Category: General

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And there it is folks…

coronavirus.jpgThe WHO just declared the Coronavirus a pandemic.

The CDC is still downplaying it.

Many countries are restricting air travel from affected areas, and some are suspending air travel altogether.

In a bit of Irony today is also the day that the 1918 influenza virus was declared a pandemic. Symmetry is always so nice.

Oh, and we can thank China for its closed system and fear of political embarrassment for this. From the start I’ve thought that China wasn’t telling the WHO everything. Well now, the rest of the world is going to be able to collect real data and hopefully they’ll point at China and say, “LIAR”. I hope that someone has the balls to stand in the UN and speak the truth.

Diseases like this and others are not just the province of one country they can affect the whole planet. In a globalized society, everyone needs to be totally honest and forthcoming about rapidly spreading / evolving diseases. The minds of all scientists should be engaged without fear of embarrassment to tackle the problem.

My only hope is that there will not be panic in the streets. Although, over the weekend a plane in America apparently had to turn around because passengers became agitated over a single passenger who was coughing. Of course the passengers on the plane demanding that they turn around had already failed in their science check.

Once the plane exceeded 10,000 ft the air was being recycled so they were most likely already exposed to the contagion.  Again, too little too late, and failure to understand the way technologies work.  

Not to suggest that coronavirus is as contagious as fictional viruses from various movies but the point is still the same. What’s done is done.  

Turning around to expel a single passenger then taking the same plane to your destination without disinfection is probably not going to do much to limit your exposure. In fact if all the passengers had to deplane the exposure levels probably went up with all of them being huddled in the terminal together.

But common sense doesn’t seem to have much sway in the time of “I feel…”

The snake oil salesmen will be coming out of the woodwork now with holistic cures, crystals, salt, and other “Natural cures”. Yes there are a lot of plants and materials that do have antiviral/antibiotic properties. Most of Western medicine has it’s roots in the natural world. That being said, much as I hate to say it, big Phama may be the answer. 

Scientific research has in many cases taken the natural properties of plant & materials and enhanced it to the point that efficacy is well beyond the natural abilities of eating tons of the raw materials.

So for the time being wash your hands, don’t touch your faces, avoid crowded places, and pay attention to your health. A substantial percentage of folks get a little sick and recover. Thus far the problem seems to be older folks or folks that have underlying conditions.

Just remember you read it here first.

Jan 27th I wondered if the genie was already out of the bottle.

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Rainy Day

IMG 1240Woke up to rain on the roof this morning. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

There’s nothing I need to do outside. I suppose I could park the car outside for a free wash.

Nope, too much effort to get dressed.

I will get out of bed eventually, but right now it’s nice just sitting here listening. 

Something about rain is soothing. As long as I don’t have to drive in it with all the other people on the road, many of whom don’t have the skill to be driving, or the sense God gave a goose.

I’ve often wondered if putting a 21 day wait time on the purchase of a car would impart to people that cars are at least as dangerous to use as a gun.

In what universe does it make sense to fly up behind and sit on someones bumper who’s already doing 80? It make less sense to do that when you can see that the traffic ahead is coming to a stop. All it takes is a little common sense to realize that the person whose bumper you’re rinding is likely to hit their brakes.

That’s the situation I found myself in on Sunday afternoon on the I-15. The moron behind me was totally shocked when I hit my brakes to stop. The idiot locked their wheels and darted into the emergency lane to avoid hitting me (there was at least that mercy). I’d been slowing and tapping my brakes to accommodate the traffic in front of me. The woman riding my bumper was heedless, and I suspect distracted by her damn phone.

I figured that my car would be in the shop again, but no worries I’m going to be out of town and with luck my car would be repaired by the time I got back.

Thank goodness it was a clear sunny day and the roads were dry, otherwise the silly person would’ve spun and taken me and a bunch of other people out with her foolishness.

Maybe today in the rain she’ll cause the destruction she so narrowly missed causing Sunday.

Today I won’t worry about it. I’m going to be home, snug and warm listening to the rain on my roof. I could look at the live traffic maps and enjoy the mayhem vicariously.

Nope! For the next foreseeable hour or two, I’m turning off the tech and going back to sleep. 

If you’re out in the rain, drive carefully and try to take a moment to enjoy the sound of rain on a roof.

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UGH! I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.

Had a bit of a workout yesterday, couple that with the time change and lack of sleep and all I want to do today is nap.

This desire is being fueled to some extent by the overcast weather and the threat of rain. I love to sleep with the sound of rain on the roof. If it starts raining I can tell you that I’ll be napping in no time.

I have managed to clean a little and will clean some more during the day. Got dishes to do and clothes to wash. That being said, I’m feeling a lot lazy today.

Other than just the routine stuff, nothing much else to report.

While reading the various news today I see Coronavirus is still spreading. I also see the political parties are trying to spin it to their respective advantage. That’s cheap and sleazy, there are people that are truly afraid & others that are sick. If there was ever a time for political figures to put down their battle axes it would be now.

Part of your job is to reassure the public. So DO your freakin jobs!

Also saw that Trump declined to attend a St Patrick’s Day luncheon where speaker Pelosi was the host.The media is all up in this saying Trump is an ass for not attending. 

D’uh. On the other side of the coin, perhaps it’s best if we keep those two apart just to avoid further national embarrassment. I can’t say I really blame him for not wanting to attend. No matter what he said, he’s be giving Pelosi ammunition. 

Even if he walked in, said, “Thank you for the invitation. Happy St Patrick’s Day,” then sat down. Pelosi would probably find something to bitch about.

As you may have gathered, I’m totally over their drama and would love it if they’d both sit down and shut up.

Hmmm, I guess I’m a little cranky. 

Maybe it is time for that nap…

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On The President

First thing:

Every other western country has very specific rules about immigration. For example, I’m too old to immigrate to Australia. Yes, they’re agist about it. In their defense they wouldn’t let me immigrate because I can’t work long enough in their system to pay enough taxes to fund my pension and healthcare post retirement. They are logically limiting the number of people in their country that could be dependent on their form of welfare.

I can’t immigrate to Canada because my skills aren’t in high enough demand versus their own population and therefore it’s likely that I’d be a burden on their society.

Germany would require that I learn the language, German history, and be employable. Unless I was a refugee.

England, has rules very much like the Canadians. I couldn’t immigrate unless I brought skills that were in short supply.

So why then is America “The evil bastard” in the room?

Isn’t it more reasonable for America to institute similar rules to be more in line with other Western countries?

Even Mexico has immigration guidelines.

So why the hypocrisy?

More curious, is why aren’t our media outlets pointing this out? Oh yeah, hatred of Trump.

I was in Palm Springs yesterday.

While waiting at a counter to purchase something, A gentleman volunteered that he’d just moved to Palm Springs from Los Angeles. He said that the traffic in LA had driven him out of the city, but that his out of state friends couldn’t grasp how bad the traffic actually was. The clerk said, “Yes, that’s why I moved out here,” 

The clerk acknowledged me, “Is that all for you?”

I said, “Yes thank you.” Then offhandedly mentioned if you want to give out of town friends a real taste of LA Traffic invite them to LA when the President visits. The clerk laughed, the other man got a sour face and said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere near the President.”

I realized he was thinking only about Trump, so I explained that I meant any President. And that I personally had been stuck in traffic for seven hours due to President Obama’s visit.

The clerk immediately said, “Wasn’t that a cluster fuck?” I agreed and told him eventually I’d weathered the nightmare traffic in a bar.

The newcomer to Palm Springs simply said, “Oh”

It was at that moment that I realized Trump has been living “Rent Free” in a lot of people’s heads. Apparently a significant percentage of these folks somehow think that Trump controls everything.

This dude is only a President. He’s not in direct control of much of anything. He’s bound by rules, regulations, Congress, and the Judicial branch of our government.

Don’t take this to mean that I think Trump is a good president. He’s a bombastic, hyperbolic, rhetoric spouting messenger.

Yes, he can champion initiatives. He can veto bills, He does have some control over the direction the country is heading, (although apparently no control over his tweets,) but if you think of him as generally a messenger, a face of the government, then you might start to see that the real power in Washington is in Congress.

The next logical question to ask is, “What have those assholes done for us lately?” Aside from each party battling the other to complete impotence in virtually every state and the hallowed halls of congress. Really, what have they accomplished?

Following that train of thought, since both the House or the Senate are distracted, It’s only logical that a President might be able to grab more of the reins of power and pursue his or her personal agendas. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Which points right back at the problem. Congress! Were they actually doing their jobs instead of fighting like children, President Trump would just be a “meh” President.

Presidents come and go, some are leaders, others are ventriloquist’s dolls. Others still are rogue operators. History determines what a President was.

President Trump may have correctly identified the problem when he described Washington as a swamp. Hey, give credit where credit is due… However he clearly overestimated his ability to change it.

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I know it’s been a while…

I’ve been busy.

Unfortunately not with a real job, unless you call looking for a real job, a job.

I guess you could call it that; lots of busy work and following threads into rabbit holes, ending in dead ends.

I’m in Big Bear for about 5 days. In 2 weeks I’m finally going to take a long overdue trip. I’m going to see my brother and I’m looking forward to it.

Of course the flight is booked on a a 737 (Not the Max) so I don’t think there will be insurance payouts forthcoming. Sorry Bro!  Of other interest is that I’ll be flying, in a closed environment where the spread of various diseases is freaking rampant. 

Coronavirus anyone?

I’m too mean for it to kill me but I’ll probably mutate it into something truly awful.

You’re welcome!

Since I wrote my other blog post about the Coronavirus I’ve been checking in on the disease every couple of days. It’s been interesting to see the narrative change from within China and now watching the world reacting to the virus spread.

Seen the stock market lately?

I really wanted an iPhone 11 max. Sigh…

I’ve particularly been interested in the WHO take on it. In one article, they said that quarantining was a good thing, and in another article they castigate the USA for halting travel from affected nations. Yet Australia does the same thing and the news media plays a cricket soundtrack.

WTF?

Have we really gotten to the place where hatred of Trump overrides the wellbeing of our nation?

The world said nothing when China locked down millions of people with their travel bans. Although the bans came too late to prevent spread of the Coronavirus.

No one said too much when cruise ships were denied docking privileges, stranding hundreds of people at sea.

But let America institute a moderate travel ban and suddenly the WHO has something to say about it. Must it always just be about hating on Trump?

Trump BTW isn’t the only voice in the travel ban. The CDC has a lot to say about the proper protocol.

If the CDC says get ready and have 2 weeks of food & water laid in at your home, then perhaps it’s not just about Trump. Perhaps the CDC knows something they haven’t shared with the public yet.

After all America is a twitchy place. What would happen if folks in America lit their hair on fire and started running in little circles?

I’ll tell you what would happen; Mad Max in some cities. 

I’m planning on staying away from large population areas as much as possible. Which is not to say I’m canceling my trip. 

I wonder if I can buy a space suit from NASA between now and when I’m supposed to fly?

Humm, there’s a thought.

Nah, they probably wouldn’t let me on the plane.

I am curious to see how many people will be flying with face masks. I wonder if the airports will look like China.