#ーryan.

[mthwxryn]

Your big heart is one of the things that made me fall for you...it just so happens that it's protected by your big chest, too, which I also love.

It's true that I have a big heart, full of love!

[taquasb]

2021年のSOTY・MARK SUCIUのインタビューを翻訳しました

君は若い頃から何度もSOTYに選出されてるよね　ー特に2019年は一番シリアスに。

「Verso」がリリースされてから候補者リストに名前があがったよね、SOTYにはなれなかったけどどんな気持ちだった？　君としては「お、今年は俺の年になるな」って確信してたんじゃないかなと想像できるんだけど。　落胆した？

ー落胆はあったよ。もう一度トライするのはないなって思った。というのも、もの凄く攻めたし、一年を通してそれを続けたからね　ーSilasのパークで2019年の5月に優勝してからずっと。インタビューも考えてたし、ビデオパートも計画しててうまくいきそうな気がしてたんだよね。

このまま続けていこう、ハードにトライしてみようって心の底では思ってた。と同時に、「ちょっと待て、SOTY?　おいおい、俺はSannyvaleスケートパークで滑ってたちょっとフリップ系がうまいクソガキじゃないか」とも思ってた。

だから、どのセッションでも「もし（SOTYを）ゲットできるなら、どうやって取りたい？」って自問してみた。で、そういう気持ちで滑ることが楽しかった。ヤバいのにトライしたり、リスクを負うことの動機づけになったんだ。

再挑戦してみようと火をつけたのはなんだったの？

ー自分ではそういう気持ちじゃなかったけど、周りの期待に気づかされたんだ。「今年こそMarkの年になりそうだね」って声も耳にしてたけど、俺としては「それを証明するにはまだ1本しかパートを残せてないぞ」とも思ってた。しかも「マジか。100パー、レッジトリックじゃん」って。

Justin（フィルマーのJustin Albert）と観返してから、他のフィルマーからの動画も集めてより「レッジ重視」じゃない感じになったんだけど、十分じゃなかった。

他のパートも観返してみたけど、打開策は見つからなかった。そのあと、デカいプロジェクトがあった　ーそれが「Flora」。もう一年半、このチャンスにかけてみようって思ったんだ。もっとレールトリックが欲しかったんだよね。これを全編にレールトリックにしたいって。

ということは、そのパートの後にも挑戦は続きそうだなって感覚があった？

ーうん、まさに。良い感じの10％増しになると考えてた。やりたかったことにトライして、パートのアイデアも伝えてたんだ　ー複雑に分類したハンドレールトリックをやってみようって。まずはJon AllieとDustin Dollinがやってたキックフリップセクションみたいに、それからショービットや180のバリエーションって感じで。

過去を振り返ってみると、君はたくさんのことに最初にたどり着いたスケーターだよね　-たとえばYouTube。小さかった頃にYouTubeがスケートボードを体験する手段になるって考えてた？計画があって自分のスケートを投稿してた？

ーない。マジでない。Joey GuevaraとMiguel Valleがちょっとしたクールな編集動画を作ってたんだ。サクラメントへのスケート・トリップを2分にまとめたような動画とかそんなのを毎晩のように観てた。それで、「うわ、Miguelとスケートしなきゃ。彼らの動画に参加したい」って思ったんだ。俺らはすべてを撮影してた、それはMiguelがドキュメント（記録）するのを楽しんでたから。だから、YouTubeが重要だなんて考えたこともなかったね。あのYouTubeでバズった動画「Illegal Edit」、PJ Laddが観たってやつ。あれは元々スポンサー・ミー用に作ってたのにリークされたんだ。

頭にきた？

ーもちろん頭にきた。けど同時に興奮した。あれは思いつく限り本当に最高の出来事だったな。

君はYouTubeがフィジカルのDVDより、ちょっと劣るなって感じた頃を覚えてる？

ー俺自身は「YouTubeに出てるなんてクソだな。くだらない、なんか欠けてるし」とか、そんな風に思ったことないな。その頃もまだAlien Workshopのビデオに出たいなって夢見てはいたけど。

実際SOTYを最終的にゲットしたわけだけど、どんな感じだった？　解放された���て気持ち？

ーただただ大きなショックだったね。本当にどうしたらいいかわからなかったし、でも光栄だとは感じてた。別の言い方をするなら、「マジか。29、もうすぐ30歳になる年にSOTYになったのか。それに12歳の頃からスケートしててシーンの一部にもなったベイエリアでゲットしたんだ」みたいな感じかな。

誰しも、これが頂点だってことは理解できると思う。だけど、そういうプレッシャーになる話の流れは撥ね返したいって思ってる。ってなると、「この地点からどう進む？」ってなるよね。

「よし、今年は本当によくスケートしたし、いくつかビデオもリリースできた。前年にも似たような動画も出してたし、認められてもいた。けど今は、より広い範囲に認知されてるんだな」って、そんな風に捉えてる。

今でも「Verso」は自分のビッグなパートだったと思ってる。観てくれた人たちが気に入るかどうかはわからなかった。それってスケートビデオの目的じゃないのかもしれないけど。

結果、皆が受け入れてくれたことに感謝してる。2021年に出したバートはもっとクラシックだった　ーいくつか複雑なトリックも入ってるけどね。

インタビューの質問を書き留め始めた時、一番に浮かんだのは「目的達成へのコンセプト」。君は物事を成し遂げようとする性格。だから、ちょっと意地の悪い質問をしてみた。「なあ、SOTYを獲得したけどもうおしまい？」みたいな。君はくだらない質問だって返したけど、その理由は？

ー君は俺が「終わって」ないなんてことは知ってる。まあでもつまり、その質問は「オーケー、じゃあSOTY獲るためだけにスケートしてたわけ？で、獲った今は？もうやりつくした？」ってことでしょ。だから俺は「そんなわけないだろ。ユー・ファッカー」みたいに答えたんだ。

では、スケーティングについてはどんなふうに進化していくって考えてる？　君がまだ開拓する余地はある？　SOTY受賞は君のスケーティングに影響してる？

ーもちろん影響してる。直接的なやり方で世界と関わりたいし、そのリスクも背負ってる。スケーティングについては、パートを公開してリリースすべきプロジェクトを思いつくこと。俺にはアイデアがあったよね　ー「複雑に分類したレールトリック」ってやつ。で、それを発表した後は「うん、これ以上はないな」ってなったわけ。それに「Verso」は突然持ち上がったプロジェクトだった。次に同じようなプロジェクトになりそうなアイデアを思いつくかわからないけど、そうなることを祈ってる。

まあそうだな、現時点ではそれが特定の動画を撮影する動機になってるね。Mulhern（フィルマー・カメラマンのChris Mulhern） とのプロジェクトを撮影したいってのは自分でもわかってるんだ。

それはそうと、あらゆるストレス　ーまるで2019年にあったような大きな負担はまちがいなく去年もあったし、「不健康なやり方で」スケートして撮影することにかなり中毒になってるなって感じてもいた。だから、人生の違う側面にフォーカスしようとしてるんだ。できるだけ気持ちをスケーティングから解放したいし、友達とただスケートを楽しむようにして、小さなプロジェクトをやりたいね。

今回の（SOTY）トリップはどうだった？　君の予想に応えるもの？

ーそう思う。スケートは少しで、ただパーティ三昧の楽しい時間って感じになるのかなと思ってた。楽しい時を過ごしたのはそうだったけど、スケーティングを通してだったからね。

皆でボートを乗りに行ったりするのかなって考えてたよ。

この島（トリップ先のイタリア・サルディーニャ島）についてはどう？

ーすごく自然豊かなことに興奮したね、都市も小規模で。想像してたより商業化されてなかった。自然あふれる島なんだけど、めちゃくちゃスポットがある。

君は（今回のトリップに）「成熟した」と言っていい人たちを選んだよね。このグループ構成はどうやって組み立てていったの？

ーこの時間を一緒に過ごすことを俺が深く感謝できる人たち、同じくスケートする気のある人たちも、選んでいった。あと、普段はスケートしない友達のTheoも連れてきた。Busenitzは、SOTYに選ばれるべきだってずっと思ってたからだし、SilasはSOTYを獲得してるよね。Tom Knoxはみんなが俺たちをライバルだと思ってるみたいだけど　ーそれも笑える話で　ー彼のことは13歳の時から知ってるんだ。それから、あの年の一番のパートでSOTYにノミネートされたJoey O'brienがいることもクソヤバかった。Deringerは以前から気に入ってるスケーターの一人。なんていうか、勝ち残りトーナメントみたいな感じでプロとしてスケートする人たち、またそうじゃない人たちを選んでいったんだ。

それと、Jazzは俺の親友。これからも友達であり続けるJoey Guevaraは、まだ十分に皆の目に触れていないと思うから。JustinとMattとも昔からの友達で、この体験を共にすることができた。

スケーターの名前を使った連想ゲームっていつ始めたの？　一番長く続いたのどんな名前？

ーああ、このトリップで始まったんだ。最長記録はKyle-Walker-Ryan-Spencer-Hamilton-Harris。

そういったゲームってトリップの移動中の退屈からうまれたの？

ースケートトリップでのコミュニケーションの一端を担ってるものでもあるんだ。スケーティングは言葉を使ってするものじゃないよね、で、俺たちのエネルギーがあふれてる時、移動中の車内でなにか話をする必要がでてくる。スケートトリップの最中に、宗教なんかのがっつりした話なんてしないよね。だから笑えるような会話がワッと始まって、そのまま定着しちゃうんだ。

トリップの最初の方で君は、「君の人生を聞かせてくれよ」みたいな感じだった。で、終わりにも似たようなこと言ってた。「家に着いたらなにをするつもり？　寂しくなるよ」って。

このトリップの間にも、いくつか「偶発的に起きる深い会話」もあったよ。でも、その手の会話って実際、「バカ話の海に浮かぶ小さな島々みたいなもの」だからね。

2022年のSOTY、だれが獲る？

ーたぶんJack O'brienかRowan Davisじゃないかな。間違いなくIshodにはもう一度ゲットして欲しいけどね。

Mark、あらためて受賞おめでとう。

ーありがとう、Ted。♠

[nyxqueenofshadows]

was busy and kinda forgot to make a post about it but i finished judgment last week!

had a slow start but by the halfway point i was fully invested and by the end i was like why is it over :((((( let me do it again :(((( great game, if you haven't played judgment, go do it

my notes, written in mostly chronological order. they're a bit of a mess but clearing them up would be a nightmare

most random thing to start off with but i really, really like the character intro cards and chapter title cards. sleek af, big fan

yagami combat’s fun. just like flipping over people’s heads and shit

kaito omg i see why everyone got so attached to him. also saori??? very pretty, she’s great, more of her please

i haven’t got used to the controls and combat yet :((( like i keep forgetting shortcuts are a thing and that i don’t have to hold the sprint button

okay i’m gonna admit it took me a while to get into it and occasionally it’ll still throw smth at me that i don’t enjoy at all but i’m here now! i’m having fun! i think it kind of has the kiwami problem where it has a bunch of stuff it has to establish so all the side content gets pushed later than some of the other games

the scene where sugiura steals yagami’s phone is so fucking funny to me he looks so offended asdfghj;kl

everyone’s kind of a dick? like the journalist is sleazy as all hell, then there’s hamura (hoo boy) and the detective guy don’t like him at all, bad vibes

yagami choke count +1

hamura oh my god i hope i get to punch this guy at some point like ‘here’s where you lose your eyes’ なーんてな that’s so fucked up

yagami choke count +3 jesus christ are the rgg team okay

higashi???? he’s the character i’m gonna get most attached to i can see it coming already. sugiura continues to be fun too, very funny to me that yagami’s reaction to bumping into him (the guy who stole his phone and was trying to throw him to the cops) is to offer him a job

it’s new playing an rgg protag who’s actually clever and quick. there’s akiyama, he’s kinda similar, but it’s kinda nice to have a character play the room in the same way yagami can, like when he gets kaito out of losing his finger. kiryu’s great don’t get me wrong but he tends to blunder his way through the plots of his games and he’s never a step ahead of anyone even when he’s acting as a guiding figure (a la 6). yagami’s refreshing

oh no one of the girls you can date is underage (or is she 18? she’s one year too young to drink) you’re kidding me yagami whyyyyy

chase sequence after the wig was hilarious 10/10 would do again << oh hey we did it again but this time with a young child, okay

sorry ayabe i think i misjudged you, keep doing what you’re doing

why is ryan fucking everywhere, i swear i’ve not had a street fight without him ever since finishing his friendship route. help it’s tanoshikatta de gozaru all the way down

intrigued by the crow and ‘jester’ plotline << why did this not get picked up again? did i miss smth?

VR minigame is okay, lots of flashy visual effects tho, it occasionally makes the game go all janky

kaito :(((( deciding not to fight red nose cos higashi was there and he didn’t want him to get hurt :(((

hamura during that flashback scene in the sewers....yikes. like that he essentially would’ve done the same thing twice (to the guy in the pink shirt before suigura comes to the rescue), he’s got an MO

also is the only requirement to be a yakuza protagonist to have a tragic af backstory and no parents, yagami’s is brutal! the most in the series, i’d argue (unless 7 is gonna hit me with the steel chair)

the side case with the cake and the ace attorney parody is cracking me up asdfghjkl i need to write that crossover or au or whatever i NEED

i love how surprised/offended yagami is when kaito not only throws him under the bus when shioya has them at gunpoint but then when kaito breaks free and shioya says to shoot him he’s just like eh? eh?????? asdfghjkl bro you’re about to get shot, get kicking

deus ex sugiura << he does this like 4 times, he’s the real mvp

ohhh skeletons in the closet. ha ha very funny guys (well, onto chapter 5)

nobody liked shintani at all did they, they’re saying mean shit about him even after he’s dead. guys it’s been a couple of hours at most! he even gets the sad/uplifting substory music during his scene asdfghjkl

sugiura really needled yagami about the okubo case, wonder why

the ghost/memory shintani when you arrive at ADDC was creepy, ngl. yagami are you okay

ohhh full flashback sequence, nice. slicked back hair yagami is really disconcerting at first (he goes from yagami to full on kimtak) but i’m used to him now i think

i forgot that emi’s last name was terasawa so when she turned up i was like oh is it? and then it was and now i’m sad. why, why did that happen i need to knowwwww

there’s a lot of names and different factions of people involved in this one, i think i might have to check the case file notes regularly on this one.

like, what does kuroiwa want, why is the director so adamant on the flow of information out of his company being under his control, how are the ministry of health connected to the kansai yakuza wanting to make inroads into kamurocho? what does it meannnnnn

keihin gang annoying. that’s it

the side/main story thing you do with kaito while waiting for sugiura to call and tell you what he knows about the addc, where kaito meets up with a guy he knew when he was younger, that was great. 10/10 character and relationship establishing content. do the fist bump guys

you briefly play as saori??????? okay! (positive) interesting to do what is essentially a very toned down version of the hostess minigame but from the other side. also the option to dress up saori in outfits that characters wore in kiwami 2 is really weird. OH and that saori can’t be pretty without a makeover, like no, she’s very pretty. glad there’s no penalty for keeping her natural hair cos i DID

all these K names are killing me, so there’s kejihara (run by the man himself) who have sway over the kyorei clan who are trying to get in with minister kazami. plus the ceo of the addc is called kido, and there’s kuroiwa in the mix too, never mind kaito (tho he’s special, he’s okay). i know in jp these are all written very differently but did rgg my guys did you have no other syllables to go for?? there’s a good few ‘ha-’ names too, hattori, hamura, hashiki...

i don’t think matsugane oyassan is earning any of dad of the year awards. he’s trying tho, i’ll give him that. genda tho, now there’s a man i can get behind

higashi really levelled up for his second boss fight god damn

someone explain to me how they did the hair for the tashiro-kun disguise, with all the gold and shit. like, that’s clearly not a wig, right? i know it’s just there for convenience and the laughs but come on! (also kimtaku basically has that haircut now so it was really jarring asdfghjkl)

every time i see hoshino with his enormous backpack i can’t help but think he’s a kid going to school for the first time, i think it’s the suit looking like a uniform (plus how he looks generally). same for the boy twin (yosuke? what was it again) cos he’s so short compared to yagami and most of the people around him. (saying this as someone who is basically yosuke’s height)

plot mandated poker nooooooo (oh you don’t have to win PHEW)

i neglected the side content and now i’m drowning in it oh no asdfghjkl i haven’t even touched the drone racing yet

that meeting with okubo is rough. (positive)

oh we’re really in it now folks, people are throwing around theories like it’s nothing! i sort of get how they arrive at the conclusion it was shono but it also kind of feels like they pulled it out of nowhere? the bit with kaito where he happens upon an answer mid-argument was fun but everything before that just felt kinda like vague spitballing.

wait who’s this dick with the sword cane??? hamura must be really upset if this is the guy he’s bringing out (also why is hoshino-kun there, genda’s office is on literally the other side of town)

we’re just waltzing in the front door of the addc??? okay! oh wait no that didn’t work did it asdfghjkl for someone who says it’s his hobby he sure keeps that special electric baton (kamiyama special?) on him during his work hours

shono interrogation was good, even if the mechanics of the chase sequence thingy before it weren’t so much (this is like that one bit from 0 all over again, but making even less sense)

alright chapter 10 let’s GO

chapters 10 and 11 go so hard AHHHHHH after him playfully ribbing you while you’re going around trying to attract attention, kaito getting shot physically hurt me and then yagami’s face when he has to leave him is even worse, then there’s the very very long boss fight sequence where you fight cane man (who is fruity af for no reason, good for him) a bunch and those are all fun fights except the one in the dark and then the hamura fight!!! the QTE for that fight is so cool, i’ve seen it a few times even before playing it and it never gets old and is a completely different feeling when it’s you at the controller.

pacing falters a bit when you get the long exposition bit of how hamura got involved in the mole shit but it was all interesting so i didn’t mind too much. plus seeing hamura in the flashback and how he interacts with people outside of the main cast was fun

ALSO yagami was totally ready to let shioya physically torture hamura for info (i assume, maybe he was bluffing) and my guy that’s a crime you can’t be doing this shit and then standing in court

and the mole’s kuroiwa!!! i kinda knew that going in but part of me was still convinced it was gonna be hattori the whole time. his entrance and fight scene is so cool tho, i can’t wait to fight him for real!

AND matsugane-san... the line about him failing as oyaji and then trying to make it right as oya was really good, and it being the catalyst for hamura to come clean even in the face of his own death (he’s not suriving this game, no way) was nice. who’s gonna tell kaito :(((

my one gripe is murase’s death scene it’s so out of nowhere that it kind of comes across as funny which is unfortunate asdfghjkl OH and why’s mafuyu there when kuroiwa shows up to take yagami in for questioning, did yagami call her or smth off-screen

also when you get back to kamurocho after all that and yagami’s like ‘i’m exhausted, i just wanna crash’ (fair, he’s had one hell of a rough night) guess who fucking texts me. KIM PLEASE FIX THE KEIHIN ON YOUR OWN MAN yagami’s solving government corruption i think he deserves a break from being harrassed inthe street constantly asdfghjkl

cane man has an identical twin??? why are there so many twins in this game, did you have so few character models at your disposal

idk if yagami telling all these people who the mole is is a great idea, like, even just the suggestion of who it might be got shintani killed in a heartbeat. does he really think mafuyu or ayabe are gonna be okay after this?

oh we’re playing as saori again, neat. tho there’s some uh questionable choices in this section... ig they’re going for a ‘this is what it’s like to be a woman seen as a sexual object all the time’ but by sexualising her during those sections it falls completely flat. ah well. not sure what i expected tbh. ganbatte hoshino-kun

ALSO during that bit saori is like ‘flirt for me i’ve never had experience seducing men’ (specifically men, in both the subtitles and original jp dialogue) and yagami AT NO POINT is like ‘neither have i’. bi and lesbian solidarity!

torture pt 2 asdfghjkl love that the actual no criminal background yagami is more morally grey than actual criminal kiryu (or, well, he acts on it more? idk they feel different about it)

sugiura being that pissed off at kido tho, what did he do to you man? spill your secrets

tailing mission for ishimatsu ughhhhh the only one i’ve had problems with, mostly cos we’re going in circles

experience inside of the love hotel: this place is super creepy, they did not need to make it this creepy- ooh vibrator weapon i’ll be taking that asdfghjkl

ohh that’s why sugiura was being so hard on yagami. all those comments about the death penalty and the anger towards kido make sense now. could’ve done with a bit more foreshadowing for him imho (it’s not like it comes out of nowhere but it needed a bit more for it to be impactful maybe? or maybe it needed a proper cutscene, not the in-engine ones). his little ‘chigau?’ to yagami after his rant about how the chief prosecutor covered up the murders for the sake of a maybe future right in front of him is sooo good, excellent bit of character performance.

wanna know where he pulled the name sugiura from tho ngl

higashi reaching for kaito after kuroiwa has just beat the shit out of them :(((

i’m in the finale??? oh shit. i’ve still not touched the drone minigame oops

the substory where the guy is gonna kill himself cos he thinks girlfriend is cheating on him is a kind of a mess in the way these substories always are in rgg games but the bit where he jumps off the roof and it says fall in love on the back of his jacket and yagami’s like :o really got me ngl reminded me of the old school revelations a bit

the guy from the opening came back! good for him (twice!)

i love this cast, i love how they bounce off each other, it feels like it’s hitting all the beats 6 missed in its banter and far far surpassing them.

i got the glitch where the heat action happens and the camera doesn’t do what it’s supposed to! asdfghjkl very funny seeing yagami slam a guy into the ground twice with a teleport in between

I FINISHED IT holy shit that last section is so fun to play through. all the boss fights (aka kuroiwa x3 asdfghjkl) are great, the QTEs are creative and just really fucking cool, and the pay off for the trial was absolutely worth it. and bits of it made me laugh! sugiura being like ‘bengoshi yoroshiku!’ right as he kicks a cop in the face is GOLD and there’s so many moments like that.

it’s occurred to me before but it really struck me in the finale just how many people supporting him yagami has and how he’s so comfortable relying on them, mainly compared to kiryu. like, 6 (which has a similar friend structure tho less based around it) never felt like a lonely game when i was playing it but compared to judgment? night and day. fuck, i wanna play it again just to hang out with the characters again and i’ve only just finished it

also random thing but the ending credits are really good? like the slice of life stuff of kaito and yagami trying to find the cat and it evading them a few times, like even with no dialogue they conveyed so much in that one bit. need more end credits like this

actually thinking about it yagami leaving shono to look after sugiura after he got shot was kind of fucked up? i know it was a ride or die kind of situation but bro! he killed sugiura’s sister! how do you think sugiura feels about this!

drone minigame was okay, feels like a mix of pocket circuit and the taxi minigame. did i do well? no. am i gonna invest many hours into this? also no, but i see how i could.

mad that i need to do both mahjong and poker to access bits of the side content so i’m just not gonna!

[scannersphotoinfotokyo]

Ryan Andrew Bruss ブラス・アンドリュー・ライアン「Maestro in the Shadows　ー影の中のマエストロー」 2023年12月1日（金）～12月13日（水） エプソンスクエア丸の内　エプサイトギャラリー epSITE

[jilldarbc]

Fresh in lilac Fabulous with smiles Happy he’s much better recovering from Covid like he said.

[scurybooween]

Wear a mask by thespookyking or ryan Caskey

[michaels-been-a-bad-boy]

Needed some practice to get back into drawing, saw this and it screamed ✨ FAHC 🖤 BOYS ✨

“How many bodies are we burying today?”

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

[messyfr3ak]

[the-veronica-sawyer]

The only sense of time I have is knowing it’s Friday because a new buzzfeed unsolved episode comes out

[mthwxryn]

[toshootforthestars]

From the essay by Ryan Cooper, posted 16 Nov 2020:

...in Vietnam, there is no raging coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to swift action from the government, that nation squelched its initial outbreak, and has so far successfully contained all subsequent infection clusters before they got out of hand. Its figures at time of writing (which have been confirmed as reliable by outside sources) show a mere 1,283 cases and 35 deaths, and no community transmission for the last 75 days. Life for Vietnamese people has returned to normal, with a few sensible precautions. If their success holds for a few more months until a vaccine can be deployed, Vietnam will have dodged the pandemic nearly perfectly.

Given Vietnam's high population and very high density — it has over 96 million people crammed into an area about the size of New Mexico — numerous long borders, including one with the country where the pandemic started, and relatively impoverished economy, it has turned in arguably the most impressive performance of any country in the world. Most of the other star performers, like Taiwan or New Zealand, are rich islands and hence much easier to isolate from the world (though nearby Thailand has done nearly as well).

Meanwhile in the self-appointed "land of the free," on Sunday the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 deaths was 1,148. The same seven-day average of new cases has increased from about 82,000 on November 1 to over 150,000 on Sunday — numbers that are certainly a large underestimate, because, with very high test positivity rates across much of the country, many cases are being missed. Total recorded deaths in the U.S. are over 250,000, which again is a large under-count. There are many more future deaths already baked in, and infections are mounting exponentially in almost every state. Unless something changes, and fast, the coronavirus pandemic will surpass the Second World War to become the greatest American mass casualty event since the influenza pandemic of 1918.

The bleak irony of American life is our boastful and hyperbolic national conception of liberty has left us as one of the most unfree peoples on the globe. There can be no freedom without government, a lesson currently being inscribed in blood, and stacked up in the mobile morgues that are overflowing with corpses in more cities around the country every day.

As an American, the months since March have felt like living in Airstrip One, the miserable police state formerly known as Britain in George Orwell's 1984. In that time I have seldom left my house for fear of catching the virus, or worse, spreading it to someone who is at risk and killing (or permanently disabling) them. I have not seen my family since October 2019 for the same reason. In a best-case scenario, I will not see them until the middle of next year — something like 2 percent of my entire lifespan, optimistically speaking. It looks like even the occasional outdoor dining I savored as a small bright spot over the summer will be shut down soon, with cases spiking badly in my home city of Philadelphia.

All the political freedoms I supposedly enjoy as an American citizen are useless in the face of this unending tsunami of death and misery. The plain fact is that the average resident of Vietnam — under a repressive dictatorship, let me emphasize — has more freedoms in the places where, for most people, it really counts: the freedom to leave the house, the freedom to see and touch one's family and friends, the freedom to go to a restaurant or a bar or a movie or a concert, and simply the freedom from constant grasping fear of invisible death.

Let me be clear: The point of the comparison here is not to say that authoritarian rule is necessary for containing the virus. On the contrary, part of the reason the virus escaped in the first place was because authoritarian officials in China tried to hide it at first (though they later turned things around, as I will discuss below). And as noted above, Taiwan and New Zealand are democracies and have also done very well. South Korea, Australia, and Japan have struggled somewhat more than Vietnam, but thus far have also kept the virus largely in check. A few European democracies like Finland and Norway have done fairly well, and while most others on that continent are suffering a catastrophic second wave (worse than I predicted, alas), they have recently adopted a second lockdown which is beginning to slow the spread.

The point is that the United States is getting rinsed in providing liberty to its citizens — supposedly the entire point of its existence, according to its founding documents — by a bunch of dictatorial Communists.

The United States, once again, stands virtually alone among nations with its obdurate refusal to do anything about the galloping pandemic at the national level.

Now, part of that is President Trump's singular incompetence. Since surviving the virus — thanks to cutting-edge experimental treatment only he could get at the time — he has progressed from not doing anything about the virus to effectively trying to spread it personally. He held dozens of huge campaign rallies, even after one in June infected hundreds of people. An election night watch party recently became the second super-spreader event hosted at the White House.

Even halting, timid efforts to stop hospitals from being utterly overwhelmed at the state and local level are running into stiff resistance from reactionary lunatics.

Almost every single Republican governor has preemptively refused to follow President-elect Biden's guidance on imposing mask rules, even as their own operatives and elderly representatives fall sick from the virus. New York Governor Cuomo's weeks-late and unenforceable order banning gatherings larger than 10 people inspired a Republican New York City councilman to gleefully announce on Twitter that his Thanksgiving celebrations would have more people than that. The order is an "odious infringement on personal liberty," moaned the libertarian writer Robby Soave at Reason.

In South Dakota, where the hospitals are already full to bursting with new cases still accelerating, the blithely apathetic Governor Kristi Noem insists that masks are a matter of personal choice. Newly elected QAnon nutcase Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) boasted of refusing to wear a mask during congressional orientation.

In short, while it is a minority movement, the most fervent, dedicated, and effective political mobilization in this country is organized around stopping the government from saving the lives of its citizens.

As I have previously written, the signature American view of liberty emerges from a cramped and extreme version of 19th-century liberal theory. American conservatives and libertarians often assert that one has liberty when the government is not "interfering" with whatever one feels like doing, regardless of circumstance.

[mariiboo]

For these lonely qurantine days.

[docbrok]

Home Workouts to Keep Exercising - Chiropractor in Freehold NJ

[phillipcole]

Live with Kelly and Ryan part 2

(They open this segment with a portion of Social Distance, posted previously)

Seacrest: That is the other new song, written by Phil Cole, sung by Bette Middler, with Phil groaning in the background.  Phil, how long did you take rehearsing that groan?

PBC; Unfortunately, that was my real groaning from the smoke inhalation problem.  I couldn’t sing 2 words without coughing back then, but the groaning was real.

Seacrest: In the other song you had the line: Who thought this quarantine would last 300 days.  When did you write that?

PBC: April.

Seacrest: So you were prophetic.  It’s actually going past the 300 day mark.

PBC: I rounded down.  The first line says It’s been a year since then.  In any case, the virus is here to stay.

Ripa: Has anyone in your family had the vaccine yet?

PBC: One cousin, I think.

Ripa: What about your team ha ha.

PBC: The 106 Year old Man had the virus yesterday.  He’s here with me now.  How do you feel Grandpa Cole.

106-year old: Ohhhhhhhhhhh.

PBC: I guess he’ll be recovering for a while, but don’t worry about him.  Get your shots everyone, as soon as you can.  We have to get our country open again.

Seacrest: On a serious note, there’s a growing effort to recall your Governor out there, Gavin Newsom.

PBC: Yes, that might be a good idea.  He’s made some mistakes.

Seacrest: Speaking of mistakes, political mistakes, there’s talk about a possible second impeachment for former President Trump.  You came out against it on Fox and Friends.

PBC: The key word is former.  You can’t impeach a former President.  It sets a bad precedent.

Seacrest: Ha ha, your word worksmanship is famous.

PBC: If my associate Ford was here he could explain the legal quirks.

Ripa: Where is he?

PBC: He went to Washington to lobby Biden for a federal judgeship.  He’s pretty old so Biden might give him a chance.

Seacrest: Ford is a judge in Tennessee.  All your characters are working men.

Brad: I don’t do too much.

Ripa: Cole is with you.

Brad: Naw I’m Brad.  Cole has a job.  I’m just a hillbilly, livin’ off the land until Phil put this team together.

Seacrest: As always, Phil, our time is up too quickly.  Come back soon.

PBC: I will, with health updates, ha ha.

Ryan: We’ll be back in a few minutes.  Stay with us.

[buckyard]

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