Monday, June 29, 2020
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Friday, June 26, 2020
Need a dime for the meter?
The Fed has cut the allocation of coins to banks drastically, to less than half of its usual total. It began to ration its coin supply on June 15, giving banks a portion of their requested change supply depending on what they had historically requested, among other factors, a move that the central bank says is a “temporary measure.”
Courtesy of a Florida resident
Thursday, June 25, 2020
The Anti-Mask Contingent in Palm Beach
Why don't they give a medical reason why they don't want to wear a mask? Do they really think that "being forced" to wear a mask violates the Constiution?
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Cutting back on testing
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is planning to “transition” away from federal government funded testing. As of July 1, it plans to stop funding testing at thirteen sites across five states. Seven of these sites are in Texas alone, where in the past week it had a daily average of 4,037.85 cases, double the previous week of 2,018.71 cases per day.
Dr. Fauci does not think fewer tests is a good idea and we should do more. “I, as a member of the task force, and my colleagues on the task force, I know for sure, to my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact. In fact, we will be doing more testing.”
Dr. Fauci does not think fewer tests is a good idea and we should do more. “I, as a member of the task force, and my colleagues on the task force, I know for sure, to my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact. In fact, we will be doing more testing.”
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Friday, June 19, 2020
Bears and bird feed
I have spent most of the Spring in Simsbury, Ct, which, in the past year, has recorded the most visits by bears in Connecticut, over 400, the closest competitor has had about 250 visits. In the nine weeks I have been here, I have seen about one bear a week. The attraction for them appears to be the three bird feeders I see when I'm typing this post. The bears are very strong, the bird feeders (which support not only a range of birds but also squirrels, chipmunks and turkeys) are not strong enough for the bears' appetites; many mornings the feeders have to be straightened out.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Can you find something wrong with these statements?
Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age cohort.
We are the Silent Generation.
We are the smallest number of children born since the early 1900s. We are the "last ones."
We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.
We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.
We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the milk box on the porch.
We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.
We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.
We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio.
As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside"
We did play outside, and we did play on our own.
There was no little league.
There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.
On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels of the war sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party Lines)and hung on the wall.
Computers were called calculators, they only added and were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.
The internet and GOOGLE were words that did not exist. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our table radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter.
We are the last group who had to find out for ourselves.
As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth.
The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.
VA loans fanned a housing boom.
Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans put factories to work.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility.
The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands of stations
Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.
We weren't neglected, but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad we played by ourselves until the street lights came on.
They were busy discovering the post war world.
We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed.
We enjoyed a luxury; we felt secure in our future.
Depression poverty was deep rooted.
Polio was still a crippler.
The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks for Air-Raid training.
Russia built the Iron Curtain and China became Red China ..
Eisenhower sent the first 'advisers' to Vietnam.
Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.
We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.
We came of age in the 40s and 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming , and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.
Only our generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty We have lived through both.
We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. not worse.
We are the Silent Generation
"The Last Ones" More than 99 % of us are either retired or deceased, and we feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times"!
We are the smallest number of children born since the early 1900s. We are the "last ones."
We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.
We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.
We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the milk box on the porch.
We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.
We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.
We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio.
As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside"
We did play outside, and we did play on our own.
There was no little league.
There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.
On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels of the war sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party Lines)and hung on the wall.
Computers were called calculators, they only added and were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.
The internet and GOOGLE were words that did not exist. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our table radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter.
We are the last group who had to find out for ourselves.
As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth.
The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.
VA loans fanned a housing boom.
Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans put factories to work.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility.
The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands of stations
Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.
We weren't neglected, but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad we played by ourselves until the street lights came on.
They were busy discovering the post war world.
We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed.
We enjoyed a luxury; we felt secure in our future.
Depression poverty was deep rooted.
Polio was still a crippler.
The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks for Air-Raid training.
Russia built the Iron Curtain and China became Red China ..
Eisenhower sent the first 'advisers' to Vietnam.
Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.
We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.
We came of age in the 40s and 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming , and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.
Only our generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty We have lived through both.
We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. not worse.
We are the Silent Generation
"The Last Ones" More than 99 % of us are either retired or deceased, and we feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times"!
Courtesy of a Duncaster resident
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Meet Kathy Sullivan
Kathy Sullivan is a unique woman. In 1984 she was the first US woman to leave a spacecraft and to complete a spacewalk. And, in 2020 at the age of 68 she was the first woman to travel almost seven miles (11km) to reach the lowest known point in the ocean.
She made a total of three space missions, including the 1990 launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. She logged 532 hours in space in total and was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2004.
Last Sunday she went to the Mariana Trench, which is near Guam. She got into a two-person submersible craft and, with another passenger (a man), went down more than 35,800 ft. (10,900 m). She is only the eighth person and first woman to reach the bottom.
She made a total of three space missions, including the 1990 launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. She logged 532 hours in space in total and was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2004.
Last Sunday she went to the Mariana Trench, which is near Guam. She got into a two-person submersible craft and, with another passenger (a man), went down more than 35,800 ft. (10,900 m). She is only the eighth person and first woman to reach the bottom.
Here are her comments re the Hubble
Friday, June 12, 2020
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Monday, June 08, 2020
Sunday, June 07, 2020
Saturday, June 06, 2020
Bill Moyers on Trump
From Raw Story:
He has declared himself above the law, preached insurrection by encouraging armed supporters to “liberate” states from the governance of duly elected officials, told police not to be “too nice” while doing their job, and gloated over the ability of the Secret Service to turn “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” loose on demonstrators — to “come down on them hard” if they get too “frisky.
He has politicized the Department of Justice while remaking the judiciary in his image.
He has sought to politicize the military, including in his entourage the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs (dressed in combat fatigues), as his orderlies unleashed chemical fumes on peaceful protesters – all so that the president could use them as stage props in a photo op, holding up a Bible in front of a historic church, just to make a dandy ad for his re-election campaign.
He has purged his own party of independent thinkers and turned it into a spineless, mindless cult while demonizing the opposition.
He has purloined religion for state and political ends.
He has desecrated the most revered symbols of Christian faith by converting them to partisan brands.
He has recruited religious zealots for jobs in his administration, rewarding with government favors the electoral loyalty of their followers.
He has relentlessly attacked mainstream media as purveyors of “fake news” and “enemies of the people” while collaborating with a sycophantic right- wing media – including the Murdoch family’s Fox News — to flood the country with lies and propaganda.
He has maneuvered the morally hollow founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, into compromising the integrity of the most powerful media giant in the country by infusing it with partisan bias.
And because truth is the foe he most fears, he has banned it from his administration and his lips.
Yes, Bernie, you are right: the man in the White House has taken all the necessary steps toward achieving the despot’s dream of dominance.
He has declared himself above the law, preached insurrection by encouraging armed supporters to “liberate” states from the governance of duly elected officials, told police not to be “too nice” while doing their job, and gloated over the ability of the Secret Service to turn “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” loose on demonstrators — to “come down on them hard” if they get too “frisky.
He has politicized the Department of Justice while remaking the judiciary in his image.
He has stifled investigations into his administration’s corruption, fired officials charged with holding federal agencies accountable to the public, and rewarded his donors and cronies with government contracts, subsidies, deregulations, and tax breaks.
He has maligned and mocked the disadvantaged, the disabled, and people of color.
He has sought to politicize the military, including in his entourage the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs (dressed in combat fatigues), as his orderlies unleashed chemical fumes on peaceful protesters – all so that the president could use them as stage props in a photo op, holding up a Bible in front of a historic church, just to make a dandy ad for his re-election campaign.
He has purged his own party of independent thinkers and turned it into a spineless, mindless cult while demonizing the opposition.
He has purloined religion for state and political ends.
He has desecrated the most revered symbols of Christian faith by converting them to partisan brands.
He has recruited religious zealots for jobs in his administration, rewarding with government favors the electoral loyalty of their followers.
He has relentlessly attacked mainstream media as purveyors of “fake news” and “enemies of the people” while collaborating with a sycophantic right- wing media – including the Murdoch family’s Fox News — to flood the country with lies and propaganda.
He has maneuvered the morally hollow founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, into compromising the integrity of the most powerful media giant in the country by infusing it with partisan bias.
And because truth is the foe he most fears, he has banned it from his administration and his lips.
Yes, Bernie, you are right: the man in the White House has taken all the necessary steps toward achieving the despot’s dream of dominance.
Friday, June 05, 2020
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Monday, June 01, 2020
Bring back the Fireside Chats
Franklin Roosevelt was president through times as tough and tougher as they are today - the Depresion, the New Deal, the NRA, the introduction of Social Security, WWII. And, via the Fireside Chats, he told us what these issues were about and what he was doing about them. He gave 30 of these chats from 1933 to 1944.
The Library of Congress which terms them "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people in 1933." Other presidents, including Reagan, have approached very difficult issues in the same way. Why doesn't Trump?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)