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Listen up. Here are the stakes.
The right is in a plane headed straight for the ground. All of us. I don’t care if you call yourself centre-right, alt-right, traditionalist, neo-reactionary, reactionary, nationalist, patriot, monarchist, tradcath, whatever.
It doesn’t matter. Some of us are in the front of the plane, some the back. Maybe the tail broke off and will smash into a trillion pieces a few seconds later than the front. But smash it will.
Michael Anton used this analogy when he talked about the 2016 US presidential election: his so-called Flight 93 Election. I think that’s kind of dumb because Trump is not worth storming the cockpit for, but I understand the sentiment and agree with it in a broader sense.
We’re not dealing with a Flight 93 election; we’re dealing with the Flight 93 of Western civilization, and we’re seconds from impact. Maybe I should have gone with a train metaphor…
The point is, we’ve seen for several decades now where things are going, and in the past few years, we’ve seen what happens when the rapidly monopolizing and expanding technology companies that own the internet—and its commerce, information, community and community action—realize they would rather stand with the progressive firing squad than with the soon-to-be-terminated losers who pathetically moan about free speech through the soiled kerchiefs stuffed in their mouths. And Amazon, Google, Facebook and their ilk have brought the rail gun that can literally saw us in half with bullets.
Wait, weren’t we on a plane? Please excuse the mixed analogies. FAANG just set off the IED that’s sending the plane careening downward. The aptness of the plane analogy is that the left is actually on the civilizational plane too. You can’t not be. No one will be safe or happy when the explosion happens, even if it feels fun to go really fast right now.
Many of you will disagree. You are likely partisan Candian Conservatives. “We just had ten years of Stephen Harper,” you will say. “Listen, I too am skeptical that Erin O’Toole can lead us to victory, but once we have the right leader and the right party platform, everything will be okiley dokiley.”
Here’s the thing. Everything we stand for, or everything the left thinks we stand for, is opposed to their precious project of creating a totally atomized, cultureless, scientist, libertine, big government society. They can’t let us win any significant battles, and their power has been consolidating for a century. It is now overwhelming.
You saw what happened during Harper’s last election. Harper and the CCP were slammed as anti-science, anti-Muslim/foreign/non-old-stock-Canadian, in bed with corporations at the expense of the poor, etecetera. You know, the whole progressive playbook.
This has intensified with every passing year. As much dirt along those lines as could be dug up on candidates during the CCP leadership races was dug up, and the digging keeps going so that as many caucus members can be smeared and dismissed as possible.
Any time one of “our” politicians stands on the stage with the wrong person, gets quoted out of context, tweets the wrong opinion, makes a bad leadership decision (or one perceived as bad), etcetera, it gets amplified across the internet through all the progressive feeds: the news media, forums like CanadaPolitics, five million middle-aged, upper-middle-class Liberal supporters’ Facebook pages, etcetera. Meanwhile, failings of NDP or Liberal politicians in the same or even worse ways are rarely commented on, always defended, and often defended by gaslighting people like you into thinking that it really is different when we do it for X, Y and Z reason.
And when I say “our” politicians, they really do all get lumped together. Any supposed failing in Ontario, Alberta or anywhere else there are Conservative politicians is just as bad for the CCP as their own “failings.”
So we are ending up at a point where a majority of the people who are “plugged in” to politics hear how terrible “we” are day in and day out, and the line on our graph of our redeeming qualities is quickly approaching zero in the mind of the general public. With control of our educational, law, bureaucratic, and media systems, and now the tools of the keepers of the keys to the internet, if progressives want us destroyed, we can consider ourselves destroyed.
The one advantage we have in Canada is that our support has become highly concentrated in certain areas, which is actually beneficial in first-past-the-post systems. The Prarie provinces are in their own media bubble and have a rural bias, which is great. But the trend is still towards urbanization, which means white collar jobs and university education, which means progressive indoctrination. And this localized support only helps so much, as we saw last election, when the rest of the population thinks you’re evil.
But there’s a more important problem. Even if we win, we lose.
That certainly doesn’t sound promising. What do I mean by that? SURELY, I jest?
No, this is no joke. The problem is that the typical Canadian Conservative party line is a losing proposition no matter what. Even if we win and implement our grand vision of...neoliberal economics and grumbling about culture changing too fast...our defeat has only been accelerated.
This sad state of affairs is for at least two reasons:

1. Neoliberal economics (globalization, tax cuts for big business without reigning in public spending severely, free trade, mass immigration to drive growth, etcetera) actually accelerate globohomo, atomization, resentment (which can help the right, but often helps socialists), and the degradation of values and culture. The latter may sound like it has a tenuous connection with neoliberal economics, but the fact is that importing people of foreign cultures creates a lower trust society, accelerating the dissolution of intermediary institutions, charity, neighbourliness, and it also increases unemployment and the size of the underclass, increasing crime, which increases the acceleration of mistrust, etc. This mass importation also requires an ideology of “multi-culturalism,” i.e., an anti-culture that abhors valuing your own history, culture, values, and ethnicity. Leftists think they hate neo-liberalism, but it has done about as good a job smashing the so-called white supremacist patriarchy as Lenin could hope for. Their last project will be to nationalize the big companies after they are done using them to create their one world, one culture, one ethnicity world order.
2. No matter how liberal (or neo-liberal) Canadian conservatives are willing to go, and no matter how much they will toe the progressive line on cultural issues, they will always be seen as the deplorable resistance to progress. Why choose the guys who are dragging their heels when the Liberals will build high-speed rail to take us there in a jiffy just to stay ahead of the NDP? To make the contrast clearer just in case everyday Canadians get any ideas that taking it slow might be the way to go, progressives will constantly point to social conservatism or any form of traditionalism as fascist neo-Nazi evil, the existence of which is only proof positive that we live in a white supremacist country. If we didn’t, conservatives wouldn’t exist after all, right? And that’s where we’re headed—rapidly, since the “storming” of the Capitol building by a bunch of neckbeards—the progressives and their big tech and big government allies see an opportunity to destroy us. Anyone who can be linked to anything remotely like, similar, or adjacent to any one of those MAGA imbeciles will be annihilated from the face of the Earth. Or at least, the face of the internet and the respectable job market. And when I say “like, similar, or adjacent to,” I mean anyone who believes anything remotely right-wing, agrees with anything Trump or any other Republican has ever said, has used right-wing platforms like Parler, has followed any right-wing media, and in fact, anyone who doesn’t pronounce progressive shibboleths enthusiastically enough. Conservative media, platforms, and even parties are not likely to exist within a few years, in my opinion. The CCP may still be there (or it may rupture yet again), but no actually conservative content will be there. Hell, there’s hardly any now. For that matter, are there even any conservative internet platforms left? I guess Bitchute. Reddit allows some of us to exist here for now, but not much longer I suspect. Especially once they see the based essays I’m going to start dropping in here. Sorry mods!

Nothing I’ve said here is original. Nothing I’m going to say next is original. I’m a hack with no original ideas. But I at least can discern which people out there have the right ideas, and parrot them.
And it seems like too few conservatives are listening to the right voices. Because we keep doing the same shit, and we keep losing. For a century. Maybe even three centuries. When are we going to figure it out? Can you party hacks stop for one second and think about the big picture? It doesn’t matter if you win the next election or the next five elections.
If you don’t have actual right wing values, right wing goals, and the will to execute on those bases, your electoral victories will amount to the left winning in slow motion. Leftism is entropy leading to chaos. You must be strong to organize and maintain order in the face of entropy. Modern conservatives are not strong. We’re weak.
What needs to be done? What can we do?
That’s a whole set of essays. But I will leave some vague starting points without much explanation. Details will be forthcoming. In the meantime, ponder these things. If you’re already working on them, comment below. You can DM me, but I think it would be best if we could all see, encourage, and coordinate each other’s thoughts and activities.

1. Be worthy. We need high quality elites, and those can only be drawn from a high quality pool of people. We do not have this any longer in the West. At least a century of degeneration has ensured that.
   1. You need to be well-read and well-spoken (or at least reserved and selective when you speak if you can’t be articulate). You need to have a set of coherent values and a worldview with a vision for the future. Not utopian, but not the status quo either. If you are addicted to the degeneracy of the West, as most of us—including myself—are, then you need to gradually wean yourself off the teat of hedonism. That means porn, casual sex, gluttony, drugs, video games (only obsessive playing; nothing inherently wrong with playing some games, especially if you can build a community of like-minded brethren around playing games), sloth, etcetera all need to be curbed if not eliminated. Don’t let anything hold you back from your full potential, and don’t let anyone have any dirt on you, especially when it comes to pornography and sex.
2. No infighting or purity spiraling. This is a tough one for me. There need to be boundaries (and borders!). I can’t have you liberals or progressive "conservatives" poisoning everything we try to accomplish. But the fact is that the right is smaller than the left, and that disparity is likely to grow in the future, not diminish. We need all the help we can get.
   1. But the left is incredible at getting us to turn against each other, because we want power and the left has power, so we naively try to suck up to them and shun the right-wingers they tell us to shun. This is called appeasement and it is a losing strategy. Buckley started this with National Review, and it has been a spiral ever since. Even I tend to shit on MAGA lads, but we need them too. Sorry guys. Forgive me?
   2. You are only allowed to exist in the public discourse as a conservative if you toe the progressive line on everything except maybe tax policy, but even that door will be closed soon. STOP. THIS. BULLSHIT. We need EVERY. WARM. BODY. Period. Are there enough periods here? …………………. Someone tweets something dumb about residential schools? I don’t care. We need them. Someone says men are men and women are women? A) they are correct and B) even if they weren’t, we need them. Someone is literally an ethnonationalist who wants to expel foreigners from the country? I DO NOT CARE. WE NEED THEM. So please STOP with your bullshit.
   3. A movement that is constantly apologizing and backpedaling and purging its membership is not strong nor is it confident. These two qualities will be necessary in a leader very soon, as the leftist liberal order is going to descend into anarchy and chaos, and people will look for a strong man to lead them. Hell, even a strong woman would be leagues above our substitute drama teacher. The one thing we have going for us is that the progressive left is prone to eating its own. Let’s not imitate that behaviour.
   4. Stop apologizing. Even if we disagree with something one of our members has said, do not apologize for it. Don’t even straightforwardly disagree with it. Simply confidently say what you value and let that speak for itself. Don’t apologize for not adhering to progressive pieties. I cannot stand when conservatives hesitantly and obsequiously stutter in favour of some progressive platitude as they try and beg for some small concession from our civilizational enemies. The left will not give an inch. Neither should you.
3. Infiltrate. Despite what I said in #2, you yourself should stay squeaky clean. Don’t say dumb shit. Don’t say racist shit. The latter is harder nowadays because denouncing BLM or literally existing as a white person is apparently racist now. Don’t give them that ground, but don’t say obviously racist stuff, whether or not you are secretly an ethnonationalist. This is because we need to infiltrate the institutions. The left already did this, and that is why they are so hard to beat. They are the professors, and bureaucrats, the journalists, the politicians, the human resources managers, the lawyers, the judges, even the damned clergy, everything that is important for controlling the levers of power and public opinion. We must do the same. The problem with this strategy is that we might not be able to beat the left at their own game, and it may be too slow at this point. But hey, if you are in any of these vital positions, want to be in one of them or have the ability to influence others in these positions, do your part to subvert progressive influence and assert traditional values. But only go as far as you can without getting canned. You aren’t infiltrating if you’re jobless.
4. Create parallel institutions. This is more likely to work in the long-run than infiltration. I am using “institution” in a rather broad sense here. I don’t think starting a new government, new system of law, etcetera, is feasible. But you can start what I like to call intermediary institutions: small scale, unofficial communities of people with shared values who work towards common goods. Think Benedict Option, which is not running for the hills as often thought, but creating strong communities outside liberal culture wherever you are. This may be at your church, but in all likelihood, your church is as corrupted with liberalism as any other institution. Start clubs, charities, groups, gatherings, companies, churches—whatever it takes for you to get people together and participate in some project that either explicitly shares right-wing values, or even better, implicitly lives out right-wing values like stewardship, preservation, charity, appreciation of culture and nature, family values, etcetera.
   1. If there are any computer programmers, web developers, web server experts, etcetera here, let’s build platforms that don’t count on FAANG to operate. This may be next to impossible, but I would like to dream. The problem with using Google is that one day all right-wing content will be purged from Google searches, and even your Google drives (this screed lives in a Google Doc...where’s my typewriter?). You’ll probably be put on a watchlist. AWS will merc your right-wing blog or your social media platform. Your Facebook post that “Diversity is not our strength” will DEFINITELY get you on a watch list. Plus fired from your job. If we’re going to coordinate and communicate beyond in-person, we need our own platforms.
5. Live a right-wing life. Is this different than #1? Whatever. For now, it is still possible to live a right-wing life. You can practice your religion, more or less. You can marry and raise a family. You can embed yourself in communities and largely ignore the state. Render unto Caesar (or Trudope) what is his, but everything else you do should ignore the state as much as possible. Unless you’re a politician or involved in that realm. In that case, work to make it easier for people to live without state influence in their lives.
   1. Do not live as an atomized, liberal individual. Except for those of a particular vocational calling or disability, we are all called to wed each other and make children, and we are to live humbly for our families and our culture. If you’re just an atomized, liberal individual who indulges in all of the vices that progressives preach are virtues, and you live a lonely existence only for accruing wealth or consuming goods, then you are not living a right-wing life, even if you drop red pills online. That’s the biggest problem with a lot of conservatives today. They lead the liberal lifestyle of degeneracy, even worse than many middle to upper-middle-class progressives, and then talk a big talk about tradition, virtue, culture, etcetera. No one can take such enormous hypocrisy seriously.
   2. Respecting our past and our heritage also means respecting our elders. Take care of your parents if you can, rather than shuttling them off to a home. If they’ve forsaken you, forgive them. If they need your help, help them. Do not resent them if they lived a life more privileged than yours.
6. Learn to be self-sufficient and local. This is extremely hard and perhaps not even possible for most people who are not already financially independent. But I will set out this ideal anyway, and we can strive for it even if we cannot achieve it. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.
   1. Learn survival skills. You can take courses on these things if you can afford them. If not, all the information is online, and you can invest time into learning them. Start by practicing camping. Work your way up to back country camping. Practice orienteering, foraging, building lean-tos, and so on. Learn to hunt. Buy lots of guns (the ones you’re still allowed to buy anyway!). I don’t think we’ll be driven into the woods and hunted like a rabies-infected dog that just bit a busload of school children, but it’s best to be prepared, because honestly, the left would love us to be driven to such desperate extremes, and they tend to get what they want in the long run. In any case, it may end up that our civilization is doomed to collapse or at least become intolerable to decent right-wing people, and fleeing civilization might by then sound like an appealing option.
   2. In your normal lives where you expect to continue with homeownership, participating in civilization, etcetera, live as local as possible. Support your local businesses no matter what (the ones that are left after the government’s current attempts to destroy them in favour of big-box stores). Start your own local businesses. If you’re surrounded by farms, as much of our most populous areas are (looking at you southern Ontario), buy your food from them as much as possible. Don’t just buy from local businesses, but buy locally-made products where they are available. Where you can’t buy local, at least buy provincial, and if you can’t buy provincial, at least buy national. Some things may have to come from China for now. But you don’t need avocados from Mexico or pears from China. We have pears here. Avocados are healthy and delicious, but unnecessary. Buy things in season, and preserve what you can for the winter.
   3. If you have any quality local architecture or art extant, preserve it to the best of your ability. You may start an organization in your community for this very purpose. People who look back to the beauty of the past and value it are more likely to have right-wing values or see the value in said values, even if only implicitly. I think tradesmen and DIY culture can actually help the right-wing even more than politicians or lawyers. If we can build, preserve, maintain, restore and protect our own and what we value without the help of liberal institutions, then we are well on our way to creating a parallel society. And once people see that our glass of water is clear and crystal cool, they may dump their cup of muddy, microbial liberal soup down the drain.
   4. Speaking of tradesmen, if you have the skills and resources to put towards preserving historical crafts and craftsmanship, please do. If there are any contractors or other construction/renovation tradesmen here, please do not destroy beautiful old houses whenever possible. They can be preserved, and they are superior to most new construction, especially cheap, slapped together subdivisions. Not to mention it is wasteful to replace perfectly good embodied carbon with new materials.
7. Instill all of the above in your children. This is perhaps the most important thing we can do. Instill right-wing values in your children.
   1. Teach them to appreciate their past, our cultural past, and the extant physical heritage that needs to be preserved. They should be more learned, more capable, more communitarian, and more virtuous than you. The next generation needs to be smart, strong, purposeful and united. They do not have an easy fight ahead of them. Neither do we, for all of the toxic progressive institutions that permeate our society want to own our children. We must not let them.
   2. The most continual source of propaganda and degradation is education. All of it: from kindergarten to graduate studies. If you can, enroll your children in private Christian schools. Not necessarily because they’ll get better grades or be smarter than those educated in public school. Do it solely because your children need to be inculcated with strong values and protected from the nefarious influence of progressivism as long as possible. I went to private school for only about five years as a kid, and it was super important. I fell into the progressive fold for a while in university, but I had an internal seed planted that was able to later sprout again. If you can swing private school or homeschooling that inculcates unshakeable values until grade twelve, that would be ideal. Then, when it comes time for tertiary education (if necessary), look for private, not-for-profit trade schools that are designed to train your children in a specific set of useful skills. Two exemplary institutions of the kind I have in mind are the Stratford Chefs School and, the holy of holies, Willowbank School of Restoration Arts. I’m sure there are many more such schools in Ontario and across the country. These institutions are not explicitly right-wing. In fact, the Chefs School has something inherently cosmopolitan about it. However, the valuing of excellence in craftsmanship and particularity of tradition over egalitarianism and “thinking the right things” is inherently a right-wing position. Willowbank, in particular, engenders an appreciation of and the actual skills to maintain our physical cultural heritage. If you are one of those types who are very well connected and able to throw fundraisers and the like (I will never understand this breed of people. I can never be one of them), then maybe you should start one of these trade schools.
   3. If your child is going into STEM, there is probably no getting away from liberalism, so you must prepare them intellectually and psychologically for this. If you believe STEM is inoculated against the raving lunatics in the Humanities or Social Sciences, your information is about five or ten years out of date. Longer, if you really look carefully. Certain avenues of scientific pursuit have been forbidden for some decades now. Affirmative action has been in effect in Canadian universities since the ‘90s. But certainly, the overwhelming infiltration of diversity and egalitarian nonsense into STEM has escalated dramatically over the past ten years. Nowhere is safe. If your child wants to go into the lunatic Humanities, honestly, let them. But you must very carefully prepare them intellectually and psychologically for what they are going to encounter. Almost everyone they study with and learn from is going to be not only progressive, but extremely, radically progressive. There are actually right-wing professors of Literature, History and Philosophy in Canada, believe it or not. You can probably count them on one hand, but they do exist (for now). At the very least, there are some less crazy ones who are something approximating classical liberals or those weird leftists who are kind of right-wing in terms of their lack of dogmatism, appreciation for the past, and environmentalism. I know because I studied English literature and survived (mostly).
   4. Everything above about being local, knowing survival skills, etcetera, should apply to your children as well.
8. Keep offline as much as possible. I know this is self-contradictory, but I need to get this message out somehow. Speak with real people as much as possible. As I mentioned above in my paranoid ravings about FAANG, we will soon be purged from the web. Even things you think are private like Google Docs and Facebook messages will be vetted and used to terminate you from the web and your job. If we’re going to exist online at all, it has to be in alternative platforms that are truly anonymous and not at the mercy of Amazon Web Services or any other megacorp. No sending in your driver’s license a la Parler. We can use reddit for now, but don’t count on anything existing past tomorrow.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. I’ve given you some starting points. Please feel free to discuss below, and even more importantly, please begin to live lives outside of the progressive, liberal paradigm. I will be following this screed up with explications of each point above if I am not banned from the internet for my wretched bigotry.
If you’re a progressive “conservative” or classical liberal who is just SHOCKED and MORALLY INDIGNANT at anything I have said, please take a few minutes to consider whether or not you would like to be a beautiful loser until you and Western civilization are dead, or if you would actually like things to change in our favour sometime in the next century or two. If the former, good riddance. If the latter, join the New Right Coalition (eh...we need a better name. What are we, NRC, the National Research Council?) and set aside your differences for now. We’ll eat you later, but at least the civilization in which you live will be ordered, virtuous and beautiful instead of chaotic, vicious, and degraded. Your choice.
Below is a starter reading, watching and resource list to help you live outside the progressive bubble without spending time on The Rebel or Fox News. I do not endorse everything said by all of these people/resources, but all have useful elements and perspectives that should at least help open your eyes to the fact that whatever is preached at the CBC or in The Atlantic is not the sum total of possible worldviews.
READING
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
While it is perhaps not as detailed and robust as one might like, After Virtue is the definitive contemporary rebuke of the liberal Enlightenment and all of its monstrous descendents. It is a pretty quick read too. If you call yourself right-wing in the 21st Century and you haven’t read it, what are you doing?
The Demon in Democracy by Ryszard Legutko
Classic work of anti-liberal-democracy by a Polish professor of philosophy and politician who survived communism and found liberal democracy eerily similar and unpleasant. Read about how we are “coerced to freedom.”
Rob Dreher
An Orthodox Christian and political pundit, famous author of The Benedict Option, which you should read. I don’t agree with everything Rob says, but the more intelligent, educated, and active traditionalist voices we have, the better.
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J Deneen
Rob Dreher called this one the most important books of 2018. I’m inclined to agree. The title is pretty self-explanatory. The waters are already well tread if you’ve read the first two items on this list, but it is still a worthwhile read and perhaps an easier introduction to the subject matter if you haven’t read the other two.
Michael Anton
He is one of the few right-wing pundits in America today who sees things clearly and talks sense. You have to be reading him if you’re interested in politics.
Craeft - An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
In this book, Langlands puts his career as an archaeologist to fantastic use and explores what craeft historically meant in our Anglo-Saxon history through the actual practice of traditional crafts. It is a rather meandering book that some (especially the scientifically and technologically minded) may find boring, but I was engrossed. Langlands explores the thoughtfulness, connectedness with nature, environmentally-friendliness, and “philosophy” of these traditional crafts, and what we lost by leaving them behind.
Edward Feser
Blog by a Catholic Philosopher who argues from a very traditional point of view, i.e., natural law, virtue, etcetera. Aristotle and Aquinas would be proud. Frankly, if you’re moral perspective is not based on something from classical antiquity or medieval theology, it’s probably not based on anything at all.
The Worthy House
This right-wing business owner whom we only know as Charles plans to elucidate a political plan of action/way of thinking called Foundationalism through a long series of book reviews that help him clarify his own thoughts. He has no time for democracy, the liberal Enlightenment, or beta males. He would be happy to overthrow the US government and replace it with something out of Viktor Orban’s wet dream. I don’t even remember how I found this guy, but I love him. Readers be warned.
The Political Meaning of Christianity by Glenn Tinder
An interesting read that reconciles Christianity with the political.
American Mind
Very solid outlet with a decent diversity of right-wing opinion, much of it high-quality, from neo-reaction to tradcath. Good read on conservatism by Brad Littlejohn.
First Things
They describe themselves well enough: published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and educational 501(c)(3) organization. The Institute was founded in 1989 by Richard John Neuhaus and his colleagues to confront the ideology of secularism, which insists that the public square must be “naked,” and that faith has no place in shaping the public conversation or in shaping public policy. Great content. Check out this piece called “Eminent Boomers.”
City Journal
A rather classically liberal publication—at most bourgeois conservative—still, it has much higher quality content than any shitlib publication you will come across, and their urban policy generally seems much more reasonable than anything proposed by progressive activists. Theodore Dalrymple is one of this publication’s regular writers, and he is always a pleasure to read, though he had more spice in the past. He doesn’t go far enough, but he helped peel me off of the typical progressive dogmas about the sexual revolution, drugs, low culture, art, architecture, etcetera.
Unqualified Reservations
Good old Curtis Yarvin, aka, Mencius Moldbug, one of the, if not the founder of neo-reaction, and the guy who brought “red pill” to the right. To be honest, his crazy techno-libertarianism almost disqualifies him from this list. However, his idiotic positive proposals are not his primary contribution to rightist thought. His primary value comes in his persistent unraveling of all the myths of liberalism and modernity that we live with today, and his revival of important historical thinkers like Thomas Carlyle. I also find him funny, if long winded. He says he’s not a white nationalist, but he is. But whatever. If you don’t want that slop at the right-wing thought buffet, don’t scoop it onto your plate.
C2C Journal
This is honestly not that much better than The Rebel or Fox News, but there is some higher quality content on here, and I keep my eye out for it. I linked to one such piece above. Canadian outlet. They often recommend good reading in other publications in their emails.
In general, you should read classic literature and history books written before 1945. There is great stuff after 1945, but you need a very solid intellectual basis and strong values to discern the propaganda from the good history.
WATCHING
The Distributist
A YouTube channel by a Traditional Catholic millennial that is supposedly on hiatus even though he keeps producing content. Whether or not you’re a Catholic, this is one of the most thoughtful right-wingers on YouTube. I expect he will be expunged from the web at some point, so catch up on his videos while we can. I recommend “To be ‘right-wing’...”, his series on Magical Words, and The Lies of the Sexual Revolution.
1791L
A now defunct YouTube channel with killer animation and deep analysis. You won’t see more content from these guys, but the stuff that is there is worth watching. I recommend The Zizek, Peterson Pill if you don’t watch anything else. The videos about rap are surprisingly good as well. The New Divide is a good breakdown of conservatism’s current split.
Why Beauty Matters
In case you need a reminder of the importance of beauty, tradition, and preserving and passing down our heritage and culture, Roger Scruton is here to (gently) slap you across the face a few times in this documentary.
This Skeptic Isle
A BBC documentary by Peter Hitchens about how the British elite tricked the public into giving their sovereignty to the EU. Less relevant now, but it is good to hear a full-throated defence of national sovereignty and to see how the elites have consistently overridden and abused public will for decades now.
Why I Hate the Sixties
A good doc featuring Peter Hitchens and many others. It’s about the decline of Britain since the ‘60s. Just as relevant to North America in most ways, though obviously there are important differences.
Endeavour
Somewhat similar to The Distributist, but a bit less piercing in his analysis. Still good overall. A bit more ethno-nationalist than some of you may be comfortable with.
CSLewisDoodle
A surprisingly engaging way to spend time with CS Lewis’ works.
RESOURCES
Vertical Churches
Look at these stunning church/cathedral ceilings and interiors. Revel in the achievements of our forebearers, and wonder why we can’t achieve the same now. We are atomized, hedonistic barbarians living amongst ruins we don’t understand. We have no compelling, transcendent reason to strive for such accomplishment. The first step to overcoming our barbarism is reclaiming our heritage and our appreciation of what has been left for us.
Christian Schools in Canada
Self-explanatory. I like to Ctrl-F for the term “Traditional” as a start. Avoid “Progressive” if possible.
Old House Guy
Do you appreciate traditional aesthetic architectural principles? Do you live in an ugly home? Are you guilty of vandalizing your historic home? Old House Guy is actually a restoration consultant and contractor, but his (free) blog is a decent starting point for those looking to recognize the aesthetic sins of the present, the beauty of historic architecture, and what you can do to restore and preserve beauty in your local world. Read the book Restoring Your Historic House by Scott T. Hanson (and his other work online) for a much more in-depth look at historic styles and how to maintain and restore them. Though he is a homosexual, Scott has a great appreciation of the fact that we are merely stewards of the homes (and cultures, environment, etc.) we “own,” and that these things are handed down to us from past generations, and we should pass them down improved, or at least, undamaged to our heirs.
Survivalist resources
This is a nice collection of Canadian specific survival resources and gatherings.
Signal
The only private messaging app I know that might be trustworthy. I welcome others to inform me of other apps or to inform me how Signal is not actually trustworthy.
This list can and will be updated with more content as I think of it. I would appreciate your contributions.

I am finally back on working and eventually finishing, "The Reasons Why." Unedited: Based on a few life events! This is the last post upon it's release in late 2021 or 2022!
Chapter 1
It was 5:00pm. The day was sultry. "The Reasons Why" was finally going to be told in two and half hours. My agent, Safron handed me the first advance on the footsteps of the playhouse. I said," Do you think she'll show?" Safron paused, looked at me and said, "What do you think, you're handing her a check? I know why you wrote it, but what's the history?" We walked to a room in the back. We sat down. I said, " This is how it all started."
While with a girlfriend years ago I said one morning, "Lets take a drive somewhere." She said, "Sure, where were you thinking?" I paused, I said, "Wherever it takes us." The day was already warm. We drove over a bunch of hills and a couple of hours later we were in the Central Valley. By now it was down right hot. The wind picked up. There were onion fields, all around. The aroma was just plain simply pungent. The car began to lose power. We pulled off into a nearby town. We barely made it to a garage. It was red and looked like a barn. Yes, we were in the country.
One hour later, the mechanic whose name was Ralph said, "It was the gas gage. The car was sputtering because it was out of gas. I had an extra gage. I also filled the tank." I said, " How much do I owe you?" Ralph said, "It's all taken care of. Just pass it on. I said, "Let me pay you at least something." Ralph said, "No when you get the opportunity, just help someone."
My girlfriend Laurie said, "We're grateful." Ralph said, Come back to Merced, you hear!" For some reason, at that moment I felt like I would be back in this town. As we drove out of the parking lot, the wind picked up, the dust picked up. We drove off.
It was the middle of the night. I was back at the garage that looked like a red barn. A lady with long black hair wearing a black dress with red lipstick and piercing blue eyes was standing in front. She looked at me paused and said,"She will look like me, she'll have a restless heart and that rock won't roll." I said to her, "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" I was very perplexed. She said, "You'll see." I woke up. What a dream!
Many years had passed on and it was a hot summer day in 2010. I was laying out in the middle of the floor in my den; just waking up from a nap as the phone rang. For some reason I knew who it was. As I sat up and picked it up, I dropped it. I could see that the phone call was from Merced. I could hear," Hello! Hello! It's me Gabriella. I'm coming over to meet you." I said,"Huh," as I gained my composure. "You have cancelled on me three times, so I'm coming over. Is that ok?,” she said. "Yeah, I would like to meet you," I said.
About two hours later, she pulled in the drive way. This beautiful young lady slowly got out of the car. As I was looking out the blinds, she just stood there, as she looked at the house. As I looked at her, I thought of a couple lines from the movie "Tombstone." I said out loud, "I'm an oak." I walked outside toward her as she was walking up the long driveway. Our eyes locked. She had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. She was wearing a black dress with medium heels and red lipstick. The sun was beaming down on her long black hair. I was gone and I knew I was never coming back. I did not know it at the time, but that moment changed our lives.
We decided to go across the bay. On the way to Marin County as we were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, she asked me to put the top down. The fog was piercing cold but we were laughing like two kids. We found a little place on the waterfront in Sausalito. As we were being seated, the waiter inexplicably excused himself for a moment. That was the moment of our first kiss which turned into a gentle second kiss. As we were looking out at the bay the waiter came back. Gabriella said, "Nice view." I was thinking the same thing. We just looked at each other.
"I'm sorry for leaving abruptly, I had to take care of something in the back," the waiter said. Gabriella while looking at me said,"That is quite all right." "Are you sure?" the waiter said. Gabriella answered, "I know I'm being redundant, but I'm sure." I thought to myself, I just enjoyed everything about her. I loved her smile. She seemed so innocent and yes again I have to say she was so beautiful. I really wanted to get to know everything about her. An instant respect for her kicked in and I didn't even have a reason for it, except knowing that she is a child of God.
A few months later, I found out, Gabriella loved The Eagles. So guess what; I got front row seats for the 10/02/2010 Eagles concert at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland California. I knew something was going to happen that night, but I really wasn't sure what it was. There we were in amazement, watching the Eagles perform. They were amazing. Every note in every song was perfect, just like they were performing in a recording studio, except they sounded better than ever before. When Gabriella heard, " I Can't Tell You Why" she looked at me with a smile that was just chilling. Gabriella said, " I love this concert. Thank you Steve." She reached over and kissed me! At the end of the concert, Glenn Frey looked at the audience and said, " This is how it all started."
The Eagles started playing, "Take it Easy." I knew we were done with taking it easy. We were on and it wasn't going to stop! I knew I needed to pray for guidance! Later that night, I walked Gabriella to her front door and kissed her. "Thank you for tonight. That was a great concert," she said. I told her, I would pick her up tomorrow at 5:00pm for dinner at pier 39 in San Francisco.
The following morning, I called a seal trainer that I had met at pier 39 a few years back. I asked him if he could make one of his seals do a specific trick for me. He insisted there would be no problem for the trick to be performed. I told him Gabriella and I will meet him at the pier at 8:00pm. That day was intense. All day I was thinking if my crazy idea would really work. I felt a little foolish, but I knew I had to do it. Gabriella and I arrived at the stage on pier 39 at about 7:50pm.
While watching the seals perform tricks, I handed the trainer a little something which one of the seals snatched out of the trainers hand. A few seconds later that seal slightly bumped Gabriella. "I think that seal likes you and wants to give you something. Open up your hand. I think the seal wants to share its food with you," I said. Gabriella chuckled as she gave me a funny look. The seal jumped up and dropped something from its mouth into Gabriella's hand. As Gabriella focused on the object, her chuckles turned into tears. She saw that it was an engagement ring. I knelt down on one knee and asked her if she would marry me. Gabriella said, "Yes." I placed the ring on her finger.
Gabriella started to cry. The wind picked up and swirled right by us. It was swift! We hugged. We kissed. The crowd that had just gathered whistled, and clapped. The seal trainer came over and we all hugged. We heard a few voices in the background. “Alright,” one person in the crowd said. A few others said, “Congratulations.” Everyone around us, was clapping in perfect harmony. I said to myself, “Thank you Lord.” I shed a tear a tear. That moment was so surreal. “ Sir, now that we are engaged, let’s just go to dinner,” Gabriella said. “Ok, but we’re going to Sausalito," I replied.
Half an hour later we drove down a hill into the city. The moonlight blanketed the water on the bay . It was sleek, black and calm! Minutes later we were inside the restaurant. The same waiter who we had on our first date, handed us the menu. As Gabriella opened it up, tears fell from her face. This is what she saw,” You ask me why. Here is why. These are the reasons why I love you. When I wake up, I think of you. During the day, I smile and think of you. Every part of you is beautiful to me and God and throughout the evening I think of you. Tonight my tears fell on you. As I kissed you, those tear drops from my eyes touched your face. Now those tear drops are blossoming when I think of you."
Gabriella said, “You remembered! I am so in love with you. I’ll be 'right back. I just want to fix my makeup.” “You don’t need to, you're beautiful. I’ll freshen up too,” I said. I walked over to the other side of the table and hugged her. As she stood up, I held her hand. We walked to the “powder room.”
As she was walking into the Ladies room, a woman in a white dress who seemed to come out of nowhere caught my eye. She walked right up to me and said, “Your Steve Shaw." I said, “How do you know that?” She reached out to shake my hand. “I’m Denica. I’ve seen you on TV. I know a little bit about you.” I said, “What are you talking about?” “Well my grandfather worked with your father in Intelligence. I know you like black dresses, that ring on your finger matches the eyes of your now fiancé. Lastly your father was a photo interpreter.” I said," Who are you?” She started to walk away. She said, “We’ll be in touch." She then turned around and said, "I've read excerpts from your writings."
Safron, a few days later Gabriella and I were back in Sausalito. We were parked on the waterfront; the sun was setting. The plans were being made for the wedding. The top was down. It had been a warm fall day in the city. Yes, there’s just something about September and October on The San Francisco Bay. The light was fading. The water was darkening, Gabriella was smiling. The wind picked up and all of a sudden a old memory pierced through my heart. It skipped a beat. I was by the pool, on a sweltering hot August afternoon in 2000.
I had fallen asleep. I started dreaming. A swift warm wind passed. I heard a voice say, “I’m going home. I’ll be alright. I’m already with Jesus. Whenever you feel a swift wind coming out of nowhere, that will be me telling you everything will be alright.” I woke up. A swift wind passed. I got up, and went into the house. My wife was crying. We hugged. She said, “My mom called, Grandma just passed away. I said, “I know.” She said, “How did you know?” I said, “I just knew."
The wind picked up again. I came out of the moment. Gabriella was holding my hand. She reached over and we kissed. Gabriella said, “You loved her so much. I know your pain. My daughter’s passing still cuts through my heart everyday, sometimes every moment.” I said, “I can’t imagine. All I know, you have so much love to give. You’re just so Gabriella!”
A month passed. Gabriella was at her parent’s house, helping prepare the food for the engagement party dinner. It was almost time for the guests to arrive. I was about two miles away. The day was hot. My cell phone rang. It was Amelia, my youngest daughter. “Daddy I need bus tickets. Where are you?” I said, “I’ll bring them over tomorrow. I’m just about to arrive at my fiance’s parent’s house.” She said, “Are you going to marry her?” I said, “I am.” “Why don’t you marry mommy again?” I said, I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.” There was a moment of silence. “Bye Daddy,” she said. My heart dropped. I’m sure my daughter’s heart dropped even harder. I knew I needed to gain my composure. I pretended to put my game face on.
I drove up to the house. It was beautiful. The house was white, with a white picket fence. There was a swing on the porch. Gabriella opened up the front door. She must have seen me drive up. She was wearing a red dress. “ I like your dress,” I said. “Black sports coat, black v neck t shirt, blue jeans, you look ok too,” she said. “I like the flower in your hair,” I said. “I like the black shoes,” she said. “I like the fact you’re not wearing any shoes," I said. Gabriella blushed. Gabriella said, “I’m helping mom in the kitchen." We started to laugh. We kissed!
Gabriella looked at my car and said, "You haven't put the top down for a while." I said, "Well, it's been really hot.” “Come on Steve, live a little. Put it down, let's go for a quick ride," Gabriella replied. I said, "Ok, but you better put on some shoes cause the pavement is way to hot. She shook her head and said, "No, no, just pick me up and carry me. I can tell you are in a little bit of a funky mood and I'm going to get you out of it." I picked her up; carried her to the car; and put the top down and started the car. Gabriella's parents came to the door. Her father said, "Where are you taking my daughter?" Gabriella said, "Mom, Dad, I'll be right back, he's taking me for a little ride!"
Before we had to get back to the party, I needed gas. Gabriella said, "Do you remember getting gas for me at the end of our first date?" I said, "Of course. It was a little bit after 2:00 o' clock in the morning. I drove you to a local gas station, where I filled your tank. As I was filling your tank you got out of the car and kissed me. Yes, it was a special kiss. I put the nozzle back on and wished you a safe trip home. My heart was fluttering. You thanked me for the date. You said, " Steve, I had an absolutely wonderful time." The moon was gleaming on your face! That was the moment you drove off. There I was standing at the Chevron gas station. A few minutes later you called me and we talked all the way till you arrived home. I'll never forget pump seven at Chevron."
Minutes later I noticed Gabriella just starring at me. She said, "I don't mean to be rude, but what's wrong?" I said, “Nothing!" Gabriella said, "No Steve, I can tell there is something wrong! really wrong!" I was going in and out of a trance, but this time I stayed in it! The trance took me all the way back to when I was four years old. I remember climbing up on the brown couch in the front room. I remember looking outside. I could see a truck in traffic. It was a big truck. There was a man inside the truck holding a little white puppy on his right side. The puppy jumped up and out the truck. The truck moved slowly. I saw the truck run over the puppy with its back wheels. The man immediately stopped the truck, got out and ran to the puppy. The truck had flattened the dead puppy. The man started to cry while he held his dog against his body. He started to cry. I also started to cry. I called for my mommy! I came out of the trance, and I told Gabriella, I was fine. We have to get back to the party. “ Your parents are waiting for us, I said. We were at a stop sign by a railroad crossing. The gates came down. I put the top back up on the convertible. Gabriella said, "You are noticeably shaking. You're not ok." Bam, a car ran into us, on the passengers side. Gabriella just looked at me. Blood came out of her mouth. I reached over to her, as her head fell back. She went unconscious. I called 911 but I couldn't talk. I heard 911 say, "Someone already called in. The paramedics are on their way." The paramedics arrived moments later. They started working on Gabriella. I said, "Please save her." A few minutes later the paramedics put her in the ambulance. One of the paramedics said, "We are taking her to Mercy Hospital." One of the Police Officers who was at the scene said, "In just a little bit, I'll drive you to the hospital." I said, "Thank you," And I called Gabriella's parents.
Gabriella's mom answered. I said, "We have just been in an auto accident." "Oh my God, are you two alright? Please tell me Gabriella is alright?", She said. "Gabriella, has been hurt. The paramedics are already here. They're taking her to Mercy Hospital. I'll meet you at the hospital," I said. "Ok," June said. She started to call out to her husband as she was hanging up the phone. All of a sudden a warm brisk wind came out of nowhere. I thought of my first wife's Grandmother, Betty. I loved her so much!
This time, I didn't feel like the wind mattered. Gabriella's Mom, Dad and I arrived at the hospital. A Doctor came out to the emergency waiting room. The Doctor said to Gabriella's mom, "Your daughter is in a coma. We are doing everything we can to save her." Gabriella's Mom fell to her knees. Charles, Gabriella's Dad knelt down and hugged his wife. I felt helpless. I just prayed to Jesus. I said, "Jesus please save Gabriella's life. Please God!"
Safron, this was just so painful for Gabriella's family! Well a week later in the early afternoon, Gabriella came out of her coma. She just looked up at the ceiling. Moments later she turned her head towards her parents and me. She said, "What happened?" Gabriella's mom said, "You were in a bad car accident. You were in a coma for about a week. Gabriella's mom and dad went over to her and hugged her. Gabriella said, " I love you mom. I love you Dad." Then Gabriella looked at me and said, "Who are you?" My heart dropped!
Chapter 2
Safron, a few weeks went by and Gabriella came home and stayed at her parents house. She, her mom and Dad invited me over. I so happened to come by when the physical therapist was finishing up a session with her. The therapist kindly said, "Excuse me, I'll see you early next week. Have a good rest of the day." She walked out of Gabriella's old bedroom and said goodbye to Gabriella's parents. Gabriella, just looked at me. She still had some bandages on. When she looked at me, it was like she was looking at a stranger. I said, "Hi Gabriella, how are you feeling?" She said, "Good but I have to ask, do I know you?" My heart dropped again. I paused and said, "We are engaged. You really don't know who I am, do you?" She said, "I'm sorry but no." "Well that's ok, I'm Steve." Gabriella said, "It’s nice to meet you." Safron, we chatted for a couple of hours, then Gabriella started to get sleepy. "I'll come back another time; just rest." We both said goodbye. I waved at her while I was leaving her room. Gabriella's mom gave me a hug. I said, "Bye" and I left.
Safron, right after I left Gabriella called me and invited me over again. I was hoping and thinking that she remembered me, but she didn't. She asked me, "Who are you?" That cut like a knife in two ways. First of all because she lost her memory and secondly, because she lost her memory of me. I felt like there wasn't anything to work with. I waited another few days and I called her mother. “Hi June, This is Steve. How is Gabriella?" June said, " Gabriella is doing better but she still doesn't remember you. The Doctors said her memory might or might not come back. When are you free to come back over to see us again" I said, "Well I could come by early tomorrow evening if that works for you around 7:30. June said, "That sounds good." Safron, when I was driving over there, I was expecting the worsed but hoping for the best! When I saw Gabriella again, I first got a little excited because Gabriella said, "Its good to see you." I said, "It's good to see you too." Then she said, "The Doctors said I'm better so they told me it would be ok for me to go out for a short while." I said, "Would dinner be ok, maybe this weekend?" Gabriella said, "That would be nice." I'll make reservations at Paul's Place at 800pm this Saturday," I said. Safron, we talked for a little bit and I could see that she was getting tired so, right after dinner I took her home. While I was driving home I was really happy but I had to keep saying to myself, she doesn't remember me, so don't get too excited." I do have to say I reflected on our date when
I picked her up at 730pm that Saturday! When she opened up her front door she was wearing the same black dress the day we met each other. Safron, she looked so beautiful, but what really made me happy was her smile! She was very attentive. She reached out and gave me a hug at the door. I said, "It's good to see you." Gabriella, smiled like she used to and said, "It's good to see you too." Gabriella said, "Bye Mom, bye Dad." They were in the hall and at they said, "We love you." While at dinner, the owner came over an introduced himself. He was a young man. He said, "Our special today is prime rib. Enjoy your dinner." We said, "Thank you." He walked away. Gabriella said, "So what do you do for a living?" I said, "I'm a writer." She then asked me, "What are you working on now?" I said, "I'm working on a new project. It's a Christian Romance. You know, boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy can never get girl back, boy gets girl back." Gabriella asked, "How far are you along with it?" I said, "Well I'm rewriting it." There is a theatre in Merced that read the first draft and they want to pick it up as a play. What's so cool, is they are going to pay me good money for it. They already have a playwright that is going to transform it to a play. When it's done I would love you to see it. “How much more do you need to write, before it's completed?" Gabriella asked. I said, "I'm not sure! I don't know how it's going to end, but I'm working on the ending right now!"
Gabriella asked, "How come you don't know how it's going to end?" I said, "It's based on a couple of characters that are going through a lot of changes. It's fiction, but there is some reality in it, so I guess part of it is non-fiction. "Who are the main characters?'' Gabriella asked. "One of the characters is like you,” I said. Then Gabriella said, "Who is the other main character based on?'' For a second, I thought she was playing me, but she really didn't have a clue." "The female character is based on a number of people I have known, but they form one personality." I said, "Oh" Then Safron, Gabriella got this funny look on her face and said, " Mom and Dad have reminded me, that we are engaged. I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't remember you." Right then the owner of the restaurant brought our food to our table. I thought this was a little odd, since he was the owner and not a waiter. I knew this because the table next to us knew him and congratulated him, for buying the restaurant. He said, "Here's your food." He gave a pleasant smile to Gabriella, and walked away.
Gabriella and I were having a nice talk throughout dinner, but at the end of the dinner, I started noticing some changes in her. She seemed like she was getting tired. I also had the feeling she wanted to share some of her personal thoughts. So I asked her if she wanted to share what she was thinking. Gabriella said, " I actually do want to share a few things with you. You seem to be a really nice man." Safron, right then and there, I already knew she was going to break up the engagement, Then she said, "I need a little space. " For the third time, my heart dropped. I felt helpless, so I prayed and asked the Lord to give me strength. I became a little stronger, but the pain of the reality of what she was saying to me didn't go away. She then said, "I'm sorry Steve, but I'm a little confused and I'm really tired right now." I said, "No problem, I'll take you home after we finish our dinner. She said, "Thank you."
On the way home, I told Gabriella, I would give her space. I actually went on and said, "Gabriella, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I don't want you to feel any pressure because we were engaged. What I want is for you to be happy! I think at this point, I should step away. I don't want to because I love you, but I love you enough to think of all your feelings. If you want, we will keep in touch, and maybe we can get engaged again, but in my opinion, you need to get to know me all over again. I know I'm a stranger to you! I don't want to be a stranger, but it's all good. All that matters to me, is your happiness." Gabriella pause and then said, "Thank you Steve. You are a good man." At that point, I had arrived at her parents home. They were on the the front porch. I walked Gabriella to the front of the porch. I gave her a hug, and said “Goodbye!
Safron, a few weeks passed. I thought to myself, I haven't heard from her. Just at that moment, I received a call from a blocked number. I thought to myself that it was another spam call. Well, it wasn't! "Hello Steve, this is Denica, I'm the one who spoke to you a while back in a Sausalito restaurant. Remember I told you that my Grandfather used to work with your father in Intelligence?" I said, "Yes I remember," Denica said, "I followed my Grandfather's line of work and I work in Intelligence." I said, "I know a little bit about intelligence. When my father was alive and while I was going down a bad road after my first marriage, my father said to me, "You're like a loose cannon." I was smart enough to know that my father was trying to indirectly trying to warn me and protect me. I knew he was telling me without telling me, you're being watched. My writings were revealing a little too much about the intelligence community. My father let me know I was saying a little too much! So Denica, I know you can't acknowledge this, but for you to call me, means I've been assigned an agent. So tell me why are you calling?" "Steve, I want to protect you." "From what?" I said, "From what?" I can't get into it but I will share some personal information about your x girlfriend," Denica said. I said, "Why do you want to tell me this?" Denica said, "Again, I can't get into this, but you need to know, that there is a waiter that waited on you and Gabriella. Again I can't get into this, but he is a person of interest and he is interested in your x girlfriend. Gabriella and her parents went to that same restaurant last week and he gave Gabriella his phone number!"
Safron what's really interesting is a couple of days later, Denica called me again and asked if I could meet her at her office. She said, "Steve there is something I need to discuss with you." So I made an appointment with her and we met at her office the next day. The office was so undetectable. She gave me the address. It looked like a small warehouse. That appointment was intense. She started off by saying that she wanted me to be part of the Intelligence community. She really wanted me to be part of Intelligence. Denica told me she had an assignment that would not be easy for me. "But as we are speaking, it's being mapped out for you Steve." I said, "How do you know if I'm going to say yes?” Denica answered, "You're a lot like your Father. I know you love your Country. I said, "The last conversation, you said I was being watched because of my writing about intelligence." Denica said, "What I didn't tell you is we liked what you wrote, though it was a little too detailed oriented!” So I asked, "What's my assignment?"
Denica said, "We need you to go undercover. My department just found out, he's no longer a waiter! He just bought the restaurant that he works at. I said, “I know. The last time Gabriella and I were at that we were there, I heard him tell the couple at the next table that he just bought the restaurant.” We believe he bought it with laundered money.” He's associated with a drug cartel in Mexico. We believe he is working with a mole in The United States government that's helping him smuggle cocaine into the United States." Since he is interested in your x fiancé, we also need her involved without her knowing. The catch that will be hard for you, is you can't say anything to her.” Denica said, "After doing our research, we believe he has access to wire taps and that he taps the phones of everyone he is associated with. Which means we will have to give you a secret phone which he won't have any knowledge of."
After that meeting I called Gabriella, and she agreed to have dinner with me at the same place we had dinner before. She asked me if she could drive over to my home. I said, "Sure." At dinner, the new owner of the restaurant, came over and again introduced himself. He acted like he never gave Gabriella his phone number. It was a little odd because after he introduced himself, he just walked away. Gabriella immediately said, "The last time I was here with my parents, he handed me a note with his phone number."
Safron, we had small talk throughout the dinner. I could see that Gabriella was getting tried, so I took her home. She just left her car at my place. The next day I went over to her place and brought her back to my place so she could pick up her car. After that, we went a month without talking with each other. Denica had told me we should wait three to four weeks before we go back to that restrauant.
Chapter 3
Exactly one month later to that day, Gabriella called me. She said she wanted to talk to me. I said, "If the owner of that restaurant doesn't bother you, we can go back to that same place. I can tell you really like their food." Gabriella said, "He doesn't bother me and I do love their food. I wouldn't mind going back to that restrauant." I picked her up at 7:00 pm. for reservations at 7:30 pm. During dinner Gabriella said, "My short term memory isn't getting any better and I'm worried." I said, "Can I share a story?" Gabriella said, "Of course.” I said, "I was at a smog shop earlier today and I happened to meet a Lady whose name was Candy. She was also getting her car smogged. I don't really know why she got personal with me but, it felt like she was being a messenger. She said she was blessed. We both acknowledged giving our heart to Christ. She explained to me that her son had leukemia and that her husband also has had leukemia twice. She finished by saying, that her son and husband no longer have that disease. She concluded her talk by saying, "My job is to be the best mother and wife that I can be. The Lord pulled me through it." I thanked her for sharing! She thanked me for listening! "Well Gabriella, I know things are not easy for you right now, and I don't want to use Christian jargon, but my encouragement to you is Jesus will pull you through this."
Right then at that moment, my x wife, my oldest and youngest daughter, and a tall man walked in the restaurant. My x wife and my daughters saw me. My x wife immediately whispered something to the man and they proceeded to walk out of the restaurant. As they were leaving, I saw my youngest daughter with tears in her eyes as she was looking at me. A few minutes later, she called me. As soon as I picked up the phone she said, “Dad, what are you doing?” She then said, I actually will talk to you later.”s Both of my daughters must have been devastated. The lump in my throat was huge. Gabriela said, “Can I ask what just happened?” Safron, I explained to my daughters a few years ago that it was best that their mother and I divorce. Safron, they didn’t believe that was the truth. Gabriella said, “I don’t want to be rude and I don’t know your situation but maybe it would have been best not to divorce, especially because of your daughters. I saw their pain.” I said, “Do you want to know what happened?” Gabriella said, “I’m sorry Steve, but I don’t feel led to know.
The way I see it, is there is a few problems going on here. To me it seems like you don’t have a cordial relationship with your x wife. It is obvious both of your daughters are upset that we are seeing each other.
Steve, I don’t remember you!” I said, "You are right." Right after she said that, Gabriella took off her engagement ring. Right before she gave it to me I said, “No please don’t give it to me back right now. Please give it a couple of months. If you still feel the same, I still want you to keep it. Please don’t give it back to me.” Gabriella said, “Ok.” Safron two weeks later, I received a call from Deirdre, my x wife. She said, “Besides your girlfriend, the owner of Paul’s Place called and was, asking me questions about you when I went there again for dinner yesterday. Steve that was so weird. I think he was intoxicated. Why is he so interested in wanting to find out about you?” I said, "I don’t know. Let me find out and I’ll call you back." My x said again, “This is so weird that he was asking about you.” I immediately got off the phone and Icalled Denica. I told her the owner of the restaurant was asking about me. She said, “Somehow he got some intelligence that you are looking at him as a person of interest. In other words, he somehow found out you are investigating him. Don’t go back into the restaurant until I figure out what is going on.” I said, “Ok.”
Later that night I was just about to start working on my book, “The Reasons Why.” I remembered I needed to call my x wife because I told her I would. She answered, “This is Dierdre.” I immediately said, “I have no idea why the owner of Paul”s place was asking you questions about me. Dierdre said, “Sure you don’t.” I said, “Do you have anything to share with me?” She said,” No.” I said, “Well have a good night.” I hung up. Dierdre called me back up and said, “I forgot to mention something to you. Does your girlfriend have cancer, like I had?” I said, “I don’t think so but I will talk to her about it. Why are you asking me that?” My x said, “I saw her leaving the clinic while I was walking in.” I said, “I will talk to her about it. Thank you for sharing that with me. Tell Amelia and Melody I love them. Have a good night. Bye.”
I went back to the beginning of “ The Reasons Why” and started a new draft. I wrote about how I was on a computer dating sight and I ran across a Lady who was an accountant from Merced , CA. Through exchanges of texts, she gave me her phone number. I waited two days before I called her. When I finally called she said, “This is Gabriella.” I immediately got goosebumps because for some reason, I remembered that I would somehow be back in Merced. We spoke for a while. We were at the point of setting up a date. For whatever reason, she wanted to come to The Bay Area. I told her I would call her in about a week and I said we would set something up. We actually went back and forth for about three weeks. She was bold enough to say, “You have stood me up indirectly three times. Do you want to meet me?” I said, “Yes.” We set that date up later that afternoon. As I was thinking about how I would continue to write this book, Dierdre my first x wife called again. I said, "Hello!" Dierdre preceded to ask me again, "Why in the world would the owner of Paul's Place call me up?" She called me up for the second time asking me the same question. Dierdre asked me, How did he get my phone number?." I said, ‘The owner remembers us as a married couple when he was a waiter and he knew I was a writer. Deirdre said, “This dosen’t make any sense.” Are you saying Steve, he called me up to get you to write a review on his restraint!” I said, “I don’t know. I have to go Dierdre. Have a good day.”

This discussion thread series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal examples, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
12:02 pm start, 12:58 pm end
Major talking points he made:
 
General
 
Certain populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Multi-generational households are particularly vulnerable. Challenges in congregate facilities (homeless shelters, skilled nursing, correction institutions, etc.).
 
Reinforcement of the importance on personal responsibility to wear face masks, physically distance, and practice good hand hygiene. It's very easy to forget that our intentions may be 100% to stop spread; however, our careless moments may reduce our actual complaint behavior to 90%. When you go to the breakroom and briefly take your mask off and forget to put it back on, it may expose you or your co-workers to the virus.
 
Stopping the spread of COVID-19 depends on our ability to keep our essential workers safe.
Not enough emphasis placed on essential workers in state. Newsom proceeds to show a slide of the race/ethnicity breakdown of frontline essential workers. Overwhelming majority of our essential sectors are made up of Latino, Asian, and Black populations. Particularly farm, construction, cook, and food preparation workers are from Latino populations. This essential workforce remains the backbone for providing fundamental services in CA.
 
New worker safeguards: preventative measures, employer education, and long lasting worker protections.
 
Preventative Measures: Ensure workers can isolate and quarantine when sick or exposed. Provide safe, temporary housing for COVID positive and exposed agriculture and farmworkers. Administration looking at Project Roomkey and extending its model to workers who need to isolate or quarantine in motels/hotels. 626k cropworkers live and work year-round in CA. Housing and farmwork partnerships in place in Monterey to house and support agricultural workers to isolate and quarantine when exposed/sick. Build on PSAs to reach employers, workers, and families to educate about guidelines and worker's/citizen's rights. When we re-opened CA, we focused too much on "when" and not "how." We have responsibility to do more on "how" to safely re-open.
Employer Education: New handbooks released for employers to understand guidelines in an easier manner. More info on guidance for safe, clean environments, best practices for an outbreak, proactive education efforts to help businesses comply, & testing information for employees.
Ensuring long lasting protections: worked to expand worker protections and build on existing Executive Orders including: COVID-19 paid sick leave, worker's comp for at risk workers, strategic enforcement of labor laws, and strengthening employer reporting of outbreaks. We do not want sick workers forced to work and infect others. Don't want to implement punitive measures as primary enforcement method; compliance is the answer. If there are repeat or serious offenders, punitive measures will be considered. No previous requirement for business to contact local health officer if an employee tested positive. New requirements for businesses to report employee cases.
 
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 9,718 (July 23), ~137k+ tested yesterday. Pooled testing approved by CDC & FDA to allow for "batch" testing, speeding up the process it takes to test larger populations. Multiple samples will be "pooled" and tested as a congregate sample. If the sample tests positive, each individual sample will be retested.
7 day average: 9,881, ~124k average tests daily over last 7 days.
7 day: 7.9%, up from 7.7% 1 week ago
14 day: 7.5%, up from 7.4% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: growth is slightly increasing again.
 
 
Hospital Capacity
 
Non-ICU Beds: 6,952 (+9% increase over 14 days), rate of growth beginning to decline modestly in Non-ICU hospitalizations. ~9% of non-ICU patients are COVID positive.
ICU: 2,002 COVID positive (+11% increase over 14 days, ~23% of total ICU (non-surge) beds occupied). 2,614 ICU beds immediately available. 8,894 surge aggregate ICU capacity (total max CA capacity ICU), 11,932 ventilators available.
 
 
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: in re: stanislaus & san benito county. 130% hospital capacity in stanislaus. how many health care clinicians are ready to deployed to hospitals now?
A1: don't have exact number right now. ~35k of the CA Health Corps available, hundreds have already been deployed. 190 federal HHS medical personnel deployed last week and this week. Other multi-jurisdictional strike teams and federal health workers being assembled for deployment.
 
Q2: struggles with EDD benefits. address? Is it state's responsibility to help people forced out of work if federal does not provide?
A2: have implemented numerous creative solutions (plates campaign, project homekey, etc) to help those in need. confident that House Speaker Pelosi will pull something off that is "important" to get "checks in the pockets of those impacted by COVID-19." 14 billion distributed in EDD this week. no other state comes close in terms of processing; however, this is not an excuse. ~18k people implemented to help with call centers and support for EDD and other benefits. IT infrastructure problems as the foundation system is from 1979. Need to update; opportunity to update with COVID-19. Can re-imagine the entire process and system. working with leadership in Senate and Assembly to address issues of eviction.
 
Q3: in re: transmission rates in counties like LA. why was LA chosen to receive military hospital aid?
A3(a): Dr. Ghaley's (head of HHS) reply: don't live in aggregate. Some counties are below 1.0% transmission rate. Imperial & LA are both below 1.0%. Others hovering around 1-1.3%. That means that over time, more people will be infected. Some counties are on the upward trend of transmission. We are monitoring closely to make sure that hotspots have adequate PPE and health officials to ensure numbers start to trend downwards. Dept of Defense staffing and support provided for important areas of disease transmission.
 
Q4: LA times said that health inspectors were sent to skilled nursing facilities without being tested first. address?
A4: already changed protocols. health inspectors are tested prior to entering and assessing high risk areas.
 
Q5: are you signing any executive orders or public health orders today? Any waivers for schools? Union support for waivers?
A5: waiver process is for elementary schools only. School districts to work with local public departments to offer in-person instruction in counties on the County Monitoring List. School and district leaders must initiate the request for the waiver in consultation with labor, parents, and community-based organizations. California provided the waiver because younger students are at a lower risk to be vectors of COVID-19 and because earlier return allows them to benefit from in-person instruction. Legislation is in session; thus executive orders or other public health orders can be advanced in real time. working hard to present updates and additions to Executive orders for next week.
 
Q6: in re: federal benefits expiring. At best, still going to be a gap in services. what does this mean day-to-day? Any relief in the interim? $600 in Iowa is very different than $600 in CA. address?
A6: made case to Pelosi and other leaders months ago for new CARES act. have been very critical of the US senate that moved very slowly. have great expectations at House level due to Pelosi's competency at moving and enacting bills. our budget has been adjusted to address 100 million to ITC (working families). compared to other states, our state-level support for minorities, homeless, essential workers is much better and progressive.
 
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 34 (with links to county website):
(Old: 33) Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kings, LA, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernandino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba
(New: 1) Kern
(Removed: 1) Butte
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
What to do if you start to develop symptoms of COVID-19 & want to get tested (courtesy: CDPH)
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
Link to live press conference
Link to yesterday's discussion thread
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

This discussion thread series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal examples, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
Major talking points he made:
 
12:00 pm start, 1:02 pm end
   
General
 
Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Physically distance. Slow the spread! 111 lives lost in last 24 hours.
We will get through this. It's not a matter of "if," it's a matter of when. And that when depends on your decisions and efforts to slow the spread.
Shelter-in-place months ago was ordered to save lives & prepare our healthcare systems for a larger surge.
 
Update on Preparedness Plan in response to increases in hospitalizations
Need to meet growing demand for hospital care by ensuring Californians who need access, receive it. Maximize capacity within current hospital settings (converting old hospitals and other facilities to decompress hospitals) & in process of building additional capacity outside hospital settings.
Existing hospital footprint: 415 hospitals, but not equally distributed in the state. Roughly 21,000 licensed hospital beds in LA. In Sutter county, just have 14. Depending on where you live, capacity is very different.
On surge capacity in March vs. July: In March, we had surge capacity of ~20%, no established alternate care sites, no propositioned medical assets. We are better prepared now in July with: capability to treat 50,000 COVID patients, built alternate sites such as Sleep Train Arena, established new hospital capacity such as Seton, deployed federal medical stations.
96,000 applicants for CA Health Corps. 35,000 of those applicants for CA Health Corps had a valid license in professions needed; 741 Health Corps individuals deployed to Skilled Nursing, Corrections, & other facilities. If you are retired or professionally trained, encouraged to fill out application on covid19.ca.gov. Need to match needs in different areas of the state. YOU may have a unique license, experience that may be needed in certain parts of the state.
 
 
State Medical Supply Inventory
In March, we had 1 million procedure masks which was wholly inadequate. Now, we have 21 million N-95 masks available. Governator years ago stockpiled N-95 masks in CA.
In 1 contract, 189 million procedure masks, 72 million N-95 masks. We were able to deliver in promises from 2 months ago to stockpile.
DISTRIBUTED: 201 million procedure masks, 79 million N-95 masks distributed over past 4 months.
AVAILABLE: 232 million procedure masks, 46 million N-95. Still in process of getting more.
So successful in procurement that we have helped to distributed these supplies to other states in need & FEMA (federal emergency management).
 
 
Comprehensive Surge Plan presentation by person in charge of CA hospitals:
CA hospitals continue to ramp up prep to be ready for all Californians. The numbers are increasing in CA. More people will need hospitalization and intensive care in next few weeks. 49% increase in hospitalizations in last 2 weeks, 38% increase in ICU hospitalizations.
On Planning: Hospitals and teams have plans for surge. To be ready for any kind of emergency.
On Preparing: Hospitals are being prepared logistically. Building up inventory of PPE. Attempting to build up capabilities of testing supplies. Cross training staff like nurses who may typically serve bed-side, how can we train them up if they are needed in ICU. Looking at every nook and cranny to increase COVID-19 capacity.
On appreciation of staff: Thank you for the nurses, doctors, and other staff for their heroic work.
 
If hospitals work as teams, we can ensure that patients are transferred and decompressed properly and safely.
We have therapeutic drugs like remdesivir (shortens duration of hospital stay in patients). Have learned a lot over last 4 months on how to treat COVID-19 patients.
Surge is about finding balance between caring for COVID-19 patients and caring for every other non-COVID patient in CA.
Emphasis on social distancing, masks, hand hygiene in neighborhoods and communities that help nurses, doctors, and your community. Help us expand the capacity to care for those in need.
190 individuals from HHS (federal entity) to give relief to nurses & doctors. CA medical association sent trained healthcare professionals to NYC during the height of their pandemic months ago. These medical personnel came back to CA with more experience and knowledge on treating COVID-19 patients.
 
 
Health and Safety
Drivers of recent COVID-19 hospitalizations: not enough people wearing masks & physically distancing, increased mixing outside of households, skilled nursing facilities, prison/jail outbreaks, essential workplace outbreaks.
Younger "invincibles" are contributing. However, it's not just the young populace; some essential workforce & older populace also contributing with poor mask compliance & social distancing.
60% of the economy never shut down even with shelter-in-place order. Operational under modified orders.
18 counties issued local orders, 4 issued state, 4 awaiting action (colusa, napa, san benito, yolo)
 
 
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 11,694 (July 7th) largest single day cohort since beginning of pandemic. 8,116 7-day average. NOTE: numbers include a backlog reported from labs in LA county. this cohort would bring number below 10,000. urges citizens to look at 7-day average.
avg 106,000 tests/day, up from 2,000 tests/day @ beginning of pandemic in March.
7 day: 7.1%, up from 6.0% 1 week ago
14 day: 7.1%, up from 5.1% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: COVID-19 is spreading. Goals need to re-imagined. May talk more on testing, targeting on Friday's or Monday's press conference.
 
 
Hospital Capacity
 
6,100 new (~8%) hospitalizations, +44% over 14 day, 4240 2 weeks ago
Non-ICU Beds: 44,199 admitted (6,100 COVID), 73,867 available
ICU: 1753 ICU patients, +34% increase over 2 weeks. 3908 ICU beds immediately available. 11,313 surge aggregate ICU capacity (total max CA capacity ICU), 11,300 ventilators available.
 
 
   
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: state is sending masks to other states. clarify how many masks? what was the threshold for the mask capacity we had as a state to send to other states?
A1: when we made multiple agreements for large procurement of masks, part of agreement (esp with FEMA) was consideration of giving to those in need who need it the most. We feel connected to the "American" spirit and have helped our other "brother and sister" states. We have prioritized the needs of the state (adequately met as for now), particularly those who are working on the front line. 35 million masks to CA grocer association. Many masks in other essential sectors.
 
Q2: concerns about "super spreaders." can recent increase be attributed to them? Should individuals get tested even if they are asymptomatic?
A2: testing site info available at covid19.ca.gov. Looking to target and modify testing criteria (modified Sunday) to test most vulnerable communities and diverse areas of the state.
 
Q3: about san quentin. are you decompressing more? are you personally going to the prison?
A3: visited San Quentin on a daily basis (including right after press conference). We've been able to decompress the prison (4051 on March 2nd -> 3000 goal). 3076 right now. using chapels and gyms, and other facilities differently to try and decompress.
 
Q4: President Trump said he will withhold federal funding from states that do not open schools. Are there repercussions for not having enough teachers to re-open? Vice President said conflicting info. Address?
A4: I'm not worried about [Trump's] latest tweets. We must safely open schools. It is non-negotiable. Need funding for K-12 and higher education to support efforts. Do more on face shields, gloves, gowns, masks, etc. Focus on procurement of equipment. We are providing flexibility in our statutory budget to allow for balance of in-person and online. Flexibility based on local conditions important as each county may be unique in class size, class environment, or accessibility. Need foundational framework to keep kids and teachers HEALTHY! I fear that more than a "tweet." We must protect bus drivers, children, janitors, etc. Have to make educated, data-driven decision to re-open schools.
 
Q5: followup on education. LA times said possible delay on August 18th start of school. Is it possible to have some form of classroom instruction in 5-6 weeks?
A5: decision will be based on data & where we are in a few weeks. We are not bystanders. We are agents of our own lives and decisions. local flexibility on distance learning. Acknowledges need of in-person for social/emotional development of children and teens.
 
Q6: as testing centers are backlogged and closing, some people are waiting for a week to get tested and a week for the results. what is the point of testing if it takes so long? How many teachers, students, staff are expected to be infected with in-person?
A6: No data or modeling for school infections. We are doing ongoing work in increasing statewide tests despite supply chain concerns. We are doing record number of tests. The challenge of the time it takes to get tests back was not as much of an issue a few weeks ago. Increased fears and testing have led to backlogs in testing sites.
 
 
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 26 (with links to county website):
(Old: 23) Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, , Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Solano, Stanislaus, Tulare, Ventura, San Diego, Monterey, Colusa, Madera, Marin, Merced, Contra Costa
(New: 3) Napa, San Benito, Yolo
(Removed: 1) Santa Clara
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
What to do if you start to develop symptoms of COVID-19 & want to get tested (courtesy: CDPH)
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
PSA on Masks
PSA #2 on Masks
PSA on Masks presented by current & past CA governors
PSA on Masks from NY, Comedy
Link to live press conference
Link to yesterday's discussion thread
How can I report businesses that are violating COVID-19 industry guidelines?
 
Citizens are encouraged to file reports with their county website. Reports & complaints can also be filed at covid19.ca.gov or on specific, department websites (i.e.- OSHA). Many citizens have found that Twitter is an efficient platform is raising awareness to force government bodies and businesses to act. Please help in keeping your community safe! Report any unsafe businesses immediately!
[Editor's note 1]: Due to the increased popularity of these threads, I'm personally asking members of the CA community to link this discussion thread in their respective city and county subreddits. I am currently actively posting community discussion threads in orangecounty, sandiego, ventura, venturacounty, santabarbara, coronavirusCA, and /CoronavirusCalifornia
 
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

This discussion series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal views, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
12:36 pm start, ~13:40 pm end
Major talking points he made:
 
General
 
Wear a mask, physically distance, wash your hands, and minimize mixing.
Protect yourself and mitigate the spread to others.
 
Federal Response to Unemployment.
 
PUA ($600/week) expired 7/25. Bridge program in future for restarting PUA is $400/week. Responsibility for state to pick up 25% of cost.
White House proposal would cost the state & taxpayers at least $700 million per week. $2.8 billion would have to be re-allocated from other areas which are critical.
Existing CARES act funding already allocated for pandemic response (schools, health, social programs, expanded testing).
States cannot shoulder this burden without cutting important services or further burdening businesses and individuals.
"There is no money sitting in the piggybank from the previous CARES Act to be re-prioritized or re-constituted for this purpose simply does not exist... cannot absorb without massive cuts to important services or further burdening businesses and individuals."
 
President Trump is pushing for an entirely new program. Will leave out those with greatest need and delay UI checks as it:
-Requires certification for lost work due to COVID.
-Will require extensive re-programming of state run program.
-Benefits limited to those who receive $100/week.
$44 billion set aside by federal gov't is insufficient- and already allocated for other disaster relief such as wildfires. Businesses will eventually pay these costs, but federal government can and must provide upfront cash.
State Actions on Evictions:
 
State has extended local government authorities through September 30th.
Working with judicial council, legislation, and executive branch to extend rent deferral.
Roughly 50% of CA live in jurisdictions with local eviction moratoria in place: 80 cities, 10 counties.
About 75% of renters that have fallen behind on rent are Latinx or Black: 62% Latinx, 9.5% black.
Working with the legislature to protect vulnerable tenants and landlords.
Partnerships in Reponse to COVID-19:
 
$63 million from Kaiser Permanente grant funding to provide community-based supports and services for contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine efforts.
$18.8 million from philanthropic partners to support local public health efforts, especially for those populations that do not have the capacity to self-quarantine.
~58.8% of COVID+ are from Latinx communities. Must support those disproportionately affected.
CA is committed to ensuring accurate COVID-19 data:
 
The IT systems established in CA are simply too old and too inefficient to handle the data crunching CA needs with this pandemic. Large scale IT procurement was never a focus in this state with previous governors/officials.
In process of fixing and overhauling system so that CA can better collect and share data. Applicable to EDD, CALFIRE, and other significant government entities.
 
Dr. Ghaly (head of HHS) takes the podium to comment on COVID-19 data & database:
Thanks CA for their patience in continuing to commit for accurate data. Thanks Dr. Sonia Angel for her work.
Working hard to improve our ongoing state response as leadership changes at Dept of Public Health.
CA has added system capacity to be better at handling record volume of data. Augmented supports and oversight to ensure data is timely and high quality. Initiated effort to create a new lab reporting system.
 
295,000 backlogged records processed over weekend. CalREDIE backlog has also been eliminated.
These cases are now ready & available to locals to be processed. Counties will attach relevant info (race, age, living situation, work situation, etc.). Cases will be reported by State when final details are added.
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 7,751 (Aug 9, not from backlog), expect to have updates from counties for backlogged data within 24-72 hours. Will update trendlines as soon as data is available. ~172k tests were collected yesterday. ~111k tests on Saturday. Have completed 8.9 million tests so far in the state of CA.
7 day average: [editor's note: not shown due to waiting for backlog results to process through counties. ETA 24-72 hrs. see below in Q&A for more info]
7 day: ___%, down from ___% 1 week ago
14 day: ___%, down from ___% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: Even with backlogged cases, the trend of infection is decreasing. [editor's note: Positivity rates were not shown for same reason.]
 
Hospital Capacity
Non-ICU Beds: 5,596, ~19% decrease in COVID+ hospitalization over last 14 days. ~8% of admitted patients are COVID+, 41,039 (56%) non-COVID hospitalized. 73,867 total beds.
ICU: 1,727, ~13% decrease in ICU admissions over 14 days, ~20% capacity of total ICU. 2,574 total ICU beds available. 8,456 total ICU bed surge capacity. 13,105 ventilators available (increased ventilator capacity over the weekend).
 
Deaths
66 over 24 hours. Over 14 days, 137 lives lost per day. Deaths are a lagging indicator. Serious reminder how deadly this disease is.
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: in re: Dr. Sonia Angel. Did you make her resign? Address?
A1: Refuses to comment on personnel conversations. Newsom thanks her for her leadership and stewardship. Was a champion of racial and social justice. Dr. Pan is interim health officer.
 
Q2: did you know there was computer glitch in COVID data during your conference last week?
A2: Monday evening we found out right after conference. Would not have put out that data if we had known there were inconsistencies. Dr. Ghaly then addressed the next morning how to deal with backlog. Key is to own up to it, address it, and move forward. Make decisions so we don't repeat these mistakes in the future. Even if data itself was faulty, our hospitalization and ICU numbers don't mislead. They are trending downwards.
 
Q3: Dept of Public Health knew of the glitch but did not notify you immediately. Is this true? Address?
A3: We are being as transparent as possible. Have cleared the backlog & now working with counties to get the numbers updated. It's unfortunate but we are moving forward with good hospitalization/ICU trends going down.
 
Q4: aging IT infrastructure. Is it fair to blame the data glitch on the IT problems? Also, any issues with Dr. Angel?
A4: If you want accountability, it's on Newsom. CA is a nation-state in terms of size and scope. Whatever issues and problems should be directed at him. Newsom refuses to get into deep personnel conversations out of respect and responsibility for Dr. Angel. He applauds Dr. Angel for the decisions she made. The team is now moving forward. We are building a new IT-focused system to deal with COVID & other future problems (fire, unemployment, etc.)
 
Q5: in re: county monitoring list & removal of counties from list. When will the county monitoring list be unfrozen? Why is it ok to open child care but not schools?
A5: Unique guidelines for child care centers have been discussed and implemented for months. Guidelines are distinctive. County monitoring lists are frozen until backlogged data is made available.
 
Q6: in re: Dr. Angel. deserve a clearer explanation on why she is leaving.
A6: She resigned and wrote a resignation letter. Newsom accepted her resignation request.
 
Q7: in re: schools in OC. North County particularly hit hard. South County relatively ok. Do the elementary school waivers and school restrictions apply to the entire county of Orange?
A7: Dr. Ghaly's response: If entire county meets the threshold, public health leaders can open conversations on re-opening specific school districts.
 
Q8: Some people are still confused on who is eligible to get a test. What about test turnaround times?
A8: Dr. Ghaly's response: Top priority is to get those with symptoms, are the sickest, are at high risk to get the test results in the quickest manner to support that individual's care. Also prioritize tests for those who have been in close contact with COVID+ as they become perfect vectors for transmission in our communities. Ongoing conversations with local labs in CA that have 24-48 hr turnaround in smaller labs. Larger labs are a bit longer as nation-wide demand for testing. Currently average 5-7 days for larger labs; will continue to have a faster turnaround as days go on. As we continue to expand testing, must maintain appropriate turnaround time.
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 38 [editor's note: the county watchlist is currently frozen until the backlogged data is presented and prepared by local officials.]
(Old: 38) Alameda, Butte, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, Madera, Marin, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernandino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba
(New: 0)
 
According to covid19.ca.gov, these are the new counties on the interim watchlist (will update in 24-72 hrs with backlogged cases):
Amador, Calaveras, Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Inyo, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne
 
When do counties get placed on the watchlist??
Counties are put on the watchlist when their data exceeds the following:
1) Case rate (per 100,000) >100... OR Case rate (per 100,000) >25 AND testing positivity >8.0%
2) >10% increase in the average number of confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized
3) <20% of staffed ICU beds are available... OR <25% of ventilators are available
Getting off of the list would require the county to fare better than those limits. Counties are on the list when one or more metrics are met. Counties are removed from the list when all three are cleared.
Source: CDPH
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
Link to live press conference
Link to last discussion thread
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

This discussion thread series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal examples, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
Major talking points he made:
 
12:00 pm start, 12:45 pm end
   
General
Hope you all had a safe & responsible holiday weekend!
Reminders to... wear a face covering, physically distance, & to wash your hands.
   
Enforcement Prioritization
Prioritized on parts of state with known violators, high risk work places, or industries that should be operating at a scale in an appropriate and safe manner. Extra attention given to industries that should be operating outdoors.
   
Workplace Safety Guidelines
ALL businesses required to have masks worn by staff & patrons, physical distancing in place, signage on masks & guidelines, occupancy limits posted.
Restaurants in impacted counties: no dining or drinking indoors, no alcoholic beverages without a meal.
   
July 2-5 Enforcement
~6000 visits from ABC (Alcohol Beverage) department to restaurants/bars
~444,000 contacts via visits, email, phone from Occupation Safety and Health (OSHA)
~344 licenses contacted for board of barbering & cosmetology; also provided comprehensive safety checklists to businesses.
Plenty of citations from local & state enforcement. Enforcement is "tiered." (ex.)- First violation ~$100, 2nd ~$500, final ~$1,000.
 
 
Health and Safety
Closed indoor operations for multiple sectors in counties on County Monitoring List (see below)
Closed all bars in these counties
Closed state beach parking lots in Southern California & Bay Area for 4th of July weekend. Gov thanks residents & elected officials that acted overwhelmingly responsibly.
Launched multi-agency enforcement strike teams.
Many counties acted at the local level: 14 issued local orders, 3 state issued orders, 6 awaiting action (Colusa, Solano, Monterey, Main, Madera, San Diego)
 
 
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 5699 (July 5th) new cases
7 day average: 7876 (climbing) (+39%)
7 day: 7.2%, up from ___? 1 week ago
14 day: 6.8%, up from 4.9% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: Significant increases in 14 and 7 day period. Finally over 7% rate.
Testing is going up (100,000 tests done over 7 days)
 
 
Hospital Capacity
 
5790 hospitalizations
Non-ICU Beds: 56% capacity, 41,595 are non-COVID, 5790 COVID patients. 73,867 total beds available.
ICU: ICU went down modestly at 0.3% over 24 hours. +39% over 14 days. 1,706 COVID ICU patients, 3882 total ICU beds available. 11,058 surge aggregate ICU capacity (total max CA capacity ICU), 11,416 ventilators available.
 
 
   
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: some data released today shows that 1 business YOU owned received loans. please address.
A1: it's in a blind trust. ask the people who run it.
 
Q2: any realistic way to open some sectors of the economy. Was there a miscalculation in speed of re-opening?
A2: I think we can safely re-open. If we wear face coverings, can reduce spread. Other countries that have enforced face masks have done well. In terms of "how," with enforcement & individual responsibility. laid out guidelines & expectations.
 
Q3: case # is rising, mortality is better though. What is this attributed to? How does this address the policy going forward?
A3: only 6 lives lost in last 24 hours. individual data points themselves are not a trend line; however, general trend line of deaths are lagging indicators. we are cautiously monitoring this statistic. Most important thing we learned from new data is that the cohort of individuals getting tested is getting YOUNGER & YOUNGER (18-34 y.o.). A lot of these younger folks may be coming into hospitals but may not need as many acute needs with older populations.
 
Q4: how is contact tracing program going? How many people deployed? What about the counties where cases are exploding and it's very hard to track?
A4: 10,600 trained at UCSF & UCLA for phase 1 cohort. 9,500 directed by county health officials (bottom-up approach). Many more trained on weekly basis. Doing PSAs in culturally competent way with publicly trusted messengers. Been doing PSAs on contact tracing, particularly in communities that are anxious. Reassuring residents that info is confidential & essential for health of community.
 
Q5: about san quentin. exploding cases at prisons. conditions inhumane? they are isolated in small, low ventilation areas.
A5: been working on it every single day for 3 weeks. Top priority for administration. 2445 prisoners tested positive for COVID. San Quentin has 1308 inmates tested positive. Decompressed prison since March 1st (4051->3082). Expediting & individually reviewing paroles. Have to make sure to responsibly move people out with a deep sense of urgency. In late may, prisoners were transferred to Chino to San Quentin (should not have happened in the first place) which led to spread.
 
Q6: 4 hospitals are straining over increase in hospitalizations. For these hospitals, will we mobilize extra beds & staff so we don't have to send patients hundreds of miles for care?
A6: surge plan: primarily focuses on decompressing system for non-COVID or non-elective patients who may not need urgent care, just need a hospital bed. plans to utilize existing facilities in a different way to accommodate for more capacity.
 
Q7: state is taking ramped up enforcement measures. Question specifically about orange county. OC has not issued monetary fines for citations from local enforcement level.
A7: Best left to local enforcement with support of state. If local officials are unwilling to enforce, state is willing to step in. Also will withhold funds from fiscal contingency plan if counties are not willing to enforce the law. If not enough of a threat, we are willing to step in with harsher enforcement and orders.
 
Q8: 6000 businesses visited by ABC, how many cited, what were they cited, do you plan to continue?
A8: yes, continue to monitor everyday the 23 counties. stepped up enforcement efforts for the weekend. In-store/in-business visits only yielded only handful of citations. applauds the businesses, bars, and restaurants that adhered to guidelines. 52 citations, doesn't have details of citations. even if non-compliant, the engagement had them adhered to compliance quickly.
 
Q9: about the rising cases in younger populace: what is leading to that increase? is it a cause of concern? have these outbreaks put a strain in communities where prisons are located?
A9: marin general hospital was strained; decompressing successfully into other county hospitals. "young invincibles" may have contributed to rise in young populace. These younger people may think they are immune or invincible to the effects of the virus. Must maintain health-conscious attitude. Someone they may come in contact with may spread the disease. About education, encouragement, and targeted enforcement.
   
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 23 (with links to county website):
(Old: 16) Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, , Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Stanislaus, Tulare, Ventura
(New: 7) San Diego, Monterey, Colusa, Madera, Marin, Merced, Contra Costa
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
What to do if you start to develop symptoms of COVID-19 & want to get tested (courtesy: CDPH)
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
PSA on Masks
PSA #2 on Masks
PSA on Masks presented by current & past CA governors
PSA on Masks from NY, Comedy
Link to live press conference
Link to yesterday's discussion thread
How can I report businesses that are violating COVID-19 industry guidelines?
 
Citizens are encouraged to file reports with their county website. Reports & complaints can also be filed at covid19.ca.gov/ or on specific, department websites (i.e.- OSHA). Many citizens have found that Twitter is an efficient platform is raising awareness to force government bodies and businesses to act. Please help in keeping your community safe! Report any unsafe businesses immediately!
 
[Editor's note 1]: Due to the increased popularity of these threads, I'm personally asking members of the CA community to link this discussion thread in their respective city and county subreddits. I am currently actively posting community discussion threads in orangecounty, sandiego, ventura, venturacounty, santabarbara, coronavirusCA, and /CoronavirusCalifornia
 
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

This discussion series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal views, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
12:36 pm start, ~13:40 pm end
Major talking points he made:
 
General
 
Wear a mask, physically distance, wash your hands, and minimize mixing.
Protect yourself and mitigate the spread to others.
 
Federal Response to Unemployment.
 
PUA ($600/week) expired 7/25. Bridge program in future for restarting PUA is $400/week. Responsibility for state to pick up 25% of cost.
White House proposal would cost the state & taxpayers at least $700 million per week. $2.8 billion would have to be re-allocated from other areas which are critical.
Existing CARES act funding already allocated for pandemic response (schools, health, social programs, expanded testing).
States cannot shoulder this burden without cutting important services or further burdening businesses and individuals.
"There is no money sitting in the piggybank from the previous CARES Act to be re-prioritized or re-constituted for this purpose simply does not exist... cannot absorb without massive cuts to important services or further burdening businesses and individuals."
 
President Trump is pushing for an entirely new program. Will leave out those with greatest need and delay UI checks as it:
-Requires certification for lost work due to COVID.
-Will require extensive re-programming of state run program.
-Benefits limited to those who receive $100/week.
$44 billion set aside by federal gov't is insufficient- and already allocated for other disaster relief such as wildfires. Businesses will eventually pay these costs, but federal government can and must provide upfront cash.
State Actions on Evictions:
 
State has extended local government authorities through September 30th.
Working with judicial council, legislation, and executive branch to extend rent deferral.
Roughly 50% of CA live in jurisdictions with local eviction moratoria in place: 80 cities, 10 counties.
About 75% of renters that have fallen behind on rent are Latinx or Black: 62% Latinx, 9.5% black.
Working with the legislature to protect vulnerable tenants and landlords.
Partnerships in Reponse to COVID-19:
 
$63 million from Kaiser Permanente grant funding to provide community-based supports and services for contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine efforts.
$18.8 million from philanthropic partners to support local public health efforts, especially for those populations that do not have the capacity to self-quarantine.
~58.8% of COVID+ are from Latinx communities. Must support those disproportionately affected.
CA is committed to ensuring accurate COVID-19 data:
 
The IT systems established in CA are simply too old and too inefficient to handle the data crunching CA needs with this pandemic. Large scale IT procurement was never a focus in this state with previous governors/officials.
In process of fixing and overhauling system so that CA can better collect and share data. Applicable to EDD, CALFIRE, and other significant government entities.
 
Dr. Ghaly (head of HHS) takes the podium to comment on COVID-19 data & database:
Thanks CA for their patience in continuing to commit for accurate data. Thanks Dr. Sonia Angel for her work.
Working hard to improve our ongoing state response as leadership changes at Dept of Public Health.
CA has added system capacity to be better at handling record volume of data. Augmented supports and oversight to ensure data is timely and high quality. Initiated effort to create a new lab reporting system.
 
295,000 backlogged records processed over weekend. CalREDIE backlog has also been eliminated.
These cases are now ready & available to locals to be processed. Counties will attach relevant info (race, age, living situation, work situation, etc.). Cases will be reported by State when final details are added.
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 7,751 (Aug 9, not from backlog), expect to have updates from counties for backlogged data within 24-72 hours. Will update trendlines as soon as data is available. ~172k tests were collected yesterday. ~111k tests on Saturday. Have completed 8.9 million tests so far in the state of CA.
7 day average: [editor's note: not shown due to waiting for backlog results to process through counties. ETA 24-72 hrs. see below in Q&A for more info]
7 day: ___%, down from ___% 1 week ago
14 day: ___%, down from ___% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: Even with backlogged cases, the trend of infection is decreasing. [editor's note: Positivity rates were not shown for same reason.]
 
Hospital Capacity
Non-ICU Beds: 5,596, ~19% decrease in COVID+ hospitalization over last 14 days. ~8% of admitted patients are COVID+, 41,039 (56%) non-COVID hospitalized. 73,867 total beds.
ICU: 1,727, ~13% decrease in ICU admissions over 14 days, ~20% capacity of total ICU. 2,574 total ICU beds available. 8,456 total ICU bed surge capacity. 13,105 ventilators available (increased ventilator capacity over the weekend).
 
Deaths
66 over 24 hours. Over 14 days, 137 lives lost per day. Deaths are a lagging indicator. Serious reminder how deadly this disease is.
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: in re: Dr. Sonia Angel. Did you make her resign? Address?
A1: Refuses to comment on personnel conversations. Newsom thanks her for her leadership and stewardship. Was a champion of racial and social justice. Dr. Pan is interim health officer.
 
Q2: did you know there was computer glitch in COVID data during your conference last week?
A2: Monday evening we found out right after conference. Would not have put out that data if we had known there were inconsistencies. Dr. Ghaly then addressed the next morning how to deal with backlog. Key is to own up to it, address it, and move forward. Make decisions so we don't repeat these mistakes in the future. Even if data itself was faulty, our hospitalization and ICU numbers don't mislead. They are trending downwards.
 
Q3: Dept of Public Health knew of the glitch but did not notify you immediately. Is this true? Address?
A3: We are being as transparent as possible. Have cleared the backlog & now working with counties to get the numbers updated. It's unfortunate but we are moving forward with good hospitalization/ICU trends going down.
 
Q4: aging IT infrastructure. Is it fair to blame the data glitch on the IT problems? Also, any issues with Dr. Angel?
A4: If you want accountability, it's on Newsom. CA is a nation-state in terms of size and scope. Whatever issues and problems should be directed at him. Newsom refuses to get into deep personnel conversations out of respect and responsibility for Dr. Angel. He applauds Dr. Angel for the decisions she made. The team is now moving forward. We are building a new IT-focused system to deal with COVID & other future problems (fire, unemployment, etc.)
 
Q5: in re: county monitoring list & removal of counties from list. When will the county monitoring list be unfrozen? Why is it ok to open child care but not schools?
A5: Unique guidelines for child care centers have been discussed and implemented for months. Guidelines are distinctive. County monitoring lists are frozen until backlogged data is made available.
 
Q6: in re: Dr. Angel. deserve a clearer explanation on why she is leaving.
A6: She resigned and wrote a resignation letter. Newsom accepted her resignation request.
 
Q7: in re: schools in OC. North County particularly hit hard. South County relatively ok. Do the elementary school waivers and school restrictions apply to the entire county of Orange?
A7: Dr. Ghaly's response: If entire county meets the threshold, public health leaders can open conversations on re-opening specific school districts.
 
Q8: Some people are still confused on who is eligible to get a test. What about test turnaround times?
A8: Dr. Ghaly's response: Top priority is to get those with symptoms, are the sickest, are at high risk to get the test results in the quickest manner to support that individual's care. Also prioritize tests for those who have been in close contact with COVID+ as they become perfect vectors for transmission in our communities. Ongoing conversations with local labs in CA that have 24-48 hr turnaround in smaller labs. Larger labs are a bit longer as nation-wide demand for testing. Currently average 5-7 days for larger labs; will continue to have a faster turnaround as days go on. As we continue to expand testing, must maintain appropriate turnaround time.
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 38 [editor's note: the county watchlist is currently frozen until the backlogged data is presented and prepared by local officials.]
(Old: 38) Alameda, Butte, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, Madera, Marin, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernandino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba
(New: 0)
 
According to covid19.ca.gov, these are the new counties on the interim watchlist (will update in 24-72 hrs with backlogged cases):
Amador, Calaveras, Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Inyo, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne
 
When do counties get placed on the watchlist??
Counties are put on the watchlist when their data exceeds the following:
1) Case rate (per 100,000) >100... OR Case rate (per 100,000) >25 AND testing positivity >8.0%
2) >10% increase in the average number of confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized
3) <20% of staffed ICU beds are available... OR <25% of ventilators are available
Getting off of the list would require the county to fare better than those limits. Counties are on the list when one or more metrics are met. Counties are removed from the list when all three are cleared.
Source: CDPH
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
Link to live press conference
Link to last discussion thread
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

Major talking points he made:
  12:07pm start, 12:55pm end  
General
   
Masks keep Californians healthy! Wear One! Renewed emphasis on the evidence pointing to decreased transmission rates with masks. Masks are one of the most impactful COVID-19 prevention measures. Countries that have worn masks or have had universal mask policies in place have seen significantly less spread of COVID-19. Similar trends in other US states who have adopted masks early.
Launching major multilingual public awareness campaign (PSAs) today for masks. More comprehensive & dynamic, hopefully more impactful. Already received $10.75 million dollars for this campaign. Look at question & answer #2 below for more info.
   
Update on local county actions:
Issued local order yesterday (thanks to help of community leaders): LA, Kings, Ventura, Solano, Imperial
Will issue today: Glenn, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Fresno, Santa Barbara, San Bernandino, Riverside
Highlighted in particular OC local health officials for going beyond the basic, minimum closures issued by Newsom yesterday.
 
Health and Safety
Over 350k businesses received notifications from California's Department of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA): notices inform businesses that public health orders MUST be followed.
 
July 4th Announcements
Counties with mandatory closures should consider cancelling fireworks shows (due to the social aspect of July 4th)
Californians should not gather with people you do not live with. Avoid crowds. We need to temper the curve again like we did months ago. This week is EXTREMELY important, the gov stresses. He wishes us all a Happy 4th of July otherwise!
 
Positivity Rate:
A metric to show changes in the trendline of infection. It shows the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 4,056 new cases
7 day: 6.9%, up from ? 1 week ago
14 day: 6.3%, up from 4.8% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: clear increases in the spread of COVID-19 due to steady increases in positivity rate over the last few weeks.
 
 
Hospital Capacity
 
5,355 hospitalizations (56.6% increase over past 2 weeks)
Non-ICU Beds: 46/73k beds taken; 5,355 (~7%) of the 46k are COVID patients
ICU: up 49% in the last two weeks. 1676 ICU cases. 3451 ICU beds available immediately, 10,788 surge aggregate ICU capacity (total CA capacity ICU), 11,480 ventilators available.
 
 
WEAR A MASK!!
Infected droplet spread and distance potential without a mask:
Exhalation: 4.5 ft
Cough: 6 ft
Sneeze: 26ft
   
QUESTIONS
 
q1: many consequences of ignoring orders falls on businesses when it's sometimes the patrons violating. how can we have law enforcement enforce without a mandate with ticket?
a1: fiscal contingency: 2.5 billion in budget contingent upon county enforcing orders by health officers. task force OSHA, etc) will help enforce. This budget transcends the business sector. focus on education. Citations are warranted for gross and repeated neglect.
 
q2: stat of ICU use is concerning. Will state deal with large protestors? What about family gatherings and large parties during July 4th? Is it up to the state to enforce?
a2: We never could enforce fully at this scale, even before COVID-19. The health crisis requires some level of personal responsibility. Have been taking steps to educate the populace in a culturally competent way with trusted public messengers on various platforms (Snoop Dogg, former Governator Arnold). 73 dead in last 24 hours. The ICU numbers are alarming. We must mitigate the spread.
 
q3: asking about how new restrictions yesterday change the re-opening strategy. Any lessons from what did/didn't work?
a3: more targeted education. We need to have a deeper conversation about how to safely re-open. Focus on guidelines with more intensity and specificity. We can safely re-open with different set of expectations and behaviors.
 
q4: PSAs are great, but we need fines and orders from state level for masks and distancing, not local level.
a4: look at q1 & a1 for answers. Counties not following guidelines will have funds withdrawn. [editor's note: the Governor seems hesitant to answer the question about the fines directly. He is slightly hinting that more information will be released in the coming few weeks)
 
q5: what will be done for OC's past disregard for mask orders? Is the fiscal contingency going to work for a county that has grossly disregarded rules?
a5: working together with county officials to ensure that counties are attentive. OC has done a quick 180, looks as though they are moving very quickly.
 
q6: gyms, fitness, churches are still open. why is that?
a6: new guidelines for gyms were placed yesterday. visit covid19.ca.gov/. New guidelines for places of worship. In regards to casino, having government-to-government conversations with sovereign states. Many of these sovereign reservation lands have already started to enact stricter mask and stay-at-home orders. We will be targeting hot spots and monitoring cases in different sectors.
 
q7: CHP permit calendar for July 4th (300 person protest, 2 weddings, another demonstration scheduled 07/04). How would you address?
a7: don't have details of the permits right now, he apologizes. Galeducci (?) is head of CHP force and answered the rest of the question. Been working to try to provide opportunity for peaceful protests to take place safely.
 
q8: same as q1, q4
a8: we are just trying to encourage people to be safe, thoughtful of self and others. "Just because someone else is doing it, doesn't mean you should..." He encourages people to do the right thing. Look at the hard numbers. The facts. Consider that when you are coming together with people this weekend, that one of those statistics could be YOU!
       
For geriatric populations that are unable to go outdoors due to health or safety complications, the Gov urges them to sign up for the "Great Plates Program" which provides seniors with meals 3x/day. Visit covid19.ca.gov for more information.
 
List of counties on watchlist:
(Old: 19) Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, Merced, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Stanislaus, Tulare, Ventura
(New: none)
   
Edit: updating as he releases more info.
Link to live press conference
Link to yesterday's discussion thread
   
Helpful Links:
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
What to do if you start to develop symptoms of COVID-19 & want to get tested (courtesy: CDPH)
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
 
editor's note: Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!

This discussion thread series is meant to spur discussion and problem solving within the community in regards to the novel COVID-19 outbreak. Below is my live transcript of Governor Newsom's COVID-19 briefing.
Please contribute with your personal examples, anecdotes, or stories! Let's all strive to work together to make our communities safe & healthy!
12:00 pm start, 12:43 pm end
Major talking points he made:
 
General
 
It's our decisions, not our condition, that determines our future.
Recognize what is self-evident. Our decisions will determine our fate and future in regards to the virus. Our actions that determine when our children go back to school. Our actions determine how we can connect with family & friends.
Wear a face mask! Evidence in other countries is increasingly apparent for reducing risk of COVID-19 transmission. Airflow & taking activities outside can help reduce risk.
Be 6' apart from people not in your household. We have to minimize our mixing to prevent the spread of the disease.
 
Clarification on personal care services: intention for barbershops and personal care shops to operate outside. Updated guidelines have been released on covid19.ca.gov in regards to personal care shops.
 
 
Positivity Rate (Today's COVID-19 Statistics):
A metric to show changes in the rates of infection. Graphs pictured show the number of positive cases in the tests conducted. An increase in the rate indicates an increase in spread of the virus.
 
24 hr: 6,846 (July 19)
7 day average: 8,911, ~120,000k tests average
7 day: 7.2%, down from 7.7% 1 week ago
14 day: 7.4%, same as from 7.4% 2 weeks ago
Conclusion: Growth is decreasing; however, virus is still spreading with >7% positivity rate. We cannot be satisfied. Numbers can change quickly depending on YOUR personal decisions everyday.
 
 
Hospital Capacity
 
Non-ICU Beds: 6,921 (~9% of patients are COVID positive). +16% over 14 days (2 weeks ago was +50%, last week Mon was +28%, growth is therefore decreasing). 43,692 (59% of patients are non-COVID). 73,867 beds available.
ICU: 1,963 (~17% of patients COVID, +12% increase over 14 days). 4,057 ICU beds immediately available. 11,637 surge aggregate ICU capacity (total max CA capacity ICU), 11,932 ventilators available.
County needs are different. For example, San Benito is at 100% ICU capacity. Surge program established months prior helps to decompress stretched hospitals and staff. ~190 individuals came from federal HHS to help relieve some stresses on staffing.
 
 
QUESTIONS
 
Q1: Trump is interested in sending federal troops in Oakland. Any comments?
A1: No, we rejected it.
 
Q2: in re: schools. is it better for schools on watchlist counties to just remain closed even if they are removed from watchlist for 14 days? what about availability of testing when schools are open?
A2: will continue to provide all forms of PPE to all schools on a as-needed basis. Have cohorts of testing planned to ensure virus doesn't spread quickly in at-risk communities. more capacity in labs and universities to expand testing. CDC finally came through with testing strategy that allows more individuals to be tested, pulls samples together and will open up more opportunities for testing.
 
Q3: NY Times reported that you were told to personally thank Trump for federal aid. Was that the first time you have been requested to do such a thing? Was it an appropriate request?
A3: Was it true? No, it was not true. No one asked Newsom. He expressed gratitude for the swabs provided. Newsom is willing to express gratitude to anyone who helps this state. We need a national strategy; testing in state at a national level. More efforts to trace & quarantine cases.
 
Q4: at least 15 contact tracers for every 100k residents required before re-opening; at least 17 counties did not meet threshold. Why did you let them open? Will you treat the threshold differently in the future when they want to re-open?
A4: Dr. Ghaley's reply: When attestations were rolled out, asked counties to demonstrate multiple things including contact tracers (15/100k). Each county did that but were not required to have them. We had lower number of cases reported statewide back then and it was a chance for each county to prepare for another spread with contact tracers. The counties that did not have 15/100k at least had a plan in place to implement tracers.
A4(a): Gov Newsom's reply: New platform to train another cohort of tracers (partnered with UCSF and UCLA). ~10,000 tracers trained last month being distributed around the state.
 
Q5: lawmakers asked to scale back legislative bills while administration is busy with COVID-19. comments?
A5: preparing for wildfires, got PG&E out of bankruptcy, balancing large 2020 budget deficit. NOFA (600 million) for homelessness in CA. We have capacity to do many things. Will be sorting bills via what is most important.
 
Q6: in re: wait time to get results. some places report having to wait 13-14 days for results. comments?
A6: over 100 days ago, only 2000 tests a day. Now, over 124k tests a day. puts strain on the system, especially on a national level as other states are aggressively testing. testing delays are very significant and impactful, especially for skilled nursing homes, etc.
A6(a): Dr. Ghaley's reply: tier 1 testing in hospitals have very quick testing. other tests in other settings where turnaround time is quite long. we are focusing on matching collection sites with testing sites that can process them quickly. exploring sending samples to different testing sites.
 
Q7: where does the responsibility lie for this outbreak? is it on government for not having enough tracers and tests? Is it on the individual citizen?
A7: we were successful early on. Models are iterative. we are preparing for worst-case scenarios- always have been from the beginning of the pandemic. procured millions of masks and PPE; distributed an unprecedented amount. Acknowledged need for more testing and contact tracers. Initially predicted ~3,600 new cases a day. Newsom takes responsibility as it is his state. His people. His job is to bring people together and hold them all to a higher level of accountability. It wasn't about the state. It's about a state of mind. That's why we were so successful in the beginning phases of the pandemic.
 
Q8: in re: outdoor vs. indoor schools. comments?
A8: not in guidelines specifically but based on evidence and local health officials, Newsom may be open to outdoor schooling.
 
List of counties on watchlist for at least 3 days: 33 (with links to county website):
(Old: 26) Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, LA, , Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Solano, Stanislaus, Tulare, Ventura, San Diego, Monterey, Colusa, Madera, Marin, Merced, Contra Costa, Napa, San Benito, Yolo, Yuba, Sonoma, Sutter, Placer, San Luis Obispo
(New: 1) San Francisco
(Removed: 0)
Helpful Links
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website
What to do if you start to develop symptoms of COVID-19 & want to get tested (courtesy: CDPH)
COVID-19 CA Emotional Support & Well-Being Resources
Link to live press conference
Link to yesterday's discussion thread
Remember folks, spread the love, not the virus!