Wanna go outside?

• I just went for a walk.  It's quite a beautiful sunny day although the wind is blowing quite hard.

Already I am thinking that kids are probably liking this 'social distancing' deal.  As I left the house I noticed a young mother and her child outside raking up the debris in their flower patch after a long winter.

Yesterday on the way back from a similar walk I noticed three sets of dads riding bikes and playing catch with their kids.  The kids are likely thinking, 'I've not spent so much time with my otherwise busy parents in years.'

And indeed there is alot more dog walking going on these days than normal.  Especially in the middle of the day.

• Mary Beth is down in Portland today at work.  She works for a non-profit agency that assists people experiencing homelessness.  They've been begging the city and state to set up a large shelter for those now living on the street.  Those that do sleep in a small existing overnight shelter are packed in like sardines - at the very time everyone is supposed to be six feet apart.

The city and the state have been slow to respond but just today MB had to go look at one potential site in Portland to see if it would out.   

• The virus is spreading like wildfire on military bases and on Navy ships around the world.  This will only get worse.  Two American GI's died 'mysteriously' in their barracks in South Korea recently.  I wonder if it was suicide - or else the Pentagon doesn't want to panic the troops by saying it was from the virus.  I've started daily checking the Stars & Stripes paper in order to keep up with this growing problem.  I expect the troops will get increasingly uneasy.  They mostly want to go home.  I know what is like to be in the barracks, so far from home, especially in times like now with so much uncertainty.  Sometimes it can feel like jail.

• Washington is doing a pitiful job of taking care of the people across the US.  Their first priority is giving Wall Street, the aerospace industry, and other corporate interests all the money they can funnel into those coffers.  The people, if they are lucky, will get a one-time check at most for $1,200 (although many will get less, if anything at all).  This is just 'hush' money.  Quiet the population down while Mr. Big and his underlings get taken care of.
• I also wonder about the debt?  Where is the $2 trillion, or $4 trillion, or $6 trillion (the media seem confused about the totals) gonna come from?  The U.S. debt was $23.4 trillion as of Feb. 19, 2020. What many people don’t know is that the Social Security Trust Fund, aka your retirement money, owns most of the national debt. Washington is draining the swamp and our protests, right now, are practically limited to social media and the telephone.  See more here
• I did a Zoom call today with Global Network board members Dave Webb (England) and Lynda Williams (California) to plan a GN Webinar on space issues.  We will do it on Friday, April 17 at 2:00 EST.  If you are not yet on Zoom then consider downloading it now and we'll send out the other needed details soon. Lynda has said she will sing and dance while Dave will be the band master.  We'll have a good time and would love to see your faces with us on Zoom.