Open Letter to Gainesville City/Alachua County Commissioners

Dear Commissioner,

I am writing about concerns I have about the occupancy restrictions for critical businesses during the County’s declaration.  While I think that the goal of the commission to flatten the curve has merit, the extreme measure of 1 person per 1000 sqft. should be relaxed a bit.  I have several thoughts about it.

First, let’s take a look at the mathematics behind it.  The CDC guidelines recommend social distancing of at least 6 ft  to avoid close contact.  Assuming a 6 ft radius around a person, this allows just over 113 sq ft per person (Area of a circle of radius 6 feet).   The current order by the county commissioners is currently 9x greater than the CDC guidelines.   I acknowledge the fact that in many critical businesses such as grocery stores, banks/credit unions, and the like, you would lose roughly half the area due to product or furniture.  Double then the square footage a customer would then need to be socially distance themselves.   That comes to just over 225 square foot per customer.  Mathematically, you can allow for more individuals to shop safely in groceries, etc and more than meet the current CDC guidelines. 

Secondly, the community skews to a lower income profile.  Many individuals in the community rely heavily on the benefit checks that come at the end of the month/beginning of next month.  Those times will be busier at the end of the month for many financial institutions.  Traditional branches generally average 4000 to 6000 square foot per branch, while more recent financial institution branches average 2500 square feet.  The current ordinance would generally allow only 6 customers at a time for all financial needs, whether it is withdrawing needed money from their benefit checks, working with customer service about a potential fraud with their ID, or getting a loan to tide them over in this economic crisis we are going to be facing.   Some of these transactions are short, while others may be complicated.  It is very likely that in some areas of the community people will be standing in line for a very long time just to do what is needed for them to live over the next month.

Finally, logistically, with the reduced hours of many of the groceries stores in the area, those (like myself) that work in essential businesses and critical infrastructure already have a reduced window of getting groceries on a normal day.  Many of us will do our weekly shopping for our groceries on the weekend, which will lead to even longer lines at the stores.   During the meeting broadcast on Tuesday, Commissioner Hutchinson had visited stores at off peak hours on a generally slow shopping day.   There are reasons that Publix puts out their weekly ads on Thursday, as studies show that shopping for groceries increases greatly on weekends,  Saturdays are the most common day for obtaining groceries as studies show that nearly 41 million people nationwide purchase their weekly groceries on that day.  The lines that were 10-20 minutes on Tuesday will likely be more than an hour on Saturday if you keep the current guidelines.  If the goal of the ordinance is to keep people at home to reduce the exposure, limiting the number of people in a store would keep people in line longer, exposed to others waiting to shop.  In my case, shopping at off-peak hours, it generally takes me 45 minutes to an hour to do my weekly shopping for a family of five.   By increasing the number of people allowed in stores to a more reasonable number, people will quickly get what they may need from the stores and return home in a timely manner.

The meeting shows the appetite from your fellow commissioners.   It appears that Commissioners Cornell and Chestnut have the wherewithal to allow for more people to get what they need and get home.   Other locales that have similar orders are requiring social distancing for critical businesses, as was the case with Colorado that just announced their stay at home order today.   As I had said earlier in the email, a 6 foot radius around people comes to just over 113 square foot.   As your constituent, I ask that you reconsider the occupancy restrictions that are in the current order for Alachua County and allow for more reasonable levels of occupancy for your critical businesses.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

 Kirk Becker

Today’s GOP

When I was growing up, the GOP seemed to espouse the ideas of personal freedom, free market, limited government, and attempting to balance the budget. Nowadays, they seem to be spending the country into oblivion, starting protectionist trade wars, chasing unsubstantiated conspiracies against anyone not in their party, and sycophantic devotion to an autocratic, xenophobic conman as President…. well done, GOP, for making libertarians appear sane.

Enough

Dear Democrats and Republicans,

Enough is enough.  It is time for the both of you to take a good look at yourself and your party and see the shambles you are making our country.  You both make a mockery of what used to make Americans the shining beacon on the hill though your tribalism and party before country attitudes that continue to divide Americans into different camps.

Republicans - You have forgotten the ideals of what the Republican party purported to be, rights and justice for all, belief in individual freedoms, and reduced government.  You have become the party of Trump, a political charlatan and Twitterer in Chief.  This President continues to act like an Internet troll by railing on anything and everything that does not bow down to his every whim.  There is a faction of the GOP that thinks Trumps "shit don't stink" and can't get their heads out of their collective nether regions.  Their sycophantic talking heads on TV is so full of bile, "what aboutisms," and lowest common denominator political screeds have heighten my senses to the truly idiocracy that the pundits on the right exhibit.

Democrats - You have abandoned what used to be the core of your party, the working lower to middle class.  You have exasperated the problem of identity politics and dismissed others that are not ideologically pure within your own party.  Your incessant whining about the election of 2016 and how "Hillary Clinton won the popular vote" is unbecoming, as we have a mechanism to elect the President called the Electoral College, which you are free to attempt to change through a Constitutional Amendment.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump is going to be President until 2020 unless he is otherwise removed from office via Constitutional process after articles of impeachment by a simple majority in the House and removal from office by 2/3 of the Senate after trial, in which the crimes of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors".  People, that isn't going to happen in the next 2 years.

It is time for your parties to stop playing the blame game, the divisiveness, and the stubborn blindness to the extremes of your party, and the gerrymandering to make political incumbancy nearly a birthright.  We, as the American voter, expect you to come together for the good of the nation, act like rational people, and come up with solutions to solve our country's woes.  We expect no less from you, and will remember in November if you continue down your respective road of partisan politics that divides the country and fails to enhance what really makes America great. Act like you deserve our vote.

Explain to me..... (part 1)

Maybe I am just not savvy, but would someone explain to me....

...how is anyone surprised that Facebook has privacy issues when people freely give their information to Facebook? 

 ...how Republicans can blame anyone but themselves for a $1 trillion budget deficit when they control the House, Senate, and Presidency?

... how the party of Lincoln, Teddy, Ike, and Reagan became the party of Trump?

...how anyone is surprised that the Russians meddled in the 2016 elections after the Clinton State Department tried to do the same in Russia in 2012?  Did no one think Putin would want to pay the favor back?

...how such anti-science movements like “flat earth” even exist today?

....how people don’t automatically go to a fact checking site when seeing articles from non-standard news sites online? 

...why Hillary Clinton would every think of running again?    

...why anyone would think it would be a good idea to push an Oprah campaign when we see what we got with the last Tv personality? 

...how Amazon is supposedly causing the post office to lose money by paying the same bulk rate as other bulk shippers and cost taxpayers when The Postal Service receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations?

...how a trade war is good for America?

...what Trump learned at the Wharton School?

---if people really understand how long the US border with our neighbors really is?

...why people don't realize how the Constitution really works and that there are mechanisms to change it if needed?

...why I should not leave Facebook given my stance on privacy?

Comments are always welcome on the website..  You can see this post on cepheus.us

Puerto Rico (and US Virgin Islands) Incident Response

10+ days after Hurricane Maria slammed into the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, we find that 40% or more of the island does not have clean drinking water.  This is a humanitarian crisis occurring on US soil..  There will be plenty of blame to go around on this one, but I ham a strong believer in the "Buck Stops Here" approach.   The POTUS since the Hurricane hit the island has had a less than stellar response to the crisis, especially compared to the responses to Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida.   

On September 17, the White House issued a disaster declaration in preparation for Maria.  That was a good start, and in line with what the White House did in preparation with Harvey and Irma. Making a disaster declaration is one thing, acting upon it is where some of the problems lay.  If you recall back to Hurricane Irma, many Caribbean islands took a direct hit from a Category 5 Hurricane that at the time had maximum sustained winds of around 185 miles an hour.  Islands such as Barbuda were devastated, while the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were severely crippled by the sideswipe of Irma.  As the islands were beginning recovery from those storms, the tropical wave that eventually became Maria began heading that direction.  Computer models were projecting that a major hurricane may go through the area several days in advance.  Computer modeling for hurricanes have become pretty good to this point, and the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were in the cone of uncertainty of a major hurricane (CAT 3+) either going over or passing close to these islands that were on the brink from Irma.  

This should have instigated major preparations on FEMA's part.  The potential for major power and water distribution issues were high.  The Federal government knew the economic and Commonwealth debt situations well in advance and the high likelihood that the Federal assistance would be great in this case.  Like with Harvey and Irma, resources should have been in place ready to move once the storm had passed.  While the power issue will take time (no doubt), shortages of food, medicine, fuel (for generators), and water should have been easily anticipated.  Resources should have been at the ready, and all the red tape inhibiting the distribution and delivery of said resources should have already been cut through.   No excuse in over preparation in a possible humanitarian crisis.

The victim blaming, party bickering, and posturing by POTUS needs to stop now.  Earlier today, he sends out the following set of tweets about Puerto Rico.  

This is victim blaming at its finest.  The general that is in charge of the relief effort states he does not have enough resources.  Mr. President, it is not about Democrats or Republicans, nor about the economic condition of the island prior to the onslaught of 2 major hurricanes.  It is about the 3.5+ million AMERICAN CITIZENS that live in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.  We have the means and the the will to help out our fellow citizens as was done in the wake of Harvey and Irma.  The buck stops with you Mr. President.  Start acting presidential and stop the partisanship.  The American people, especially those in need in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands deserve better.

Ratings and the NFL

Well...POTUS is wading into the NFL pool, stating that one of the reasons that the ratings continue to be down in the NFL compared to previous years. While true, there seems to be a false equivalency between the rating and the flag protests started in 2016.   

To begin with, all sports leagues would kill to have the NFL ratings, even at its reduced rates:

Okay....great ratings, but in 2015,  43 of the top 50 events were NFL.  What is different?  Perhaps the quadrennial Summer Olympics?  Add in the once in a lifetime World Series between the 2 snakebitten franchises of the Cubs and Indians (until hopefully again this year) would make up the difference.

Are the ratings drops just exclusive to the NFL?  No.  Let us take a look at the ultrapatriotic, Southern born and bred NASCAR.  No flag protests, no controversial statements.   How are their ratings doing?  Not good:  According to the article, "A whopping 22 of 26 Cup Series races this season have posted a decline in ratings and viewership."  The first race of the championship in Chicago was the second lowest rating race since 2000.   Add the attendance drop over the last decade, and NASCAR is in a world of hurt as well.

How about the other sports?  NBA down.  MLB mixed (people watch more when their team is good).  NHL down in US, up in Canada.    In general, all professional sports ratings have seen a decline over the past few years.   I don't remember any controversy in these either.

Maybe it is just the professional sports?  NCAA football is still strong, NCAA basketball is improving.  Is it possible that the professional leagues have priced out the average fan to see games in person, causing more casual fans which results in lower TV viewership?  Add to the fact that the NFL is going through a crisis with regards to health of its players after their playing days, or a myriad of other possibilities explained in this article last year.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans.   First a look at the document that started it off.

So, on this most American of holidays, you would expect the President to say something about it. Our President did, tweeting out a message with a video attached.  Given that structure, one would think that he might have used the Star Spangled Banner:

If not that, then the classic song by Irving Berlin,  God Bless America.

He could have even chosen a song by one of the performers at his inauguration, Lee Greenwood, with God Bless the USA:

So, what does our President tweet on Independence Day?  See for yourself

#HappyIndependenceDay #July4 #USA🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/NsFslPEFrp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2017

That's right.   A MAGA song?   WTF is that?  90% of his tweets are used to divide the country, rather being a President representing the entire nation, as the great ones would.  What a narcissist.