I plan to keep wearing masks

I'm living my life as if Earth is becoming the ecological disaster that's been predicted since the 1960s. It means continuing to wear a mask even after the pandemic is declared over, as part of this crucible we are all living through is disease, new unknown viruses as well as revival of old ones.  

Over population combined with neglect of public education brought us religious fanaticism and hatred, plus confusion about science brought back measles, who knows when we'll have small pox and polio again. Covid will never go away thanks mostly to American ignorance. 

I already isolate because our streets are so hazardous you can be made dead by a vehicle while just walking on a sidewalk. No local news will report your death. I walked to the bank six weeks ago, 2 blocks, and almost got hit by one of America's new who-gives-a-fuckers in a car.

My mask keeps out flus and allergens, as well as any new mutations of covid. PLUS it filters out Some of the carbon fuels that permeate the air even here in Lake Tahoe a resort town at six thousand feet that is beautiful, but is now becoming covered with asphalt, wood and glass mansions behind walls, choking traffic, and ever increasing auto exhaust fumes. 

Less pollution though than the rest of the world. At this elevation, a lot of the garbage just blows away. 

But it's still covering the planet.

USA ends forever war in time for forever pandemic

Even if vaccinated, you can inhale and pass on the covid virus in a crowd. We still need masks. The vaccine protects you, it does not mean the pandemic is over. I think biggest mistake made in USA was having SO MUCH FAITH in the vaccines. So people now think thanks to big pharma, there is no reason to be careful anymore. The virus has only been known to humans for 18 months. We have more to learn. Meanwhile, this is becoming a forever pandemic.

Is this a free press?

 It just happened again. I read all the way to the end of a news story and realized I had not read one thing I hadn’t read before. Since college I have absorbed several different news sources a day, to get different perspectives. You can't do that anymore. It's like every reporter in the world is working from the same set of press releases, just finding different ways to say it, using their publication's style. I imagine these writers sitting in a home office, never even talking to a human let alone getting out and "working a beat" for a story, just sending emails, texts, Tweets. And copy and pasting quotes and paragraphs from the work of other writers copy and pasting in their home offices. I don't think Americans realize what we're giving up by letting our media turn into one big staged press conference. My first newspaper job in 1977, someone used a press release for a quote and got laughed at and taunted about it all over the newsroom for weeks. You don’t get the real story from a press release, they shouted, all you get is what the corporate guys want you to see. Now in 2021 it seems press releases are all journalists use, from the New York Times or Vanity Fair all the way to the Reno Gazette, which tells me no one is getting the whole story anywhere.

We might as well be in Soviet Russia. Hmm.