Started Day In Bainbridge, Ending In Anchorage

The day began on Bainbridge Island walking my granddaughter to school.  She had on a backpack and a yam (rising tone, like you're asking a question).  That's the Thai name for the shoulder bags you see on the left.  Those are from a blog post in 2008.  I told my granddaughter I'd bought the yam for her mother long ago.  

She said I sounded like I was asking a question and I responded that in Thai each word, actually each syllable has its own tone and yan is rising town.  In English the tone goes with the sentence, so that's why you think it sounds like a question.  When I was studying Thai, at the very beginning, we were just being taught how hear the different tones and then repeat them.  The teacher would say "mea" very flat tone and we would say it adding an English question to the word and changing the tone to a rising tone, which meant dog instead of to come.  

She was quiet for a while and then she said, "Grampa, if Thai words all have tones, how to they make songs?"    She's eight, going on nine.  Good question.  I wonder how much her piano lessons helped trigger that question.  

Then we got a ride to the ferry.  Actually, it was balmy, if cloudy, about 60˚ F.  We'd usually walk, but our daughter offered us a ride.  

I did walk around the deck, but it was very windy.  Here's a picture just as the ferry was leaving Bainbridge.  Downtown Seattle is in the middle, just to the right of the trees.  I thought about it.  Why do we think of the tall cluster of skyscrapers as an image of Seattle.  It's just a tiny fraction of the city.  

COVID and warnings about jammed TSA lines at SEATAC put us into a taxi instead of the train to the airport.  It's really fast that way - about 20 minutes instead of over an hour.  Because of the long lines, they've set up a system where you can make a reservation for a spot in the line.  Ours was for 11:15 (you get 15 minutes period).  Turned out there was no line whatsoever.  And we were in the terminal waiting for our flight.  

I thought this was an interesting sign.  Not sure where they store all the water.  Do they collect it from the roofs of the terminal buildings?  

Our flight was uneventful - the best kind - and were in Anchorage a little early.  We had a great Somali cab driver.  Hope to see him again.  You know, maybe people are afraid of immigrants because they know they are smarter and willing to worker harder than they are.  

And here's the back yard.  

I'll shovel tomorrow.  Nice to be back and to be greeted by much warmer temperatures that we were hearing about.  Our outdoor thermometer says 20˚F.    Didn't feel cold at all.  But we didn't spend that much time outside.  But not the shock that it sometimes can be when it's below 0.

There Are Still Flowers Here South Of Canada

After what seems like a week of grey and rain, the sun came out this afternoon and it felt warm.  I'm guessing low 60s.  

Some pictures while picking up my granddaughter from school this afternoon.  I got the sun behind a branch of this tree before taking the picture.

Flowers are still blooming on Bainbridge Island.  Wednesday we head back home for the Anchorage International Film Festival which starts Friday.  I'm afraid I'm not giving the festival the attention it deserves this year, but redistricting posts are taking up all my blogging energy right now. I'm working on a third one that looks at how the court might consider gerrymandering.  It should be ready in a day or two.  Meanwhile I'm enjoying the flowers and the bushes and trees that still have green leaves.

Point White Pier

 I went along with my daughter as she ran errands around the island.  The last one was near Point White Pier.  The sun was below the hills and the light was magical.  The clouds were moving and the water was moving and there was a kaleidoscope effect on the water.  

I saved this picture with higher resolution so you could enlarge it to better see the king fisher sitting on the adjacent dock.  

Here's looking down at the rocks through the water below the pier.  

Working On A Truncation Post, But In The Meantime A Visual Break

 When I sat in at the Redistricting Board meeting when they were doing truncation and then assigning Senate seats to the required staggered terms, I kept scratching my head and wondering, what is happening?  Lots of things didn't make sense.  So I've been listening to the video of the meeting and trying to write down exactly what was said so I'm certain about what I'm writing about it.  It's taking forever.  Especially with an eight year old granddaughter who hasn't seen her grandparents in almost two yers.  So here are some pictures - mostly ones she took yesterday.  I won't say which are which.  Today we baked a bread, played war, and were very silly, and I didn't get much done on the Board.  But priorities.

Downtown Seattle off in the distance

This one we played with together in Photoshop

Leap Of Faith - Flying To Seattle After Deicing

 March 4, 2020, we returned from a long trip with our daughter and granddaughter and assorted family members.  We'd also been to San Francisco to visit our son and his two kids.  Early US COVID deaths were happening at Seattle area nursing homes.  Our daughter was concerned enough to give us each an N-95 mask and drove us all the way out to the airport. (We usually just caught a train out after the ferry to downtown Seattle.)  After a few days I had mild COVID symptoms, but even though I could check off three symptoms and being the right age group and coming from a COVID outbreak area and testing negative for the flu, I couldn't get tested.  

I was near the end of  Michael Lewis'  The Premonition  on the plane today, a story of 'outlaw' doctors

who on their own came up with a plan for what to do when there's a pandemic.  About that time there just weren't enough tests available.  I wasn't sick enough to get tested.  They were saving tests for people in the hospital.  Premontion  tells of a UCSF lab that created, with lots of volunteer help (Post-Phd grad volunteers) a way to provide free tests, but Kaiser said no because they were afraid they'd lose their contract with their regular supplier (according to the book) and a non-profit said no because they couldn't put $0 for cost in their accounting system.

In any case. there was over a foot of snow in some places in my driveway when I shoveled at 8am.  We watched the cab drive by looking for an address.  We couldn't catch his attention, but he stopped down the block and asked someone who was out.  We caught that guy's attention.  

There was a lot of snow.  Wednesday afternoon there hadn't been any.  

Getting through security at 8:45am wasn't bad.  It felt both odd and familiar as we walked through the airport to our gate.  Soon we were on the plane.  We had an empty middle seat, though the pilot kept saying it was full.  Finally at the very end, someone showed up and I moved to the middle seat as a barrier for J.  (Usually I'm at the window with my camera, but it's COVID.  But my neighbor had a good mask on and I saw a Providence screen, then a UAA screen on her computer, so I'm assuming she has a good understanding of the virus.  But still being that close to so many strangers can be uncomfortable.  But I just dismissed the anxiety - I was on the plane and I could either enjoy the ride or have a miserable trip.  I chose option A.

But we weren't leaving that fast.  We had snow on the wings and had to be deiced first.  But another plane was ahead of us.  

Here's our snowy wing.  And it was really a low cloud cover. 

Finally our deicer is on the way.  Our window wasn't very clear. 

Our turn.

We got to the 10,000 foot level still shrouded in flat opaque gray clouds.  It was a full ten minutes before we emerged above it and saw blue again.  

It turned out that our seat mate had missed her 6:30 flight to Portland because the security line was so long.  So she'd had to wait around for our 10:30 flight which was delayed over an hour and still had to get to Portland.  Which I guess explains why she showed up at the last minute - they had to see how many empty seats there were.  

I'd semi decided that we'd skip the train - we'd been cooped up in a plane full of masked, but potential COVID spreaders, and I didn't need more of that.  And we were an hour late.  And it was raining pretty hard, so we took a cab which we'd never done before.  The cab driver asked what time our ferry left.  It was 4:18 at that point.  "We won't make it - it's at 4:45."  The cab driver assured us we'd make it, and we did.  After eating another of the sandwiches we'd brought along (the food service on the ferry was shut down), I needed to get outside.  But it was raining hard and the wind was blowing.  But I found a protected spot in the back.  (As I typed that I thought do ferries have a front and back - since cars come in one end in Seattle and they leave out the other end on Bainbridge Island?  So, I checked with you know who and got this answer to the same question someone asked at sailnet in 2013:

"Washington State Ferries have a pilothouse at each end, so when the boat is ready to leave the dock, the crew moves to the new front of the boat. Sometimes they do turn around or back in, but that is because they loaded cars at the end of the load that need to be offloaded first. That mostly happens on Lopez, Shaw, and Orcas islands and sometimes on Vashon island. Most of the routes are point A to point B though."

Well, here's the view from the back (for that trip anyway) of the ferry looking towards downtown Seattle.  

What a pleasure to be met by our daughter and granddaughter after all this time.  My son-in-law is off on a business trip in Nairobi, 

Today begins two days of discussions amongst the Africa Eats investees on how to speed up the growth of their solutions, how to fill in the gaps African businesses face, and to make Africa Eats more than the sum of its portfolio companies.#hunger #poverty #Africa pic.twitter.com/WxisPMmsd6

— Africa Eats (@AfricaEats) November 12, 2021

but he's due back before Thanksgiving. 

"Don’t call them “at-risk.” They’re “at-promise" And 3 Other Articles Of Interest

Let's start off with some good news.  If you're only going to link to one of these articles, I recommend this one.   There are better ways to do things.  For one things, being smaller and close to your people helps.   I also want to disclose that the head of Fledge is a close relative.

Novel Holding Company Africa Eats Has Raised $1.8M For Its Impact Startups (Forbes)

About a year ago, Fledge, which operates about 10 impact accelerators around the world, launched Africa Eats, a holding company with 27 agriculture and food-focused Africa-based graduates of the networks’ programs. The goal: supporting entrepreneurs on-the-ground with an intimate understanding of how best to address hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the company has raised close to $2 million—and, despite the pandemic, the portfolio companies are doing fine.

Another good news story, where calling attention to labels can make a difference.  Not 'at risk.'  'At promise.'  Most kids want to be good people, they just need support for those dreams.

Caring for the environment helps South King County kids recovering from trauma or hardship find a sense of purpose  (From the Seattle Times)

"This summer, Park, Amine and Tracy are among two dozen mostly South King County youth learning to be stewards of the environment. 

They clean urban lakes during kayak patrols, plant trees, learn field mapping skills and test water quality in streams and rivers on state parks and public lands. They’re on water or trails several days each month. They’re paid $15 an hour for the work — enough to keep most of them from having to take other part- or full-time jobs that would otherwise consume their days — and they’re getting leadership training so they can help lead conservation and pollution prevention efforts in the future. . .

Many of the youth involved in Unleash the Brilliance have faced early adverse experiences “on steroids,” says Dorsey. Amine was peer pressured into regularly using drugs in middle school; his grades and relationship with his parents tanked. Park’s family faced bankruptcy. Other youth bore witness to their parents’ addictions, moved around a lot or lived in extreme poverty. Some have a history of being incarcerated, skipping class or facing delays graduating from high school. 

Dorsey sees them for their potential. Don’t call them “at-risk.” They’re “at-promise,” he says."

How much do your peers impact your behavior?  This Atlantic article addresess peer pressure and vaccination.  

The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable:  Why targets of deliberate deception often hesitate to admit they’ve been deceived

"Something very strange has been happening in Missouri: A hospital in the state, Ozarks Healthcare, had to create a “private setting” for patients afraid of being seen getting vaccinated against COVID-19. In a video produced by the hospital, the physician Priscilla Frase says, “Several people come in to get vaccinated who have tried to sort of disguise their appearance and even went so far as to say, ‘Please, please, please don’t let anybody know that I got this vaccine.’” Although they want to protect themselves from the coronavirus and its variants, these patients are desperate to ensure that their vaccine-skeptical friends and family never find out what they have done. . .

Shifting from an individual to a relational perspective helps us understand why people are seeking vaccination in disguise. They want to save face within the very specific set of social ties that sociologists call “reference groups”—the neighborhoods, churches, workplaces, and friendship networks that help people obtain the income, information, companionship, mutual aid, and other resources they need to live. The price of access to those resources is conformity to group norms. That’s why nobody strives for the good opinion of everyone; most people primarily seek the approval of people in their own reference groups."

Do you know whether your insurance company is insuring coal companies?

U.S. INSURERS FAIL ON CLIMATE ACTION:   Global insurers make coal increasingly “uninsurable”; whole industry fails to act on oil & gas  

LONDON (December 2, 2020)—U.S. insurance companies lag behind their global peers and play a key role in enabling the fossil fuel industry, the Insure Our Future campaign revealed today in its fourth annual scorecard on insurers’ climate policies. 

Insuring Our Future: The 2020 Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels and Climate Change finds that most European and Australian insurers no longer provide coverage for new coal projects, which has made it harder and costlier to secure the insurance that coal projects need to operate. Coal companies face rate increases of up to 40%. Controversial projects—like the Adani Group’s Carmichael coal mine in Australia—are finding it hard to obtain insurance at all. This demonstrates the insurance industry’s unique power to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.  

 More useful for most folks is the scorecard here.  

Unfortunately, smaller companies like All State and State Farm aren't listed here.  They are both independent companies.  But Geico is owned by Berkshire Hathaway which is one of the worst offenders.

 

"Great ideas often come out of tough times"

When I took out the waffle mix Sunday morning, I noticed this on the box:

"Great ideas often come out of tough times, and times didn't get much tougher than 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression.  That year, a few women who traded recipes conjured up an easy-to-prepare pie crust mix and named it "Krusteaz" (crust + ease).  They went for to door, café to café, selling their creation.  A few years later that same entrepreneurial spirit led us create the first-ever just-add-water pancake mix."

Mixing the ingredients - the oil made a happy Rohrschach.













And Sunday was the first day that we ate out on the deck.  Warmly, but not overly so, dressed.

Krusteaz is the original product of what is now Continental Mills.  Here's the introduction to a 2017 interview in Snack and Bakery with the new CEO

We recently spoke with with Continental Mills president Andy Heily for a look into some recent innovations at the company, including its successful moves into a new product category with the Buck Wild tortilla chip launch, as well as a packaging and non-GMO update for its flagship Krusteaz pancake line—making it the first major pancake brand to do so.
As a third generation, family-owned company, Andy is taking the reins from his father and current CEO, John Heily, and undertaking major initiatives to keep an 85-year old company at the forefront of consumer trends and preferences.

For those of you who fly through Seattle, the company is headquartered in Tukwilla, one light-rail stop from SeaTac.

An April 10, 2020 article in Prepared Food tells us they are expanding.

Continental Mills, Inc., the maker of premium baking, breakfast and snack brands, including the beloved Krusteaz speed-scratch mixes and others, purchased a 175,000 square foot facility in Effingham, Ill., located adjacent to its existing manufacturing facility in Effingham. Acquired from Hodgson Mill, the facility will provide Continental Mills the capacity it needs to support continued growth.
The renovated facility is expected to be up and running sometime in 2021.  In addition to providing increased capacity, the Effingham facility offers excellent proximity to Continental Mills' customers in the Eastern US, Midwest and Southeast.

I guess a company that started in the Great Depression is confident in expanding during a pandemic.

Here's a company made video.  It's obviously a public relations film, but the values they emphasize are good ones.  And it's still a small, family owned business.  It hasn't sold out.




This seems like a pretty decent company.  I did look for problems.  There are three complaints  at a Better Business Bureau website - one about a piece of metal in a mix, another about bugs, and a third customer complained that it wasn't GMO free.

Indeed is an online job search site which has a space where people can leave company reviews.  Most of the ones for Continental were pretty good.  There was one malcontent.  (I thought about whether I should use that word.  Given all the other reviews, I'm guessing this person brought the problems with him to the job.)

They've managed to keep out of the spotlight.  They are a privately owned company so they aren't required to make public the kind of information other companies are.  There's not a lot out there on the company.  The expansion of the Effingham facilities was covered by a lot of media.

And they are sponsoring the Seattle Seawolves Rugby team.

Alaska COVID 19 Testing - No Positives Because So Few People Are Being Tested? [UPDATE]

Thanks Jacob for your long comment yesterday.  Let me follow up yesterday's post here.

I got an email back from the doctor's office this morning.  Here's the response about testing for COVID 19:

"As for the testing for Covid 19. The recommendations are that you stay home and care for yourself as you would with any illness (such as a cold) if you are experiencing trouble breathing and feel you are in danger I encourage you to go to the emergency department. We are not testing unless you have certain symptoms and a qualifying history which based on your first message regarding Covid 19 you do not have. I encourage you to stay home and take care of yourself as you would for any cold. Let us know if you have any other concerns."

Here's the CDC's March 4 update (I was still in Seattle then) on who should be tested:

As availability of diagnostic testing for COVID-19 increases, clinicians will be able to access laboratory tests for diagnosing COVID-19 through clinical laboratories performing tests authorized by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Clinicians will also be able to access laboratory testing through public health laboratories in their jurisdictions.

So, limiting testing is due to the lack of enough tests and that should change.

This expands testing to a wider group of symptomatic patients. Clinicians should use their judgment to determine if a patient has signs and symptoms compatible with COVID-19 and whether the patient should be tested. Decisions on which patients receive testing should be based on the local epidemiology of COVID-19, as well as the clinical course of illness. Most patients with confirmed COVID-19 have developed fever1 and/or symptoms of acute respiratory illness (e.g., cough, difficulty breathing). Clinicians are strongly encouraged to test for other causes of respiratory illness, including infections such as influenza.

So, I've had fever and cough - but no difficulty breathing.  I'm also in the group at higher risk for severity if I get the illness.

"Epidemiologic factors that may help guide decisions on whether to test include: any persons, including healthcare workers2, who have had close contact3 with a laboratory-confirmed4 COVID-19 patient within 14 days of symptom onset, or a history of travel from affected geographic areas5 (see below) within 14 days of symptom onset.
International Areas with Sustained (Ongoing) Transmission
Last updated February 28, 2020
China (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
Iran (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
Italy (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)
Japan (Level 2 Travel Health Notice)
South Korea (Level 3 Travel Health Notice)"

So, you have two routes to a test:

1. close contact with a lab confirmed COVID-19 patient
2. travel to one of those countries

But if no one is being tested, we don't know if someone has had close contact with someone with COVID-19 who didn't show any symptoms or hadn't traveled to one of those countries.
And are places like Seattle (which has had the most COVID-19 cases in the US) NOT on the list because they are significantly different from the countries listed?  Or because the CDC does not want to declare places in the US as problem areas?

[UPDATE 8:07pm:  My daughter emailed me an Alaska State directive which gave "travel to an affected area" like Northern Italy "or Kirkland, WA" as an example of a place where someone might have recently traveled.  It also says we need to rule out influenza, so I've sent the link to that State memo back to the doctor's office, pointing out that I have traveled from a place on the list and that BI had two cases verified today.  And asking how I can get tested for influenza.
 I don't think I'd want to be working at the clinic answering all these emails.]

I'd note that my daughter emailed me today to say there were two confirmed cases on Bainbridge Island where I was for about a month.

The Alaska Corona Virus website tells us:

"In Alaska
Updated March 10, 2020; updates made daily by 12:30pm
Confirmed cases
Current: 0
Cumulative since 1/1/2020: 0
Persons Under Investigation (PUI)*
Current: 16 (pending tests)
Cumulative since 1/1/2020: 47 (includes negative and pending tests)"

Presumably, all these people traveled to one of the target nations, since they couldn't have been exposed to someone in Alaska, because no one here has tested positive.

Despite the President's saying everyone who wants testing, can get tested, we know that's not true.  I can't get tested, for example.  I'm sure someone could do an interesting comparison between now and in the 1980s when people could be tested for HIV.  There are great differences between the two diseases.

• HIV then was a death sentence, while for most people COVID 19 is a minor illness
• HIV had a huge stigma because of society's discrimination against LGBTQ people

It would seem the lack of testing - which would help identify and isolate the non-symptomatic carriers - is due to the federal lack of response in getting tests set up.  It shouldn't be hard to let private companies offer test kits.  It seems the genetic testing companies already have swap kits ready to get the samples.  But without strict verification in place, we could get lots of false positives and false negatives.  In this case, false negatives wouldn't be so bad.  False positives would

The sooner everyone can get tested, the sooner the asymptomatic carriers can stay home and the spread of the virus can be slowed down.

[Let me also add that I suspect the odds of me having contracted COVID-19 are low.  And if I did, the symptoms seem manageable so far.  And I've been pretty much in isolation since we got back last Wednesday night.]

[My testing saga is updated Thursday - here.]

Corona Virus View From Seattle -It's Getting Personal

Things have changed radically just since Friday when I took the train down to Vancouver, WA to attend the Citizens Climate Lobby Northwest Regional Conference.  While there hadn't been any questions about not having the conference, we were all introduced to the elbow bump in lieu of shaking hands.  And told to wash our hands regularly.

But since I got back things have gotten noticeably edgier.  Six people have died in Seattle already.  Our daughter declared that she will drive us to the airport tomorrow instead of letting us take public transportation as usual.  While I don't think of myself as elderly, I am in the higher risk age category. What's a little scary about this is that people can carry the virus with few or no symptoms, meaning it can spread much faster and wider than other epidemics.

Then I see this Tweet this morning.

I live in Seattle, I have all symptoms of COVID-19 and have a history of chronic bronchitis.

Since I work in a physical therapy clinic with many 65+ patients and those with chronic illnesses, I decided to be responsible and go to get tested. This is how that went.

— sketchy lady (@into_the_brush) March 3, 2020

There's a long thread about all her failed attempts to get help.

The basic advice from everyone seems to be to wash your hands and not touch your face.

I didn't understand the power of a sneeze until one day we were outside on a sunny day some distance away and man sneezed.  The sun was just right to light up the arc of droplets that flew from his face out about three feet.  It was about three or four times the size of his head.  The light on the droplets was beautiful if you didn't think about what it was.  And I suddenly understood how easily germs fly from person to person.  I didn't have my camera ready for that moment, but I've looked on line for something similar.  This is the best I can find:

This sneeze is not nearly as beautiful as the droplet waterfall we saw that day, but it gets the point across.  If you don't have a mask, sneeze or cough into your elbow.  Certainly away from other people.

Thoughts After an Elizabeth Warren Rally At the Seattle Center [Repaired]

My daughter asked if I would go with her to an Elizabeth Warren rally tonight in the Seattle Center (where the 1962 Worlds Fair was held and where the Space Needle is.)  When we were in Anchorage back in December I'd thought that going south I should try to find some campaign rallies, since we aren't going to get any presidential candidate rallies in Anchorage.  So I scored right after we got to LA - there was a Bernie Sanders rally at Venice Beach.  

[I was tired last night Sanders - Warren] was just a ferry and bus ride away.  So with my knee wrapped in a compression sleeve and a fold up cane, just in case, off we went.  

 We got in and managed to get a spot pretty close to the front. in the ADA section.  My daughter pushed for this and I felt a bit guilty, but when I sit down and stand up and move my knee wrong, it hurts like hell.  And the cane had been helpful walking the hill to the bus stop.  But I'm not mentally ready to acknowledge I'm hurting and slow.

I mention where we were sitting (well there was one seat available and my daughter stood, though we switched a couple times when I wanted to take pictures from a different angle) because one of my first reactions was that the audience was a LOT older than the Bernie crowd at Venice Beach.  And a lot less diverse.  My daughter pointed out that maybe it had something to do with sitting in the ADA section.  But I had my telephoto lens and was looking all around.  It was a much older crowd.










And the music reflected that too.   There was one 60s song after another - These Boots Are Made for Walking, Sweet Caroline, the Supremes, Good Vibrations, a Beatles song, and on and on.

Bernie's team had surely had a staffer pick the play list and it was MUCH more contemporary and matched the audience.  He also had live music including Young the Giant, who I didn't know, but the folks around me were all excited about.

The Bernie rally also included everyone going through security.  Every back pack and purse and bag was checked, pockets were emptied.  TSA would have been proud.  Just no scanners to walk through.

Tonight there was NO checking at all.


I suspect some of this is due to money.  Sanders has more.

 The website had said that doors open at 4 or 4:30 and the event started at 6pm tonight.  But except for canned music nothing really happened until about 6:30.  A local volunteer pulled tickets out of a box for people who could ask questions at the end.  Then more canned music.  Then a local volunteer, then another talked about being a veteran and ended saying "No 16 year old should be forced to choose the army because he can't afford college and can't find a job."

And another local woman.  All were articulate.

 And then Elizabeth Warren came on about 7:00.

In contrast, the Sanders rally started with canned music and then had live music starting about 45 minutes before things were supposed to start.  Then at noonish, a series of city and state elected officials spoke, a local Congress member or two, then Cornell West, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and finally Bernie came on at 2:30.

 If there were any local dignitaries sitting behind the stage tonight, they weren't given a chance to speak and they weren't acknowledged.

Warren did get on stage at 7pm which was closer to the start of the rally than in Bernie's rally, and she talked about 45 minutes, including answering questions.

And she was good - articulate, passionate, and she knows the issues.  I'd be more than happy with a President Sanders or a President Warren.  These candidates, aren't as way out there as much of the media is telling us.   They are on top of the issues that matter now if the US and the world are going to have a fighting chance - including Climate Change, but also the economic imbalance between the very rich and the vast majority.

I have some video and I'll try to get it up soon.  This is NOT the time to hesitate, to play it save, because that's not the answer either.  It's time, she told us to make bold plans, have big dreams, and fight hard.  The same pundits that said Trump didn't have a chance are saying the same about Sanders.  I just think they're wrong.  No candidate is going to achieve everything they promise.  They've got to deal with Congress.  But the higher they aim, the higher they'll end up.  Sanders [Warren] was one of the most popular law professors at Harvard because she's smart, does her homework, can respond quickly, and talk about big ideas as well as specifics.  She's a much more agile candidate than Clinton was and I'll bet that Trump will do everything he can to avoid being on the stage head to head with him.  She'll make mincemeat out of him.

The Space Needle was lit up as we went out to catch the bus back to the ferry.

[UPDATE  Feb 23, 2020:  Thanks to BB - who emailed me - and BC - who commented below - who pointed out I wrote Sanders instead of Warren in a couple of places. I always wonder about how the brain works in such situations.  Both names have the letters a, r, and n, both have two syllables. One is seven letters longhand one six.  Would I have made the same kind of mistake if I was comparing to  Buttigieg or Klobuchar?   The House of Names says this about Sanders:

"The Anglo-Norman surname Sanders is derived from the name Saunder, which is a pet form of the personal name Alexander. This name was originally derived from the Greek personal name Alexandros which literally means defender of men."

And for Warren, they say this:

"The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 added many new elements to an already vibrant culture. Among these were thousands of new names. The Warren family lived in Sussex. Their name, however, is a reference to Varrenne, Normandy, the family's place of residence prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. [1] Despite this name's resemblance to the Germanic Guarin, often translated as Warin, the names are not thought to be related.]

Better Husband, Architecture, New Monopoly, Trump and Hitler

There are so many things to post that I get overwhelmed.  A few drafts are backed up as I write and rewrite and gather more information and then try to shorten them to focus on the key points.  I try anyway.  But in the mean time here are a few things.


1.  I Quit Being a Therapist so I Could Be a Better Husband

 "I hated the idea of being someone who spends the day helping other families overcome difficult emotions but can’t do the same with himself at home for his family. I felt like a fraud."

"Early on, the skills I refined as a therapist made me a better husband. I got good at understanding the variety of reasons people do what they do. I became more compassionate in our marriage and I was better equipped to help Nhu-An navigate challenges in her family, with her friends, and at work. I think it’s also made me a better father to our daughter — more patient, present, and involved.
Three things changed."

 It's a good piece, I recommend you read it all.  It's positive, but also critical of the medical system.





3.  If Trump's Loves Classical Architecture, He Needs To Congratulate Nancy Pelosi On Her Home Town City Hall.

Trump had just issued an order about court houses needing to only be built in classical style.  No modern buildings (like his towers).  I thought about this as we walked past the San Francisco City Hall on our way to BART and the airport Wednesday.










2. San Francisco as we flew back to Seattle.  

3.  New Monopoly Uses Credit Cards Instead Of Money

My granddaughter insisted we play monopoly.  It was never one of my favorite activities, but she's my granddaughter, so what could I do?  It turns out that each player now gets credit cards and there's this little gadget you put the cards in.  Then you type how much money, and it either a) transfers it in or out of one card (if you pass go or have to pay Luxury Taxes, etc.) or b) transfers money from one card to the other (if you have to pay rent.)

As I recall, it was relatively easy to cheat when you used paper money.  This gadget takes that ease to a whole new level.  The banker just types it in and you get your card back.  Unless you insist the banker shows what your card is now, you have no idea how much money you have.

And the amounts are in the tens of thousands to millions.  One dollar bills?  Hah!



4.  Sound Transit (Seattle) Hate Free Zone

If you want to keep out of the darker side of politics, stop here.

4.  Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies  -  I've been talking about this since at least the election in 2016. (For example this post.)  No one can say we weren't warned.

"A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet, Neuborne noted. The English edition of My New Order, published in 1941, also had analyses of the speeches’ impact on his era’s press and politics. “Ugly and appalling as they are, those speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation,” Neuborne says.
“Watching Trump work his crowds, though, I see a dangerously manipulative narcissist unleashing the demagogic spells that he learned from studying Hitler’s speeches—spells that he cannot control and that are capable of eroding the fabric of American democracy,” Neuborne says. 'You see, we’ve seen what these rhetorical techniques can do. Much of Trump’s rhetoric—as a candidate and in office—mirrors the strategies, even the language, used by Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s to erode German democracy.'”