I'm From America, Show Me

I was raised with Christian values and while I think in general that organized religion is mostly a big scam, the values stuck so i never will wish harm to another person.

Some make that pretty hard at times but I try to ignore the stupid thigs and move on.

The hardest is when people out of self interest are willing to harm others for political or monetary reasons.  When you consider the way the current and to some extent prior administration have treated immigrants you wonder if they have any humanity.

These are real people who are striving for a better life.  They deserve to be treated as we would want to be treated, not like animals. 

To many people have let politics corrupt them.   Someone who disagrees with you about tax rates is not either un-American or a mortal enemy.

I have seen disinformation become so widespread that it is becoming engrained in our culture.

Some beliefs are so inane they would be laughable if they weren't actually believed by so many.  Computer or cell phone systems such as 5G do not cause specific diseases like Covid 19.  We haven't developed a way for real things like viruses to be teleported.  The world is not flat, it has been flown around many many times.  

Most of you will realize how absurd those are but you might accept others without any evidence.  The flag is not being disrespected by any significant number of Americans and even if it was, what would it mean?  The constitution does not guarantee any form of economic system, but it does guarantee some basic human rights like freedom of speech, religion and assembly.

Is election fraud possible?  Sure but everyone knows it is and it has been prevented quite successfully.  The things you hear called election fraud are not generally related to actual voting but related to voting registrations which are frequently not updated.  It would require additional steps to lead to a fraudulent vote, steps which the systems prevent quite well.

There are so many others that you really need to make sure you have actual information, not the false opinions of someone trying to deceive you for their gain.  

When I was young there was a saying about people from Missouri demanding to be shown.

We should all demand that.

Reality Under Attack

We live in a time when there is so much mistrust that after over 150,000 Americans have lost their lives  have lost their lives some still don't believe it is real. Perhaps this is because of the remarkable advances that we have seen in Special Effects and Computer Generated Images that would allow for almost any scene to be created.

The point is why would anyone fake this?  If some grup had to power to manipulate us to this extent and control all the mainstream media, with tremendous resources, what would be the point?  Would they do all this to wreck our economy and get some Democrats elected?

It would seem with that much power they could simply report any results they wanted to on election night?

The phenomena is pretty simple, we have provided access to our crazies who at times find others of their ilk.  Once upon a time crazed loners sat alone in their basements, or their parents basements and could pretty much only reach late night radio listeners when their call got through.

Now they can reach so many more via the internet and the call alwasy goes through.

They could be high or drunk or just marching to a different drummer but they are living in the golden age of basement losers.

They have been aided by foreign enemies who simply want to spread disinformation and cause America to lose focus and elect their puppets or at least people easily manipulated.

It can't last and possibly the real golden age was 2016 when we saw the election of the most unqualified person to President ever.  Its sort of amazing how certain elements can't seem to let go of some of their favorite theories even after they just were wrong.

Reality is weak in many who are convinced that powerful forces are trying to manipulate them.  Sadly they are right and they are but not by the ones they were afraid of.  

School?

Its hard to say how many additional cases will be created if the schools re-open this fall.  It might be true that the children themselves won't have serious symptomatic cases,although some will, but they will infect others in their family.

The research on this disease is ongoing but we do know it is a highly infectious coronavirus.  This is a relative of the cold virus, also a coronavirus and we know that cold season and back to school season have a long relationship.

School days are long and exposure is widespread.  Besides classes there is recess, lunch and general interaction.  Some shar buses to and from school.

It would be impossible to assure that everybody was virus free and while you can try to enforce protective measures we can't get many adults to follow those.

There is a train of thought that accepts that the virus is going to spread widely among the population and while we may develop a vaccine it may not be permanent in its effectiveness.  We never developed a cold vaccine/  

Opening the schools with the virus so prevalent is a roll of the dice.  It will further spread the virus and more will die, or at least die sooner.  On the other hand it is true that most cases resolve themselves without mortality, although there are also indications of long term health effects.

I would opt for the safer alternative but I can see how just biting the bullet so to speak might be attractive.

Just hope it goes off in some else's mouth I guess.

Protest is Patriotic

You see people, including our clueless President upset because an athlete does something to express how he feels about a particular issue, say Black Lives Matter accuse that athlete of not being patriotic?  This would only be true if the brutality shown to unarmed black men and women by some police was patriotic.

Since the victims are American citizens it seems extremely patriotic to stop such abuse.

Similarly in response to some protests that include demands to "defund" the police we see people gather to support the Blue and call it patriotic?  Support the funding or just feel like your taking the other side?  Funding, taxes and all things political in this nation are subject to de bate so when someone so it is very patriotic to challenge funding.  The other position is also patriotic.

Patriotism is best defined as love of country.  It is also a desire to make your country the best it can be.  If your country is doing something unjust it is not patriotic to dimply accept it.  Blind allegiance serves no ones interests. 

There seem to be a fair number of people in this country who define patriotism as what they support..  That is not patriotism that is self interest.  Patriotism is wanting to protect and improve the country.  

Certainly one can argue about what is better or about methods.  That is in fact patriotic.

Each of us has a duty to make the country better, not worse.  

That includes protesting the bad.  Its your patriotic duty.

Make Voting Easier

Voting is not supposed to be difficult or complicated.  Since it is fundamental to our system of democracy we need to make it as simple as possible for our citizens.

Voting in person has been the traditional method but as times have changed it has become less available to many who have to work that day or have to contend with less polling places and longer lines.

We now have a infectious disease that might kill you further complicating the issue.

Voting by mail has become more available and is widely used.  Despite some unfounded allegations there is almost no evidence of fraudulent voting in the process.

There is more chance of legitimate votes being rejected than fraudulent ones getting counted.

There was a case in Patterson NJ, widely cited by some that was supposed to show voter fraud.  Some irregularities were present but many of those represented technical deficiencies, not fraud.  Some to the ballots might have been filled out by a particular campaign but they deny it and those ballots were not counted.

Most of the other rejected ballots were simply not filled out correctly, hardly fraud and they didn't get counted.

To improve access and encourage voting, its time for this country to introduce on-line voting with appropriate safeguard.  Some of you will immediately imagine hacking and fraud but we can clearly create a secure system.

It would add another method to let our citizens vote and improve our democracy.

Some really don't want that hoping to restrict voting to just the right people.

Suppressing votes is the real issue in this country, not voter fraud.

Desperate Measures

Its becoming clear that the Trump campaign is hoping to scare Americans into voting for him by depicting the election as an us vs them issue.  Make no mistake the us in htis regard are white voters and the them are everyone else.

I think the people he is trying to scare are smarter than that, but then again maybe not.  In order to have any chance of success he has to send in federal troops? to enflame the situation, not to calm it down.

By almost every account, except maybe on FOX news the buildings in question were vandalized with some grafitti but otherwise left alone.  Its also pretty clear that the issue could have been rectified in any number of ways without sending out aggressive goons to tear gas and assault protestors.

The reason for this is clearly to provoke a reaction, hopefully violent that can be use as part of this fear campaign.  It is having a bit of success but most coverage has shown Government excesses, except on FOX.

It is a bit ironic that the sitting President has failed so badly that he is trying to create chaos in the nation so he can claim to be the only one who can clean it up.  It is similar to the NAZIs who staged events like the night of broken glass and the burning of the Reichstag to convince the German people to give up their rights.

Its a desperate attempt but it requires the protestors to overreact and the public to believe it.

Think the wall of moms and wall of veterans is effective.

They should have a wall of people standing there holding a bible upside down imitating our fearful leader.

Killing Americans

There is no way to view the current situation as anything but a major failure.  After 6 months we are seeing an explosion of cases and deaths.

It should be no surprise considering the gross incompetence of the President.  It's very hard to point to a real accomplishment.  The economy was inherited from his predecessor and maybe you can view his court appointments as something although even there it hasn't resulted in a major change, at least yet.

He managed to lose the majority in the house, demoralize much of the Republican party, build very little wall, antagonize our allies, provide significant aid and comfort to our enemies, 

Trade was just smoke and mirrors, and the tax cut made no significant increase in investments but did increase the deficit and national debt.

Failure after failure so when he was faced with an actual crises he failed again.  The only thing he has ever done well is hide, lie about success, and hope someone saves his ass.  Of course since his father died no one is saving him.  People mistakingly listen to him.  

He has risen well past the level of his incompetence and it has killed Americans.  More will die since the crisis is not over.   

Debt For All of Us

With the optical in the virus it seems like the economic disruption is going to continue.  The millions impacted have been receiving help from the Government economically.  This help has managed to offset some of the pain but it is costly.

The Government does not have any actual money.  We have seen exploding deficits causing the need to borrow to finance day to day operations.  While in the midst of this deficit growth a tax cut that benefited the wealthiest Americans at the cost of all of us.

So any additional expenditures are going to increase the debt. Still despite this demand for more and more buyers interet rates have stayed remarkably low by historic measures.   This has allowed us to pay the interest which represents more and more of the budge.  With the impact of the pandemic, the budget deficit for 2020 is projected to be the highest ever and not really close to the previous high.  How high it goes depends on the future stimulus plan but projections are at $3 trillion or more.

This might be unavoidable and going forward the country is going to have to develop some plan to get the deficits under control.  Increasing debt payments, especially if interest rates increase, will require other areas get cut or taxes get raised.

Growth would of course help and the tax cuts were supposed to create that but they generally didn't.  Now we are in a pandemic caused recession.  Revenues will be down and payments up.

It would be nice if there was a way to build a consensus on how to fix this issue.  Either there has to be more income (taxes) or less spending.  Spending is particularly hard since to many defense is untouchable and to other social program are untouchable.

This issue is particularly troublesome as we see some important priorities like health insurance and climate change growing.

We of course first need to solve the pandemic but the national debt can't rise like this forever.  Its another crisis in the making and instead of trying to assign blame we need to solve it and the others.

We are all  this together.

Rule of Law

When I read news articles about how certain senators and representatives are against expanding unemployment benefits I know they realize they are possibly facing unemployment soon.

There are too many times recently when I read about a percentage of Americans who simply believe absolute bullshit.  For some reason, many have bought into some scenario where widely reported facts are lies.  Most recently almost a third of Americans felt the Coved 19 deaths were overstated by the "Deep State".

First there is no deep state, at least not the way some extreme media portrays it.  Second no one is overreporting Covid deaths by calling every death a Covid one.  Significant deaths that were caused by the infection were attributed to other causes.

Since many of these people were led down this path by the current Administration, maybe they need to consider that it is who is reporting the data.

Concerning this deep state it reflects some imaginary concept of how Government works.  To argue that the political beliefs of a worker in the Federal Government impacts his day-to-day performance requires that his day-to-day performance allow for such action.  Very few jobs in Government have anything to do with policy.  Those that do are generally political appointees who are the latest administration's appointees. So why would they follow an alternate agenda?

There is of course bureaucracy and regulations that have been written to comply with the laws passed by congress.  So for example you can't just give a friend of yours a contract, you have to comply with laws on competition.  Similarly you can't hire people on a whim (except at the top) you have to follow personnel regulations.  So yes, the agencies follow the rules and if you want them to change you have to go through the onerous process of changing the laws behind the rules.

You can call this whatever you want but I like to call it the Rule of Law!  

It has served this country well.

Portland

Where does the authrrity to rule come from?  In Europe during the middle ages authority was a top down situation as Kings and the Church exercised God given authority over the people.

In simplistic terms this took place as the War leader of Germanic tribes conquered parts of the Roman empire and became dynastic rulers.  The church formed an alliance with them since it perpetrated its power and prestige.

This of course has changed almost everywhere but when this country was founded it was an important doctrine to reject that view and say power originated with the people.  

We are a Government of the people, for the people and by the people.  

Fine words but not always followed.

This issue effectively led to the Civil War although it really was fought over Slavery.  Southern States wanted to keep it and when a Republican Abolitionist was elected they felt it was time to leave.

The question of whether they could leave or not was decided after a brutal civil war.  If you are a fan of alternate history what would have happened had the South not attacked Federal Institutions in their States?

Would discussions and negotiations have led to secession or a reunification compromise?  We will of course never know.

Still if authority rests with the people, at what point can the Federal Government or for that matter a State Government intervene in local matters in a place like Portland?

We see a similar argument as Trump maintains he has to protect Federal Property in Portland but of course his detaining of citizens seems unrelated to that.   

He is a member of the party that claims to represent State's rights but has decided to impose a Federal presence where its not wanted.  

Can he?

The Power Of Acreage

We live in a time when the administration has decided that they are above the law. The actions they take are not supported by the constitution and without the authority of congress The accretion of presidential power years ago The president represents the Executive power of the Government.

The fact that we have evolved into a two party system was never the intent.  The general idea was to have a congress of independent thinkers who would consider each issue on its merits and vote accordingly.  The Senate was the body designed to keep congress from being influenced by fads and bring a longer term perspective to the process.  The President could veto a law he felt was detrimental but his primary job was to execute the laws of the land, manage the Government and lead the Army.  The courts were, at this level, supposed to make sure everything was in accordance with the constitution and laws of the land.

We devolved into factions very early on as a conflict and natural alliance showed itself.  The more industrial north wanted a strong central Government to regulate the currency and protect trade.  The agrarian south wanted a weaker central Government protecting things like Slavery and free trade for their products.

The issues have changed somewhat but the election maps clearly show a division between the urban areas of this country and the agrarian areas.  I don't want to over simplify the issues, many extend nationwide, but perhaps the central one is between keeping things the same and progress.

In an agrarian world the seasons come and go and there is a cycle that you have to both learn and follow.  There have been tremendous innovations in farming but while some have improved crops (or not) and others have saved labor you still have the cycle spelled out in the bible, a time to plant, a time to harvest.

Progress is neither needed or even good. The news is mostly bad and their traditional values seem to be under attack.  They view people they don't consider real Americans with suspicion and if you don't practice their religion, look like them or speak English you are not a real American.

They consider themselves good and decent but also God fearing and those who violate God's law are going to bring his wrath down on us.  Somehow they have reconciled this with supporting one of the people who violated it the most.  

They represent a minority in this country but because the Southern States built in protections for themselves we see unequal representation for people in favor of Geography.

The progressive big cities aren't in conflict with these areas, they mostly ignore them.  The idea of forcing their diverse populations into a single religion or way of living is anathema to them.

Protest or ??

We had dueling protests in my town yesterday, the main one was for Blue Lives Matter the counter one was for Black Lives Matter although the group had a more comprehensive name.

It was a very hot and humid day but about 250 showed up to support Blue lives and 50 showed up to I think yell at them.  It may be irrelevant but back in the days of using fountain pens my favorite ink was blue-black ink, they got along so well.

Still the people who supported Blue Lives Matter apparently believe that is in doubt.  Its one of those things that we see nowadays when the radical right wants to counter Americans who are protesting for equal treatment.

What is even stranger is that the radical right argues that they need guns to fight the forces of oppression if the authorities abuse it.  Who would represent those forces. the Police?

The radical right seems to think those forces are things like public health officials or minorities who want not to be killed for nothing.  Especially when not armed, in restraints, and not committing a crime.

I support the police but I don't support abuse.  If the situation is such that they need to subdue a suspect they need to use appropriate measures.  Just don't kill suspects already restrained.  I can't see how that is justified.

If you think about situations involving law enforcement in this country it just seems like too many take an us versus them approach.  Police vs Criminals might be acceptable but if you equate criminal with the color of someone's skin its a problem.  

The problem may lie deeper since in many cases the poorest and most crime ridden neighborhoods may be primarily minority ones. The people living there are still our fellow citizens and they are entitled to the full protection of the law.  

Well the protests seemed to go well and cars driving by liked to honk their support. The main danger was probably heat stoke although a lot of the Blue lives people didn't seem to have masks on.  Seems like a different issue though.

Save Lives, Maybe Your Own

In order for any virus to infect you it has to reach you.  So he first line of defense is simply to avoid anyone who might have it.  This is difficult since many of the people who have it and can spread it show no symptons.

Its also possible that you can be infected by touching an object that an infected person has touched.  This does not seem to be a primary source of infection with Covid 19 although it has been with some other ones.

To infect you it has to enter your respirtory system which normally involves your nose and mouth.  You can avoid infection by avoiding other people completely, disinfecting anything an infected person might have touched and not breathing air they expelled.

The last of these can be accomplished via use of a mask.  If all infected or potentially infected people also wear masks, the amount of virus transmission to the air and to surfaces would be significantly reduced.  

This would stop virus transmission and is as effective as social distancing in reducing spread.

We see many countries which have apparently gotten the virus under control.  It is of course possible that they may see a resurgence as did much of this country but scientists and medical experts have identified how to prevent infections and until we achieve herd immunity or develop a vaccine we simply need to take the preventative measures.

A very minor inconvenience, wearing a face covering when you are in proximity of your fellow humans will save lives.  

It simply will.

Evil Clown!

The election is still about 4 months away but the polls are not looking good for the current administration.  Polls have gotten a bad reputation in the last few years for getting 2016 wrong.

They really weren't that wrong, there was margins of errors and undecided voters who account for the differences.  Still polls are complex and a lot of people simply argue that they got it wrong" and believe they will again.

They might but the real danger is that people will believe them and decide they can ease off.  That may have been the reason we got the orange haired clown as President in the first place.

It is also the reason that his odds of getting a second term were always slim.

He like to look at the map of america with the red states and blue states colored in and talk about his landslide.  Probably an appropriate term since he did carry states with a lot of land vs those with a lot of people.

Yes he won some high population states but the middle of the country is more acreage than populaton.

He lost the popular vote by almost 3 million and it wasn't related to voter fraud.

He had some appeal to working class white Americans who felt their place in the country was slipping.  I grew up with those people and I still know a lot of them who continue to support him.  Even they realize he is flawed but they think the Democrats will end them, so to speak.  

Its about a type of racism that is almost instinctive.  They see a diverse America as one hostile to them.  They don't consider themselves racist and many of them served side by side with minorities in the Army or worked with them but lets be clear, culturally not so much.

The real issue is simply that to them they think the minorities need to become them, and a few have.  Those that maintain a different culture, a different language or other differences strike them as a threat.  

If you go overseas you almost immediately realize how all Americans are united in what we believe and our culture.  However here the differences seem monumental.

Recently with some of the examples of how police treat blacks differently I think there is a bit more understanding of why the differences. exist.  

That and another simple factor is that the demographics are not in his favor, older white voters decrease over time.

Still I like to believe that the last election was a fluke swayed by people who never thought the clown could win.  Now people are aware that votes do matter and the clown is malevolent.

Tilting At Windmills

America was born after a revolution and we have always somewhat encouraged a rebellious streak.  Teenagers go through a rebellious period as they learn how to be their own woman or man.  Most of us get over this and generally become accepted members of society.

 

Not all of us though.  In some cases our non-conformists end up doing great things.  That is the rarity, not the norm.

 

Its a fairly recent phenomena that we have people who identify as rebels rebelling in favor of conservative values.

 

For example many people argue that society has turned against religion and you need to rebel to defend it.  Since the great majority of Americans believe in God and to some extent attend religious services, what society are they fighting? 

 

Similarly in a country with a great number of gun owners, they feel the need to protect their guns from people who want to seize them?  While a few people may have proposed restricting certain types of guns, namely assault rifles, I have never seen a real proposal to seize everyone's guns.

 

They fight against a Government that simply doesn't and has never existed.

 

They didn't like government impose energy standards to reduce carbon and other pollutants. 

 

People are railing against the machine except the machine doesn't actually exist.

 

Perhaps the line from Public Enemy "You got to fight the powers that be"  sums it up best.

 

Or was is Cervantes having Don Quixote fighting windmills?

 

 

 

 

Find Something New?

When you are  growing up you tend to dabble in different things as you get bored with your latest interest.  It's a normal process that helps us determine and develop various skills.  Those of us who have to work to survive generally have to accept a job to live and if it's a good job feel lucky to have it.

A few of us are in a position where you never really have to settle into a single job but can instead rely on their wealth and keep trying new things.  It's a luxury since many of us have to work or be homeless.  

The message to find something new isn't the worst message but not what you want to hear from people who were promising to restore America to its great industrial past.  That was never going to happen but if you believed it the new message admits you have to give it up.

Americans do need to find something new although not in the way they mean it.

New leadership can help create a prosperous and safe future.

Find something new indeed!

The Future

What the future will hold is interesting to discuss but something that will just happen.  People have always liked to make predictions and many have come true.  Many have not.

 

A number of times noted people have predicted disaster.  Maybe the most notable was the theory by a cleric named Malthus who predicted that the exponential growth in population would lead to world famine and catastrophe.  It hasn't, at least so far, as science has greatly increased the amount of food we produce.

 

One can argue that if the population continues to grow as it has the prediction has only been delayed and it might be true.  It of course might not.  That's the problem with predictions.  The future is unknown and projecting the present forward is ignoring our capability to change.

 

Many predictors look at statistics and treat the population as predictable based on trends.  This is very valid in the short term but as time passes it becomes less so.  Individuals have the ability to change and sometimes quite rapidly.

 

If you had measured American attitudes on December 6, 1941 you would have predicted not entry into the World War.  We all know that changed the next day.

 

We respond to events when they happen.  Not always quickly or uniformly but people, no matter their political beliefs, are smart enough to adapt. 

 

What the future will be like is unpredictable but we will deal with challenges.  There really is no choice and we have always figured it out in the past.

 

You can predict we will fail, but I prefer to bet on humanity.

 

 

Address Real Issues

There are real issues facing the country and phony ones.

For demonstrating a robust economy where everyone has the opportunity to succeed is a real issue.

Whether you stand or sit or kneel when the play the National Anthem is a phony issue.

One actually has an impact the other is meaningless.

We unfortunately seem to spend more time on phony issues than real ones.

Eliminating police discrimination towards minority Americans is a real issue.

Reciting the pledge of allegiance in class is a phony issue.

Many of these issues are raised by conservative commentators to provoke an emotional response.

No one has ever proposed imposing Sharia law on all Americans.  

Just because something is on the internet doesn't mean it's true.

All For One

There is  a narrative in this country along the lines of how our wonderful white American way of life being threatened by new darker non americans.  This was kicked off by the inflow of Latin Americans but it includes all non whites even though some of those had been here longer than many white immigrants.

How wonderful America was as it ruthlessly pursued manifest destiny is a subject for debate,

 but in this narrative it was a place where everybody had a good job a good house and a good family.

Apparently this wasn't acceptable to them who systematically started to destroy this America by shipping the jobs overseas, providing "welfare" to undeserving people and attacking the foundations of America.

Statistics and facts are manipulated, vaccines poison us, schools indoctrinate us and our flag and police disrespected.

The people doing this  get identified as "the liberals" although if you think about it they really have no motive.  

Some of these things are simply not true while other are the result of business decisions and automation.  Others are likely the result of Russian cyberattacks.  They may have lost the cold war but this approach is cheaper.

Somehow we need to fix this.  Americans need to understand the despite superficial differences we all cherish the same things.  The police are here to maintain order, not to keep one group of Americans away from others.

It's time to realize black lives matter is a cry for help, not a threat.

We certainly can support the blue while demanding they treat all Americans with dignity.

It's time we realized that we are all in this together.

Product Recall Time!

The simple fact is that Covid 19, while deadly, does not have the impact of previous diseases.  Somehow a virus that is the enemy of everybody has become politicized.

It just seems like the way we overcame enemies in the past was to work together until it was over.  Now somehow people question the validity of scientific opinion about the best way to defeat the virus.

 

Of course the direction should be set by the leader of our country but his credibility is pretty shot.  Seeing him on his daily highly rated but generally ridiculous briefings on the virus left everyone, or at least almost everyone convinced he was only concerned with how the whole thing reflected on him.

 

It never occurred to him that effective leadership and solutions that would reduce infections and deaths would be a good reflection on him.

 

He has pinned his hopes on a economy that wasn't as good as he said it was but wasn't terrible.

 

More infections, more deaths, OK as long as everyone got back to work and improved his election chances.

 

So we ended up in a political debate about when to open the economy, whether to wear masks, would the virus disappear or was it a hoax, how much is China at fault, the World Health Organization being wrong, and what about certain drugs that he touted?

 

Well he was generally wrong on the ones we can determine and is likely wrong on all of them.

 

The results are in the pudding and the surge in cases now being followed by a surge in deaths is not the way to make a tasty pudding.

 

He now wants to reopen the schools even where the virus is rampaging.  Schools need to figure out the best way to give lessons and provide safe classrooms.  The children are not a bunch of lab rats we can experiment on. 

 

He is supposed to be a Republican and one of the main things Republicans promote is States Rights and local control.  He doesn't seem to have gotten the message.  It illustrates that while he used the Republicans to run for President he has almost no real credential on their core issues. 

 

He is and always has been a party of one, supporting himself as a product.  Time to recall it for defective ingredients.

Good Jobs?

Where are the good jobs" of today?

"

It is pretty hard for someone from my generation to fully understand the problems of today.

 

We had a pretty strait forward path, finish school, stay out of trouble, maybe join the Army or not, get a job or go to college and then get a job, get married and have a family and probably buy a home.

 

Getting a "good" job was the goal and while you might have to work in a number of not so good ones, the good jobs were out there and if you kept your nose clean you could get one.

 

Pretty much if you stayed out of trouble and persevered the jobs were there.

 

I really have trouble remembering a time when I didn't have a job when it wasn't my choice.  The jobs weren't always great, I used to do some temp work in school but work was always available.

 

I knew people that "couldn't" find a job, but I didn't think they were really trying.

 

Eventually of course you got the good job with benefits and a pension.

 

Today its not so obvious.

 

The crappy jobs, not called the gig economy, seem to be more the norm and the "good" job seems hard to find.

 

They just don't offer the type of benefits and pensions they used to.

 

The cost of providing health insurance has escalated and most companies have tried to control the cost by reducing their offerings, increasing deductibles and co-pays.   Pensions have transitioned to 401Ks generally and unfortunately too many don't participate like they should.

 

Most Western countries have solved this by nationalizing health insurance and to a large extent pensions. It makes every job a good job to some extent.

 

WE are gong to have to figure it out sooner or later but meanwhile we have a lot of people living in the gig economy without a real safety net.

Take Precautions

The numbers of new cases has been setting records every day it seems.  There was a short period, based on the declines in the early states like New York and New Jersey that seemed to offer hope.

 

However, because the virus was primarily attacking large cities much of the country ws hardly afflicted and with the encouragement of the Administration decided to reopen.

 

When they decided the virus was a Democratic hoax, despite the worldwide  statistics,they failed to use prevention like mask wearing or social distancing.  This coincided with the protests over police brutality and Black Lives Matter.

 

The few things we pretty much know about how the infection spreads is that it spreads indoors faster, it can spread in our aerosols, that it can live on some surfaces for a fairly long time but that isn't a major cause of infection (or so it seems).

 

If you wear a mask and can avoid touching your face with your hands before you desanitize or wash them you improve your chances a lot. 

 

If you don't you become a likely victim.

 

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that the average age of infection has decreased as younger people act more rashly.  They are more likely to survive the virus and we haven't seen deaths rise proportionately to cases.  They still might but not at the same ratio as previously.

 

The simple fact is that following simple preventative measures can make a big difference.  If you don't wasn't to do that you become a risk to other and may be refused entrance to areas where other people are.

 

.Its still a public health crisis that has killed a lot of people already and will kill more.

 

Its just how many that is the issue?

How's He Doing?

The presidential election is still almost 4 months away and while we have polls they may or may not be predictive.

 

The current President has always been a lousy human being who is shallow and self centered, but that is not new, we knew who he was.  Last time he lucked out by running against someone who was disliked nearly as much as him.

 

People voted for him despite that to some extent because he promised to change certain things and restore some imagined time when you could farm, work in a factory or mine and live the life of Riley.

 

Of course he can't change economic trends really, they just continue.  Whatever success he had was small, if he was really trying, and the things he did like imposing tariffs, rolling back environmental regulations, reducing taxes on the rich, and renegotiating trade agreements didn't really have much impact on average Americans.  Yes unemployment continued to decline but the jobs weren't significantly better and the good jobs still went to college educated people with skills.

 

There are plenty of gig jobs being created but while they are honest work they don't pay or provide the benefits the old manufacturing jobs did.

 

Still he had juiced the stock market to some extent and one of the things that happens is that when the economy is reported as good people feel they might get their turn next.

 

I think the idea of trickle down works best with expectations.

 

You might sill be working a low paying service job and live in an area where opioid addictions is rampant and opportunities are slim, but if the economy is so good prosperity must be coming. 

 

It probably wasn't, at least not until we adjusted to the new realities and embraced the industries of the future. Of course that wouldn't change the issue of automation where unskilled labor is done by robots.

 

The perceptions may have been enough until we met the virus.

 

That wasn't his fault, just the management of it.  He displayed all his worst traits daily on TV for awhile because he was getting good ratings.

 

It wasn't good for him because not all publicity is good publicity, especially once everybody know your name.

 

We got to know him and to know him is not to love him.

 

Can he reverse the polls?  Time will tell.

Bad Examples

In a nation as big as America its pretty easy to find examples that seem to back up a position.  For example there is a video from Gettysburg showing a bunch of motorcycle Trump supporters who went there to engage a non existent protest badgering a minister wearing a BLM shirt. 

 

You can see it here.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2205478/Video-Gettysburg-militia-group-surrounds-pastor-wearing-BLM-t-shirt.html

 

Clearly not the best representatives of anything but they certainly don't represent every Trump supporter.  Similarly there are plenty of examples of Black on Black violence to be had, here's a nasty one from the Bronx. You can see that here.  It shows a murder so fair warning.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/07/06/man-shot-dead-in-bronx-while-walking-with-6-year-old-daughter/

 

Neither of these show people at their best but what do the represent?  Incidents that in the overall scheme of things show us that we have a lot of people doing a lot of things some of which are pretty bad.

 

Its pretty obvious that the increase in surveillance cameras, cell phone videos and police body cams are showing a lot more visual images than we had years ago.  Are things worse today or just more on view?

 

There is no way to justify a crowd trying to instigate an incident with a pastor for wearing a shirt they didn't like, shooting people dead in the street or the images of a police officer kneeling on the neck of a restrained person. 

 

I knew a lot of police over the years and they, after a few drinks, would talk about things they did or people they knew did to protect each other.  It generally elicited a laugh or grin since we were all being friendly and no one thought about the people they were doing these things to.

 

I can't really know if the stories were even true but I would certainly react differently today. 

 

They weren't bad people, in fact they were friends, but based on their stories some of them might have done bad things. 

 

I also knew people in the Bronx when I was young who weren't angels on the other side.  It does seem like violence on the streets is much worse than it used to be.  I tend to think its because guns are more widely available but I don't really know.

 

America has a lot of people, most of whom are fairly law abiding and peaceful.  Some do bad things but they don't represent the rest.  This is true of the police as well as everyone else.

 

The police however have a higher standard to live up to.  They are supposed to maintain order and protect the people.  Not just the ones they like.  They need to enforce high standards and they need to be supported while they do.

 

Hiding behind the blue wall is just not acceptable anymore.  With all the camera its probably not possible.

 

 

Inner City Crime Exists

Well guns don't kill people they are used to kill people. Interestingly i have seen certain people apparently outraged by the amount of crime in some inner cities.

I guess they weren't paying attention until this year. 

Think they were unaware that drug use and gang membership is pervasive in some areas. 

Pointing out black on black violence doesn't justify police brutality.

It's pretty clear that our efforts to fix inner cities and reduce drug use haven't worked.  It's not a new problem and the solution isn't obvious.  One tactic has been to gentrify their neighborhoods forcing residents to find new accomodations.

This doesn't solve anything but we create hipster enclaves who mostly don't carry guns or join gangs, although they have certain symbols they sport.

The idea is that this problem can be solved if we simply fund the police like we have been doing instead of diverting some funds to people trained to deal with some of these problems.  Since the police frequently complain they are not social workers it might be better.

Of course until we solve the underlying issues that create these problems it just applying band aids.

Warming Quickly!

The estimate related to climate change seems like it was way too conservative.  That is probably related to the need to build consensus on the published results.

Still with the ice sheets melting, the rainforest vanishing, the tundra defrosting and the continued spewing of carbon and methane the timetable is excelerating..

There are no real precedents for what is happening in the geologic record.

There was a period of significant warming in the past but it took thousands of years.  The area near the equator where most of the current population live would have been unihabitable.

We tend to focus on the rise in sea levels which is one of the early issues.  But worse than that is the release of trapped carbon gases in things like the permafrost.

This is a problem that feeds on itself, it defrosts, released trapped methane, warming the planet causing more defrosting etc.

It may seem like a natural process by it as kicked off by our behavior.

Methane is significantly worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

How soon will This impact us?  Well it has already started but it will escalate quicker.

It's already a crisis but not yet a catastrophe.

Not yet.

Country Was Born In Protest and Riots

About 250 years ago the British military used excessive force to beat back a group of protestors on the streets of Boston.  The unruly protestors had engaged in various acts of civil disobedience and included angry protests, looting British stores and physical skirmishes. On February 22 a mob was looting a store when a British official in a version of stand your ground discharged his weapon killing an 11 year old boy and enraging the colonists who apparently thought colonist lives mattered.

 

It came to a head on March 5 1770 when an unruly mob attacked a British soldier on guard at the custom house.  The incident escalated more protestors and soldiers showed up and eventually shots were fired into the crowd killing five including an American of mixed race.  This was the start of further troubles that resulted in the birth of our country.  Read about it here Boston Massacre .

 

The soldiers were put on trial and mostly acquitted although two were convicted of manslaughter and punished.

 

We know the history or should where the "Sons of Liberty" continued to protest eventually throwing perfectly good tea into the harbor, and resisting the British until hostilities broke out at Lexington and Concord.

 

We were born out of protests and vandalism so it is in our blood when we spot injustice.

 

I guess those who oppose it regret the fact we kicked the British out.

 

For the rest of us, Happy Independence Day and be safe from the fireworks and the virus!

 

 

 

 

Monuments to Traitors and Racists

You see a fair amount of people complaining about tearing down monuments is somehow erasing history.  A monument honors the person it depicts.  History is what happened.

 

The issue is when a monument actually honors someone who committed treason or enslaved people or deliberately infected native Americans with deadly diseases.  If the monument portrays them as heroes is that history or a historical lie?

 

They do offend some people and they should not be on public space. 

 

They represent traitors and oppressors who may have also had some good qualities.

 

After all, Mussolini  got the trains to run on time.

Racism

I was watching a video where a man went on and on about how there is no racism in this country asking his listeners to provide specific examples of racist laws or policies.

 

His argument was that since there are few if any such laws (they've been removed over the years) the differences between races on things like income, education and wealth is based on individual merit.

 

His argument is wrong since its the results of policies that matter.  For example if the policy sounds neutral but actually harms me group of is discriminatory.  For example poll taxes disenfranchised many more black people than white people.  Similarly voter IDs will work similarly.  

 

He is actuall making a good argument for reparations and affirmative action.

 

Yes, we have built in racism where oftentimes minority people are forced to live in undesirable neighborhoods, go to inadequate schools, get menial jobs and be exposed to readily available drugs.  We then incarcerate the young men in large numbers making it difficult for them to get a good job.

 

The racism often starts before they are born with poor health care.

 

Now many if not most black people manage to overcome a lot of these issues and have a rich family life.  Its more a matter of degree.

 

As a group white people have the advantage in almost every area starting at birth.  Well of black people are better off than poor drug addicted white people but that isn't the right comparison.  At every economic level white people because of institutionalized racism have an advantage.  

This is the racism.

 

Centrist Politics

Largely because of the lie of FOX news we have accepted a premise that the country has a liberal bias in our media and news.  It doesn't and never did but  by saying it over and over it starts to stick.

The middle of the political spectrum is what the majority believe.  It can and does shift over time but the majority view is the moderate view.

The current moderate view may have been a conservative or a liberal view at one time but now it is the middle(moderate) view.

There was a time when the programs from the new deal were liberal but supporting Social Security is now clearly mainstream.

Still we see people with mainstream positions labeled liberal or even radical liberal.

This is an attempt to see the conversation with a negative bias. 

This has tainted issues like global warming or wearing masks.  Science has been accused of being liberal.  Probably because it sale in facts, not fantasy.

The great majority of us support things like equal rghts, accessible health care, sensible gun laws, fair taxation and fair elections.

They don't represent a radical agenda, they are American as Apple pie.