St. Paul has no money to repair the streets…
…but we can afford to send a kid to blow the leaves off the sidewalk around the Rec Center, which is closed because we are all staying home for fear of $1,000 fine.
Joe Doakes
Kevin Williamson puts it well: Politics (in the larger sense – settling society’s matters by means of voting) is the least effective means of allocating resources there is.
Case in point.
I read a story yesterday, that the sh*thole state of New Jersey is looking for boomers that know how to program in COBOL to come to the rescue. Seems that despite the fact that NJ is one of the highest taxed states in the country, their unemployment system is still running on COBOL mainframes, and it is not capable of handling the new gibsmedat rules…COBOL is over 60 years old; I haven’t run into a living specimen in the wild for 30 years.
Back in the 80’s, I used Pacific Scientific variable frequency motor drives that programmed in COBOL. The user manual came with a helpful guide to syntax and function library, which a guy could use to pick his way through without actually having to be proficient. I wouldn’t recognize it today, and even if I could, would I help a degenerate leftist state dig it’s way out of it’s fecklessness?
No sir, I would not do it for six figures much less for free.
The thing is, Swiftee, COBOL being as old as it is, is just about beyond the ken of most boomers except for the very nerdy and/or the very oldest (those in their 70s). COBOL was not part of my education and I’m in the middle of the pack, boomer-wise.
I will say this, to flip this whole thing on its head, those systems used for government work written in COBOL, were built by “gods”. To think that they continue to run well enough to be used today is a testament to the abilities of their builders.
jdm, I’m in no way knocking the old timer’s programming abilities. First gen programming was above the capabilities of all but the smartest people. You look at the syntax and archetecture of COBOL, FORTRAN, even BASIC, (which is what I once used to use a Frankenstein IBM Selectric typewriter as a printer for a TRS 80, using serial ASCII to BCD strings…((wasn’t my idea)); it was not user friendly, had no inherent error checking and no large library of code to use as a template.
All the early PLC programming packages used DOS. Using function keys was clumsy and time consuming, but it was bullet proof.
So yeah, the old stuff was good, but it’s as functional as a Model-T on 35W at commute time. Only a feckless leftist government would still hang one of it’s key services on COBOL mainframes….the cost of maintaining it alone; wew lad!
Berg’s moderation bot is following Walz’s lock down order, evidently…goood bot.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the bot’s rules were published somewhere on this site so as to avoid these seemingly random “moderations”?
Top state GOP senator opposes Walz’s order
I’m actually surprised to see there is at least a couple sets of intact testicles in MN. Shocked, tbh.
Walz is using “models” that are turning out to be fever dreams, just like glerbal werming. He says he’s using sound data, and the data says he must continue to strangle the economy until it stops struggling, and the degenerate mob is screeching “SCIENCE”…fine, let’s see your hand, Walz. Show us the science, not your 3rd grade level charts.
You can’t look inside the magician’s black box to see how it works. It’s magic: that’s the whole point.
And no use asking the high priests of mystic wizardry at the U of M to explain it – a good magician never reveals his secrets, duh.
All you need to know is this: Orange Man Bad.
Orange Man Bad is a given, but he’s using SCIENCE!!!! to destroy your economy.
Different set of requisites. Requires some smarmy, leftist UofM hamster to spoon out some specious bs, at a minimum.
After the economy is brought to an absolute no-pulse condition, it’s time to send the hamsters back to the faculty lounge and go back to Orange Man Bad.
Any tool with a PhD behind xer name is capable of spooning out crap that will suffice.
Xe could say “The parabolic curve tells us the vector of zoonotic pathogens will always follow to the anterior thrombosis of the cannular intraspacial tissues. As you can see from the data, we simply have to keep you all locked in your homes for at least 3 more months”.
When someone raises a hand and says “Say, Xir? That’s unintelligible twaddle”, the degenerate choir is queued to chant “You just cannot understand SCIENCE!!! Magat!
The Pioneer Press reported on the rogue Republican defying the Laws of Science and how EVERY intelligent person agreed with the Governor, including economists AND the White House. The strictly-the-facts-objective reporter pointed out the Republican Legislator had a ‘shaky grasp of the facts.’
https://www.twincities.com/2020/04/09/coronavirus-paul-gazelka-i-do-not-approve-of-walz-stay-at-home-extension-walz-show-me-some-science/
The article does helpfully explain that Walz expects a tsunami of ICU patients between May and August but the reporter doesn’t go on to draw the obvious conclusion: Walz intends to extend the Stay Home Order all summer.
Everything in the article assumes there’s a surge coming, it’s only a matter of time, and based on the size of the anticipated surge, we don’t have enough beds, masks, gowns, ventilators, staff, you name it.
Because there’s got to be a surge. It’s definitely coming. Any day now. Depend on it. The model says so. Any day now.
The fact the much-anticipated surge has entirely failed to appear, anywhere in the nation, in anything close to the anticipated levels, shows a shaky grasp of the facts. Because it’s definitely coming. Any day now.
“Because there’s got to be a surge. It’s definitely coming. Any day now. Depend on it. The model says so. Any day now. ”
It’s almost like they plan on jacking up the body cou….hey, wait…Schwoops! Who is this apostate? From Fox (naturally)…
Minnesota doctor blasts ‘ridiculous’ CDC coronavirus death count guidelines
Dr. Scott Jensen, a Minnesota family physician who is also a Republican state senator, told “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidelines for doctors to certify whether a patient has died of coronavirus are “ridiculous” and could be misleading the public.
There are a bunch of science deniers on twatter trending #FilmYourHospital.
They’re showing empty parking lots, deserted ER waiting areas, parked ambulances, and squads of nurses and docs doing impromptu Nae Nae dance-offs.
The scary smart, science savvy reprobates either remind the deniers that “We’re waiting for the SURGE!”, or alternatively, “Just because you sat at the ER entrance for an hour and didn’t see anyone doesn’t mean a fleet of ambulances didn’t arrive right after you left.”, and “You can’t see the stacks of bodies in the hallway from the parking lot.”
The medical industry is counting on a big die off for a windfall of trillions of federal gibs, and politicians are counting on a big die off to stave off a tar and feathering when people suddenly realize they’ve lost all their savings and jobs for a faux dempanic.
The surge was expected to produce 125,000 hospitalizations cresting in mid-May, but because of the wise and brave Governor’s order to Stay Home Dammit!, that’s been pushed back. The surge will hit in late May, early June, could be July, but for sure it’s coming. That’s why you don’t see any bodies piled up, too early for them to arrive. Come back in a month. Maybe two.
In the Old Days, we had elites who could speak Greek & Latin, and who knew what cheese & fruit to pair with a wine. These days our elites can’t get the damn math right.