American Elephants

That’s a quotation from Breitbart, quoting the White House National Economic Council Director Lael Briainard who stated that “Americans are generally happy with their personal finances, but companies need to lower prices”. A new role for our federal government, telling American companies to lower their prices. Usually, if peopls stop buying their products because they find them too expensive, companies quicly respond. That’s how markets work, and how companies respond. It’s called basic economics, and the government is the last place companies are apt to consult about just how they should price whatever it is that they are selling.

Someone who gets appointed as the White House National Economic Council Director should be familiar with the natural working of the economy and how raising or loweing a price acts. but that doesn’t always work our as expected either. American companies quickly respond if the public finds their products too expensive, that’s how the market works. They really don’t want to follow unwanted directions from a White House employee, who may be totally unamiliar with the workings of the marketplace. Sometimes companies actually know what they are dong, and respond to marketplace changes promptly. Companies that don’t respond to what the market is telling them are apt to go out of business fairly soon.

You can see the uncomfortable look on his face, which undoubtedly suggests the discomfort of his hand-carved wooden false teeth. Imagine that in your mouth!!! We should probably have a National Dentist’s Day to celebrate the marvelous advances they have contributed to our health, comfort, and well-being! They need some celebration, but many people would be reluctant to admit they have any false teeth, particularly if it’s a lot! But how very worth some celebration!! It was a long time before they could come up with something designed to be comfortable in your mouth and also look natural to other people.

Today, you simply cannot tell, and what a blessing that is !!!

Addendum: We (modern folk) are apt to forget that we did not always have photography, and that the drawings we have to represent the pre-photography folk depended entirely on the skill of the artist drawing the picture, which may look like a dandy drawing and yet be entirely incorrect as an accurate representation of the person being depicted. So the representations we see today may have little resemblance to the real person.

97 People have been confirmed dead, The deadliest wildfire in the United States in over a century! And that’s just the “confirmed” number. There was little information about just where people took shelter when the storm hit, and it was clear that a great many were not about to come out in case there was more storm to come.

There may be more dreadful news about people who have not yet been found. Not everywhere where people took shelter turned out to be a safe spot. It’s just going to take time to find the survivors and all the dead, and identify them correctly.

The phone lines to Hawaii are undoubtedly jammed, if they still are available and work. Probably do better just to watch the TV news. They are tying desperately to find answers, and more skilled at it.

The death toll has already topped 100, they just have not all been identified yet. People who were headed for the beach probably didn’t have their driver’s licenses or identification in their pockets.

Lots of sources, but clearly, an accurate death toll is simply not available yet. Not helpful for the folks desperately trying to find out if their relatives survived. Those who found a safe shelter are not ready to come out and deal with it all, in case there is more to come. Those who found a safe place are going to try to stay safe. Those who found a safe place but were terrified that there would be more aren’t coming out any time soon in any case. Those who are searching for family and friends aren’t much interested in telling the rest of the world about their hopes and fears, but in finding their family. Very understandable.

Initial reports are usually off and untrustworthy anyway and early on there’s no way to find “official” correct answers. They are trying hard, but it is just going to take time.Those of us who are not desperately searching for family would do better to just turn on the TV. Every reporter with any connections in Hawaii is already tying up the phone lines.

I’ve been going on, probably a bit too much, about the death toll on Maui. News photos of the damage are shocking. Not used to seeing so much damage from weather anywhere in the country, except from forest fires. But real forest is usually pretty widely distant from most of us city dwellers. I grew up with National Forest all around us so I’m probably much more conscious of the effects of forest fire than most. Many of my friends grew up next to national forest or on national forest stations as their dads were forest rangers or employees of the Forest Service, and I spent time with them at the ranger stations. Saw the exhausted rangers as they came in from fighting the fires.

You quickly learn that forest fires are no joke. National Forest acreage is usually very large, and thus an enormous potential threat. If a forest fire starts in a section of a national forest, the potential of it’s spread is huge, and immensely urgent to quickly get under control. By the time the News starts covering the fire, it’s already big, or nobody would pay attention at all. I’m probably more attuned to national disasters than most. City people rarely have any understanding of “national forest” at all. We had miles and miles of national forest around us, so were conscious of any headlines that contained those words.

I’ve been going on quite a bit about the death toll on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Hurricanes occasionally touch the State of Hawaii, but have seldom done much serious damage. This was a bad one American cities have seldom been touched seriously by real damage from natural weather sources. Not usual. Some on the East Coast from natural weather, and on the Gulf Coast. The West Coast is seldom affected with any more than the usual occasional bad weather, and folks are usually prepared for that. If you have been subject to storms that regularly do serious damage, you learn what to do to be prepared. If a storm is predicted, you put the animals in the barn for their protection, and do what you can to keep them safe. There are usually plenty of warnings about upcoming very bad weather, but serious damage is not common. However, it sometimes happens. And we are sometimes unprepared.

The more we know about bad ones, and serious damage, the better we can be prepared to button up, put the animals in the barn, and the car in the garage, Still, the unexpected happens, and theoretically that’s why we have insurance.

Seems to range from somewhere over 120 down to the high 90s. Confirmed counts are unavailable, or rather they are “widely” available, it’s just that they vary a lot and any “real” confirmation hasn’t yet appeared. Dreadful for those who just know that some members of their family were planning on a Hawaiian vacation over Christmas. It will all be clear eventually, but hard on those who are concerned about their own family. Waiting for information to become available is very hard, especially when you have so much unverified stuff on the news.

The “officially reported”: death toll on Maui has been all over the map and those who have relatives vacationing there must be frantic trying to find straight answers. Phone lines are undoubtedly thoroughly tied up with family members trying to find out if their relatives survived. Those of us who don’t have any relatives vacationing there would help if we stayed off the telephone and watched the news online or on TV. You will get straight information there, and help those who are desperately looking for family.

Lots of folks were out getting sun and sand when the hurricane hit, and nobody knows just yet who died and who survived and if they survived where they found shelter. It’s all going to take time to sort out. You would help most if you put your curiosity aside and let those trying to find their family members succeed with their calls, and just watch TV instead. Reporters are obviously trying hard to come up with verified facts and numbers for a broader audience. Patience!

The death toll on Maui keeps changing. People took shelter from the hurricane, and have been reluctant to come out in case there was more wind. The death toll has been confusing and has not settled tidily on a single number. People headed for sunshine and the beach do not usually carry lots of identification, but rather, empty pockets so they don’t lose wallets and cash in the sand on the beach.

Hawaii, indeed, is an island in the ocean, but has seldom been afflicted with hurricanes. Those who found shelter were reluctant to emerge because they simply did not know if it was all over and safe to come out. People who died because they could not find safe shelter probably were not laden down with a billfolds and identification since they were headed for the beach. Just normal stuff but with the descent of a major hurricane it is an enormous problem to identify the dead. If they didn’t leave someone back at the hotel who could identify them, their identity was a mystery.

Hotel clerks may know the name, but not attach it to the correct visitor, and family back stateside may not have had the name of the hotel, but just know that their relatives were going on vacation. Last time you went on vacation to a hotel or tourist court in your vacation location, did your family back home have the name and address of the hotel where you were going to be staying? Probably not, they just knew you were going to Hawaii and maybe when, and probably envied you.

Apparently, when the hurricane hit, people took shelter in the most convenient spot, and weren’t about to come out again until they were assured that it was safe. And at that, not very trusting of assurances. Some dead didn’t have their identification in their pockets, and it has been hard to find out who they were. If you are off to the beach to lie on the sand and get a tan, you may not have your billfold in your pocket, so it has been extremely hard to identify the dead, and those who found a safe place aren’t sure that the storm is truly over and willing to leave their “safe space”.

So that’s where we are, with a lot of unidentified bodies, being DNA tested, to try to find out who they are. Stateside families are frantic about their missing relatives, and tying up the phone lines; It will all get sorted out, but obviously not as quickly as family members want, and we have to sympathize with them as well. Patience is not always easy.

Seems like it’s harder than ever to find out what is going on in the world. The news sources are focused on the Hawaiian island of Maui and the death toll there, which seems to be completely up in the air. The numbers are all over the place, and there don’t seem to be any confirmed numbers or even facts for that matter. Firm death counts come out regularly, but are soon discredited with other reports. Maui was hit with a major hurricane, some people had trouble finding a safe spot to ride it out, others moved around, many who found a safe space were not about to even come out, in case there was more storm. mass confusion, nobody knew who was safe and who was not. Most people who survived may still be in hiding, nobody is sure that the storm is really all over. The damage to houses and cars is extensive, and to all the major towns. The news photos are horrifying.

Stateside families are frantic about the members of their families, but can’t get information, phone lines are tied up, There’s no way to fix the situation at present, and it’s mostly going to be painful waiting, and frantic worrying. The radio and TV will probably be the best source at present, but we all know what those are. Those of us with no family there should clearly not tie up the facilities. Put your curiosity aside, and wait for the news services to do their job. They, at least, know what the are doing. Patience is a virtue.

One must assume that the succeeding death tolls are “corrections” from increasing information, but I don’t know if that is true. Apparently too many unidentified bodies and the DNA tests just haven’t caught up.

What a dreadful situation for those in the states who had family on vacation in Hawaii over the holiday season. A Hawaiian vacation must have seemed like a marvelous treat for the family when you were getting out of a miserable icy cold winter. When the storm hit, everybody took shelter in buildings or spaces that seemed safe, and some were just not safe spaces. People who were sheltered and safe were not sure when or if the storm was really over and when or if it would be safe to emerge, All completely understandable, but of course the result was massive confusion about what to do where to go and where to shelter.

People out on the beach were unlikely to have their billfolds with them to identify themselves if they had gone to sit on the beach just to enjoy the sunshine and warm water. Well, I don’t know, I have never been to Hawaii, and never had any urge to visit. I’m not a sit on a sandy beach and get a suntan person, but for many that is an ultimate vacation. There’s a reason why Florida, South Carolina, Georgia , Texas and Arizona have big tourist seasons in the winter. I’m admittedly a mountain lakes and trout person.