Afghanistan

 Some people are objecting to the fact that we left Afghanistan with the situation unresolved.  After 20 years its pretty clear we don't know how to resolve the issue.  In fact what exactly is the issue?

Afghanistan is essentially an Islamic State.  It is also famously a place that resists central authority and even more so foreign invaders.

To a large extent they have been able to maintain their independence thanks to their geography.  Whie in a central location they are landlocked and mountainous.  

Nominally they were part of a number of great empires but never really.  The tribes in the mountains weren't worth the effort of true subjugation but were also not strong enough to pose much of a threat.  So they were left alone to herd goats, grow poppies and provide fighters.

The British wanted to subdue them but never could really.  Then the Russians tried.  While the country is fairly easy to occupy, it is very hard to hold because of the mountains, the porous borders and their tactic which reminds my of Ali's rope a dope, you can't really hit them because they aren't where you think they are.

When the Russians were there we supplied them with munitions and training sites.  Once the Russians left they allowed terrorists to use the sites and particularly Al Quaeda.  Some of the terrorists on 9/11 were trained at these sites so it became our first order of business to eliminate them.  We did that rather quickly but then were in Afghanistan for the long haul.

We installed a weak but corrupt central Government, spent billions training a military and lost lives to modernize a country that just wants to be left alone generally.  It all collapsed rather quickly.

We have the ability to monitor significant terrorist activity and destroy it without being in the country.  The politics in this country lead to attacks on the current administration for leaving although the previous administration wanted out also.

In a number of years the country will fade into the list of Stans in that part of the world and be hard to locate for most Americans.

We probably could have left much sooner and have less casualties.  

We should have.

IDA

 Are things getting worse or do we just hear about them faster and with more coverage.  Hurricane Ida just devastated Louisiana but that area has been in the path of hurricanes before.

We all remember Katrina which was really devastating because the levees didn't hold and the City flooded.  It wasn't the strongest hurricane to hit but it was probably the most damaging.

We still don't know the full extent of the destruction but hopefully it is not going to be loss of life as much as loss of property.

I know the electrical grid went out and it will take days if not weeks to repair it.

Lets hope that the area can recover and get back to normal quickly.

Terror!

 I can't imagine the terror felt by people who wake up every day thinking the Government or some group controlling the Government is out to kill them.

I've never felt unsafe even though I was drafted during an active war.  I even knew that certain people were able to manipulate the system, say the former President, if you had enough money or the right connections.  The system wasn't out to get me, I just fit in where I fit in.

Some people today think all sorts of things about the Government. They are stealing your country, pushing dangerous vaccines, taking away your jobs and lying to you about lots of things, like climate change.  I guess the motives vary but these people believe it is because they are real Americans and the less real Americans want them out of the way.

They are convinced that the one leader who understood this had his job stolen from him.  Of course during the four years he was in charge nothing got better, in fact many people ended up dying from the phony virus that he said was a political stunt.

How terrified they must be when they are surrounded by people trying to steal their ability to go mask less.  

In response they are OK with restricting the right of those less real Americans at the ballot box.

Hell, not that long ago they were allowed to use water hoses and police dogs.

Just to protect their rights.  

World Class Deniers

 We are getting out of Afghanistan which will be better protection for America as that recruiting example goes away.  Our support for the corruption going on there, and we knew about it, was inexcusable.  A few more chaotic days,, a few more drone strikes and we will be done except for the refugee problem we created.

I suspect that the Taliban is going to need citizens who can help them so since we are no longer at odds with them maybe many can simply adapt.  I don't anticipate peace there, factions will rise and fight for power, but that is the way it always was.

Hopefully despite the current chaos we inspired a core of men and women to fight for western ideals and a spark is sometimes enough.  

Meanwhile a big hurricane is headed for Louisiana.  I was reading an article saying that climate change is now impossible to ignore.  Really?  We have expert ignorers in this country who while dying of Covid 19 still argue its a hoax.

Call it dedication or stupidity but that's world class denial or ignorance.

Still as Covid rages Louisiana is targeted by a big hurricane.  

I hope they come out OK.

Honor Our Hero's, Be Smart

The manipulators are out in force trying to convince people, anybody really, that all the problems were caused in the last six months.

They ignore the fact that things got pretty messy in the last one.  Still the new administration has to clean up the mess and doing so requires a bit of time and a little patience. 

Afghanistan is almost solved but the fact that we lost Americans at the airport to a terrorist attack is terribly sad.  This was executed by elements of ISIS that while reduced were clearly not eliminated.  We need to avenge these men but what they want is the big bad Americans to stay so they can recruit.

Our continued presence is how they convince young people that we are the invaders and that they need to fight us. 

Staying in Afghanistan would be a terrible mistake and we don't look like we are taking the bait.  How and when we retaliate can be judged after its executed.

Who's to blame for the attack at the airport?  One might say security was bad but the situation is somewhat chaotic.  The large crowds outside the fence presented an easy opportunity and the fact that they were able to get close enough to also impact our troops might be something to be adjusted.  

Not that killing civilians is OK but we live in a world where a suicide bomber can find crowds and kill people fairly easily.  That isn't an effective strategy if it is the people you are trying to win over.

We aren't taking the bait.

Survival Instinct

 We live in a dangerous world.  Its a place where one species has to prey on other species in order to survive.  In turn they are preyed upon.

We consider this the natural order of things and justify the lion killing the antelope as the circle of life.  Not so much so for the antelope who by the way had no issue ending the life cycle of numerous plants.

Some of us have created hierarchies in our minds to justify eating the creatures we consider less conscious or less animate.  Science tells us that we share over 90% of our DNA with plants so how different are they really?

We tend to think that we have escaped this cycle, at least as far as being prey, but that's not true.  I'm not talking about the rare times we get attacked by a shark or another animal, we are prey to micro-organisms that need us to survive.

We host all sorts of bacteria that need us to survive.  In some cases we need them.  Viruses tend to be inherently more destructive since they just want to hijack us so they can replicate.  In doing so they can make us sick or even kill us.  

We have developed defenses but the viruses continue to adapt also and new ones become deadly.  Before science developed vaccines we simply had to live with the risk and many succumbed to things like measles, polio, smallpox, etc.  It was a world where we were lucky to survive childhood and the risk was always there.

We now live in a world where we can combat viruses.  For some reason fairly large swaths of our population won't.  Its sort of like Antelopes who aren't afraid of lions.

They end up as dinner.

Afghanistan? Do You Care?

 Realistically Americans don't really care about Afghanistan.  Many of them couldn't find it on a map.  Outside of being a major supplier of Opium we have no great interest there except to keep others out.

Yes it let terrorists train in the hills but lets not forget that when they were fighting the Russians we financed a lot of what they had.  Knocking our the terrorist camps was worthwhile but we overstayed out welcome, if we ever had one.

The Taliban are not nice people or maybe they are, depending upon how you feel about fundamentalist fanatics who put the teachings of a religion over the rights of individuals.  We tolerate and to some extent encourage similar behavior here.  We have groups who would deny anyone who doesn't conform to their views of religion basic human rights.

Still the news is turning it into a spectacle and until that ends Americans think they care.

They don't and once it's no longer on the news we will realize that.

I feel sorry for the people who are going to be oppressed under the Taliban but its really up to them to put a stop to it.  

We have our own oppressed people to worry about.

Covid 19 Follies

 What is the ultimate outcome of Covid 19?  We know that if you are vaccinated it is a very minor threat but still a minor threat.  If you are not vaccinated it is still a major threat.

People continue to refuse getting vaccinated and oddly there seems to be a bit of a cottage industry encouraging that behavior.  As long as we have large numbers of vulnerable people, the virus will continue to mutate to become more infectious.  Its actually pretty simple natural selection, whatever virus infects the most people the fastest becomes dominant.

The danger here is that the virus could create a variant that the vaccine doesn't work against.  This is more likely the larger the infected pool is. This is why the unvaccinated pose a threat to others as well as themselves since they provide a pool of hosts to help the virus mutate.

The good news is that vaccination is a one way street.  Once you are, you are.

The fact that there is such resistance to the vaccine is based on what I can only call bad faith messaging that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus.  It just isn't and it isn't hard to know that.

Of course some people seem convince that scientists are determined to hurt the public.  There are people who oppose long established vaccines over discredited studies and rumors.

Still, the people who resist the vaccine will fade as they see the impact on their fellow travelers.  While its true that certain people have a good chance to survive even if they get it, enough will die that it might impact more to get vaccinated.  

It is a one way street, so more and more people will be vaccinated.  

It may end up being much like the seasonal flu eventually.  It may be forgotten when the next virus comes and is 10 times worse.

How Superficial Can We Be?

 What has happened in the last twenty years or so is that a vocal, animated minority is able to influence decisions and elections far above their actual numbers.

In the electoral process we have effectively replace the old system of selectin candidates by party regulars with an unpredictable and easily swayed primary process.

If the primaries actually represented the will of the party it would be fine, but in todays age we still have very small turnout generally and the ones who turnout are often the ones that want something specific.

Of course we live in an age where voting should be easier but this system favors what might be best called a new elite.  Activists who can motivate maybe 10% of an electorate can often sway poor turnout elections.  Since activists often have strong opinions that may or may not represent the majority views this leads to candidates who are in fact less representative.  

Parties should make it easier to vote for the nominee.  

Even outside of politics we see vocal groups dictate many responses.  For example something as silly as who should be the next host of a TV show, who should play a particular part in a Movie or whether some one is guilty of some infraction is now often determined by the twitterverse.  

Obviously not everyone is on Twitter and not everyone on their posts about these things.  Plus, influencers do well if they have a lot of followers so they need to get viral tweets and so they take controversial positions.

I'm often amazed at the amount of influence we give them but I guess its easier than just making an educated informed decision.

We have become more and more superficial.

America is Changing

 There are some things I can understand about positions opposed to mine.  Take national debt.  The long range impact of it could be a problem and we should certainly be careful in increasing it.  I understand that position and it should be addressed.  Of course there is an argument about how the economic activity caused will increase economic activity and therefore tax revenues so it will at least partly pay or itself.  Almost the same argument as supply side economics.

What is don't understand is attempts to restrict the vote, although I fear I do understand them.  If everybody in America actually voted,, things would look much worse for Republicans, per the polls.  Much of their base are older, whiter Americans who are on the decline numerically.  So they are voters and if they were the only voters things would be much rosier for that party.  Whether this is racism or simply realpolitik, doesn't make much difference, you want your supporters to vote and others not to.

History says this is a losing battle, but it is in a transitory state right now and that is always a dangerous time for the old regime.  The eventual outcome is also not certain since while democracy should win, there may be a period of autocracy first.

That's why the focus is on the un-American things done by the new people.  They are challenging the establishment in many ways, and while this happened in the sixties it was co-opted as young white people were bought off.  That tactic won't work as well now since they are not in the majority.

The outcome should be a better, more inclusive America where there is more equal opportunity for all.

Hurricane Roulette!

 When you live where I do you play a game of hurricane roulette every year.  Most years you do OK, but every so often its terrible and knocks power out for days.

There are some things you can do to mitigate that but the solutions are a bit costly and the payoff a bit uncertain.  Now we are watching a hurricane churning up the warm Atlantic with expected landfall  close to here.  

Its still uncertain how much impact and our power company is notifying us how prepared they are.  

It is also still early in the season and what it seems is once an route is used, the same conditions lead to it being used again by the next one or two..

Its not a great game, this hurricane roulette. Winning gets you nothing at all except what you already have while losing is dangerous and expensive.

Well here w go again!

Guns vs Tweets

 Well the pen might be mightier than the sword but the recent events in Afghanistan prove twitter isn't.

The twitter verse is pretty universally anti-Taliban  but the Taliban doesn't seem to care.

I like to follow certain people who I respect to see what they say about certain issues.  I sometimes agree and sometimes disagree but that's life.

I also like to follow humorous people because, well, sometimes they make me laugh.

I imagine some young people might be influenced by "influencers" to buy a particular product but that is really just advertizing.

I don't think you can use twitter to get the mood of America like some Media try to.

Too much of it is managed and manipulated by certain groups.

The followers of some politicians are lucky if they know how to turn on a computer or install a phone app, yet they have tons of twitter followers.

How many are real?

Does anyone care?

Twitter can be fun and at times informative but in the scheme of things its just a glorified chat room representing nothing at all.

Can We Learn the Lesson Now?

 After Vietnam, most Americans felt it was a lesson learned.  What Americans have to remember is that we are the new country in the World concerning our history and culture.

What we used to call the old world, which included Europe, Asia and Africa, developed their cultures over centuries if not millenia.

Why exactly they developed the way they did is something for anthropology to figure out but regardless they have long successful cultures and they are not all ready to turn into America.

We think we are the trend leader but right there is where we are wrong.  Most of the world isn't following trends, they are living life.

Certainly in many cities around the World you may get the impression that American culture is supreme and it might be in cities where the more modern and consumer oriented population lives, but even there it is more of a veneer than part of the culture.

Hopefully those who adopted American ways will not be punished.  Some of them, especially some young women may be forced to revert to a lifestyle they thought they had left behind.

Maybe this time we will learn that the only way to spread our beliefs and culture is by example and not everyone will be convinced.  I'm not sure much of this country is when you see the recent activities of anti-democratic behavior.

Is Afghanistan the same as Vietnam?  You would never confuse the two countries but you might confuse our forces is they didn't wear different types of camouflage.

Unfortunately the boxes they come home in at times remain the same.  

Learning How to Discuss Things Again

 I disagree with people a lot of the time.  Its called having an opinion.  

I, for example am a baseball fan and I root for a particular team, the Yankees.  I realize other people root for other team and except for those Boston people, it doesn't make them bad people, communist, socialists or even fascists.

Similarly I have views on what the best policies are for our country.  For example I think our citizens should be assured of adequate health care.  Some people don't consider this a Government responsibility.  I can disagree about this issue without calling the others names.

Apparently most people find that hard.

We live in a country where some people think other people are just gaming the system.  Of course some are.  The world has always been filled with con men and women.  They are hardly restricted to one particular group of people but are more visible in certain poor neighborhoods.

Still those people are not trying to change the Government, they know the Government they have and how to game it.  

What we are seeing, fanned by certain news media, is that our dominant group of citizens is in danger of becoming a minority.  

This has happened before when immigration changed the nature of this country.  We had periods of anti-Irish, anti-Italian and anti-Immigrant movements.  

Those previous immigrants have become part of the majority and have generally forgotten the animosity towards their ancestors.  

They now express animosity towards others.

People are people and most of them aren't your enemy.  If every argument becomes an attack, you may need to dial it down.  

 

Me Too for Payouts?

 One of the things our system of law does is challenge the limits.

Pretty much anyone can sue for pretty much anything.  There are sanctions and potential costs for filing a frivolous lawsuit but most lawyers are skilled at finding ways to prove they had cause and standing.  They try to work that out before they bring a suit and most judges, being lawyers themselves, are pretty receptive to even flimsy justifications.

Now at times sanctions are imposed but those cases are so unusual that most lawyers don't worry too much.  Of course punishing a lawyer who pursues a ridiculous issue like voting irregularities in the last election only means the next claimant just has to find someone else.

Criminal law is of course different and while it has its own problems they are different issues.  

Civil cases are where the courts write a lot o new law.

They write new law because after a line is established they are always looking to move it further along.  

Take things like workplace harassment.

The law has moved significantly in the direction of the "victims"  because that's where the good settlement are.  We seem to have s standard where the "victim" gets to decide what it is.  Further, because fighting these cases are expensive many companies are eager to settle.  

Equal and fair treatment in the workplace was the goal at one time.  It might never have been possible since the interactions between men and women are somewhat unique.  

I understand nuance.  The same words can mean quite different things depending on how they are said.  Still, who gets to decide that?

Thoughts

 What is a little hard to understand is how many people are conned by the lies and alternate reality being pushed on right wing news.  

We would have seen an unprecedented event if the commenters were dealing with reality the reinstatement of a defeated President.  Of course it didn't happen at least not here.

It sort of happened in Afghanistan where after 20 years and billions of dollars we saw how dedicated people can easily beat what are essentially mercenaries.

I'm sure the right wing will want to blame Biden and the democrats but whether their sheep will believe it is na open question.

What is not going to happen is the rise of an Islamic Caliphate.

Some analysis is comparing the withdrawal from Iraq with Afghanistan.

The difference is that in Afghanistan we have an armed group that has its own agenda while in Iraq we had more of these semi mercenaries who flee at danger.

The willingness to fight and possibly die requires that you believe in your cause.  

Without that it is just a bunch of armed dilettantes.

There is no power vacuum in Afghanistan. 

Family First

 Afghanistan is simply another example of how change can not be imposed by outsiders.

I don't know what else we could have done and I suspect no else has a clue either.  Those arguing that the pull out of troops was too sudden are really saying that the collapse of the Afghan army was faster than expected

I would probably prefer that they adopted Western Values there but sometimes I'm not sure Western Values are that great.

People have been around for thousands of years and while some will dispute this, the family unit has been the way we have organized.  Call it what you will, but if I was looking at Western Civilization from most of the world, I would wonder what the hell we were doing?

We have replaced family with individual liberty to a great extent and allowed that individual freedom to ignore all norms.

How that will work out is dependent on any number of things but I tend to doubt it will be a hit with much of the world.  It is not how society builds anything.

The family unit is the most influential force in a child's education.  Whether that family unit is traditional or non-traditional doesn't change that.  

Bringing our Boys Home (Women Too)

 It seems highly probable that the Taliban is going to retake Afghanistan now that we are leaving.  There are two issues with them that are troublesome.  They practice a fundamental version of Islam that deprives Women of rights we think they should have.  Of course we have fundamental Christians in this country trying to do something similar.  Second they consider Western Culture and us specifically as the embodiment of the devil.  That position is the more troublesome to us directly.

Afghanistan allowed terrorists training camps before 9-11 which ultimately led to the 9-11 attacks.  Is why we went in there in the first place.  The diversion to Iraq was misguided by most accounts although getting rid of Saddam was a good thing.  However we are not going to go around the world invading countries that have dictators in charge.  

Does Afghanistan now re-emerge as a terrorist training ground?  What about the people in Afghanistan now marked as enemies of the State because they worked with us while we were there?

We can't send in American troops where ever we don't like a regime.  We also can't stay in Afghanistan forever and whenever we leave we will have the same issues.

We do need to monitor hostile activity and if certain of it intervene.

Bring our boys home is always a good option.

Why?

 There seems to be a number of perverse things going on in America today.  Many people view mask wearers a people making a political statement instead or trying to protect themselves.

Why? 

 I saw a video on twitter of a group of protesters yelling at people leaving a hospital after work (probably doctors and nurses) about wearing masks demanding they take them off.  

Why?

Earlier this year, and it might be ongoing, we saw Asian Americans berated and attacked for being responsible for Covid.  They clearly aren't.

Why?

Suppose that those who think Covid is not a real danger and for some reason liberals want to see everyone wear masks and be cautious.  I imagine you don't have to listen but why demand everyone else agree with you?

If you espouse individual liberty, why protest someone else's decision?

Why?

Easy Targets

 I'm not aware of any prey animals who volunteered.  It doesn't matter, if they let their guard down or are unlucky they still get eaten.

So we would be the first if we don't take steps to avoid the virus.

It is real and it does infect and kill people.  The virus will replicate until it runs out of victims and the only way for it to run out is if we stop it.

I suppose you can social distance and wear protective gear but getting a vaccine seems a lot easier.

This is how natural selection works.  The ones who survive get to pass on their genes.  So each generation has better adapted.  

The predator virus selects for the one that infects faster and widely.

Looking for prey just isn't that hard.

Unequal Treatment

 I don't know what it would be like to be a young white man starting his career today.  There is a show on HBO called the White Lotus where a mother talks about how her son is treated as guilty even though he isn't.

Young white men and women may have enjoyed white privilege without even being aware of it.  I realize that people are treated differently because of the color of their skin and their sex, among other things, but who is doing that.  Suppose a group of young white people are being loud and disruptive in a mall.  They may not be accosted at all or they may be told to knock it off and possibly approached by mall security.  If the crowd was minority young people it could be a much more dangerous outcome.  Not always but a much higher percentage.

The first group of young people would not be responsible for how the second group was treated but they do benefit by the difference.  To the second group the privilege extended to the first group is somehow their fault.

Now back to the workplace.  When I was starting out the professional jobs were predominantly held by white men.  Most of the generally young white women (we referred to them as the girls) held clerical entry level jobs and many of them, if not most, were more interested in getting married or starting a family.  The sexual harassment would have been everywhere and flirtatious behavior by both men and women was more the norm than the exception.  It wasn't as bad as "Mad Men" on TV but it was common.

Now it seems that asking a women about her weekend or saying she looked good can be harassment.  It is defined by the person hearing it.

That is a dangerous thing.  Years ago I handled a sexual harassment complaint from a young lady who had a bit of a reputation.  The accused person, a black man, said that what he said was said to her by others all the time.  I asked her about that and she said "But I like the other people".  Unequal treatment is still unequal treatment not matter the source.  The person she complained about was clearly guilty and took a short suspension.  The ones she didn't complain about went unscathed for the same behavior.

Safety Is The Goal

 The thing to remember is that the health of everyone is important. especially the children returning to school

The news is filled with politicians dictating behavior based on political objectives.   I suppose an argument can be made that people should be allowed freedom to choose but if you forbid a behavior like wearing masks you are not support in choice.

Should the individuals be allowed to decide?  That might be OK if there was no danger to others.  However when it comes to a highly infectious disease the health of everybody must be considered.

As children go back to school the decision to wear a mask or not should be based on the risk present.  With the latest variant increasing cases everywhere all precautions are necessary.

Yes the odds may be in their favor but the odds don't mean much to the victims.

Gimbling with their lives for political reasons is just wrong.

How Many Realities?

 If you go back, not that long ago really, say before TV, life was pretty mundane.  Sure we had books and movies but movies were pretty new with minimal special effects.  We had books like the time machine and others but while you can get caught up in reading a book it doesn't completely consume you they way some media does today.

You knew what life was, it was all around you and you couldn't avoid it.  It was pretty much the same as now, so for most of us, a lot of drudgery.  The idea was to live it as well as you could whatever that meant to you, material wealth, helping others, raising your children well.

What happened with TV was we got a glimpse into other people's homes. mot real people, TV people.  Most of them were a lot like us although they seemed to have nicer lives than the rest of us.

Meanwhile in the movies we started to see special effects that could make you feel you were there.  As computers got better we were allowed to live in universes that seemed very real.  

This was entertaining but it also led to a bit less reality in many lives.

Most of what we used to have to experience was now served to us on the small screen or in the movies.

Escape from reality started to seem like a trip to an alternate reality.

No one can be trusted because they are deceiving us all the time.

Not everybody but far too many are now convinced that reality isn't what they experience every day, its a world that only exists on a screen, big or small.

As we move further and further into virtual reality, it will only get worse.

Radical Congress

 With the vote to allow the infrastructure bill to proceed, we are pretty much guaranteed to see a major piece of legislation pass with a bipartisan vote.

This really shouldn't be a big deal, it probably shouldn't be a deal at all.

Representatives are supposed to vote for things that are good for their districts, not just things that support a party agenda.

Still, it shows that at least some of the time you can craft a bill that gets enough support to pass despite party positions.

In a little over a year Americans will get to vote on every representative and a third of the Senators.  Because of the way our primaries work they will be faced with voting for people who represent radical agendas, both conservative and progressive.

Maybe we need to consider how we let that happen and get back to having an America that works.

Calling Evil Wrong is OK

 We have news channels in this country that encourage hate and racial animosity because it is profitable to do so.  So many of us want to have someone to blame and these channels provide us targets.

They cater to our worst instincts and while often complaining about how others are trying to control us, spend a lot of time controlling us.

Its hard to watch any news event without getting an opinion included.  I don't watch most "news" channels but even on local news they often spin the event. 

When you see crime reported that involves a white family, the motive tens be  unknown while  in minority family they often report that connections to gang or drugs are undetermined. Now the motive may end up being exactly the same but in that first report the minority case got associated with drugs and gangs.  This will impact the viewers.

This is the problem with bias.  You get it growing up from observations and comment you hear.  You also get some visual reinforcement if you notice behavior changes in the presence of certain people.

It is part of the fabric of our society.

When you go to school you should be shown what America should be.  That's not indoctrination its information.  We have a history that was unfair to many people and those impacts last.

We had slavery in this country and slavery was wrong.  I can't think of any reason that one people can simply enslave people who look different then them.  

Were all slave owners evil?  Yes but some were more evil than others.  

Still, they were all guilty of treating another person as property.

Sky Still Not Falling

 Despite the dire warnings about multiple crises everything seems to be OK.

Good jobs number today, vaccinations are up and while we see some case rise we know how to stop it.

We still have immigrants at the border but except for planned photo ops they are being processed.  No one has gone out to seize your guns only your vote.

As far as becoming a socialist or fascist nation, we seem to have avoided both of those at least for anyone who knows what they mean.

Despite the best efforts of some, most our children are still getting a reasonable accurate account of our history, although our educational system has gotten a bit weaker over the last four years.

We are starting to see some actions related to climate change although it might not be early enough or strong enough.  However evy little bit does help.

Crime is still a problem but when has crime not been a problem?  More incarcerations is not the answer, maybe we need a better poverty reducing program?

Wealth inequality is problematic but that's not an easy solution.  We are and always will be the land of opportunity because of our capitalism.  We can of course help the poor among us.

The success of our systems must be about the poorest among us, not the richest.  Merit is not about how much money you were born into, at least it shouldn't be.

Its Medical, Not Political

 There are a number of issues in this country that we need to address and we can discuss what ones are the most serious and whether any constitute a "crisis".  Not sure how others measure that, certainly I think climate change is a crisis but the only issue out there right now hospitalizing and killing significant numbers of American is the virus.

For some reason this disease which could care less who you voted for or what beliefs you hold has become political.

Its not cut we are.  I was reading about a Texas covid denier who caught covid and died.  Sadly my first reaction was a bit mean spirited.  Here was a fellow citizen who was convinced somehow that the virus was a hoax or not dangerous who paid the ultimate price.  He leaves a wife and child and he joins the many thousands of victims, many of whom thought they were safe.

At times the virus seems to strike quickly and with a deadliness that I don't think is fully appreciated.  

If you have avoided the virus so far by taking precautions, you have been lucky.  With the new variant and  many people easing precautions your luck is being tested.

It may only take one exposure to get the virus.  How sick ou get is uncertain but one possible outcome is death.  

Get the vaccine.

Not Politically Correct

 When I was working at a certain point the general rule was to never be alone in an office with a women without a witness or the door open.  This was after a number of accusations of harassment lodged against complete strangers who denied them but because they created an environment where it could have happened a settlement was reached.

I have no idea whether any of those accusations were true, it was a he said, she said thing and generally it is cheaper to reach a settlement than to fight these sort of things.  

I realize that there has been and continues to be workplace harassment but I wonder if we have entered a world where every interaction can be questioned.

Right or wrong I ued to have meetings with men who worked for me where everybody was relaxed and communication was easy.  It was seldom the same with women in the meeting.  The problem with that sort of tension is it shows up in various other ways.

We haven't become a workplace full of robots, at least not yet, and men and women are not the same.  Take hair cuts.  Most of the time you don't notice them.  Sometimes a man would get his hair cut short and you might mention it to him. Women who changed their hairstyle could want you to mention it or maybe not.  It could be a touchy subject to bring up. Ignoring it could also be bad.

Maybe some things are just not harassment without more.  If I said to a man in a new suit that he looked sharp today (I may be dating myself there) there was no sexual harassment considered.  If I complement a woman on how she looks she may take it wrong or she might not.  

The logical reaction is to avoid interacting with women, which of course makes them feel excluded.  I used to think that clarifying the rules would work, but we seem to have clarified them to anything that make a person uncomfortable is wrong?

Men do bad things.  Women also do bad things.  It just feels like we have shifted the presumption of guilt. 

I really don't know the answer, maybe in-person interaction is a no-no now.  

Worst Crisis Of All

 Did anyone in this country wake up today to crisis conditions?  If you listen to our Republican friends we all should have, there are so many.

I guess it depends on what you call a crisis.  The pandemic certainly qualifies but around here we have a high vaccination rate and while cases are on the rise, it hasn't reached crisis level and is unlikely to.  It is worse in other less vaccinated locations but I'm not sure its a crisis when it is now essentially self imposed.  Still its the closest thing we have.

The attempt to overthrow the election on Jan 6 was a crisis but it was handled and many are locked up.  The Republicans, alarmed by so many things, seem not perturbed by that insurrection at all.  We have images of many of them cowering but apparently they cower that way from regular tourists.  I never took a tour of the Capitol but doubt that I would have to break a window to get in.

They like to play up the border crisis.  It might be a crisis for the immigrants trying to find safety and it might be a lot of overtime for the border patrol.  Not sure its a crisis when the ones who get through increase our supply of low priced labor.  

Apparently we have a crime crisis but while we had some increases, I don't get the impression that it has impacted  most people, except of course the victims.  My news is about normal things like fires and accidents with an occasional shooting.  I haven't seen any coverage of criminal mobs.  Even most protests seem over.  

The attempt to deprive some voters easy access to the polls is problematic but not what I would call a crisis.  There is no credible evidence of voter fraud but the legislatures continues to pretend it exists in Republican states.  

Still, except for the pandemic, which is now a localized crisis maybe, I didn't wake up to any crises.

The country seems to be doing OK which I guess if the worst crisis of all if you are a Republican.

Six Months In

Despite the arguments some here on silly right wing media, the country is demonstrably better off today than it was before the election.

Not everything is perfect, it never will be, but despite their best attempts, most of America is not willing to believe their fantasies when their own eyes tell them otherwise.

We are in back to school season and while there are some school supply shortages, we can deal with that in exchange for a more normal school year.

Most places have eased mask restrictions and the problems are becoming centered on the unvaccinated.  yes a small number of vaccinated people still get covid but something like 98% of the hospitalized serious cases are unvaccinated.  That should give you something to think about.

There is still no evidence of election fraud and the fact that some are still saying there was is simply a tactic to pass laws designed to suppress some low income voters.  I would like to think that the American public will see it for what it is, but hard to say.

The economy is booming and may have overheated a bit leading to some inflation.  Some inflation is hardly a crisis.  

Similarly we saw an increase in violent crime last year and the early months of this year.  Its hardly a crisis but something to deal with.  It may have already subsided.

We still have people trying to come to this country and we saw an increase this year.  Maybe because of the new administration, the people who profit from this in other countries could have played up the new administration as more lenient.  Once again something to deal with, hardly a crisis.

We actually might see a large bipartisan infrastructure bill pass, helping to fix infrastructure and create jobs.

We are out of Afghanistan and it probably will revert to what is was before we intervened.  We have never been good at changing a culture.

Pretty good after only si months if you ask me.

Gullible, not Moronic

I was on a q&A forum where someone posed a question about how the mainstream media could portray nearly half of America as moronic for supporting Trump.  The answer there was a series of pictures of moronic Trump supporters.  However the question is wrong to start with.

A certain percentage of Trump supporters may be moronic, probably that is true in any large group, but most are not and aren't portrayed that way.  The ones that dress as Shamans or do ridiculous things get portrayed the way they want to.  

Its similar to seeing pictures of women in very revealing clothing and attributing that to every women.  We are a nation of individuals who cover the spectrum of humanity.

It should be noted that Republicans and Trump supporters seem to believe things that have been proven wrong.  The election was not stolen and covid was not a hoax.  Certainly this is not true of all of them but far too many.

I think the bigger mystery is why anyone ever believed in Trump in the first place.  As a New Yorker he was throughout his life in the public eye, and not generally favorably.  He was rich, famous and able to get away with a lot.  He did manage to keep his brand in the public eye and for most of his business ventures after the first round of failures, that was his source of income.  At least until the Apprentice TV show.

It seems that he had so little real work he could ply the late night internet and push some conspiracy theories, like the birther one.  

To the extent that his followers believe anything he says is surprising but he has picked up his topics from right wing Australian media.  

They are being scammed for money and what they are told is whatever polls best.