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

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

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

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

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

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

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