Professed non-experts claim to be experts

Many climate-change deniers claim not to be scientists.  If they are not scientists, how can they claim to know with certainty there is no climate change?

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”

• Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

In other stories, Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and all the king’s men and all the king’s horses couldn’t put him back together again.

When Trumpty Dumpty falls off the wall, how many of us will he take with him?

Global warming: quote of the day: "Don't be a fossil fool"

Climate Change Protest Draws Thousands of Australian Students

Frustrated by their government’s failure to curb carbon emissions, students across the country quit school for a day to protest instead.


One of the signs was "don't be a fossil fool".

See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/world/australia/student-strike-climate-change.html.

Negativity blinds us from seeing angels.

When you have a negative attitude it is hard to see all the angels you meet in the world.

I thought about this after hearing two men in complaining in the locker room.  The older complained that his friends were less willing to give him rides.  I kept quiet, but I wondered if his friends were unwilling to listen to his negative comments.  When I related this to my wife, she suggested that fewer of his friends drove anymore.

The negativity made me think of the couplet

When you laugh, the whole world laughs with you.
When you cry, you cry alone.

The actual couplet is

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone:
…”

The poem is “Solitude” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox”.  You can find it at
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45937/solitude-56d225aad9924

Politics: don’t do as I do, do as say

See comments to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/opinion/sunday/nafta-mexico-trump-ambassador.html.

Many “conservatives” complain about “liberals” attacking Trump and the Republicans.  Have they forgotten their obstruction of many of Obama’s initiatives and the false claims about his birth?

After years of obstruction of Obama’s appointees, why are they in such a rush to appoint judges?

It seems to me that many “conservatives” only want to conserve their power.  They completely ignore the Constitution, Washington’s Farewell Address (foreign entanglements), Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (government of the people, by the people, and for the people), and Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (military-industrial complex).

What would we call a party that considered these important thoughts in their own governance of our country?

Abortion: Judgment or Compassion

“Beta O’Rourke May Benefit From an Unlikely Support Group: White Evangelical Women”, Elisabeth Dias, New York Times, 2018-10-09

This shift is that these women are seeing O’Rourke as a “stark moral contrast to Mr. Trump.”  They are seeing other moral values that Trump does not have; values that are just as important as opposing abortion.

The problem with abortion as a political issue is that it ignores many problems that are not controlled by an “unwilling” mother.

Shall a teen-age girl be responsible for a child fathered by force, whether by a known or unknown male?

Shall a woman of any age be forced to bear a child whose birth will kill her?  What would that do to any previous children she had?

We really cannot make any sweeping pronouncements about abortion without knowing all facts in each individual case.

If we make all abortions illegal, who will be punished?  Will it be the unwilling mother?  Will it be the “back alley abortionist”?  Will it be the not present father?

Ironically, some of these “value” voters are supporting a party that is quite willing to cause unwanted abortions in other countries.  How many pregnant women are killed in wars?  How many of these pregnant women even support the wars in their countries?  And some of these politicians with the “big buttons” are quite willing to obliterate large numbers of women and children.

Intrusive online ads

Some months ago, I believe it was the online Duluth News Tribune that had intrusive ads for Amazon that took over the screen and the browser tab.  the only way I made the ads disappear was to close the tab and open a new tap.  I complained about it several times and they haven’t appeared since.

Today, the online Washington Post had two of these same intrusive ads for Amazon.  The only way I got rid of them was to close the tabs.

It is one thing to have ads in a sidebar or interspersed in stories.  We have the same in print media.  The ads help cover some of the costs of putting out the publications so that we pay less.  We can skip the ads or we can read them; it is our choice.  But these ads are not our choice.

No matter what online publication you are reading, if this happens to you be sure to let the publishers know.

In the case of the Washington Post, send email to readers@washpost.com.

I had a dream

My apologies to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for using a variation of the title of one of his major speeches.

My dream early this morning was about a similar nemesis: those whose only interest is ruling with a false idea of conservatism and a misuse of religion.

The false idea of conservatism is holding on to power, irregardless of how it affects the vast majority of the citizens.  This conservatism puts the interests of some large corporations over the interests of large segments of the population.  The misuse of religion is to claim to have the truth even as it acts contrary to the teachings of its greatest prophet.

My dream was that teams of journalists met all over the country to unite against the attacks by false conservatives on the journalists integrity and professionalism.  Interestingly, many of these journalists being attacked are real conservatives, like George Will and Jennifer Rubin.

What is a real conservative?  We can start by naming a few: Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight Eisenhower.  All of these have given warning about the order of men that is not to be trusted.

Adam Smith warned about those who live by profit.  Edmund Burke warned about the folly of not allowing the colonies to govern themselves.  George Washington warned about factions and about foreign entanglements (letting both friends and enemies control our judgment).  Abraham Lincoln stated that we had to think anew with new circumstances.  Dwight Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex.

The best way to counter these false conservatives is to vote in each and every election.  These false conservatives do all they can to dissuade people from voting from gerrymandering to false statements about their opponents.

Until such time as real conservatives appear on the scene, I’ll just have to keep voting for Democrats.  I don’t support many of the issues of the Democrats, but these issues are not so destructive of our country as the issues proclaimed by false conservatives.

Trumpty Dumpty falls off his wall

Trumpty Dumpty sat on his wall.
Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Neither Russian enablers
Nor Republican hacks
Could put Trumpty Dumpty together again.

A collaberation of Melvyn and Janet Magree.  That’s collaberation on this bit of doggerel.  We didn’t push Trumpty Dumpty.  This was from 2016!

And just when you think you have something original, you find that many others had a similar idea.  My first inkling was finding Trumpty Dumpty' and Other Trump Poems | HuffPost https://www.huffingtonpost.com/orel-protopopescu/trumpty-dumpty_b_9500428.html. This was from 2016!  And if you do a web search, you will find dozens of references more, including T-shirts.

I am smarter than Donald Trump

I know that I can’t govern the country by my every whim.

I also know that many leaders of other countries are not ready to dance to the tune of the American piper.  Especially since the American piper hasn’t gotten rid of the rats in high places.

Majority rules...

...but only if the majority votes.

Too many votes are decided by too small a portion of the eligible voters.

I thought of this because of the misnamed Freedom Caucus and Tea Party.

We have the freedom to govern ourselves, not to do as we please without any consideration of other people.

We have the ability to tax ourselves with representation instead of by some government we have no right to vote for.

Would it better to call the Freedom Caucus and the Tea Party anarchists? 

Immigration

Comment to “Trump cannot get its story straight…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/06/18/daily-202-trump-team-cannot-get-its-story-straight-on-separating-migrant-families/5b2701f030fb046c468e6ef6/?utm_term=.4fad262b503d

Gosh, the inhabitants of this continent over a thousand years ago had a lousy immigration policy.  First they let those drunken, war-mongering Vikings in.  Then they let some murderous Spaniards in.

Pete Seeger captured this mistake with his tale of two Indians watching a little boat come ashore from a bigger boat.  A man stepped out of the little boat and said "Buenos dias, señores."  One Indian looked at the other and said, "Well, there goes the neighborhood!"

And this invasion from Europe just grew and grew until it was a flood that overwhelmed and often killed the original inhabitants.

I think these illegal aliens should go back where they came from.

Gosh!  What am I going to do?  I am a descendant of these illegal aliens.  But how can I "go back where I came from"?  I would have to be sent back in pieces.  I have known ancestors from England, Germany, and Poland, and probably as my name suggests, from Ireland.

Interestingly, many of the ancestors of these "illegal" immigrants once upon a time freely crossed the Rio Grande, moving back and forth for trade and for better weather.  Then a bunch of these Europeans decided they wanted the land north of the Rio Grande, and...

Donald Trump’s New Book

How to Make Enemies and Squander Influence.

This was my reaction to Trump’s opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

With apologies to Dale Carnegie’s How to Make Friends and Influence People.

Comment to “Kofi Annan and populists”

Those of us who have the interest or the time can access a large variety of news and make some sense between opinion and facts.

Unfortunately, too many people get their news and opinion from a half-hour or an hour of watching a rather limited number of facts or opinions.

See

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/05/09/kofi-annan/?utm_term=.de64780f9b30

This is justice?

The pickpocket who steals a rich man’s wallet may be sent to jail.

The rich man who steals a widow’s savings might never see the inside of a jail.

Doesn’t happen?  Think of the housing crisis of the 90’s. 

Character, content, Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that we should all be judged by the content of our character.  Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is a character without content.

Shame on Wisconsin stay-aways

In the election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge, Rebecca Dallet, a Democrat, beat Michael Screnock, a Republican, 56 to 44 percent.

No matter what your party affiliation is, this is very  bad news.  The turnout was 22 percent!!  This means that just over 12 percent of the voters supported Dallet with their time.

Invasion of Iraq

Comment to Sinan Antoon’s New York Times article “Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country”, posted at http://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-anniversary-.html?comments#permid=26407775.

“The only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”

Over 200 years ago a certain people were very upset that its laws were being made by a distant country.  They rebelled and successfully fought a revolution to govern themselves.

Now many of the political descendants of that people celebrate that revolution but think nothing of dictating the laws and policies of other countries without the consent of the governed.

“The more things change the more they stay the same.”

“Free-range parenting”, what’s the fuss

Utah has passed a “free-range parenting” bill that frees parents from hovering over their children.  Some people thinks this is terrible and irresponsible.

See https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/controversial-free-range-parenting-now-legal-utah-heres-means-203114763.html.

Thanks goodness I was a free-range kid from the time I was six (1944).  I walked to school by myself.  I walked to playgrounds myself.  I went to the movies with my younger brother.  And when I had a bicycle I rode many places far from home.

More on erratic behavior of online newspapers

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, using a MacBook Air, early 2015, macOS Sierra, version 10.12.6.
I was able to access and sign in to startribune.com.  I then clicked on e Access or whatever and asked to log in.  I didn’t keep track of the details but was told my account didn’t have access to that version.  I went back to the web version and clicked on eEdition.  Voila! and no intrusive overlay ads.  And I have access to the “Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee”.

Now the question is would I get the same result using my iPhone as a hot spot to my AT&T account.

I don’t feel like checking right now.  I would rather read the funnies.

And I read the Star Tribune and after that I accessed the Duluth News Tribune.  I forget the details on what I did, but I am almost done reading the opinion page.  Strange that I couldn’t access the DNT at all from home but I can from a coffee shop.

The hubris of automation

A woman walking her bike in Tempe AZ was struck and killed by a driverless Uber car.

Uber and others should consider the old joke about automated airplanes.

“Ladies and gentle, welcome to the world’s first completely automated flight.  Although there are no pilots in the cockpit, we would like to assure you that every detail has been worked out.  Please sit back and enjoy your flight, flight, flight,…”

Greatest Deliberative Body?

Whatever happened to "The Greatest Deliberating Body in the World", aka the U.S. Senate?

If it were a true deliberating body, it would have 100 opinions to begin with before settling into one or two.  Instead we start with two lock-step opinions arguing over a foregone conclusion reached by a small majority.

Comment to Maureen Dowd’s column “Trump, Flush With Power”  seems to think that Trump will be crashing soon after firing some competent people and replacing them with Fox News people.  But some commenters thought Trump would get away with a lot as long as the Senate enables him.




Posted at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/trump-fox-news-dowd.html?comments#permid=26368531.

Erratic behavior of online newspapers

I sent the following email to the publishers and editors of the Star Tribune and the Duluth News Tribune.

Good afternoon,

If this email is upsetting the end of your day, I’m sorry.  But the erratic behavior of the online versions of your newspapers has been upsetting my month and many months before.

In the case of the Star Tribune, it has unwanted pop-up ads that are difficult, if not impossible to delete. Several days earlier in the week it occurred almost every day and I was ready to cancel my subscription.  The telephone chain to do so was ridiculous.  Yesterday, the eEdition worked fine, and I relented on cancelling my subscription.  Today the pop-up ads were back.

Jon of Feedback was very patient and supportive, but one piece of advice I should never have followed: resetting my iPad.  That wound up clearing all my saved passwords.  Now I have to look these up for my next visit to any of a number of password-protected sites.  And the problem of unwanted pop-ups is back.

In the case of the Duluth News Tribune, it may or may not come up with the eEdition.  On my iPad it was going in a circle of getting halfway to the eEdition and then wanting me to put in my password again.

At the moment, the eEditions are working on my MacBook Air, but I would rather eat breakfast with an iPad by my side: it takes up much less space on the table.

See my blog entry: "A newspaper’s takeover of subscribers’ computers"

http://magree.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-newspapers-takeover-of-subscribers.html

I am not alone in enduring these, but I wonder how many of your users have the knowledge and patience to work through this annoyance.  I know my wife who has over twenty years of computer experience wouldn’t and she is growing very impatient with my repeated complaints.  I know that I no longer wish to be an unpaid debugger of your software.

So, please cancel my subscriptions to the Star Tribune and the Duluth News Tribune.  I’ll renew them when you have fixed this problem.

Oh, yes!  I will post this email to my blog.

A newspaper’s takeover of subscribers’ computers

Given the increasing complexity of software and its decreasing user-friendliness, I think 1984 has arrived.  We are supposed to follow robotically through the latest commands of the software designer, aka Big Brother.  And like in 1984, we have no idea what we are doing or should be doing.

I have almost 59 years of computer experience.  I started with a summer job in which I used a textbook to learn to program an IBM 650.  That was a set of large refrigerator size boxes with punched cards in and punched cards out.

Over the next twenty-plus years I went on to program and debug larger and larger computers.  I was often an advocate of newer techniques, like using compilers instead of machine code or using email instead of typed memos.

Then personal computers appeared on the scene.  Some of them easy to use, some of them opaque to use.  In 1984, the Macintosh appeared.  It was a real break-through in ease of use.  Many laughed at WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pictures).  They preferred the complex set of coding that had to be done for the simplest tasks.

I was hooked and became a Certified Macintosh Developer.  I was eager to get the latest Mac with many great features: color, faster and smaller storage devices, and more.

Then OS-X (operating system 10) appeared.  It had many nifty features except ease of transferring older programs to it.  I never got around to rewriting my genealogy program and have lost all that data (except that which I had printed out).  On the other hand, there were many new features that were a delight to use.

But as one OS X after another followed, the Mac started being persnickety.  Printers that were easy to use became a nightmare.  Where is the setting to print an envelope.  Why does the scanner work well with an old OS but gives dark blobs on a newer OS?

Then sin of sins, without asking me, Apple decided I should install the latest operating system just because I was using wi-fi at a coffee shop.  Not only did Apple decide that I should upgrade, it decided that all my files in the Document folder should go to iCloud.  But that was more data than my free 5GB.  It asked me to upgrade my account to 50GB.  The extra $0.99 a month was no big deal, but I still haven’t completely reorganized my Document file so that I don’t need be hooked up to the web to use those files.

The same increasing difficulty has struck many web-sites.  I now subscribe to four newspapers.  Most of them generally work well with only a few quirks that take awhile to figure out.  Just like the print versions, the newspapers are filled with ads.  Generally you can just scroll past them.

But sometime last year, the Star Tribune began to have intrusive ads.  They would take over the computer with no obvious way out.  Not only would the ad page take over the tab slot on a browser, there was no way to get out of it except close the tab or follow it on to other pages in the ad chain.

A similar annoyance is a side-bar ad with a misleading message: “Log In”.  It is not a log in to the newspaper, but an ad for using a Google product for signing in to web sites.

A friendly guy at Star Tribune’s support department helped me try to clear things up.  But it was drastic, including resetting my iPad.  Guess what that did?  It wiped out all my cookies so that I had to enter saved passwords all over again.  Good thing I have the passwords stored in an obscure place.

Rather than making my life simple by easily accessing my bank accounts, reading the latest news, and sending email to friends, I seem to have gone into standby debug mode.

Unfortunately, one of those pop-ups appeared again this morning.  That’s it.  I asked the Star Tribune to cancel my subscription.  Bye to “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” and many other comics that are not in the Duluth News Tribune.  Good-bye to many in-depth state stories and editorials.

I do have relatives who spend a small fortune calling Geek Squad every time time they need to make some software change.  Do you think the Star Tribune would pay me for all my efforts?  Do you think your phone will run forever without re-charging?

P.S.  Well, maybe I'll keep the Star Tribune subscription for a few more days.  It worked fine this morning.

Gun Control

I wonder what the writers of the Constitution and the Bill or Rights would think of the Second Amendment being interpreted as:

The people have no right to regulate a militia of one person.

If you read through the Constitution you will find that the writers knew quite well the difference between “the people” and “a person”.

Posted to Nicholas Kristof's 2018-03-08 column on the Florida school shooting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/opinion/parkland-florida-gun-control.html?comments#permid=26247237

Stay-aways gave the election away

We really should pay attention to the stay-aways who might have given the election away.  Were there more “Democrats” who stayed away because Hilary Clinton was not the best possible candidate, or were there more “Republicans” who stayed because Donald Trump was the worst possible candidate?

My comment to  “Trump King of Chaos” at  http://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/opinion/trump-king-of-chaos.html?comments#permid=26207463:26212200.

Also scroll down for “Quote of the day” to
“Remember no drama Obama---how I long for those days.”
ACJ, Chicago
2018-03-05

Tweet of the Day: AR-15 and Marco Rubio

“We should change the names of AR-15s to “Marco Rubio” because they are so easy to buy.”
Sarah Chadwick, 2018-02-23.

294K likes compared to Rubio’s 23K likes

Included in Helaine Olen’s “The Parkland kids are revealing America’s failings for all to see”.https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/03/05/the-parkland-kids-are-revealing-americas-failings-for-all-to-see/

One of the commenters (kdog_wnc) quotes the Rev. Dr. William Barber: "There are those who say so much about which the Bible says so little, and say so little about which the Bible says so much."

No Apple today keeps the bill collector away

Some time ago I bought a Timex from a local jeweler, but I soon became annoyed with it.  I found it hard to reset the time, especially when the day of the month had to be reset on non-31 day months.  I had had a previous Timex that was a bit easier to use, but it wore out.

I started lusting after an Apple watch because I thought, like my other devices, the calendar would be reset automagically at the end of the month and that it would always be synched with some time standard.

But $250 for just that feature seemed a bit steep.  I wouldn’t use the exercise features, and I have an iPhone for listening to podcasts as I exercise.  It would be nice to say, “Hey Siri, when is the bus coming.”  The big drawback for me was that the Apple Watch had to be recharged every 18 hours in a special stand.  Best Buy did have an ad for the Misfit Vapor that was about $200, and Misfit’s website had smart watches for less.  But still…

I decided that I would visit our local Target store to look for some of the less “exciting” watches I bought years ago.  I remember them having a watch counter with dozens and dozens of styles.

Well, the watch counter with its helpful, knowledgeable clerk is gone and has been replaced by a set of shelves in a narrow aisle.  I saw some of the Seiko models that I had years ago.  I think these were in the range of $50.  But then I saw a familiar Casio among the Seiko watches.  It was only $19.99.  It had all the easy to use buttons to change the time, day, and month.  As I stepped away from the shelf, I saw the next shelf to the right was filled with Casios.  Many thanks of the person who left the Casio with the Seikos.

Once I got the Casio home, I found its most serious drawback: instructions that are very hard for seniors to read.  I remedied this by visiting the Casio site and downloading the direction to a PDF file.  I expanded the file to a comfortable viewing size and started in on the electronic playground.  The only foreseeable problem is the band wearing out and a replacement being hard to find.

I also found out that it has a replaceable battery with a seven-year life.  Also I can change the over-the-counter battery myself with a jeweler’s screwdriver, which I have.  That certainly beats charging every night.

Was Hope Hicks Trump’s Jeeves?

Reading about all the tasks that Hope Hicks did for Donald Trump i couldn’t help wonder if she wasn’t Jeeves to Trump’s Bertie.

She did a lot of mundane tasks that gave him leeway to careen away, including even steaming his pants, while they were on him.

See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/hope-hicks-resign.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/politics/hope-hicks-house-intelligence-committee-testimony.html,  https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/hope-hicks-refused-to-tell-house-panel-if-she-had-lied-for-senior-trump-officials-lawmakers-say/, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-communications-director-hope-hicks-to-resign among others.

“Real Republicans”

Should we even call “Republicans” “conservatives”?  They certainly aren’t concerned with “Res publica” (public things) and the only thing they want to conserve is their power.

I think real conservatives from Edmund Burke to Dwight Eisenhower would not want to be associated with them.  Remember Eisenhower’s warning about the “military-industrial complex”.

Posted as a comment: http://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/opinion/the-force-of-decency-awakens.html?comments#permid=26131193:26134931.

Word of the day: Twidiocy

Used by “Socrates” in comments to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/opinion/trump-agenda-corruption.html.

It’s a reference to unthinking Twitter usage.

Taxes are not a one-way transaction

We all complain about taxes and we all would like to pay less taxes or none at all.

But what happens when we pay less taxes?

We won’t have the public streets and highways that we want to be in pot-holeless condition.

We wont’t have fire departments coming to put out our house-fires or the neighbors’ house-fires that might expand to our house.  Does that give you a clue why tax supported fire departments are a good idea?  If not, consider how safe your house would be if you were the only one on your block who paid the fire department.

The same holds for police and snowplowing and street cleaning and …  Would you want to be responsible for clearing the snow from the street in front of your house?

And the irony of ironies is that the “conservatives” who complain the loudest about taxes for things they don’t like want to to throw money at the military, especially if it means a military base in their district.

Oh, yes!  If you can read this, thank a teacher.  If you're rich, maybe your daddy paid the teacher.  If you're not rich, hundreds and thousands of tax-paying citizens paid the teacher.  Or, the poor kid whose education you helped pay for in your middle-age may be the doctor that saves your life in your old age.

Vanguard feedback

Sent to Vanguard after email notice of tax documents:

1) Finding feedback is a bit of a chore.
2) The instructions in your emails do not match what is on the screen when a user signs in to his or her account.
3) I have had more debugging experience than I care to remember.  I really don't wish to spend my time debugging third party software.

Or better yet, I tried to send the above to Vanguard.  The window for feedback wouldn’t scroll down all the times, including “Submit” if that was an option.

I did discover that I could move to non-visible sections with the tab key.

Hm!  I noticed typos in the Notes copy.  I wondered if I sent uncorrected text.

Gli italiani sono tornati (English speakers please read on)

For several weeks there has been a big spike in usage of this blog.  It was almost like clockwork every two days.  It was at the same time as a large number of visits "from" Italy.  And then it stopped.

Hurray, maybe the Italian/Russian reverse spammers had gone away.

Then today there was another spike.

You, my legitimate readers, can help make them go away by telling your friends and relatives about this blog.  If the ranking of visits to this blog goes way up, then the hopes of reverse spammers will go do away.  The reverse spammers hope I'll click on their links and ...

But I don't hold much hope about word about this blog spreading.  My comments to the New York Times and Washington Post don't get many "likes" either.

Why we should have universal health care!

We should have universal health care to increase public health.

Many readers have health insurance, have a certain number of sick days, and generally stay home if we are sick.  About the only thing we will infect other people with are colds or flu.  We will stay home if we have the flu but not in the early stages when we think it is a cold.

But there are lots of people who have no health insurance and no sick days.  These are people who drag themselves to work to make sure their incomes stay steady.  They are the ones who can infect the rest of us on the bus or as restaurant servers or store clerks.

At a gym, many people clean off every surface they touch before and after using a machine.  But do they, or we, clean off every door handle, including on the lockers.  If we take a bus, do we clean off the seat before we sit down.  Do we wear masks in elevators, especially in a medical facility?

How many Typhoid Mary’s are out there serving us even when they know they are sick?

Universal health care will not eliminate all cases of passing an illness on, but it can certainly reduce our risk of catching a disease.

Trump smart at playing dumb

Sarah Kendzior has an interesting view of Trump’s actions.  Among other things, she writes that he has wanted to be President for 30 years.

See https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/trump-is-no-genius-but-hes-smart-at-playing-dumb/article37518954/.

Quote of the day: Trump and John Wilkes Booth

“Donald Trump is the John Wilkes Booth of the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln.” - Paul A. Fleming, “With so much stupidity, question everything”, Letters to the Editor, Duluth News Tribune, 2018-01-04

Edmund Burke and Sarah Palin thinking alike?

“The occupation of an hair-dresser, or of a working tallow chandler, cannot be a matter of honor to any person–to say nothing of a number of other more servile employments.  Such description of men ought no to suffer oppression from the state; but the state suffers oppression, if such as they, either individually or collectively, are permitted to rule.”

Quoted in The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, Corey Robin

I can’t see how he can equate a thinker like Edmund Burke to a clueless person like Sarah Palin.

The above quote is taken very much out of context.  Burke was commenting on the French Revolution where everything was torn down to start anew.  Burke's comments were often directed at Thomas Paine who thought each generation should start governance from scratch.  Burke was very much for change in the context of continuity.  People should keep what works and fix what is no longer working.  To do so, you can't just take people off the street and expect them to understand what changes should be made and how.

I gave up reading The Reactionary Mind after that quote.

I do recommend Edmund Burke: The First Conservative by Jesse Norman and The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Left and Right by Yuval Levin.  Both have a more nuanced understanding of "conservatives" and "liberals".  Although Levin describes himself as a conservative, he gives fair hearing to both Burke and Paine.

Ironically, both Paine and Burke favored the American Revolution.  However, the United States was founded on a Burkean conservatism.  The French revolutionaries imprisoned Paine for about a year and the French Revolution fell to a military government under Napoleon Bonaparte.

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any Burkean conservatives in the U.S. government, unless they are Democrats.  The only thing conservative about Republicans is conserving their own power and that of large corporations.

Ironically, our first conservative wrote a well-thought treatise on how to govern and what dangers to watch out for.  Current "conservatives" not only ignore the lessons in George Washington's Farewell Address, but they don't even attend its annual reading in the Senate!!