Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

healthcare

Your own personal pandemic

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I met with a family member recently on a visit who I have not seen in many years. He is much younger than me with that youthful enthusiasm that comes with a certain age. During our conversation it became apparent that he has decided that he isn’t going to wear a mask on public transport any more. He explained he just wants to get back to his normal as soon as he can.


My covid and lockdown experience has been mine & can be very different from anyone else’s. My age and experience in my life have moulded the way I react to things. This is of course not news but seeing another person share what they are taking from this makes me think.
I am lucky and I know it and appreciate it every day, I am grateful and count my blessings. I also try to make sure I am making the right decision and not the most convenient one.


When I explained to my family member that I will be doing things in a different way and that I have lost friends due to the pandemic I saw his eyes take on a look. I don’t think he has lost anyone and for him this is all about the change in life style and the lockdowns.
It made me think about how even through a global pandemic our experiences of said pandemic can be so different.

Because I live in Ireland the worst of my pandemic is over, due to such a large vaccination rate in the country. Then of course you have people in the southern United States who are going through the pandemic afresh as they have people who for what every reason would prefer to die than get vaccinated and live. I feel sorry for the people who could be moving on and the medical staff who have to go through this still when it didn’t need to happen, their pandemic is very different from mine.

Opening up early to save the economy has not worked pretty much anywhere it’s been tried. The virus doesn’t care about the economy and when you have to lock down again because you have no choice the lesson should be learned. I know these times will pass but I do hope that people truly learn from their experiences that the choices we make do matter.

Frozen Shoulder

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frozen plant
Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash

For the last two months my wife has been in great pain in her right shoulder. During the stay at home scene it’s been difficult to see a doctor as they had stopped seeing patients, this is changing slowly.
We went through many scenarios trying to figure out what was wrong, torn muscle, pinched nerve, but it was really hard to get a definite answer.

This last week my wife saw a physiotherapist who had herself recently gone through Frozen Shoulder. She was able due to her recent bout diagnose my wife’s condition very accurately. She said even though she is a physical therapist she had to get help to diagnose her own condition. I can’t say it was good news but it’s great to know what is going on even if there really isn’t a treatment that can help, you just have to manage the condition.

Now is the hard part, physical therapy through the pain to regain range of motion. My understanding if left alone it could take a year or longer to heal by itself. My hope is that with therapy it can be reduced to a few months. Up until last Thursday I had never heard of frozen shoulder. I personally think it was brought on by bad posture while my wife is writing. We are working to change that so this does not recur.

Peace!

perplexed

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Those that have been so kind to read the few words I post on here, as I am studying quite a bit & the old life thing going on I don’t have too much time to post.
I have found it difficult to put into words what I see politically and globally with what is going on.

Last night I was watching the series by James Burke entitled “The day the universe changed!”

We are back in 1984-1985 and the cold war is still up and running, the threat of nuclear war still looms & the world wonders what the future will hold.
We all know the mission to the moon was a pissing contest between Russia and the United States. With a side mission called scientific discovery. I was about 9 years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon & got to dress up as a spaceman in my class.

When I was in my teens I would read boys books about time and space and the future science will bring. It was exciting and full of hope for the future. Western countries stood for freedom of expression and movement, the idea you can make it if you try! The United States was by far the biggest economy so it was felt the best opportunities were there, not that it was any more free than any other western country.

Russia & China being the opposite of freedom, no freedom of movement and being told what you can and cannot do was not the way for the future of society, if we were to go to space and beyond!

Of course times change and the cold war ended & we left the moon and didn’t go back because we won the contest. The funding for science dropped because funding was never really about the science. Time moves along and technology moves into the mainstream. So there is money to be made, and today we have the web (light & dark). We have access to more info than any humans since the beginning. This was going to be the new dawn of humankind.

But of course the dark side was always possible, and with the availability of knowledge was the availability of crap, social media, fake sites, scams, identity theft, click bait, Fox News!

The Russians discover they can fight a media war because people aren’t equipped to filter, and they don’t know where to get news they can trust.
Trump calls any story he doesn’t like fake news because it doesn’t stroke his ego. News media continue to give time to stupid people to give the impression of being fair. People begin to believe the stupid people because they are getting exposure.

And then there was this!
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM 

Before the 1970’s the christian right was part of the rest of the united states, probably just as happy with the moon landing and what science might bring for the future. A baby wasn’t a baby until it was a baby, not today when some consider a few cells to be a baby. But things changed and it may change what was once the bright future of the United States.

For some the multi-diverse idea of society breaks what they consider the mold from their youth. It was a fiction but real enough to them, and they feel it is gone & want to rekindle the past. They have been deceived into thinking it can come back. Society and business moves forward because business in the end wants to make a profit. The old industries are no longer really viable but they have been told the reason is immigrants, unions, the other side selling jobs overseas.

Business did move overseas, but it was purely for profit, and cheap labor. But another  reason not mentioned too much was due to technological advances. Now we have people being voted into government who don’t believe in science, who want to make the United States a purely christian country, which goes against freedom of religion. I believe in freedom of religion, you should be able to practice what ever religion you choose. But do not try and impose your religious beliefs on me. If you take away my right to choose, I may as well be living in 1985 Russia or China!

I vote Democrat, so what am I really for?

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I grew up with healthcare, how great it was or wasn’t really doesn’t matter, if my leg was busted it would be fixed; no charge! It was nice, I never had any thoughts about socialism or government over reach. I actually never thought about it at all unless I needed it.

I know some friends and family who are of an age that they now get Medicare. I can tell you without a doubt they are thrilled, it’s just a thing that just being there adds a kind of calm, it’s called a safety net. It’s provided to citizens who have paid into the fund during their working lives. It’s a way for the government to say thanks for the taxes you have paid all your working life.

In the United states healthcare is a business, where people/companies make money for treating people who are sick. This would be why medical costs are so much more than pretty much anywhere else. I can understand why people who are making money with the system don’t want it changed, but the people who don’t have healthcare & who vote against their own best interests have me perplexed!

When I vote I don’t vote for people, I vote for policies and where I see a party aligns with my goals going forward. I will change my Party in an instant if I find a different party has my best interests at heart. So again I ask myself why do people vote against their best interests? Is party affiliation the same as following a sports team? I have always voted such and I shall always do so? The idea the GOP are fiscally responsible is a joke, as the debt has increased under GOP leadership. These are facts that can easily be checked.

I vote Democrat because the Republican party supports climate deniers, tries to blatantly disrupt voting, and is quite open about it. They claim voter fraud, which doesn’t really exist; even GOP states have said as much. I can’t say the democrats are way better, but they support progressive points which I agree with, climate, equality, health care for all. There is the idea that as I vote Democrat I would agree taxing the hell out of people, it is a misconception! I don’t care to pay lots of taxes, but to fund healthcare for all, to provide a social security check when I retire, better safety nets for citizens, I will pay more tax to see results. But please don’t think I am for waste, I want my taxes to be spent wisely, and I want to know what the money went to.

I have two friends who are Trump supporters. I disagree with our President on pretty much everything and even if he does a good thing, I won’t give him credit because he is such an ass. But the two guys I know are really nice guys, they are honest decent hard-working guys. Aside from the internet trolls I think people are pretty much the same, we have the same moral stance. We are divided by propaganda from religious institutions and media (aka Fox news). I tend to get my news from multiple outlets to get an even view, including international sources.

I think we should make a Law, If you are found to have deliberately lied while running for political office you can be disqualified from running, that would make it interesting!!

Robot is going to take my Job, and the government doesn’t care!

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Human Employee Termination Workers Silhouettes
Human Employee Termination Workers Silhouettes

Ever since the 1970’s with the advances in automation we have seen the decline in manufacturing jobs. Between 1990 and 2007, machines killed off up to 670,000 US manufacturing jobs alone. These jobs will never return because it’s cheaper to have many machines and one operator maintain them.

In my last post on this subject I was pondering how different countries are dealing with the advent of AI taking over many of the manual jobs done by people today and how this will change the idea of work when it relates to a persons identity.

Governments will be playing a big roll in the transition to an economy with 46% of the population not actually having a job. Because this is something that companies will not do, it’s not their roll. And to be brutally honest the United States Government with many crying socialism at the hint of the government actually helping a citizen has a shit reputation in this regard. With the advent of the driver-less vehicle, cars and trucks no longer needing a person will add millions of people to the lines of the jobless. Manufacturing jobs while in some markets (next generation energy production), may expand in the United States for the most part they are not coming back.

In the US there seems to be a cry to go back to the 1950’s when there was lots of manufacturing jobs and people were paid a wage that led to a decent life. I agree it was probably great and why not want that again. Those jobs are not coming back, if someone tells you they are they are bullshitting you. Whether we like it or not it’s a global economy now. And however altruistic you might like Apple to be they cannot and won’t be bringing production to the US, all the parts are made in Asia and they have many more qualified engineers than in the US.

Alas the United States is its own worst enemy, China has universal health care, that’s 1.6 billion people, while it is always a work in progress for health care they still manage it and it’s cheaper per person than in the US. That’s a big saving for any company, and with a state educational system they are bouncing out many more engineers and scientists than the United States. The US could and should be competing but it’s not. This is because in the US it’s not about workers or education or healthcare. It’s about the people in government making a dime and convincing the people that their problem is because of other people in the US, people of color, migrants, homeless, mentally ill, when in fact in the end it is always been about money.

I really don’t mean to bitch about this but it breaks my heart to see waste, and while some in the US are crying take America back. it’s not going to happen and any politician that promotes this crap is doing them a injustice. We must look to the future and find the kinds of jobs that will be open for people. And for those that won’t be able to work because the job just isn’t there. It will be OK because the government had made plans to give you some dignity & options to try because you don’t have to worry about where you are eating next.

The issue of the race against the Robots is not just a issue for the United States, it’s a global issue which every nation is going to have to grapple with. Some will do better than others because the population is better educated and can adjust to different types of jobs that will be needed in the future. Other nations will be hit harder because they had their head in the sand, for either politics or personal gain. We shall see!