Sunday Morning Coming Down

Yu Darvish was the Cubs best pitcher last season.  Maybe the Cubs paid too much for him but maybe he has a good year left and a good pitcher is hard to find.  The Cubs outfield may be the next area for reconstruction.  Will Cub fans accept going on the cheap disguised and sold as "rebuilding". Last year's 60 game season is in the books.  The "long version" of baseball in 2021 will be different.  The NL and AL Central Divisions will continue to be competitive and the AL Western Division and AL Eastern Division may get shuffled at the top.  The Dodgers and  Braves will most likely win their divisions. Seven inning doubleheaders, man on second in extra inning games, universal dh all made sense last year and efforts to speed up and hopefully they will continue.  I'm just a fan, I listen to baseball on the radio, I've had good moments with the Miami Marlins and look forward to seeing a game in person soon, and having spent my formative baseball years i...

 The junior senator from Missouri wants to question the 2020 election results. From USA Today: " Hawley's move will put some conservatives in an uncomfortable position to either back the president's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud or vote to defy Trump and certify Biden's win. It will be particularly hard for senators who are up for re-election in 2022 and those eying a potential 2024 presidential run who are fearful of both angering the president and his base of supporters — a key reason McConnell has cautioned his conference against supporting the doomed effort. Who will write the republican version of a book ostensibly written by President John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage. Is the democratic process only valid and important when your side "wins". At this point in which politics has been decoupled from policies and having someone who lost an election stay in office is more important than the results of an election, you might question what moral...

Operation Warp Speed is just getting off the ground.  The bureaucrat in me is just relieved that the vaccine seems to work and it is getting out there.   Projections of how many folks were to have been vaccinated by the end of the year may have been off but that doesn't mean much.  Even if twenty million people had been vaccinated I doubt that things would have been "normal" since things have been at best abnormal for almost the entire 2020. It is kind of hard to change gears.  For too long a time we have been living with a leader that seems to operate as follows:   If wishes were horses then beggars would ride, If turnips were swords I’d have one by my side. If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were pots and pans There would be no need for tinker’s hands! There have been about 200,000 new cases a day and there are states where hospitals and staffs are reaching full capacity.  The supply and distribution logistics are being worked on and getting the health care workers...

  ‘Game changer’: Officials praise horse racing safety bill By STEPHEN WHYNO yesterday FILE - John Velazquez rides Authentic, left, as they head to turn one in the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., in this, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, file photo.Horse racing officials and activists hailed the passage and signing of a safety and integrity bill that should revolutionize the handling and oversight of medication by providing oversight the industry has never had. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) "Horse racing officials and industry activists are hailing the passage and signing of a safety and integrity bill that will standardize medication and doping rules in an effort to make the sport safer and fairer." Until this bill was passed you had 38 different states passing their own rules about medication of race horses.  If a state does not agree to the uniform standards that will be developed they will not be able to participate in inters...

 Gamblers usually lose their bankroll and have to go home, go to work and rebuild their bankrolls and the process starts once again.  The casino, race track, card rooms or state run lotteries can bust out a person and cause problems related to families, marriages and health. This COVID 19 Pandemic has made an awful lot of people gamblers and they never went crazy and got the easy money fever that a lot of real gamblers suffer from.  Jobs gone, whole industries in shambles and public health warnings that have placed millions out of work through no fault of their own. This money which should be targeted to those most in need of cash because they will spend the money and it will circulate through the economy as rent or mortgage payments, food purchases, holiday gifts, utility bills, health care, car payments, gasoline, take out meals, insurance bills and cable bills.  Some of it will be pissed away but getting it spent now and sooner rather than later will keep more peo...

In the way back machine of Spring 2020 it wasn't certain that there would be football games as we knew them in 2019.  Maybe there shouldn't have been college football games or professional football games this fall in the war against COVID 19 with a ditto for Major League Baseball and NHL hockey. In spite of all the doubts there were football games on the high school, college, and professional levels. This weekend the Big 10, ACC, PAC 12, Big  12, and the SEC play their respective conference championships to pretty much determine who will continue to the four team playoff which will determine the NCAA College National Champion. The favorites to participate in the College Football playoffs after winning their conference championships are Ohio State, Clemson, and Alabama.  Notre Dame or Florida will probably complete the field if they don't get blown out this afternoon.  The vaccine is on its way.  Socially distanced football has been better than no football. ...

This morning I drove a friend to a Doctor's appointment in Hialeah.  The office didn't allow folks without appointments to hang around so I went home. The office is near Hialeah Park, there were police on East 4th Avenue, North 32nd Street and all along Palm Avenue which surround the race track and parking lot for the casino.  In the good old days I remember the police directing traffic for the race track patrons. Today starting at 8:00 a.m. the City of Hialeah was distributing $250.00 food gift cards for 5,000 Hialeah Residents who have faced financial hardship due to COVID 19.  One per household, Driver's License or State Id and a notarized statement regarding hardship(s). There were long lines at 8:30 a.m.  According to the latest reports almost 3,000 gift cards had been distributed by noon and the lines were moving along pretty well. The cynic in me wondered whether the gift cards would go to those most in need or whether there would a secondary market where they...

  STATEMENT BY U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR EUGENE SCALIA ON THE NOVEMBER JOBS REPORT WASHINGTON, DC –  U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia issued the following statement regarding the November 2020 Employment Situation Report: “The economy continued to add jobs in November, with a 344,000 increase in private sector payrolls and labor demand continuing to grow in most sectors. However, jobs were lost in retail and food and beverage establishments in November, and a number of workers pulled away from the labor force amid rising coronavirus cases. We know from State-by-State data released two weeks ago that the employment situation varies significantly by State: in October, half the States were at 6% unemployment or lower, but two of the largest states—California and New York—were substantially above 9% that month. At 6.7%, the unemployment rate is lower than it was for the first five years of the last Administration following the Great Recession.”

The Electoral College has spoken.  And probably just as importantly so has the senior senator from Kentucky finally and not surprisingly the current short term occupant of the White House has turned on the senate majority leader. You really don't need an advanced degree in political science to determine who won the election for President of the United States of America in 2020. But it might be timely for a review of how the three branches of our federal government have been twisted in ways never anticipated by the writers of the Constitution.  The traditional media and the internet's social media also need a review.  What it means to be a citizen would also be an interesting discussion. A determined, monied and reckless person can undermine the law and political norms through a combination of a lack of oversight, misuse of the power of making appointments, and through conscious misstatements and outright lies while in office. George Will, a conservative columnist writes a...

The new Biden took a step forward on Friday as the Supreme Court of the United State threw out a Texas lawsuit regarding the election results in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.  Texas, a state that has its own election laws was effectively challenging the election laws of the four states that flipped from republican to democratic in the 2020 Presidential Election. Amazingly 17 states signed on to the Texas lawsuit and over 120 members of the House of Representatives voiced some level of support for the lawsuit.  The lawsuit was more about political support for President Trump than voter fraud or large spread irregularities.  The split in this country has become increasingly urban voters versus rural voters and socially conservative versus more more socially liberal and response to rapidly changing demographics along with immigration stirring the pot. In some ways this another replay of the battle regarding Confederate Monuments spread along the I-35 corrid...

Texas wants the Supreme Court to throw out votes and challenge the results in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia's AG's all signed an amicus brief to show support for Texas in its lawsuit. I live in Florida and I wonder what earthly good Florida AG  Ashley Moody is doing for her legal reputation by aligning with something which is at best paying political homage to a one term republican president who may be able to raise money but may possibly rank as the worst president ever.

When the "basket of deplorables" overflows with people who don't want to "defund the police" and the algorithm adds those tired of wearing a mask, tired of being told to stay at home, tired of home schooling and in general having "cabin fever",  just about everybody has their reasons to be pissed off, disappointed and confused . On top of all the social issues, there are a lot who have lost their jobs and incomes in the hospitality and restaurant industries for a while longer if not forever. And on the climate change front you can be forgiven if you are a little depressed about longer hurricane seasons, bigger wildfires, rising sea levels and one hundred year floods becoming annual events. This is a good time to hit the reset button.  The last four years have had some bright moments of what a good economy and technology can do and must continue to do, but there have also been dystopian moments as well. Being "woke" and the execution of being ...

Maybe government should become more modest and maybe even humble.  The last three years and ten months has been exhausting.  And I would ask those with extreme political views of all stripes the Ronald Reagan question with a slight twist:  Is the country and indeed the world better off now than it was four years ago? COVID 19 started in 2019 in China probably about a year ago.  The worldwide response and the checkerboard results indicates too many folks have died or become sick  which has stressed out health care providers and patients.   Instead of MAGA, let's go with " Try Not To Suck " .  The Joe Maddon baseball imperative makes sense in baseball.  It has applications throughout: as a people, as communities, as states, as institutions, and as a country. Baseball has rules, baseball has umpires, baseball has players, playing baseball requires talent, skills, practice and experience. If we could just avoid unforced errors in the field, at th...

 Yesterday, I wrote to Senator Marco Rubio asking him to speak out publicly and forcefully about President Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the November election which most people would acknowledge was won by Joe Biden. If Senator Rubio believes Joe Biden won, he should say so, if he doesn't think he Joe Biden won he should also say so and explain his reasons for his beliefs regarding the results of the election. If Senator Rubio wants to slow walk the transition even that should be explained which is the legalistic version of letting the process play itself out.  What is gained versus what is lost in time, opportunity, and credibility should be laid out for the public. On a more global scale poll workers and voters of all political stripes showed up in precincts through out this country or mailed in ballots.  The turnout of of almost 160,000,000, almost 67% of the eligible voters should be respected absent any credible proof of any partisan mischief that would ...

  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." So much for the oath of office he took when inaugurated.  What he really meant to say was: When Pigs Fly or Hell Freezes Over.

 The current Donald J. Trump probably never wanted to really be President of the United States.  I'm not sure if he ever really wanted to win the Republican nomination to be president in 2016.  He probably realizes it is hard work, requires compromise and personal sacrifice to be a leader in this country now if not back then.   Back in 2015 though it was a great stage to sell his brand or so he might have thought.  Golf vacations at Trump Properties, get away luxury weekends at Trump Hotels, there might be endless opportunities to hook up the Trump name with stuff or maybe even insinuate yourself permanently into the national media and politics and make money as a twenty first century ward healer of sorts who could deliver crowds and excitement. money and votes.  And now as a lame duck president the fund raising continues to pay off campaign debt, "fight voter fraud", and pay for recount expenses.  Lawyers don't work for free and there will be o...

 The election season is almost over.  Two more runoffs for the United States Senate to be held in Georgia on January 5, 2021 will decide who the Senate Majority Leader will be.  Both republicans did better than the democrats in the Senate races and the presidential race had Biden leading Trump by about 14,000 votes.  None of the candidates for the United States Senate received 50% of the vote triggering the runoff election. The race for the President was called for Biden.  It will be difficult for President Trump to overcome a 14,000 vote deficit but it should be noted that neither presidential candidate received 50% of the vote in Georgia which will require a recount. Even though President Elect Biden has almost certainly won 306 Electoral Votes nation wide and commentators will crow about the number of folks that voted for President Biden, he has only the smallest mandate, that being "try not to suck" at being President like Trump does now and has the last fou...

The 2020 election is over.  I'm not sure all the people have spoken but on Saturday the preliminary results were clear enough to most people that Joe Biden was declared the winner of the race for President of the United States. Some will say the election was close, and in at least a few states the election was closer than polls suggested.  Seventy five million voters came out to vote against Donald J. Trump.  No it wasn't the 67 senators needed to convict Donald J. Trump but even a somewhat tarnished vote by 52 Republican Senators was needed to save the President from being removed from office in February 2020. The latest raw vote count indicates over 50% of the voters and over 50% of the Electoral College voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  If we were talking about the popular vote only: Hillary Clinton would have been elected in 2016 and Al Gore would have been elected in 2000.  Who really knows what might or might or might not have happened had those elec...

 Thumbs up or thumbs down is a form of voting.  Voice voting where those that shout the loudest is a form of voting.  Pulling a lever on a voting machine next to a name was the modern standard for voting for a while. And then came punch cards where you punched out your choice and the votes were counted by a computer that counted the holes on a card was state of the art for a while.  Back to the future we have gone back to paper ballots where the bubbles are recorded in a computer and tabulated. You need to get your name on the list of voters.  You vote. It is really a simple problem to solve.  I remember sheepishly(now) the phrase "free, white, and 21.  I used the phrase at times when discussing or arguing shit with my folks while living with my parents.  It got so bad I left my job, moved to West Virginia, and went to graduate school after a botched election in Dade County. My right to vote has never been seriously challenged.  Now it may be...

 Four years ago I cringed when I heard Hillary Clinton call out a lot of folks as a "basket of deplorables" that were racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic.  She deserved to be called out on this.  I'm not sure how the American electorate would score themselves score themselves on a scale of  0 to 10 with 0 being not at all and 10 being absolutely racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic. This morning I read a Jared Kushner pronouncement on race: "   Black Americans have to "want to be successful,".     Everybody wants to be successful.  Having a white kid that was born with just about every advantage call out Black Americans for not having ambitions is the height of  "chutzpah". Maybe this resonates with Bill Cosby but it's hardly a winning political argument. 

 The results of Sweden's attempt  to invoke the "third way" of dealing with COVID 19 are less restrictive financially but have resulted in more deaths than other countries that have common borders with Sweden.   A total of 5918 deaths out of 103,200 cases as of 10/19/2020.  Sweden's population is about 10.2 million people. Hospitality and kindness are positive values as is "everything in moderation" and egalitarianism. Sweden has been the poster child for herd immunity.  From the New York Post: But the country’s public health agency has said this week that it will start giving authority to local regions that are experiencing outbreaks to instruct residents to avoid certain public spaces, such as shopping centers, concerts or sports games. “It’s more of a lockdown situation — but a local lockdown,” Johan Nojd, who leads the infectious diseases department in Uppsala, which is experiencing a rise in cases,  told the Telegraph . Sweden has seen new cases r...

The vote by mail ballot for the November 3rd election came last week.  It was completed and mailed on October 6, 2020.  The ballot was received by the Elections Department on October 8, 2020.  So far so good.  It's been reported that Miami Dade County will begin counting mail in ballots on October 12, 2020. This is the first time in my life I have voted by mail.  I have usually voted in person on the appointed election day and have only missed an election while in West Virginia for graduate school.  I had an advantage in voting because my employer gave me an hour off of work to go vote.  I have also been poll worker, voting registrar, and election day troubleshooter and a person who helped screen punch cards to make sure they would go through the computer and be counted.  These election jobs were something I got assigned to as a county employee loaned to the Elections Department during my 30 plus year career with Miami Dade County. Meanwhile:...

 Charlie Sykes wrote this :  I know I’m dating myself with a reference to Helmsley, whose reign as the “Queen of Mean,” in the 1980s has been eclipsed by so many more deplorable villains. At the height of her notoriety,  Forbes later wrote , “she was as big as Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian.” Her comment that “Only little people pay taxes became America’s version of ‘let them eat cake.’” In 1992, she was   sentenced  to four years in prison for tax evasion. Really, really rich folks usually figure out ways to avoid or defer paying taxes.  And in my lifetime I've been to the homes of three people who were very wealthy and worked diligently to accumulate that wealth.  Real estate that is on the water in Miami has a way of appreciating in value in ways that defy most measures of value, taxes, inflation and most normal folks incomes.  The houses of the "rich and famous" are the backbone of their wealth. Living in a modest 700 square foot apartment in ...

 Four days ago the Florida Governor reopened Florida for the second or third time.  The announcement came on Friday Afternoon at about 5:00 pm.  100% inside seating at restaurants was now allowed throughout Florida except in Miami Dade County which waited until 11:00 pm on Saturday to issue their own rules.  50% inside seating is now allowed and 100% capacity if you have outside dining space.  Bars can open at 50% capacity.     In Miami-Dade, bars that are only counter service will be allowed to reach 50% capacity with seating separated as far as possible. According to the Miami Herald “It was a little scary walking into a Flanigan’s after six months and seeing it full,” said Flanigan, CEO and president of the South Florida-based chain of 24 sports-bar-style restaurants. “It was too busy. So we backed off to 50 percent.” It was a busy sports weekend.  Folks will be going to bars to watch football games and the playoffs in basketball and baseb...

 Nero fiddled while Rome burned or so the story goes.   At the ripe old age of 69.5 I read something by Octavia Butler who was an author and a McArthur Fellow.  She once said " choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought ".  She goes on to explain the dangers of being lead by a coward, fool, thief, liar and tyrant.  The United States of America elects a set of leaders on November 3, 2020.  The stakes in this election are very high.  There are almost too many consequential issues to list and weigh when making that decision.  The circumstances with the pandemic are adding to disconnection and dislocation socially, economically, and politically. Amazingly, incredibly, and unbelievably hostile nations are messing with our upcoming election according to our own FBI, the President has said that if he does not win reelection, the election was "rigged".  Others are concerned that President Trump will not leave office if he loses the election...

During the last six months I have had the opportunity to walk around my neighborhood where I have lived for almost thirty years.  Lots of older houses are being demolished so that larger more ornate structures can be built.  The infrastructure to support five bedroom, four bath houses means older septic tanks are replaced by sewer hookups.  The yards get smaller because the houses are bigger and the setbacks are smaller.   There has been a lot of road work related to new storm drains and sewer lines hook ups to existing lines which need to be expanded as the flows increase. Several years ago an older apartment development with fourteen buildings and 56 two bedroom apartments was razed to build some very upscale town houses along 57th Avenue.  The plans included elevators from an underground garage to the townhouses.   "Located in the middle of  High Pines , this residential enclave of 40 units has a number of amenities and home features that ...

 I just saw and heard a "snipit" of "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival played at a political rally headlined by President Trump in Michigan. " I ain't no millionaire's son,   I ain't no fortunate one,   The song is a protest about avoiding the draft during the Viet Nam War. I don't get it.  The insiders might understand the musical selection, I don't.

 Saturday I watched the latest edition of the Kentucky Derby.  The conventional wisdom was that Authentic would set the pace and then fade out.  Tiz the Law would then come from behind and win the race.  Authentic held on and Tiz the Law faded but ran a good race.  Baffert won with the fresh horse this time and so it goes.  The new shooter won.   The race was almost an afterthought.   Thousand Words reared up and fell over backwards and was scratched.  Horses do that sometimes for any number of reasons, a detailed examination of the horse after the scratch indicated no problems.  Good news for the horse but the assistant broke his arm trying to control the horse. In the Winner's Circle Baffert said red ribbons attached to the traditional roses bothered Authentic and he wheeled around knocking Baffert down.  It wasn't the normal 2020 Winner's Circle.  Reports indicated that the parimutual handle was down almost 50% ove...

 President Trump went off the rails in North Carolina by suggesting that folks should test the "system", voting by mail and voting a second time in person. Voting twice in the same election is illegal, and doing so deliberately is an example of the very kind of voter fraud that Trump has spent months railing against. In North Carolina, it is a felony "with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time, or to induce another to do so, in the same primary or election, or to vote illegally at any primary or election." This is a very sad state of affairs.

You might think that former Trump advisor Steve Bannon's and three others efforts to raise money to "build that wall" from Trump supporters would be a good faith effort from folks who are concerned about immigration policies. All four were arrested Thursday morning. Bannon was taken into custody at 7:15 a.m. by federal authorities while aboard a 150-foot yacht off the coast of Connecticut.   “As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," acting U.S Attorney Audrey Strauss said. As part of the alleged scheme, according to federal prosecutors, Kolfage, the founder of the campaign, "repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would ‘not take a penny in salary or compensation’ and that ‘100% of the funds raised ... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose.’...

 I don't remember much about the day except that I was a tour guide for a Department of Labor person who was on a visit to Miami during the Reagan Administration.  I'm not sure why I was chosen for this task except that I called and made appointments and knew my way around Miami so we were not going to waste time.  The Fed Rep was younger than I was and Black.  We were going to visit grant recipients in Liberty City, Little Havana, and Virginia Key.  All three programs served youth between the ages of 14-21. We went to O.I.C., SABER, and DMI.  The visits went well.  I thought attendance was good, the classes were interesting and the staff was able to answer questions about recruiting, payroll, management and possible placements. On the way back to the office she asked about the kids that were in the DMI.  The Dade Marine Institute trained kids to work with outboard motors, seamanship, scuba diving and academics.  I told her most kids were ref...

 Denny Velazquez is/was a jockey at Canterbury Park in Minnesota. Starts Firsts Seconds Thirds Earnings 265 47 40 35 $624,813 Yesterday, his career went "south".  "Canterbury Park stewards have handed a one-year suspension to jockey Denny Velazquez after   a buzzer and a loaded gun were found   during a search of his vehicle on track property. The stewards also issued Velazquez a $10,000 fine." "The ruling stated the presence of the gun and the buzzer “call into question the honesty and integrity of horse racing and the safety, health and welfare of the participants and the general public at Canterbury Park.” Last night I played the races at Canterbury Park and while scouting for the results of a race this morning the news of the suspension came up. Working as a jockey, trainer, groom, owner or almost any job at Hialeah Park required being licensed by the State of Florida.  I went through the process of being licensed so I could visit horses I had partnerships ...

 One of the simplest lessons to be learned from the pandemic is that the living wage is a lot closer to $15.00@hour. than the federal law which says the minimum wage is $7,25.  If the average monthly rent in the United States is $1200.00, you are working 80 hours @month to pay the rent. How many "families" need both parents or others in the household to pay for rent, utilities, and food. Back in the good old days both parents and kids looked forward to returning to school.  I'd like to see the results from that focus group today.

Yesterday in baseball was all about change.  I feel for the traditionalists but this year's shorter season will speed changes in the game that are long overdue.  I' tired of cardboard fans even if it raised money for charity. Seven inning doubleheaders are fine by me.  I even think single games could be shortened to seven innings. Pitchers facing at least three batters will speed up the game.  I never liked Tony La Russa and his pitching change methodology. Runner on 2nd base during extra innings might need some adjustment, like starting in the eleventh inning but with most games at night sooner rather than later is better. I'm not a fan of the DH but I do like scoring and bunting seems to be going out of style anyway. I like the idea of the short season.  Each game seems more important.  In the future maybe a second short season might work.  Fewer rent a player stuff.

I've read, I've started streaming new shows, I'm just getting back into going to the store for groceries. This weekend I was distracted by a near miss of a hurricane named after someone with a rather obscure name that started with the letter "I".  Isaias seems more like something I would make up after forgetting a password.  The weather folks down in Miami seem to just point at the map and guess it would be a near miss. I've bought books from Amazon, I got a book as a birthday present, and bought a book that a high school friend got published by a real publisher. I'm still working on reading a biography of General Grant who became President Grant.  It's a very long book.  The Road to Character by David Brooks is a series of stories about some interesting folks.  There was a short course in Black history which included Black Miami by Marvin Dunn, Forty Acres and a Mule by Walter Fleming, and Eight Years In Power by Ta Nehisi Coates.  Lincoln In the Bard...

In the United States, Election Day is the annual day set by law for the general elections of federal public officials. It is statutorily set as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November " or "the first Tuesday after November 1". The earliest possible date is November 2, and the latest possible date is November 8 . It might be convenient for a sitting president to postpone an election day to another day when the economy is better,  folks forget about scandals, or folks forget about avoidable mistakes. In more "normal" times I could almost imagine this suggestion being made and even considered "rational".  Public heath reasons at this time make standing in long lines to vote problematic at best. To further complicate matters there seem to be issues with Russia and China wanting to meddle in this election cycle to further divide and weaken us. Lot's of folks want tinker with our system of voting.  Women won the right to v...

A few days ago I read that if you really felt that Black Lives Matter you should be against abortion on demand. “Those who are most vocal about abortion and abortion laws are my white brothers and sisters, and yet many of them don’t care about the plight of the poor, the plight of the immigrant, the plight of African-Americans,” said the Rev. Dr. Luke Bobo, a minister from Kansas City, Mo., who is vehemently opposed to abortion. “My argument here is, let’s think about the entire life span of the person.”

Everybody has a collective history and they have their own individual history and they have multiple histories with family as parents, relatives, children friends, neighbors, co-workers, and they histories as consumers, producers, or responders.  The term family is also one that could be it's subset of histories because it is such a big launching pad. For the record I believe in  Black Lives Matter as an organization and that Black Lives Matter now.  Maybe it wasn't always that way because I grew up in Bensenville, Illinois.  My parents were naturalized citizens from Canada and my grandparents were Icelandic-Canadian-Americans.  On reflection my family connections were about as "white bread" as possible.  Today's Ball of Confusion Maybe if Hillary Clinton hadn't called out 1/2 of everyone who weren't  going to vote for her under any circumstances " as deplorable" the world would be a different place.  In retrospect the last presidential election...

16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. This is the beginning of Martin Luther King's "Letter From  Birmingham Jail."  I was twelve years old when it was written and lived a very sheltered living in Bensenville, Illinois.  Through high school there were no black students in any of my classes and none in other District 2 or District 100 schools.  According to 2010 Census figures Bensenville has a population of about 18,000 and about 3.5% is African American. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, King violated a court injunction prohibiting public civil right...

In 1993, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D., N.Y.) coined the phrase  “defining deviancy down.”* Moynihan’s thesis was that, as a society, America has been “re-defining deviancy” so as to exempt conduct previously stigmatized, and quietly raising the “normal” level for behavior that was abnormal by earlier standards. ” When “deviance is defined down,” the standards by which society lives change; that change is never for the better. George Will: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come. He was speaking of the current president and the senate repubicans.

In a world long forgotten, the last great recession, the great or not so great State of Florida, and its not so great governor hired Hunting Deutsch to head the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the agency, that manages the state reemployment assistance program.  Reemployment Assistance (also called reemployment assistance insurance) provides temporary wage replacement benefits to qualified individuals who are out of work through no fault of their own.  This was a posting of mine from 2012. The conditions for receiving "reemployment assistance" require being available for work and actively looking for work.  99 weeks the maximum length of benefits was a long time to receive "reemployment assistance" then and it seems overly generous now.  Or maybe it's not so generous now.   Wednesday, December 5, 2012 Hunting Deutsch, executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity resigned abruptly after disclosures that he collected unemp...

A high school classmate posted this on Facebook: Hey, I like both the anti-Trump and the pro-Trump people. Is there anyone else who doesn't hate either side? I think I understand where she is going with her comment but I'm going to break down my answer because living in the United States assumes a level of fairness which is too often forgotten, ignored, or getting lost in the tangle of equivalence, metaphors and similies.  Miami Dade County where I live has  determined that a "Living Wage" is $15.83 per hour or $633.00 for a 40 hour week or about $33,000 per year or sightly over 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines I've worked in the public sector for most of my personal and professional life and have tried to keep politics out of doing my job by explaining what services are available, when and if they would be available, how they would be provided, if there were eligibility criteria, and what documents were required to determine eligibility.  The Florida UI S...

Weijja Jiang, a CBS White House Correspondent got into a dust up with President Trump that left him leaving his own press conference where he declared victory as it relates to COVID 19 testing.  The CDC has provided the following guidance regarding COVID: High Priority Hospitalized patients with symptoms Healthcare facility workers, workers in congregate living settings, and first responders with symptoms Residents in long-term care facilities or other congregate living settings, including prisons and shelters, with symptoms Priority Persons with symptoms of potential COVID-19 infection, including: fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, new loss of taste or smell, vomiting or diarrhea, and/or sore throat. Persons without symptoms who are prioritized by health departments or clinicians, for any reason, including but not limited to: public health monitoring, sentinel surveillance, or screening of other asymptomatic individuals according ...