Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Who to Believe?

 Regarding potential Hunter Biden Emails.

FOX News Coverage

CBS Coverage

Politico Coverage

SNOPES Coverage

The Street Coverage

Business Insider Coverage

I of course am suspect of any thing the Rudy Giuliani releases 3 weeks before the election after holding it for almost a year.  And why didn't FOX jump on the story?

Finally, do I care?  I am not sure given how the Trump's are using their relations to Trump to benefit financially.  It is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.  Thoughts?

Friday, October 16, 2020

Can Trump Supporters Accept a Loss?

David Brooks mentioned on the PBS News hour tonight that he has been talking to Trump supporters who he thinks are totally unprepared for the high likelihood that Trump will lose the Presidency.  

Apparently the Trump Supporters are under that delusion that there are many Trump Supporters who have been lying to the pollsters, and that he really is not as unpopular as everyone reports.

It is strange how confident they are in this bad bet.  Of course they trust what Trump says, so I guess they are somewhat delusional.

Now what will they do if Trump loses and pops their delusion?

Biden and Trump Fact Checking

I was jumping back and forth between channels until I got bored and went to Netflix.  My summary is that Biden was trying to answer questions and Trump was trying to attack others and defend himself.

That could have been the questions each received...  But when the President claims to not know about "Q Anon", one has to either think he is an idiot or a liar...  Not sure which is worse.

Fact Check 1

Fact Check 2

Fact Check 3

Fact Check 4

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

The Cost of Trump to GOP?

 Senate Republicans scramble to put Trump at arm's length

Many GOP politicians and voters have allowed Trump to lie blatantly, self deal /squander, verbally attack and in general act like an authoritarian dictator in some third world country.  Thankfully we live in a democracy where hopefully the majority will not tolerate this kind of behavior by an elected civil servant.

I still do not understand why so many people love and support Trump, and probably never will.  However I am pretty sure the GOP is going to pay big time for their foolish cult following, and it seems that the GOP politicians are beginning to understand this.

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Voting: Security or Suppression?

Jerry has been trying to convince us that the system is deeply flawed and that voter fraud is rampant.  Of course he has no evidence, and claims that the MN SOS sending absentee ballot applications out to all registered voters is proof of this terrible state of affairs.  I mean some of voters may have moved, may have died, etc.

Then a bunch of DEM operatives may collect them or dumpster dive to get them so that they can commit felony fraud and obtain extra ballots.  Of course the argument seemed kind of stupid after I received the same document from the MN GOP party.  And of course it really gets terribly foolish when you remember that people can print out as many of them as they want at the web site. 

Now we have GOP law suits all over the country that are aimed at making it harder for legal citizens to vote

I personally think it is one of the most terrible things about the Republican Party.  Samuel L Jackson did a wonderful PSA discussing the evil history of voter suppression.

Now I did ask what the GOP was doing to promote legal voting, make it safer, increase voter turn out, etc.  Unfortunately that apparently is not important to them. :-(   

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Trump Scared of Virtual Debate

 And says he will not attend.  I suppose I understand his fear...  He may actually have to say something of value and he would not be allowed to continually interrupt Biden and the Moderator. 

Well hopefully they give the whole time period to Biden then... :-)

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Pence Almost as Rude as Trump

 And definitely avoided answering questions. It was sad again to see the GOP debater refusing to follow the debate rules that they had agreed to.  Pence's primary violation was that he would keep talking over his time limit and over the Moderators repeated request to stop. :-(

On top of this he absolutely refused to answer many of the questions that were asked.  Mostly he just took his time to preach to the Conservatives.

Overall, Harris seemed professional and answered most questions somewhat directly.  Though like all politicians she also avoided and wandered some.

Fact Check 1

Fact Check 2

Fact Check 3

Fact Check 4

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Why Voters Like Trump

 This piece tries to explain it.

As discussed before, I am totally befuddled over why people are willing to over look Trump's poor behavior and lies.  Here is another explanation.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Biden has Double Digit Lead?

 According to VOX.  Where as other polls indicate a ~7 point lead.

The 7 point number makes more sense to me since ~52% of citizens disapprove of Trump and ~45% approve of Trump.  Now if the 52% will only get out and vote...

I had an interesting exchange with a FB Friend who said he loves and respects Trump. So I asked him if he thought Trump's lying was acceptable from a politician and providing a good role model for the children in our society.  Needless to say he has not answered. :-(

Now this individual seems very ProLife, so I can understand appreciating Trump loading the courts with Conservative Christian Judges and Justices.  However is this really enough to respect a man who cheated on his third wife, lies to American citizens daily, etc?  Apparently ~45% of Americans think so?

Personally I can not understand it. Here are some of his recent mistruths.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Which Expert?

 So one of my FB Friends sees himself as an expert in science and education, which makes sense since he is a high school science teacher.  With this in mind he is often condescending and insulting regarding my differing thoughts regarding education improvement, helping poor kids learn and climate change.

Which of course makes sense since I certainly am not a Teacher or a Scientist. Here is a sampling his latest lecturing...

"Your callous “know it all” opinion is typical of the lazy Republicans I have dealt with who value their ideology over anything else even at the expense of the environment. You have no idea what I believe about supporting public schools, nor do you know what issues I am talking about. You have never valued by expertise in that field . And I’m not going to get into it with you because the issues do not match with your perceptions and you are unwilling to listen to anyone that may know more than you about it." 
"I always seek out, listen to and discuss a topic from people in a particular field who have spent their lives working in that field. I value their input before making assumptions about a particular topic in that field."

Now I am not angry or offended, I do throw a lot of ideas out there but hopefully with adequate sources, data, etc to pretty much back them up. However I understand how folks can think that I am not listening / learning.

Well there is the lead up to this post which is labelled Which Expert? for a reason...  Here are a couple of our favorite topics:

  1. How to ensure all mentally capable children are academically capable when they graduate from High School? 
  2. What should be done regarding man made climate change?
  3. Other...

Just to explain my expertise for folks who are not familiar, I am a Professional Engineer with an MBA and significant experience as a 6 Sigma Black Belt.  I have spent ~30 years leading cross functional teams to solve problems, fix things / processes, develop new products or execute projects of different types.  Some a week long and some several years.

In summary I have some general experience in many things, however my true strength is in listening to and working through others who are much more capable than I am in the areas of study / experience.  I probe, prod, promote collaboration, organize, challenge group think, track, analyze, brain storm, track, nag, time keep, etc.

SO given this problem statement: "How to ensure all mentally capable children are academically capable when they graduate from High School?"  Which experts should be involved in solving the challenge?  I mean imparting knowledge in the classroom (ie teaching) is a part of the issue certainly, so I am happy to listen to teachers about how discipline, teaching, technologies, etc can be improved.  They are the experts.

However I would argue that the performance management, staffing, compensation, termination policies and other issues are key to ensure that the Teachers are performing at a high standard. Which leaves me wondering who are the experts in performance management maintenance and improvement?  I certainly do not think it is the employees (ie Teachers), though they should be communicated with regularly.

And we have not even gotten into where children spend most of their youth and how that impacts their academic performance.

And when given this problem statement: "What should be done regarding man made climate change?" I have no doubt that a Science Teacher may be up to speed with the latest scientific releases.  However does that make them more capable of understanding and balancing the massive financial trade offs that we are looking at?  Where does the role of "science" end and the role of public and private policy begin? 

Well that is the question on my mind...  Personally I think many of us may be experts in small areas, and yet some like to think that makes them an expert in the whole topic.  So when I disagree with you and request sources / proof...  That is why... :-) 

And I promise to continue explaining the rationale for my beliefs and providing sources, so you can see how I got to my belief.  Then please feel to question the rationale or point me to better sources.  Thanks John