The Curmudgeon Speaks

Gov. Walz MN) just finished a press conference indicating that citizens of Minnesota are going to have to adopt more extreme measures to control the spread of the virus. When he was finished I took my daily walk around the neighborhood to get out a little and get some exercise. I have been trying to find something to take a picture of and post to Instagram (I also see my post from yesterday.

I ended up with this photo. It was not what I had in mind. At first I just stood there and stared. Really, gathering to tailgate in blatant disregard for the safety of your fellow citizens. A couple of the women gave me that universal signal to express their displeasure. Really brave I guess. I took a picture and left.

I try not to use the type of language to express my displeasure as that used by that North Dakota politician. How about – some folks are just self-centered and unwilling to exercise a sense a responsibility to others. How many times is it necessary to explain – you have every right to put yourself in situations in which you are at risk. You DO NOT have the right to knowingly expose yourself to a highly communicable disease you could easily pass on to others. Your behavior either indicates you are not capable of intellectually processing what this means or you are so self-centered that it is obvious you don’t care.

National Geographic just offered an interesting story on the photos taken by their staff when these folks can not travel to do their work. Photography is a great outlet for the creativity in all of us.

My son and his family have been doing this Instagram activity that has generated quite a bit of participation. I have seen similar things elsewhere and I have no idea where it started. Anyway, my son’s version is to walk with his family and each family member takes a picture of the same location. The photos are posted to Instagram and followers vote on their favorite as a comment. The popularity is calculated from these choices, a winner is announced, and the winner gets to select the next site to be examined.

Me? I listen to podcasts during my daily walks and once in a while I take a photo.

Business Insider says that Amazon and NetFlix have had to resort to a lower quality video stream to meet the present increased demand as people separate themselves to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. The article is focused on the situation in Europe, but a similar situation may arise in the U.S. as the disease spreads here. I know our own speed has been noticeably impacted and we are far below the rate we pay for, but this is the reality for the time being.

We are lucky to live in close proximity to all of our kids, but that matters little in the present need for we old folks to stay away from others. I had not heard of a virtual happy hour, but we all got together for one this evening. The kids used FaceTime and the adults used Google Meet. Yes, we did have snacks and beverages.

I think it was good for all of us. With the exception of son Todd who is a director and mainly works on ad campaigns, the rest are teachers or work in a medical field. All now face considerable pressure both as parents and because of their occupations. We had a great conversation about our present life experiences and the state of the world in general. I think we all found this worth doing and we plan to meet online again in a few days.

I encourage others to get together in this fashion. You may be interacting with family members you seldom have the opportunity to see face to face and we all need each other now more than ever. If you don’t know how to use Skype, Facetime, or Google Meet (and maybe some other options), take the time to learn. This virtual thing may be our new normal and we need to make the effort to stay connected.

Todd showed the fly he was tying during our interaction. A wooly bugger if I remember correctly.

Trump’s attitude at today’s press conference really annoyed me. I cannot help having to respond.

I find Trump’s argument that he inherited a government poorly prepared to deal with the present crisis and the claim that he takes no responsible a poorly argued effort to craft disinformation that may seem reasonable to Trump loyalists. These personal vocal claims and the constant adulation of those who stand with him to address the American people should stop immediately. I would stipulate that no government could position itself to be prepared to handle a challenge (actually challenges if you include the financial crisis) of this magnitude. However, the blame game does not pass the smell test and the claims of no responsibility can easily be shown to be factually inadequate. Just let the experts make policy and let others take care of communicating with the public.

Some facts to consider:

1. Whether adequate or not, the Trump administration dismissed staff with the responsibility of anticipating pandemics. For whatever reason this was done, possibly as a budget cutting measure, you do not respond to a condition of poor preparation by dismissing those responsible for whatever level of preparation and planning exists without some effort to offer a superior replacement. At least, don’t blame the situation on anyone else.
2. When it was known that a new virus was rapidly spreading elsewhere and this virus was spreading within a population with no immunity, you don’t tell the concerned public that everything is under control and the known cases in this country will probably be down to zero in a few days. I can’t believe those with expertise would promote taking this position. The several weeks of ramping up to get ahead of the spread of the virus was not used to address shortages and create defenses that we now seem to be developing in an effort to catch up. How much was this delay an effort to not spook the stock market which seems to be the metric on which this President argues his worth?
3. As far as the economic situation goes, that trillion+ in revenue the government should have taken in from corporations already enjoying a great economy would now be quite valuable. Yes, it did boost the stock market because so many corporations used the money to buy back stocks. Who benefited even when the market was up? However, the level of the stock market was largely offset by the rapid increase in federal debt. The process amounted to borrowing money from the American people (the debt). The debt is still there, but now the country must find a way to give money back to the same people saddled with this debt. Remember the government is us – we will borrow more money from the future to help now.

How many more examples are necessary? Who will take responsibility for these decisions? Remember when Hillary warned the nation that Trump lacked the leadership skills necessary in an actual crisis. We were lucky we got by with poor leadership for three years, but now we face a crisis of exactly the magnitude she was concerned about. I suppose supporters did not anticipate this type of crisis. Fair enough, but now it is here and we are stuck with a buffoon who assumes he is above criticism and who lacks the compassion required in this situation.

I wrote a post a few days ago encouraging those interested in technology to use the “home time” we now are experiencing as a time to explore a new online service. I made reference to, but did not explain the multiple reasons I think this is an important use of time. The following video offers one perspective on the importance of expanding competition to maintain and improve the tech tools we now access.

I just discovered this Google map feature (Restaurants that deliver). This might be useful.

I have an interest in the distribution of misinformation particularly as it relates to political issues. I write frequently about political issues on Facebook and recently I ran afoul of Facebook’s concern for misinformation.

AS you can see, I contested this decision and some have told me my post is not visible. Here is the post.

At first, I thought it was because of the source I cited. Esquire is not necessarily what I regard as a source for political reporting and this actual article raised the concern that Jared Kushner bought into a company in a position to benefit from the decision to rely on U.S. medical resource providers. When I searched for an article, I was reacting to news that the U.S. could have been much faster had it taken advantage of WHO resources. I now think it was what I wrote rather than the article I cited. Facebook would have had to include an assessment of the content within the cited article to decide it was spam.

My position was not something I fabricated out of thin air. For example, this piece from Politico makes very much the same argument. I listened as experts on television programs made this same point as well as VP Biden in last night’s debate.

[The Trump administration has come under criticism for the test-kit shortage, which local public health officials have said hampers their ability to survey the U.S. population for the virus. San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed called the shortage of kits “a national disgrace” in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday.

While Trump tried to pin blame on Obama, the initial responsibility for the shortage appears to lie with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rather than adopt a test used overseas and recommended by the World Health Organization, the CDC chose to develop and distribute its own, according to reporting by ProPublica. That test didn’t work, forcing a scramble by the Trump administration for alternatives.]

Ezra Klein suggests that acceptance of flawed of misinformation can be higher among those who know more about a topic. I assume this happens because the more information have the more you have to work with in “interpreting” what tends to be ambiguous information.

Further investigation does show the issue with the WHO and COVID testing is more complicated than we wanted to do it ourselves even if this takes longer. Here is the analysis from Snopes. Here is the analysis of the Biden claim. There is far more in these analyses that influence my final position.

So, the WHO supplies kits to impoverished countries and expects countries with their help to produce their own kits. The U.S. was slow to respond and the first test kits developed were flawed resulting, in further delays. No, Obama policies were not responsible for the delay.

One final thing. After all this, I see Facebook says it is having problems. Zuckerberg had this motto “move fast and break things”. This is not the time for this logic.

I was working on my computer as I assume many of us are doing now. All at once, my online activity froze and a screen refresh brought up this announcement. We have not paid our access subscription fee and we have been cut off.

This reminds of a situation in Grand Forks when we forgot to pay our water fee and I sat in my office at the front of the house watching someone show up with a snowblower, dig through the snowbank on the front lawn, locate something I did not even know was there, and then take out this tool to turn off our water. Our lights were on and I was clearly visible in a large picture window, but the city worker made no attempt to explain his behavior.

Okay, I know it is important to pay your bills.

There is a back story here. While in Hawaii our credit card was hacked and someone tried to pay several thousand dollars of insurance fees using our account. Why someone would think this was smart, even as a criminal, I don’t understand. Anyway, we were notified and our credit account was frozen. Our situation required that a new card be sent to our home in the states and not to Hawaii. It is to arrive later today.

You quickly discover the consequences as you are contacted by the multiple services you pay automatically. We must have dozens of payments on a subscription or automatic payment plan. Many of these accounts are not even things I would remember without a nudge.

I was just thinking about the folks out there on limited incomes who cannot work because of the pandemic and how their creditors are responding. Evidently, CenturyLink is not one of those services willing to cut folks a little slack. Maybe they would if I called and explained. Luckily, I have other ways (a mobile hotspot or my phone) to reach the Internet. Many are not so lucky.

There is no way anyone should make light of our present circumstances. Our near future is uncertain and there is no way to know what the coming months will bring.

I have been trying to think how present circumstances might offer some opportunities. I am over 70 and while there are online ways to interact with family members, my wife and I are now going to have to be isolated. Our social media and online opportunities save us.

Why not consider the time I now take for granted (I am retired) as an opportunity to learn? Many more people are going to be in my situation. Even things like watching the sporting event of the day has changed. The news is important, but a steady diet of the depressing information can’t be helpful. I am not a movie buff. Why not learn something?

I consume mostly Kindle books and audio books. I pay for many, but I have also discovered just how valuable the multiple libraries I belong to can be in providing access to digital content. I have multiple library cards because I spend time in different locations. It is not as weird as it might sound. Out of curiosity, I contacted one of these libraries today to ask what someone who does not presently have access might do? Was there a way to become a card carrier remotely? Yes, at least my local library offers this service (https://www.hclib.org/about/library-cards#get-a-library-c). I am guessing your local library may be the same. You can both get a card and download content from your home.

My suggestion is that we try to both read for pleasure and read to learn.

Here are a couple of suggestions. I tried to identify reads/listens that are relevant to present circumstances and informative.

Ezra Klein – Why we’re polarized. This is a book about our political divide and for the most part is analytical regarding how we got to our present state without blaming one party or the other. I happen to believe the country needs to try to understand the present situation and the health crisis we are now experiencing will only make the stress of this division worse.

Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum – That used to be us. A personal favorite that describes the global setting and the role of the U.S. in the global mix. I suppose this could have a political orientation, but the content is analytical and issue-oriented.