COVID Holiday

Thankfully everyone was vaccinated at our Thanksgiving gathering.  But maybe we will need to try this out during the next festivities. :-) 

Responsibility to Vote

And to help all citizens to vote. The Mrs. and I visited my daughter in Washington DC this weekend.  We toured and toured and toured some more.  If you have not gotten there, you should do so.  There are so many wonderful museums full of incredible history.

The only problem is that I think too much and the history of voting rights has me all riled up!!! :-O

The founding fathers gave a lot of thought to the topic originally, I mean we did not end up as some monarchy.  Then we fought a MASSIVE war to free slaves and worked to give all men the right to vote.  Then some incredible people worked for 50 years to get women the right to vote.  Then there were decades of on going efforts to ensure that States did not rob minorities and women of their hard fought for rights.  Given all of this history, I am trying to determine who sickens me more:

1. The lazy women / minority citizens who do not get out vote?
2. The self serving slime who want to make it harder for some Americans to vote?

On the upside, it did reinforce the importance of voting for me personally.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Law and Order?

This summarizes things pretty well... :-)

A Kid, A Gun and Murder

Kyle may have gotten off because of legal technicalities and he was a panzy who was scared of some people chasing him.  However I certainly think him and his friend (Dominick Black)  should be sharing a cell for a good long time.

Thankfully in this case the civil court will have a chance to punish him, his idiot friend and likely his parents.

I mean how does a stupid pumped up chicken shit bully end up at a protest with AR15?  And then he kills 2 people and injures a third innocent person because he is scared?  At least 2 of those guys were heroes who tried to stop what they thought to be an active shooter.  

Now I can understand killing to protect your home, your livelihood, your family or to get vengeance against an evil person who did you or your family severe harm.  But if a would be vigilantly who has watched too many Punisher movies starts killing citizens...  Everyone should be enraged and seeking to send him to jail.

Unfortunately it seems that many disturbed individuals in our country are okay with armed untrained yahoos walking our streets playing shootem up. :-( 

Unvaccinated Driving MN COVID

 If you can not go to the hospital, thank your unvaccinated friends.

Not only are they ~15X more likely to be hospitalized...

They can also be in there for multiple weeks tying up critical resources that could be used to treat other patients.

Biden and Progressives

Seem to going for more spending and taxes.  Oh well, hopefully more moderate heads will win in the end.

Kind of like when McCain chose to vote NO to ending ACA / Obamacare with no plan for what was to take it's place.  Why do parties try to over reach so often? :-( 

You know my crazy preference... Balance the budget by cutting entitlements and raising taxes...  Good thing I am not running for office.

Wyoming GOP Boots Liz

Cheney from GOP.  The party of Trump, Lies, Conspiracies, etc seems to be doubling down on its insanity by ousting one of its most respectable members.

It will be interesting if she runs as an independent, splits the vote and it leads to a DEM candidate. :-O

Obstructionism is ???

 GOP to punish Bi-Partisan Politicians?

I find it simply sickening that the apparent goal of the Republican party is to totally stymie any and all bi-partisan work?  Then of course they and their Far Right base will complain that nothing gets done in Washington DC.  Of course, the DEMs and their Far Left base play the same stupid game when the tables are turned.

They seem just fine driving this country into the ground as long as they stop their "opponent".  Given the 2 polarized tribes we have gathered into and who we elect.  I guess we Americans are getting the government dysfunction that we deserve.

Trump Failed at Infrastructure

 And he is upset that Biden succeeded.

He definitely was our most petty President.

Bi-partisan Infrastructure Summary

Bi-partisan Infrastructure Bill Details

Fear and Obsession

No wonder so many people are stressed out !!!  Both Tribe Liberal and Tribe Conservative seem to thrive on scare mongering and feeding fear / anger.  And their members seem to have an insatiable hunger for that negative worrying stream?  

Now let's remember a few things:

• They make money when you tune in.  Just like a weather person predicting potential storms to drive ratings, these folks sensationalize and scare you into tuning in.
• The USA has survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, 2 World Wars, etc.  It is unlikely to end anytime soon.
• Turn off your TV, Phone, computer, etc and spend more time enjoying life, volunteering to help others, living in the PRESENT, etc and you will feel much of that anxiety flow away.
• If you spend much of your time thinking about what may happen, you will likely die earlier and waste many of the days between now and then.

I hope you will have a wonderful media free day !!!!

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

750,000 and growing

Well Thursday I followed up my initial J&J vaccination with a Pfizer booster.  And I still do not understand the cowardice many rural American's are showing?

It seems to be people in those communities that are still dying at a higher rate so it should not bother me too much.  But it is such a pointless waste...  I guess it is true... You will reap what you sew...

Stupid Wokeness Cost DEMs BIG

says James Carville.  This was interesting to watch and I certainly agree with him.

The "woke progressives" are somewhat nuts and going to cost the DEMs their majority.

I mean if the GOP doesn't shoot themselves in the foot by running crazy Trump clones, the GOP is going to stomp them in 2022.

SALT Deduction Unacceptable

 To Bernie Sanders.  Here is a quick reminder...

"The repeal of the SALT provision - which caps federal deductions for state and local tax at $10,000 - has long been championed by some Democratic lawmakers, who believe that the Trump-era law unfairly impacted those in high tax blue states, like New Jersey or California.

The SALT deduction allows taxpayers to deduct their state and local tax totals from their federal obligation. Trump's tax plan especially hit people with properties in multiple states, which could deduct their state property-tax totals in, for instance, New York City, if they had a property there and a nearby state like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Connecticut."

The irony of this is that usually DEMs support this deduction, even though it allows people liberal states to avoid paying their fair share of federal taxes.

I personally really DISLIKE this deduction for that exact reason.  I mean if DEMs from Liberal states are going to pass a LOT of Federal spending, welfare, etc...  Then I want them to pay their FULL Federal tax bill, not get to shield their income because they live in a high tax state.  

If they want to vote Progressive, they should be happy to pay high Local, State and Federal taxes. Right?

Why Smart People Can Be SO STUPID

Very Easily It Seems.  It is actually more amazing that people often get things correct.  I mean just look at all the ways in which we can deny knowledge and protect our personal beliefs.  If you truly want to be wise / knowledgeable, it is worth asking how prone you are to these cognitive errors?  And what are you willing to do to correct for them?

List of Common Cognitive Biases

1. Confirmation Bias
2. Hindsight Bias
3. Anchoring Bias
4. Misinformation Effect
5. Actor-Observer Bias
6. False Consensus Effect
7. Halo Effect
8. Self-Serving Bias
9. Availability Heuristic
10. Optimism Bias
11. Attentional bias
12. Functional fixedness
13. The Dunning-Kruger effect

What Is Cognitive Bias?

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects the decisions and judgments that they make.

The human brain is powerful but subject to limitations. Cognitive biases are often a result of your brain's attempt to simplify information processing. Biases often work as rules of thumb that help you make sense of the world and reach decisions with relative speed.

Some of these biases are related to memory. The way you remember an event may be biased for a number of reasons and that, in turn, can lead to biased thinking and decision-making.

Other cognitive biases might be related to problems with attention. Since attention is a limited resource, people have to be selective about what they pay attention to in the world around them.

Because of this, subtle biases can creep in and influence the way you see and think about the world.