US Pandemic Disgrace, New Hyatt Promo, Amazing Monasteries, The O-Man

We bring you more on the US pandemic disgrace, register for a new Hyatt promo, visit amazing monasteries, interviewing the O-Man, the best Covid-19 coverage, amazing photos and video collections, the ridiculous lengths AA fraud team goes to bust members, travel to Indonesia to ride vespas, travel to Antarctica and to the Great Barrier Reef and, you know, so much more you will be coming back to my blog again and again over the next week so I can make money off you from page views…oh wait, I don’t make any money on page views and ads. I missed you all! But…did you miss me?

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BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT

I am determined to stick with once a week posting on Thursdays at 6.30 pm the whole month of July. It has been pretty liberating for me not to have to come up with a Monday post, my last weekend was great! But I certainly did miss you all…

The size of this post is much larger than normal. Enjoy reading the content over the next week you guys. You are not going to get through all of it in one post, maybe pick a section and come back later for another section? Save the long reads for the weekend. Or do as you wish. And just think that one minute I spend on marketing/promoting my blog is one minute taken away from finding the best damn reads on the web for you to get educated, entertained and inspired ok?

COVID-19

Check the Covid-19 Risk Level by State/County.

You know I have been following the Covid-19 pandemic for a long time now, it is the event of our lifetimes imho. And this was becoming clearer to me: Study confirms new version of coronavirus spreads faster, but doesn’t make people sicker. It is just one more study…more to come, science is messy and takes time.

Dispatch from an American living in Paris: Do Americans Understand How Badly They’re Doing? Maybe you noticed the theme around here…

American leadership has politicized the pandemic instead of trying to fight it. I see no preparedness, no coordinated top-down leadership of the sort we’ve enjoyed in Europe. I see only empty posturing, the sad spectacle of the president refusing to wear a mask, just to own the libs. What an astonishing self-inflicted wound.

Just in case you have not realized how we have screwed this up so yuge! America’s told-you-so moment: How we botched the reopening. The body bags keep coming, what an ongoing tragedy. And the dotard tweets at NASCAR that its ratings are down, wow (actually, NASCAR ratings are up lol).

I am going to stick with my point because I am angry. If you are not I believe something is wrong with you! Even In New York We’re Dropping the Ball. Yeah, even them NY libs can’t do things right just when we thought they were getting there…The article compares our numbers with Germany and you quickly realize the giant hole we have dug ourselves…it is sickening!

Even in the areas where we’re doing pretty well we’ve still gotten complacent. We’re failing. It’s not a matter of permanent lockdowns. It’s just a matter of having a strategy, following the evidence, being dedicated and getting popular buy-in. In other parts of the world they’re having health and economy. We have neither.

The article makes a good case for this: The Medical Case for Reopening Schools. How in the world we made public health a partisan political issue is just bonkers and we see the results, SAD!

Well, this hits home as our son has moved back living with us from New York City since early March when he escaped ground zero. The New Boomerang Kids Could Change American Views of Living at Home. It is, well, interesting, mostly good and much safer of course. And he gets to save a lot of money too! Almost all his coworkers in his team are back living at home with their parents. There are some large scale shifts going on and the pandemic has accelerated them. This is true:

Moving in with your parents is often seen as a mark of irresponsibility. The pandemic might show the country that it shouldn’t be.

As we learn more about this virus, we are discovering more things about it. You know, sometimes I wish let me just get it, I am strong, will beat it and then let me just go on with my life, maybe burn some miles and cherish the plentiful award space and fly places (where I am allowed, maybe my second passport will work as the US one will likely shut many doors borders). And then I read things like this and say NOPE: Coronavirus: What does Covid-19 do to the brain?

One of the report authors, Prof Tom Solomon of the University of Liverpool, told me, “It’s clear now that this virus does cause problems in the brain whereas initially we thought it was all about the lungs. Part of it is due to lack of oxygen to the brain. But there appear to be many other factors, such as problems with blood clotting and a hyper-inflammatory response of the immune system. We should also ask whether the virus itself is infecting the brain.”

It is astonishing to think we spend almost a phucking one trillion dollars on defense and we basically had taken away most of the funding for public health when a tiny virus nobody can see has the potential (as we are all finding out) to kill so many of us, how sad is that! The Pandemic Experts Are Not Ok. Many American public-health specialists are at risk of burning out as the coronavirus surges back. I hope our memory is not that short after this is all over…

My god, how have we phucked this up! This chart ranks the countries with the most confirmed new cases over the past week, adjusted for population size, and treats each U.S. state as if it were a country.

Sorry about the depressing turn this blog post has taken. I just find this stuff and call it as it is. You may want to skip the next link!

A Time Lapse World Map of Every Death from the Coronavirus Pandemic. Notice how slow it starts and then BANG…all hell breaks loose! Remember when we had just one person from “Chynaaa” and then we had fifteen and were going down to zero and all along we had this thing under control…If you are not angry what is wrong with you?

Ok, last one and let’s try to reverse to some positivity. Kind of. Highest number of cases recently but deaths have gone way down. Why? This article explains this: COVID-19 Cases Are Rising, So Why Are Deaths Flatlining? As is everything with this virus, it is not so simple! But a combination of how deaths lag, testing finding milder cases earlier, younger patients, better treatment at hospitals now that we have had at least a few months experience dealing with it and yes summer season may be helping a little too.

MILES & POINTS

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I find the whole space of miles and points to be in a state that I had never seen it! Kind of suspended, everything on hold, not much traveling other than that road trips, RVs and camping are red hot all pandemic induced. Banks have bailed out airlines and hotels buying miles and points but they are NOT translating that to higher travel rewards credit card offers. Instead, they are trying to hold on to current credit card holders as most are bent on canceling cards earning them miles and points when they have no idea when they will start traveling again. Mega layoffs are coming in the travel industry when the free PPP money runs out, let’s face it. It is just weird seeing this happen like everything else with this phucking virus…

So, I am not seeing many worthy posts to share with you in this space…so excuse the bare coverage. It is not me!

If you wanted to learn more about the program: Hilton Honors Complete Guide.

Perfect timing I guess, looking forward to this series. For the moment, it is good to dream about them: Points for Your Post Pandemic Self-Indulgence Part 1: Top Laidback Hilton Luxury Resorts!

Finally hotels are starting to improve their promos. Hyatt Launches New Promos During Travel Showdown. 15% to 25% Award Redemption Rebates, free parking and 3x on hotel dining. If these were normal times these will be very nice to have, especially the 25% rebate. But they are not normal times…

There is more action from banks trying to get us to put more spend on airline and hotel travel rewards credit cards. Especially on grocery spend! If you have Marriott Bonvoy credit cards issued by Chase, click on this LINK to register to Earn 10X total points on up to $3,500 in combined purchases spent at gas stations and restaurants, including eligible delivery services¹ such as GrubHub and DoorDash between July 15 and September 15, 2020.

TRAVEL