Archive for April, 2020

The Left Isn’t Afraid Georgians Will Die, They’re Afraid they WON’T

Posted: April 23, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Sam Cogley: Describe a phase one search.

Captain Kirk: It’s a painstaking, thorough attempt in and around the ship to find a man who’s presumably injured and unable to respond.

Sam Cogley It presupposes, does it not, that a man wishes to be found?

Captain Kirk: I beg your pardon?

Sam Cogley: If you start a search for a man, you assume, don’t you, that he wants to be found? He’s not hiding?

Captain Kirk: Yes.

Star Trek Court Martial 1967

The reaction to the decision by the Governor of Georgia to allow (stress allow not compel) business to open on the 24th rather than waiting an extra week has caused an extreme reaction all over the democrat/left/media.

The supposed reason is they are afraid of deaths from the Corona/Wuhan/CCP virus (although they aren’t apparently afraid of deaths from surgeries that don’t happen, or other side effects of an economy crashing and burning) but I submit and suggest this is not the case, because people are making an assumption that I don’t think is true.

The assumption people are making is that the people outraged by this move have the same goal as the Governor, the ability to safely re-open the economy without dying by the virus. I think this is not the case.

I don’t think they are afraid of people dying from the Corona/Wuhan/CCP virus, I think they’re afraid they won’t!

What happens if some business open and things work out? What happens if the supply chains are able to supply, people are allowed to shop, eat or function as normal and the economy roars?

Then Americans go back to work, then unemployment drops, then wealth returns to the middle class without government aid. While this would be a great help to the vast majority of the American people, who does it hurt?

The Democrats and the left, because if all these things come back then they are in the same spot that they were in two months ago, facing a president with a booming economy, foreign policy success and the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment in history in an election year:

“But DaTechGuy”, you ask, “didn’t President Trump himself say that he thought this was too early, why don’t you think he is cheering for dead bodies?”

Well it’s true that the President has suggested this move is too soon, but unlike the left he suffers no penalty if the move works, his warning actually puts him in a no-lose situation. If it fails he suggested it was a tad soon and can note this if it works not only does he get all the benefits of Georgia doing well but he can also get credit for giving the state the flexibility to give things a shot.

The left however only wins if Georgia fails, that’s what I think is going on, as I said earlier this month:

What we write, broadcast and report about Communist China, Russia, Iran and the Corona Virus,we do because we believe it helps to save the Union from Donald Trump; and what we forbear, we forbear because we do not believe it would help to save the Union from Donald Trump.

Trump threw them for a loop by not endorsing this move but I submit and suggest that this is not about saving citizens lives for the left, it is about saving the lives of Democrat campaigns.

After all do you really think people who are willing to knock off babies up to the moment of birth are concerned if older folks live or die?

Gronk To Tampa with Brady Tampa can Set it and Forget it

Posted: April 22, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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I was driving home today from work and couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this:

The Patriots agreed to trade retired tight end Rob Gronkowski and a 2020 seventh-round pick (No. 241 overall) to Tampa Bay for a 2020 fourth-round pick (No. 139 overall) Tuesday, sources told the Herald. The Pats are sending Gronkowski’s rights to the Bucs, who will soon reinstate him as a member of their team. The future Hall of Famer retired last spring after nine NFL seasons that thrust him into the conversation of greatest tight end to ever play.

To say this is a game changer is the understatement of the year.

Tampa was already heading for a playoff birth with Brady surrounded by a plethora of good targets to throw to. Add to that the greatest tight end who ever played the game and who has played with Brady his entire career, a man who draws double coverage on every play and you can just hand Tampa that NFC trophy and forget it.

Not only are you getting Gronk but you are getting a fully healed and rested Gronk which makes him even more dangerour, and not only are you getting a fully rested and healed Gronk, you are getting a highly motivated Gronk. This is disaster for every team in that divsion and a Godsend for every receiver on that team because as long as Gronk is on the field not a single Tampa Bay wide receiver will be double covered this season, PERIOD!

Now in fairness this is football and any player including Brady and the oft injured Gronk is one play away from being out for the year, but if neither of them goes down then you might as well hand that 1st round bye to Tampa Bay because the road to the superbowl is going through them.

Now I just have to find out if any local radio station will be carrying their games because if the choice between watching Brady and Gronk and watching the Patriots is frankly no choice at all.

Higher Ed: Adapt or die

Posted: April 21, 2020 by chrisharper in education, Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: , ,

By Christopher Harper

Covid-19 may have created a perfect storm when it comes to higher education, creating an opportunity to take a good, hard look at a college education.

In the past 30 years, the cost of an undergraduate degree has tripled at public schools and more than doubled at private schools, adjusting for inflation. At a four-year, private institution, tuition and room and board averaged $46,950 in 2018. Four-year public colleges charged an average of $20,770 a year for tuition, fees, and room and board. For out-of-state students, the total went up to $36,420.

At roughly the same time, the Federal Reserve estimated that the cost of a college education increased eight times the percentage of wages.

Simply put, the ratio between the cost of a college education and a job is way out of balance.

That equation doesn’t take into account the massive debt that students have amassed as a result of the increased costs.

It’s worth noting that in Pennsylvania, which would be relatively representative of many states, the losses faced by universities have little to do with the classroom. Instead, the losses involve housing, sports, and conferences. Maybe universities should stick to the core mission of educating students and get out of these other businesses. See https://www.inquirer.com/education/coronavirus-stimulus-dollars-penn-state-temple-rutgers-rowan-st-joes-widener-cuts-money-20200420.html

What can be done about the cost of higher education?

The amount of money spent on faculty has decreased over the past few decades as universities hire more adjuncts who receive lower pay and often no benefits.

At the same time, the number of non-teaching personnel on campus, with several administrators at top universities making six-figure salaries with fringe benefits and secretarial support. About two-thirds of university budgets have nothing to do with teaching but instead go toward dormitories, facilities, marketing, and student health.

At Temple University in Philadelphia, where I teach, I have seen a vast expansion of vice deans, assistant deans, associate deans, directors, and assistants to the above over the past 15 years. I don’t know what many of them do, and none of them have visited my classroom.

Higher education will have to expand its offerings of online courses at reduced rates after students and their parents saw that classes could be delivered relatively effectively. That means that faculty will have to come to grips with providing online instruction.

The discussions I have had with faculty about online teaching remind me of my former colleagues in the news business who ignored the implications of the internet more than 20 years ago.

Simply put, colleges and universities must adapt or die.

Nobody’s Talking about the NYC Witches Anymore The Unexpectedly Chronicles

Posted: April 21, 2020 by datechguy in catholic
Tags: , , ,

Yesterday in my Under the Fedora column I joked that all of this Corona Virus, Wuhan Virus, CCP Virus stuff could be because some Redsox fan made a deal with the Devil who promised that by May 1st the Redsox would be undefeated and the Yankees would yet to have win a game. That reminded me of something I meant to write about a week ago that I mentioned in the podcast last week

Remember back at the start of the Trump Administration there were a bunch of stories about Witches in New York all Hexing Donald Trump. If you do a google search of it you can find stories like this:

Most of Donald Trump’s opponents believe they will have to wait four more years to see him leave the White House.

But America’s witches are more optimistic.

At the stroke of midnight on Friday, followers of witchcraft across the US performed a mass spell designed to stop the president doing harm.

A Facebook group devoted to the ritual has attracted over 10,500 likes, and coined the hashtag #magicresistance.

Or this

Groups of witches across the country are preparing to cast a coordinated “binding spell” on President Donald Trump on October 25. It will be their third concerted attempt to make the magic happen.

The witches refer to themselves as the #MagicResistance, and they first attempted to bind the the President with magic in 2017, according to the Boston Globe, and they have attempted it annually since then. The group’s other events have included binding Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and “Hex the NRA.” (RELATED: Witches Now Outnumber Presbyterians In The US)

Now you might not be a Christian or believe in witches but given the events of the last month don’t you think it’s odd that reporters who thought this was so cool and so wonderful aren’t following up with any of these people to ask: “Hey Trump’s numbers are doing better but the country is in the grip of a pandemic, do you feel at all responsible for this?”

I think it’s a valid question and I’ve love to hear the answer on this, but the press will never bother with it because as long as they are the media’s allies in their fight against Trump, as interesting as this story might be, nobody is the press is going to write it

Unexpectedly of course.

Update: Related?

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