It isn't good lifestyle, immune system OR the vaccine. It's good lifestyle, immune system AND the vaccine.

Some people think they don't want the vaccine cause they have a good diet, lifestyle and immune system.

I think it's good to have those things AND have the vaccine. The vaccine is the most important part of that whole strategy.

There are a lot of people that are suspicious of the medical profession. This could be one of the byproducts of income inequality. The cost of healthcare and insurance premiums is difficult. There is a big pay gap between high end professionals and ordinary people. Some pay gap is fine, but it has gone to an extreme. The vaccine is free, however; here in USA.

I think the wealth gap problem contributes to lots of people to even disputing the findings of medical science. I tend not to go there. I still buy most of the narrative that comes from science. I don't shoot myself in the foot. For instance, I believe the vaccine is good.

I think there is a difference between disputing the science and the economic issues of income inequality. Extreme income inequality fuels lots of distrust in society.

I think this inequality can be dealt with in better ways, such as raising taxes on wealthy people and/or providing better support for lower income people such as subsidized health insurance and housing.

Back in my late 20s, I was too poor to afford health insurance and it wasn't provided by my job. I remember worrying some, but I also thought I had something better; my health.

Back then, I got to thinking that the whole medical industrial establishment does create disease by causing people to work to death to climb the corporate, or government employment ladder for insurance. I was healthier than they were. I felt that I had beat the system, but my argument was more economic than questioning the science.

In later years, I had insurance from the job, but much of the time it was not that comprehensive. High deductible.

In recent years, society has tried to fix the insurance problem with subsidized insurance. Obamacare, for instance. Now I have a real good Medicare Advantage plan.

In the past, I thought my bicycle was the best health plan around. True, but if regular medicine is offered at an affordable rate, it is sometimes needed. For instance, the vaccine is free, here in USA.

My main beef with the professional / healthcare establishment is more economic, but I do still like the doctors I have had. One of my doctor's favorite phrases was, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Sometimes, the best road to health is free time and less worry about money, status and stress.

I'm not really into alternative medicine that much. Not into supplements and so forth. It can be seen as just another racket. Those dealers charge money also. There is a lot of sneaky sales pitches out there; even at places like organic grocery stores.

Having said that, it is true that science, itself, is a learning process. Sometimes better evidence renders today's science obsolete. Science isn't a dogma that you either buy or not. I think there is a variety of opinions on complex subjects, but I usually tend to follow what is thought of as mainstream science. It seems the best way to get the job done till better ideas come along. Nothing is perfect. It's always an evolving and learning story, but I tend to accept things that are beyond my own expertise. Like the old phrase, "it's beyond my pay grade."

I still think it's a good idea to rely, for the most part, on evidence based medical science when needed. Even most of my regular doctors, over the years, have said that lifestyle is the best medicine we got, for the most part.

The pressure of maintaining wealth

The economy has to run pretty fast to keep up with rising property values. Otherwise people can't pay their rising rents and first time homebuyers can't get into a home.

It means "keep running on those treadmills selling more goods and services." Keep buying and discarding to create jobs, otherwise folks can't make enough to live on. It's jobs, jobs, jobs.

We need to find a better way to maintain people's sense of wealth without having to revv up the consumption economy all the more.

It seems like the consumption economy is what we use to justify the wealth. If the economy slows down to where rents can't be paid, property values eventually drop and stored wealth declines. Now it seems like the stored wealth has gotten so high that the consumption economy can't keep up.

During the pandemic, when a lot of consumption had to slow down in places like restaurants, bars and airlines. New money was basically created out of thin air to support the Cares Act of 2020. 3 trillion dollars worth.

This helped to prop up incomes so rents could still be paid and businesses could still make their lease payments even while they had to close. It helped to keep wealth intact. Otherwise, unused business space and unpaid rent would probably have led to a collapse in property values; something owners fear. This ment that even lots of fiscally conservative Republicans got on board for this relief act.

Keeping up the burden of high rents and property values does require a lot of economic activity; like people having to work overtime just to make ends meet. Resaurants and stores have to sell more. Jobs have to pay more.

There is an old phrase that goes, "don't let the grass grow under your feet." Problem is, having to keep up with an ever growing economy of consumption can lead to increases in carbon emissions which then leads to climate change. It can also lead to burnout of the human spirit.

Other ways need to be found to prop up society's sense of wealth. Home values, stock values, retirement plans, the public infrastructure and the fortunes of the very wealthy may need to be propped up in a different way. This is where some sources of free money might have to be a perminant part of the solution; subsidizing expensive things like housing, healthcare and the public infrastructure. We seem to be trending in that direction.

Certain experiments, like a basic minimum income, are being talked about more and tried in some places.

Slowing down the consumption economy, so that it doesn't have to be so wateful, is a quick way to reduce fossil fuel emissions. This doesn't necessarily mean going back to a form of the dark ages, however. New technologies, such as solar energy, offer promise for continued prosperity. It just takes time for these new technologies to develop.

In the meantime, we should figure out how to take our collective foot off the economic accellerator, so to speak. This would give us and the planet more breathing room as we wait for new technologies to be implemented. It takes time for these technologies to develop. It takes time to turn a ship around.

People could benefit from things not measured in consumption; like more free time.

One strategy that could cause some slowing and displacement in the economy is implementing a carbon tax. This would slow down the fossil fuel based economy, but it could boost the green economy.

More people could put up with these changes if they had more wiggle room in their personal budgets. Budgets less burdened by the high costs of rent and / or trying to buy that first home.

Who's to blame for the variants, or beyond blame, what's the best strategy?

Dr. Fauci is worrying about variants of the virus that could emerge that are even worse than Delta. Future variants where even the vaccines, we now have, could be less effective. The vaccines are working good, now at least.

Some folks blame the risk of these new variants on vaccine reluctance in this country, but I think the problem is deeper than that. Chances are one of these variants would, most likely, arise in some other part of the world where the vaccine is less available. Basically, I think people, who are reluctant to get the vaccine, are shooting themselves in the foot since the vaccine is working well for now. The best argument for the vaccine is self interest for protecting one's self.

As for future variants that could arise, the bigger problem is still lack of vaccine availability worldwide. Chances are, a bad variant could arise in the US, but more likely, it would arise somewhere among the nearly 8 billion people worldwide. In some of those places, the problem of lack of vaccine supply is still larger than vaccine reluctance.

Vaccine reluctance moves to first place as a problem after supply becomes plentiful.

Worldwide distribution of vaccines is happening at a fast pace, but it still takes time to roll anything out to billions of people. Some conservatives, in USA, are now using this worldwide threat as an excuse to complain about immigration. I see immigration as only one small part of the bigger picture.

I heard someone, on a radio talk show, suggest that people arriving in US either legally, or illegally should be required to get vaccinated. Folks in US custody at the border could be required to be vaccinated unless there is a medical reason against it. If they refuse, deportation becomes more likely.

Travel is a factor, but in our modern world, we can't totally seal borders, stop air travel and so forth. Not without severe harm to our modern economy and ways of life. I hear that Canada will require proof of vaccination at the border when it reopens.

Bad variants of the virus may cause us to have to shut down parts of the economy again. There would be booster shots and tweaks of the vaccines to deal with that, but these remedies take time; probably not as long as development of the original vaccines, but still time.

I figure, "get vaccinated and enjoy life while you can," but who knows, for sure, what the future may bring. Trust that most of the scientists are trying to do the best they can given this changing situation.

Republicans may be more to blame for climate change than corporations

Ongoing drought, here in most of the west, keeps getting worse. Every once in a while, we have a moister year or two, then it's more dry years. Seems like more dry years than wet years as the years go on. Climate change is happening.

Some people accuse oil companies of conspiring to hide this problem. I would lay more blame on the Republican Party. Seems like the Republicans have been pretty much against measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A few moderate Republicans are concerned, but Republicans are far more against the needed changes than Democrats.

As for oil companies and other corporate interests, I am sure there has been much resistance. Some even scandalous resistance, but corporations are getting worried also. Some oil companies talk about transitioning to cleaner energy. Some of this talk is beyond just "greenwashing." The insurance industry is getting really worried; for instance.

Who wishes to insure coastal condo properties in Florida? Rising sea levels are happening, but before that problem becomes even more evident, other possibly unexpected leading edge problems mount. Infiltration of saltwater into limestone and groundwater with it's corrosive effects on building pilings.

Beyond conspiracy, there is another factor explaining how climate change is now catching up with us. There are twice as many people, on Earth, than there were during my college years. Even more importantly, much of the world has risen out of poverty during these recent decades. World energy consumption has gone up. Look at China, for instance.

What was a distant problem, that scientists have been talking about for decades, is now having more effect on today's short term practical needs; like "where is the water coming from to wash tonight's dishes?" It's happening now where I just saw news coverage about a spate of wells going dry in Oregon's Klamath Valley.

Some people are wary of vaccine technology, but they accept the automobile. How ironic.

I heard on the news that the number of people getting vaccinated has recently doubled in Alabama. Looks like a lot of folks are realizing it's a good idea to get vaccinated.

There are still those that don't trust the technology, but, ironically, most of those people still drive cars. That's a technology also. The government and mainstream society promotes driving. It's taken for granted. Thousands die each year in car accidents. The vaccine is much much safer than that.

Going without the vaccine is very dangerous. More dangerous than even driving.

Modern Monetary Theory kind of enshrines what we have been already doing for decades; running huge deficits; the economy remains intact.

The federal government is coming up to the debt ceiling again. I've often thought the debt ceiling should be scrapped since it's never adhered to anyway.

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) kind of says that the debt is less of a problem than often perceived.

MMT kind of enshrines what we have been doing for decades. Running large deficits over the years and the economy continues to function. Maybe we don't need to worry about deficits if our past is any indication of how things work. The economy remains intact.

I remember when some people said that George Bush JR. was "spending like a drunken sailor." Tax cuts while starting two wars. The war in Afghanistan and the second Iraq War.

Now there is more pushback saying that if we have run these huge deficits for years with what seems to be little consequence, we can continue and even ramp it up a bit. We can better tend to our domestic needs.

There are consequences, but the economy, as a whole, has survived. One of the consequences of relying more and more on new money from the Fed to finance the government is inflation.

For many years, we have seen pretty high inflation in asset prices; such as home values. Deficit spending may be what has been propping up these values. If it wasn't for this high level of spending, the economy would likely fall into deep recession eventually pulling down asset prices.

Now there is more pressure for other things, such as the wages of lower income workers, to catch up so people can still afford things like housing and healthcare. This has an effect at causing price increases for things people take for granted; such as the cost of a hamburger at the local drive in.

Much of this whole situation is created by the strong anti tax sentiment in this country. People tend to not like taxes. Meanwhile most people take a lot of services that government provides for granted.

Public safety is a service mostly provided by government. There is a phrase that was pushed last summer, by some folks on the left, called "defund the police." I haven't been a fan of that phrase as I don't, personally, have an axe to grind against the police, but it does point out that police are expensive.

It's almost like we are a nation of spoiled brats. The kind of society we expect to live in, with public safety and so forth, doesn't happen without some cost.

The same can be said about the military. Maybe we have spent too much on these things, but it seems like those who always want to cut taxes are the same folks who advocate for these things; thus the deficits.

As statues topple, I focus less on that debate and more on how far social norms have evolved since slavery was the norm

Here is one thought I have about the push to remove statues of historic figures, such as Thomas Jefferson, since he owned slaves.

Society has evolved a long ways since owning slaves was the norm. In some ways, it has improved significantly from early 1800s to legalized gay marriage.

Figuring out how to remember our past, when social norms were so different, is a challenge. It is still important, tho, to remember and realize that humans are capable of not only great deeds, but also great horrors depending on the context we find ourselves in.

We have progressed in many ways, but we still have similar faults that lead to things like creating conditions leading to homelessness, cliquishness, stranger danger fear, mob mentality, false accusations and mean spiritedness.