Who is vaccinated first?

 

Who is vaccinated first?

This is America, so it is obvious that the first Covid-19 vaccinations will be administered to the wealthiest 1% of the population.  After that the order will possibly be based on contribution to society or perhaps voting influence.  The Biden future White House is now dealing with the order of disbursement.  I would see contribution to the society be the prime determinant, so it probably won’t be, but if it were, it would look like this:

The medical personnel working to fight the pandemic along with the technicians that support their efforts would be number one.  Then those involved in the logistics of getting food and shelter to the population.  Next would be educators  and first responders.  Then, those who maintain and repair machinery and appliances.

Many of you are now saying, “You have forgotten those in assisted living.”  I haven’t forgotten them.  I have not yet gotten down to them in my suggested list.  A doctor might have already listed them because they would, from a health standpoint, benefit most from the vaccine.  This is a valid goal that is easily defended.  Those in assisted living are the most frail and most likely to die from the virus.  By being in assisted living, they have started down the slippery slide toward death.  If one of our goals is to save the US economy, they shift to low on the list.  I, myself, am one year into my eighth decade, retired, not physically or mentally as strong as I once was (society has retired me).  So my question is, do you, for the sake of the nation, want to give me the vaccine first, or give it to an eighteen year-old?  The eighteen year old is yet to produce their family or contribute their strength and education to the nation.  I would give the vaccination first to the young and productive, last to the retired.  I would tend to give it first to those who shower after work, then to those who shower before work.  I am not designing a death panel here, I am choosing a logical map to distribute a lifesaving vaccine, that is temporarily in short supply.  I am looking to benefit the nation, not individuals, because it will be a nationally designed and implemented program, funded by the nation.  Individual decisions are heavily weighted by self-preservation, not the good of the whole.  This includes political decisions. 

So, who goes last?   Those who harm the nation (the greedy).  In other words, first to those who benefit the nation, next those who have a neutral effect and last those who do the nation harm.  A simple and logical road map, but not one to likely be followed.  We will see.

Cheers, Old Buz     11/29/2020

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Law vs. Justice

 

   What is the correlation between law and justice?  I suspect that depends on the particular law being considered.  Law results from the wishes of the political party in power when the law is made.  An example of this would be The US Senate deciding not to hear from witnesses or read documents when acting as jurors in an impeachment trial.  This would be “Blind Justice” taken to an extreme.  Justice is probably a point of view of an individual or a like-minded group.  In its purest form it would be decided by listening to one’s own internal moral rudder.  Lower sources of justice would be: religion, political party, parents, local law, friends or TV news casters.  Here are some of the examples that cause me to ask the question.

   When I was in college, I served tables at a fraternity house.  One of the young men I served was a hero to his brothers partly because he would often get very drunk then get into his Corvette and knock over trash cans or other inanimate objects.  It was laughed about and encouraged by the group.  On one unfortunate weekend the objects were two young college women and they were killed.  His brothers no longer knew him or encouraged his frequent drunk driving.  The law suddenly got very serious and imprisoned him for much of the balance of his natural life.  That’s the law!  Is it justice?  I realize that each time the young man chose to drive drunk, he chose to do something very wrong.  However, he no more intended to kill the young women than he intended to knock over the trash cans.  Would you cage him for life because he killed the young women or because he chose to drunken drive?  Would you cage any of his fraternity brothers for egging him on?  Try to access your moral rudder for the answers to these questions.

  Imagine in a moment of temporary rage I picked up a handgun and fired it at another human being; let’s look at law and justice.  If I hit the other person right between the eyes and ended their life, I would be imprisoned for a long time.  If I missed and smashed up a lamp, it would be a different issue.  If it was a first offence, for the miss, I would probably get my hand slapped by the law and have to replace the lamp.  The difference here is not my intent or my actions.  It is my skill with the weapon that would determine my punishment.  Is that moral justice or is it “the law”?

   Assuming that I am a violent person (I’m not.  I’m a pacifist.) and I’m at a bar and get into an argument, then throw a punch landing on my advisory’s jaw, the man could perhaps become unconscious for a moment or two, or could strike his head on a table corner and die.  What now?  Same punch, same intent.  We are talking about the luck of the fall that determines the rest of my life.  Is that justice?  Our law is often based on random outcome not intent or action taken.

   A young single mom is driving at 10 over the speed limit in Seattle.  She gets a citation for $235.  Bill Gates gets the same ticket an hour later on the same street.  His ticket is also $235.  For the young woman the fine is two weeks of groceries for her and her child.  For Bill, it is hardly an inconvenience.  His secretary would probably write the check and mail it.  Is that equal punishment under the law?  I don’t suspect even Mr. Gates would say it was.  So wouldn’t you say that in a just society annual income would be a factor in determining the amount of a fine?  Bill would be getting multi-million dollar traffic fines (and I am OK with that).

  I had the opportunity to pose these questions to a retired federal judge.  I was interested in her perceived correlation between law and justice.  Her final, irritated, answer to these questions was, “Well, it’s the law!!”

   It would be very difficult in some cases to administer justice based on intent, not outcome, but it would be nice to try.

Cheers, Old Buz  10/11/20

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A Prayer for Trump

      

   When I first heard that President Trump had coved 19, I thought, “Perhaps there is a God.”  Now that Donald Trump has contacted the Corona Virus, I pray for him.  I go into a closet and pray for a quick and painful death in order to start his eternal journey into Hell.  I go into a closet as per the instructions of The Half-Breed* in The Holy Bible, King James, Matthew, Chapter 6: 5,6 &7 Sermon on the Mount.  If you wish to pray for his speedy recovery, please stand with others in your chosen house of worship.

   I have never before wished such an end to anyone, but this is a very special man.  As President, he advises America that Corona is a hoax (as is climate change) and not to wear a mask or socially distance.  If you want to wash your hands, go ahead, he will feel better about shaking it.  His leadership has made him personally responsible for at least half of the Corona Virus deaths in the US.  If we were to elect him for another four years he will probably be responsible for more American deaths than Hitler murdered Jews in Germany.  He is the engineer of The Trump Train, with a passenger load of Thundering Dummies and “Q”anon.

   It has never ceased to amaze me how folks like the guests and hosts of MSNBC will insult The Golden Ass from morning till night, but if he falls ill, pray for his speedy recovery.  Is hypocrisy the way of the politically correct world?  When President Bone Spur calls Senator John McCain a coward, is that OK?  Hell, I didn’t even like it when AWOL Bush called John Kerry a coward (actually it was “Turd Blossom” that sponsored that rumor, but he was W’s mouthpiece).  If you are going to pray for the future of Donald Trump, do it honestly, dammit!

   *The Half-Breed: a mythological character fathered by The Lord of Israel (creator of the universe) and mothered by a married Jewish virgin.

Cheers, Old Buz

10/05/2020

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Presidential Nightmare - RBG Replacement

 

Before her death, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the light of the Supreme Court, and had led the Court in seeing each citizen of our country as entitled to equal justice and representation, under law.  This concept was once the foundation of our democracy.  Last night, after hearing that, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had died, I had a terrible nightmare, caused by her death. 

In the nightmare President Trump had thought through a Supreme Court appointment, and then said, “My fondest desire is to appoint the next Supreme Court justice … during my second term in office.”  In my nightmare, this one sentence led to his reelection in 2020.  What was I thinking?

1.   1.  In her death, Ginsburg inflated the Democrat’s balloon.  Democrats would like RBG replaced by a liberal justice.  A late first term appointment of a Supreme Court Justice by Trump will stir up a hornet’s nest of Democrats to vote and demoralize fair minded Republicans perhaps not to.

2.    2. With Trump’s above statement, he would let some of the air out of that balloon.

3.    3. The Never Trump Republicans and conservative independents would be given an excuse to reevaluate Trump in 2020, giving him a slight chance for a majority win.

4.    4. Lindsay Graham and other hypocritical Republican senators would not be forced to eat their words of 2016, right before the 2020 election and might not lose their coming elections and the Republican senate majority.

5.    5. Conservative voters would be given a piece of ground, however small, to stand on.

The nightmare switched to a dream after Trump was elected.  On his first day of his second term in office, he nominated Merrick  Garland to the vacancy in the Supreme Court.  His next act was to fire Bill Barr and appoint Sally Yates to the office of Attorney General.  Dr. Fauci was placed in charge (without interference) of fighting the Corona Pandemic in America.  Trump put on a mask.  The dream, of course, is impossible and the nightmare described would require our president to be a thinking human being.  No such luck in either case.  Not to worry.

The nightmare scenario would give Trump a much better chance at a second term.  This is his primary goal and he really doesn’t like to lose.  It is McConnell who truly wants the Supreme Court under control of The Republican Party.  It would be OK with Trump too, but thus far his appointments to the Court haven’t marched lock step to his wishes.  Even conservative judges can have a moral rudder.  It is rare, but it is there.

Cheers, Old Buz the Dreamer              9/19/2020

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

"Vote Smart"

I suspect that when each of us votes, we assume that we are voting smart, but our vote is only as smart as the information we base it on is true. One of the basic requirements of political information is that it is unbiased. This rules out primary sources such as Fox News or MSNBC. Fun to watch, but each of these sources gives you a single view point and it is certainly biased. I have found a reliable, unbiased source of information and have been doing my research on political candidates there for many years. I also rely on it for data used in my blog. The source is votesmart.org. The site is free, but relies on its support through voluntary user donations. Information is organized into six categories.

Bio: This section is a biography of the candidate you have chosen to search. It is a very complete history of: education, family, work history, positions held, birth place, religion, political experience, favorite entertainment, favorite quote.

Votes: This is the candidate's voting history in reverse chronological order. This of course is valuable information on how well they will represent your positions. It is a laborious review, so regulate your time wisely on this section.

Positions: This section is an effort toward consolidating the positions of the candidate by offering them a series of questions to respond to. It has been my experience, in using the site, that most of the major candidates do not care to respond to this effort. I'm not sure that a candidate's positions are necessarily the major determinant of how they will vote. Their vote is heavily effected by their political party (the “rubber stamp” directive of both parties) and by their funding sources (follow the dollar). I see their positions as the weakest of the three determinants of their vote.

Ratings: Ratings are very indicative of who the candidate is. It is the opinions of various special interest groups of the candidate. They score them on a percentage scale, the higher the score, the better the group rates the candidate the better they like their voting record and position statements. This also relates to candidate funding.

Speeches: This area also contains letters and articles by the candidate. It gives you a much more nuanced position than a voting history on any given issue. However, as you have seen in watching the news, a representative may vote neither their opinion or their wisdom.

Funding: Funding should be first, but you choose the order of your search. Most candidates elected have the larger bank roll. So, they pay a lot of attention to the wishes of their major donors. The donors expect a return on their investment. This section features: The Campaign's Financial Summary, their Top Contributors, Top Industries and Top Sectors. If you think the money pulls the strings, pay attention to this area.

I can not emphasize enough how reliable and unbiased this information source is. To me, as an independent, it is essential. It is fast and easy to use, not at all complicated. The “I SPY”, first section of the site that I have just described is a pleasure to use. The creator of the organization and president is Richard Kimball, a man who stepped away from politics to bring truth to it. Such a rare and valuable thing. votesmart.org Try it, you will be glad you did. The smartest vote possible is based on truth and wisdom.

Cheers, Old Buz 8/22/2020

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com 

The Future of The Nation

 

“Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty. The flames of the new economic evolution run around us, and we turn to find that competition has killed competition, that corporations are grown greater than the State … and that the naked issue of our time is with property becoming master, instead of servant.” - Henry Demarest Lloyd, in his 1894 book, Wealth Against Commonwealth. I doubt that Henry knew, over a century ago, how prophetic his words would be in our time in America. But, he was able to read “the writing on the wall.”

I came across this quote in reading Robert B. Reich's book, The System, Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. I am nearly finished reading the book and it clearly illustrates how we got here, but not so clearly how we solve the problem. I'm not sure that it is a problem. It could just be the natural maturation of a Capitalist Democracy. The free market system results in winners and losers. Wealth flows to less and less winners, but the amount of wealth grows larger and larger. A simple example is Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon. He has basicly won the retail sales war, is probably the wealthiest man in America and yet a third of his employees in Arizona are said to be on food stamps. He reportedly payed 1.2% in corporate income taxes last year on over $13B in earnings. My experience with this phenomenon is that forty years ago, when I founded the Arizona Motorcycle Dealers Association, we had 28 member/dealers in the state. Today, there are two and probably soon ... one.

So, how would you stop or at least slow this lack of healthy competition and widening of the wealth gap? When I visited Japan in 1965 as a district manager for Suzuki Motor Corporation, I noticed that there were no large motorcycle stores or chain operations, just small family owned businesses. How could this be in the heart of the motorcycle industry? Well, Japan had a law that there was no such thing as a quantity discount. So the small store owner would pay the same price for his motorcycles and parts as a giant retailer would (if there were such a thing). Could we have a similar law in America? Hell no. Our legislation is not designed to benefit the population. It is written by lobbyists and they represent giant wealth, not you.

It is probably too late to turn this dynamic around. The horrendous cost of winning an election and the Supreme Court's decision of Citizens United has cemented the power of large corporate dollars and lobbyists. Both of our political parties and therefore our government is ruled by corporate shareholders and they are guided by CEOs. The CEOs are guided by greed, power and influence.

Cheers, Old Buz 8/7/2020

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Corona Foreclosure, Eviction, Repossession

This blog is addressed to those of you with wealth and property (lenders). The action described will protect your assets and future income stream, while treating your debtors well. Corona foreclosure, eviction and repossession are suicidal acts for mortgage holders, landlords and lenders. Like suicide, they are not a good solution to the problem. The best description of a suicide is that “it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” By taking any one of these actions the lender is risking getting rid of a good paying debtor, experiencing vacancy, the lowering of property value and property damage. Is there a less painful solution to the property owner, during this pandemic? Hell yes. Read on.

At this point in time there are 25-30 million wage earners on unemployment due to Covid19. These are a large chunk of the folks that you receive rent or mortgage payments from and soon they will be unable to make those payments. Automobile loans fit into the same scenario. This is through no fault of the borrower. If you take any of the above actions you will start a down spiral in the economy and make that number of families homeless and without transportation. There is a better way for you and for the temporarily unemployed to solve this problem.

The answer is an intelligently administered freeze of payments. No back payments due. No late fees. No accumulation of interest. This would be for the period of unemployment caused by the virus. If you are looking at a 30 year mortgage and the period of unemployment is one year, the loan would be paid off in 31 years. No ruining of credit. No homeless population increase. The lender (you) would need to have their mortgage payments paused as well.

The retired population, living on government income or a private retirement plan, or those not retired, but with a large investment income should not be involved in this plan, as at this point in time their income has not been effected. No one who cannot justify a need for this plan should benefit from it.

In 2008 the economy crashed due to unwise action by the banks and investment companies. The public bailed them out. It is time for you one per-centers to return the favor. Our government can not long afford to make mortgage, rent payments or car payments for the population. In good times government operates at a deficit. So where do the billions required come from? We borrow or print money. Neither will work well in this covid19 crisis. Borrowing with a crippled economy will be at a high interest rate. Printing money without production backing will result in mega-inflation. The answer is in a well executed, temporary pause of payments to property. The program must be executed by the Federal Government. Get your lobbyists working on it. Save your property values.

Cheers, Old Buz

8/5/2020

Do Black Lives Matter?

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Do black lives matter?  Today, they do.  Tomorrow, hopefully, that will be a nonsensical question.   “Black Lives Matter”, is an attempt to convince the ignorant “white” that a person with brown skin is a human being and entitled to the same respect by their nation and their fellow citizens.  But in the world I hope for tomorrow, “somewhere over the rainbow” it is a racist statement.  To me, there is no such thing as a “black life.”  Black is an inaccurate description of skin pigmentation, just like red is an inaccurate description of hair color.  Red hair and black skin are not meaningful indicators of who an individual actually is. 

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Was I a “white” four year old?  Was I a white 3^rd grader?  A white junior high school student?  A white high school student?  White in college?  Was I white in the work world?  In the world, as it should be, the answer is a simple no!  I have always been an individual human being, seeing the world from inside, but how did the world see me?  As I matured the world offered me more and more options and offered the person of color less and less.  Through a growing wisdom of society we will minimize this reality, down to non-existent.  “Black Lives” will become an irrational pairing of words.  No one will any longer experience a “black life.”

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But, what of today?  Are we moving toward a just world?  What does the world of Donald Trump and his loyal followers represent?  Can a man who “listens to his gut, not the experts”,  “grabs any pussy he wants to” and “deals with shit hole nations in Africa”, lead us to a just, non-racist world?  I suspect not.  His “white lives matter” and “blue lives matter” responses indicate that The Golden Ass has no understanding of the dialog being presented.

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So, do black lives matter?  Today they do.  Tomorrow, hopefully, the answer will be, “What do you mean by a black life?”

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Cheers, Old Buz 7/22/2020

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Lemming or Patriot?

I think I am perhaps posing a false choice.  To me, the words seem all too often to act like synonyms.  To get our biased truth from right or left wing media is to join the lemming reality.  A patriot is the result of an accident of one’s location of birth on the globe and neither position is based in wisdom.

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Dan Rather recently wrote a book on his vision of American Patriotism.  He has a pretty unbiased view of the events he has seen and reported on in his career, as well as an excellent grasp of the nation’s history.  He doesn’t delude himself into thinking it is a pretty story, but keeps bringing his overall judgements back to the fact that America is his place of birth.  A person born in Australia, or China, or Canada, or any other nation will pretty much do the same.  Patriots all.  “America First” is a very patriotic sentiment, as is “My country, right or wrong, my country.”  Neither has much to do with wisdom or justice.

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On dollars and cents, we live in a nation guided by dollars, but very little sense.  The dollars that guide our democracy care little for the general welfare, but care greatly for the wellbeing of the wealthy few.  A simple and obvious example of this is our healthcare system.  It is primarily designed to benefit healthcare insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, not patients.  The nations that lead in healthcare, in our world, protect the health of all of their citizens.  They see excellent healthcare as a right of citizenship.  And ….  Why not?  The recent Corona Pandemic is taking a disastrous path in our country partly because of the basic design of our healthcare system.   It is inordinately punishing the poor.  We should be better than that.

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Is President Bonespur a patriot?  Does waving a Bible over his head make him a Christian?  Are the brave young men and women who fly half way around the world to murder someone that they have never met … patriots?  As a pacifist, I would say the act is better described as one of a psychopath.  To me, the citizens marching across our country to protest racial injustice and try to make our nation a better place are our true patriots.  These caring people would do that born in any nation.  “Our country can be right or wrong.  Let’s make it right.”

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A choke hold or any act to stop breath should be prosecuted as an assault with a deadly weapon, be it done by a policeman or a civilian.  An unarmed peace officer, as works so well in England, would be a welcome change in America.  The public would see the officer as being there to help, not to exert deadly force.  The new officer would be handed a badge, but no gun.  Many a “bad apple” would consider other employment.  A readily available swat team with one sniper armed with a bolt action rifle and scope is adequate for back up.  Scores of officers armed with automatic assault weapons, with large capacity magazines, are counterproductive, resulting in excessive rounds being fired as well as possible collateral damage.

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There are only two kinds of people who carry a gun, cops and cowards, but since the uniformed officers in England don’t pack, perhaps there is only one.  I don’t fear walking through my life without one.  I have never needed a gun.  Most people don’t.   Most who employ one, wish in a calmer moment that they hadn’t.

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The lemmings move forward without much thought as do many patriots.  I don’t see much difference.  Is there a better way?

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Cheers, Old Buz                                                           6/4/2020   iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Corona V, Let The Good Times Roll

This may sound irresponsible, but I am suggesting that we treat the Corona Virus just like any other virus or cold and “Let the good times roll.” The methods suggested here should lessen the number of fatalities in the long run. I will attempt to support this action with data and sound logic. Open the schools and let business prosper.
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I am basing this proposed action on following data and unknowns:

1. The US population is about 300M folks.
   
2. About a third of them are breadwinners, 100M.
   
3. Assume a minimum living wage of $3K/ month.
   
4. Assume that 2/3 of the work force will be laid off for the duration of the pandemic. (2/3 x 100M x $3K/month = $2B/month unemployment benefit.
   
5. Add to this all of the government payments to Corporate and Small Business and Scams for the duration of the Corona shutdown. This is an unknown time period and an unknown cost.
   
6. The first hit that the Feds are authorizing is $850B. How long will this last? Will this non-productive expenditure destroy our debt laden economy?
   
7. If the economy is destroyed, how many deaths will this result in compared to an unfettered Corona V? Will the Corona ultimately have the approximately same kill count with or without our national quarantine?
   

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Business as usual:

1. Let the good times roll. Treat the Corona V like any other cold or flu, but put maximum effort toward the development of a cure and vaccination for the virus.
   
2. The history so far is that 80% of the population exposed will have slight symptoms. Assuming the entire population is exposed, that is 240M people.
   
3. 15 to 20% of the population (52.5M) will require medical care. Most of these patients will be covered by health insurance.
   
4. 2 to 3.5% of the population will die. That is six to ten and a half million people. These casualties will primarily be elderly or infirm. Naturally a portion of this group would have passed away without the virus. Ask yourself how these eight million deaths would compare to those resulting from the possible collapse of our economy and its social welfare net, which may in the worst of circumstances precipitate a nuclear war. I would contend that business as usual along with an emergency effort to develop the vaccine and the cure would be a better solution than quarantine and economic shut down. I am a senior with leukemia but I would rather take the small risk of death than see a tomorrow where my children live in a country that can no longer afford Medicare, Social Security or have a healthy economy.
   

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Hi ho, Old Buz, “Always look on the bright side of life.”
Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com
3/19/2020