American Elephants


Mindless, Purposeless Riots Just For Fun. Disgraceful. by The Elephant's Child
August 25, 2020, 1:21 pm
Filed under: Crime, History, Law, Police, Politics, Progressives, Regulation, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

The Left has certainly dragged out their old-time-religion. Race, white supremacy, fascism, and apparently not the slightest interest in what is actually going on in our world today. Riots, not “peaceful protests” and if you have watched the videos, they are not really about much of anything but the fun of roaming down the streets with big groups of people, breaking stuff, breaking windows, damaging property, attacking cars and people. Mindless. They are out there for the fun of it.

They need to be hauled off promptly to jail. Democrat Mayors are terrified of even the possibility of doing anything about it. In Seattle, the feckless Mayor Jenny Durkan pulled herself together a bit and vetoed the feckless Seattle City Council’s attempt to defund the police. And I think I read that the National Guard has been called out for Portland, that would have to be the governor I think, Mayors can’t. But the fun in the streets has spread to Denver,  Minneapolis of course,    Fort Wayne Indiana, Green Bay Wisconsin, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Olympia WA and that is far from a complete list.

“Black Lives Matter” has nothing to do with this mess. There’s a lot of violence and drugs in poor black neighborhoods, and they want and depend on police protection.

Attacking statues has lost some of its fury. What becomes completely clear is that there is a very deep ignorance of American History. “Fascist” is a popular word: Here’s Wikipedia’s definition, but I’d be willing to bet that few if any of the street mobs could define it. Mindless.

Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.

Look up Benito Mussolini in Italy, who “popularized” the idea. But the problem is authoritarianism. The urge to control. Well, Mussolini made a mess of it, but if you are interested in this “new” authoritarianism I recommend borrowing The Black Book of Communism from your friendly public library. Amazon has it, but it’s quite expensive, even used. Or buy Communism: a Brief History by Richard Pipes, one of our greatest historians. Or read about the Soviet forced labor system in The Gulag Archipelago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn. Lana Peters, Stalin’s daughter became an American citizen, and died at 85, not too long ago.

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When the Convention is Online, You Can Just Turn It Off by The Elephant's Child
August 21, 2020, 1:51 am
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Coronavirus, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economics, Environment, Immigration, Politics, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

Is this day three or day four?  I’m losing track. I must admit I read about it, I don’t watch the hate Trump fest. They can’t really seem to make up their minds anyway. They were off on a big Post Office thingy which seemed completely unrelated to reality. But that has sort of faded, so they are back to blaming Trump for all coronavirus death. (Lets De Blasio off the hook as well).

The odd thing is that at the Democrat online convention, there has been no mention at all of the violence in Portland and Seattle, or the defunding of police, in hot spots around the nation, which  commands the news. The convention is not interested. No interest in weekend killings. No interest in statue desecration, nor even in attempts to burn people alive in Portland’s federal building. But of course it is Democrat run cities and states that have the problems, so it’s awkward to mention them.

Climate has been mentioned. AOC’s “Green New Deal” assures us that we only have 12 years left. Odd. The climate has been changing for millions of years, some hot years, and some unusually cold ones. We even had a major ice age, and some little ice ages. The polar bears are just fine and multiplying nicely. Susan Crockford is the wildlife biologist who is expert on polar bears. The Left seems to prefer that polar bears be endangered.

At the convention, some Democrats were furious that they only gave AOC one minute to speak. She is very outspoken, but very ignorant. I don’t suggest that she is dumb, she is not. She just doesn’t have familiarity with a lot of rather useful facts.

If you are confused by things climate, visit Dr. Roy Spencer’s site, linked in the sidebar. He explains global warming and what we know and what we don’t know. Dr. Spencer runs the satellites that measure world temperatures for NASA at Huntsville Ala. with Dr. John Christy who measures world temperatures with weather balloons. Lots of other good sites in the sidebar, and when you arrive at any one of them, there are extensive lists of scientists at work, and their blogs, deeply informative.

California is now going through power outages and wildfires because people can’t get it through their heads that wind turbines and solar panels cannot provide the power that a modern society requires. Joe Biden is quite sure that banning fracking, banning drilling, and shutting down anything that runs on petroleum will save us from the doomsday in 12 years. That certainty should worry us all a lot.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish child who did the world tour, did not have any science, only religion of a sort. It’s brought in all sorts of money for her and for her parents, for the world was inspired by a child attempting to save the earth.

And do not forget Christiana Figueres. She was at one time the Executive Secretary of the IPCC, and at a news conference in Brussels in early February of 2015 admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological catastrophe, but to destroy capitalism.

 

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Good Ad. We Don’t See Very Many of Those! by The Elephant's Child
August 21, 2020, 1:34 am
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Education, Energy, Environment, History, Junk Science, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

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The Covid Virus is Testing Our Elected Officials by The Elephant's Child
August 6, 2020, 6:57 pm
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Election 2020, Police, Seattle WA, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

Human beings are kind of a mess, but so far we seem to be the brightest of living creatures available. Unfortunately, that still leaves a great deal to be desired. Behold:

Students at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Loyola University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have formed a coalition called Solidarity Street that aims to abolish policing on campus.

The group (says) “Cops aren’t workers and the city needed to stop negotiating with them years ago. August 1st we’re demanding y’all cut ties and divest from this white supremacist cult sooner rather than later,” one Instagram caption reads.

In another post, the group argued that cops only exist to defend wealthy Americans. “Cops are not workers. A worker is someone that sells their labor to make ends meet. Cops do not do this,” the post reads. “They defend the interests and property of the wealthy. Cops do not need a pay raise. They need to be defunded. They are the armed wing of the American capitalist state.”

In a statement, Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown said that they will continue their efforts to reduce violence in the area.

If you can read this without laughing, or conversely, shedding a few tears, these are the students that are the future of our beloved country. It seems that a surprising number of our citizens are going to have to learn about police and policing the hard way. When they are getting beaten to a pulp by someone who wants their smart phone and their money, or when someone is breaking into their house, and they are frantically trying to call 911 with no response, and no one comes to their rescue.

California, it is reported today, is releasing almost 18,000 prison inmates including a convicted murderer, because of the Covid virus.  Almost 8,000 inmates have been sickened by the virus, and eight have died. So let them out to spread it around?

There is way too much talk about “White Supremacy” today. There are significantly more white people in America than those of other races. The population of the U.S in 2000 was 393,745,538 at the time of the 2000 census. 196,817,552 or 63.7% were white.  37,685,848 or 12.2% were black. 14.465.164 or 3.6% were Asian. 50,477,694 or 12.5% were Hispanic, and 2,247,058 or 1.9% were American Indian or Alaska Native. Efforts to make sure that everybody is included have been continuous, with varying degrees of success. There are undoubtedly many people in charge of something or other who are white, and organizations that do not include a representative of a particular race.

I have read statements by many members of Congress, presidents of one organization or another, some of them fairly stupid, and many embarrassing. Should we test for IQ, historical knowledge, legal understanding, and basic common sense before allowing anyone to run for an important position? We’re stuck with ordinary human beings, fallible as they are, and we need to be generous or demand changes as the case may be.

Here in Seattle, it is apparently getting too expensive to “peacefully protest”. Protesters have, if I understand the radio correctly, filed a lawsuit to require the county to outfit them in protective gear to protect then from the depredations of the police in their protective gear so they can “peacefully protest” as is their constitutional right. (told you that was where this was going).

I have written previously about the Seattle City Council’s effort to defund the police and turn over the policing function to a “civilian-led department of community safety & violence prevention”.

Carmen Best is the first Black Woman Police Chief in the United States, and she has done a fabulous job, it is widely agreed. She dared to speak out about the City Council’s error in the civilian-led nonsense, and the City Council just decided to defund her. They reduced her salary by about $100,000. Don’t know how this will all play out, but Chief Best deserves far better.The Seattle City Council is an embarrassment.

People are out of work, cooped up at home, chafing at being confined, masks, shutdowns, and doing without the things they need. Elected officials are required to step up and do what needs to be done. A surprising number have demonstrated that they are not only not capable of doing so, but some of the most notable are making a mess of it all too.

ADDENDUM: I apparently messed up with my numbers here. The U.S. population in 2000 was 281,421,906. In 2010, it had increased to 309,349,689. I went to the U.S. Census Bureau for the numbers. And they reminded us that if you have not yet answered the census, do it now. You can do it online, only a few simple questions.  Thanks to reader Counter for catching my error.

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History is a Record of What Happened. You Cannot Fix it! by The Elephant's Child
June 18, 2020, 5:53 pm
Filed under: Africa, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Election 2020, England, Freedom, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, South America, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

File:Emancipation Proclamation - LOC 04067 - restoration1.jpg

Democrats are apparently terrified that Donald Trump might win re-election this fall and subject them to another four years of terror. Their immediate focus concerns the vote of Black Americans. They have already shown that they will kneel in abject humility on the floor of the United States Congress, draped in what they consider to be African apparel to show their plaintive agreement that “Black Lives Matter,”and encourage Blacks to vote for them.

Not enough. Nancy Pelosi is now attempting to demonstrate that Republicans are the “white supremacy” party and Democrats deeply oppose the side of the South in the Civil War of 1861, by removing four portraits of former Speakers of the House who once served in the Confederacy.

Well, it’s a little difficult to blame it all on Republicans when one recalls that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.  He issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, which became effective on January 1, 1863. The reproduction shown above was from 1864 and is in the Library of Congress.

History is a record of what happened.  Sometimes new evidence is discovered that alters our understanding, but in general we’re stuck with the evidence of what really happened. Human nature is not all sweetness and light. We are human beings, some good, some bad and some really dreadful. No saints.  Do remember that most families have trouble getting along,

Most of us don’t know enough history. Our public schools are clearly doing a lousy job, and if we have kids, we need to help them to get interested.  The general knowledge of history, American history and world history is lacking. Knowing how we screwed up in the past sometimes helps us to avoid doing it again, but we cannot remake the past. What happened, happened.

Slavery was at one time common. Muslims ruled the slave trade in Africa, and marched captured Africans north, and to the Atlantic coast to ship to the Americas. Most of the slave trade went to the sugar islands and South America rather than to the Southern States. American Indians kept slaves. When they warred with another tribe, those captured were kept around to do the scut work, rather than killed when the fight was over. That may be the origin of much of slavery. Britain stamped out the slave trade. They set the Royal Navy to eliminating the Atlantic slave traffic, which they did.

Look at all the changes in society that have made slavery unnecessary, aside from being disgusting, of course.  Most of the slave trade in the South was because of the cotton crop which the British needed for their fabric mills, and the South needed for income.  Farm work today has become heavily mechanized, though there are some things that still must be picked by hand. Farm equipment is truly astonishing these days, and the elaborate machines are something to behold. And we are just at the beginning of the age of robots and computer printing and there are plenty of enthusiastic applicants for the Space Force. The more we know about our own history, the better it will help us to avoid bad mistakes in the future.

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Tear Them Down, Civil War Generals and Columbus Too! by The Elephant's Child
June 14, 2020, 2:47 am
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Crime, Domestic Policy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Law, Media Bias, Military, Police, Politics, The Constitution, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

https://americanelephant.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/084d4-00066339.jpg

Now we seem to have reached the stage of tearing down statues and destroying monuments, for what purpose is not entirely clear. History has become a bad thing, to be ignored or changed to suit more contemporary minds. Since our schools have been doing a lousy job with history anyway, our people don’t seem to know much history. The center of the current rioting is, of course, the American Civil War, fought between the North and the South, and at the heart of things was slavery. The South lost. The Slaves were freed, and slavery became against the law. So why do they seem to be fighting it all over again 169 years later? Statues of Civil War Generals must be torn down, defaced, destroyed. Places named for Civil War generals need to have their names changed, and Nancy Pelosi wants large numbers of the statues in Statuary Hall (I’ve never been there) removed, although they were put there by the states themselves.

Place names: Fort Bragg, and Fort Benning. Quick, can anybody tell me who is honored with these names of military posts, and cities? Does the name Braxton Bragg ring any bells? Thought not. How about Henry L. Benning? How can these be names that must be removed because of their terrible associations if nobody knows who they are and Forts Bragg and Benning are just names, like Sally or Bill? that serve only to distinguish the bearers from Susan and Sam?

Of course Christopher Columbus has been torn down in the last few days as well. I can guarantee that he had nothing to do with the Civil War, so why? I think it’s the vague thought that he was mean to the native Indians, ignoring the wonders of the Columbian Exchange, and the childhood rhyme “In 14 hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” That latter verse may be what most kids learned about history in grade school.

Victor Davis Hanson took up the same subject in National Review’s Corner: “On Name Changing and Statue Toppling” . The removal of anything Columbus has been going on longer, but I have no idea what they have in mind. The Nation of Columbia, the Columbia River, Columbia University, and several hundred other things come to mind. Take a moment and look up “The Columbian Exchange” if you are unfamiliar with it.

As I have said, and so many other have said, history is the record of what happened. And for that matter a record of the order in which things happened. If tractors and plows had been developed much earlier, the South would have had no need for slaves to produce their cotton crops for British mills. Remember, it was the British that really started the elimination of slavery when they banned the Atlantic slave trade, and set the Royal Navy to work to stop it..

It’s clear that what must change is a little more attention to the curriculum in our schools. They are doing a lousy job with history, and the historical ignorance out there is having a major effect on politics and our understanding of the world. Hillsdale College offers some free online classes in history, especially American history. If we don’t understand where we have been, and how we have progressed and why, we’re going to make a mess of the future.

I don’t believe that tearing down statues, changing the names of military bases, or re-fighting the Civil War, the War Between the States, will improve the lives of our Black citizens in  the slightest. We have created many programs, opened many doors and clearly, more is needed. Charter schools seem to be doing a good job, but I guess it’s teachers’ unions who fight against them. Perhaps the most important example was the young black kid in Columbus Ohio, who was written up recently for walking 3 miles every day to the public library that offered homework help. He has been offered admission to 12 different colleges, including the one he most wants to attend.

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Other Voices About Race And Policing by The Elephant's Child
June 12, 2020, 1:59 am
Filed under: Blogging, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Election 2020, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, Regulation, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

Aside from the goofiness on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, the discussions about Race and Police are serious and deserve serious thought and discussion.

Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research who has written extensively on criminal justice. She has several important books out and here are her comments submitted to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives in response to the Oversight Hearing on Policing Practices. It is truly important to get the views of someone who is an expert in the field and knowledgeable about the criminal justice and policing. Do read the whole thing if you can make the time. You’ll be glad you did.

Here is Columbia University linguist John McWhorter on “How Anti Racism Hurts Black People.”

And PowerLine included this tweet from Doctor Tyrone Wilson:

Dr. Tyrone Wilson @DrTyroneWilson1

In 8 years of residency and attending as a trauma surgeon, I’ve had 67 young black men end up on my operating table from gunshot wounds.

I CAN’T MAKE THIS CLEAR ENOUGH

NONE OF THEM ENDED UP THERE AT THE HANDS OF POLICE OR A WHITE PERSON.

NONE OF THEM….ZERO#BLMisLiberalBS

Serious subjects, and many of us are inclined to respond to emotion rather than taking the time to study up. The death of George Floyd was surely a terrible act. Suggestions that it was intentional are clearly premature, as the autopsy’s suggest , but such an emotional thing to see his death online, that the whole world was troubled.

Black lives of course matter, and more people than many blacks can conceive want them to succeed and prosper.

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Six Square Blocks in Seattle: Antifa’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone by The Elephant's Child
June 10, 2020, 9:52 pm
Filed under: Capitalism, Economics, Education, History, Law, Police, Politics, Seattle WA, Socialism, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

View image on Twitter

What an interesting day! I got up late, but while I was sleeping, apparently Antifa rioters were hard at work, capturing a six-block square territory on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, proclaiming it “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone“, under their own rules and regulations, seceding from the United States of America and issuing a long list of demands, unsurprisingly silly.

The Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, under attack from rioters, closed the precinct station down late yesterday, and evacuated before somebody got hurt. By early today the separatists had apparently run out of money and had to beg for food from supporters, beg for people with guns to help protect them, and the City helpfully provided them with dumpsters and porta-potties.

Protesters led by activist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant occupied City Hall downtown last night for just over an hour, called for the resignation of Mayor Jenny Durkan, and the defunding of the Seattle Police Department. They entered chanting “Whose City Hall? Our City Hall!” and a number of speakers on a range of issues spoke on the importance of Black LGBTQIA+ (Not sure that I can translate that, but you get the idea). “It is about building the kind of political representation that brings the voice of the people into the halls of power and grabs power for ordinary people” Sawant said. :Please stop using Black Lives Matter for your political campaigns, also noting the whiteness of many speakers at recent protests.  Sawant also had critical words for her council colleagues who she called “corporate politicians” and “sellouts.”

There are apparently around 500 residential homes in the area, so they have stationed a fire truck there, just in case. While the mayor claimed to keep the area safe, she told the rioters.

“As the Chief takes this operational step, we will continue to remain focused on what we can and must do to address the systemic inequities that continue to disproportionately impact our Black residents,” she tweeted. “Yesterday, we announced a commitment to invest $100 million dollars into community – in addition to existing city programs — and to work with community to create a Black Commission that will help to amplify black voices in City Hall.” She added “With these operational changes, our city can peacefully move forward together.”

The rioters have declared independence from the city itself, and if they are seceding from the United States as well, they will have to negotiate with President Donald Trump. Which might prove interesting.

The Seattle area is home to an enormous number of colleges and universities, which may have something to do with this. There is the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran, University of Puget Sound, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, Northwest University, Bellevue College, all sorts of Community colleges and Evergreen, a list that does not begin to include all the trade schools and branch locations. And, due to the Corona Virus shutdowns, they are not in session. College kids, having learned protesting in college, have in many cases  been trained in the wonderfulness of socialism as well. There will be lots more excitement, I’m sure, before we can get back to normal life. Some COVID-19 watchers seem to think that because of all the riots and crowds, we’ll  have another bad outbreak in the fall, others don’t think so.

How long our major corporations will be willing to put up with this (Increased taxes for Amazon and Microsoft are a common demand) is an unknown. The rioters seem remarkably free from any knowledge of history, or much of anything else as far as that goes. Certainly young blacks growing up in single-parent households, in bad neighborhoods, don’t see a path to success ahead of them. That is not the fault of the police, who try to keep neighborhoods safe.

Aside from abolishing the police, Seattle protesters have demanded not only amnesty, but free health care and free college. The Black Lives Matter people might pay a little more attention to the young black Ohio teen who walked three miles every day, to go to his public library that offered homework help. He has been offered admission to 12 colleges, including the one he most wants to attend.

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Man The Barricades, The People Are Getting Angry! by The Elephant's Child
May 2, 2020, 2:38 am
Filed under: Bureaucracy, China, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Economy, Politics, Regulation, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

Independence is a tradition in America, The people don’t really like being ordered around, and a number of governors are getting more than a little officious. The people understand the pandemic, and the need for care and avoidance, and wearing masks, but we are seeing examples of whole cities being shut down, with no one allowed to enter or leave and that goes way too far.

Since our officials are elected from the general population, their skill at good management is not always in evidence when they are elected and is sometimes utterly missing. President Trump correctly turned the management of the states over to the governors of their own state, and some have done all right, most have gone too far, fearful of not doing enough. The most urgent problem is that many Americans have lost their jobs, and are finding it difficult to cope. And many of those who might be employed have had their workplace closed. Food bank use is way up.

Protests are breaking out, sometimes spontaneous, often organized, and it may get worse. People want to go back to work. Our governor here in Washington State has just extended his “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order through May 31. He may allow  some retail curbside purchases, car washes, (Swell, and I really, really need my hair cut) but I will be allowed to wash the car. More details to come. Pet grooming may be allowed, but not for people. can you tell that I am getting a little testy?

California’s governor Gavin Newsom has been very busy closing beaches, and as the weather is getting warmer, that’s not going over well. Orange County is bitterly protesting the closure of their beaches. They have had a very low death rate, with a higher population in the county than that of many states. Most of the people who live in Orange County live there because of the beaches.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has shut down the schools for the rest of the year. There will undoubtedly be no summer camps available. Parents will have to find new amusement or tasks for their kids.

New York was fearful of running out of hospital space, and the President sent the Hospital Ship Comfort , but it never was needed at all, though the arrival was prompt and spectacular. They also, I believe. built a military hospital tent in a park, which was also never used. Better to have unused supplies, than sick people needing unavailable beds.

The nation’s governors have no experience of pandemics, nor of preparing for them, or administering them. Next time around, we will be better prepared. Are they not telling us that there will be a second round this next winter? There is so much that we do not know, but we are learning fast. I hope they are keeping good records of our successes as well as our failures.

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How Will This All Play Out? by The Elephant's Child
April 15, 2020, 3:41 am
Filed under: Capitalism, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Economy, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

I keep wondering just how this home confinement is all going to play out. People online are talking about their daytime pajamas and their nighttime pajamas. Everybody seems to be working from home, mostly not too successfully, at least to those who are trying to contact their business.

When the economy “opens back up” will people want to go back to their place of business or will they prefer to work from home, and how will that work out. I notice the clothes that are being advertised online are very loose and unfitted, and the men working from home, if visible online, seem to have a shirt and tie on with their pajama pants.

Will grocery stores have to regroup as more people want their groceries delivered? Some stores are allowing only a few people in at a time, others have made their aisles one way, to avoid people having to pass each other. I have no idea, but I suspect that there will be big changes gradually. Just idle speculation in this very strange period. I’m not thinking in terms of politics, nor coming elections, just from the home confinement and working from home part. Of course it’s quite different for city apartment dwellers, some in very small apartments, from those with big suburban lawns. What do you think? Do we just return to the world as we knew it, unchanged? Or has something shifted permanently?

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The Mood is Changing by The Elephant's Child
April 11, 2020, 4:09 pm
Filed under: Capitalism, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Economy, Law, Politics, Regulation, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

I had read that the Democrats were planning to attack Trump for being late with his recognition of the dangers of the Corona virus. Now he is being criticized for his briefings. I suspect that he believes that it is his duty to report on progress to the American people. The media are usually baiting and hostile, and the president is seldom of a mind to let them get away with it. Lots of criticism for Dr. Blix and Dr. Fauci for not giving the answers the press wanted.

”The Wall Street Journal reported that according to a “premier Biology Journal”  the Wuhan virus can’t be tied to China.  Odd, since the presence of the virus in America came from an American returning home to a relative in a nursing home in Kirkland, a mile or so north of us, directly from Wuhan, China, and passing the virus on to all of the residents, most of whom died. Also infected some of the staff, and nearby Evergreen Hospital where the patients were treated.

We seem to have passed on from the phase when people wanted to find out about the disease, how to treat it and what to expect, to a new phase where they want answers right now. When will this be over? Some doctors are saying that it’s no worse than the flu, If you had  it and recovered, can you get it again? When will we have a vaccine? and will it be mass produced? Doubt about the “models”. It’s getting belligerent out there. Possibly it has sunk in that the kids are going to be out of school until next fall, and have to be home schooled, entertained, and cared for. Saw a cartoon recently that showed two small children, a boy and a girl, taped to the hardwood floor at home, apparently while the beleaguered parents take a break.

I think this is the way we usually set in to an unpleasant period. First you’re eager for more information, then you get a bit angry at not receiving the answers desired, and then you gradually settle in to just endure.

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How to Survive the Current Covid-19 Crisis and the Economic Crisis As Well. by The Elephant's Child
April 10, 2020, 1:59 am
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, China, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Free Markets, Freedom, Health Care, Junk Science, Media Bias, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Technology, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: , ,

The situation here with grocery stores pretty much sums up the situation nationally. Our grocery stores manage to serve our city population of 122,363 efficiently and without shortages or any particular problems. We have a wide variety of grocery chains, some smaller local stores, significant numbers of ethnic specialty stores ranging from the huge Uwajimaya to some catering to Russians, a variety of Eastern Europeans and a number of Mexican Taco trucks. The larger chains have added ethnic foods to their regular stock to appeal to the latest groups added to the workforce at Microsoft, Amazon, or the smaller businesses that depend on the giant employers. No empty shelves, and if something is missing you hardly notice.

Now, everyone is ordering their groceries to be delivered. You start with a delivery time which will probably be 5 to 6 days hence, and try to figure out what you will need by then as well as what you are out of now. I am currently OUT of coffee, and getting testy.`One chain tells you as you go along what they are out of now, the other doesn’t tell you what they are out of until you submit your order, and then you have to start over. And was it a matter of brand or language, or are they out of the whole category? The whole experience suggests that people are really “stocking-up” (hoarding) in case they have trouble finding that product next time. The more you find that they are out of something makes you want to stock-up as well — and so it goes.

The same thing is going on nationally, and not just about groceries. People and pundits are attacking the president and all of his advisors. The experts he consults are criticized, because the critic would have consulted someone else instead, and doesn’t like what the expert had to say. Governors issue lots of orders, many of them misguided, whine about supplies they are not receiving, do not  appreciate what some of those still working are going through on their behalf. The truckers who are trying to deliver the needed goods cannot find food or restrooms along the highway. Which is a valid symptom of what everyone is faced with in one way or another.

Take a deep breath. Most of these people are trying to avoid any and all unnecessary deaths, and to protect the living from contagion — as their first and most compelling task. That is going to mean a lot of discomfort for others who are worried about lesser problems. Read that book you set aside a while back. Go the Hillsdale College website and take an online free course in history or government or economics for that matter. Start researching and writing down your family history.  Write your own assessment of the current world situation for your children or grandchildren or the local newspaper. Learn to knit or draw. Plan a summer vegetable garden in pots or planter boxes. Type in “All About Birds” in the search bar of your computer, which will lead you to Cornell University’s website which offers just that, and plan a bird feeder or hummingbird feeder for your yard or window. Learn how to play Cribbage. Look into the history of sailing ships or early aircraft. Or just write down a list of 20 things you would like to learn about or learn how to do, and — start.

Or perhaps, write a critique of today’s mass media, and the current job of reportage. Do you think they still have journalism schools? And what are they neglecting to teach their students? Are you utterly fascinated with what the latest celebrity has to say? And why not? That should keep you busy for a while.

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