Month: August 2020

What goes into picking a VP running mate for a Presidential election? Obviously, multiple things – enough so that a candidate now apparently must have committee make the decision. While I am sure that Trump had a committee of sorts in 2016 before he chose Pence as his running mate,  no reasonable person could doubt that it was Donald Trump who made the final decision. This year with Joe Biden, who will make the final decision? On paper, the answer is Joe Biden, but everyone is aware that it is very unlikely that Sleepy Joe will actually make this decision . . . or for that matter will independently make any decision in the near future.

The fact that months ago Basement Joe said that he was going to choose a female as his running mate tells it all. To my way of thinking, this “my VP choice will be a woman” tells a lot about Biden’s campaign strategy . . . It’s dumb! If he had it set in his mind that he truly wanted a female running mate, why announce that months ago? The fact that he has announced that his choice will be a female means that he has already potentially eliminated about fifty percent of potential candidates(i.e. he has eliminated all males). It would seem to me that his choice would have more standing with the public, if in the end he could say that he chose the best candidate, and not merely the best woman.

Let’s be clear, for the good of the country, I want Joe to lose to Trump. However, just for the sake of discussion, from the viewpoint of the independent voter who would be Biden’s best choice.

Let’ first consider which state the VP choice is from. Should she be able to guarantee that her home state will turn out and vote for Biden?

Kamala Harris and Karen Bass are both from California and California will vote for Biden even if Minnie Mouse were his BP choice. So no added benefit here. Susan Rice teaches at American University and so probably lives in D.C. No added benefit here. Elizabeth Warren is from Massachusetts, no again no added benefit here.

Baggage? Which VP candidate has the most baggage? 

Rice: Benghazi

Bass: Castro, Cuba

Warren: Pocahontas! Need I say more?

Harris: no real baggage except perhaps her past life as a ? mistress ofWillie  Brown (hearsay, innuendo!); however, she was a prosecutor, and this is  not a  good thing from the perspective of the Democrat’s base.

I could go on here, but truthfully I am getting exhausted trying to find good things to say about his potential pick. The fact that this is about a bunch of second-stringers tells it all! I believe that none of them have the cojones or the qualifications to be President, and since the present Las Vegas odds on Biden completing one full term are presently 3:2 . . . HELP!

The best I can hope for now is that the three also-rans VP contenders will get p.o.-ed when Miss Summer-Fall-Winer-Spring has finally been chosen.

In a weak attempt to expand the language capability of my readers, “Hur mår du” is Swedish for “how are you” and in order to see how Sweden is doing, it is time for my monthly Swedish coronavirus update.

To review:

Instead of tight lockdowns, Swedish officials encouraged citizens to use common sense, work from home if possible, and not gather in crowds over 50. Primary schools … open!  bars and restaurants … open!  with people enjoying drinks and crowding streets. Their aim is to slow the pace of the virus, so as not to overwhelm the health care system.

At this point I want to emphasize that they did not close primary schools. I guess Sweden does not have a power-hungry political teachers union, and perhaps Sweden just cares more about educating its young students.

Here are a few of the latest stats from Sweden:

Total cases – 80442

Total deaths – 5743

In June when there was a significant increase in testing, there was a sharp rise in the number of cases to greater than 1000 per day on more than half of the June days. However, in July the number of new cases dropped to <500 (still increased testing) in the second half of the month, and in July the number of ICU admits and the number of deaths are way down. This seems like there could be a glitch somewhere. Why are the number of cases going up, while the deaths and ICU admits are impressively lower? 

To me there can be only two possible answers. Either the increased testing is now picking up a lot of asymptomatic individuals, or the increased testing is identifying a greater number of individuals that are in an age range that does quite well with Covid.

The  age group of 70 and above had 89% of all of the deaths in Sweden. (Yes, you heard me right!) The age group 50-70 had 9.6% of all of the deaths in Sweden. Moreover, one of the reasons for the relatively high percentage of the deaths in the 70+age group is the extremely low numbers of deaths in the <50 age group. In this younger and younger-middle age group there were only 71 deaths (1.24% of all coronavirus deaths in Sweden). Of course, all deaths are tragic, but the bottom line is that very few young people (<50 y/o) died from Covid in Sweden.

From Reuters (7/15/20):

A recent report showed that severe cases of COVID-19 were very rare among both Swedish and Finnish children aged 1 to 19, with no deaths reported. A comparison of the incidence of COVID-19 in different professions suggested no increased risk for teachers.

As other countries face renewed outbreaks, Sweden’s latest Covid-19 figures suggest it’s rapidly bringing the virus under control.

“That Sweden has come down to these levels is very promising,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters in Stockholm on 7/28/20.

He also broached the subject of face masks, which the World Health Organization recommends people use when social distancing isn’t possible.

“With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport,” he said.

So in conclusion like a football team, Sweden stuck to its original game plan even though early on it appeared that the game plan was not working. However like in a football game the final score is not the score at the end of the first quarter, but at the end of the fourth quarter. In summary, Sweden’s plan amounted to social distancing andcommon sense, which California does not seem to have, especially when it comes to school children and sending them back to school for in-person learning.

Adjö

Var försiktig

What exactly is history?

The first definition in the dictionary is “a branch of knowledge dealing with past events.” That seems pretty straightforward to me.

The second dictionary definition  is “a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account.” Again that seems pretty straightforward to me.

Both definitions include “past events.” This term seems self-explanatory . . . things that have occurred in the past.

However, apparently in Illinois, history can have a different meaning . . . a “woke” meaning. 

“Leaders“ in education, politics and other areas gathered in suburban Evanston Sunday, 8/2/20, to ask that the Illinois State Board of Education change the history curriculum at schools statewide, and temporarily halt instruction until an alternative is decided upon.

At a news conference, State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford said current history teachings lead to a racist society and overlook the contributions of women and minorities.

Another “woke” idea! . . . “change the history curriculum at schools statewide.” Why limit this to just one state? Perhaps if history is going to be rewritten, why restrict it? After all if someone were to relocate from one state to another while still in school, would he/she have to retake history in order to learn the “other history”?

This is undoubtedly not the last brilliant “woke” idea. Perhaps next we should consider changing Geography. After all if LaShawn junior can’t remember where France is . . . then let’s just change it’s location!

Or perhaps we should change Math. After all if LaShawn junior can’t seem to get that 6×4=24 . . .then let’s just change that answer!

The possibilities for changes in education are endless if we would all just “woke” up!

It’s Sunday night and it’s been another violent weekend in Chicago, and it’s not over yet. I’ve checked the Chicago stats multiple times during the day today, and each time I look the numbers are higher, and i kept reminding myself that “it’s not over yet!”

Thus far according to CBS Chicago the death toll is 17 with 32 wounded. 

Those killed included:

-a 9y/o boy who was playing outside his home

-a 10y/o girl who was hit by a stray bullet while sitting in her home. 

-a 1y/o who was riding in a car

Help me here! What we seem to have is chaos, and a mayor, Lori Lightfoot, who refuses outside help. The shooting victims this weekend in Chicago are black . . . not predominately black, but overwhelmingly, and perhaps 100% black. The mayor herself is black. What does she say to the mothers of the 9 year old, the 10 year old, and the 1 year old? Can Mayor Lightfoot say, “I did the best I could.”?

Obviously not, and it’s not over yet! 

8/2/20

10p.m in Chicago

Usually the front page of my local “newspaper” emphasizes only bad news For example, the latest Covid stats, with an emphasis on how many have died, or the bad unemployment numbers, etc.

However today there was a side column on the front page whose headline that brought a smile to my face not only when I first read it in the morning but also for the remainder of the day whenever I again thought about it.

First a little background:

From January, 1915 until January, 1917, Balboa Park in San Diego was the host for the Panama California Exposition, which basically was meant to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. A central exhibit of the exposition, “The Story of Man through the Ages”, was assembled under the direction of noted archaeologist Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett of the School of American Archaeology. After the Exposition closed a group of citizens led by George Marston formed the San Diego Museum Association to retain the collection and convert it into a permanent museum, with Dr. Hewett as the first director. The name was changed to “Museum of Man” in 1942 to emphasize the museum’s concentration on anthropology. Since I have lived here the Museum of Man has been a truly iconic museum in San Diego . . . until now … as the Museum of Man is now the “Museum of Us!”

Apparently for some “woke” reason, a group of goody-two-shoes has decided to put the kibosh not only on the history of the museum, and its focus on anthropology, but also on the meaning of the word “man.”

I suspect that the “board of trustees” of the now “Museum of Us” were educated in the now woke public school system, as apparently they are not aware that a single word, in this case “man,” can actually have more than one meaning. (I can almost hear the so called “board of trustees” responding, “Really? We didn’t know that!”)

The following are the definitions for the word … man:

1. an adult male person, as distinguished from a boy or a woman. 

   2. a member of the species Homo sapiens or all the members of this species collectively, without regard to sex: prehistoric man.

   3. the human individual as representing the species, without reference to sex;  the human race; humankind: Man hopes for peace, but prepares for war.

   4. a human being; person: to give a man a chance; When the audience  smelled the smoke, it was every man for himself.

It appears to me that the “board of trustees” was convinced by the “we are sooo correct” group that there could only be one meaning for the word, “man.”

Perhaps the next time I am in Balboa Park, I will go over to the Museum of Us . . . No, not to go inside, but rather to give the “bored” a dictionary. I doubt that I will ever be going inside again!

BTW: The rumor is that next this group will next be arguing to change some of the wording in the Bible, such that “ the food miraculously supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness. Ex. 16:14–36 will henceforth be called . . . “Us-na!”

Yes, this is an Aretha Franklin song from the 1970s that I think has particular relevance today. To my way of thinking I think that this word is not in the vernacular of a lot of the youth of today. One might ask why? 

Could it be that this is the fault of the schools? Absolutely! In a lot of the public schools of today, ‘Respect’ is neither taught or learned, as teachers have little motivation to demand respect (actually, they cannot demand respect from the students in today’s world), and students have little incentive to show respect.for most teachers . . . Why should they?

Could it be that this is the fault of the parents? Again absolutely. For the most part, the parents of today do not demand respect from their kids. Why is that? To me the answer is multifactorial . . . too busy, demanding respect is not P.C., single parents are often afraid to demand respect as if they do, they risk losing any control over the child. 

However for whatever reason this lack of respect has filtered down into our society.

Them: “The hell with what you think. You must think my way. I have no respect whatsoever for your thoughts on the matter. It’s my way or the highway . . . actually that’s not true . . . there is no highway. It’s my way!”

For instance, one might think that a statue of Columbus is a reminder of an historical part of our culture. 

Them: “Too bad for you and those that think like you. You are old-fashioned, old man! I don’t like that statue of Columbus, and so it is coming down. I do not respect your opinion on this matter . . . F-you!” 

To that one might respond, “Perhaps we should talk this over, and allow the majority decide what to do, if anything,with that statue.”

Them: “No!”

I could go on with other examples . . . For instance, Confederate names on Army bases. Rather than allowing the woke crowd of the young disrespecters  to unilaterally decide, perhaps we as a country should discuss this issue.

Them: “No, we are right, and again there is no highway!”