Nature and Science

 It's a blustery fall day in northern Utah, we are camped beside a reservoir watching the wind stripping the last leaves from the gamble oaks. That same wind pushes the dark, heavy clouds against the mountains, only to watch them slide over the ridges, laughing as they take the promised moisture away, another example of nature ruling against the desires of humans, a reminder that man does not control nature. 

No, man does not control nature, or rather science (as nature is only a manifestation of science in a physical state); regardless of his failed attempts to influence nature as displayed through the centuries by prayers, alters, offerings, and sacrifices galore.

Even as the alchemists tried and failed to turn lead into gold, they tried again and again, only to fail each time. We may indeed use nature, such as the construction of this reservoir to harvest and store snowmelt to provide irrigation water during the dry summer, but we cannot create more snow than nature supplies, nor ban the droughts which plague our farmers.  

In fine, we cannot control nature. we may be able, with increasing accuracy, to predict the storms and their intensity, but we cannot command them away. We are able to better protect ourselves from nature's furies and better respond when they occur, but we cannot govern nature's course. 

Which brings me to the novel Cronavirus and our responses, or lack thereof, to the deadly Covid-19. Coronavirus, which has existed in some animals, mutated and now is a plague on all humans. It does not care if you are a communist, fascist, socialist, republican, democrat, independent, rich, poor, gay, straight, or undecided. It is nature, and nature does not care about you or I. Not even our President can declare it away.

Covid-19 does not care about Easter, or warmer weather. It concerns itself not if our schools or business are open, surprisingly, it does not give a wit about our upcoming election.

Science does know some facts about this scourge, and science tells us that wearing a mask, washing your hands frequently, disinfecting commonly-touched surfaces, and practicing social distancing helps to slow the spread of this leveler of mankind. These are facts, proven facts; they do not belong to either a political party, a particular person, or a specific faith. We may not like these facts, but they are facts. 

If you do not want to spread Covid-19, or see your family members sicken and perhaps die, wear a mask. If you do not want to see your child or your grandfather die from Coronavirus, wear a mask. If you want to help the country recover and prosper again, wear a mask. Stop trying to make it a political statement, or about government overreach or your personal freedom; frankly it is bigger than all that. 

It's about your life, and yes, your personal responsibility to all those around you, everyone you come in contact with. It's the bagger at the grocery store, the clerk at the hardware store, the dry cleaner, the receptionist at your place of work. 

JUST WEAR THE DAMN MASK!

Thank you for reading; feel free to share this post if you desire. Comments and thoughts are encouraged and allowed, just click the pencil in the box below to leave a comment. 

R. M. "Bob" Hartman      

Thoughts from the Desert

It's early Saturday, and I'm waiting for my morning coffee to perk. I can hear some birds, singing out to each other as the sun rises over Utah's western desert.

The covid pandemic has brought major changes in lives throughout the world, and Kathleen and I are no different. She now works from home, and has been doing so for several weeks. My employer offered a furlough to those who are in high risk categories, of which I am considered one, so I have been at home as well. I can say I have achieved a lot these past six weeks, including a complete remodel of our home office, however, it is still a work in progress.

This furlough has also given me the opportunity to study the behaviour of people under stress. I still find the hoarding of toilet paper and gas cans sadly irresponsible, and tragically funny. As I posted before, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, to which a majority of Utah citizens belong, was quick to respond to the social distancing protocol, and I credit that response for keeping the spread of the virus slow in Utah. When I take rare trips to stores, etc., I find most people wearing masks and gloves, including me. Utah's public officials, including our governor, have responded quickly, and well. There are daily press briefings from the governor and the state epidemiologist, which are well used to inform the public and keep panic to minimum.

It is disappointing to see people,like Alex Jones, and some websites like Infowars, feed into the reopen now movement. Even in Utah,some folks are holding reopen rallies and protests. My opinion is that these events are going to result in an uptick of cases of coronavirus, and should not be held; it is my firm belief that flattening the curve is more important than being able to eat at my favorite establishments.

The President is doing a disservice to the public when he tweets "liberate Illinois" or other states where the rallies are held. It's discouraging to note that he is only sending those tweets in states with Democrat governors, or those cities where he and the mayor have differing opinions. It is interesting, to say the least, to compare the strong leadership of most governors and mayors, who are using facts and hard data to determine the course of action, with the self-centered, constantly changing actions proposed by President Trump. To say America deserves better from him is a gross understatement.

At this time, our President should be encouraging the citizens to follow the protocols established by the CDC and the elected officials in each state and locality. He failed to follow the previous administration's lead and advice, that a pandemic of this sort would reach America and affect Americans citizens. When he talks about his great response to this massive threat to American lives, the voters should remember that this President has tried, and in many ways succeeded, to reduce the funding for the CDC during his administration. He has also been slow and weak in his response to the financial damage to everyday citizens, focusing instead on helping large corporations survive the financial storm. This is a time when the President of the United States needs to support the working class, or we shall see economic disaster of a scale not seen since the 1930's.

Just my thoughts, please let me know what you think. Click on the pencil inn the white box below to post your comments.

As always, thanks for reading!

R. M. "Bob" Hartman

Mass Hysteria, Fueled By Mass Ignorance

Really, people? Hoarding toilet paper? I was at my local Sam’s club this morning, there was a waiting line to get in-limiting the number of people in the store. Ok, that I can understand-distance is a way to contain the spread of viruses. Toilet paper in 36 roll packages was limited to 2 per person.  I saw families lined up, mom, dad, 5 kids; each person had a basket to put their 2 packages of toilet paper in. How much toilet paper do they normally buy in a shopping trip?

No diapers or feminine protection products available. No baby 

formula, no milk. No coffee, no bottled water; plenty of soda pop and snack crackers.

Where I work, a store that sells sporting goods, hardware, clothes, 

toys-we are out of 55-gallon water barrels, toilet paper-including RV toilet paper, any type of face mask, Kleenex, gas cans, any form of sanitizing cleaner, even bleach.

It’s a virus that affects the respiratory system, not your intestinal 

tract. It’s an air-borne virus, not a water-spread virus. It can’t live in our treated tap water.

It does spread though social contact, I understand that. I applaud 

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for cancelling the General Conference and suspending all local worship services for the time being. They probably did the best thing possible to avert the spread of the virus!

Our State government has closed all K-12 schools for two weeks, 

again a very positive move in my opinion. Classes have been moved to on-line wherever possible. There will be sack breakfasts and lunches available for children who need them. Again, a good response.  

Gun and ammunition sales at our store are up, way up over a year 

ago. Some types of ammunition are out of stock. I spoke to one of my regular customers, he told me he was stocking up on ammo because of the riots. I changed the subject.  

Hysteria runs rampant in our population. In many ways, it is 

probably worse than the virus.

Why? One can only surmise. Our government has been kind of 

slow on the response; in my opinion, they should have let the CDC handle the information, get the facts out rather than the speculation. 

At this time, during this crisis, we need a leader who will calm the 

people, who will work to make sure the proper tests and treatments are available to all who need them. We need a leader that will help people understand what they need to do, and what they don’t need to do. We need a leader who will unite us and bring Americas great resources to bear on the problem at hand. We need a leader that doesn’t cut funding to the CDC and other health organizations, a leader who supports community hospitals, doctors and nurses. We need a President of the People, for the People, and by the People.

We need a Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy. Our reality 

TV star is not getting the job done.

Thanks for reading. Of course, these are only my opinions. I’d like

to hear yours, agree or disagree with me.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman

To leave a comment, click on the pencil in the white box below.

The Utah Legislature-Always Ready to Waste Your Tax Dollars

Once upon a time (2001), in a land close by (Utah) the legislature passed a bill creating a “Porn Czar” (officially called the obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman), with an annual budget of $150,000. When it was created, it made for some good late-night comic routines. Two years later, tired of being the laughingstock of the nation, budget cuts in the AG’s office forced the porn czar out of business. The Utah Legislature, however, did not officially remove the position until 2018.

That crowded bastion of self-righteous, hypocritical male Republican Mormons just could not let a good thing die. This year (2020), for your amusement and waste of taxpayer dollars, Rep Brady Brimmer, R-Highland, introduced a bill that will require all print and hard-copy porn to carry a warning label, and require online purveyors of naughtiness to have a 15 second warning flash on the screen of porn viewers. Failure to have a label on printed material, or a warning flash on the screen, will result in a $25,00 fine per violation-to be shared with the citizen enforcers who turn the material over to the state AG’s office for prosecution.  The bill has cleared the House Judiciary Committee 9-2 and is now headed to the Utah House floor, for discussion.

So, if you want to make a problem for a magazine publisher, 

movie distributor, or book author, you can report them to the Utah State AG’s office for prosecution. The bill does not set any standards for what is, or isn’t, porn. Shakespeare, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Chaucer-the list is endless.

I can hardly wait to see what the total cost to the taxpayers is for

all the court fights that will come from this bill. Utah will lose the court battles, just as it did when the legislature went after pay-per-view adult movies in hotel rooms, but it will be an expensive fight.

And we are still dead last in education funding. Go figure.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome, just click on

the pencil in the white box below! Thanks for reading my blog.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman

The President of the Untied States of America

Has many solemn duties to perform, among them is to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The Constitution of the United States was born by a people who   

had seen, firsthand, what a monarchy can do to it’s citizens; they 

were determined to create a system of government that was of the people, by the people, and for the people. Keeping this end in sight, they established three equal but separate divisions of government: the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches. The goal was to establish a system of checks and balances that would keep the government on an equal basis, avoiding excesses and malfeasance by the equal branches of government. (Most of us know this from our civics and history classes in public schools.)

The Founding Fathers did not expect this triangular based

government to always, or even regularly, go smoothly, they envisioned there would be disagreements between the branches, and within the branches; they had faith, however, that even these disagreements would be settled out in a manner that respected the views of all parties, even those in disagreement with the final outcome. Over time, this excellent system has been improved, codified, and strengthened, to the betterment of all Americans. The Founding Fathers showed a group wisdom and intelligence far beyond what could have reasonably been expected of them as individuals.

Our Founding Fathers were well aware of the results of a monarchy

or dictatorship; that is, everyone who served in a government could be removed from his or her position simply for disagreeing with the head of government, regardless of the validity of the disagreement.

That same Constitution therefore provides that the President shall

nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Officers of the United States, such as the Director of National Intelligence.

As of today, no less than 13 government departments are headed by

“acting” leaders, as opposed to those who have been approved by the Senate, as provided for in our constitution. These include: The Departments of Labor and Homeland Security; The White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Small Business Administration.

Still reading? Good. Other offices under “acting” leadership

include OSHA, FDA, USCIS, CBP, FEMA, and ICE.

That’s right, my fellow citizens. Your on-the-job-safety, drug safety and pureness, and the federal government’s emergency management agency, are run by acting directors. Feeling a little worried? Don’t let me stop you; the Directors of National Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are also “acting.” That’s right-our homeland security, immigration, and national intelligence departments are run by acting directors, who owe their office solely to President Trump, and have not been vetted by the Senate.

And what qualifies the acting directors for their particular

positions? To a person, they have demonstrated undying loyalty to President Trump. Many had made financial contributions to the President’s initial election campaign. They have, in the main, no knowledge of the departments they head, nor do they share a past experience of managing large groups of employees.

Why have these positions been filled by acting directors? The

President said, in an interview with the press, that he liked acting directors. It allows him to move quickly.

I guess we found out yesterday what he meant by move quickly.

When a DNI briefing to the House intelligence Committee reported that Russia was again interfering in our electoral process, and that Russia preferred Trump as the next President, the President angrily discarded his acting DNI,( Joseph Maguire) and replaced him with another acting director, Richard Grenell, who is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Mr. Grenell has no intelligence background, nor any experience leading a large government agency. His sole attribute, if you will, is his unquestioning loyalty to President Trump.

This behavior-using unqualified acting heads of government

bodies- must come to a stop. It is up to the Senate, our elected officials, to call a halt to the President’s flagrant disregard of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, and demand the President submit qualified individuals for “the advice and consent” of the Senate.   

Thank you for reading; as always, your thoughts and comments are 

appreciated. Just click on the pencil in the white box below.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman

What Did I Expect?

Somedays, you just shake your head, you cannot believe it. No, I’m not talking about anything in Washington, at least, I don’t think the problem is there. I’m curious if you noticed the same sad occurrence where you live, perhaps you can let me know if your experience was different.

Authors, columnists, politicians and pundits; from all shades of the political spectrum, we hear about patriotism, our shared American values, and our great country’s history. America First, take our country back, Make America Great Again-the list of patriotic statements is long.

My employer does not sell food, tobacco, or alcohol; this means we are one of the companies that can hire high school students for part-time positions. For many, this is a first job, a first entry into the real world. While I am sure it is an eye-opening experience for them, it also allows me a small window into the current condition of education standards in Utah.

I hear some of these young people talk about our country; some is just a parroting of the social media they follow; some is actually about real events taking place. So, I decided to take a sampling of these high school students when the opportunity presented itself.

Saturday, December 7th, provided an excellent testing date. I asked 4 students what day it was, what date it was, and what significance the day had to America.

Not one of them could tell me. To make matters worse, two of them are 4.0 GPA seniors.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” FDR

Have we, the American People, so quickly forgotten the sacrifice of so many Americans on that fateful day in Hawaii? Is this perhaps just the tip of an iceberg, so to speak, a micro-view of a paradigm shift in American values?

It’s been said by many, and I am afraid it is still true today: Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history, are bound to make them again. Did we not learn from Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, what happens when you attempt to appease a dictator? And yet, our seemingly historically ignorant President coddles up to dictators, and trash-talks our allies. He ridicules the United Nations, and brow-beats our fellow member countries. And for what? “Likes” and re-tweets?

The Office of the President of The United States of America is the biggest bully pulpit available in the world today. When the person that holds the esteemed office of President denigrates our elected representatives, the rule of law, our democracy, our fellow-citizens, and our own history, it should come as no surprise when the next generation of American voters and taxpayers fail to see any value in the sacrifices and lessons of history.

The President of the United States of America should be, and in the main has been, a person that exemplifies the best that America has to offer. He, or she, should be someone that we can tell our children to look up to as an example of leadership and statesmanship.

Historically, our presidents have lead America through natural disasters, financial collapse, wars both hot and cold, internal strife, and international affairs. This president appears to be leading us down the unhappy path of impeachment and his personal dishonor.

I had expected this president would want to have his term in office held up in history as a significant time; a time in which the interests of America and her citizens would improve. I had expected this to be a time to be noted in the history books as a good point in American history, perhaps with the improved education of our children, progress on eliminating income inequality and racial discord.

I believe this presidency will not meet my expectations.

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

As always, your comments and viewpoints are welcome.

Thanks for reading.  

Taxes and Education in Utah, Again. Or, Say it ain’t so, Governor Herbert

"Cash-strapped Utah" has an income problem; that is, it needs more money (what's new) to continue supporting such deserving programs as keeping the gray wolf out of the state or moving the prison from potentially lucrative real estate to a swamp. It seems our sales tax base is eroding, for reasons the government did not say. Perhaps Utah citizens are buying more products online, and thereby not paying sales tax, or perhaps those citizens are cutting their personal spending because wages are not rising as fast as the cost of goods. But, the reasons for the downturn in sales tax revenue are not the subject of this muse. No, I'm looking at what Utah is proposing to do about the decreased revenue. 

The first item that comes to our legislature's collective mind, whenever money is concerned, seems to be how can we cut what we spend on education. Our legislature seems to have forgotten, or better said, have never read Thomas Jefferson (he's one of those Founding Fathers we love so much here in the Beehive state) on the subject of Education: 

The tax which will be paid for [the] purpose [of education] is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance. --Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, 1786.

Back in 1930, voters in Utah agreed, and passed a constitutional amendment:
“All revenue from taxes on intangible property or from a tax on income shall be used to support the systems of public education and higher education as defined in Article X, Section 2.” (Utah State Constitution, Article XIII, Section 5(5))

There you have it, in black and white. The citizens of Utah voted to pay for education by committing all the state income tax to education. Perhaps, back in 1930, there was no need to offer incentives to draw business to our state; perhaps they didn’t need to incentivize extractive industries, perhaps they didn’t need to make our real estate moguls more money, or perhaps there were no gray wolves threatening them. (OK, enough with the wolves.)

Anyway, the citizens made it known they wanted public K-12 education for everybody. Were they looking ahead, to a time when a high school education would become necessary for any job? We don’t know what drove them to make this decision, to tax themselves for the purpose of education, but in hindsight, it was a good decision.

Fast forward to December 2019. Our best-managed state, as Governor Herbert likes to remind us, is looking at ways to increase revenue, without upsetting big business, the wealthy, real estate kings and, most importantly, campaign donors. Now the legislature has public school funding in its target-finding laser sights. There is a very serious proposal from the Legislature’s Task Force on Tax Reform that would “amend” Article XIII, Section 5 (5) and allow income tax receipts to be re-directed to the general fund, thereby reducing the amount of money available to public education.

For many years, Utah has been a leader in the race to the bottom of per-pupil spending. The good news, Utah has found a race it can win, consistently. The bad news, Utah students suffer. And, it could be argued, the state will suffer long-term, when the residents cannot compete for good paying jobs due to lack of educational development. Or perhaps those companies won’t move to Utah because we will have a functionally illiterate workforce.

Let’s be perfectly clear on how well Utah has run this race. Our per-pupil spending is the lowest in the nation. Utah spends $6,953 per pupil; the national average is $11,762 per pupil. That’s right, our best managed state is at the bottom of the class, we rank as number 51 out of 51. Isn’t that something to be proud of? WE’RE NUMBER (5)1!

It can’t be said that the Utah Legislature hasn’t tried before to cut education costs, those high-minded people tried for an educational voucher system, so you could send Sally and Johnny to a school that teaches what you want your children to hear, as opposed to fact-based “liberal” education. The voters said no thank you and defeated that program. Now Utah is hot and heavy into the charter school fiasco, whereby “schools” that lack in credentials, with teachers that don’t have the proper education, can have a go at spending state tax dollars-and then fail to be acceptable schools. Look at Treeside Charter School in Provo, or American International School of Utah. Both have failed, and the financial loss will, in the end, cost Utah more millions. The students are the ones that really lose in this ill-planned assault on education, however. Perhaps our legislature could learn more from Mr. Jefferson:

Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation. --Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806.

Now, to be fair, the task force has included some other measures that are also repugnant, in my opinion. They want to increase the sales tax on food (after all, everybody needs food), and they want to increase the per-child deduction on the fore-mentioned income tax. A double whammy hit on the less fortunate, to be sure. Low-income residents will see the grocery bill rise (due to the sales tax increase), and then they have to wait for a “credit” on their income tax to offset the higher weekly food bill. Those families with children will pay less income tax-that’s right, those that have more children in school will pay less to educate them.

So, what can be done? If this sloppy, poorly-thought-out plan makes it through a special session of the legislature (very likely), and a ballot measure comes forward to amend the state constitution to allow the diversion of income tax money away from schools, vote against it! And perhaps more importantly, let your legislative representatives know how you feel about education!

Our children’s education, and the future of our state’s economy, are worth more to me than moving the prison, or funding extractive industries.

Well, those are my thoughts on this chapter of education funding in Utah. Thanks for reading; your thoughts and comments are, as always, welcome.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman