Visiting South Korea Soon? Here's What You'll Need (As An American, At Least)

First, schedule a COVID test for yourself (antigen is fine) within 24 hours of your departure.  I'd bring a hardcopy.

Second, you'll need to register with K-ETA first.  It costs about eight bucks, and it's a mild pain.  Be prepared to upload a passport-style picture (that you can take yourself).  The registration itself is good for two years.

Third, while you can skip the Q-Code I wouldn't.  You'll get through pre-immigration much faster.  Have the code on your phone or print out a copy.  I won't lie -- it took me a good 45 minutes to get their crappy website to acknowledge that my hotel and street address did, indeed, exist.

Within three days of your arrival in South Korea you'll need another COVID test.  You could do this at the airport if the scheduling works, but I went on to Daegu and got mine at the Daegu central public health office.  (The hotel provided directions.)  It was free, which was nice.

Finally, and it appears this is being phased out, you'll need another test for a return to the U.S.  It costs about 70 dollars and you can do it at Incheon Airport, but it's another thing you'll have to budget time for.

That's it!  Have fun!

A final note: I was told, and kind of noticed, that getting a cab in Seoul after nine is now harder than ever if you aren't using one of many apps.  In a pinch I imagine you could ask the restaurant owner to call you one if you find yourself in this situation.  Hotels will be less of a problem.

Scariest Thing I've Seen Today

Bellingham, Washington. 

I mean, does this virus ever go away fully?  Probably not.  If a solid 20 percent or so of Americans truly believe this nutso stuff, then they'd probably rather die then admit they're wrong.

Old Man Take a Look at My Life

My grandchildren: "Grampa James, tell us about the great Spotify war of 2022..."

Me: "Well, you might not remember this but there was a time before Joe Rogan was declared God-King of the Universe by the GOP, not long after his presidential victory in 2024..."

— Baby New James (@wetcasements) January 30, 2022

"a global humanitarian crisis"

There is nothing wrong, nothing at all, at this stage of Late Capitalism:

"Mohamed Arrachedi, the union’s Middle East coordinator, said he wakes up to dozens of WhatsApp messages from distraught sailors around the world: 'It’s a global humanitarian crisis.'

In the United Arab Emirates, one shipping company abandoned seven container ships in recent months, leaving behind dozens of crew members, each owed a year’s wages. A five-man crew marooned next to a Dubai tourist resort, living off little more than rice for 10 months, recently ended a four-year ordeal.

Last year, a mostly Egyptian crew was abandoned in Sudan. The ship was then sold and manned by a mostly Sudanese crew who also were abandoned in Egypt. Three of them are still aboard, floating off the Suez Canal in their ninth month without pay.

The surge in cases prompted three of the world’s largest seafaring nations—China, Indonesia and the Philippines—to propose in August the establishment of a seafarers’ mutual emergency fund to help abandoned crews.

Trade disruptions caused by the pandemic and the nature of the competitive, lightly regulated global shipping industry has helped drive the increase in the number of stranded sailors."

Tell me again -- who, exactly, are the pirates? 

Where We Are

Trying to explain to a Korean friend why so many Americans are refusing free, safe vaccines.

It's because for some people the vaccine represents, basically, government and science working. Working really well, actually.

They would (literally!) rather die than admit that.

— James (@wetcasements) September 19, 2021

'ripple effect'

Since nobody asked, me and my father (and my sister by association) have been incredibly cautious regarding COVID.  My dad is in very good shape for being 92, but there's no way in hell we're going to take any extra risks with regards to exposing him to anything.  We go shopping roughly once a week, and both of us mask up.  I'm happy to say that at least here in Bellingham our favorite grocery stores are very good about enforcing masks, and social distancing to a lesser extent.  All of us got our dual shots, and I'm planning on taking my Dad in for his booster this December, eight months after his second dose of Moderna.

So I guess the good news is that in this very rural, politically mixed area, people are doing what they can to stem the tide of the virus.

Then, there's the bad news or more simply, what happens when one state does what it can to stop the virus spread and a neighboring one "pulls a Florida":

"In conservative northern Idaho, only about 4 in 10 eligible residents are fully vaccinated. Hospitals there are so packed that authorities announced last week facilities would be allowed to ration care, potentially giving life-saving care to some patients at the expense of others.

Hospitals there have sent patients to hospitals in Washington, particularly in Spokane [eastern Washington], though how many is not clear. The New York Times reported Monday that as of last week, Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane had patients from Idaho taking up 29 beds.

Briley said that while it’s normal for eastern Washington hospitals to treat patients from Idaho and vice versa, the influx of COVID patients had caused 'some ripple effect' in western Washington.

'We are keeping our head above water, but barely,' said Dr. Christopher Baliga, an infectious disease specialist at Seattle’s Virginia Mason hospital. 'Our capacity to absorb overwhelmed patients from other states is severely limited.'”

It's almost as if peeing your pants over your "rights" and "freedoms" to not wear a mask or take a safe, free vaccine, is meaningless in the face of a global pandemic.

And no, Washington State shouldn't take any more patients from Idaho.  Not anybody who has chosen not to get the vaccine, at least.

Perpetual Forehead Slap

Americans are the biggest fucking babies in the world.#scientifictweet #objectivetweet#accuratetweet

— James (@wetcasements) August 5, 2021

Are We The Baddies?

No, the Republicans haven't "turned" on vaccination.  They still hate things like science and expertise and empiricism in general.  What's happned is that more folks are (rightfully) willing to say what needs to be said -- if you aren't immunocompromised and haven't gotten the (free, easy to get) shot/s yet, you're the fucking asshole, not us.

Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and the rest of Red America writ large is going to be awash in preventable deaths this coming fall and winter.  No tears will be shed over in this part of rural-ass Bellingham.

Getting The Pfizer Pfshot

I'm getting my second and final shot this Friday.  It's hard to believe last March of 2020 I was in Daegu and preparing to teach my college classes online.  My adult classes were cancelled for one semester, then taught again in person with masks and appropriate social distancing for the second.

I'm glad the health authorities have done a good job here in America (I'm shocked that South Korea is actually behind the U.S. when it comes to getting shots in arms) but my overwhelming feeling is just one of plain tiredness.

Granted, providing fulltime care for my Dad isn't really doing much to find me new wellsprings of energy either.

But he's gotten his shots (months ago) and I'll be done this Friday.  Given the rapid increase in climate-related issues, I'm guessing our next "100 Year Virus" will come in about five or ten years.

Good times, as always.

And apparently I qualify for a single marijuana joint in Washington State.  If I didn't live with my Old Man I'd definitely take them up on it.

I think the last time I smoked pot was in Charlottesville in 2002 or so.

Shot! Shot! Shot!

I got my first Pfizer shot yesterday at a local pharmacy.  They had a good set-up, and were very friendly.  The nurse who actually gave the shot was excellent, and obviously a pro.

That's it.  My sister is visiting right now, and that's part of the reason I scheduled my shot for now, a bit later than the rest of the civilized world I take it.  I woke up this morning and while my shoulder is stiff, I didn't have any fever or chills or anything like that.

I guess it's a good thing that this horrible, 100-year virus might go out with a whimper rather than a bang.  Then again, I don't live in India or Brazil.

How It's Done

My former home of Daegu, South Korea, was the first city outside of China to be hit by the coronavirus.  It all went down February of last year, 2020.

On the one hand, that sucks.

On the other hand, South Korea is arguably the one country you'd want to be in during a public health emergency:

"South Korean officials made a plan. They needed to test as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, to figure out how bad the outbreak was. Then they had to find out who might have come into contact with the infected people. And they needed all of those people — both the infected and the potentially exposed — to isolate themselves to prevent the virus from spreading any further.

It was a three-step protocol: test, trace, and isolate. And it worked. Within a week of Patient 31’s diagnosis, the country was performing the most Covid-19 tests in the world; it implemented perhaps the most elaborate contact tracing program anywhere; and it set up isolation centers so thousands of patients could quarantine.

As other countries saw their outbreaks spiral out of control, measures like these helped South Korea keep Covid-19 in check. On March 1, South Korea had about 3,700 confirmed cases; Italy, the first hot spot in Europe, had 1,700 and the US had just 32 cases, though its dismal testing meant the virus was likely spreading unsurveilled. By the end of April, Italy had topped 200,000 cases; confirmed cases in the US were already above 1 million. South Korea still had fewer than 11,000. Adjusted for population, South Korea’s first wave of coronavirus cases was about one-tenth as big as that in the United States."

This is what happens when you have an excellent public health system, leadership that is interested in keeping the infection rate low, not personal ego, and a public that is usually willing to go along with mask and distance protocols if it means the greater good of ending the outbreak is served.

South Korea had all of this, plus a very technology-friendly culture.  Within days everyone, including dumb foreigners like me, were getting multiple text messages a day telling us the specific locations of stores, restaurants, or subway stations where an infected person had been present.

The only Americans who think our health system is the best in the world are the ones who have never left the country.

"that's kind of my people"

Jenkem interviews Werner Herzog.  It ain't bad, but certainly not his best interview.

Oh hey just a reminder I spent the first part of coronavirus lockdown watching and reviewing every film by Mr. Herzog here.

Wear 'Em If You Got 'Em

Erik Loomis over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money makes an interesting point about masks -- now that we're turning the corner, at least in America, how long will people continue to wear masks?

There are plenty of anecdotes on Twitter regarding people who've observed mask rules who haven't even had a common cold for over a year.  (I'd be one of those people -- I haven't been sick for at least 16 months now.)

Further, you have countries like South Korea and Japan where mask-wearing when you're sick is culturally encouraged.

Sure, there are plenty of anti-mask dick-heads out there.  Fuck 'em.  If they want to catch colds or flu or even COVID, that's fine with me.  (Maybe not so fine for their children or grandparents, but oh well.)

Grocery stores?  Airplanes?  Hotel lobbies?  The Post Office?

Yeah, I think I'll be wearing a mask for the rest of my life, and happily so.

Work Will Always Suck

This Vox piece does a pretty good job of summarizing how the coronavirus has changed work and the workplace, for better and worse:

"In particular, knowledge workers — high-skilled workers whose jobs are done on computers — will likely see the biggest changes, from our physical locations to the technology we use to the ways in which our productivity is measured. In turn, how we work impacts everything from our own personal satisfaction to new inventions to the broader economy and society as a whole.

These changes represent a chance to remake work as we know it and to learn from the mistakes of our working past — if we’re thoughtful about how we enact them."

Of course, "knowledge workers" is a huge tell right off of the bat -- working service or industrial jobs will still suck, be hell on your body, and / or force you to deal with the American public at large i.e., very stupid and insane people, if not stupid, insane, and well-armed people.

But there are upsides -- more flexible hours, more working from home, less need to rent crappy, tiny apartments in New York or San Francisco.

The downsides?  More part-time contracts.  Less overall job security.

The real question remains -- is any of this sustainable on a decades-long basis?  I'm thinking no, not really.

First One Down

My Dad got his first shot this morning.  Gotta say, arranging the appointment was an incredible hassle involving literal hours on hold.  The actual vax site, at a local community college, was very well run with multiple layers of nurses, doctors, and very helpful volunteer staff.

My racist Dad (age 92) let the incredibly patient nurse know that a) the virus came from China and b) Hillary Clinton cut off all funding for American-made vaccines (even FOX isn't this stupid, no idea where he got it).

Anyhow, he's got an appointment for a second shot next month.  I should probably start looking into one for myself.  Then again, my mask discipline is high coming from Korea and I live in the middle of nowhere.

COVID Shots For the Old Man

A few weeks ago my sister set my Dad up for his first COVID shot down in Everett, Washington.  It would have been a one hour drive and while that might not sound too bad, you have to understand that even a 15 minute trip into town is a Very Big Deal for him, and wipes him out for the rest of the day.

Through a mix of luck, a friendly visit from my Dad's wonderful neighbor, and some begging on my part we finally got him set for his first dose (Moderna) this Saturday at a local community college.

So, the good news is he'll get his first shot.

The bad news is that it took a fair amount of gnashing and wailing and stress to get this much done.  My sister has spent hours on the phone, on hold, to no avail.

If there's a larger point here, it's don't be afraid to mention your circumstances (Dad is almost 100) and don't expect any progress unless you're talking to a live human being.

The Whatcom County website was a total bust, but staying on hold (after getting cut off twice) and quickly blurting out that my Pop is a nonagenarian did wonders.

Be persistent.  Realize that the layers of websites and apps are CYA bullshit.  Getting someone's ear is the only way forward, as of now.

"bodies had to be wrapped in sheets"

 The Guardian interviews a deep-south, small town funeral home director:

"The business has been in the Charlet family since their grandfather and his brother opened it in the 1940s. Charlet is one of three funeral directors at the Charlet family funeral home. He grew up 20 miles north of Zachary behind another funeral home that his family owns in Clinton, Louisiana, which was damaged in the historic floods of August 2016.

Because he was raised in a funeral home, Charlet knows how to prepare for the worst. He was taught at a young age to fill up the gas tank on the hearse before the local high school prom, in case there were deaths resulting from drunk-driving accidents.

But even Charlet wasn’t prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic. 'The first couple of months, it was really scary because there wasn’t a lot of guidance on what we were supposed to do,' he said. A short supply of body bags meant some bodies had to be wrapped in sheets."

Surprisingly compelling.  Also, true fact -- I was born in Zachary, Louisiana.  My mom was a graduate student at LSU at the time, and apparently the small county hospital here did Lamaze stuff that the larger university hospital wouldn't accommodate.

"we will act as a meteorite and hit the outdated ways of the older generations"

It's hard to see beyond COVID, but with Cheeto Hitler finally on his way out and clearing up some of the air for things of actual importance, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Thailand has a really shitty military dictatorship and the people are fighting to dismantle it:

"'We will act as a meteorite and hit the outdated ways of the older generations in this country,' the protest organisers explained. 'We will talk about all the topics that the dinosaurs don’t want to hear.' Inflatable dinosaurs wobbled in the afternoon heat, representing the Thai government. The symbols are playful, but the message is clear: teenagers want change.

A student-led protest movement has shaken Thailand over the past five months. Young people have taken to the streets to call for a true democracy, and have risked jail to shatter a taboo that has long prevented frank, public discussion of the monarchy. Their protests, attended by tens of thousands, present one of the boldest challenges that the Thai royal family has faced in living memory.

Demonstrators say they are not calling for the monarchy to be abolished, but for it to be reformed, accountable to the people and not above the law. They have also called for the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army general who came to power in a 2014 coup, to stand down, and for changes to the constitution to make the political system more democratic."

Let's not pretend that a new Biden administration magically washes away the past four years of dictatorship-humping done by Mike Pompeo.  But at the very least it's a turn towards a time when we at least paid lip-service to the idea of promoting democracy.

Yes I Am Already Thinking About 2024

Between COVID ravaging the world and the utter betrayal of America by the GOP, there aren't many silver linings out there right now.  But regarding Trump, it seems to me he's bound to do a lot more damage to his party -- literally his party -- than many people seem to think.

Who knows that sort of legal trouble he'll land in once he loses the shield of the presidency, but no doubt he is going to at least try and run in 2024, which means he'll begin campaigning in earnest in 2022 at the latest.

There are ton of young-ish GOP "moderates" (LOL) who really want to be president -- Rubio, Hawley, and Cotton just for starters.  And their (highly) relative difference from Trump's obvious derangement will be lapped up by the DC media -- "the serious, thoughtful Republican Party is back!"  (The only difference being that when it comes to fucking over poor and non-white folks Trump is willing to say what these other guys think out loud.)

The larger point is that, barring jail or death, the 2024 Republican primary will be an utter shit-show.  It could mean that Trump winds up running as a third-party candidate and actually out-performing the actual GOP candidate.  It could mean Trump, still bigly popular with his base, i.e., actual Republican voters, gets to play some sort of a power-broker role, where Rubio is forced to pick Ivanka or Don Jr. (the less dumb, more evil son) as his running mate.

Obvious death-of-American-Democracy implications aside, it could be fucking hilarious above all else.

I mean, nobody knows.  Biden's health is going to be an issue as well, but I have a lot of faith in Kamala Harris.  At the very least, she doesn't take shit from anybody, and that terrifies many Republicans.

All of this is to say, your Rubio-Hawley-Cottons of the world are obviously much smarter and more polished than Cheeto Hitler.  (Yes, I am damning with faint praise.)  And that could be their downfall, because while any one of them will make David Brooks' heart flutter, they lack the sheer animal cunning and cruelty of Trump.  They lack the ability to channel the vicious, hateful spirit that a solid one-third of Americans, white Americans, harbor for the rest of their country.

Remember that in the last Republican primary, Trump didn't just win, he annihilated his opponents ("little Marco," Ted Cruz's ugly wife, etc.)

No amount of polish will give a pretender that unique Trumpian showman's ability to bring out the hateful id of American white nationalism, and to harness its dark energies into electoral success.

So this isn't a prediction as much as a reminder that Trump will never go quietly into that good night.  No small number of his former "friends" are going to die in jail because of him.

Who's to say the Republican Party can survive him either?

Isolation Drills

Ryuichi Sakamoto and friend, Playing Piano for the Isolated

Simply lovely.  Nothing much to say beyond that.

Also, I had no idea Mr. Sakamoto has his own Youtube channel.

Double-win.