Category: Uncategorized
American Greatness Before Covid-19
Here’s part of an unemployment chart from the Federal Reserve which includes a few years before Donald Trump’s inauguration and a couple of years after, stopping before Covid-19 hit us. Can anyone point out when Donald Trump showed up and made America great?
And here’s one of GDP, a few years before Trump and a couple of years after. Can you pick out when Trump’s policies took over?
This one might be tricky. It’s the labor force participation rate. You might think you can see the turning point where Trump took over and stopped the fall, but you might be wrong.
You can see these charts and more at the Federal Reserve Economic Data website.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART
For all of Trump’s deal breaking and tariffs, he kept the economy improving at about the same rate it was improving during the Obama administration.
I’m not saying Trump’s good economy was all Obama’s doing. Trump kept it going for longer than most of us said he could. But he did so by taking reckless chances, antagonizing our trading partners, increasing our deficit with no end in sight, and sacrificing our credibility. All that for the same rate of improvement that was happening before.
With all the Donald Trump’s reckless policies, even without Covid-19, something bad was bound to happen.
If only we had dropped some bombs
The 9/11 attacks killed abut 3% of the Americans that Covid-19 has killed, and we lived through invasive personal searches at airports, more data being collected on us when applying for licenses and services, and more power given to our intelligence agencies to tap our phones, search our emails, and review our library activities.
Now a lot of the same people who approved of these measures are freaking out and threatening murder – in some cases following through – over being told to wear a mask. The difference is we’re not dropping bombs on anybody.
If we started bombing China first and then told people to wear masks, these people would be in balaclavas and shooting people for disregarding their patriotic duty to cover up.
Image source: https://openclipart.org/detail/1086/masked-man-with-slingshot
Rep. McEachin’s At-Home Education Panel 4/28 @5:30PM
This is an extremely challenging time for parents and caregivers who are working hard to make sure their children are keeping up with their school work at home. In order to bring parents some at-home learning tips, tricks, and best practices, Congressman McEachin will be hosting an At-Home Education Panel.
Join Congressman McEachin and a wonderful group of education experts on Tuesday, April 28th at 5:30PM for an At-Home Education Panel.
Congressman McEachin will be joined by:
Secretary Atif Qarni, Virginia Secretary of Education
Mr. Jason Kamras, Superintendent of Richmond Public Schools
Ms. Kathleen Eastman, Director of Child & Family Services at YWCA
Mr. Rodney Robinson, 2019 National Teacher of the Year
Mr. Ryan Sykes, 2019 Milken Educator of the Year, Assistant Principal at Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Hopewell
& More
This event will be held on Zoom, and registration is required. Please register today at https://bit.ly/VA04Education.
A quick note about the Director of the CDC
The Washington post has a new article about the poor lab practices which slowed the CDC production of Covid-19 tests. Reading that article got me poking around and I found this gem of an opinion from Center for Science in the Public Interest in 2018:
“What one wants in a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a scientist of impeccable scientific integrity. What one would get in Robert Redfield is a sloppy scientist with a long history of scientific misconduct and an extreme religious agenda”
Peter Lurie, Director CSPI
Oh, and here’s a nice quote from Wikipedia:
He was nominated for the post by President Donald Trump, after the President’s first appointee resigned in scandal. His nomination was considered controversial, and was opposed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which cited Redfield’s lack of experience administering a public health agency, his history of scientific misconduct, and his religious advocacy in response to a public health crisis
Wikipedia
A Trump Sonnet
A racist and a rapist, a philanderer, a cad
Malingerer, small fingerer, bad singerer. so sad!
An air polut’n tool for Putin lov’n Russian spies
He dallies, holds his rallies, where his fans all cheer his lies
A bankrupter, corrupter than a 13 dollar bill,
A blunderer and plunderer who’s hand is in the till
He steals from children’s charities, he disrespects our vets,
He de-funds our defenses and he doesn’t pay his debts
His deals remain undealt with and his promises are broke
He pleases right wing bigots like that unkempt English bloke
He likes his penthouse golden and his showers just the same,
A deviant vulgarian who brings our nation shame
We must with all our energy remove this horse’s rump
along with all who helped elect the stupid, evil Trump
Support the New Downtown Library at the City Council Meeting
On a recent shift on the floor at the Morgan Memorial Library,
- I helped a woman find book about writing a business plan.I helped a man find and print up tax forms
- I helped a woman fill out, save, and print out a Visa application
- I helped a man get a copy of his old resume from a CD, and email it to himself so he can edit it.
In a typical moment at the library, there are teenagers participating in youth activities, parents and toddlers making use of children’s spaces, men and women quietly reading newspapers, and working folks making use of books and public computers to improve their value to the workforce.
At Morgan Memorial Library, all that goes on in an area about half the average size of a new home.
Also, in a typical shift at the library, I spend a lot of time telling teenagers not to gather in hidden corners behind the stacks or in the tiny area that we set aside for studying. They’re not causing any trouble usually, but there isn’t a lot of space so we have to make sure that space for finding books and for studying isn’t clogged up. Whatever you feel about teenagers these days, you might be surprised to know that a lot of them are still interested in reading books.
We have one meeting room at Morgan and when it’s free, it’s available to be reserved. But it’s also used for youth activities, classes, and staff meetings. Because the library is pretty small, sometimes the noise from activities in the meeting room and the children’s area spill out into the lobby. More space and few extra rooms would be very helpful.
A new Morgan Memorial Library with well designed spaces and room to hold various functions without interference would better serve the community. It would be more effective at keeping kids occupied with educational activities, at helping adults stay informed and engaged, and would be better at helping people find jobs.
In addition to all that, it would help beautify downtown Suffolk and attract business.
The benefits of a new library have been extensively studied. You can find more information at www.suffolkpubliclibrary.com/291/New-Downtown-Library.
Tonight, ( Wednesday, Feb 20 ) you can show support for a new Morgan Memorial Library at the City Council meeting. I’d love to be there but I’ll be working at Morgan, doing what I can to help people out.
