Just Get The App

This is what happens when you use antiquated voice technology to order lunch:

- Could I please have a bison burger?

- What kind of bison burger would you like, sir?

- Um, one that’s made from bison?

Just get the app...

Small Successes

Accomplish something every day. Small successes make big dreams possible.

Let’s say that you dream of becoming a gourmet cook and hosting multi-course dinners for friends and associates. That’s a wonderful goal, and you will have chances to do that, but along the way you’re going to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. That’s twenty-one chances a week to work on your cooking skills by putting them to use in the real world and evaluating the results.

Don’t just prepare breakfast. Prepare something unique and memorable. Try new techniques and ingredients and learn from the process no matter how it turns out.

For lunch, make the best salad or sandwich that you can imagine. Share some with your friends and colleagues. It they say, “This is amazing!” with sincere enthusiasm, then you’ll know that you’re onto sometime special. If they say, “Thanks for the sandwich,” keep working on it until you blow their minds.

Every day presents opportunities to learn and develop. Build the skills that will enable you to move closer to your grand dreams by practicing every day. Don’t let opportunities slip by while you dream of a wonderful future. Move toward that future moment by moment, step by deliberate step. That’s the surest way to get there.

The Politics Of Violence

Politicians who outlaw safe abortions won’t outlaw assault weapons. Mass murderers appreciate it.

Voter Suppression and Institutionalized Recism

I have been reflecting on the period between Election Day and Insurrection Day, November 3rd through January 6th. It was difficult to see these events in perspective while they were unfolding. The experience was highly charged, and emotions were running high.

After the election, more than sixty lawsuits were filed. The plaintiffs asserted that “widespread voter fraud” had occurred, although they offered no proof to support their claims, and all but one of the suits was dismissed or the rulings went against the plaintiffs.

Here is an interesting observation. Although the plaintiffs claimed that fraud was widespread, their actual claims targeted specific locations. For instance, the claimed that fraud had occurred in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukie. Why did they choose these three cities? Why not Cleveland, for instance? It’s in the same region. If you draw a line from Philly to Milwaukie, Detroit and Cleveland are both on that line. Wouldn’t it make sense that the alleged fraud had occurred in Ohio, as well. For some reason, they showed no interest in overturning election results in Cleveland.

Another city where election results were contested was Atlanta. The outgoing president even called officials in Georgia and urged them personally to investigate potential fraud in the greater Atlanta area. But why only Atlanta? Why not Birmingham in neighboring Alabama? Why not Miami or Jacksonville in neighboring Florida? Why not Columbia, South Carolina or Charlotte, North Carolina. All of those states border Georgia. If “widespread fraud” was happening in Georgia, wouldn’t it make sense that it was happening in neighboring states as well. That is in fact what widespread means.

The senior senator from South Carolina even tried to assert that fraud had occurred in his neighboring state. Why didn’t he occupy himself by investigating the elections that had occurred in his own state?

They weren’t interested in exposing fraud. That was a convenient excuse. Their real interest was in overturning election results in states where Mr. Trump lost by a narrow margin. They didn’t even want to overturn all of the election results, just those from cities where a lot of people tend to vote for Democrats.

There was no reason overturn the results in Ohio or Alabama because Mr. Trump didn’t lose in those states. If he had lost Ohio, you can bet that Rudy Giuliani would have made several outraged speeches from Cleveland.

This deliberate attempt to overturn democracy was even more insidious, because its core strategy was to disenfranchise minority voters. The plan was to throw out votes in communities with large African American populations, and in the southwest, to do the same with the votes of Latino and Native American citizens.

Who was pushing this plan? Who was representing the plaintiffs in the courtrooms? Who was holding the press conferences? Who was going on Fox News every night to express outrage over the alleged fraud, conspiracy theories, and a host of grievances?

Well, I’ll give you a clue. None of them were Black. They were all White people. White people spread the conspiracy theories. White people gave the press conferences. White people filed the lawsuits and complained when they were thrown out.

White people ransacked the Capitol. White people marched on Charlottesville. White counter protestors instigated violence at Black Lives Matter protests. White senators prevented the last president from facing accountability in two impeachment trials, and now white people across the country are passing hundreds of laws that restrict voting access, laws that won’t have an impact on small towns, but which will cause huge delays in urban centers with high population densities.

Racism is more than crude insults, housing segregation, and discrimination in the workplace. Racism is coded into the law. Any law that makes it harder for people to vote in highly populated areas is an example of institutional racism.

We must reject and overturn racially biased laws now, every single one of them. We must reverse the racially biased laws and practices that already exist. If we as a nation to do this immediately and convincingly, we will lose our democracy forever.

Grammar Police

I correct bad grammar. If that annoys someone, a kite can go fly them.

March Gray

There’s a cold gray light that only comes in March, and that light is with us today.

Controversial Topics

Asian Americans targeted in a hate-fueled Atlanta shooting spree.

Harry and Meghan go on TV to accuse the royals of racism.

Sen. Ron Johnson claims that the capitol rioters are law abiding citizens who love their country and respect police, but mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters scare him.

Migrant children flood the southern border. (Didn’t someone build a wall to prevent this?)

The bachelor dumped his honey for dressing up like Scarlet O’Hara.

Gov. Cuomo, pandemic hero, now accused of inappropriate sexual advances.

Women of color (that phrase just doesn’t seem kosher) face opposition in Senate confirmation hearings.

State legislatures are passing hundreds of new Jim Crow laws to discourage minority voters.

Have I missed anything? Are there any other topics upon which I dare not comment?

Oh, here’s a safe one: Spring Break is in full swing as deadly variants rage. Yes, I could probably say something about that without getting into trouble.

Oh, what the heck... 

She wasn’t forced to marry into that family. It’s not as though she’s the daughter of a nobleman and the marriage was arranged to bring peace to the kingdom. She could have done what the bachelor guy did and said, “I care about you, but I don’t think that you’re ready for this.”

It takes guts to do the right thing when it means making a sacrifice. I admire that dude.

That’s it. I’m done. Fire away.

Conversations

I hope that I will see you 

Once we’ve moved past these times 

We’ll share long conversations 

While I look into your eyes 

Please Let’s All Work Together Against The Virus

When a virus goes into a living being, it replicates itself, but it’s not a perfect replica. Since the mission of the virus is to infect and replicate, it uses information from the host’s DNA to improve the infection capability of the next generation. It’s like a criminal teaching his children to be better criminal than he is.

The evolutionary process creates a steady stream of mutations, the so-called variants that we hear about on the news.

One approach that some people suggested early on in the Covid-19 pandemic was to let the virus infect as many people as possible. The most sensitive people would die off, but the rest of the population would reach a state of herd immunity. When the virus no longer had people to infect, it no longer spreads.

This theory fails to take mutation into account. The virus keeps evolving into new variants, some of which will be more transmissible and potentially more dangerous. When more people are infected, more variants emerge. When the variants change significantly from the original strain of the virus, they can infect people who were infected previously. Variants can kill people who survived prior infections.

We are in a race against time. We need to stop the virus before it creates variants that existing vaccines cannot control. Companies can create new vaccines and boosters, but the virus will always be some number of steps ahead.

Please get vaccinated unless your healthcare provider recommends that you don’t. We need to get to a point where the virus can’t spread easily. That’s the only way to slow the evolution of mutations. 

Please also do your part by following the essential public health guidelines that have been recommended from the beginning of the pandemic. Wear masks in public and when you’re with people who don’t live in your home. Avoid crowed indoor gatherings. Wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face.

If we all work together, we can slow this thing down and finally get back to our normal lives. If we avoid vaccination and relax other precautions, the virus will keep spreading and mutating, and this dreaded scourge will grind on far longer than it has to.

No Hesitation

Don’t hesitate to get the vaccine. The virus won’t hesitate to get you.

Leadership Matters

In recent weeks we have heard grumbling from the Right about a few thousand jobs lost due to the suspension of the environmentally hazardous Keystone XL pipeline project. Granted, a job loss is never welcome news.

Today, the CEO of American Airlines told 13,000 workers who were scheduled to be furloughed in April to “tear up your [furlough notices].” The airline made the decision after Mr. Biden’s American Rescue Plan has cleared all obstacles toward passage and will be signed into law.

Businesses will receive financial relief. Non-profits will receive financial relief. Schools will receive funds to make ventilation and safety improvements. Communities across the country will receive funds that will enable them keep workers on the job and fund work projects. Individuals will receive checks and tax breaks that will enable them to pay bills and put money back into the economy. 

The American Rescue Plan will create an estimated 7 million jobs. Leadership matters.

Up To Expectations

If I haven’t lived up to

Your expectations

Get in line

I’m still living

Up to mine

Tumbling Toothpaste

The moment when you have just enough toothpaste for one last brushing, and it falls into the sink.

Closet Thinking

The mind is like a closet. It works best when you throw out all of the stuff that you no longer need.

Cleverness

Guy rhymes with lie.

Woman doesn’t rhyme with anything.

I spent half an hour trying to turn that into something clever. I failed.