I hope Old Dog puts his cyber problems behind me, so that we can begin discussing movies and other stuff.
After reading that sentence a few times the first part still doesn't make a lick of sense to me. Why would I put my cyber problems behind Uncle Ken? Anyhow, the major problem has been resolved and traced back to an update of Google Earth Pro, some nonsense about a missing DLL file. I'm wary about fiddling with those files and entering into the terminal mode, a lot can go wrong. After a little uninstalling and cold starts I was able to load an older version of Earth Pro and now all is well, near as I can tell.
-----
It's been years since I watched Sling Blade and I recall liking it, perhaps not as much as some others. As I was looking for a streaming site to watch it for free I found
Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, the 25 minute short film, in black and white, that the longer film was based on. I found the longer film and the first 15 or 20 minutes is an exact copy of the short, at which point I quite watching it. The original was so lean and strong that I thought watching an expanded version would be a pointless waste of time. Maybe I'm wrong but it's not an important issue to me.
A lot of movies have been like that to me lately. I'll start watching them and after a little while I'll lose interest and find myself not caring about what I'm watching. At least I'm not wasting a lot of dough for the privilege of being bored and the popcorn at home is a lot cheaper, too.
One of the reasons I enjoyed Da 5 Bloods so much is that I knew black guys in the army exactly like those guys in the film. The army is a great equalizer, throwing men from different kinds of backgrounds into the big green melting pot. Groups and sub-groups are formed, sometimes along racial lines but not always. More often than not I'd be hanging out with guys from a big city like Detroit, Philly, New York, and of course, Chicago; LA or San Francisco not so much. And that meant being in the company of non-white personnel, race wasn't much of an issue most of the time in my experience. I'd be drinking rum with the Puerto Ricans or listening to the Temptations with Da Bloods, it was all good. Remember that elaborate handshake in the movie called The Dap? I used to know how to do that but the version on Okinawa was a little different; I don't think they teach that to just any old white guy but now I'm bragging a little. And why not? It's nice to be included in new and different social groups, and respect is a two-way street. Most of the time.
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I don't like the way the nation is skewed geographically.
And? We all gotta be someplace. Here are some interesting maps for your viewing pleasure. Please take note of #16 and compare Chicago and Beaglesonia.
Speaking of Beaglesonia, has the yeast shortage ended?
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
yes, we are one nation
I have never suggested that the Trumpists and non-Trumpists separate themselves into little islands. I don't like the way the nation is skewed geographically. If we lived in closer proximity we would likely not be so divided. We would have a chance to speak to each other and not scream. That is The Liberal Agenda after all, the truth will make us free. As much as I dislike the mindlessness of the Trumpists I have never said that they aren't Americans. They are merely misguided. Hate the sin but love the sinner.
No, you are not qualified to offer solutions to the problems of police brutality, which by the way is not a just an urban problem. You need facts, you need knowledge, you need experience. Sitting in the swamp and reading the local paper and catching a snippet of the evening news and perusing your little msn news app is just not enough. I could browse through a car magazine but that would not be enough to recommend the kind of car and driver to win whatever the next big race is.
And before this I have never heard you utter a word about the Man being too heavy on the black man (and of course it's not just black and white), Your main concern has been consistently to keep blacks from taking over, by which you mean having the same rights and privileges that you enjoy.
The thing about these cases that are coming up now is that they have been recorded, the evidence is right there in front of your eyes. There are certainly some cases where the black is at fault, but that doesn't make it right when the cops do shit like in Minneapolis
etc.
You've had a weekend and yet it seems like you have done no thought on your 'plan.' How big would the zones be? What about the minority white or blacks who would find themselves in such zones? Would we need brown zones also, and red and yellow, what about gay people, how about zones for gay and straight, men and women?
It's like you are saying you have discovered man could fly by strapping a ironing board to each arm, and then leave it to other people to figure out the details. If you'd spent fifteen minutes with your stupid 'idea' you would have realized that it didn't make any sense.
How is the corona problem impacting life in the swamp? Are you discomfited by some stores requiring a mask to protect their employees and the families of the employees,
So then are you admitting that the reps did the wrong thing by lifting their lockdowns early and causing the spike that Gutsy Gretch avoided for Michigan and thereby increased the odds of your living to an even longer and more cantankerous old age?
Even my cats know that if two things happen at the same time it does not necessarily mean that one is connected to the other.
I hope Old Dog puts his cyber problems behind me, so that we can begin discussing movies and other stuff.
No, you are not qualified to offer solutions to the problems of police brutality, which by the way is not a just an urban problem. You need facts, you need knowledge, you need experience. Sitting in the swamp and reading the local paper and catching a snippet of the evening news and perusing your little msn news app is just not enough. I could browse through a car magazine but that would not be enough to recommend the kind of car and driver to win whatever the next big race is.
And before this I have never heard you utter a word about the Man being too heavy on the black man (and of course it's not just black and white), Your main concern has been consistently to keep blacks from taking over, by which you mean having the same rights and privileges that you enjoy.
The thing about these cases that are coming up now is that they have been recorded, the evidence is right there in front of your eyes. There are certainly some cases where the black is at fault, but that doesn't make it right when the cops do shit like in Minneapolis
etc.
You've had a weekend and yet it seems like you have done no thought on your 'plan.' How big would the zones be? What about the minority white or blacks who would find themselves in such zones? Would we need brown zones also, and red and yellow, what about gay people, how about zones for gay and straight, men and women?
It's like you are saying you have discovered man could fly by strapping a ironing board to each arm, and then leave it to other people to figure out the details. If you'd spent fifteen minutes with your stupid 'idea' you would have realized that it didn't make any sense.
How is the corona problem impacting life in the swamp? Are you discomfited by some stores requiring a mask to protect their employees and the families of the employees,
So then are you admitting that the reps did the wrong thing by lifting their lockdowns early and causing the spike that Gutsy Gretch avoided for Michigan and thereby increased the odds of your living to an even longer and more cantankerous old age?
Even my cats know that if two things happen at the same time it does not necessarily mean that one is connected to the other.
I hope Old Dog puts his cyber problems behind me, so that we can begin discussing movies and other stuff.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Urban Problems
"We are one nation. We are not a house divided." - Uncle Ken
So Uncle Ken feels himself and his ilk to be one with the Trumpists and their ilk? He sure had me fooled!
The reason I keep advancing these "stupid" ideas is I am trying to come up with a proposal to resolve, or at least mitigate, the problem of White cops killing Black people. I have said before that every case is different, sometimes the White cop is at fault and sometimes he is not, but some people seem to assume that the White cop is always at fault and, if an investigation or court proceeding finds otherwise, then the cop "skated". Sounds like racism to me.
Maybe I am not qualified to offer solutions to urban problems like that, since I renounced city life when I was seven years old and spent the next ten years biding my time until I was old enough to leave. In that case, I'll just back off and let you city slickers solve your own problems. After all, you've done a really good job of it so far.
Another urban problem that is none of my business is that corona thing. So far the effects of the virus itself have been minimal in my neck of the woods. The effects of the measures implemented to fight the virus, however, have put an undue burden on us country folk. Cheboygan County did experience a spike the other day, after weeks of hanging at 21 our total case count soared to 22. Lock us down, lock us down, we're out of control!
Speaking of spikes, didn't those protests, that didn't cause the spike, start about the same time all those Republican governors lifted their lockdowns prematurely, which certainly did cause the spike? Coincidence? I think not!
So Uncle Ken feels himself and his ilk to be one with the Trumpists and their ilk? He sure had me fooled!
The reason I keep advancing these "stupid" ideas is I am trying to come up with a proposal to resolve, or at least mitigate, the problem of White cops killing Black people. I have said before that every case is different, sometimes the White cop is at fault and sometimes he is not, but some people seem to assume that the White cop is always at fault and, if an investigation or court proceeding finds otherwise, then the cop "skated". Sounds like racism to me.
Maybe I am not qualified to offer solutions to urban problems like that, since I renounced city life when I was seven years old and spent the next ten years biding my time until I was old enough to leave. In that case, I'll just back off and let you city slickers solve your own problems. After all, you've done a really good job of it so far.
Another urban problem that is none of my business is that corona thing. So far the effects of the virus itself have been minimal in my neck of the woods. The effects of the measures implemented to fight the virus, however, have put an undue burden on us country folk. Cheboygan County did experience a spike the other day, after weeks of hanging at 21 our total case count soared to 22. Lock us down, lock us down, we're out of control!
Speaking of spikes, didn't those protests, that didn't cause the spike, start about the same time all those Republican governors lifted their lockdowns prematurely, which certainly did cause the spike? Coincidence? I think not!
Time out
I'm having a little trouble sorting out some annoying computer issues, should return tomorrow.
Carry on.
Carry on.
a house divided against itself cannot stand
A house divided against itself cannot stand - Abraham Lincoln. There's your Occam's razor. It's stupid idea, it's racist, and it doesn't even make any sense. There is another razor.
The reason that many big cities have mayors who are not white is that many of the whites are not racist and choose to vote for who they think is the best candidate and are not concerned that his or her skin is not the same color as theirs.
We are one nation. We are not a house divided.
Back in the land of sanity. As I stood on my balcony watching the cops and the demonstrators a month ago one of my thoughts is isn't this going to increase the pandemic? Apparently not. There has been no spike. Apparently the open air made the big difference, and I have to think that the fact that most of them were wearing masks, even though they were yelling through them, was a factor. Now we will have to wait and see what comes out of Trump's Tulsa fiasco. Of course the fact the hall was only half-filled might mitigate the potential disaster although they did jam themselves tightly together and scarcely a mask to be seen, so we'll see what comes of it.
Normally you can't keep the Trumpists away from a rally with a baseball bat, so what are we to make of this? Can people who love Trump still be smart enough to know to stay away from events that will make them sick?
Here is something strange, you may have read about it, Old Dog may even have experienced it. Downtown is filled with fireworks almost every night. Well not filled, but they go off often enough, the ratatat of crackers, the soaring rocket that I can see just feet from my balcony, and the deep dark loud thuds that sound like wartime.
And the motorcycles. Used to be they would make an appearance with the coming of warm weather, but after a week or two they would fade away, but now they are constant. And sometimes after hearing a lot of roars I will step onto the balcony and see no motorcycles, but looking closely I see that it is, what do they call them these days, hot rods? They rev at a light and then roar forward the few feet to the next light and then roar forward from that, and they just generally streak through the streets like in those popular movies I never see.
What are the police doing? Why aren't they at least making arrests and making examples? I hate the phrase troubled times, but in these troubled times I reckon they have their hands full. I rarely see a cop car downtown of late. I stare into the night with its bangs and roars and wonder who are these people? I don't know.
Movie time. Watched Sling Blade again Saturday night. I liked it as much as I have the couple times I have before, though my sister did not care for it. I know Beagles rarely watches movies, so I am wondering if Old Dog saw it. Trying to get some culture into The Institute to break the tedium of Beagles and myself yammering.
PS, how do you like this font? All I did was go up a notch on font size (the two T's in that menu at the top) and it makes it so much easier for me to read.
The reason that many big cities have mayors who are not white is that many of the whites are not racist and choose to vote for who they think is the best candidate and are not concerned that his or her skin is not the same color as theirs.
We are one nation. We are not a house divided.
Back in the land of sanity. As I stood on my balcony watching the cops and the demonstrators a month ago one of my thoughts is isn't this going to increase the pandemic? Apparently not. There has been no spike. Apparently the open air made the big difference, and I have to think that the fact that most of them were wearing masks, even though they were yelling through them, was a factor. Now we will have to wait and see what comes out of Trump's Tulsa fiasco. Of course the fact the hall was only half-filled might mitigate the potential disaster although they did jam themselves tightly together and scarcely a mask to be seen, so we'll see what comes of it.
Normally you can't keep the Trumpists away from a rally with a baseball bat, so what are we to make of this? Can people who love Trump still be smart enough to know to stay away from events that will make them sick?
Here is something strange, you may have read about it, Old Dog may even have experienced it. Downtown is filled with fireworks almost every night. Well not filled, but they go off often enough, the ratatat of crackers, the soaring rocket that I can see just feet from my balcony, and the deep dark loud thuds that sound like wartime.
And the motorcycles. Used to be they would make an appearance with the coming of warm weather, but after a week or two they would fade away, but now they are constant. And sometimes after hearing a lot of roars I will step onto the balcony and see no motorcycles, but looking closely I see that it is, what do they call them these days, hot rods? They rev at a light and then roar forward the few feet to the next light and then roar forward from that, and they just generally streak through the streets like in those popular movies I never see.
What are the police doing? Why aren't they at least making arrests and making examples? I hate the phrase troubled times, but in these troubled times I reckon they have their hands full. I rarely see a cop car downtown of late. I stare into the night with its bangs and roars and wonder who are these people? I don't know.
Movie time. Watched Sling Blade again Saturday night. I liked it as much as I have the couple times I have before, though my sister did not care for it. I know Beagles rarely watches movies, so I am wondering if Old Dog saw it. Trying to get some culture into The Institute to break the tedium of Beagles and myself yammering.
PS, how do you like this font? All I did was go up a notch on font size (the two T's in that menu at the top) and it makes it so much easier for me to read.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Detachment
It occurred to me that I have been making this autonomy thing more complicated than it needs to be. All that is really needed for a neighborhood to become autonomous is that it detach itself from the city and reorganize itself into a separate village or township. It would still be part of the county and the state, but it would no longer be part of the city. All the other details we have discussed would be handled the same way they are handled now when one jurisdiction abuts another. All the major cities have adjacent suburbs as it is, this would be just adding one more. If our detached neighborhood ends up totally surrounded by the city, it would then be an enclave like Hamtramck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamtramck,_Michigan) instead of a suburb like Cicero.
The only glitch is that the existing suburbs grew up around the city after the city's borders were established. Some suburbs were later annexed by the city, but many were not and remain autonomous even unto this day. I have never heard of it being done in reverse, a piece of the city breaking off and becoming a suburb, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. I suppose different states have different procedures for this, or maybe none of them have, which means we have to make one up. First we get sufficient names on a petition to put the measure on the ballot. If the ballot initiative passes, then we're home free unless the city opposes us in court, which could drag on for years. At first I thought the city would be glad to be rid of us, but maybe not. People are funny that way about real estate sometimes, they have no use for it, but they don't want anybody else to have it either.
Then I got to thinking that, since White people are a minority in many core cities, it might be easier to break out the White neighborhoods and let the city keep the rest. But wait! If Whites represent a minority of the city's population, why are a majority of the city's cops White? Yeah I know, money power, privilege, etc. But wait! Some cities like Chicago have Black or Hispanic mayors. If the Whites can't even control City Hall, how can they control the city police? I seem to have misplaced my Occam's Razor, maybe Uncle Ken will let me borrow his.
The only glitch is that the existing suburbs grew up around the city after the city's borders were established. Some suburbs were later annexed by the city, but many were not and remain autonomous even unto this day. I have never heard of it being done in reverse, a piece of the city breaking off and becoming a suburb, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. I suppose different states have different procedures for this, or maybe none of them have, which means we have to make one up. First we get sufficient names on a petition to put the measure on the ballot. If the ballot initiative passes, then we're home free unless the city opposes us in court, which could drag on for years. At first I thought the city would be glad to be rid of us, but maybe not. People are funny that way about real estate sometimes, they have no use for it, but they don't want anybody else to have it either.
Then I got to thinking that, since White people are a minority in many core cities, it might be easier to break out the White neighborhoods and let the city keep the rest. But wait! If Whites represent a minority of the city's population, why are a majority of the city's cops White? Yeah I know, money power, privilege, etc. But wait! Some cities like Chicago have Black or Hispanic mayors. If the Whites can't even control City Hall, how can they control the city police? I seem to have misplaced my Occam's Razor, maybe Uncle Ken will let me borrow his.
Friday, June 26, 2020
good cops and bad cops
Didn't Abraham Lincoln say that a house divided against itself cannot stand? Are you talking about dividing the country into a white zone and a black zone? Who decides who gets what, and don't we all know who is getting the shitty side of the stick? What kind of jurisdiction are you talking about, just police? Are they both going to vote in the same mayoral election or are you going to have a black mayor who will be mayor of only the black people and a white mayor who will be mayor of only the white people? If I commit a murder in one zone can I flee to the other zone? What about people who have parents on both sides of the race line? What problems is this supposed to solve?
Back to the real world, I am still conflicted about the recent demonstrations. On the one hand who likes looters, and on the other hand who likes rogue cops who kill at will and skate on the charges? What I have been saying of late is that there are good and bad demonstrators and good and bad cops. Some demonstrators are just protesting injustice and some are just out to destroy and loot. Some cops are just doing their job and want to help people out, and others are corrupt and brutal because they can get away with it and suffer no consequences.
There are things written into police contracts like the review board will be loaded with ex-cops so that every review comes out in favor of cops, if a cop beats the charges against him then records of the case are destroyed, if he doesn't beat the charges those records are destroyed in a few years, the cop is immediately told who the complainant is so that person can fear retribution, the accused cop is given like a week before he has to respond to charges so that he has plenty of time to line up witnesses and get his story straight. I don't know how prevalent these conditions are, but I think they are quite common in big cities.
Cops get away with this shit pretty often and the only recourse the victim has is to sue the cops. This puts them in more of a neutral zone and they often win these cases and the city had to pay out millions of dollars to settle these cases and that money is not going to schools and services,
And cops in general get a bad name because of the bad cops. You would think that if you were a good cop, the kind of guy who joined the force to root out the bad guys and help the good guys you would not want these guys on your force, giving you a bad name and making it hard for you to gain the trust of the public See in my more idealistic moments I am thinking that the good cops, who surely are in the majority will eventually oust the bad cops.
But then in a recent election this guy https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2020/5/8/21252822/chicago-fraternal-order-police-union-new-president-election-catanzara-graham won the election for head of the police union by 54 percent of the vote, so what does that tell you?
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Autonomy
When I first heard about that Seattle thing they were calling it an "autonomous zone", and I liked the sound of that. By the time I looked it up yesterday they were calling it an "occupied protest zone", and I didn't like the sound of that.
Of course it's not exactly the same thing, but I still think there is something to be learned from Northern Michigan's experience with our local Native American Indians. I once read somewhere that the official government definition of the modern reconstituted Indian tribes is "sovereign dependent internal nations". The problem I have with that is the words "sovereign" and "dependent" contradict each other. I think the word "autonomous" more correctly describes their legal status. While it's true that the state government has no jurisdiction on tribal land, the federal government certainly does, and the tribes have control over their local affairs. Sounds like autonomy to me.
Tribal Indians are both American citizens and citizens of their so called "sovereign" tribe. They vote in federal elections and also elect a tribal chairman and board of directors. I'm not sure if they also vote in state elections, but I know that only card carrying tribal members get to vote on their tribal government. The tribe itself decides the criteria for membership, which usually involves tracing the applicant's ancestry back to a member of the historic tribe. Last I heard, the Sault Band of Chippewas had stopped accepting new members. The only way you can become a member now is by being the child of a current member. You don't have to live on the reservation to be a member, but you have to be a member to live on the reservation.
In my proposed Black Autonomous Zones, Black people and White people would be free to come and go as they pleased. I think the boundaries should be clearly marked but not fenced or barricaded. Whoever you are, you would be subject to Black law while you're in a Black Zone, and the regular law while outside of it. Anybody not willing to accept that should stay on their own side of the border. The Black zones would have their own local government and police force. Other services like fire protection and utilities would be negotiable. Smaller zones would probably contract with the adjacent municipality for this stuff, but there would be nothing to prevent them from generating their own locally if they could afford it.
This brings us to the question of funding. The Indians have been quite successful with their casinos, but I'm not sure how many more casinos the market will support. The Black zones could be allowed to "capture" a portion of local taxes like the downtown development authorities do in Michigan, but I'm not sure if that would be enough. Indians have a long history of communal property ownership, but I don't think the Blacks do. Let me think about this one for awhile and, of course, I'm open to suggestions.
noble savages?
I'm back. Actually I got back yesterday morning, but by the time I did it was too late to post anything. Partly my fault, partly google's fault. Things get complicated and very boring in the cyber world. I will leave it at that.
I wonder what Beagles thought that Chaz was all about, local guys deciding they could form a better place if they could just get the gummint off their backs? Maybe going back to our noble savagehood? There was an idea of the noble savage that was kicking around three or four hundred years ago in that civilization was what ruined the natural goodness in man. It's basically a myth, the savage without the accoutrements of civilization is obeying the law of the jungle, of which there is nothing noble. I suppose it is free of hypocrisy. but I don't mind hypocrisy like I did in my younger days when I saw myself and my brother hippies as some kind of noble savages. Anymore I see it as kind of the dark side of good manners. It helps us get along, and I believe in getting along.
I never liked that occupy movement. One of their principles was that they had no leaders and their aims were vague. This helped increase their membership (such as their membership was, they were not a card-carrying organization) because there were no specific issues to disagree with. They had a pretty good idea of what they were against but no unified idea of what they were for. They faded away like dust in the wind, and who cared.
Black Lives Matter has a similar structure no leader, nobody carrying cards, no specific program. They are mostly in reaction to black people getting killed by (white) cops which happens with depressing regularity, which keeps them going unlike the occupiers who didn't even have that much specificity.
One of the core problems of these cop killings that spur BLM is that the white cops almost always skate. Everybody but the most hardened racist sees that this is wrong and here is where I think they get most of their support. And lately these guys are getting prosecuted (with mixed results because cop unions are powerful), but beyond that they are against police harassing black people in general, and brutality, which again most people can agree with,
But then we get to the issue of systematic racism along the thin blue line and institutional racism where the country is split more evenly, with Trumpists and right wingers not agreeing that either of these exist.
The deeper and wider the demands of BLM become the harder it is to achieve them. It's not that much of a problem to get a bad cop offender prosecuted, but reforming the police is a much harder slog, and institutional racism an even harder slog. And how are you going to accomplish them with a leaderless band who don't need no stinking cards? Marching is easy, anything else is much tougher.
I wonder what Beagles thought that Chaz was all about, local guys deciding they could form a better place if they could just get the gummint off their backs? Maybe going back to our noble savagehood? There was an idea of the noble savage that was kicking around three or four hundred years ago in that civilization was what ruined the natural goodness in man. It's basically a myth, the savage without the accoutrements of civilization is obeying the law of the jungle, of which there is nothing noble. I suppose it is free of hypocrisy. but I don't mind hypocrisy like I did in my younger days when I saw myself and my brother hippies as some kind of noble savages. Anymore I see it as kind of the dark side of good manners. It helps us get along, and I believe in getting along.
I never liked that occupy movement. One of their principles was that they had no leaders and their aims were vague. This helped increase their membership (such as their membership was, they were not a card-carrying organization) because there were no specific issues to disagree with. They had a pretty good idea of what they were against but no unified idea of what they were for. They faded away like dust in the wind, and who cared.
Black Lives Matter has a similar structure no leader, nobody carrying cards, no specific program. They are mostly in reaction to black people getting killed by (white) cops which happens with depressing regularity, which keeps them going unlike the occupiers who didn't even have that much specificity.
One of the core problems of these cop killings that spur BLM is that the white cops almost always skate. Everybody but the most hardened racist sees that this is wrong and here is where I think they get most of their support. And lately these guys are getting prosecuted (with mixed results because cop unions are powerful), but beyond that they are against police harassing black people in general, and brutality, which again most people can agree with,
But then we get to the issue of systematic racism along the thin blue line and institutional racism where the country is split more evenly, with Trumpists and right wingers not agreeing that either of these exist.
The deeper and wider the demands of BLM become the harder it is to achieve them. It's not that much of a problem to get a bad cop offender prosecuted, but reforming the police is a much harder slog, and institutional racism an even harder slog. And how are you going to accomplish them with a leaderless band who don't need no stinking cards? Marching is easy, anything else is much tougher.
Cop Free Zones
Since Uncle Ken was unable to post today, I took the time to do some research on what I have been calling the "Seattle experiment". Turns out I didn't know what I was talking about but, of course, that's never stopped me before. This was not a case of a neighborhood declaring its independence from the city, more like those "Occupy" movements that afflicted the country some years ago. I don't think most of the protestors actually lived in that neighborhood, they came in from elsewhere, shouldered the local residents aside, and took over. Now I understand that similar efforts are being launched in other parts of the country. No good can come of that.
I think what they need is something like the Indian reservations that we have in Northern Michigan. I remember reading somewhere that one of the biggest reservations east of the Mississippi is located in Harbor Springs, Michigan. This puzzled me because I had been through the area many times and had never seen a fence or a sign that identified any of it as reservation land. I later found out that the reservation is not all in one place, it's a patchwork thing that is scattered all over Emmet County. With the earnings from their casinos, the tribe buys private land from time to time and gives it to the federal government to hold "in trust" for them. This parcel is then removed from state jurisdiction and becomes part of the reservation system. To pacify the locals, the casinos kick back some of their profits to the local governments. Everybody must be happy with this arrangement because it doesn't get a lot of news coverage, which is probably why I didn't know about it. There was a bit of an uproar a few years back when the tribe wanted to build a new casino near Mackinaw City and some of the locals said "Not in my neighborhood!" I believe they worked out some sort of compromise, building a smaller facility than was originally planned, and I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.
Nobody is forced to live on the reservation but, if they leave, they are subject to the White Man's law like everybody else. The tribe has its own laws and its own police force but, for serious crimes like murder, the feds usually get involved. When a 911 call goes out, state, municipal, county, and tribal police all respond. If a DNR officer is in the neighborhood, he also might drop by to see if he can be of some assistance. They somehow quickly determine who has jurisdiction and the other agencies frequently hang around and help with traffic control or something. I have never heard of any kind of conflict between the various agencies, they all seem to cooperate and support each other.
I think what they need is something like the Indian reservations that we have in Northern Michigan. I remember reading somewhere that one of the biggest reservations east of the Mississippi is located in Harbor Springs, Michigan. This puzzled me because I had been through the area many times and had never seen a fence or a sign that identified any of it as reservation land. I later found out that the reservation is not all in one place, it's a patchwork thing that is scattered all over Emmet County. With the earnings from their casinos, the tribe buys private land from time to time and gives it to the federal government to hold "in trust" for them. This parcel is then removed from state jurisdiction and becomes part of the reservation system. To pacify the locals, the casinos kick back some of their profits to the local governments. Everybody must be happy with this arrangement because it doesn't get a lot of news coverage, which is probably why I didn't know about it. There was a bit of an uproar a few years back when the tribe wanted to build a new casino near Mackinaw City and some of the locals said "Not in my neighborhood!" I believe they worked out some sort of compromise, building a smaller facility than was originally planned, and I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.
Nobody is forced to live on the reservation but, if they leave, they are subject to the White Man's law like everybody else. The tribe has its own laws and its own police force but, for serious crimes like murder, the feds usually get involved. When a 911 call goes out, state, municipal, county, and tribal police all respond. If a DNR officer is in the neighborhood, he also might drop by to see if he can be of some assistance. They somehow quickly determine who has jurisdiction and the other agencies frequently hang around and help with traffic control or something. I have never heard of any kind of conflict between the various agencies, they all seem to cooperate and support each other.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Oranges to Apples
Apparently, Florida had a big spike in their death count around May 5, which is the publishing date of Uncle Ken's first link. According to my source, which is the same link I provided recently, Florida had 12 new deaths yesterday, while Illinois had 24.
Uncle Ken's other two links talked almost exclusively about new cases, not new deaths. I thought we had agreed that the death count is more relevant because the case count is affected by the rate of testing, which differs from one location to another. Here's what Uncle Ken's third link said about that:
"The number of deaths due to Covid-19 does not appear to be rising along with the number of confirmed cases, Gottlieb said. However, that could be due to the lag in time it takes for infected people to fall ill, become hospitalized and then die. Gottlieb said he doesn’t think the death rate will rise drastically, as doctors have become better at treating patients and more people who get infected are younger and not as vulnerable as the elderly or those with underlying health conditions.
I know from watching Michigan's daily numbers on TV that both counts can vary widely from day to day because each day's count includes cases that happened previously but were not reported immediately. That's why I think that total numbers are more relevant when comparing one state to another.
One of Uncle Ken's links talked about contact tracing. I remember shortly after the corona hit the fan that the cities Down Below were complaining that they didn't have enough staff to do that, but wished that they did. Some time later, I read in our local paper that the rural counties of Northern Michigan have been doing it all along because our case count was low enough that their existing staff could handle it.
By the way, I did mean "NPR" when I said "PBR". I seem to have confused it with "PBS", which is on TV, not radio. I only heard a little bit about Florida on the radio, which inspired me to look it up online to get more detail.
I saw another brief thing on TV this evening about the Seattle experiment. I just went looking on my news app for more details, but this was all I could come up with:
"And for the second time in less than 48 hours, there was a shooting in Seattle’s protest zone. A 17-year-old victim was shot late Sunday night in the area known as CHOP, for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” a day after a 19-year-old man was fatally shot and a 33-year-old man critically injured in there."
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15RyIM?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
Uncle Ken's other two links talked almost exclusively about new cases, not new deaths. I thought we had agreed that the death count is more relevant because the case count is affected by the rate of testing, which differs from one location to another. Here's what Uncle Ken's third link said about that:
"The number of deaths due to Covid-19 does not appear to be rising along with the number of confirmed cases, Gottlieb said. However, that could be due to the lag in time it takes for infected people to fall ill, become hospitalized and then die. Gottlieb said he doesn’t think the death rate will rise drastically, as doctors have become better at treating patients and more people who get infected are younger and not as vulnerable as the elderly or those with underlying health conditions.
I know from watching Michigan's daily numbers on TV that both counts can vary widely from day to day because each day's count includes cases that happened previously but were not reported immediately. That's why I think that total numbers are more relevant when comparing one state to another.
One of Uncle Ken's links talked about contact tracing. I remember shortly after the corona hit the fan that the cities Down Below were complaining that they didn't have enough staff to do that, but wished that they did. Some time later, I read in our local paper that the rural counties of Northern Michigan have been doing it all along because our case count was low enough that their existing staff could handle it.
By the way, I did mean "NPR" when I said "PBR". I seem to have confused it with "PBS", which is on TV, not radio. I only heard a little bit about Florida on the radio, which inspired me to look it up online to get more detail.
I saw another brief thing on TV this evening about the Seattle experiment. I just went looking on my news app for more details, but this was all I could come up with:
"And for the second time in less than 48 hours, there was a shooting in Seattle’s protest zone. A 17-year-old victim was shot late Sunday night in the area known as CHOP, for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” a day after a 19-year-old man was fatally shot and a 33-year-old man critically injured in there."
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15RyIM?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
Sling Blade anyone?
I was wondering where Beagles got those numbers for Arizona, Texas, and Florida, since they seem so far off from everything I've been hearing and looking for his source he claims he heard it on PBR radio, well that yellow beer will surely give you a different outlook on things. Just kidding, I think Beagles means NPR, but I listen to NPR several hours a day and I never heard that. Here's a link for Florida. https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/05/05/florida-adds-113-coronavirus-deaths-a-new-one-day-record/ In the cases if Texas abd Arizona he is citing total and not the recent changes in deaths and cases, Here is a link for Arizona https://khn.org/news/arizona-reopening-health-experts-link-rise-in-coronavirus-cases-to-ending-stay-at-home-order/ and here is one for all three, though you will have trouble if you have adblock https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/22/this-is-a-pivotal-week-for-texas-florida-as-coronavirus-cases-spike.html
What the hell I am going to quarrel with Spike Lee himself, what is the point of putting five in numbers instead of letters? I don't see any, I did like the way the flashbacks Stormin Norman was a young guy while the rest of them were their wheezy present day selves, kind of reminding us that some of us grow old and some of us never have the chance.
Maybe hijacked was too strong a word, delayed might have been a better one. I don't like fight, chase, or love/sex scenes. Maybe the director is showing off his derring do in portraying these common tropes but I am tapping my toe waiting for the movie to get on with it. Actually I thought the movie was also delayed in the dramatic parts where the characters stared at each other wordlessly for way too long. Maybe some people like that, I don't.
The movie was taken from a script had been lying around in Hollywood for some time and the original characters were white and it had a Sierra Madre ring to it. You can see the Sierra Madre bit in the way the characters squabble over the gold. Well Spike Lee always gives you plenty of movie for your buck and I liked the interactions between the black GI's and the Vietnamese, themselves split up into different kinds of guys. The French, of course, come off very poorly. The only white American guy I saw was the guy in the helicopter and he was gone in a few minutes. I wonder if Spike was doing a riff on those movies where the only black character is killed early.
I think Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee's best, and the recent BlacKkKlansman and Chi-Raq were both better movies. Old Dog and I have a history of talking about movies, He turned me on to Henry Story of a Serial Killer and The Cleaner and I think I have turned him onto a few though I can't remember which ones. I wish he would post more often so we could be talking movies instead of me and Beagles yammering at each other. I'll be watching Sling Blade this weekend. Anybody else interested? It has a little bit of the Lone Ranger in it so Beagles might be interested.
I did see that photo of Trump, shockingly his tie untied, his overcoat flapping, in the dark, in the rain. No, he is not dead yet but he has suffered five or six body blows unanswered of late, and it's so long since we have had any moments of home.
What the hell I am going to quarrel with Spike Lee himself, what is the point of putting five in numbers instead of letters? I don't see any, I did like the way the flashbacks Stormin Norman was a young guy while the rest of them were their wheezy present day selves, kind of reminding us that some of us grow old and some of us never have the chance.
Maybe hijacked was too strong a word, delayed might have been a better one. I don't like fight, chase, or love/sex scenes. Maybe the director is showing off his derring do in portraying these common tropes but I am tapping my toe waiting for the movie to get on with it. Actually I thought the movie was also delayed in the dramatic parts where the characters stared at each other wordlessly for way too long. Maybe some people like that, I don't.
The movie was taken from a script had been lying around in Hollywood for some time and the original characters were white and it had a Sierra Madre ring to it. You can see the Sierra Madre bit in the way the characters squabble over the gold. Well Spike Lee always gives you plenty of movie for your buck and I liked the interactions between the black GI's and the Vietnamese, themselves split up into different kinds of guys. The French, of course, come off very poorly. The only white American guy I saw was the guy in the helicopter and he was gone in a few minutes. I wonder if Spike was doing a riff on those movies where the only black character is killed early.
I think Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee's best, and the recent BlacKkKlansman and Chi-Raq were both better movies. Old Dog and I have a history of talking about movies, He turned me on to Henry Story of a Serial Killer and The Cleaner and I think I have turned him onto a few though I can't remember which ones. I wish he would post more often so we could be talking movies instead of me and Beagles yammering at each other. I'll be watching Sling Blade this weekend. Anybody else interested? It has a little bit of the Lone Ranger in it so Beagles might be interested.
I did see that photo of Trump, shockingly his tie untied, his overcoat flapping, in the dark, in the rain. No, he is not dead yet but he has suffered five or six body blows unanswered of late, and it's so long since we have had any moments of home.
Monday, June 22, 2020
Some Numbers
I heard on PBR radio today that, while Florida is reporting a big surge in the number of new cases, their daily death toll has been declining for seven weeks. I just looked it up, and Florida has had 3,173 deaths so far, with a population over 21 million. Michigan, on the other hand, has had 6,097 deaths with a population of 10 million. Approximating the math, Michigan has had almost twice as many deaths as Florida with less than half the population. Illinois has had 6,671 deaths with a population of 13 million, which puts it in the ballpark with Michigan. Arizona, with a population of 7 million, has had 1,342 deaths, which is substantially less than Michigan in proportion to population. Texas, with a population of 29 million, has had only 2,192 deaths, which is even less per capita. Math always was my weak subject, so there might be an error in my approximations. Would Uncle Ken like to point it out to me?
I saw on my news app that Seattle is pulling the plug on its autonomous neighborhood experiment because the citizens are starting to shoot at each other. I don't know the details because my app is acting glitchy tonight and wouldn't let me access the whole story. Maybe tomorrow.
I saw on my news app that Seattle is pulling the plug on its autonomous neighborhood experiment because the citizens are starting to shoot at each other. I don't know the details because my app is acting glitchy tonight and wouldn't let me access the whole story. Maybe tomorrow.
Post Solstice
Dare I remind Uncle Ken that Spike Lee's new film is entitled "Da 5 Bloods" and not Five? Nah, I'll let it go; such a minor issue is not worth being called The Scourge again. Besides, there is no real difference if the titles are spoken but we are writing and not speaking; one is correct and one is not. Are such details important? That's a discussion for another time.
I didn't think that the movie got "hijacked by a search for gold plot and a lot of silly action scenes." The CIA gold was integral to the story and the action scenes were anything but silly. There weren't really a lot of them but they were quick, brutal, and realistic to me.
Another fine movie from Spike Lee, possibly his best, with an outstanding ensemble cast. I like the way he sneaks in certain historical details, such as the character named Larry Thorne, who is worth a Google. Thorne is the only member of the German Waffen SS to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He fought the Commies all his life and was killed in Vietnam, hell of a soldier.
-----
The pandemic is rolling along and I can't determine any definitive consensus among medical professionals except the Big Three: Wear a mask, maintain social distance, and keep washing your hands. I think the doctors are being pressured by economic forces and that's too bad for us. Are we still in the first wave or are we entering the second wave? I read that some European doctor said that the virus will fizzle out on it's own. We'll see about that.
-----
I'm glad that there wasn't an ugly situation in Tulsa over the weekend but did you see the video of Trump as he left Marine One? Christ on a crutch! He looked like he was in shock, coming off of a three day bender except he wasn't drinking. It's the worst I've ever seen him, a beaten man. It will be a miracle if he can pull out of this nosedive but I wouldn't put it past him. There are many tricks up his sleeve and if the stakes are high enough some person, place, or thing will come to his rescue.
I didn't think that the movie got "hijacked by a search for gold plot and a lot of silly action scenes." The CIA gold was integral to the story and the action scenes were anything but silly. There weren't really a lot of them but they were quick, brutal, and realistic to me.
Another fine movie from Spike Lee, possibly his best, with an outstanding ensemble cast. I like the way he sneaks in certain historical details, such as the character named Larry Thorne, who is worth a Google. Thorne is the only member of the German Waffen SS to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He fought the Commies all his life and was killed in Vietnam, hell of a soldier.
-----
The pandemic is rolling along and I can't determine any definitive consensus among medical professionals except the Big Three: Wear a mask, maintain social distance, and keep washing your hands. I think the doctors are being pressured by economic forces and that's too bad for us. Are we still in the first wave or are we entering the second wave? I read that some European doctor said that the virus will fizzle out on it's own. We'll see about that.
-----
I'm glad that there wasn't an ugly situation in Tulsa over the weekend but did you see the video of Trump as he left Marine One? Christ on a crutch! He looked like he was in shock, coming off of a three day bender except he wasn't drinking. It's the worst I've ever seen him, a beaten man. It will be a miracle if he can pull out of this nosedive but I wouldn't put it past him. There are many tricks up his sleeve and if the stakes are high enough some person, place, or thing will come to his rescue.
war is hell
Nothing over the transom this morning, a little setback on a Monday morning. You know I never got that thing about Monday being a horrible day. I always rather liked it, even when I was working and like most people I hated working. But Sunday, right around five o'clock I would get the Sunday blues. The whole weekend was gone, and like summers, I hadn't got the most I'd planned on getting out of it and forty hours of work awaited me on the other side of night and nothing I could do about it. Depressing. But Monday morning as soon as I sat down in my chair and turned on the computer I was beginning to eat away at that forty hours. Fifteen minutes in there were only thirty-nine hours and forty five minutes to go.
Anyway this gives me a chance to break away from politics, because Beagles would have said something and I would have to say something back. That commentor who sadly has never again commented, said that she liked my reviews, so I think I will give a couple of those.
This weekend I watched Wasp Network. It's based on a true story. which I normally hate to see because I am always wondering what really happened and what they just threw in to move the plot along. Anyway it's set thirty years ago with a couple defectors from Cuba arriving in Miami and hooking up with anti-Castro elements there. Well Cuba, not so great on human rights and lots of poor people, but then isn't that the same case with a lot of the islands and central American countries, and at least the poor people in Cuba learn to read, I am a lefty so I have a soft spot for Cuba, and those anti-Cuban groups have a pretty nefarious reputation.
But anyway the movie seems to be on the anti Castro side. The anti Castro groups are seen as a bit sleazy, but you know it is all in a greater cause, and the movie is moving along at boring path, and then it is revealed that those defectors are actually double agents and are working against the anti Castros. This makes the movie a lot more interesting because you can see how the defectors who seemed at first to be drawn into the Miami net are actually digging their way in. Suddenly they are seen in a different heroic light.
The weekend before I watched Da Five Bloods, directed by Spike Lee who almost always gives a good movie, and this one is pretty good though I think it gets hijacked by a search for gold plot and a lot of silly action scenes. But the central thing is these four black guys who come back to Vietnam in the present day, In an early scene they are at some bar in Saigon and they notice some Asian guys about their age eyeing them and they are thinking maybe these guys killed our buddies. But then their guide says that they are his uncles, oddly enough one of whom fought for the north and the other who fought for the south, and they have just bought the ex GI's a round of drinks. Of course they still could have killed their buddies, and come to think of it the uncles could have killed each others' buddies. Well war is hell.
A one legged Vietnamese beggar kid (the leg likely lost to land mines) comes by and one of the GI's gives him a twenty. Later. as they are leaving the kid throws firecrackers at them and they hit the dirt while the kid hops around in front of them shouting. "You killed my father. You killed my father." Well more likely the kid's grandfather but you know, it is just a figure of speech.
Anyway this gives me a chance to break away from politics, because Beagles would have said something and I would have to say something back. That commentor who sadly has never again commented, said that she liked my reviews, so I think I will give a couple of those.
This weekend I watched Wasp Network. It's based on a true story. which I normally hate to see because I am always wondering what really happened and what they just threw in to move the plot along. Anyway it's set thirty years ago with a couple defectors from Cuba arriving in Miami and hooking up with anti-Castro elements there. Well Cuba, not so great on human rights and lots of poor people, but then isn't that the same case with a lot of the islands and central American countries, and at least the poor people in Cuba learn to read, I am a lefty so I have a soft spot for Cuba, and those anti-Cuban groups have a pretty nefarious reputation.
But anyway the movie seems to be on the anti Castro side. The anti Castro groups are seen as a bit sleazy, but you know it is all in a greater cause, and the movie is moving along at boring path, and then it is revealed that those defectors are actually double agents and are working against the anti Castros. This makes the movie a lot more interesting because you can see how the defectors who seemed at first to be drawn into the Miami net are actually digging their way in. Suddenly they are seen in a different heroic light.
The weekend before I watched Da Five Bloods, directed by Spike Lee who almost always gives a good movie, and this one is pretty good though I think it gets hijacked by a search for gold plot and a lot of silly action scenes. But the central thing is these four black guys who come back to Vietnam in the present day, In an early scene they are at some bar in Saigon and they notice some Asian guys about their age eyeing them and they are thinking maybe these guys killed our buddies. But then their guide says that they are his uncles, oddly enough one of whom fought for the north and the other who fought for the south, and they have just bought the ex GI's a round of drinks. Of course they still could have killed their buddies, and come to think of it the uncles could have killed each others' buddies. Well war is hell.
A one legged Vietnamese beggar kid (the leg likely lost to land mines) comes by and one of the GI's gives him a twenty. Later. as they are leaving the kid throws firecrackers at them and they hit the dirt while the kid hops around in front of them shouting. "You killed my father. You killed my father." Well more likely the kid's grandfather but you know, it is just a figure of speech.
Friday, June 19, 2020
men of principle
The corona does not turn on a dime. If the curve flattened once Michigan opened up a bit it was because of actions taken earlier by Gutsy Gretch, And as for that foolhardy band of Trumpists that run the Michigan state house, the last I heard Trump was down 14 points to Sleepy Joe, so likely the down ballots will go the same way and they well be swept away like a good rain washes the dirt from the streets.
In other good news the supremes did not do away with DACA. All those good Americans will not have to fear the midnight knock on the door by jackbooted ICE agents. What a disservice has been down to these young people. Well, we're not out of the woods yet. The supremes only denied the Trumpists because they did such a poor job with their plea. What do you expect from a crew which is made up only of those willing to prostrate themselves before the unclothed emperor?
And how about that John Bolton? You know normally one likes a man who sticks with his principles, but if those principles are the opposite of your principles not so much, but maybe still a little. I liked Ron Paul a little for that. I liked his opposition to war when his whole party was screaming for it. But I didn't like him so much when he was against regulating food and drugs on the principle that if a company sold rotten meat and people ate it and died, why then fewer folks would buy from the company and the company would go bankrupt and problem solved.
You had to wonder about his principles when Bolton signed up with that crew, but then maybe you give him a pass, thinking well maybe he thought he could work within the system to change it. And he did let out a few yelps before Trump fired him. But then come impeachment time he kept his lips primly sealed. And now he is trying to peddle his book of horrors about the current administration, which is kind of what everybody always knew, a incompetent gang of lying sacks o shit. And the reps are all pissed because they still have their wagon attached to the tarnished star, and the dems, who never were going to like him anyway, are all like you little shit, you had a chance to do your country a service by revealing this earlier, but you didn't do a damn thing,
Well this has all been politics and I apologize. I have been meaning to get into other subjects, but I didn't get much sleep last night, and I want to get out onto the balcony before the heat of the day hits, and this came off the top of my mind rather quickly.
I'll try to do better Monday
In other good news the supremes did not do away with DACA. All those good Americans will not have to fear the midnight knock on the door by jackbooted ICE agents. What a disservice has been down to these young people. Well, we're not out of the woods yet. The supremes only denied the Trumpists because they did such a poor job with their plea. What do you expect from a crew which is made up only of those willing to prostrate themselves before the unclothed emperor?
And how about that John Bolton? You know normally one likes a man who sticks with his principles, but if those principles are the opposite of your principles not so much, but maybe still a little. I liked Ron Paul a little for that. I liked his opposition to war when his whole party was screaming for it. But I didn't like him so much when he was against regulating food and drugs on the principle that if a company sold rotten meat and people ate it and died, why then fewer folks would buy from the company and the company would go bankrupt and problem solved.
You had to wonder about his principles when Bolton signed up with that crew, but then maybe you give him a pass, thinking well maybe he thought he could work within the system to change it. And he did let out a few yelps before Trump fired him. But then come impeachment time he kept his lips primly sealed. And now he is trying to peddle his book of horrors about the current administration, which is kind of what everybody always knew, a incompetent gang of lying sacks o shit. And the reps are all pissed because they still have their wagon attached to the tarnished star, and the dems, who never were going to like him anyway, are all like you little shit, you had a chance to do your country a service by revealing this earlier, but you didn't do a damn thing,
Well this has all been politics and I apologize. I have been meaning to get into other subjects, but I didn't get much sleep last night, and I want to get out onto the balcony before the heat of the day hits, and this came off the top of my mind rather quickly.
I'll try to do better Monday
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Credit Where Credit is Due
As I explained previously, Michigan's numbers did not begin to decline until after our governor started easing off on her restrictions. She said that she wouldn't ease up until the numbers declined, the numbers didn't decline, and she eased up anyway, probably because of the lawsuits that she still refuses to acknowledge. Of course correlation does not establish cause and effect, so I can't credit the easing of the restrictions, any more than you can credit the imposing of the restrictions, for the decline in numbers. They are still averaging a dozen or so deaths a day in the urban areas, while Cheboygan County has not had a new case in weeks or a death in months. One possible reason the virus may be spreading to rural areas in other states is that city people are fleeing to the country to escape the virus. Like a wise old philosopher once said, "People move to the country to get away from it all, and they end up bringing it all with them".
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15FRXp?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
One reason I'm interested in the Seattle experiment is that it's not far off of my proposal to send only Black cops into Black neighborhoods. Let's face it, the White cops and the Black citizens just hate each other. They both probably have good reasons for this, and I expect we'll hear more about that in the coming months. Meanwhile, one way to induce a temporary cease fire would be to make them both sit in neutral corners for awhile. Another reason is that I'm still a libertarian at heart, just as Uncle Ken is a classical liberal at heart.
Speaking of Black lives mattering, according to the TV news, a sheriff in a Northern Michigan county, I didn't catch which one, is in hot water because he said something into a microphone that he thought was turned off. (When are these people going to learn that the gun is always loaded and the microphone is always on?) What he said was that abortion clinics have undoubtedly killed more Black people than cops and criminals. Probably true, but certainly not politically correct.
This just in:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/06/18/whitmer-extends-michigan-state-emergency-through-july-16/3215662001/
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15FRXp?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
One reason I'm interested in the Seattle experiment is that it's not far off of my proposal to send only Black cops into Black neighborhoods. Let's face it, the White cops and the Black citizens just hate each other. They both probably have good reasons for this, and I expect we'll hear more about that in the coming months. Meanwhile, one way to induce a temporary cease fire would be to make them both sit in neutral corners for awhile. Another reason is that I'm still a libertarian at heart, just as Uncle Ken is a classical liberal at heart.
Speaking of Black lives mattering, according to the TV news, a sheriff in a Northern Michigan county, I didn't catch which one, is in hot water because he said something into a microphone that he thought was turned off. (When are these people going to learn that the gun is always loaded and the microphone is always on?) What he said was that abortion clinics have undoubtedly killed more Black people than cops and criminals. Probably true, but certainly not politically correct.
This just in:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/06/18/whitmer-extends-michigan-state-emergency-through-july-16/3215662001/
Seattlers
The early days of hippiedom were like very groovy. In those days the joke about if you didn't like cops call a hippie, was true. If you ran across another guy with long hair that you didn't know he would give you the shirt off his back, he would share his dope, he would give you a ride in his Volkswagon bus. And you would do the same of him, because you were like brothers Man.
It didn't remain that way, shit happened, new people who weren't all that into peace and love joined the movement, likely some of the original peace and love lovers became less into it. You began to notice that your brother was no longer as willing to give you the shirt off your back so you weren't as quick to give yours.
Something like that is likely to happen to the Seattlers, in addition they are getting a lot of flak from Trump and the Foxies. The local authorities are divided, and doubtless they are thinking of upcoming elections. I think originally it was ceded because the powers did not want to have an ugly incident and they figured in the long run it was probably easier to just cede the land peacefully and eventually take it back the same way.
Being that they are all lefties of different stripes I am surprised that Beagles is rooting for them. Does he sense, like the poet, a rebirth of wonder?
Just heard a report on NPR about the pandemic in Alabama, Florida, and Michigan. Alabama and Florida are in terrible shape, their rates are soaring and their Trumpist govs are saying oh, this is just due to increased testing which is demonstrably untrue, but being Trumpists they have left the surly bonds of truth behind, One of the things that might alarm Beagles in the swamp is that in those two states it is rapidly moving into rural areas. But luckily he is living in the domain of Gutsy Gretchen and due to her exercise of emergency powers (though Beagles may decry her methods, I don't think he can decry her results) the outlook is much more sanguine in the Wolverine State.
Oh and just now there is a report on NPR about the Seattlers. Indications are that there is friction within. Black Lives Matter. They have no official leaders and no nailed down platform, which is fine if you want to get a good turnout for your march, but not so good if you want to run a piece of land. It's kind of like those anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, whose ideology is pure, but they are just not so effective. I'll admit that I haven't been following the situation closely and I will be giving it more attention
That was indeed a draft that I thought I had lost so I started another. It was a little complicated to delete and I moved on to something else. I'll take care of it this morning before I go out to the balcony and the newspaper.
It didn't remain that way, shit happened, new people who weren't all that into peace and love joined the movement, likely some of the original peace and love lovers became less into it. You began to notice that your brother was no longer as willing to give you the shirt off your back so you weren't as quick to give yours.
Something like that is likely to happen to the Seattlers, in addition they are getting a lot of flak from Trump and the Foxies. The local authorities are divided, and doubtless they are thinking of upcoming elections. I think originally it was ceded because the powers did not want to have an ugly incident and they figured in the long run it was probably easier to just cede the land peacefully and eventually take it back the same way.
Being that they are all lefties of different stripes I am surprised that Beagles is rooting for them. Does he sense, like the poet, a rebirth of wonder?
Just heard a report on NPR about the pandemic in Alabama, Florida, and Michigan. Alabama and Florida are in terrible shape, their rates are soaring and their Trumpist govs are saying oh, this is just due to increased testing which is demonstrably untrue, but being Trumpists they have left the surly bonds of truth behind, One of the things that might alarm Beagles in the swamp is that in those two states it is rapidly moving into rural areas. But luckily he is living in the domain of Gutsy Gretchen and due to her exercise of emergency powers (though Beagles may decry her methods, I don't think he can decry her results) the outlook is much more sanguine in the Wolverine State.
Oh and just now there is a report on NPR about the Seattlers. Indications are that there is friction within. Black Lives Matter. They have no official leaders and no nailed down platform, which is fine if you want to get a good turnout for your march, but not so good if you want to run a piece of land. It's kind of like those anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, whose ideology is pure, but they are just not so effective. I'll admit that I haven't been following the situation closely and I will be giving it more attention
That was indeed a draft that I thought I had lost so I started another. It was a little complicated to delete and I moved on to something else. I'll take care of it this morning before I go out to the balcony and the newspaper.
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
The Seattle Experiment
I didn't know that it had been in the news a lot lately. Like I said, I only saw a brief thing about it on the TV news the other day, and then I saw the article on my news app last night. What I find interesting about it is that those people seem to be doing just fine without a police presence. If they can sustain this for awhile, it might become a prototype for a whole new system of urban governance. So far it sounds like they have been successful in dealing with drunks and mental patients, but how they will do dealing with hard core criminals remains to be seen. Then again, there might not be many hard core criminals in that neighborhood, and all they would need to do is keep new ones from coming in. Maybe that's what the barricades are for. It sounds like it's a close knit community so, if they stick together, they just might be able to pull this thing off. I'm rooting for them at this point, but I might change my mind as more information comes in. One thing I don't know is why the police evacuated in the first place. Were they ordered to do it, or did they just discuss it among themselves and decide that was the best course of action?
Today I remembered that time when Uncle Ken and I got two different interpretations from the same site. He said it showed that there are no more illegal immigrants, as a percentage of the population, in the country now than there ever was. What I found was that they weren't just counting illegals, they were counting all non-citizens, legal, illegal, permanent, and temporary. I seem to remember questioning the validity of the numbers as well, because the US census doesn't ask you whether or not you are a citizen, but I don't remember how that was resolved.
Uncle Ken, are you aware that a preliminary draft of your last post somehow got posted? I was going to delete it for you, but I thought you might want to make that decision yourself.
Today I remembered that time when Uncle Ken and I got two different interpretations from the same site. He said it showed that there are no more illegal immigrants, as a percentage of the population, in the country now than there ever was. What I found was that they weren't just counting illegals, they were counting all non-citizens, legal, illegal, permanent, and temporary. I seem to remember questioning the validity of the numbers as well, because the US census doesn't ask you whether or not you are a citizen, but I don't remember how that was resolved.
Uncle Ken, are you aware that a preliminary draft of your last post somehow got posted? I was going to delete it for you, but I thought you might want to make that decision yourself.
seattle
I was speaking per capita when I mentioned the soaring corona rates in Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Which are likely the kind of rates that Michigan would be suffering if it had a Trumpist governor. Or maybe not. Most of the states surrounding true blue Illinois have Trumpist govs. and though they are not doing as well as Illinois, at the current time, they are not doing so badly. Maybe the thing is govs can mandate this or that but it doesn't mean that the people will obey. Sober midwestern folk will tend to wear masks to protect themselves and their friends and neighbors rather than the yahoos of those other states who prefer to breathe free and die.
That thing about the windows of the school bus is along the lines of something I was speaking of a couple posts about ago. This country is so divided currently that one side is gathering breath to disagree before the other side has begun to speak. I am not unguilty of this unfortunate reaction. Of course I think I am right, and I think I could make my case logically, but I should at least pause to listen to what the other side is saying. Like Beagles says we don't even care whether the windows are open or closed as long as our tribe wins.
This Seattle situation has been going on for some time now and has been much reported on and discussed so I wonder what attribute of it Beagles is trying to bring to our attention.
Is it the use of the term they? This is the new non binary third person pronoun. It was chosen because it is gender neutral, but sometimes you don't know how many people they are talking about. I would prefer a completely new word, maybe something taken from the classic Greek or Latin, but come to think of it that would be too dead white men. Maybe something African since that is where we came from.
Is it the AR-15? It's not widely known but some lefties are gun nuts too. I don't approve, I think a baseball bat would have been just as effective. But you know those guys who own AR-15s, they don't just fantasize about blowing away people and large targets at the gun range, they also just like to brandish them. just too, I don't know.
Is it that they are anarchists? That reminds me of a story Orwell told about the Spanish civil war. At first his unit was anarchist. All the soldiers were equal and before they took a hill they had to take a vote on it. It was a lot of fun, but not very effective. Later the commies took it over and that was a top down organization which was more effective, but not fun at all.
That thing about the windows of the school bus is along the lines of something I was speaking of a couple posts about ago. This country is so divided currently that one side is gathering breath to disagree before the other side has begun to speak. I am not unguilty of this unfortunate reaction. Of course I think I am right, and I think I could make my case logically, but I should at least pause to listen to what the other side is saying. Like Beagles says we don't even care whether the windows are open or closed as long as our tribe wins.
This Seattle situation has been going on for some time now and has been much reported on and discussed so I wonder what attribute of it Beagles is trying to bring to our attention.
Is it the use of the term they? This is the new non binary third person pronoun. It was chosen because it is gender neutral, but sometimes you don't know how many people they are talking about. I would prefer a completely new word, maybe something taken from the classic Greek or Latin, but come to think of it that would be too dead white men. Maybe something African since that is where we came from.
Is it the AR-15? It's not widely known but some lefties are gun nuts too. I don't approve, I think a baseball bat would have been just as effective. But you know those guys who own AR-15s, they don't just fantasize about blowing away people and large targets at the gun range, they also just like to brandish them. just too, I don't know.
Is it that they are anarchists? That reminds me of a story Orwell told about the Spanish civil war. At first his unit was anarchist. All the soldiers were equal and before they took a hill they had to take a vote on it. It was a lot of fun, but not very effective. Later the commies took it over and that was a top down organization which was more effective, but not fun at all.
Apples to Oranges
The only meaningful way to compare the corona numbers of different states and different countries would be in proportion to their populations, which is why I chose Sweden as an example a few weeks ago when it was in the news. Now that it's in the news again, I checked and Michigan is still ahead of Sweden although, as I said, Sweden is on track to surpass Michigan if present trends continue. All we can establish at this point is that Michigan's numbers may have peaked earlier than Sweden's numbers.
As I have said previously, my complaint about Michigan's lockdown is that it was continued under the governor's state of emergency declaration without legislative approval, which appears to be a violation of Michigan law. I say "appears", because the jury is still out on that issue. I haven't heard anything lately about the pending court case that is supposed to resolve that controversy. The trial judge heard the arguments about a month ago and was supposed to render his verdict "soon". Whatever his verdict was, it was expected to be appealed, and some people speculated that the State Supreme Court might jump in at some point to expedite the process, but that hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, our governor keeps issuing orders, most of which have tended towards re-opening, although I seem to remember hearing on the TV news that she has extended the state of emergency again. I am reminded of the way my school bus passengers used to argue about opening and closing the windows. They really didn't care whether the windows were open or closed, just about who gets to say whether they are open or closed.
To be fair, I can only remember one time that one of Uncle Ken's links didn't say what he said it said, and I don't even remember what it said, so I'll retract that claim. I do remember when there was all that stuff in the news about illegal immigrants crossing the border by the thousands per day, and Uncle Ken refused to believe any of it, insisting that Trump made the whole thing up, so I'll stand by that assertion.
*******************************************************************************
I saw something about this on the TV news the other day, but haven't heard anything more about it until now. I'm not grinding any axes here, at least not yet. I just found the story to be interesting and thought that my esteemed colleagues would also.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15zI4b?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
As I have said previously, my complaint about Michigan's lockdown is that it was continued under the governor's state of emergency declaration without legislative approval, which appears to be a violation of Michigan law. I say "appears", because the jury is still out on that issue. I haven't heard anything lately about the pending court case that is supposed to resolve that controversy. The trial judge heard the arguments about a month ago and was supposed to render his verdict "soon". Whatever his verdict was, it was expected to be appealed, and some people speculated that the State Supreme Court might jump in at some point to expedite the process, but that hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, our governor keeps issuing orders, most of which have tended towards re-opening, although I seem to remember hearing on the TV news that she has extended the state of emergency again. I am reminded of the way my school bus passengers used to argue about opening and closing the windows. They really didn't care whether the windows were open or closed, just about who gets to say whether they are open or closed.
To be fair, I can only remember one time that one of Uncle Ken's links didn't say what he said it said, and I don't even remember what it said, so I'll retract that claim. I do remember when there was all that stuff in the news about illegal immigrants crossing the border by the thousands per day, and Uncle Ken refused to believe any of it, insisting that Trump made the whole thing up, so I'll stand by that assertion.
*******************************************************************************
I saw something about this on the TV news the other day, but haven't heard anything more about it until now. I'm not grinding any axes here, at least not yet. I just found the story to be interesting and thought that my esteemed colleagues would also.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB15zI4b?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
comments!
What I expected I would see in that link was a direct comparison between Sweden's death rates and Michigan's, an article on that specific subject, what I saw instead was a long line of articles. Looking again I see where there is a link where you can look up rates, but you know, I can google that from anywhere, I don't need no stinking article.
There are mixed reviews on Sweden's economy, but most of what I read says it is in worse shape right now. Of course it is early and Sweden may come out looking like a rose. On the other hand it may not.
What google showed me was that Sweden had 4,874 deaths and Michigan had 5,770 at that particular time. Sweden had a lower rate, but not that much and adding vagaries for how they are counted and when they were taken I took that as approximately even. Maybe a bit of a stretch in hindsight, but there it is.
If there were times that Beagles has clicked on my links and found that they do not contain what I said they did, I don't recall him mentioning it. Well he says do not say exactly what I say, so I don't know. Do I refuse to believe information that Beagle's articles reveal? I don't think so, but then maybe the word exactly gets in the way.
The new Beagles does indeed look up things more often than he has in the past. I have been remiss in not giving him credit for that.
And now I forget why we are arguing about this. I think it is kind of a proxy war for opening up and locking down. I still maintain that the states that opened up early or never locked down at all are suffering worse rates than prim and proper Michigan and Illinois with their wise non-Trumpist
governors. Will Beagles allow me that?
I had not noted that comment. One of the weaknesses in Blogspot is the low priority they give to comments,. I'm guessing this is from that Gage Park classmate I spoke of some time ago. I was trying to get her involved in the blog, and I hope this is indeed her. I have heard The Wire praised widely, but then I have heard Breaking Bad and Ozark praised widely also, and after four or five episodes my eyes have glazed over. Maybe if it was free on Netflix I would sample it, but it isn't.
I would love to do movie reviews. I just saw Da Five Bloods, anybody want to talk about that?
Political correctness is nothing like politeness, which is a way for people to get along, political correctness is all about putting somebody down because they don't speak within an arcane code. It is a way to block out speech without having to reply to its arguments. The Liberal Agenda is all about the truth setting you free and pc is all about how only they hold the truth and anything questioning that is blasphemy.
Hmm, you don't suppose that a lot of those Wyoming guns registered are really straw purchases and are now in the hands of likely criminals, or as Beagles prefers to call them, bad guys?
There are mixed reviews on Sweden's economy, but most of what I read says it is in worse shape right now. Of course it is early and Sweden may come out looking like a rose. On the other hand it may not.
What google showed me was that Sweden had 4,874 deaths and Michigan had 5,770 at that particular time. Sweden had a lower rate, but not that much and adding vagaries for how they are counted and when they were taken I took that as approximately even. Maybe a bit of a stretch in hindsight, but there it is.
If there were times that Beagles has clicked on my links and found that they do not contain what I said they did, I don't recall him mentioning it. Well he says do not say exactly what I say, so I don't know. Do I refuse to believe information that Beagle's articles reveal? I don't think so, but then maybe the word exactly gets in the way.
The new Beagles does indeed look up things more often than he has in the past. I have been remiss in not giving him credit for that.
And now I forget why we are arguing about this. I think it is kind of a proxy war for opening up and locking down. I still maintain that the states that opened up early or never locked down at all are suffering worse rates than prim and proper Michigan and Illinois with their wise non-Trumpist
governors. Will Beagles allow me that?
I had not noted that comment. One of the weaknesses in Blogspot is the low priority they give to comments,. I'm guessing this is from that Gage Park classmate I spoke of some time ago. I was trying to get her involved in the blog, and I hope this is indeed her. I have heard The Wire praised widely, but then I have heard Breaking Bad and Ozark praised widely also, and after four or five episodes my eyes have glazed over. Maybe if it was free on Netflix I would sample it, but it isn't.
I would love to do movie reviews. I just saw Da Five Bloods, anybody want to talk about that?
Political correctness is nothing like politeness, which is a way for people to get along, political correctness is all about putting somebody down because they don't speak within an arcane code. It is a way to block out speech without having to reply to its arguments. The Liberal Agenda is all about the truth setting you free and pc is all about how only they hold the truth and anything questioning that is blasphemy.
Hmm, you don't suppose that a lot of those Wyoming guns registered are really straw purchases and are now in the hands of likely criminals, or as Beagles prefers to call them, bad guys?
Monday, June 15, 2020
"The data so far have been mixed."
Funny how two different people can read the same article and get two different messages from it. When in doubt, resort to a direct quote:
"The decisions taken in Sweden have fed into a global debate over the economic consequences of shuttering a society to fight a pandemic. Some analysts have argued that Sweden’s economy is likely to fare better, while others suggest the opposite is true. The data so far have been mixed.
Andersson said her recent prediction that Sweden is now facing its worst recession since World War II still holds. But she also said there are “quite a few indications of an upturn, from a very low level,” and “consumption has dropped less in Sweden than in other countries.”
Even so, Sweden’s recession is likely to be roughly as bad as that in the European Union, which estimates an average GDP decline of 7.4% this year."
If you go back to the link I provided yesterday and scroll past the picture at the top, you will see the numbers for the whole wide world. Just below that, there are two boxes, one says "United States" and the other says "Global". If you click on "United States" you will get a list of the numbers for all the U.S. states. If you click on "Global" you will get a list of the numbers for foreign countries. As of yesterday, Michigan had about 10,000 more cases and almost a thousand more deaths than Sweden. Michigan's numbers came in quite low today, so the gap may have narrowed by now. If present trends continue, Sweden will eventually catch up and pass Michigan but, as of yesterday, they hadn't.
Uncle Ken was right about the population numbers for Michigan and Sweden, they are 20 million combined, not individually. I had recently looked them up and was working from memory last night.
I don't know where Uncle Ken gets the idea that I never look anything up for myself. That was the old Beagles, the new improved Beagles looks up lots of things. Not that it does any good, because Uncle Ken frequently ignores my links or refuses to believe the information they contain. I, on the other hand, occasionally click on one of Uncle Ken' links only to find that it doesn't say exactly what he says it says.
***************************************************************************
We don't register long guns in Michigan, just handguns. Since about 1968, when you purchase any kind of gun from a licensed dealer, the sale is recorded and filed away somewhere, but you are not issued a permit to own or carry that gun, except for handguns as previously mentioned. If you later transfer ownership of that gun to a private citizen, that sale is not recorded unless you record it yourself for your own benefit. I suppose that's a good idea, but it's not required by law. I think most other states have something similar, but some municipalities might have different rules.
Nothing special Monday
Comments are posted so infrequently that they slip through the cracks and I miss them, but I caught one that was posted last week on the 11th. Uncle Ken has an anonymous fan who supplied a film/video recommendation, The Wire. I read the post again and Uncle Ken has a particular beef:
That's what I am really complaining about here, political correctness.
I think I used to know what political correctness meant, but not anymore. The term has gotten too subjective for me, maybe it's just old age addling my brain. What's the difference between common courtesy and political correctness?
-----
While noodling about the net, trying to make some sense of the varying degrees of civil unrest we are facing, I found some interesting numbers relating to gun ownership. According to CBS News we aren't as heavily armed as I thought. Michigan, for example, is ranked at #48 with 4.3 registered guns per 1,000 residents. Illinois is #35 with 9.2 registered guns per 1,000 residents and our common neighbor, Indiana, is #15 with 14.1 per 1,000. Coming in at #1, blowing everyone else away, is Wyoming with 195.7 registered guns per 1,000 residents.
It makes me wonder how many unregistered guns are out there, must be a lot.
That's what I am really complaining about here, political correctness.
I think I used to know what political correctness meant, but not anymore. The term has gotten too subjective for me, maybe it's just old age addling my brain. What's the difference between common courtesy and political correctness?
-----
While noodling about the net, trying to make some sense of the varying degrees of civil unrest we are facing, I found some interesting numbers relating to gun ownership. According to CBS News we aren't as heavily armed as I thought. Michigan, for example, is ranked at #48 with 4.3 registered guns per 1,000 residents. Illinois is #35 with 9.2 registered guns per 1,000 residents and our common neighbor, Indiana, is #15 with 14.1 per 1,000. Coming in at #1, blowing everyone else away, is Wyoming with 195.7 registered guns per 1,000 residents.
It makes me wonder how many unregistered guns are out there, must be a lot.
cherry bombs
I thought that link would be the backup for the assertion that Sweden has less covid cases/fatalities per population than Michigan. but it was just a general msn page on covid. Nothing in particular on it about Michigan or Sweden. So I had to do my own research on the subject. The populations of Sweden and Michigan are about equal, though they both have about ten million people not twenty million. And they have approximately equal covid rates. To find out how Sweden's economy has fared one need only google sweden and corona virus economy and you will find ample evidence of Sweden's economy being in the toilet.
I meant all of Europe, and Sweden's economy was in great shape compared to the rest of Europe before the covid. This can be easily looked up. I spend a lot of time doing internet research on assertions and Beagles apparently does none. I don't see why I have to bear this burden.
It has been two weeks since those massive destructive demonstrations and thus far we have not seen any spike in our rates. Seems hard to believe all that screaming all that massing. They were for the most part wearing masks, but still. I wonder if being outdoors makes a big difference. The states that are now seeing the big spikes are those that opened up earlier than the prudent states of Michigan and Illinois and that included a lot of indoor activity. Think of it like a shower and a bath, in the first you are washing your filth right down the drain and in the latter you are sitting in your own filth, Just speculation on my part but the only restaurant I have gone to, now that we our door slightly ajar is one with outdoor seating, Actually those are the only kinds allowed, but I have seen some that maybe have connections and they have people indoors. If Beagles is still following that case of the lady barber that he was afraid would go broke, I would haircut from her if it was outdoors but I would not step into her parlor.
And now our loose cannon, which Beagles claims is better than no cannon at all, which sounds a lot like saying a lit cherry bomb in your hand is better than no cherry bomb at all, is having his rally in a closed in arena in a state where deaths are soaring. I am tempted to say that the less of those people the better, but that would be heartless and in fact they are not just infecting themselves, they are infecting innocent bystanders like myself.
Oh and he is going to be blowing hard at his republican coronation in an enclosed space, not in NC which has a dem guv who won't allow such shenanigans, but in the sunshine state which has a ruby red gov. Well better than no cherry bomb at all, eh governor?
I meant all of Europe, and Sweden's economy was in great shape compared to the rest of Europe before the covid. This can be easily looked up. I spend a lot of time doing internet research on assertions and Beagles apparently does none. I don't see why I have to bear this burden.
It has been two weeks since those massive destructive demonstrations and thus far we have not seen any spike in our rates. Seems hard to believe all that screaming all that massing. They were for the most part wearing masks, but still. I wonder if being outdoors makes a big difference. The states that are now seeing the big spikes are those that opened up earlier than the prudent states of Michigan and Illinois and that included a lot of indoor activity. Think of it like a shower and a bath, in the first you are washing your filth right down the drain and in the latter you are sitting in your own filth, Just speculation on my part but the only restaurant I have gone to, now that we our door slightly ajar is one with outdoor seating, Actually those are the only kinds allowed, but I have seen some that maybe have connections and they have people indoors. If Beagles is still following that case of the lady barber that he was afraid would go broke, I would haircut from her if it was outdoors but I would not step into her parlor.
And now our loose cannon, which Beagles claims is better than no cannon at all, which sounds a lot like saying a lit cherry bomb in your hand is better than no cherry bomb at all, is having his rally in a closed in arena in a state where deaths are soaring. I am tempted to say that the less of those people the better, but that would be heartless and in fact they are not just infecting themselves, they are infecting innocent bystanders like myself.
Oh and he is going to be blowing hard at his republican coronation in an enclosed space, not in NC which has a dem guv who won't allow such shenanigans, but in the sunshine state which has a ruby red gov. Well better than no cherry bomb at all, eh governor?
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Coronanomics
"You know like the Swedes who are having soaring death rates and whose economy is worse than its European neighbors." - Uncle Ken
Although Sweden recently experienced a big spike in their corona numbers, they are still well below Michigan, which has approximately the same population, around 20 million.
source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/coronavirus?rt=0&ocid=MSNewsApp&referrerID=InAppShare
As for the assertion that Sweden's economy is "worse than its European neighbors", could you be a little more specific? Are we talking GDP, per capita income, or what? Do you mean all other EU countries or just Sweden's immediate Scandinavian neighbors? If, by whatever measure, Sweden's economy is indeed worse than somebody else's, did it just get that way or was it that way before the corona hit the fan?
I read in the paper the other day that Michigan's income and sales tax revenues are way down as a result of the lockdown, and our governor is crying for Washington to come bail us out. I'm not sure how much more fiat money the Fed can produce without inducing hyper inflation. I was surprised that didn't happen during the last big recession when it was measured in mere billions instead of trillions
Cheboygan County is still reporting 21 cases and one death. Last I heard we had 17 recoveries, but that was at least a week ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are no active cases in the county by now. I think that all of our businesses have been allowed to reopen with restrictions. Some of our restaurants have elected to stay with "take out only" for now, I suppose because they think the restrictions are more trouble than they are worth. All of the festivals and summer events in the region have been cancelled, so it's still going to be a lean year for the tourist trade. The Empty Shelf Syndrome in our stores seems to have subsided to about what it was before corona.
Although Sweden recently experienced a big spike in their corona numbers, they are still well below Michigan, which has approximately the same population, around 20 million.
source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/coronavirus?rt=0&ocid=MSNewsApp&referrerID=InAppShare
As for the assertion that Sweden's economy is "worse than its European neighbors", could you be a little more specific? Are we talking GDP, per capita income, or what? Do you mean all other EU countries or just Sweden's immediate Scandinavian neighbors? If, by whatever measure, Sweden's economy is indeed worse than somebody else's, did it just get that way or was it that way before the corona hit the fan?
I read in the paper the other day that Michigan's income and sales tax revenues are way down as a result of the lockdown, and our governor is crying for Washington to come bail us out. I'm not sure how much more fiat money the Fed can produce without inducing hyper inflation. I was surprised that didn't happen during the last big recession when it was measured in mere billions instead of trillions
Cheboygan County is still reporting 21 cases and one death. Last I heard we had 17 recoveries, but that was at least a week ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are no active cases in the county by now. I think that all of our businesses have been allowed to reopen with restrictions. Some of our restaurants have elected to stay with "take out only" for now, I suppose because they think the restrictions are more trouble than they are worth. All of the festivals and summer events in the region have been cancelled, so it's still going to be a lean year for the tourist trade. The Empty Shelf Syndrome in our stores seems to have subsided to about what it was before corona.
Friday, June 12, 2020
reasonable people
Not sure what Occam has to do with deer obligingly hanging themselves up in the Beagle barn and skinning themselves. Sounds like Al Capp's shmoos. And isn't Donald J Trump acting like a shmoo these days sabotaging himself so that Sleepy Joe can take the helm and lead us into oh, something like having an actual president in the white house and doing something about the corona other than well nothing, which I think is what Beagles prefers to do about the pandemic. You know like the Swedes who are having soaring death rates and whose economy is worse than its European neighbors.
Reviewing past posts I realize that I am wrong about Beagles wanting to nothing about the corona. I see that on Wednesday Beagles did say that he lockdown was effective in slowing the progress of the corona. His concern was that maybe it was time to open up so that the economy doesn't go completely into the toilet. This is a much more reasonable position than I was giving him credit for. Certainly we have to do some kind of lockdown, but this could go too far. I guess our dispute is in how much lockdown is desirable. Reasonable people could disagree on how much is too much. I would prefer more and he would prefer less, but neither of us has enough information to know exactly what the proper amount would be.
The country is just so divided that there is a knee-jerk response of automatically being against whatever the other side is for, a hell of a way to steer the ship of state.
Like the protests, I think we can all agree that what happened to Floyd George was wrong, A step further is that this happens a lot. Bad cops do shit like that and generally they get away with it without getting any punishment. Something should be done about that. Defunding the police in the sense of doing away with police is not a good idea, It reminds me of what was sometimes said in the 60s: If you don't like the police the next time you are in trouble call a hippie. On the other hand something has to be done, How much is too much, and how much is not enough is again something that reasonable people can disagree about.
Well that is all I have to say this morning.
Reviewing past posts I realize that I am wrong about Beagles wanting to nothing about the corona. I see that on Wednesday Beagles did say that he lockdown was effective in slowing the progress of the corona. His concern was that maybe it was time to open up so that the economy doesn't go completely into the toilet. This is a much more reasonable position than I was giving him credit for. Certainly we have to do some kind of lockdown, but this could go too far. I guess our dispute is in how much lockdown is desirable. Reasonable people could disagree on how much is too much. I would prefer more and he would prefer less, but neither of us has enough information to know exactly what the proper amount would be.
The country is just so divided that there is a knee-jerk response of automatically being against whatever the other side is for, a hell of a way to steer the ship of state.
Like the protests, I think we can all agree that what happened to Floyd George was wrong, A step further is that this happens a lot. Bad cops do shit like that and generally they get away with it without getting any punishment. Something should be done about that. Defunding the police in the sense of doing away with police is not a good idea, It reminds me of what was sometimes said in the 60s: If you don't like the police the next time you are in trouble call a hippie. On the other hand something has to be done, How much is too much, and how much is not enough is again something that reasonable people can disagree about.
Well that is all I have to say this morning.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Occam Was Right
Found this on Wiki, pretty much what Uncle Ken said:
"In philosophy, a razor is a principle or rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate ("shave off") unlikely explanations for a phenomenon, or avoid unnecessary actions.[1] "
The more I think about it, Occam knew what he was talking about, the simplest solution is often the best solution. All we've got to do is elect a bunch of Democrats this November and the corona virus will be extinct by Christmas. We might lose our guns, but we won't need them anymore because the criminals will suddenly rehabilitate themselves and the deer will commit suicide, hang themselves up in my barn, and skin themselves.
Speaking of simple solutions, I saw on the TV news this evening that the City of Seattle, Washington has found an easy was to pacify their protestors. They have declared their Black neighborhood an "autonomous zone". The police have evacuated and abandoned any attempt to restore law and order. One of their senior police officers, who happens to be a Black female, expressed regret over this, but several other locals they interviewed seemed to think it was a good idea.
If Michigan had done something like that with Detroit after the 1967 riot, our corona numbers wouldn't be nearly as high as they are today. Last I heard, Cheboygan County was reporting 21 total cases, one death, and 17 recoveries. We probably wouldn't even know there was a pandemic going on if we hadn't read and heard about it in the news media.
politically correct
I strongly suspect that if Michigan had a republican governor, along with your republican house the state would have been wide-open like Texas or Florida and be suffering the same sky high rates. And that economic bonus of drinking bleach (I know it's not really drinking bleach, but I like the ring), did not improve their economies which are no better than the economies of the lockdown states. The thing is that most of the residents of these states are smarter than their leaders, and even if you throw wide open the doors to your corona haven most people are too smart to enter it. That Swedish experiment is looking like a bad mistake with high death rates and an economy that is worse than their European neighbors.
I would think that the reason it is called Occam's razor is that it cuts to the truth, paring away all the bullshit of silly nonsensical answers. But I am not going to go foraging through the internet to see if that is the actual reason because it would be a good exercise for Beagles to find it himself,
I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately, I tried several of their series like Breaking Bad and Ozark, and I have not been able to get into them at all. Movies are limited to, oh four hours at the longest, and you would think that these series that go on for season after season and may have easily forty hours to tell their story could do a bangup job. But that's not what they are about. They are about filling time, they just run through the same crap over and over and over, they are not about having a good time, they are all about killing time.
I would estimate that about half of all movies are kind of like that, hire some big-name star, run through some genre plot, make sure the good guy gets the girl or punches out the bad guy, or maybe both, and dust off your hands and collect your cash. But the other half the director has some kind of vision, he has a story he wants to tell, maybe experiment a little with the plot or the cinematography, or whatever. He may do a good or a bad job of it, but something is going on besides killing time.
That gets me to the subject of movies, and the current top movie on Netflix is The Help which is not great but is not that bad. It's set in the sunny south of the fifties in some small town where all the white ladies have black maids, and in general treat them deplorably but then something happens and they learn a lesson and afterwards they treat their help better. It's all told from the viewpoint of the white ladies and it's kind of patronizing, but there are subplots and there is humor and it's well-built. But in the wake of Black Lives Matter, it is just too Uncle Tomish and the establishment critics are deploring the fact that so many people are watching it.
There is another movie, Hidden Figures, that came out not long after, it is loosely the story of this group of black women mathematicians who helped NASA in the space race and of course who were treated deplorably, but they eventually come out on top. See the difference here is that it is the black people (and women, never forget that they are women) are the stars and they do the reckoning which makes it much better to the critics.
And sure I get that, there is always that trend in movies to make a white guy the hero, like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, and I always thought that was stupid. In Hidden Figures all the white men are bad people except for the Kevin Costner character because he is a big star. Most of the white women are bad, but not as bad as the white men because, you know, they are women. The black men are pretty much not there because that would make it too complicatd.
And there is nothing complicated about this movie, the black women defeat the white men at every turn and then it is the end. How boring I thought. But the critics loved it, because it was so politically correct.
That's what I am really complaining about here, political correctness. Well I will do more complaining tomorrow, meanwhile the balcony beckons with a breezy morning.
I would think that the reason it is called Occam's razor is that it cuts to the truth, paring away all the bullshit of silly nonsensical answers. But I am not going to go foraging through the internet to see if that is the actual reason because it would be a good exercise for Beagles to find it himself,
I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately, I tried several of their series like Breaking Bad and Ozark, and I have not been able to get into them at all. Movies are limited to, oh four hours at the longest, and you would think that these series that go on for season after season and may have easily forty hours to tell their story could do a bangup job. But that's not what they are about. They are about filling time, they just run through the same crap over and over and over, they are not about having a good time, they are all about killing time.
I would estimate that about half of all movies are kind of like that, hire some big-name star, run through some genre plot, make sure the good guy gets the girl or punches out the bad guy, or maybe both, and dust off your hands and collect your cash. But the other half the director has some kind of vision, he has a story he wants to tell, maybe experiment a little with the plot or the cinematography, or whatever. He may do a good or a bad job of it, but something is going on besides killing time.
That gets me to the subject of movies, and the current top movie on Netflix is The Help which is not great but is not that bad. It's set in the sunny south of the fifties in some small town where all the white ladies have black maids, and in general treat them deplorably but then something happens and they learn a lesson and afterwards they treat their help better. It's all told from the viewpoint of the white ladies and it's kind of patronizing, but there are subplots and there is humor and it's well-built. But in the wake of Black Lives Matter, it is just too Uncle Tomish and the establishment critics are deploring the fact that so many people are watching it.
There is another movie, Hidden Figures, that came out not long after, it is loosely the story of this group of black women mathematicians who helped NASA in the space race and of course who were treated deplorably, but they eventually come out on top. See the difference here is that it is the black people (and women, never forget that they are women) are the stars and they do the reckoning which makes it much better to the critics.
And sure I get that, there is always that trend in movies to make a white guy the hero, like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, and I always thought that was stupid. In Hidden Figures all the white men are bad people except for the Kevin Costner character because he is a big star. Most of the white women are bad, but not as bad as the white men because, you know, they are women. The black men are pretty much not there because that would make it too complicatd.
And there is nothing complicated about this movie, the black women defeat the white men at every turn and then it is the end. How boring I thought. But the critics loved it, because it was so politically correct.
That's what I am really complaining about here, political correctness. Well I will do more complaining tomorrow, meanwhile the balcony beckons with a breezy morning.
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
The Lockdown
I never said that the lockdown wasn't effective in slowing the spread of the virus, I just said that it was an emergency stopgap measure that was not sustainable as a long term solution. The Spanish flu epidemic (the word "pandemic" hadn't been invented yet) of 1918 lasted for two years, and you can't shut down the global economy for two years. The states that have been opening prematurely probably figure that the point has come where the lockdown is doing more harm than the virus. It's even worse in the third world countries where many people live hand to mouth and there is no safety net. They have no choice but to let their people make a living any way they can.
The issue with our Michigan governor is different. Shortly before our legislature declined to extend the state of emergency, she issued several new edicts that were of questionable value like shutting down golf courses, landscapers, construction jobs, and motorboats. This generated lawsuits from the affected parties, which resulted in the new restrictions being lifted. At that time, we were getting around 200 deaths a day, and now we're down to two dozen. While this thing has improved, it is far from over. I expect that some restrictions will need to remain in place for a long time, maybe forever. Our governor needs to work with the legislature to come up with sustainable tactics that people can live with, but I don't see that happening any time soon. What I think will happen is that people will get tired of living like this and drift away from it little by little until the governor's orders are nullified by popular apathy. What effect this will have on the virus remains to be seen.
The info on Occam's Razor was helpful, but I still don't know why it's called a razor.
The issue with our Michigan governor is different. Shortly before our legislature declined to extend the state of emergency, she issued several new edicts that were of questionable value like shutting down golf courses, landscapers, construction jobs, and motorboats. This generated lawsuits from the affected parties, which resulted in the new restrictions being lifted. At that time, we were getting around 200 deaths a day, and now we're down to two dozen. While this thing has improved, it is far from over. I expect that some restrictions will need to remain in place for a long time, maybe forever. Our governor needs to work with the legislature to come up with sustainable tactics that people can live with, but I don't see that happening any time soon. What I think will happen is that people will get tired of living like this and drift away from it little by little until the governor's orders are nullified by popular apathy. What effect this will have on the virus remains to be seen.
The info on Occam's Razor was helpful, but I still don't know why it's called a razor.
razors
As that Greek guy who invented the razor used to say, the most obvious explanation is usually the correct one.
Occam, the guy who laid down the dictum that the simplest answer is most likely the true one: Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, Ocham's razor (Latin: novacula Occami) or law of parsimony (Latin: lex parsimoniae) is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied without necessity." The idea is attributed to English Franciscan friar William of Ockham was not Greek nor did he invent the instrument that removes stubble from our faces in the morning. I'm sure the razor for the purpose of removing stubble was invented long before the Greeks entered the scene. Egyptians often portrayed themselves as clean-shaven and certainly some citizens of Ur began their day by drawing a lethal weapon across their faces. The question in my mind is not so much when as why. Who thought this up, and why did everybody else think it was a good idea?
We grew up in a very smooth-shaven era for the US. I remember thinking when I went to college that I would now see people with beards. Beards were rather exotic then, the sort of thing only offbeat intellectuals would sport. Less than four years later I would be sporting one, and so was everybody else I knew. When I was down in Herrin I was in the habit of buying beer for minors, paying it back for all the years when I was a minor and older guys would buy it for me. One time a group of minors knowing I drank in a certain Carbondale bar sent one of their own into it to seek me out and came out empty-handed. Couldn't you find Ken, they asked him, and he replied, they all look like Ken.
And here's a fun fact, who was the last president with facial hair? I will give you pause to think of this, and the answer is Taft who left office with his mustache in 1913. Offhand I can't even think a presidential candidate who had even a mustache in my lifetime.
I think early on in the primary there was some talk of the dems having a brokered convention and the thought of it had the ink-stained wretches dancing in the streets. Oh the drama of the great state of North Dakota proudly casting its votes for whoever while crowds of fully grown adults paraded up and down the aisles with all kind of banners like high school kids at a pep rally, while somewhere in a warren deep inside the hall cigar-chomping party bosses in their shirt-sleeves pounded desks and snarled at each other hammering this thing out. Those were the days my friends.
Long gone now, and as Beagles says, they are long past their prime. They are nothing but a series of boring speeches and pomp and bullshit, There still is something called the party platform which is fiercely fought over, but once it's decided on it's promptly discarded and nobody talks about it anymore.
If Beagles is not aware of the efficacy of locking down in curbing corona he has only to do a brief internet search, or pay attention when he is reading the newspaper. Oh never mind.
Occam, the guy who laid down the dictum that the simplest answer is most likely the true one: Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, Ocham's razor (Latin: novacula Occami) or law of parsimony (Latin: lex parsimoniae) is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied without necessity." The idea is attributed to English Franciscan friar William of Ockham was not Greek nor did he invent the instrument that removes stubble from our faces in the morning. I'm sure the razor for the purpose of removing stubble was invented long before the Greeks entered the scene. Egyptians often portrayed themselves as clean-shaven and certainly some citizens of Ur began their day by drawing a lethal weapon across their faces. The question in my mind is not so much when as why. Who thought this up, and why did everybody else think it was a good idea?
We grew up in a very smooth-shaven era for the US. I remember thinking when I went to college that I would now see people with beards. Beards were rather exotic then, the sort of thing only offbeat intellectuals would sport. Less than four years later I would be sporting one, and so was everybody else I knew. When I was down in Herrin I was in the habit of buying beer for minors, paying it back for all the years when I was a minor and older guys would buy it for me. One time a group of minors knowing I drank in a certain Carbondale bar sent one of their own into it to seek me out and came out empty-handed. Couldn't you find Ken, they asked him, and he replied, they all look like Ken.
And here's a fun fact, who was the last president with facial hair? I will give you pause to think of this, and the answer is Taft who left office with his mustache in 1913. Offhand I can't even think a presidential candidate who had even a mustache in my lifetime.
I think early on in the primary there was some talk of the dems having a brokered convention and the thought of it had the ink-stained wretches dancing in the streets. Oh the drama of the great state of North Dakota proudly casting its votes for whoever while crowds of fully grown adults paraded up and down the aisles with all kind of banners like high school kids at a pep rally, while somewhere in a warren deep inside the hall cigar-chomping party bosses in their shirt-sleeves pounded desks and snarled at each other hammering this thing out. Those were the days my friends.
Long gone now, and as Beagles says, they are long past their prime. They are nothing but a series of boring speeches and pomp and bullshit, There still is something called the party platform which is fiercely fought over, but once it's decided on it's promptly discarded and nobody talks about it anymore.
If Beagles is not aware of the efficacy of locking down in curbing corona he has only to do a brief internet search, or pay attention when he is reading the newspaper. Oh never mind.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
We Don't Need No Stinking Conventions!
I certainly don't owe our outlaw governor an apology. Michigan's corona numbers began their slow decline only after our governor started easing off some of her more unreasonable restrictions in response to several lawsuits that were filled against them. Of course she never acknowledged the lawsuits, pretending that easing off the restrictions was her own idea. I believe the lawsuit filled by our legislature is still in progress, although I haven't heard anything about it lately.
Speaking of lawsuits: According to an article in our local paper which they got from the AP, "The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday overturned orders that directed a barber to close his shop during the coronavirus pandemic, with one justice saying that judges need to follow the 'rule of law, not hysteria'". Hear1 Hear!
Speaking of barbers: You say that guy who invented the razor wasn't a Greek? Well of course, he must have been a barbarian. Isn't that the origin of our word "barber"?
I don't know what's the point of having presidential conventions this year. Both major party candidates have a lock on their nominations, so the conventions would just be formalities. Can't the delegates vote on line or something?
Speaking of lawsuits: According to an article in our local paper which they got from the AP, "The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday overturned orders that directed a barber to close his shop during the coronavirus pandemic, with one justice saying that judges need to follow the 'rule of law, not hysteria'". Hear1 Hear!
Speaking of barbers: You say that guy who invented the razor wasn't a Greek? Well of course, he must have been a barbarian. Isn't that the origin of our word "barber"?
I don't know what's the point of having presidential conventions this year. Both major party candidates have a lock on their nominations, so the conventions would just be formalities. Can't the delegates vote on line or something?
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