Getting Some Things Off My Chest

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

At times there is too much thoughts to process to give them all due space and time, so here are some uncategorized and random thoughts that have been passing through my mind lately.

  • Texas, and more specifically Texas American Football, needs to get over itself. Texas to the SEC could be the final straw that breaks College American Football’s back. American College Football is becoming a snake that eats itself tail first.
  • The pandemic needs to end so wear a mask and shut up.
  • I can’t seem to find a way to get focused on my Latin American blog.
  • Peruvian politics never ceases to amaze me – maybe that should be my next topic
  • Reading is becoming more enjoyable the older I get.
  • St. Paul, MN needs a new high-rise building downtown – I am getting bored of the skyline

That is it for now. More later I am sure.

Home School, Remote, School, SOS School

With the summer flying by and COVID-19 not going anywhere for the foreseable future, my thoughts as a parent are beginning to look towards fall and what will happen to school when it is slated to start in less than 2 months.

This recent article in the NYT highlights many of the same sentiments that I feel. As a parent I can cut a little slack as everyone had to scramble back in March and do the best that we can. However, now this is different and outside of a quick 5 minute survey in May I can say that there has been very little in the way of communication from the school district, state education officials, and others and what is going to happen. The only thing that I have received was a little email stating that due to the declining cases in Minnesota school will be “normal” starting in September.

I laud this as the best possible option but what is being done in case this becomes an impossibility due to an an uptake in cases. I would love to see some parameters and plans to take into account other scenarios. For instance, what events would warrant a return to remote school, what would warrant a modified in-person session with reduced class size, etc.

Right now there is just to much unknown and for me that means that even more needs to be done to keep learning as agile as possible with schools slated to open in less than 2 months. Let’s hope for the best and plan for the worst.

Biden, Bernie and a Warren like plan for that!

I am going on on the limb here and throwing in some political commentary.  After Super Tuesday and the following other Super Tuesdays it now looks like it is Biden’s race and nominations. Bernie will keep up the good fight but I believe that even he knows that changes are near 0 of receiving the nomination.

A lot of commentary has been focused on the establishment vs. the revolution, moderates vs. radicals, mild reforms or burn it down, etc. Many are worried that the existing divisions between these two blocs of the Democratic Party will allow Trump back into the White House.

With the country focused, and rightly so on covid-19, there has not been much time to focus on anything. The country is panicky and nervous and downright scared. Many Democrats are also very worried about Uncle Joe and how much he has left in the tank. Now, Joe has  been running on an establishing decency platform coupled with an electability element.

Now, here is how I see all this playing out in the coming months and years. With the nominations sealed Joe has shown that he has electability, at least among the Democratic party. However, many on the Democratic left have not been convinced to “buy in” on Biden and will always have their doubts. For many this leaves Biden’s VP choice as crucial. The more I have studied this the more I believe that he should select Sen. Elizabeth Warren as VP. Stay with me as this will be explained below.

So here is my best case scenario. The Dems rally behind Joe and manage to take back the White House and a good chunk of the country breathes a sigh of relief. This is where it gets tricky. Showing that he beat Trump marks off one of the 2 items on Joe’s platform. The second one is establishing decency, which he will say he can do withing the first 100 days. Now, after 100 days and with decency established Biden can say that he has accomplished his 2 main goals; defeating Trump and bringing back some measure respect to the White House and the U.S. This is where he resigns. Now see the importance of the VP choice.

Warren can then get to work from Day 101 to implementing many of her plans to reform and thus reinvigorate many aspects of American society. I also see this as a great way of bridging the gap between the conservative and more liberal elements of the Democratic party.

Do I see this happening, no, no I don’t, but one can dream right………..

MN State Flag….Yucky????

Every 10 years or so there is some politician that proposes that the State do a redo on its flag. It is happening again this year. As the article points out even though the reasons change the core fact is the flag is a poor representation of what the state is, was, and will be about. I for one will support a a redesign for our flag. We come up with new mottos and branding for our state all the time for events like the Final Four and the Super Bowl. Don’t you think that some of those creative minds could also contribute to coming up with a better designed state flag? There are many ways to go about this so let’s get started people!

Here are some ideas that others have shared to get things started!

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Sports, Sports, Sports, Time to Fix Sports

It has been a long time coming.

First of all, I admit that none of this will ever take place as money, greed, and vested interests are too powerful to have many of these common sense solutions that I propose be fully implemented. However, these things need to be said nonetheless.

Length of season

Every major sports season is too long and needs some trimming. And do not even get me started on the post-season (More on that to follow).

  • Baseball – 125 games
  • American Football – 12 games
  • NBA – 60 games
  • NHL – 60 games
  • NCAA American Football – 10 games
  • NCAA Men´s Basketball – 25 games
  • MLS – 42 (The season is longer but the post-season is dramatically reduced)

More on the post-season and some league restructuring to come.

 

 

 

 

March Madness

I just love this take from the Economist “Express” newsletter.

 March Madness lasts three weeks, but its opening days are hyper-kinetic: 16 games take place both today and tomorrow, and eight more on both Saturday and Sunday.

Here is a link to the full blurb.

Hoopla-la: basketball’s March Madness
The most chaotic four days in the global sporting calendar begin today. Sixty-four teams compete in America’s annual college-basketball tournament, in a knock-out (single-elimination) format designed to maximise the number of seemingly unthinkable upsets. March Madness lasts three weeks, but its opening days are hyper-kinetic: 16 games take place both today and tomorrow, and eight more on both Saturday andSunday. Unlike last year’s event, which featured a single undefeated favourite team (which of course went on to lose), this year’s is seen as wide open: Las Vegas bookmakers estimate that none has better than a 16% chance of winning the championship, and put nine at 5% or higher. Television networks pay the National Collegiate Athletic Association $700m a year to broadcast the enormously popular event, providing the bulk of the organisation’s revenue. Despite several pending legal challenges, for this year’s contest no player will see a single cent. That seems mad.

 

The Minnesota and Cuba Connection

The following is an entry from my blog covering U.S. and Latin America – https://hemispherepolitico.wordpress.com/

At first glance it does not seem to make sense, an isolated island in the Caribbean linked to a state more associated with snow and ice, but a quick look at the current events transpiring on the thaw in relations between Cuba and the U.S. show Minnesota is taking an important role.

To kick things of the Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital, Chris Coleman recently led a trade and cultural delegation to the island nation.

Continuing the Minnesota to Cuba connection, Senator Amy Klobuchar has been crafting legislation aimed at eliminating the trade embargo.

Finally, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will be the first U.S. orchestra to make a trip to Cuba since the embargo was put in place.

Maybe Minnesota is leading the way on Cuba due to its historically progressive politics or perhaps those of us who call the frozen tundra home are just looking for a way to warm up during winter. Regardless, look for Minnesota to continue the charge as the U.S. looks to improve relations with Cuba.

The Grocery Glut

This latest piece from the Minnesota Post,goes into great detail about the food and grocery scene here in the Twin Cities. One thing that really jumped out of this report is many of the new stores seem to be smaller from the traditional grocery stores – think Cub and Rainbow.

I for one will welcome this greater variety and competition and it looks like all of the Twin Cities will benefit from new entrants into the market, especially those who live closer to the city centers – where historically there has not been much in the way to find for grocery stores. No doubt that in the future there will be some shake out and winners will consolidate gains and losers will abandon the market but until then it is time to take advantage of this ever increasing grocery store growth.

College Football Playoff

As the debate rages about expanding the College Football Playoff (CFP), there is one very practical solution staring everyone right in the face. Expand the CFP to 6 teams. Here is how this would work.

  • The Conference Champ from each of the Power "5" Conferences would automatically reach the playoff.
  • The Playoff Committee would select the 6th team from the Group of 5 conferences or the various independents that remain.
  • With the 6 teams in the field the Playoff Committee would seed the teams #1-#6. The playoffs would begin with the top 2 seeds receiving a buy and they other teams staging a quarterfinal round. Winners would advance until a National Champion is crowned.

This structure has a number of distinct advantages.

  • You must win your conference to advance to the playoff
  • Group of 5 or independents will always have a shot of placing a team in the playoff

Of course their are disadvantages as well but with this system in place it would result in a consistently solid pool of playoff teams year after year. If you can’t win your conference too bad and better luck next year.