Here’s the coronavirus death toll through July 4. The whole world seems to have taken the day off from reporting COVID-19 deaths, so nothing has really changed much since yesterday. The little upward spike in the US is gone, and we are now at 1.54 deaths per million.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here. The Public Health Agency of Sweden is here.

Jette Carr/CNP via ZUMA

From the Washington Post today:

President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus.

Well, that’s good news. It’s about time Republicans started taking this ser—

On Capitol Hill, some Republicans fret — mostly privately, to avoid his wrath — that Trump’s fixation on racial and other cultural issues leaves their party running against the currents of change. Coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and related economic crisis, these Republicans fear he is not only seriously impairing his reelection chances but also jeopardizing the GOP Senate majority and its strength in the House.

Oh. Apparently they still don’t care about Trump’s actual racism. They just care that it might endanger their reelection chances. Is there really not a single person in their ranks willing to plainly condemn Trump and be on the right side of both history and common decency? Just one?

I guess we know the answer to that.

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through July 3. The US is showing an ever so slight uptick. It might be the long-awaited increase in mortality following the re-open, but it’s way too early to say anything definite.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here. The Public Health Agency of Sweden is here.

Mom has always loved cats. Where do you think I got it from, after all?

I’m going out of my mind. In addition to three years of Donald Trump; my own energy-sucking dex problems; the COVID-19 pandemic; and some annoying work stuff, my mother has suddenly become extremely ill. Two weeks ago she was her usual self: gardening, painting, swimming 50 laps, and cursing our president. Then she suddenly started getting weak. Within three days she could barely move herself to an upright position—which is when I called 911 and had her taken to the hospital. Three days after that she was entirely immobile, able to move her arms to her head and nothing more. Her voice is so weak and slurry that it’s basically gone, so we can’t communicate with her. She won’t eat more than a few bites a day, and doesn’t drink much either.

And nobody knows what caused this. Not even a guess. Her lungs are OK, her heart is OK, and her brain seems to be OK. What on earth could do this in the space of six days?

Anyway, this is the “family business” I mentioned a few days ago, and it’s why the blog is moving a little slower than usual these days.

Here are Hopper and Hilbert working as a team to guard the front door. They were very effective: absolutely nothing came in during the two minutes they were on duty.

As we all know, the number of COVID-19 cases is skyrocketing but the COVID-19 death rate is continuing to decline. Today I saw someone suggesting that if we look at the mortality data state-by-state, we’d see a different picture. So here’s the COVID-19 death rate for six states that have recently seen increases in confirmed cases:

Arizona is obviously in a class by itself. However, the other five states aren’t showing much. Here’s a closer look at those five:

Oklahoma has shown a recent spike, and both Florida and Texas have seen modest increases since mid-June. This may be a harbinger of things to come, but it’s hard to say that based on the data right now. The mystery of rising cases and falling death rates remains something of a mystery.

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through July 2. Why are Sweden and the UK having such a hard time making the final push below 2 deaths per million?

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here. The Public Health Agency of Sweden is here.

This is Interstate 40 about 20 miles east of Barstow. It is the very last photograph I took on my Arizona trip.

A new paper examines property tax assessments in every state and concludes that Black homeowners pay, on average, a 10–13% higher tax burden “for the same bundle of public services.” Here’s the tax gap state by state:

In Illinois, Black homeowners pay nearly a third more than white homeowners for otherwise similar houses. Among the states studied, only three—Vermont, Oregon, and Indiana—fail to show a pattern of over-assessing Black homeowners.

The authors propose two mechanisms for the tax gap. First, property tax assessments do a good job of assessing value based on house characteristics—age, size, number of bedrooms, etc.—but do a poor job of assessing value based on neighborhood characteristics. Market prices generally do a good job of reflecting the kind of neighborhood a house is in, but property tax assessments tend to diverge from market prices—and they diverge more the greater the number of Black families are in a neighborhood.

The second mechanism is more speculative, but the authors suggest that it has to do with appeals: Black families are less likely to appeal their assessments, and less likely to win an appeal if they do.

This is a good example of structural racism. The mechanisms at work here are not necessarily due to personal racism since, as the authors note, “most assessors likely neither know, nor observe, homeowner race.” Rather, it’s been built into the property tax system for decades and has become nearly invisible. But invisible doesn’t mean nonexistent. Even if it’s not easy to see, it’s still there.

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through July 1. What’s going on with Mexico? I’m still not sure. The United States is now down to 1.57 deaths per million.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here. The Public Health Agency of Sweden is here.