There’s this story about the girl whose boyfriend won’t stop building a tunnel which has been popping up on the internet lately. Guys like to build things. If this guy wanted to build anything above ground, it would probably take approval from a bunch of government agencies. Building a tunnel is a way for him to expend his creative energy without anyone bothering him. Good for him for finding a creative way to do it.
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bookmark_borderDetente
There was a possibility of minor detente between the left and the right yesterday when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted the following to Twitter.
To which Ted Cruz replied.
So there was the possibility of people with two diametrically opposed political world views coming together to combat an unjust situation. Instead of building a coalition AOC replied with the following.
AOC forgets that Ted Cruz was also in the Capitol during the protests and riots of January 6. He was at risk of being injured or killed just as much as she was, especially given that as more information comes out we find that there were people of many political leanings entering the Capitol.
His actions were limited questioning the Electoral votes of certain states which is no more than what Democrats have done in many prior elections.
So, which party wants civilized discourse?
bookmark_borderDemocrats Attempted Coup
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attempting a Coup against the lawful authority of the President of the United States.
There are lawful methods for removing a Presidents authority over the military. Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for sedition for trying to subvert those lawful processes.
Over the past four years there have been repeated attempts to portray President Trump as unhinged and liable to arbitrarily start wars and launch nukes. A few moments of thoughtful consideration will demonstrate this idea is ludicrous.
Firstly, he hasn’t started any wars. In fact he has been removing troops from other countries.
Secondly, he’s not going to launch nukes. Who would he nuke? Why would he nuke them? What would the ramifications be? He has hotel properties all over which make soft targets for retaliation. Those properties have no special protections while he is President, let alone when he’s out of office. He has children and grandchildren who he obviously cares about. Why would he risk their inheritance? In other words he has much to lose personally, but nothing to gain.
President Trump may be uncouth but he’s not self destructive. The Trump is unhinged narrative demonstrates more about the unhinged state of the Democrats and their media allies than it says anything about Donald Trump.
bookmark_borderViolent Protests
The Democrats are finally ready to condemn violent protests because a few people broke into the US Capitol building.
Where were the Democrat denunciations when protestors tried to storm the White House last summer? Where were the Democrat denunciations when protestors occupied the Wisconsin capitol in 2011? Where were the Democrat denunciations of the violent protest throughout 2020? Where were the Democrat denunciations when Representative Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball game?
Republicans have consistently denounced violence. Democrats and their media allies have consistently promoted violent protests.
bookmark_borderEducation During Covid
Just a few years ago Washington democrats argued that education was our paramount duty, Washington teachers took the state to court, the state supreme court agreed and said the state wasn’t following the Washington constitution by not adequately providing for education.
Education: our paramount duty – and the key to our future – Washington State House Democrats
Educating Washington’s children is not just our state’s paramount duty, it’s the most important thing we can do for our state’s economy. Equipping students with the skills they’ll need to qualify for the jobs of tomorrow is key to their success and our thriving future.
Now it’s not so important…. destroying children’s lives by locking them up at home and trying to terrify them is more important…
Suicide rates are up, domestic violence rates are up, runaway rates are up, depression is up … incalculable damage to our children’s future…..
But that’s not important to the media or the state government… they’d rather sacrifice the children in the service of a depraved political agenda
Meanwhile “essential” stores like pot shops are open for business ….
bookmark_borderVoting
There are many voting systems used in throughout the world for various reasons.
Various mathmatical criteria have been devised for fair elections.
For years I’ve heard people arguing that we should have internet voting. There as been much research in the area, but one thing I’ve never seen mentioned in any of these is faith in the electoral process.
One criteria that needs to be met is that the majority of people need to have faith that the electoral system represents the will of the people. Can it be hacked? Can a political party interfere with the counting?
I would say one criteria for any voting system is that an average person (and even somewhat below average) can understand how the entire process works and that if that person wanted to they could monitor the election process to ensure its integrity.
A voter makes a mark on a piece of paper, the paper is put in a box, a group of people count the votes in the box, another group of people monitors the counting. Vote totals are reported up the chain to the state level. The state shows the counts for each precinct. The typical voter can understand how this works and could even monitor the process. Understandably not everyone can monitor every part of the process, but a random selection of the populace could be chosen and would be able to understand and follow the process to ensure its integrity.
Contrast this with internet voting. Cryptography is somehow involved. Secure computers are used. Source code is audited. Computers are locked down. However, only those with advanced math degrees really understand cryptography. Only security experts understand how the bits flow over the internet. The whole process relies on experts. The average people will always need to trust that an ‘expert’ somewhere is doing their job correctly, never mind concerns about bribery, foreign interference or other malfeasance.
Vote by mail has other issues which I may address in a future blog post.
bookmark_borderDeepwater Horizon vs. Seattle Sewage Plant
Ten years ago Deepwater Horizon spilled an estimated 210 million gallons of crude oil was dumped into the Gulf of Mexico.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill – Wikipedia
The oil seen from space by NASA’s Terra satellite on 24 May 2010
In 2017 the Seattle Sewage treatment plant near Discovery Park dumped between 150 million and 200 million gallons of raw sewage and stormwater into the Puget Sound.
Again in 2019 4.5 million gallons of raw sewage was dumped into Puget Sound.
4.5 million gallons of sewage spill into the Puget Sound
SEATTLE — Power outages at King County’s two largest sewage plants this week caused millions of gallons of sewage to spill into the Puget Sound, according to the Washington Department of Ecology. Ecology said they are investigating a 3 million-gallon sewage spill Friday morning at the West Point W…
There have been other smaller raw sewage spills in the Puget Sound area as well.
The Gulf of Mexico has an area 617,000 square miles and an average depth of 5000 feet. The Puget Sound has an area of about 1000 square miles and an average depth of 450 feet.
So the volume of the Gulf of Mexico is 1000 times that of the Puget Sound. Oil is probably a worse contaminant than raw sewage, but it was spread out over a much greater volume.
Why didn’t environmental groups protest the sewage spills? Why didn’t the media provide round the clock coverage? Why aren’t there multi billion dollar cleanup funds for the raw sewage?
Maybe to protect the environment, rather than banning plastic straws and grocery bags, the City of Seattle ought to require all bottled water sold in the city be collected from the outflow of the Seattle Wastewater Treatment Plant.
bookmark_borderThe Virus
What to believe? According to some we’re all going to die. Others say it’s just a flu. There’s plenty of fodder to support any position imaginable.
What is the truth?
Ultimately whatever the government may try and order, people will do what they think is best if they can get away with it.
bookmark_borderTaco Tuesday
If it weren’t for Taco Tuesday I wouldn’t know what day it is.
The last day I was physically at work was March 5th.
Other than we are able to work from home this isn’t unlike some winters in Alaska when we were stuck at home for days or weeks due to icy roads.
There was one year the volcano blew up and we got three days off of school.
bookmark_borderChanging the World
Every year several families in the area get together for a weekend campout at one of the nearby campgrounds. We usually take up almost an entire loop and the kids have a great time visiting with friends until all hours.
I like to ask high schoolers what plans they have for when they get out of high school. One particular girl said she wanted to ‘Change the World’. As she said this a garbage truck was going through the campground emptying the dumpsters. I pointed out to this girl that the garbage man is changing the world. Naturally she wasn’t too impressed with this response, but it reminded me that we all change the world.
In the movie Jurassic Park, Malcolm educates Ellie on the Butterfly effect wherein a “A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine.”
A similar idea applies to changing the world. We all change the world by every action we take. Without the garbage man the dumpsters would overflow and the campground would be a stinking mess. No one would want to visit. We may get angry and think to ourselves, if this other person doesn’t care, why should we? Eventually everything is a mess.
Changing the world can come in many forms, there are those who are well known and those who quietly go about there job doing the best they can day in and day out. There are far more of the latter type of person than the former. We should appreciate them more. We should also remind ourselves that when we do a good job, no matter the task, we are changing the world to be a better place.