Category: Happiness

Vaccine Passports are Coming Very Soon

The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, may be trying to prevent vaccination proof to board cruise ships emanating from Miami and other Florida ports but he can’t prevent the public from demanding vaccination proof for those wanting to book a cruise.

Now reported in the Los Angeles Times is reporting the Hollywood Bowl’s plan to require 85% of all attendees to provide proof of vaccination.  The remaining seats will be reserved for those arriving to provide a negative test result.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are providing sections of the stadium for fully vaccinated guests.  The San Francisco Giants have a check in verification booth.

The San Francisco Giants have a check in verification booth. “Of course, it is a form of a vaccine passport,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious-disease expert. “What is happening to vaccine passports is the same thing that happened with masks,” Swartzberg said. “It has become politicized, and that is really just unfortunate.”

In real life, the United States has had vaccine verification campaigns to curb smallpox outbreaks. At the turn of the 20th century, proof of vaccinations was required in some places to go to work and school, ride trains and even attend theaters. Health officials often demanded to see a vaccination scar rather than rely on certifications that could be forged.

President Biden does have the rule of law if he should decide to implement vaccination passports. In 1905, the Supreme Court upheld state laws that require vaccination for communicable diseases. In a 7-2 decision, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that “the rights of the individual … may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand.”

It’s OK with me if you the government gives the passports another name. 

What does Cinco de Mayo celebrate?

Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo doesn’t commemorate Mexico’s Independence Day. 

May 5 marks the Mexican army’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War in 1862. Mexico’s Independence Day is celebrated on September 16.

A 2018 survey by NationalToday.com showed only 10% of Americans knew the true reason behind the holiday, yet it has turned into a day where people can get cheap margaritas and wear sombreros.

“Most people drinking in the bars have no idea that it’s celebrating the strength in the power and the resilience of Mexican people to overcome invaders who are trying to take their land,” said Alexandro Gradilla, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton. 

Meghan and Harry Interview

The Harry and Meghan interview was great entertainment.  Maybe a better title might be “When Harry met  Meghan.”

The Meghan Markle and Prince Harry interview online on CBS, CBS.com and Paramount+ was a brilliant acting performance that would at least gain Meghan a nomination if not an award for best dramatic performance in a made for television program. The choreographics were perfect. The stage setting was perfect.

Meghan convinced the world that she was shunned by the United Kingdom royalty. The evidence? There was none. It was her words and the way she delivered them that convinced everyone that every word she said was the truth.

Remember she was a successful actress. She played Rachel Zane on Suits for seven seasons, finally calling it quits in 2018. But that wasn’t her only role.

She had many others including Hallmark’s expansion of their iconic Christmas programming with “When Sparks Fly,” a made-for-television film centered around the Fourth of July. Markle starred in the movie as Amy Peterson, a journalist who was assigned a story about her hometown. When Amy heads home for the holiday, she (naturally) “discovers the life and love she left behind are exactly what she’s been missing.”

It’s reported that Meghan and Harry were not paid for the Oprah interview. I don’t believe it. Oprah’s film company, called Harpo Productions, set up the interview and then hawked it to the networks. The made a reported $8 million for the rights selling to CBS. Meghan and Harry have been cut off from their royal allowance. They need the money to live on their fabulous estate.

The public in all the English speaking nations (the Commonwealth) ate this up.

Meghan will undoubtedly go on to more acting performances. Harry will likely sit on his princely ass and do whatever princes do.

Why do we sustain life of those who have no chance of recovery?

2003 and no Alzheimer’s disease at my home. She passed away in 2011

My mother had Alzheimer’s disease.  Her last three years was spent in a nursing home.  For most of that time she was unaware of her surroundings.  She did not speak at all.  When I visited her she was unaware of my presence.  When awake she simply stared into space.  Sadly she was a vegetable.  She died two months before he 96th birthday.  She was a smart woman who graduated cum laude from college at 20 years old. She taught school for almost 20 years and traveled in her retired years to many parts of the world.

The question is why do we sustain the life of someone who will never recover from a disease?

This topic was brought up again by this article in the February 1, 2021 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.  The article is titled “how I helped my dad die”

The article is engrossing.  You might cry.  It starts with these words:

I was finishing up breakfast in New York when my dad sent me a text message. He was ready to die, and he needed me to help.

The request left me shaken, but that’s different than saying it came as a shock. I’d begun to grasp that something was really wrong 10 months before, in May 2019, when he’d come to California from Maine. He was there to meet his first granddaughter, Fern, to whom I’d recently given birth. But he couldn’t bend down to pick her up. He was having trouble walking, and he spoke of the future in uncharacteristically dark terms. We’d traveled to see him in Maine four times since then, and each time he’d looked older: his face more gaunt, his frame more frail.

The entire article is worth your time. Here is the link. “how I helped my dad die”

The Dogs have Taken Over!

The First Dogs have entered the White House.  Champ and Major Biden have moved into the White House.  Both are German Shepherds.  Champ is 12 years old.  Major is 2 years old.  Major is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.

Having two dogs myself I can tell you that they will soon be the bosses of the White House.  That’s OK.  Dogs always sense danger and they will be the likely protectors of Joe and Jill Biden.

When is it Time to Secede from the Union?

If I was alone in these thoughts you could ignore this post. But I’m not!

Look at how everything has changed. President Obama in his 2004 Democratic Party convention speech said “…there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.”

Obama’s speech was meant to unify this nation. Today we have a president who is doing his very best to tear us apart. He is doing a darn good job.

In an article on September 18, 2020 in the Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman wrote “After Trump’s 2016 victory, a poll found that 1 in 3 Californians supported what is known as “Calexit.” As if to encourage the idea the Golden State is alien territory, Trump has attacked it at every opportunity. He conducts himself as though he were the president only of the red states.”

In his new book, “Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union,” leftist journalist Richard Kreitner expresses doubt that the country can hold together, or should. As he notes, English colonists came here to separate themselves from their rulers. Our revolution amounted to the colonies’ secession from the British Empire.

You don’t have to be a leftist to demand the rights for all citizens and insistence that the law applies equally to everyone.

In my previous posting, September 26, 2020, I suggested that there is a possibility that the SCOTUS could declare Donald Trump the winner of the November 3 election, no matter what the election results are, and could permit him to run for third term as president. We are about to have three justices on the court who were appointed by Trump make decisions about his re-election. Clearly they are beholden to him for obtaining a seat on the court. Are they likely to rule against him?

If Chapman is correct that California is alien territory in Trump’s eyes, why would this state remain in the union?

Google “if trump wins should the west coast secede” and you will find at least five web sites, excluding the Chicago Tribune, that are discussing the issue.

The nymag.com Intelligencer says “Divided We Stand. The Country is Hopelessly Split. So why make it official and breakup?” In part it says “In California, officials who regularly boast of overseeing the world’s fifth-largest economy have begun to talk of advancing their own foreign policy.”

In a Medium.com article are these thoughts
Consider this scenario, that could play out in the not too distant future:
1. Trump orders opening of the whole nation (incorrectly and overly early).
2. The Western Pact states say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” and stay closed.
3. Trump is angry, and drops all government funding to these states (he clearly believes he has all authority anyways).
4. These states assert their authority, and instead of bowing to his power move, they block all transport of food out of these states to the rest of the nation.

The economy of California is the largest in the United States, boasting a $3.2 trillion gross state product as of 2019. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy, ahead of India and behind Germany. California is the nation’s leading technology state in addition is the primary source for fruits and vegetables for the nation. Add Oregon and Washington and the number is staggeringly large.

Other nations have split apart or left a union without a war. Some countries have decided not to split apart based on election results.

Quebec almost split from Canada and Scotland almost split from the UK. There was never talk of war.

Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until its split into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

Following a UK-wide referendum in June 2016, in which 52% voted in favour of leaving the EU and 48% voted to remain a member, the UK Government, which was then led by Theresa May formally notified the EU of the country’s intention to withdraw on 29 March 2017, beginning the Brexit process.

On September 24, 2020 the New York Times “President Trump argued this week that the death toll from the coronavirus was actually not so bad. All you had to do was not count states that voted for Democrats.”

“If you take the blue states out,” Trump said, “we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at. We’re really at a very low level.”

“The statement was as jarring as it was revealing, indicative of a leader who has long seemed to view himself more as the president of Red America rather than the United States of America.”

What more do you need to know that Trump really wants to be rid of the Blue States. So maybe we should make him happy. Perhaps we will all be happier.