite album of his, Miles Ahead
• Es Lamentable by Sophy
  I hope to be proved wrong but I've found the message of this boogaloo concoction gets straight to the point.
• Soul Lament by Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue all the way. Normally part of my summer jazz playlist, I can't get enough of Kenny Burrell's sublime guitar. Note: Lonnie's Lament by John Coltrane is an adequate substitute.
• Shame by Alexander O'Neal
  The last peak of soul's finest voice paired with Jam and Lewis's immaculate production.

  I let you get over the last time, if you do it again it's a shame on me.

• It's a Crying Shame by Ruby Turner
  We'll up the stakes and end with the obvious. The album is called Paradise and yet it's a crying shame that the paradise of a well run country is denied us. I have no more tears to cry.

File under: Accra, Ghana, flood, disaster, development, infrastructure, history, waste, Africa, policy, politics, urban, strategy, environment, city, planning, culture, observation, toli

Render / Rendition

I've been thinking about the verb render and its euphemistic use by 'intelligence' folks. Ionesco loved such words intended to obscure.

Render, when used in the context of extraordinary rendition, seemingly refers to the "provide to" sense of the verb.

I'm sure however that the "melt down" or "process carcass in order to extract protein" sense of render was the intended variant.

The same people that brought us the phrase terminate with extreme prejudice speak softly of extraordinary rendition and coercive techniques.

It turns out the extraordinary modifier to rendition was an exaggeration, for the actual policy was rather ordinary once the gloves came off

I'm impressed by the techniques suffix to "coercive interrogation techniques". It provides the weasel veneer of bureaucratic justification.

The gloves came off metaphor is of a piece with the reluctant avenger, cold warrior and cowboy rhetoric. Also the fighter pilot iconography.

As Gil Scott-Heron pointed out the metaphor is always "The man in the white hat", it's never "He died with his pants on". The B-movie Theory

They used techniques, after all, this wasn't done without thought. Techniques for God's sake. They had memos, they had a mandate. Techniques

They rendered enemy combatants. The analysts were security professionals, the lawyers wrote briefs, memos, and provided sober legal counsel

From the president on, everyone always meant well. We should never forget the pervasive fear of those times. We should never forget they say.

I'm confounded by Diane Feinstein's phrase in the Senate Committee's torture report: "the impulse to consider the use of every possible tool"

Render / Rendition

Render
Rendition
Techniques
Extraction
Intelligence
Determination
Coercive
Interrogation
"Color-coded threat"
"Stress position"

Agency
Authorization
Bureaucratic
Justification
"Pervasive fear"
Suffocation
"Every possible tool"
Mutilation
Truth
Fiction

Program
Detention
Committee
Conclusion
Values
Expectation
Evidence
Destruction
Executive
Classification

Concern
Abdication
Duress
Oppression
Detainee
Sanction
Mission
Completion
Indefinite
Incarceration

Reviews
Recommendation
Secrecy
Investigation
Findings
Decision
Medical
Precision
Battlefield
Condition

Field manual
Operation
Contractor
Delegation
Homeland
Representation
Unreleased
Section
"Enhanced"
[ Redaction ]

Wall
Collision
Sleep
Deprivation
Rectal!
Hydration?
Pain
Contortion
Linguistic
Distortion

Study
Revision
Wartime
Alienation
Constraints
Compulsion
Restraints
Revulsion
Enforcement
Intimidation

Outsourced
Situation
Professional
Affectation
Permanent
Condition
Blood
Repulsion
Sin
Confession

Delayed
Publication
Damage
Mitigation
Sullied
Reputation
Outrage
Attention
Necessity
Neglection

Statute
Limitation
Geneva
Convention
Liability
Litigation
Missing
Compensation
Accountability?
Desertion

Blustery
Pontification
Misleading
Compilation
Success?
Inflation
Platitudes
Comprehension
Ludicrous
Prevarication

Security
Protection
Treaties
Obligation
Counsel
Dissimulation
Impulse
Misdirection
Damning
Distraction

Extensive
Preparation
Confinement
Contraction
Liquid
Nutrition
Programmatic
Starvation
Behavior
Modification

Goodwill
Dissipation
Diplomacy
Complication
Reckless
Accommodation
Pride
Restriction
Shame
Inflection

Patriotic
Intention
Tenuous
Salvation
Absence
Redemption
Erasure
Restoration
Judicious
Diversion

Harmful
Friction
Living
Invention
Mournful
Adjudication
Dangerous
Subversion
Poverty
Imagination

Rhetorical
Congratulation
Obscene
Citation
Wicked
Implication
Doubtful
Mediation
Ignored
Submission

Imperial
Contention
Oblivious
Reaction
Systematic
Protestation
Ridicule
Reception
Artful
Omission

Inquiry
Condemnation
Worldwide
Suggestion
Reluctant
Identification
Faded
Admiration
Ongoing
Asphyxiation

Covert
Dispensation
Robust
Accumulation
Intentional
Concision
Captured
Regulation
Oversight?
Illusion

Implacable
Opposition
Sensible
Supervision
Remarkable
Dilution
Income
Distribution
Unearned
Remuneration

Ruthless
Organization
Policy
Gestation
Unwarranted
Invasion
Conflict
Adoption
Contemptuous
Communication

Western
Machination
Solipsistic
Absorption
Fragile
Adaptation
Cultural
Variation
Toothless
Negation

Rights
Suspension
Deleterious
Temptation
Funding
Indignation
Needless
Accusation
Pointless
Recrimination

Ordinary
Exaggeration
Unfortunate
Improvisation
Admitted
Deception
Managed
Perception
Mythical
Affirmation

Dishonorable
Introduction
Dungeon
Provision
Insomnia
Hallucination
Unbearable
Tradition
Uncivilized
Nation

Increasing
Frustration
Aggressive
Competition
Consistent
Anticipation
Unsanitary
Migration
Cold
Calculation

Forced
Digestion
Useless
Petition
Dismal
Donation
Media
Fixation
Footnote
Generation

Coffin-sized
Configuration
Water
Application
Simple
Combination
Damage
Deracination
Worthless
Information

Misguided
Collaboration
Crusade
Confrontation
Intellectual
Immiseration
Spurious
Distinction
Soulless
Association

Energetic
Manipulation
Democracy
Promotion?
Disappointing
Corruption
Misplaced
Compassion
Deferred
Conversation

Duty
Dereliction
Integrity
Renunciation
Scatological
Fascination
Childish
Obsession
Ignored
Objection

Youthful
Indiscretion
Mean
Regression
Sanctimonious
Suppression
Unmerited
Acclamation
Failed
Inhibition

Celebrity
Contribution
Suppository
Imposition
Prisoner
Supposition
Presidential
Prohibition
Poisoned
Succession

Formal
Deposition
Norm
Violation
Dubious
Potion
Patrimony
Dissipation
Naysayer
Vindication

Posture
Prostration
Sexual
Lubrication
Fitful
Ingestion
Religious
Desecration
Humanity
Constriction

Internee
Evaluation
Light
Attenuation
Restricted
Motion
Nasal
Irrigation
Liminal
Libation

Interpreter
Translation
Adverse
Selection
Bounty
Concession
Changing
Definition
Circumstantial
Conviction

Moral
Dimension
Topical
Digression
Selective
Indirection
Rogue
Procession
Warning
Obliteration

External
Location
Allied
Accession
Righteous
Recognition
Fatal
Indecision
Justice
Elision

Frustrated
Ambition
Clipped
Diction
Intense
Articulation
Procedure
Resurrection
Intentional
Vivisection

Arrogant
Arrogation
Perilous
Peregrination
Alarming
Imputation
Disputed
Observation
Choice
Abortion

Presumptuous
Appropriation
Amateur
Pronunciation
Illegible
Illustration
Execrable
Assumption
Waste
Elimination

Singular
Possession
Inevitable
Progression
Perfidious
Corporation
Currency
Devaluation
Greater
Recession

Multiple
Quotation
Target
Consultation
Civility
Vacation
Supreme
Toleration
Broken
Union

Limb
Extension
Faltering
Respiration
Exemplary
Pretension
Appearance
Abolition
Existential
Reversion

Choreographed
Transition
Saline
Infusion
Fluid
Intoxication
Psychologist
Intervention
Biological
Experimentation

Mental
Perversion
Panicked
Retrogression
Hunger
Humiliation
Extreme
Affliction
Grace
Castration

Deliberate
Obfuscation
Diffuse
Suspicion
Warrantless
Intrusion
Abuse
Adoration
Retinal
Dilation

Feigned
Concentration
Advice
Exclusion
Constant
Invocation
Imagined
Exception
Probity
Remission

Necessary
Interception
Fantasy
Creation
Stolen
Tribulation
Marginal
Implementation
Decency
Immigration

Extremity
Subtraction
Cavity
Insertion
Wound
Insemination
Artificial
Distinction
Probable
Extinction

Casual
Exploration
Depraved
Sensation
Particular
Illumination
Expected
Humiliation
Soul
Ruination

Stylistic
Innovation
Freelance
Rumination
Advanced
Automation
Telling
Indication
Resultant
Concussion

Drone
Explosion
Village
Commotion
Newspaper
Mention
Perfunctory
Expression
Population
Reduction

Latest
Edition
Perfidious
Caption
Final
Option
Ceremonial
Presentation
Complaisant
Facilitation

Background
Attribution
Sought
Cooperation
Site
Relocation
Distributed
Participation
Impotent
Injunction

Thoughtless
Instruction
Rule
Diffusion
Nebulous
Compartmentalization
Threat
Emission
Press
Domestication

Unpopular
Opinion
Cost
Trillion
Predicted
Contradiction
Peaceful
Liberation
Continuing
Education

Masculinity
Aggression
Adrenaline
Animation
Sad
Disposition
Estrogen
Disruption
Required
Reflection

Pervasive
Vandalization
Tactical
Generalization
Retrospective
Admission
Profound
Ossification
Importance
Cognition

Sinister
Specialization
Family
Co-option
Suborn
Deliberation
Hostage
Negotiation
Self
Preservation

Conscious
Simulation
Appropriate
Coordination
Surprising
Satisfaction
Activity
Customization
Influence
Conservation

Profit
Augmentation
Homogeneous
Composition
Resistance
Transformation
Tribal
Authentication
Ideological
Indoctrination

Ethical
Evolution
Arduous
Navigation
Conduct
Demonstration
Murderous
Standardization
Noxious
Revolution

Lost
Congregation
Principle
Minimization
Controversial
Interpretation
Philosophical
Question
Stolen
Election

Power
Centralization
Historical
Abstraction
Honesty
Aversion
Preferred
Version
Tissue
Rejection

Cowering
Caution
Shrieks
Exhaustion
Injury
Infliction
Wilful
Inaction
Derived
Fragmentation

Camp
Administration
Poetry
Confiscation
Literature
Munition
Human bodies
Ammunition?
Privilege
Revocation

Intolerable
Provocation
Impertinent
Recrimination
Cult-like
Indoctrination
No
Reconsideration
Cultural
Projection

Cell
Utilization
Anxiety
Elevation
Electrical
Stimulation
Genital
Incapacitation
Inspired
Abomination

Dishonest
Acquisition
Scandalous
Faction
Violent
Suction
Disgust
Urination
Legacy
Despoliation

Overseas
Destabilization
Blowback
Saturation
Foreign
Legion
Mercenary
Season
Bleeding
Lesion

Hidden
Installation
Policy
Persecution
Vindictive
Perpetration
Agony
Segregation
Criminal
Explanation

Rented
Mansion
Newfound
Vision
Rumored
Allegation
Implied
Sterilization
Potential
Circumcision

Mindless
Tabulation
Unusual
Exposition
Rapid
Transportation
Hubris
Enervation
Gutter
Gravitation

Legal
Abrogation
Effective
Cancellation
Inadequate
Transmission
Territorial
Expansion
Conscience
Evacuation

Claustrophobia
Congestion
Sensory
Encapsulation
Outlaw
Contagion
Inviolable
Constitution?
American
Predation

Advanced
Intuition
Pastoral
Repudiation
Exploited
Division
Troubled
Intersection
Embarrassing
Erection

Prolonged
Discussion
Mounting
Discrimination
Avoiding
Circumspection
Fuel
Ignition
Internal
Combustion

Chest
Compression
Air
Circulation
Flow
Obstruction
Ingredient
Addition
Drug
Addiction

Mislaid
Cushion
Welts
Contusion
Desired
Solution
Coarse
Confection
Quick
Execution

Lengthy
Seclusion
Organ
Occlusion
Lawsuit
Preclusion
Punishment
Recursion
Debarment
Prevention

Deployment
Rotation
Cynical
Politicization
Rationale
Implosion
Widespread
Derision
Nostalgia
Fashion

Belief
Proposition
Efficient
Collection
Course
Correction
Wink
Connotation
Dead
Complexion

Stentorian
Declaration
Proffered
Recompensation
Generational
Declension
Ingredient
Alteration
Abhorrent
Mutation

Forced
Constipation
Rape
Insinuation
Ceaseless
Vibration
Ominous
Intimation
Functional
Defenestration

Tooth
Excision
Surgical
Incision
Heat
Convection
Post-mortem
Dissection
Post modern
Explication

Blind
Devotion
Proof
Confirmation
Fact
Verification
Lacking
Substantiation
Invented
Corroboration

Message
Synchronization
Brand
Appreciation
Sublime
Persuasion
Enchanted
Population
Cattle
Appellation

Dogs
Domination
Slaps
Profusion
Hoods
Reclusion
Handcuffs
Ablution
Pacifist
Delusion

Sovereignty
Immunization
Amnesty
Vaccination
Stench
Consecration
Impunity
Desecration
Grief
Consolation

Suspect
Motivation
Vicious
Direction
Self-serving
Narration
Impossible
Reconciliation
Odious
Foundation

Immoral
Consideration
Deceitful
Conception
Repeated
Subjection
Physical
Deterioration
Disappearing
Documentation

In sober rooms, and without compunction,
With their white collars and red scribes,
They rejected a mere police action.

The resolved solution of their tribe:
Wounded flesh, revenge their intention.

Standing orders and compromised sources,
An own goal, these never-repudiated wars.
A course, instead, of military prosecutions,
Lies, and brutal interrogations.

Disgrace
Nepotism
Briefs
Criticisms
Wars
Terrorisms
Memos
Legalisms
Freedoms
Euphemisms

...

I've written about the game of the rough beast and I continue to wonder at its bureaucratic infrastructure. Who is writing the script?

For whatever reason, perhaps a keen sense of outrage, I've felt compelled to devise over a hundred variations on my initial scheme. Such is my asylum:

Wordplay as balm for disgust
Language as defense mechanism
Wit as refuge from despair
Poetry as exorcism

I'll follow the Via Negativa convention and tag the above under poems & poem-like things.

Sidenote: Twitter is a dangerous medium. In its immediacy, it takes just one fugitive thought about ostensibly serious-minded folks, and before you know it fifteen forty-five seventy minutes have passed.

File under: language, bureaucracy, torture, policy, USA, security, culture, erustication, CIA, rogues, politics, humour, satire, outrage, hatchet job, Extraordinary Rendition, poetry, The Rough Beast, Things Fall Apart, toli