Sirens

First the cell phone buzzed and vibrated. A warning message was broadcast. Storm approaching. Take cover. Possible tornado. Then the sirens screamed.

We jumped into shoes, grabbed the keys. I took the walker and a book. Rocky followed moments later.

We took the stairs from our fourth floor perch to the third floor. There both ceiling and floor are concrete laid over a steel-girder frame. Our floor, the top floor, has steel framed roof with plasterboard ceiling finish. No concrete. A severe windstorm could take the roof and our ceiling with it! So, we camped out in the 3^rd floor elevator lobby.

We held our place for 40 minutes. Others were camped out in the concrete stairwells. Most were gathered in the concrete garage where 39 parking spaces with cars were located along with the heavy utilities for the entire building. Lots of concrete. Stability. Safety.

Our phones showed weather maps with the storm passing beyond us toward Lake Michigan and Chicago. The time was 3:50 pm.

We scaled the stairwell back to our own floor. Emergency lighting was on. Our apartment was safe and sound. No leaks or broken windows.

Electricity was partially on. They call it split phase power. Some circuits were fully powered, others were dead, and still others were at half power. We soon learned that the AC was working well, the refrigerator was dead, the microwave fully capable and it cooked our supper handily. Lighting in the kitchen was full on. Rocky’s bathroom was dark. Mine was half lit.

The TV didn’t work. Later in the evening Rocky crawled around unplugging and replugging electronics connected to the TV. It sprang to life. For the evening we had entertainment!

At bedtime we learned the office and computers were dead. Our bedroom had very little power. That meant I slept without oxygen and CPAP. Not a good night. But we survived.

Up early the next morning, the situation was the same. Power still mostly out. I did the toilet routine and then made coffee. As it brewed, I moved the computer to the kitchen and rebooted it. It came to life and remained so for the rest of the day.

At 3 pm Rocky announced the power had been reset. We tested all the switches and appliances and yes sir, we were good to go. 24 hours without power. No damage done. Just inconvenience. But then the COVID quarantine has taught us a lot about surviving inconveniences.

I tested the shower for hot water. Yes! It was at least warm. So a quick shower, shampoo and freshening. That felt very good.

Dinner planned. Looking forward to an evening of relaxation and early to bed with CPAP and oxygen concentrator operating at full tilt!

Life is good. We wondered about that a bit, but here we are back to normal. Well, not that normal!  COVID you know.

August 12, 2020

Vice Presidential Pick

The most important factor that should be guiding Joe Biden’s pick for a running mate is that person’s ability to take over the role of President should that be needed. Biden is now a certified elder American. His life expectancy and executive ability expectancy are automatically in doubt. Prudent people will prepare for succession always, regardless of age or capacity. Elders, however, have two strikes against them, life/death, and ability/disability.

So, VP candidates must not only have credible political credentials, they also must have presidential credentials.

The press and social media blitz currently surrounding the VP selection is inappropriate and distracting. Biden has the choice to make. It is fully on him. He should be granted the freedom to do this. However, he needs to get on with it and stop the game playing.

Choose the Vice President running mate now. Get it over with.

Then, let’s get moving on the campaign and dump trump.

August 11, 2020

 

Social Safety Net

Many decades ago it became clear to most Americans that a safety net would be a wise addition to our form of life. At the time social security was born. It was not meant to be a program that provided full retirement income needs, but a supplement. Over the ensuing decades, congress sweetened the pot for political purposes. Many other social programs were overlaid social security – disability, death of primary provider with underage children, and much more. Expense grew exponentially. As long as the benefit pool was young and growing, the actuarial numbers never outgrew the demand for benefit checks. Cash was available and the cash cow kept giving.

Then actuaries did sound their warning. The program would either have to be pared down, or premiums would have to be raised. The latter was the answer over and over again. Eventually other decisions were made to tweak the math of the program to extend financial liquidity into far future years.

As the economy grew, so did social security. And then the benefits began to make more sense and provide more financial support to those who truly needed it. Social security is an insurance program and run on actuarial mathematics. It pays for itself by FICA taxes, or premiums, paid equally by the employer and the employee. Benefits are based roughly on how much has been paid into the system by and for the employee. And that is based solely on the earner's earnings.

In recent years defined benefit pension programs have been increasingly eliminated with employee paid plans producing far less retirement benefit. Social security has thus been of increasing importance to retirees. Slowly but surely workers have learned to reduce their living expenses in retirement to live within the social security benefits.

For some reason social security has become a political football of deep ideological importance. It is seen by some as a ‘public dole.’ It isn’t, of course; it is paid for through the efforts of the employee, with premiums shared by employers. It is the cost of doing business. And it is a discipline enforced on workers to prepare for their retirement as well.

Conservatives have taken up the banner that social security must go. With their champion trump at the lead, suspending FICA tax deductions from paychecks will starve social security of its income. Thus it will be bankrupt in no time at all. Cash reserves of the program are low because the congress has borrowed from the cash cow continuously to fund national debt. A growing crisis is pending for social security and the financial security of every American.

Add to this Medicare. It too is an employment benefit for healthcare paid for by both the employer and the employee. With rising medical expenses, the program has always been in crisis mode financially. FICA payments are its lifeline.

So, without FICA payments, both Medicare and Social Security may be doomed.

Conservatives applaud this development and hope to keep it so. Without congressional action, both of these programs will be ended and the full misery of financial doom for the American people will be realized.

It is wondrous to consider why fellow Americans hate each other so to produce this result.

August 10, 2020

Picking Fights on Facebook

This is easy as pie. It appears to be the sole purpose of so many FB followers, or should I say skulkers? These are the folks who are waiting to pounce on statements they oppose politically and then take you down a sewer pipe that never ends.

Well, it ends with me. If I make a comment (hopefully not a retort!) and they come after me, I just fail to respond. On comments I delete and don’t read them. It takes only one response from these vultures to get the fight moving. Best to just ignore them.

These skulkers are out there now because of the approaching election. I’ve made up my mind who I’m voting for. I state that frequently. If that bothers someone, that’s their problem, not mine. We are constantly subjected to a torrent of opposite views every day, all day long via FB, emails, webpages and news coverage. I can’t imagine anyone being undecided at this point in the campaign.

Of course, news items extol the anti-trump camp with Biden-related stories, all made up about issues and problems he was engaged in over the years. At least he has those years – lifelong – of public service. The other candidate has not even a full term of service and that is hardly service. Let’s just say that anything bad about Joe Biden has already been aired and included in his record. He has much to support his candidacy. No last minute ditch effort will change my mind at this point.

On the other hand, my mind has also been made up pretty much to oppose trump after his first 30 days in office. The awful record he has accumulated is stunning in its baseness. It is totally against what America stands for and means to the vast majority of Americans.

Enough said. I’m voting for Biden as soon as the mail-in ballot reaches my home. I may even hand deliver the ballot to the post office, assuming it is still there!

Meanwhile, I will turn a deaf ear and eye to FB posts to the contrary.

For me that spells peace. I wish you the same.

August 9, 2020

Finding the Positive

In a sea of negative, how do we find the positive? How do we grab onto that which will empower us through the negative? If I’m low in spirit and depressed, do I know what is causing that? How do I counteract that?

Here’s some thoughts I’ve had lately.

1.      Yes; I’m depressed. This is caused by gross ineptitude of my national government. It is further powered by gross politicization of every little thing. With 40% or more championing the hideous and negative, how can I keep my mind, values and principles on a high plane?

2.      The COVID pandemic has caused an enormous shift of attention and living habits alien to what I’m used to. How do I live with those without letting them get me down?

3.      Healthy family relationships. With kids not returning to their school buildings, someone has to remain home to supervise them, and assist them with virtual learning. How does the modern family with two earners manage this challenge without also torpedoing their financial standard of living?

4.      Virtual education of kids is not yet a perfected method. The education establishment is struggling to learn how to do this for maximum outcomes. How can we speed this up?

5.      What creative outlets can we tap to survive the pandemic isolation?

Here are my reflections on those six items:

1.      I shift my attention to my local governmental units. The municipality is doing well. They are working to maintain basic services – water, sewer, streets, parks, physical facilities for later use, police and fire protection services and emergency response support. They are doing very well in spite of all the challenges standing in their way. Local cooperation has been wonderful and continues to define the community itself. That positive enthuses and empowers me. The same with county government; they are doing well with all basic services in spite of challenges to the contrary. Library, school, parks and fire districts continue to adapt to their new operating situations. Schools will be the most difficult. It will require enormous cooperation within the community to make the most of a bad situation. Community spirit will need to step up to this challenge. I have faith that it will.

2.      As isolated as the pandemic has made us feel, at least we have modern technology to keep us connected with one another, our institutions, our churches and our families. Can you imagine what it would have been like with no computers, phones, cable TV, etc.? I feel the isolation more at times I would otherwise be driving out to see the countryside and feel its cultural reality. Can’t do that right now. I must focus on the things I can do. Finding purpose and doing it is the answer to this specific cause of depression.

3.      Healthy Family Relationships is tough on several levels. First is the immediate household in which we must deal with the people central to our lives. If you are alone, that’s one problem. If you are a couple without kids, that’s another level. With children, married or single, is yet another level of problems to manage. The more people in the household, the more complications. But then the company helps! Another level is keeping generations connected – adult siblings and their spouses, grandparents, in-laws, and all the other relations. How is this done without breaking quarantine and endangering one another? Facebook is one aid as long as you do not cast your eyes on the negative environs provided by others. Zoom family sessions is another means of keeping people connected. Frequent phone calls among the different households of family members is yet another method to use.

4.      Virtual education of kids is a challenge I know many thousands of professionals are researching and creating workable alternatives. It will take time and patience to allow this to have desired effects. Have faith; our society is very inventive and creative. We can do this!

5.      Creative outlets include the arts. We are all binge watching documentaries, films and TV shows. Finding musical performances from the past is another art form to pursue. Listening to audio and video recordings is yet another. Note the difference of cultural context between then and now? Wonder how to bridge that divide for the future? Consider actors who cannot perform ensemble projects right now. And musicians who cannot endanger themselves by singing or performing in close ensembles. How can these talented and creative people continue their art form and life’s passions in a time such as ours? Are there alternatives they can use to do this? Meanwhile, what art forms are buried deep within each of us? How can we develop these for expressive use to help ourselves and others?

I’ve raised more questions than actions here, but at least the process engages the mind and spirit as a diversion to our negative reality. Press on and find your alternative reality that cancels the negative. I know you can do it. I’m working on my own right now. Getting somewhere; inch by inch; but getting somewhere.

August 8, 2020

Weekend View

Lots happening. COVID, medical research for a COVID vaccine, political skirmishes over mask wearing, stay distanced and all the rest. Also, the soaring stock market while unemployment remains legion and GDP plummets. Continues to plummet. International affairs in a stew and bubbling away unproductively in all corners of the globe.

In the midst of all this, social wellness and family wellbeing. Culture tapped and enjoyed – literature, music, film, films of plays, documentaries, travelogues of faraway places. Dance, too, is part of our culture. The movement of the human body in rhythm to sound. What does that movement express? Mean?

Relying on technology to hear, see and feel the time of this history.

Odd and oddity. Compressed by synapses in the brain. Making sense of it all. Or maybe not.

A flood of electronic messages flow into the home. Facebook, internet, email, webpages frequently scanned, and more. People sending attachments or forwarding news items to us for comment or a laugh. In a trice we wonder what matters and what doesn’t. The flood of information does that.

I sort through things. Too much of one kind and I bypass the items quickly. React to a few, comment on some. Mostly I read the news and ponder the convergence of so many threads of meaning, topics, issues. Of these what needs the most focus? If we lose one of these issues, what will it affect elsewhere? What do we need to fight for to retain the core of who we are, not just me, but you and I, the we in our nation?

Yes. That’s what I worry about the most. So, an election is lost. What consequence does it have? In most elections the consequences are few and not earthshattering. But not in 2016; no, the presidential election was momentous. A lost election by Hillary Clinton has meant a great deal. What her fans felt would happen if she lost was a far cry from what we have witnessed in trump’s ascent to the white house.

Interesting, isn’t it? The rule of law no longer exists? Convicted yet pardoned? Convicted and sentenced, yet the punishment is commuted? People labeled as bad by most, are friends to those in power and so are pardoned from punishment. Not guilt, mind you, just punishment. Taxpayers owing to the IRS are badgered and sued and imprisoned for payment due; but the powerful just change the rules – or ignore them – and skip the fuss while not paying their debt to society.

What’s up is down and what’s in is out. The poles have changed on a whim. Falsehoods and lies are bald and frequent. Soon we lose sight of all veracity.

I go out of doors and feel the warmth of the sun, or the cool of the rain. I know these sensations. They are lifelong, and personally learned from experience. But another calls it another name meaning the opposite of what I have learned.

Which is true? Which is written into our history?

Just asking a simple question. Who decides these answers? What is definitive? What becomes so?

Why?

August 7, 2020

New Attacks on Democracy

We all are aware of the propaganda war being waged by the donald and his republican minions. Here are the latest three:

Democrats are Socialists: This was on NPR Monday, August 3^rd. republicans are spreading the ‘news’ that Democrats are socialist and have moved decidedly to the left. Nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. The more likely truth is that republicans have been moving farther to the right year after year. If Democrats simply remain at the same point they always have, then the widening gap is due to republicans becoming far more conservative.

This is true in my own case. There are family members who think I’ve moved very left in recent years. I simply do not believe that. I have been a practical centrist for many years. I remain so. The family members, however, have become much more conservative and reactionary. So beware, friends, the socialism feared by republicans is in reality their own turn toward fascism. From that perspective, a dog catcher would seem a dangerous reactionary if he simply did his/her job.

Stock Market will Crash with Biden Victory: This is one of donald’s favorite claims – that his administration has been the primary cause for the rise in the three primary stock markets. Economists would disagree with him because the economy nearly crashed with the real estate and mortgage debacle of 2008/09. It was Obama’s administration that carefully rebuilt the mechanisms of the economy, rebuilt faith in our systems, and set the stage for a marvelous comeback. That happened. It continued during the beginning of donald’s term, but he has done many things to endanger that recovery. Trade wars with many nations, primarily China, undercutting agri-business. Higher tariffs on many goods upended foreign trade in many sectors of our economy. The enormous reserves of cash triggered stock purchases and that has created a bubbled stock market environment. As printed here many times, current stock values are wildly overvalued. Any drop in their price will be a bubble crashing, not a lost election of a pretend business mogul.

Trump To Refuse Loss of Election: As late as August 3^rd the donald claimed he may remain in office under his emergency powers should the election be lost. Nonsense. Any emergency currently existing or arising then will be primarily caused by the donald. Mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, picking a war with China, breaking international agreements and mutual defense treaties, are all contributors to a crisis of faith in America. Removing him from office will be the single most important action the American people can do to save the nation and its economy.

The republican party started down this road in the 1980’s. They continued to ramp up their perfidy until this day. They will have to rebuild or rename the party to gain a fresh start. Such a pity that the proud party of Lincoln has fallen to this low level.

August 6, 2020