Ross's mid-recovery update and political commentary

Hey everyone, I'm taking a one-day break from Chalkboard Pics to bring you this note.

Saw the doctor yesterday. Had the nasal stents removed and feel 1000% better. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this: https://khow.iheart.com/featured/ross-kaminsky/content/2019-01-20-chalkboard-pics-5-nasal-stents/

After putting a scope up my nose, when then went down through the sinus cavity to my vocal cords, the doctor said that the healing is going very well. I tried to speak yesterday -- in fact I might try again and add it as a video here -- and found it very difficult to do more than whisper. When I tried to talk more loudly, I got a lot more air than sound. The doc described my voice as "breathy". 

The reason is that he injected the vocal cords with Botox. That prevents me from really activating them fully for a temporary period, to prevent the sort of physical "banging them together" that would slow or prevent healing. But since they can't be fully activated, they don't close all the way and that causes a lot more air to get through than would normally be the case.  When I try to talk in a higher pitch, it's slightly better, but anyway, I'm still supposed to be almost entirely silent so I don't want to push it. For those of you interested in how vocal cords work, check out the video at the end of this note.

At this point, my expectation is that I will be back on Feb 4 instead of Jan 28. My surgeon spoke with my boss about the necessity of needing a little more time to heal. I really miss being at the station to talk with you...and I'm very grateful to Jon and Krista for doing such a great job filling in for me. Each of them already has another job, so what they're doing is a big deal.

Now, let's move on to some news of the day or week:

Although the stock market had a bad day on Tuesday, it's been very strong through the so-called "shutdown." And Tuesday's sell-off was on fears of slowing global growth exacerbated by trade wars, slowing growth in China, etc. 

I do feel badly for federal workers not getting their paychecks because politicians suck. Especially those who make modest livings doing jobs away from Washington, DC. That's not the same as saying that all of their jobs should exist...the gov't still does a lot of things that it shouldn't...but one lesson of these shutdowns is that we could do with less government. It's a lesson that is never learned. 

The media continues to try hard to make Americans upset about the shutdown but I think we mostly aren't. Trump supporters want him to stick to his guns. The far left wants Pelosi to stick to hers. The middle of the country, however, I think is sick of all of them. 

Trump walked into this shutdown by making the biggest political mistake he's ever made: publicly taking responsibility for it before it even started. That all but guaranteed it would happen. Pelosi wants to stick it to him because she, like all Dems, really hates the guy.

BUT, the people know that Trump truly believes that "the wall" is important. NOBODY thinks that Pelosi (or Senate Democrats) truly believes that the wall is "immoral" and not worth more than $1 of expansion funding. 

So Trump's position, outside of his base, is weak for the reason that it always is: He's a jackass. But that's not new. Pelosi's, position, outside of her base, is weak for the reason that everyone knows her objection to any new wall construction is a lie. Between the two, I'd much rather be in Trump's position.

I predicted a couple of weeks ago that this would end around Valentine's Day. It's still as good a guess as any...but that's because no guess is particularly good. Other people -- smart people -- think this could go on for months. I think that's unlikely but not impossible, just because the politics are so ugly.

I continue to believe that, much like other political doings of recent years, the biggest losers incumbent members of Congress regardless of political party.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez remains the darling of the media because she won't shut up and she won't back down. She says the world as we know it will soon end if we don't eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Who teaches kids these things? She also says, and I find this one more interesting, that it is immoral to have an economic system where it's possible to become a billionaire. 

Obviously, anyone who listens to my show knows that there are innumerable logical fallacies and moral failings in such a view. She needs to read some Bastiat, of course. I'm tempted to mail her a copy of The Law but I doubt she'd read it, and if she did I doubt she'd understand it. Her brain is off. 

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Finally, the blow-up about the Covington Catholic School boys and the Native American man who walked into their midst has been just the latest example of the mob mentality on social media looking to crush anybody who dares to strongly support Donald Trump or be pro-life. I'm not in either of those camps, but what the left tried to do to those kids was reprehensible and it's been wonderful to see the yuge backlash against the critics and in support of the boys who, it appears, did nothing (or close to nothing) wrong while being taunted with some truly vile rhetoric by "Black Israelites" or some such venomous people. (If you watch the video you can see those guys telling the boys that they are, or soon will be, "school shooters", just as one line of insult.)

Celebs and media types are furiously trying to delete tweets and other postings in which they followed the lies to attack the kids. Many people online are talking about it as a lesson finally learned by so many. One thing I promise you: Only a very small percentage of them learned anything. 

Turns out of the biggest offenders (in terms of the malignancy of her commentary) was a local Douglas County teacher. There's a move afoot to get her fired. 

Here is the note I sent to the DougCo School Board: (Please note link near the end to learn more.)

I hope that the School Board will take significant action against Ms. Grissom. I’m not part of the “hang ‘em high” online crowd always looking for something to be angry about. But as a parent of two kids (who may be moving to DougCo…still working on that) having teachers behave the way she did scares the hell out of me.

I don’t generally look for people to lose their jobs over moronic online statements but what she did goes straight to the heart of her fitness to be a teacher and I do believe she deserves the most severe punishment you can mete out. It’s also obvious that if the tables were turned, she would be calling for a person’s firing. We know that because she has.

In case you haven’t seen it, a plethora of Ms. Grissom’s disqualifying-from-teaching tweets are posted here. I have not verified them because Grissom has “protected” her Twitter account, but I assume they’re really hers. I would also add that the small number of followers she has is irrelevant. This is about her fitness to guide our children, which is clearly absent at this point.  https://firemichellegrissom.wordpress.com/2019/01/21/fire-michelle-grissom/

Regards,

Ross G Kaminsky

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Locally, I got a fund-raising email from the Colorado GOP about "Safe Injection Sites". I find it a little troubling that this would become a partisan issue though I understand why Republicans/conservatives would tend to oppose it more than Democrats/liberals would. Does EVERY issue we face as a community, state or country have to come down to partisan politics? I find that trend quite destructive and unnecessary. The only people who benefit from it are the politicians and their willing pawns. Which is just another reason, to go back to one of my first points this morning, that we should have less government.

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OK, partly because the topic is interesting and partly because the picture is slightly gross, here's a video on how vocal cords work followed by a video about where hoarseness comes from:


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