The $50 An Hour Idea

 Barbara Lee is running for mayor of Oakland, Cal.

In a debate setting.....she made it clear....she wants a $50 federal minimum wage.

I sat for about 20 minutes....pondering this.

Pizza made by a kid making $50 an hour?  It'd probably cost near $75 (include tax nearing $90).

A beer at the sports bar?   Well....probably near $19 once the bar-keep  presents it.

McDonalds menu selection?  Nearing $50-to-$60.

How quick would businesses shut-down?  Probably within 60 days.....half of all businesses would close.  The path 'out'?  Well....you need to leave as quickly as possible.  

Amazing world we live in.

Explaining The DC Algae Problem

 Basically....the science is....green algae or cyanobacteria grows exponentially when three main factors align.

Factors?

1.   Excess nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus)....acting like fertilizer. Phosphorus is often the key limiting nutrient in freshwater systems.

2.  Sunlight....for photosynthesis and energy.  If you had 3 to  6 days of clouds....it would be slow in  appearing.

3.   Warm temperatures.....warmer speeds the process...cooler lessens the speed.

If you replaced the water hour by hour, or cooled it....algae would marginally appear.  If you 'flushed' it every twelve hours....that might help.

It's NOT rocket science.

Note: you could fool folks into believing that global warming triggers this, and most would readily buy into it.

Six Things I Now Believe

 1. Starbucks premium coffee ($4-plus dollars)....is sip-by-sip.....same as McDonalds coffee ($1.69 to $2.29).

2.  Whenever you utter 'consenting-adults'....I get the humble feeling that 100 folks would have 100 differing consents....making things hard to define.

3.  I have this 'lecture-alarm' in my head.   Oddly, about twenty times a day....it goes 'off' and alerts me.  I hit my mute-button  (in the head) and the lecture dissolves into thin-air.

4.  It's painfully obvious now...that there must be over 50,000 sexual fetishes.....with some folks hyped  up to sex-up with people in McDonald uniforms, or dressed to appear like Nancy Pelosi.

5. There are seven and eight year old kids being introduced to Alexa and Grok, and half of their knowledge base by age twelve....will have come from the two....NOT from schools or their buddies.

6.  Cultures are different. When a rainbow appears in Japan....folks see seven colors.  In Germany, they see five colors. England....six colors.   They all see the same thing but perceive it differently. 

Emergency Thinking

Yesterday....I noted that the city of Annapolis, Maryland....put out an emergency preparedness guide....that was designed primarily (only) for LGBTQ people.

The hint I got....via the city folks running this program....that LGTBQ folks are 'more-likely' to be affected by some natural disaster (I assume they mean hurricanes, earth-quakes, floods, wild-bear-attacks, etc).

I probably spent 30 minutes this AM....thinking about this.

Having been in the military for 22 years.....it was embedded in some way....you needed to think about emergencies, and that the Air Force always had a plan-A, plan-B, plan-C.   I guess  if you never did any military time....you don't think about disaster much.

But then it came to me....is it possible that LGTBQ folks are so much in a 'bubble'....that anything....even a hail-storm....could set them off into a chaotic mentality?

Living in Germany....I'm understanding the German mentality....that a funnel-type cloud (dark as hell) might be approaching the valley, and the German quietly gazes at the cloud.  Not really fearful  or reacting....mostly sipping a beer slowly, and simply observing things. Henrick....as the wind picks up....might ask: 'you reckon we should move to the basement?'....not really feeling stressed about things.

Thinking over this Maryland/LGTBQ problem....it's obvious....you as a city need to hire 'helpers'....say one for each four LGTBQ folks....to personally guide the poor folks to safety when chaos sets in.  Obviously, they probably should not be LGTBQ themselves....otherwise, the helpers will need helpers.

Sheltering separately away from non-LGTBQ folks?  Well....that's something else that I'm pondering upon.