Joe Biden, you want to be the President of the United States? Start acting like it. I heard your talk today. Talking is not enough. Convene your "commission to end racism and poverty" now. You don't need ------- permission to act; as an American, you can organization to do good. Just ------- do it. And if you don't become the President, continue leading your commission. Bring together all those leaders hungry for a leader, people who ------- care: the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, the Republicans for The Rule of Law, NAPO and IUPA, and more. They're doing their work in their areas, and it needs to continue. But you: bring them together, create the plan, execute the plan. The time for talking is past. The time for planning and acting is now. You want to be the President? Start acting like it. The one we have won't, and you're doing a lot of yakking. "Enough," you said. Why am I not hearing the news blabbing on about your outrageous moon-shot plan to end racism? Why am I not hearing the talking heads at Fox News mocking you for your Quixotic Manhattan Project effort to save the world? DO NOT WAIT until the election. The best election campaign is to stop wasting your breath and start doing something. You want to be the President and bring us together? Don't wait. Bring your party leaders together, reach across the ------- aisle and bring the Republicans to the table. Get Al Franken back in the game. Get Senators and Representatives of color in the room. How about your old friend from the White House back in the day? And the whites, too! Give me a call, I have some time on the weekends. Me and the kids can chip in. Break up into sub-committees of interest, create a ------------- action plan, and start acting! And don't give us ------- excuses about why you have to wait, don't tell us you're busy with a campaign and everything else.
Give people another reason to vote for you besides "you're not Trump."
And while you're at it, do the same thing for the #MeToo movement. I don't know if Tara Reade is a real thing, but if it WERE true, what would you do to make it better (because even if you really didn't do anything, that scenario is true way too often for way too many)? Do it. A person can have two projects. If you became President, you would have even more to do. Of course you can't solve it all in one fell swoop, but, ----- ------, start the first fell swoop. And make it fell. You can be a part of making America great in a way that we have never actually been (as a whole): how we treat the oppressed. (Is that the opposite of ball-cap MAGA?) LEAD NOW, ------------! ------------- COURAGE or sit down!
Friday, May 29, 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
Mental Disorders
Inspired from this article in Nature, posted by my friend, Randy.
In it, I came across the diagram below and it begs a few important questions that I'd need a medical health diagnostic expert to help me answer. First, having worked with a lot of autistic students over the years, and knowing that many experienced an elevated level of anxiety, why the very small linkage between those two disorders? Once someone was diagnosed with ASD, did they then attribute any anxiety to that disorder and so drop Anxiety? Same question with OCD? How are people with ASD not highly correlated with OCD which is prevalent among them?
Also, it makes sense that PTSD would not necessarily be closely related to any of the genetic dispositions since its root cause is mainly/primarily an event or situation that caused the trauma and was mostly causal, which would naturally not be a genetic marker.
In it, I came across the diagram below and it begs a few important questions that I'd need a medical health diagnostic expert to help me answer. First, having worked with a lot of autistic students over the years, and knowing that many experienced an elevated level of anxiety, why the very small linkage between those two disorders? Once someone was diagnosed with ASD, did they then attribute any anxiety to that disorder and so drop Anxiety? Same question with OCD? How are people with ASD not highly correlated with OCD which is prevalent among them?
Also, it makes sense that PTSD would not necessarily be closely related to any of the genetic dispositions since its root cause is mainly/primarily an event or situation that caused the trauma and was mostly causal, which would naturally not be a genetic marker.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Honey, Relax. We're all going to get it.
This virus will get to us all eventually. It's just who and when, which are both interesting questions. Say you're old and vulnerable. Do we lower your odds enough so you can live to the fullest (if your current living status counts as that for you) before it eventually gets you and does you in (or not). Or, do you infect yourself NOW while you're just young enough to fend it off, hopefully, and then live a nice long resistant life after that? At what age are we most likely not to come out of it healthy? Does that matter? If you're my age (coming up on mid-50s), I'd say I want to be infected now because there's a good chance with my history, that I can come out of it OK. Yes, there's a risk that it'd kill me and I don't know what that is yet, because we're not able to test everyone yet. (Let's get on that by the way, so we can. And while we're at it, let's figure out the post-infection immunity situation -- do I become immune when I recover or what? Come ON! Again, I know that's going to be a function of testing everyone). So threading that needle between those getting it, it's a crapshoot anyway. How long do you want to wait before you get sick? How much older? 1 year? 5 years? So far, it looks like we're not coming close in most areas to reaching anywhere near capacity in our ability to treat the disease with what we have or can get, should the situation escalate. How will the second wave look? Don't know. But will loosening (not removing) the quarantine put us on a better trajectory -- meaning more cases than we have not but still not enough to overtax our resources.
Second big picture: Why does not being able to do business (for small businesses) or work (for people) for 2 months totally blow the coop? Are we individually and are our institutions really that fragile that they cannot last 60 days of not working before they can't pay their bills? And what about the landlords. For those who are sucking off the juice of another, are they so overextended and living so far out of their means that they can't go 60 - 90 days without getting their rent from paying customers? What is going on in this country? What the hell?
Second big picture: Why does not being able to do business (for small businesses) or work (for people) for 2 months totally blow the coop? Are we individually and are our institutions really that fragile that they cannot last 60 days of not working before they can't pay their bills? And what about the landlords. For those who are sucking off the juice of another, are they so overextended and living so far out of their means that they can't go 60 - 90 days without getting their rent from paying customers? What is going on in this country? What the hell?
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Trump, STFU about China paying for the Virus
OK, so you want China to pony up for their role in letting Coronavirus ravage the world. You want to defund the WHO for their part in not being perfect. Discounting the fact that you, personally and INDIVIDUALLY (with your sycophants), created the American Shitshow of pandemic response. Capital B-ULLSHIT! Everything that happened good in American was IN SPITE of you, smart and proactive state leadership, contrarian staff members like Fauci, and others. Left to you, we would be even more fucked, you gargantuan festering parasite. Fuck you, motherfucker.
Because, take a left turn and we have another death angel staring us down, daring us to step over its line (an order of magnitude worse), and and there you go, forward amain. "I won't see your red line, ecotastrophe." Across the board, motherfucker, you roll back programs that are designed to slow down the terraforming we're unwittingly (not meaning we don't know it's happening, but rather that we don't know all the collateral change we're wreaking upon the world) perpetrating. From adding poison to our water to reducing our emissions to decimating our force-multiplier status as world leader, you're fucking the world up the ass, with glee. What, you don't think American's are smart enough to figure out how to make a living and still prevent the premature death of the world? I believe it, you financial elitist.
You want to feign righteousness over one issue -- Coronavirus (in which you, yourself, own a controlling stock in its death rate), and on the next issue over, even more destructive -- climate change -- you are the number one global desecrator. Fuck that, you piece of shit.
Had we, as a nation over the last 4 years, acted with scientific integrity, and acted in accordance with the most likely scenarios given our limited knowledge of the future and our best models, then we would have the moral standing to ask others to do the same. But, on the contrary, we didn't. We, literally, did the opposite. Again, the governors of most states can legitimately act in the interest of our country in those regards because many of them have, indeed, maintained a science-based policy respecting what we know of coronavirus and climate change.
No one knows all the answers and no one knows the best thing to do. That has never stopped intelligent and diligent people from acting in the best long-term interest of the most of us. Balancing the economy Today and This Year with the long-term well being of America and the World, for Christ's sake (if you believe in that sort of thing), is important. When your vision extends to YOU and YOUR family and YOUR friends and YOUR moment, well, you're a short-sited egoist buffoon (not that there's anything wrong with that), and DAMMIT, you shouldn't be leading a nation that wants to last for a few more centuries, the former beacon on the hill for the rest of the world. No, you should be back in your little channel with your tiny people, becoming moderately wealthy while screwing over those who trust your sorry bullshit.
Because, take a left turn and we have another death angel staring us down, daring us to step over its line (an order of magnitude worse), and and there you go, forward amain. "I won't see your red line, ecotastrophe." Across the board, motherfucker, you roll back programs that are designed to slow down the terraforming we're unwittingly (not meaning we don't know it's happening, but rather that we don't know all the collateral change we're wreaking upon the world) perpetrating. From adding poison to our water to reducing our emissions to decimating our force-multiplier status as world leader, you're fucking the world up the ass, with glee. What, you don't think American's are smart enough to figure out how to make a living and still prevent the premature death of the world? I believe it, you financial elitist.
You want to feign righteousness over one issue -- Coronavirus (in which you, yourself, own a controlling stock in its death rate), and on the next issue over, even more destructive -- climate change -- you are the number one global desecrator. Fuck that, you piece of shit.
Had we, as a nation over the last 4 years, acted with scientific integrity, and acted in accordance with the most likely scenarios given our limited knowledge of the future and our best models, then we would have the moral standing to ask others to do the same. But, on the contrary, we didn't. We, literally, did the opposite. Again, the governors of most states can legitimately act in the interest of our country in those regards because many of them have, indeed, maintained a science-based policy respecting what we know of coronavirus and climate change.
No one knows all the answers and no one knows the best thing to do. That has never stopped intelligent and diligent people from acting in the best long-term interest of the most of us. Balancing the economy Today and This Year with the long-term well being of America and the World, for Christ's sake (if you believe in that sort of thing), is important. When your vision extends to YOU and YOUR family and YOUR friends and YOUR moment, well, you're a short-sited egoist buffoon (not that there's anything wrong with that), and DAMMIT, you shouldn't be leading a nation that wants to last for a few more centuries, the former beacon on the hill for the rest of the world. No, you should be back in your little channel with your tiny people, becoming moderately wealthy while screwing over those who trust your sorry bullshit.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
You good?
You still kickin' there in your domicile?
No one knew what it would be like when this started. So you're doing what you can. You're feeding your people and finding something to do. You need help? Get it -- reach out to friends who would like nothing more than an excuse to help out someone and feel good. Or even to acquaintances or Facebook friends. You need to get out? Go sit in your car, drive around the block. Take the kids sight seeing (disinfect the gas nozzle!).
Bored? Find a way to help others in any way you can.
It's going to be OK, and if it ain't, you'll deal with it. You've dealt with tough stuff before, and if not, this is your chance to join the rest of us who have. Life changing events happen all the time (marriage, divorce, accidents and sickness). Just not usually to all of us at the same time. And we get through it. Or not. Just do what you can today, learn from yesterday, and carry on. It's not a problem. It's just life. Live it the best you can.
No one knew what it would be like when this started. So you're doing what you can. You're feeding your people and finding something to do. You need help? Get it -- reach out to friends who would like nothing more than an excuse to help out someone and feel good. Or even to acquaintances or Facebook friends. You need to get out? Go sit in your car, drive around the block. Take the kids sight seeing (disinfect the gas nozzle!).
Bored? Find a way to help others in any way you can.
It's going to be OK, and if it ain't, you'll deal with it. You've dealt with tough stuff before, and if not, this is your chance to join the rest of us who have. Life changing events happen all the time (marriage, divorce, accidents and sickness). Just not usually to all of us at the same time. And we get through it. Or not. Just do what you can today, learn from yesterday, and carry on. It's not a problem. It's just life. Live it the best you can.
Monday, March 23, 2020
Part of the New Normal when this thing is finished:
Conventional Wisdom says to have enough in savings to survive with no income for 6 months. Looks like we're going to actually take that advice seriously from now on. It's a good policy anyway, but this shows us that it's real. For any given person, we wouldn't be surprised if something put us out of commission for a few months (back injury, car accident, cancer, etc.), but when something inflicts that imposition on the entire globe, wow. It shows us how important that policy really is.
Not just the money, but the plan -- how do I go about creating a "dormancy plan?" And do the rent collectors have an obligation to put something like that into their agreements from now on: In the case of a global pandemic, city-inundating hurricane or earthquake: Should the business need to be dormant more than one month due to a natural disaster affecting the entire (city/state/country), rent collection will be reduced to 10% after the first month up to 6 months. And of course, living within our means takes on more nuance. In a limited natural disaster, FEMA and the kindness of others can go a long way toward helping the victims get through it. But with everyone in a similar boat, well, we need to think hard about the processes and infrastructure to sustain us while we're debilitated. Schools systems, banks, homeowners, renters, all businesses, hospitals and clinics, utilities, everything! Let's learn our damn lesson on this one.
Not just the money, but the plan -- how do I go about creating a "dormancy plan?" And do the rent collectors have an obligation to put something like that into their agreements from now on: In the case of a global pandemic, city-inundating hurricane or earthquake: Should the business need to be dormant more than one month due to a natural disaster affecting the entire (city/state/country), rent collection will be reduced to 10% after the first month up to 6 months. And of course, living within our means takes on more nuance. In a limited natural disaster, FEMA and the kindness of others can go a long way toward helping the victims get through it. But with everyone in a similar boat, well, we need to think hard about the processes and infrastructure to sustain us while we're debilitated. Schools systems, banks, homeowners, renters, all businesses, hospitals and clinics, utilities, everything! Let's learn our damn lesson on this one.
Monday, March 16, 2020
The Deep State
What the deep state means to Donald Trump and his cohort is the public servants who live by their oath (to support and defend the constitution) instead of being loyal to the person, Trump.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Loyalty to a person is one of the lowest principles. You can be supportive or a friend or a confidant, whatever, without supporting their vices. Being loyal to someone doing the wrong thing takes you right down the wrong with them. Loyal in support of unethical behavior makes you an unethical sycophant. Are you afraid of losing power? Are you an approval seeker from the top dog? Fuck. That. Shit. You're nothing. Especially when you've seen that the loyalty is always one way. He will turn tail and abandon the loyal minions, scapegoat them, besmirch them, mock and belittle them the minute it's not politically popular. The minute they have a (almost always smarter) opinion than Trump.
Fuck. That. Shit.
Loyalty to a person is one of the lowest principles. You can be supportive or a friend or a confidant, whatever, without supporting their vices. Being loyal to someone doing the wrong thing takes you right down the wrong with them. Loyal in support of unethical behavior makes you an unethical sycophant. Are you afraid of losing power? Are you an approval seeker from the top dog? Fuck. That. Shit. You're nothing. Especially when you've seen that the loyalty is always one way. He will turn tail and abandon the loyal minions, scapegoat them, besmirch them, mock and belittle them the minute it's not politically popular. The minute they have a (almost always smarter) opinion than Trump.
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