Maddening

Malcolm Gladwell podcast on a way to solve COVID. 

The key: cheap at home testing that resembles that of birth control. Cost: cents per strip.

It's almost a parody thinking about how we don't have this testing available already. Where is Trump? Where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Bill Gates? CEOs of companies that can make this stuff? Gov Newsom? Anyone? Why aren't we shouting this idea from the rooftops and damning the FDA and any other barrier to getting this on the shelves at Costco, Target, and CVS? I mean it's freaking absurd. Our country has become completely unmanageable -- a totally ridiculous, complacent, gluttonous ball of butter incapable of tying our own shoes. Pathetic.

My pet theory: there are a number of powerful interest groups who actually LIKE this lockdown. Public employees love getting paychecks and doing jack shit at home vs jack shit at work. Same with corporate employees who have enough suction to keep their jobs. The local political tyrants freaking LOVE this pandemic - they get to do what they have wet dreams about - telling people what they can and can't do. Doctors get to play God. Insurance companies get to figure out how to make $$$ on this BS. Mortgage brokers busier than ever refinancing homes because of Fed rates. All the pessimists and tail riskers love it as well, proving them right for a season.

It's sick what's happening. Children locked at home. Parents doing job of teacher, daycare, and whatever their regular job is. Young people unable to leave their parents homes. Unable to apply for jobs. Unable to meet potential mates - while their student debt grows. Small businesses going belly up. Movie theaters dying. Theaters dying. Professional sports dying. 

And all this is could be managed. Just not by us.