Planning For The Future

According to the Los Angeles Times, California might have been better able to respond to the coronavirus outbreak:

They were ready to roll whenever disaster struck California: three 200-bed mobile hospitals that could be deployed to the scene of a crisis on flatbed trucks and provide advanced medical care to the injured and sick within 72 hours.

Each hospital would be the size of a football field, with a surgery ward, intensive care unit and X-ray equipment. Medical response teams would also have access to a massive stockpile of emergency supplies: 50 million N95 respirators, 2,400 portable ventilators and kits to set up 21,000 additional patient beds wherever they were needed.

In 2006, citing the threat of avian flu, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the state would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a powerful set of medical weapons to deploy in the case of large-scale emergencies and natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires and pandemics.

“In light of the pandemic flu risk, it is absolutely a critical investment,” he told a news conference. “I’m not willing to gamble with the people’s safety."

The state, flush with tax revenue, soon sank more than $200 million into the mobile hospital program and a related Health Surge Capacity Initiative to stockpile medicines and medical gear for use in outbreaks of infectious disease, according to former emergency management officials and state budget records.

But the ambitious effort, which would have been vital as the state confronts the new coronavirus today, hit a wall: a brutal recession, a free fall in state revenues — and in 2011, the administration of a fiscally minded Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, who came into office facing a $26-billion deficit.

And so, that year, the state cut off the money to store and maintain the stockpile of supplies and the mobile hospitals. The hospitals were defunded before they’d ever been used.

Much of the medical equipment — including the ventilators, critical life-saving tools that are in short supply in the current pandemic — was given to local hospitals and health agencies, former health officials said. But the equipment was donated without any funding to maintain them. The respirators were allowed to expire without being replaced.

Short-sighted decisions with long-term costs.  Read the whole thing.

Update:  But wait, there's more:

Joe Biden has made pandemic preparedness a theme of his attacks on President Trump in recent weeks.

But, according to analysis from Gregg Re at Fox News, the Obama-Biden administration repeatedly sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "seemingly undercutting former Vice President Joe Biden's repeated attacks on the Trump White House for its pandemic preparedness."

The budget requests are available online via the CDC website.

On many occasions, Democrats, including Biden, have falsely accused President Trump of slashing the CDC's budget. Biden has used these false claims to suggest that he would never even propose similar cuts, let alone make them. Fact checks from the Associated Press and FactCheck.org both proved the claims made by Biden and others to be wrong, because CDC funding actually increased during the Trump administration.

Do we chalk Joe's talking points up to hypocrisy, lying, or dementia?

Essential Oils

I have a very strong sense of smell.

I used to burn candles in my house.  When you have a big dog, especially one that spends a lot of time outside, you need something to freshen the house, especially in winter.  What do you do in the summer, though?  That was always the conundrum.  Having lived here almost 15 years, though, I can now see the accumulation of soot on the ceiling above where my candles are, and sometimes even darker areas on the walls near candles.  I like the smell and the ambiance but not the residue.

Then I got a diffuser with essential oils.  All the nice smells, none of the soot.

Despite my strong sense of smell, I'm not one of those people who believes that certain scents make you "happier", "calmer", or more "focused".  I don't believe that certain smells will help me go to sleep faster, will cause me to breathe easier, or will cure cancer.  When it comes to essential oils, I just like the smells.

I must have a good BS-detector (also, language warning for the excerpt below):

Now a new study shows that a tendency to mistake the meaningless for the profound is a good indicator a person may also put an overzealous amount of faith into essential oils...

A general tendency to be receptive to bullshit – so being more likely to be taken in by made-up or empty rhetoric – means people are more likely to go all in on the claims of essential oils, the researchers report. That has implications for how doctors might guide patients to more reliable treatments in the future.

"We found that receptivity to pseudo-profound fabricated statements and religiosity were the most consistent predictors of greater use of, perceived effectiveness of, and a willingness to spend more money on EOs," write the researchers in their study...

"Of all the personality and personal variables we looked at, being high in receptivity to bullshit was the most consistent predictor," psychologist and lead researcher William Chopik, from Michigan State University, told Eric W. Dolan at PsyPost.

"Bullshit receptivity reflects people's willingness to endorse meaningless statements as meaningful."

One of the sample statements in the experiment was "as you self-actualise, you will enter into infinite empathy that transcends understanding" – if you have a high bullshit receptivity, you're more likely to see that statement as profound rather than nonsense.

People less able to spot and recognise bullshit were more likely to think that EOs would improve friendships, boost spirituality and heal health issues, even if the oils weren't specifically marketed to cover those areas.

I fire up the diffuser almost daily.  I like the smells.

True? Or Urban Myth?

If this is true, public shaming is in order:

A company in Austin, Texas is looking to dock pay from workers who receive government stimulus checks, according to an anonymous employee.

With the historic $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus deal signed, Americans can look forward to receiving some economic relief during the pandemic.

An unnamed company in Texas, though, appears to be looking to use the stimulus to relieve their payroll strain.

On Wednesday, the company sent out a form titled “Employee Acknowledgement of ‘Government Assistance’ Pay Reduction.”

The form was reported by an employee who wished to remain anonymous, but the employee spoke to local news KXAN about the situation.

“The form says they are preemptively deducting funds from our paychecks. That number is based on what they’re anticipating the government relief fund to be,” the worker told the outlet.

Why It's Hard To Take The Press Seriously These Days

Exhibit 8,000,000:

link

My First Foray Into Distance Learning

For the past several years at school, I've been the person who organizes 7th Period (happy hour) and sends out an email telling everyone at which local establishment we'll be meeting for food, drinks, and socializing. 

Starting April 13th I'll be expected to deliver instruction to students, and one of the ways I'm looking at doing that is via the online meeting platform Zoom.  This means that I'd better get good at setting up, and notifying people about, these online meetings.  So the first meeting I'll run on Zoom will be today's virtual 7th period.

Hope to see everyone at 4 :-)

Stimulus

Assuming that the House will pass the Senate's version of the "stimulus" package--2 trillion dollars, in all--I decided to calculate how big a check Uncle Sam is going to send me.

As it stands now, single people without kids will get $1200 if they earned under $75,000, and $50 less for every $1000 over that.  Looks like they'll use 2018 pay (last year's taxes) and adjusted gross income.  I don't want to get last year's taxes out and look those up, and I don't know my AGI, but I estimate I'll get maybe half of that $1200.

I'm a saver.  Even when I was poor--and I was working poor, back in the day--I saved money.  It may not have been much, but I kept money put away for a rainy day.  I don't recall every borrowing money from friends or family.  I have paid cash for every vehicle I've ever owned, and only ever borrowed money to buy a house.  I'm not rich, but over the decades I've worked my way out of being poor and now consider myself firmly in the middle class.  And I still earn more than I spend each month.

I say that to show that my initial inclination upon receipt of that $600 or so would be to save it, but that's not the right thing to do.  I have been blessed in so many ways, including that I continue to receive my pay as I work from home, at least for the rest of the school year, it seems.  Yes, I could always sock that $600 away for the next rainy day, but in this situation I'll act for the better good.  I'll spend it.

I've tried to think of how best to spend it.  I don't need more stuff, more toys, so I don't really need to buy anything.  That leaves services.

Having been hermetically sealed in my house for the past several days, I decided to mask up and venture out tonight.  I had a hankerin', and went through the drive-thru window at Dairy Queen to get a banana split.  Wore my mask, even gooped sanitizer on my hands before touching my money, and boy did that banana split look good!  Saw my neighbor sitting in his garage as I drove by, so I stopped in the middle of the street and we yelled to each other for a couple minutes--the first person I'd really spoken to face to face in days.  The banana split didn't last long when I got home, and oh did I need that! 

That's how I'll spend whatever stimulus money I get.  I don't often eat out, but I'll start when the restaurants open for eat-in business.  Until then I'll consider take-out and even home delivery.  That's the best way I can think of to spend this money; if you have any better ideas, please share them in the comments.


And now for the down side.

I hope that the economic downturn after 9/11, in 2008/09, and now will convince more Americans to save more.  It's actually a little embarrassing when I read how little Americans have saved up, how we talk about being independent but so many people are complaining about not being able to afford being out of work for a couple weeks.  I'm not talking about the poor, I'm talking about the middle and upper classes.  More Americans need to save more.  We're all going to pay for this stimulus package, aren't we?

That $2 trillion has to come from somewhere, and no doubt it'll be added to the federal debt.  We'll all pay for this "stimulus" in interest on that debt if not in higher taxes.  It shouldn't be this way, not $2 trillion.  Individuals, families, corporations, government--we all should have rainy day funds.  It's not that hard.  Heck, two months ago we had the best economy this country had ever seen, and the lowest unemployment to boot--why couldn't people have been saving more?  Because they chose not to.  We Americans need to make better choices.

Will we have to pay back this $1200, or fraction thereof, that each of us is to get?  Is it just a loan?  Will it be considered income in this year that, even if we don't pay it back, we'll pay taxes on?  I don't know.  I'm going to spend it anyway and pay what I have to for it, because that's what this country needs.  I'll do my part in this one small way.

But I eagerly await the PSA's in the coming months and years reminding Americans to save more for a rainy day.  Because it does rain, you know, even in California.

Two Ways of Looking At A Supreme Court Decision

From Vox, which leans so far left it's about to fall over:

Yet even as the justices seek shelter from a pandemic, they still managed to hand down five opinions on Monday. One of them, in the case Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Media, is a blow for the civil rights community — and a potential harbinger for civil rights cases to come.

The case involves a dispute between the cable TV company Comcast and a business that alleged the telecommunications conglomerate refused to carry its channels because it disfavored “100% African American-owned media companies.” (Comcast Corporation, the defendant in this lawsuit, is an investor in Vox Media.)

The Comcast decision, according to NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, “is a huge step backward in our march toward achieving equal opportunity for all.” He warned that the Court’s decision will “significantly restrict the ability of discrimination victims to prove their claims under one of our nation’s premier civil rights laws.”

Viewed through a narrow lens, Comcast is only an incremental loss for the civil rights community. It extends two prior decisions that made it harder for some plaintiffs to prevail in federal court. But the decision is significant not so much because of the particular holding handed down by the Court, but because of the widespread support for this result among the justices.

The decision was unanimous, which suggests that the Court’s liberal minority has given up on an important fight that was hotly contested just a few years ago. More broadly, the Court’s consensus in Comcast signals that the liberal justices may have shifted into triage mode, accepting that some incursions on civil rights are no longer worth resisting in a Court that’s lurched hard to the right...

What is surprising is that the Court’s decision in Comcast is unanimous (although Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a separate opinion warning that the Court should not make further incursions on the ban on contract discrimination). Comcast, in other words, appears to be a sign that the Court’s liberal minority has decided that their best response to a hardline conservative majority is to throw in the towel on some fights, in order to preserve their ability to raise the alarm in other ones.

That explanation makes no sense. I offer an alternative:  Maybe, when the ruling is 9-0, the liberal justices didn’t “[shift] into triage mode”.  Maybe your view is batcrap insane.

After Spring Break...

It seems like everyone and his brother is using Zoom lately.  For awhile, at least, we can use it for classes, until they reimpose limits on time and number of people in a meeting.

Starting April 13th, after our Spring Break, we're supposed to be presenting new material.  My fellow math teachers and I have been coordinating what topics we're going to cut (after having missed 3 weeks of instructional time) in the rest of the semester, and how we might best deliver instruction, etc.  Will we use Zoom or something else?  How will we be trained?  It's all being done on the fly.  In the last couple school years I'd be ranting and raving about what a clustergaggle this is, how there's no real leadership from my district, how we teachers will have to pick up the ball and run with it after our district fumbles--and it would all be true.  This year I just accept that it's true and am making plans to pick up the ball and run.  It's a lot easier on my psyche that way!  As I say, "The problem isn't usually the problem, the problem is how you react to the problem."  This year I've not been reacting so negatively, and I'm in a much better place because of it.

I've long since graded all the tests and quizzes I brought home over a week ago, and today my vice principal and I came up with a way to get them returned to the students.  I brought home the materials I'd need to work from home for 3 weeks, which was the time we were told when we shut down; now that we're probably working from home for much longer than that, I need to go in and get some more equipment (electronic and otherwise).  I'll leave the papers on the desk closest to my classroom door; when the administrators go to work all day on April 1st (yes, I know!) they'll pick up the papers and distribute them to any students who come in for them.  Later this week I'll notify students about that April 1st pickup date.

In the meantime I continue to assign (voluntary) review videos from Khan Academy that cover topics from the couple weeks prior to the school's shutdown.  I honestly wonder how many students are watching them.  I hope I'd be pleasantly surprised!

Intersectionality: Coronavirus, so-called Environmentalism, and Compulsion From The Left

It's been making the rounds in libertarian and conservative circles for awhile now:  how's that plastic bag ban, mass transit, straw ban, crowded urban living thing working out?  Some of us think those things are just ways the left prepares us, frog-in-a-pot style, for their totalitarianism, and maybe this coronavirus will undo some of the damage that's already been done.  After all, the TSA-holes have already relaxed the 3-3-3 liquid limit at airports and are allowing people to bring more hand sanitizer aboard.  For the longest time they worried about medication and baby milk, but boy they sure changed the rules with a quickness for freakin' hand sanitizer.  That tells me right there that it has always been less about actual security and more about security theater, the illusion of security.  Will they go back to 3-3-3 after this coronavirus threat is over?

Here's a thought about plastic bag bans:

As we combat the coronavirus pandemic it’s important for Americans to note that many environmental initiatives that purport to “save the planet” not only restrict consumer choice and hurt the business sector— it also puts the public safety at risk.

Take the plastic bag bans here in Massachusetts and beyond.

In an effort to “go green” many states have banned disposable plastic bags at supermarkets and other retail locations causing a massive consumer shift to reusable shopping bags we’re now learning could contain the virus.

The coronravirus can live on surfaces for days, including on reusable shopping bags, which are notoriously filthy. Studies have shown that most people don’t clean their reusable bags.

For that reason, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu issued an emergency order over the weekend prohibiting reusable shopping bags and requiring that stores use disposable plastic or paper bags instead.

“Our grocery store workers are on the front lines of COVID-19, working around the clock to keep New Hampshire families fed,” Sununu said in a statement. “With identified community transmission, it is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home given the potential risk to baggers, grocers and customers.”

Read the whole thing.

Anyone Think This Will Last For Long?

Good on the SPI for following the law, now it's time for the Michigan legislature to change the law:

Students attending public schools online during the coronavirus shutdown won't be able to count it toward their required annual instructional hours, but private schools will.

The Michigan Department of Education said Friday in a memo to school leaders across the state that the online time wouldn't count.

"There is no mechanism to earn instructional time during a period of mandated school closure," Deputy State Superintendent Venessa Keesler wrote in a memo. "However, schools can and are encouraged to offer supplemental learning opportunities to students using distance learning methods as they see fit."

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sounded surprised by the decision.

"I know that the Michigan Department of Education put out a statement today, I was dismayed to see that, frankly," Whitmer said. "We are going to work to make sure that kids are getting the instruction, or the equivalent of an instruction, as needed so that they can finish this year."

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice said the department is bound by law.

“State law limits us in this situation — not for an individual child in an individual cyber school or an individual virtual course offering, but for children across the state, many of whom have no computers at home, no connectivity, and no adults to monitor their learning and/or technology,” Rice said in a statement issued late Friday. “The state legislature should change state law to permit days out of school for this public health emergency to be counted as instructional days."

The article hints at school during the summer.  I don't see that working very well at all.

Special Education in the Era of Coronavirus

The US Department of Education issued guidance about following Section 504 and the IDEA, and a couple days later issued a tepid clarification of the original guidance. I've posted on this over at Joanne's, where I'm still babysitting.

Building the Brand

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade:

Even though an annual choral festival in San Bernardino County, California was canceled this year because of coronavirus concerns, a group of high school choir singers wanted their community to hear their voice anyway...

That's when 19 Chino Hills High School chamber singers stepped up to record their individual parts to a song they'd practiced together for months, only this time, they had to sing alone and on camera. An editor working with the district took each student's part and spent 36 hours stringing together this performance.

In the video, the singers fill the screen to deliver their portion of the classic "Over the Rainbow," in the style of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. After a quick countdown, in full harmony, the virtual performance begins.

Well done! Actually brought tears to my eyes.

Degrading the Brand

Harvard and Yale have nothing left but their longstanding reputations.  Their current crop of students is nothing to be proud of:

Students at Harvard and Yale are demanding a “universal pass” grading system for their online courses in the wake of coronavirus-induced campus evacuations.

A coalition of Yale students recommends students get credit for every class, receiving a “P” (“Pass”) grade instead of traditional letter grades. According to the Yale Daily News, the main reason for the appeal is “equity"...

Over at Harvard, The Crimson reports although “individual departments” have allowed students to take online courses pass/fail, some students have complained this system is “insufficiently equitable.”

In other words, "give me an A because slavery, or something."

Why go to an elite school if you don't want an elite education?  I guess the answer is "I just want the name on my diploma."  They want the credential without the achievement the credential signifies.

Distance Education

Yesterday we got word from our district that it's very unlikely that we will go back to school after spring break (April 13th was the plan).  They're planning some committees to try to get us to some form of virtual learning or distance education.  My school's administration is going in to work Monday to gather all our Chromebooks in one location, ostensibly so they can subsequently issue them to students who don't have computers.  Our district is looking into getting internet access for those students who don't already have it.

I've really enjoyed this article about distance learning (and how it is different from online learning).  There are plenty of "online meeting" software packages out there--yesterday we held a virtual happy hour on one of them!--and we teachers will no doubt have training available on how to use them.  That's probably the best that can be expected under the circumstances--after all, all of the planning and implementation will be done on the fly.

I have two concerns that need to be addressed.  First, do I need such training?  To be honest, I can talk all day, but if I can't simultaneously write and explain what I'm doing, no teaching is taking place.  There are plenty of math videos out there, many of them excellent, that people have already created.  I don't see how I'm going to improve upon that wheel!  I've already looked at the material I've planned to teach through the end of the year and Khan Academy covers it all.  One or two videos per topic, in addition to the online component of our textbooks, and that's really the best I can do.  After than, it's probably better for students just to ask me questions via email, Skype, or one of those meeting packages.

Second, there are ADA considerations.  A year or so ago all our district's teachers had to undergo training in making our web sites accessible to people with disabilities.  I don't know how blind people access the information on my web site, I'm trusting that my school district has taken care of that for me.  But what about videos I link to, are they closed-captioned for the hard-of-hearing?  Khan Academy is!

If you think I'm being silly, I assure you I'm not.  We underwent that training in response to lawsuits up and down California, so it's a real concern.  Until the ADA gets thrown out the window due to coronavirus considerations--and I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen--it's real.  In fact, just 4 days ago the US Department of Education published a press release pertaining to the civil rights of students under the ADA.

There are a lot of balls for my district administrators to juggle right now.

My Taxes Are Paying For This Idiot's Education

Where else but UC Davis--or, as I call it, Berkeley-lite:

In a “breaking news” article late Wednesday that must be seen to be believed (archived here in case it’s changed), reporter Alex Weinstein refers to a message criticizing the CCP – a government hated by many Chinese immigrants – as “xenophobic.”

On Tuesday morning a shipping container on the edge of campus “was grafitied [sic] with xenophobic rhetoric that read, ‘The Chinese Communist Party = a danger to society,’ accompanied by a crudely drawn photo of a man wearing a surgical mask,” Weinstein reported:

This graffiti is part of a rise in racist and xenophobic propaganda all over the world, taking place in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic thought to have originated in Wuhan, China. From the alleged assault of an Asian teenager on a Philadelphia subway to #ChineseDontComeToJapan trending on Japanese twitter ー these incidents seem to be increasing in frequency.

Weinstein never explains how criticizing a government that undeniably worsened the coronavirus outbreak by silencing those who discovered it – and letting Lunar New Year festivities continue in Wuhan, the source of the disease – indicates hostility toward people from other countries.

Do people like young Alex Weinstein even think?

West Point's Way of Dealing With Cadets Re: Coronavirus

The superintendent just sent out an email to all cadets, staff, and graduates, keeping everyone informed about what's going on at West Point.  I was particularly struck by these paragraphs:

Many of you have asked about when the Corps of Cadets will return to West Point. After a deliberate planning process, across the USMA enterprise, I decided that the Corps of Cadets will not return to West Point on 29 March as originally planned.

Keeping the Corps at home will better ensure the safety of the Corps, staff, faculty, and the West Point community. I do not know when the Corps will return at this point. Our deliberate and robust planning effort is focused on how to best continue our mission while fighting this virus - this process will identify the best time for the Corps to return.

My number one priority as Superintendent is the health, safety and security of every member of the Corps of Cadets and the West Point community. The decision to delay the return of the Corps was not made lightly - we are taking this action to ensure we continue to protect the force.

For the Corps of Cadets, I hope you had a productive first day of remote education. Your tactical officers, faculty members, and coaches will do everything possible to ensure your continued success. The Dean, the Commandant, the Athletic Director, and their teams have been fully engaged in setting you up for success as you continue the semester remotely. If you have any issues, please inform your TACs, TAC NCOs, faculty members, and coaches for assistance as needed. Your chain of command will communicate additional details and information in the days ahead as our course of action solidifies.

Corps ... let me also repeat what the Commandant said to you this week. This is not an extension of your spring break. I expect you to conduct yourselves as future professionals of the United States Army.

Well said.

At The Grocery Store During Coronavirus Season

Who are the people in your neighborhood
In your neighborhood
In your neigh-bor-hood, oh
Who are the people in your neighborhood
The people that you meet each day

Around 9pm tonight I decided to make a grocery store run.  I thought perhaps fewer people would be there since the store would be conceivably cleaned out, and perhaps there were fewer people there than during the day, but there were more than I imagined there would be, especially for a store that closes at 10pm.

Yes, there were entire aisles that were empty.  Who is buying all this toilet paper?!  It just seems so funny to me.  I went there for fruits and vegetables, having none in the house, and even those had been picked over pretty well.  I bought a salad mix and some apples and some chunk pineapple (gonna make an Asian-style chicken wrap with the pineapple and cashews!) among other things.  My mother asked me to pick her up some hand sanitizer and wipes--no can do, all out.

But I'm not here after 10 at night to talk about what's in stock and not in stock at one grocery store in suburban Sacramento.  I'm here to talk about the people who were there.

After 50+ laps around the sun I've learned that some people just like to complain.  They complain to complain.  They'd complain about not being able to complain if they weren't able to complain!  I've gotten wrapped up in that before, but fortunately was able to see my way out of it.  No one wants to hear you complain.  It sucks that you had to wait in a long line at the checkout and, just as it was your turn, then they opened another checkout.  What do you expect the cashier to do with your complaint?  No, all those other people shouldn't be hoarding TP and hand sanitizer, but complaining about it alone isn't going to change the situation.

After 50+ laps around the sun I've learned that some people are just a-holes.  They're rude, they use foul language in public, they care only about themselves and have no interest in the people around them.  They can't imagine why things aren't exactly the way they think they should be, and they speak to everyone in general and no one in particular about how effed-up everything is.

There are others.

Some people cannot handle change.  They cannot handle uncertainty.  They cannot handle the slightest amount of stress.  I feel for them, but they should have a little more decency than to make everyone else deal with their particular issue.

On the other hand, some people just allow themselves to shine.   Like Matt, the cashier.

Matt's a kid who takes classes at the nearby community college.  He makes the California minimum wage as a cashier.  He's been working crazy hours lately, with no end in sight.  He has to put up with everyone's commentary.

And he has the most cheerful demeanor you could imagine.

Each new customer, he apologized for the line being so long--as if it were his fault.  He found something positive to talk about as he rang up every purchase.  He sympathized with his college instructors who are trying to find a way to deliver classes online given next to no notice or training.  I asked him if he ever thought his job would be considered "essential" to the state of California--no, he never thought his minimum wage job would be "essential"!  He smiled the entire time he rang up my purchases, and thanked me for being so friendly and positive!

Matt's what I like to call a "decent human".  He's got the right attitude.  It's people like Matt who are going to help the country get through this unprecedented trouble.

Update, 3/20/20:  Just did my good deed for the day.  I called and had a brief chat with the manager about Matt.  She was very pleased to hear the compliment and "can't wait to share it with the team." 

When it comes to comment cards and the like, I'm far more likely to leave a positive comment than a negative.  If something's really bad I can just go somewhere else, but if something is really good I want them to keep doing that.

The Definition of Conservatism

"Everyone is conservative about what he knows best."
--Robert Conquest

“The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”
--Hannah Arendt

Here's an example where they're both right:

A socialism-themed restaurant chain in Washington, D.C., run by a multimillionaire former mayoral candidate laid off hundreds of staffers this week due to the city's coronavirus restrictions, according to reports.

Andy Shallal, a restaurateur who unsuccessfully ran for D.C. mayor in 2014, said he was forced to let go hundreds of waiters and other employees at Busboys and Poets, his chain of six restaurants and bookstores across the city, according to DCist. Shallal, a longtime advocate for mandatory paid sick leave and minimum wage hikes, has hosted events at his restaurants for former convicted Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, former U.S. Communist Party leader Angela Davis, and a Venezuelan government reception honoring the legacy of Hugo Chavez.

Socialism for thee, but not for me.

Perhaps The Most Surreal, Remarkable Thing I've Seen In A Very Long Time

I can't believe it's been almost 8 years since my last visit to Venice.  Without getting maudlin, I'd just say that if you've never been, you owe it to yourself to go.

Just prior to WW2, Venice had a population of about 150,000.  Today the permanent population is about 60,000, but daytrippers and cruise ship passengers and other tourists dramatically boost that number--at least during business hours.  It's remarkable how crowded Venice gets, even though the actual population is so relatively small.

Here's a video I took while on a vaporetto (water bus) ride up the Grand Canal.  Notice how many boats you see:


Here's Venice today:

As Italy quarantines over coronavirus, swans appear in Venice canals, dolphins swim up playfully

“Nature just hit the reset button” in the suddenly clear waters of Venice canals and off the coast of a locked-down Italy.

Check out the pictures. Notice the empty Grand Canal.

Media Coronavirus Lies

Breitbart has them compiled in one place.

Trump Told Governors to Get Their Own Goddamned Ventilators!
Trump Seeks Monopoly on Coronavirus Vaccine
Nationwide Curfew!
Trump Lied About the Google Website
Trump Shut Down the CDC’s Pandemic Department!
Trump Declared the Coronavirus a Hoax!
Calling the Wuhan Virus the ‘Wuhan Virus’ Is Racist
Trump Rejected WHO Coronavirus Test Kits
Trump Blocked Testing Because Lower Numbers are Good for His Reelection
It’s Trump Fault Coronavirus Testing Was Delayed
Trump Silenced Dr. Fauci
Trump Told Sick People to Got to Work

Links to the evidence are in the original Breitbart story.