Sean Meriwether's Blog: The Green Economist, page 4

An American Problem

NY Dispatch 10/9/2020: For anyone who doesn’t realize what is at stake in this country, look no farther than Michigan. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been attacked and harassed by the president since April when she dared to try to protect the health of her constituents. Why? Because she is a woman. Because she is a Democrat. Because she listened to scientists. The president tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHGAN!” in a storm of messages to agitate his base. It worked. His army of redhats showed up at the sta...

“Under His Fly”

NY Dispatch 10/8/2020: What does it say about Mike Pence’s debate performance when he was easily upstaged by a house fly? The fly became an instant celebrity. Memes were created and eagerly shared in the two minutes the fly squatted on the shore of his shockingly white hair. Pence was compared to a corpse, a demon, and… worse. Jeff Goldblum trended. Justice Ginsberg was given credit. So was God. It was a unifying moment of levity but should not distract us from their conversation.

The debate...

The Plexiglas Ceiling

NY Dispatch 10/7/2020: In normal election years only diehard political junkies would pay attention to the one and only vice presidential debate. But this is 2020. Nothing is normal. The president and his challenger are in their mid-to-late 70s living through a pandemic. There is a greater likelihood that the VP may have to take the mantle of the presidency no matter who wins in November. Many have speculated that Kamala Harris was selected as a running mate in order to take over for Joe Biden mi...

Brick & Mortar Graveyard

NY Dispatch 10/6/2020: Last night I made a farewell visit to New York’s worst “best kept secret,” Century 21. I am not a compulsive shopper but I have frequented this chain of closeout department stores for decades. You can dress like Meryl Strep on Anne Hathaway’s budget; they have name brands at steep discounts. For those with the patience, and luck, it was the place to find a good bargain. Their flagship store in downtown Manhattan was a tourist destination and was as crowded as Times Square....

A is for Anthropocene

NY Dispatch 10/5/2020: I once saw a reality TV show pilot that had a shocking method for getting families to change their unhealthy dietary habits. The show featured a family of four, all a bit overweight. To get the parents to consider preparing healthier meals they showed doctored photos of what their two boys might look like in 10, 20, 30 years if they continued on their current track. The kids got heavier and aged quickly. Then there were no more future photos. The boys were at a much highe...

Man is not made for defeat

NY Dispatch 10/4/2020: Today would have been my father’s 75th birthday, but he is not here to celebrate that milestone. I had had very limited contact with him over my adult life, but in 2008 I had to make end of life decisions for him as he lay dying in a coma. I had gotten a call from his sister that he was in the hospital and the prognosis was not good. I rented a car and drove from New York to rural North Carolina with my partner, not knowing what awaited us. We arrived in Ahoskie late in th...

The White House Cluster

NY Dispatch 10/3/2020: It is not without irony that the super spreader event that appears to be at the center of the White House cluster of COVID-19 infections was a party in the Rose Garden for the president’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. The GOP is racing to get her installed on the court before the election, possibly to help them win should the election need to be decided by the court, as it was in 2000.

The party was held on September 26th, and since the virus has an incubat...

“It is what it is.”

NY Dispatch 10/2/2020: Last night we went to bed with news that the president’s closest advisor, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for COVID-19. She had been travelling with the president and his reelection team. This morning we woke up to news about the president’s tweet from 1am EST; he and his wife (who is waging a war on Christmas) had tested positive too. His redhats must have been confused. How can he say that he was diagnosed with a Democratic hoax virus?! Wasn’t he taking hydroxychloroquin...

Identify and Isolate

NY Dispatch 10/1/2020: The Atlantic published an article by Zeynep Tufekci that adds to our arsenal of knowledge about how COVID-19 is transmitted. While we have seen some regions hit very hard during the pandemic, others have barely been touched. Some have compared the virus to the path of a tornado, destroying homes on one side of the street while the other side remains untouched. We may be closer to understanding why.

We have all become familiar with the term R0 (R-naught), which is the a...

“Will you shut up, man.”

NY Dispatch 9/30/2020: It would be a misnomer to call last night’s spectacle a debate. While the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, showed up prepared to discuss his policies and the future of his administration, directing his comments to the American people on the other end of the camera, he faced steep odds to stay on topic. Biden was barely able to complete a thought or sentence because his opponent, whose makeup was particularly orange last night, was spoiling for a fight and did not want to w...