The loudest voices

        A recent NYT article says that over 50% of the American population believes Covid was  leaked from a lab in China.   Meanwhile, among experts, less than 5% give credence to that origin theory.  The overwhelming consensus is the virus evolved naturally in the wild.   You could ask why the difference in opinion between the public and experts?  Part of it is the subject is incredibly complicated and reading the data requires knowledge at the PhD level.   The other part is people's desire to make China the villain in a morality play.   Also, the media megaphone is being used by those who prefer the later narrative.  Anytime the evidence gets in the way of a good story...

The teamsters and the future of unions in America

       Obviously, the title of this post would seem to demand much more than a few paragraphs to do it justice.  However, in the interest of brevity, here is my take on the new contract negotiated by the Teamsters and UPS and its possible effects on the labor union movement in the US.

       The new contract union members will soon vote on is basically the wishlist the union presented to management.   Full time workers will get hefty raises over the life of the contract and part timers who represent nearly half of UPS employees will start out at $21/hr. with automatic raises at the end of six months.  In addition, the company will install air conditioning in its delivery trucks which have been likened to microwave ovens.

      Hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees are reading news of this contract and many of them will be open to Teamster organizers.   This is the new frontier of labor organizing.  If the unions are able to organize a significant chunk of the service industry, union membership will explode.   This will have the effect of balancing the power of capital, much as it did in the years following WWII.

Got to love the gerontocracy

      Mitch McConnel looked like what you would expect an 81 year old with moderate dementia to look like yesterday.   He began his weekly press conference strongly, but after nearly completing his first sentence, he stopped and had a deer in the headlights moment which lasted for at least 20 seconds.  He looked like a broken old man until some fellow GOP senators stepped in and escorted him to his office.  He returned to the podium a little later and continued as if nothing had happened, but the  cat is out of the bag.

     This incident raises questions on both sides of the aisle.   Regardless how well many of the octogenarians in congress look, the truth is that mental disability and dementia are right around the corner for many.   It's time for a look at mandatory retirement beyond a certain age.  I would throw out 76 as the cutoff age at the end of whatever term the officeholder is elected to.   We have to do something before something like Ronald Reagan's 2nd term becomes our reality.

The three Cs

       China, criminality and climate change are likely to be the major issues facing the GOP candidates for the party's presidential nomination.  Of course the multiple criminal trials of the frontrunner, Donald tRump, will take center stage in any serious debate forum.  Candidates with little or no chance of winning will nonetheless be reluctant to criticize Donny Two Scoops and thereby jeopardize their chances of joining a tRump administration.

        China will be the secondary issue in the campaign.   Although, much as Japan was in the 1990s, China will be feared and hated as the main challenger to America's global empire, the country is already running into the same sort of demographic problems which derailed Japan's ascendancy.  However, that won't stop the candidates from bashing China and blaming Democrats for all problems associated with Sino-American relations.

       Finally, they won't bring up the subject of climate change, but the infernal summer weather and the definitive consensus that burning fossil fuels is leading to permanent climate change will spark questions from the media and citizens at town halls which will be difficult to dodge.   There will be a cottage industry on the right to provide deflective answers to difficult questions regarding climate and the legacy a waiting those who deny the science.

      Of course most of these candidates will fall back on divisive cultural issues.   But the substantive problems outlined above should provide plenty of fodder for Democratic ads calling our Republican obfuscation.

drops in a leaky bucket

       A story in today's WaPo lauds the efforts of a few Marylanders who are taking care of and returning to the Chesapeake Bay a few million oyster larvae in an program to revive the oyster industry in the bay.

     I haven't thought of oysters much since the Divine Mrs. M and I lived on the eastern shore for a year back in the late 70s.   At the time, my uncle was a waterman on the Bay and that meant he alternately fished for crabs in the summer and oysters in the fall and winter months.   The industry was already in decline when he moved from Long Island to the little town of Rumbley, Md. in the late 1960s.   He managed to make a living on the crab and oyster business until he retired, but the handwriting was on the wall.

     Feel good programs like Marylanders Grow Oysters are all well and good, but the underlying causes of the decline of the Bay; overfishing, pollution and climate change are not going to be solved by a few retirees raising a oyster spat.

Aging into the system

        The Divine Mrs. M had an encounter with the American health care system last week and for the most part it went well.  But, I have a few niggling doubts about health care for seniors in this country.

      After showing up in the ER with symptoms of a serious infection, the aforementioned patient was held overnight and at one point moved to a busy hallway for several hours before being admitted.   All this while telling her it could be a contagious infection.  Fortunately that was not the case, but it is a telling indictment of hospital procedures.

      Four days later, without noticing a great deal of improvement in her symptoms, the Divine one was notified she  would be discharged.  Again, fortunately, we have several medical professionals in the family and I am able to care for her.   However, without the support system, I'm not sure she would have been able to cope with the numerous demands her treatment made and continues to make of her.

     The best thing you can say about our health care system is it encourages people to be healthy.  The worst you can say is it has no clue about the demands of after care once the patient leaves the hospital.  It will not get better as the population ages.

in a Barbie world

       I have to admit that growing up, I never really "got" Barbie.  My younger sister had platoons of semi-dressed and naked Barbie dolls all over the house.   But despite the evident sexuality conveyed by her pulchritudinous charms they always seemed asexual to me.  My own daughters flirted with the phenomenon in the mid 90s, but again, Barbie seemed like some unattainable perverse ideal .  In the era before internet bullying, Barbie induced many a case of bulimia and self loathing in  young women who didn't come anywhere near the physical ideal she represented. 

     Now comes the Barbie movie.   I have to admit it will be a guilty pleasure to see Greta Gerwig's take on the Mattel icon.   It can't hurt to have Margot Robbie in the title role!   In a strident post feminist world, Michigan governor Gretchen Witmer has a Governor Barbie  doll and glories in its signing legislation.  In her case, may we anticipate a President Barbie in 2028?