Maggie's Farm

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?  My son says no.  I say yes.  My brother says yes, the director John McTiernan says yes, and a host of others say no.

Others play Solomon and split the baby.  It's not a movie with a Christmas theme, but does include the element of Christmas.  So, "no, but..."

Another way of looking at this is to ask if there was a message regarding "the system" in Die Hard.  It was based on a book which was clearly anti-capitalist in nature, and McTiernan states it was supposed to be anti-capitalist.  Frankly, I think he lost on that score.  The proletarian nods don't really add up well.  Capitalism had been so successful in providing more for all that by the time the movie was made some of the items he felt delineated 'wealth and privilege' from 'working class' were no longer meaningful.  They are even less so today (assuming our economy had not been locked down, which has only exacerbated some of the divisions of wealth which were barely noticeable before). 

That said, the most noticiable delineations of class today are not wealth-related, but power related as our "leaders" lock us down and lecture us on how to behave, only to go do the exact opposite things which they suggest we do.  The real 'class warfare' today is power vs. the lack of it, not whether one has more money than someone else.  Of course, that was always the nature of 'class warfare', but Leftists love to obscure that fact with a veneer of basic economic BS that only people with common sense can see through.  McTiernan, therefore, fails miserably in his goal of making a legitimate anti-capitalist story.  Mainly because there is no legitimate anti-capitalist story to be made.  Unless you are a "trained Marxist" and know how to create one out of whole cloth.  (For what it's worth, the term "trained Marxist" always made me laugh.  I studied Economics at The New School, which tried very hard to push the Marxist agenda, and I read quite a bit of Marx, Hobsbawm, Gordon and a host of other Marxist garbage.  So I'm a "trained Marxist" and one of the things every single Marxist professor said was "Marx left no blueprint, only an idea with no path forward and no clear goal except revolution." That's why Marxism and Leftist thought is such utter BS.  Unlike Classical, Neo-Classical, Monetarist or even Austrian schools of thought, Marxism is just an idea and not a fully-formed one, but full of childish and misleading binary concepts.  Though I will credit Marx with completely shifting the study of History in a very meaningful and useful fashion.)

At any rate, to me Die Hard is very much a Christmas movie and very much a pro-capitalist one.  After all, Hans Gruber himself, like so many Marxists before him, only cared about the power he was managing (his gang) and the money he was trying to collect, and was utilizing a facade to perpetrate his crime...you know, like BLM and Antifa today.  These movements are cargo cults, full of images that seem to 'make sense' but cannot ever effectively achieve the goals they have set for themselves because they are inclined only toward one thing.  Perpetual Revolution.

Friends of mine have barraged me with commentary on the "disaster" that Florida is, particularly with regard to Covid.  Anecdotally, I was told urban (and this seems to confirm) ICUs typically range from 55-80% full at any given time, depending on seasonality.  The current occupancy rates, in some places, are in the 90s, so while that is very high, it's worth noting ICUs are usually very full.  The real concern is the ability to expand, as needed.  I believe, based on the response in April, this is something our system can handle fairly effectively.  I'm not being too relaxed or naive.  I'm not diminishing or putting down the efforts of our medical personnel.  I am applauding them for their efforts, their hours, their professionalism, and creativity as they have found many solutions and treatments along the way to help mitigate and ease many of these issues.  That is the beauty of not only our medical system, but our overall economic system.  Flexibility and ingenuity.

Our friend the Manhattan Contrarian has presented his excellent piece on why Florida has made New York look silly and misguided in the midst of all this.

I doubt the media will present the story as MC has.  I applaud our friend MC for presenting the facts.  After all, he lives near the center of the echo chamber.

I'll toss in one more point of comparison - New Jersey, which like NY has similar governance, though a much smaller population (8.9mm) than Florida (21.5mm) and New York (19.5mm).  Covid cases have reached 440k in NJ, about in line with where Florida is as a percentage, but it has almost 19k deaths - similar to Florida (older and with a larger population).  Comparatively speaking, New York City alone has roughly the same population as New Jersey, but has had roughly the same number of cases as New Jersday (390k) and more deaths (24k).

"Follow the science" is a real thing, but not the way Progressives present it.  For them, it's really "Follow the politics, which pretends to be science."

It's getting worse.
California, intent on driving its residents into utter poverty, has sped up its attack on the wealthy.
There was a time when people headed there to make their fortune, and many did.  California was, for many years, the image of 'the future'.  Even with the recent tech boom and Silicon Valley, there was a resurgence of its forward-thinking vision.

Over the years, California has proved itself incapable of managing such basic things as water or even electricity.  The misguided desires to centrally plan everything, and overtax people to do it, will kill the state.  This is a given.  

California has succumbed to politicians' worst instincts and is not only taxing people to death, but chasing business away, and enforcing social ideas that are (to put it mildly) out of touch with humanity and reality.  It should not be surprising that so many people are leaving for places like Texas, Montana or several other states which are outside the deep blue Progressive belt of shame.

Cali, which I used to visit regularly for business, is nice.  I'd consider living there...at one point in time.  Not so much now.

Last week I spent some time working as a volunteer at the local Food Bank.  I figure I'll put my time to good use and help others, and so I've been signing up to volunteer there.  I was amazed at what I did, and how it was set up.
There were 6 of us volunteers, not a huge group (considering they had openings for 30), but as our leader said "I know we can do great things despite being small in number."  

What struck me are how priniciples of good business and manufacture can be utilized for more than just businesses and provide great value.  The gains and innovations that come from free enterprise are useful and widespread - and it's not just about making a profit, it's about being efficient.  Efficiency - that's where the value is.  Adam Smith noted this in his writings over 250 years ago, as he talked about the division of labor and how valuable it was (his pin factory description comes to mind). 

When modern Wokesters discuss the gains of our economy they diminish and degrade all aspects of capitalism, right down to free enterprise and division of labor.  The division of labor is at times described as 'mind-numbing' and 'unfulfilling'.  They love to talk about the 'dignity of labor', and yes working is dignified.  But from their perspective the 'dignity' is in doing ALL the tasks required to reach an end result.  Yet here I was at the Food Bank utilizing this division to help people in a big way, and feeling very fulfilled in doing my small, 'mind-numbing' role.

We have boxes of food stacked behind an assembly line - cans of tuna, boxes of mac and cheese mix, cans of fruit, pancake mix, etc.  As our team arrived, we positioned ourselves between the boxes and the assembly line.  First person in line took an empty box, put some food items in, passed it on to the next person who put in one or two items, all the way to the end where the last person put in a flyer with information on SNAP, taped it shut, and stacked it on a pallet that was then lifted and loaded to a truck when it was filled.  I personally handled putting 3 items into each box, and noticed that others struggled to open the food boxes.

I saw some box cutters nearby, grabbed them and during down moments ran from stack to stack ripping them open so the process wouldn't slow too much.  After 3 hours our team of 6 had assembled almost 700 boxes of food - a week's worth of food for 700 families. 

3 hours of work doing, basically, one thing - loading 3 cans/boxes of food out of one box into another box.  If I had to do this on my own, I calculated that maybe it would have produced about 20 boxes an hour or 60 total per person.  We'd have had to open all the boxes ourselves, shift the food, make sure the right quantities of each were added, put in a flyer and then tape it shut.  Maybe 30 per hour or 90 boxes over 3 hours.  At what may have been our extreme best efforts alone, we'd have completed 540 boxes.  As a team, as an assembly line doing 'mind-numbing' and 'unfulfilling' work, we may have fed almost 160 more families. 

Leftists would claim their worldview applied 'properly' would eliminate the need for Food Banks.  Of course, history has proved them wrong many times and they are simply ignorant of this fact.  My experience says that the surpluses of capitalism and free enterprise - donated to the Food Bank, which we were repacking (some of it was name brand foods!) - more than supplements the presumed shortcomings of the free enterprise system.  Could we do more?  Certainly we always can do more. 

But for me it was a lesson in good business practice and economics, and one I truly enjoyed.

As a side note, the woman working next to me was a younger Hispanic woman who was very chatty.  She obviously volunteered often, as she knew many of the full time workers on the forklifts.  She told them she'd lost 150 pounds.  I looked at her with surprise.  She replied "I'm 5'4" and have 3 kids and I'm a single mother.  The weight was killing me, so I chose to lose it.   And I did."  I congratulated her and asked what she did for a living.  She replied "I run my own trucking company out of my house, I have 5 trucks and if I need to drive I will, but I've got full time workers now.  I also help others in my neighborhood sell their crafts online."  I was surprised and said "You still have time to volunteer here?"  She said "I'm a workaholic, what can I say?  I have to keep moving." 

I was very impressed with her motivation and generosity.  People like her make our nation great.  They are the best of us. I don't see anyone in Washington who could match her in terms of tenacity, willpower, desire and a generally good nature.  An inspiring story as I prepare for the new year.

The blame instinct makes us exaggerate the importance of individuals or of particular groups. This instinct to find a guilty party derails our ability to develop a true, fact-based understanding of the world: it steals our focus as we obsess about someone to blame, then blocks our learning because one we have decided who to punch in the face we stop looking for explanations elsewhere.~Hans Rosling

h/t to Cafe Hayek 

One of the weird things about a layoff is extraction.  I have a long runway before I'm actually no longer with the company.  I'm still working, mainly with the people who I have to complete projects with or transition those projects to.  I'm never a fan of companies that show people the door the minute they are let go, unless it is for cause or if that person works in a particularly sensitive area.  Giving people time allows them to prepare, and help the people they are leaving prepare.  It's easy to be bitter and say "I'm giving them nothing" but that's counterproductive.  Best to leave on a high note and focus on the future.  

In the meantime, I'm not really working as much as I had been.  I was literally told I can do whatever I want and handle it all as I see fit.  So I'm doing what's right for myself while doing what's right for the people I worked with and respect. 

Over the last few months, I've been posting less than I have in the past.  There have been a variety of reasons for this, but the primary one is the work-from-home environment is a difficult one for what I do.  I could delve into the details of the last 9 months, but it's not worthwhile.  Let it suffice to say it's been a slog, and getting covid in April didn't help. 

My job simply became exponentially more difficult.  One would think work-from-home would improve things.  I thought it may, and in some ways it did.  But mostly it made my job more of a job.  Much of what I do requires interacting with people, getting responses, creating policy and making sure that information is shared properly.  Zoom, Slack, texts, - these tools don't make up for walking into an office and having a conversation.  Not to mention, the primary thing work-from-home has done is to increase the number of meetings everyone has, so free time to chat is rare.  I found myself working earlier in the morning and later in the evening.  My 24/7 job became 24/7.

Despite this, I felt good.  Early complications eventually led to a point where things were starting to make sense again, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  All that ended last week when I became part of a company-wide layoff due to covid.  I know this is a happy holidays wish.  Bear with me.  I'll get to that

I'm just one of millions without a job.  But there are so many others without so much more.  I'm just a statistic.

A good friend of mine died of pancreatic cancer 2 months ago.  His family is working, they were prepared and well-enough off, but they will be spending their first Christmas without their father/husband/brother/son.  He was the most optimistic person I knew, even as the end approached, he had a smile and kind word for everyone.  I'm sure he was scared, but he did not show that side to anyone.  I choose to honor his legacy by being more like him in that regard.  I have worked hard to keep the smile on and be positive.  The stories of his final days were so uplifting, but so in character for him.  While the sense of loss is great, in some ways that may have prepared me for what was to come.  In a good way.

Another close friend lost his son.  He died recently due to a drug overdose.  The story, as in other cases like this, is long, complex and fraught with ups and downs.  Mrs. Bulldog lost her brother 22 years ago before the holidays and while it's never easy to lose someone close, the holidays amplify the sense of loss.  I have spoken with my friend and was pleased to hear how well he was doing.  He is working.  He is positive about his and his family's future.  While the loss is still unreal to him, he remains committed to creating something positive.  My friends and I are also doing some other things so we can leave a legacy of hope and solace in his son's name.

Long before I lost my job I'd say to anyone I spoke with that I have a feeling something really good is going to happen.  The loss of the job isn't it, though one could probably make a case for it being a happy situation.  I know something better is right around the corner.  I have prospects, I have resources.  So my loss, unlike millions of others through this covid disaster, is not completely unfortunate. There are so many others worse off.  Mine are first world problems.  I'll constantly remind myself of this, and keep looking out for others, and helping where I can.  We all need a little bit of George Bailey in us.

Giving to the food bank, a kind word, a helping hand, whatever is needed.  We tend to do these during the holiday season.  That's not the only time we should.  I told my friend that after his son's death I called my boys to tell them I loved them.  Like holiday giving, these are not one-time things.  These are things we need to do more often.  But reminders are useful and provide kickstarts when we forget, fall behind, or get distracted.

In spite of my 'bad' news, I'm keeping things in perspective and realizing I have it pretty good.  It's been a rough year, a strange year, but I'm convinced better times are ahead.  Optimism is a force multiplier.  Look out for those who need assistance, and do what we can for them.  I hope all of you are doing well and have a great holiday and that 2021 is a prosperous one for all of you and your families.

2021 can, and will, be a year of peace and renewed prosperity if we choose it to be so.

If you'd like some good investigative work on Covid, these are easy to read and understand posts from a Swedish physician.

Voted today since NJ does not have in-person voting.  Here are my thoughts.
Let's just say I was careful to read the instructions. And while it's not hard to do - it is NOT easy either.
In other words, I fully expect to see some large percentage of the elderly vote just fall off the map in NJ. Or be manipulated as they request assistance.
I was careful - and I could easily have made mistakes.

Some examples of where errors may occur:
1.Wrong color pen. Blue and black only. But there are 3 different instruction sets. The most useful part of the instruction set is the pictures...which are for the easiest part of the process - filling the circles and putting it in the envelope. I noticed it said nothing about pen color, which I'd read was an ongoing issue. But there were instructions about the pen color...on a small slip that has "IMPORTANT" on the top of it and then a list of additional instructions. Seems to me, it would be useful to have that pen color information on the part about filling in circles.  Maybe I expect too much from people.
2. A mistake I almost made was tearing off the certification slip. There is a dotted line across it, at the top. I almost tore it off on the dotted line to put in the envelope then noticed it said "Do Not Tear". So I looked around and found the 3rd set of instructions, which explains you just fill out the certification and leave it on. So WHY is there a dotted tearing line there? No idea...definitely misleading.
3. Signatures.  There are several places for signatures.  There is only one for yours, as the voter.  But if someone assists you, or transports it, they must sign it as well.   Which makes some sense, but could theoretically mean some get disqualified if they forget or ignore this.
4. Signature.  I was assured my signature will be checked to verify and avoid a false vote.  Except my signature on record is 26 years old...and my signature is not the same today.  I get away with that in-person as the people at the voting booth know me.  Some schlub in our vote verification center does not.

I don't need to go further. The reality is that mail-in is trouble waiting to happen.  In addition, the box is at the county center (you can use regular mail if you choose, but I can walk to the county center and I don't trust USPS) and while there is a video camera trained on the box, do you really think that's enough? Some sketchy guy (I know who he was and have seen him around town...but why he was at the box was beyond my comprehension) was hanging out there, just staring at it when we arrived.
I do not like, nor do I trust, the mail-in process. It is designed for fraud. I will not be at all surprised to hear many complaints.

The town square in Jackson (for what it's worth, the town is Jackson and Jackson Hole is the surrounding region leading up to the Tetons), has entrances adorned with elk antler arches.  Every year the Boy Scouts go to the elk refuge and collect antlers.  The story of the elk is both interesting and contentious.  They should just pass through but growth of the town has blocked migration routes, and a bad winter many years ago trapped them in the valley.  So many died it was said you couldn't walk without stepping on them.  Originally, a privately funded rescue was created and the elk were fed in the area.  Now it is a National Refuge and they are fed there every winter.  It is a mixed blessing...and one which has detractors on both sides.  An unnatural state of affairs but a great tourist opportunity. 

 (more below the fold)

Just going to post a few pictures of my vacation, an off-season visit to Montana, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons.  We had to leave 2 days early due to snow, but it was still one of the best trips we've had as a family.  Lots of hiking.  Lots of driving.  Lots of steak.  Flew into Bozeman, drove down through Red Lodge and stopped at Cody.  Nice towns to visit. We had to skip Livingston, too much snow and the road condition reports were not good.  The next day, the drive from Cody to Yellowstone is magnificent, and we did it in the snow, again.  Pictures of our Yellowstone Welcome Wagon below.  Saw Old Faithful (the boys were underwhelmed, but it did go off right at the time we were told it would).

Spent 2 days in Jackson, hiked the Tetons and met some moose.  No squirrel.  Definitely need to return and do more hiking there.  Amphitheater Lake looks wonderful, and the hike to 9,000 feet isn't horrible.

Drove through Idaho, where we ran into a cattle drive in Rexburg, to West Yellowstone.  A tourist town, but in the offseason it has a charm all its own.  Spent another day hiking and taking pictures of geothermal activity, waterfalls, and ran into Wile E. Coyote on a short hike to Clear Lake (which is really quite green and smells like sulphur). 

The weather in Yellowstone changes on a whim.  We had fog, rain, clear skies and snow all in a 5 hour period.    The first few snow storms were pretty mild.  Unfortunately, the snow kept getting worse.  When 4 inches fell, the park closed and a larger storm was on the way.  So we changed the flights and headed home.  It was the right decision.  Bozeman got 10 inches on Saturday, and we would have had to drive in that snow...

Some pictures below the fold, more to follow...

That 3 generations could have spanned almost the entirety of the US' existence is rather astounding.  Yet it is a fact, there is still one of John Tyler's grandchildren left alive.

I first learned two were alive many years ago when an article about this arcane bit of Americana went viral.  It's great trivia, but easily forgotten.  Yet one of them died, so the trivial knowledge was revived.

What I find just as interesting is the Gardiner name, which the recently deceased held.  John Tyler had married a Gardiner daughter.  The Gardiners deserve a bit of study.  If you have the time I recommend looking them up, and reviewing the history of their island - Gardiner's Island - off the coast of Long Island.  Mrs. Bulldog and I were out on the East End last weekend (lovely weekend on Block Island) and the topic of Gardiner's Island was something we began discussing and started reading about.  The family (particularly the last "Lord of the Manor") have an intriguing and eccentric history...as does the island itself. 

I don't know how many Maggie's readers utilize social media, in particular Facebook.  I do use Facebook, for a variety of reasons, even though I am aware of the privacy issues it poses.  It remains a very good tool to share thoughts, experiences, moments in time, etc.  It has helped me re-connect, and stay connected, to many family members and friends.  I have investigated other, less intrusive, media like Parler, but I have not made that move to utilize yet.

I am not writing about social media, per se, though.  Whatever your thoughts on its benefits or detriments are yours and you're welcome to them.  Social media is a reality now, and I doubt it will be going away anytime soon.  Personally, I don't use Instagram, Twitter, or most other social media.  I limit myself to Facebook and Linked In.  One for personal, the other for work.

What I find particularly troubling lately is the number of friends I have posting pictures of themselves mailing in ballots and writing "I voted, make sure you do, too - you know who I voted for."  This is no different than taking a selfie while you're in the voting booth and saying "I voted, you know who I voted for."  And while some people have done this, most people would find it very distasteful.

This may be the new reality, though.  If it is, it's a troubling problem for the democratic process.  The social pressures to 'vote the right way' are being ramped up.  A new generation may not understand the problems with this, and many people who don't understand Democratic Theory may not, either.  Here is a view supporting selfies which I find abhorrent, since the premise is based on the reason it being good is that it allows millienials to "convey information about their political views and engage with their friends about elections."  No offense, but the vote itself is, and should be, private.  While many of us share our political views, and even how we voted, that's a personal choice - not a fashion statement.  Turning voting into  a fashion statement is a dangerous thing.  For what it's worth, the article supporting selfies points out that fraud is typically engaged via mail-in votes - a fact I'm sure Slate has shifted its position on in the last few months...

A final note.  As I pointed out in the first sentence, the privacy issues of Facebook are problematic.  Imagine sharing your selfies on Facebook, which already has collected a ton of information about your political views from your posts, what you've clicked on, even sites you've visited (just a reminder - not having a Facebook account does NOT mean you're immune to them collecting your data.  They can do it whether you're on there or not - and they certainly do collect it.), and now they can prove from your selfie that you 'did the right thing for the party.'  It's a pleasant thought. 

No, I'm not watching.  But regardless of the outcome, I suspect Trump will emerge victorious, for a variety of reasons. 

Here is a good analysis of his performance against Hillary.  Funny how perspective changes things... 

The story of Brave New World preceded 1984 and other dystopian totalitarian/collective novels.  It also provides a counterpoint - the idea that there might be a way to accomplish the collective through positive interaction and genuine agreement.  Huxley realized this was a seductive approach, but one fraught with problems, all of which eventually bubble up over time.  Collectives require some form of force, or provision to derive agreement, to survive over longer periods of time.  Widespread collective agreement, even on a small scale, can only be temporary.  Huxley saw the value of propaganda, drugs, and psychological manipulation...as well as genetic engineering...to help achieve that "provision to derive agreement" and achieve a means to a presumed end.

There is, of course, no end that is always utopian and happy.  That's the farce of our 'science-based' leaders and protesters out there - believing society can be, somehow, manipulated (or forced) into happiness and perfection.  Huxley knew that.  The critical flaw in Brave New World is the technological advancement and wealth this 'collective' creates.  As we know, that is literally impossible.  None has ever achieved it, none ever will.  Despite that, Brave New World provides a cautionary tale on falling for seductive ideas that run against human nature.  And, oddly enough, it aligns very well with the 'science' of the current covid political management...the willingness of people to fall in line to 'save' society.  

Really two recommendations.  Having completed Yellowstone, I'd recommend it if you have the time and inclination.  I doubt some of the mafioso tactics employed actually take place, but in today's world, who knows?  That said, if you enjoy westerns, the great outdoors, and some intrigue it's worth your time.  

If you want a bit of nostalgia, mixed with some humor and good common sense, I'll toss Cobra Kai out there.  Anyone who enjoyed The Karate Kid will get a kick out of this update.  It makes fun of itself while teaching some worthwhile lessons about perspective and life.  Johnny Lawrence, the antagonist in the original, is the star.  His life hasn't quite gone the way he'd expected.  So he returns to his roots, and once again Daniel LaRusso is his competition.  An updated story, relying heavily on the original for perspective on how Johnny became who he was, and how Daniel seems to have dogged him the rest of his life. 

Johnny provides good real-world advice to his new students in his dojo, a bit over the top for comic relief, but his students understand how he is lifting them up.  It's a rough approach, not 'acceptable' commentary in modern society, but focuses not on how we want the world to be, but how it really is.  Even Daniel, with his 'perfect' life, has to face some of his own failings. 

At its heart, it is a comedic look at the original.  It's got real world lessons in it, too.  Some that would be worth having kids learn today. 

Dystopian science fiction writers must be laughing right now.

There is a reason political functionaries are being assholes about wearing masks - and it isn't about keeping you 'safe' (a common lie used to expand power).
They know they can continue to promote themselves and their power more effectively by making you reduce your individuality.

Humans differ from other animals in a few key ways, which in aggregate make us rather special. The opposable thumb, the ability to analyze situations and prepare plans, the sense of self and free will (self-actualization). Where animals that reject individualism have a level of success in groups or hives - what people who overemphasize these fail to note is that humans exceeded the limitations of groups by emphasizing the individual initiative.

My memory of 9/11 is pretty vivid. I won't go into details about what happened, we all have our personal views on how/why/what all occurred. These views are based on where we were, what we were doing, and what we choose to believe.

I don't believe the 'truthers' and their conspiracies. All you need for a good conspiracy is a couple of willing believers and some good memes that are logical fallacies.  But I'm not going to share what I believe happened, either.  We're all allowed to believe what we want, even if I don't agree with what someone else believes.  That's called a marketplace of ideas.  Sometimes there are lemons being sold in that marketplace.  The nice part of the marketplace is this - I don't have to buy the lemons.

Getting past that, I have other memories. People coming together.  People pulling together. Without any impetus from a 'leader'. Spontaneous organization and commitment to each other. Race differences disappeared. People cared about each other and making sure they were getting what they needed.  I remember it as a "lockdown" of sorts.  I didn't go back to work for 2 weeks, working remotely from home, just like the last 6 months.  Of course, my office was by 14th Street, which had limited ability to cross.  Our office felt it best to let the responders have as much space as possible.  I saw similar behaviors in the Northeast Blackout of 2003, 2 years later. Spontaneous organization, not something we needed leaders for.  People working together, finding solutions to issues we all faced.

It's coming and I don't personally agree that mail-in voting is an option.  I can't get anything delivered on time, why should I expect the USPS to handle my vote any better?  Not only that, but unless the government pays for the envelope, isn't a stamp a form of "poll tax"?  Seems to me, mail-in voting is just make-work to keep a government jobs program (the failing USPS) viable.

There are ways, as Fauci (though he's been all over the map with his views) states, to allow in-person voting.  One thing we can do is pay attention to South Korea over the next few weeks.

 My personal opinion is that voting should be a three to five day long process and no early exit polls or counts should be publicly shared until polls are closed.

Not that I fear the virus, particularly.  But some do - so set some voting guidelines, stick to them, and let's make this work.