American Elephants

President Biden has notified more than 150,000 borrowers today that all or part of their federal student loans will be forgiven because he us transferring their debt to the American taxpayer. So if you poor American taxpayers have just finished off paying for your kids’ college, you now get to pay for all the rest of other people’s kids as well. Am I reading this incorrectly? Free college for everybody who can’t afford to pay for tuition? Have wondered if President Biden was perhaps a little short in math skills, but I didn’t expect proof quite so quickly.

If I am reading this incorrectly, please let me know

All over the world, new babies are being born and old folks are dying of natural causes, and it’s not all recorded and monitored. Is any population estimate anywhere near accurate? Interesting question! Accidents, wars, diseases, it’s pretty amazing that we can even have any maybe slightly accurate facts.

Try looking up “the population of the United States”. Of course we don’t have anything accurate! When John Smith and his wife have a baby, how many other couples were also having a baby that sane day? Or losing a baby? Or losing a grandparent? It takes time for a death to occur, be reported, and grandparents to die. It’s pretty amazing that we can actually record some of the events, or translate them into statistics, that may be possibly reliable, but probably not. It would be helpful to governments if they had accurate facts, but undoubtedly impossible. In spite of it all they do pretty well.

Search populations, diseases, death tolls, that sort of thing. You’ll find it interesting. Then think back slightly to when we didn’t have computers to keep us up to date on the news, not just here but across the world. I have no idea how many Americans die each day on average or are born each day, or if there is any reliability to the numbers. Probably not. Are some parts of the country better informed than others? No idea. Are we turning out better educated kids? I’m not sure that we are. Does anybody care?

We are still deep in flu season, and you surely know the rules for avoiding catching the disease! Ideally; stay home as much as you can, If you have to go out, wear a mask if you can, avoid crowds, wash your hands frequently, that sort of thing. Look up the safety rules yourself, so you know what you are doing, and what the risks are. Make this year remarkable for the small number of deaths. Consult the CDC (Center for Disease Control,) online for advice and warnings, and take their advice!

Assemble a list of websites that you believe can be trusted, double check them regularly. Everybody gets things wrong, it’s the ones that regularly admit their mistakes that are more apt to be trustworthy. Everything is always changing, it’s an uncertain world out there, and nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. That’s life.

I am a Conservative Republican blogger. You are welcome to disagree, reject my ideas, and invited to argue should you wish., and I’ll be happy to respond as best I can. I don’t pretend to be anything different, nor to fool anyone in any way. That’s the viewpoint here. We all, I assume, read the news and opinion on the internet because we want to understand what is going on in the world, and find the news sources somewhat lacking in agreeing with us. We are inclined to think that formal news sources are somehow better informed that we may be, but I suspect that is not true in any way whatsoever. We gradually find sources that we may trust, but that’s changeable as we learn more. It’s a very big world and the influences are always shifting.

Most of the wars that have devastated parts of the globe did not happen because everybody was well-informed and understood what was going on, and if we had been better informed might have been prevented, or probably not. That may just be inevitable because we are flawed human beings faced with more events and opinions than we can get our minds around, and there’s a big chunk of events that we don’t understand at all. Reading and discussing and trying hard to be knowledgeable helps but everything out there is constantly changing and we are only ill-prepared humans trying to cope.

Oddly, I am still having trouble with the move into 2024. Too long in the 1900’s. 1999 seemed ordinary and reasonable, but once it became the twenty-somethings my mind hasn’t quite adapted properly. I’m working on it. Anybody else having that problem? Are calendars selling a lot more this year? Do you have trouble writing the date at the start of a letter? Or have you just given up on that one?

That’s the day and date that my computer tells me is correct. So all the problems with things that were supposed to have been delivered some time age, are just delayed because the invisible snow that never fell to delay deliveries was late? Or did someone else get my groceries? Anybody else having this sort of problems? Or did their driver just dump them off out on the street outside? Or did he get the wrong house in the first place? I don’t need this kind of problems to deal with today.

I find that I am not yet adjusted to dates that start with 20-something. Too long in the teens!, obviously a whole century. Dunno if everybody finds that a bit of a stumbling block, but I am finding it uncomfortable. Odd. Probably many felt the same way back in 1900. As the old saying goes ”Time Marches On”!, which is undoubtedly why it became “an old saying”. And why most everyone has put up a calendar on their wall to remind them not to screw up the dates. Been saying and thinking nineteen something or other for a very long time.

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If you are free to stay home for a while, may be a good idea. When they get around to reporting numbers for flu cases across the country, they don’t say so, but it means there’s a lot of flu going around. And it is catching. So if you don’t have to go out…don’t! If you do, avoid people who are sneezing or coughing, wash your hands frequently, use a lot of mouthwash, and gargle frequently and, I guess, hope for the best. You could also wear a mask, which might also help. Avoid crowds, take what precautions you can. Check with your doctor’s office.

“The number of weekly flu hospital admissions continues to increase,” the agency said, adding, “CDC estimates that there have been at least 10 million illnesses, 110,000 hospitalizations, and 6,500 deaths from flu so far this season.”

6,500 deaths from flu so far this year suggests this should be an issue worth paying attention to!!

On one page…”Death toll from Maui wildfire reaches 89, making it the deadliest…”
Maui wildfires rises to 93 from 115,”Maui wildfires death toll rises to 110…” Death toll rises to 53,making it the deadliest wildfire since the 2016 Camp Fire…”CBS News “Maui fires death toll rises to 80 marking the deadliest natural…” and so on for something like another 30 or so listings.

So reporting the news is a difficult job, and they try hard to get it right, but…

One Moment of Patience
       May Ward off Great Disaster…
   One Moment of Impatience
       May Ruin …
         A Whole Life!

If you have seen pictures of the damage on Maui, the “confirmed” part keeps changing They are using DNA testing to try to get accurate answers, but nobody knows where people took shelter, nor whether they have come out or are still playing it safe in case there is more storm to come, which is pretty understandable.

Hard on stateside families who want desperately to know if their family members survived, Television will probably have the quickest and best confirmed numbers, but that’s only “probably”. People who were killed in the storm may still be in the hiding place they found, yet nobody knows where or who was safe and who was killed. Just takes time. Very hard on families. Not knowing is harder than getting used to bad news. Probably most helpful to stay off the phone lines which are way overcrowded.