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Strange Things Are Happening

As you might have guessed, I had all I could do to keep myself from writing about the U.S. presidential election, nominally held six days past; although, the outcome won’t be determined until sometime around Easter. And anything remotely resembling the real results will never be known.

Nevertheless, two things were absolutely bankable before November 3:

  1. All 500 million registered voters in the U.S. likely would cast their ballots.
  2. I’d be able to vote, even if I were dead.

Duly comforted by those considerations, I determined to write about another, equally inexplicable phenomenon: COVID-19. As you also might have guessed, reported cases are up. And like the U.S. presidential election — and even adding three items — five things about this are absolutely bankable:

  1. We’ll never be given comparative counts about the number of tests administered day to day; e.g., three thousand yesterday, three hundred the day before.
  2. We’ll never be given the number of those who tested negative out of all those who were tested.
  3. We’ll never be told the number of people who went to be tested because they were symptomatic.
  4. We’ll never be told the number of people who were compelled to be tested, tested positive, but were asymptomatic.
  5. We’ll never think about the fact that most asymptomatic people will never volunteer to be tested.

Meanwhile, we’ll go along to get along. We’ll steadfastly refuse to think critically or to ask any questions. We’ll eschew logic in favor of the science du jour. And we’ll allow ourselves to be hobbled socially and financially for as long as those who would hobble us socially and financially feel like doing it, their motives notwithstanding or subject to examination. As the old song goes, ain’t we got fun?

Let’s go to the video:

As Grandpa O’Brien loved to say, “Strange things are happening.”

Mark O'Brien
Mark O'Brienhttps://obriencg.com/
I’m a business owner. My company — O’Brien Communications Group (OCG) — is a B2B brand-management and marketing-communication firm that helps companies position their brands effectively and persuasively in industries as diverse as: Insurance, Financial Services, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Construction, and Nonprofit. We do our work so well that seven of the companies (brands) we’ve represented have been acquired by other companies. OCG is different because our business model is different. We don’t bill by the hour or the project. We don’t bill by time or materials. We don’t mark anything up. We don’t take media commissions. We pass through every expense incurred on behalf of our clients at net. We scope the work, price the work, put beginning and end dates on our engagements, and charge flat, consistent fees every month for the terms of the engagements. I’m also a writer by calling and an Irish storyteller by nature. In addition to writing posts for my company’s blog, I’m a frequent publisher on LinkedIn and Medium. And I’ve published three books for children, numerous short stories, and other works, all of which are available on Amazon under my full name, Mark Nelson O’Brien.

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4 CONVERSATIONS

    • Dave, as much as anything else, I have to at least allow that aging might be a factor in the way I’m feeling right now. I’m certainly getting older. For all I know, I may also be getting curmudgeonly. But of this I’m absolutely certain: We’re being had. And we’re being had because we’re allowing ourselves to be had.

      We’re going to get exactly what we deserve. Given how little effort we’re willing to exert to question anything, what we’re going to get won’t be pretty.

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