Category: Scale Measurement Thoughts

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Scale Measurement Thoughts Thought Blurbs

Tenet’s to Live by

Pretentious as a title can be there’s a few concepts that can guide, not tell one how to navigate life. There’s some universal experiences we all have but don’t take away whatever unique experience one is living through. This can also just be an attempt to define those shared experience by defining what’s important.

Tenets are defined as a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true. It would be despite how disagreeable on a position people are we should still be able to agree that eating regularly to avoid malnutrition is something everyone would agree is good a thing. From thinking about what’s important to everyone, here’s the five most prevalent that can help expand how you think.

  1. Time, it only goes one way
  2. Family, chosen or given
  3. Acceptance of your environment
  4. Kind w/ self and others
  5. Doing your part/purpose

Why are these five tenets so important?

  1. Time: Most people want more of it.
  2. Family: A place anyone can feel accepted, appreciated and loved is essential.
  3. Acceptance: A comfy seat is better than an uncomfortable one.
  4. Kindness: Be ruthless with institutions and systems for yourself and neighbors.
  5. Doing your part: Nothing can be something, sometimes.

How can you begin to implement or add a more thoughtfulness to your actions?

  1. Be concise and have brevity.
  2. Recognition that criticism is neither always constructive or hurtful despite which end you may be on.
  3. If you want to change anyone, it’s always best to try and understand their grievances, expressed or not.
  4. People in a broken system aren’t broken or share in the blame of the wrongs of said systems.
  5. Observation is far from nothing but equally far from learning.

What do you think you’ll walk away with?

Share in the comments or post but I hope some of what was learned was, with a final list, is:

  1. Be respectful with time.
  2. Family you choose in life or are given at birth, and hopefully both, will give you the space to be yourself. It’s absence is fairly detrimental, not deadly, but a “family” will add a real value and support system in life’s ups and downs.
  3. Accept the journey of life is filled with never-ending paths to similar places.
  4. Our responsibility for our conditions matches the agency we had in said conditioned outcomes.
  5. Sometimes doing your part is waiting for the most impactful moment to do whatever it is you need to do. Others times doing your part is simply doing what must be done immediately. Distinguishing what is priority in any given moment is a responsibility we all share; however, that responsibility is best learned through experience.

    What’s important to me and you will differ, but hopefully these five tenets and the levels of rationale baked into them can help guide anyone in their lives.
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Data Knicks Scale Measurement Thoughts Trades

Knicks as I see it

I’m unsure if we’re watching the same thing.

After 23 games last seasons the Knicks were 10-13.

When you compare it to this seasons 11-12 record and it’s just so incredibly Knicks and so incredibly emotional to say, “We’re shit and awful and everyone’s a fraud!” when we stand at in a better place than last season. That is an objective fact.

Addressing the feeling is necessary because I go through it too like during the 3rd quarter, it is known. The bases of my critique is that what we achieved last year was a team coming together along the season. The beginning of any season is always the biggest trap for ANY analysis because you’re just operating off less data. Admitting to be being completely hyperbolic, but I don’t know off the top of my head what in life is ever a true linear progression, so why we expect that from our team?

Another thing to keep in mind is the Knicks played their first 25 games without Derrick Rose.

The Trade Market Thoughts

First rule of the trade market is that it doesn’t really open up until there’s trade eligibility. For anyone signed in the offseason, they can’t be traded until what always ends up being like 25-30 games into the next season.

Second rule is that these players are people and while it may be in your power to just uproot someone, doing so without the consent of the athlete can really paint an organization in a certain kind of light. People want to be respected so that’s the very least you could do if you were operating any organization.

I’d be surprised if you saw an Rose/RJ/IQ/Randle/Obi included in any deal at this point. Some may be for some exceptional star, but I think the organization is invested in those five more than the rest to varying degrees and rationale. Without being able of putting them in numerical order due to being an irrational fan, for some it’s potential growth they see in them where as for others it’s what they bring now as well. Maybe both for one or another.

There’s draft capital and other supplemental players on the roaster that may want to have a change or fresh start. Maybe there’s some other factor or need for a specific person that the Knicks could help. It’s only my conjecture but I think Obi’s growth and what his role is or could be for this team has made a few redundancies no longer palatable. You’d be lying to yourself if you claimed you wouldn’t be surprised if any of the players above were traded, but it also still could happen. We can’t know what’s pretty exclusive information like peoples private lives, let alone wealthy one’s.

Welcome to Copeland

Knicks fan created, Copeland. Larger than life and his numbers will ever tell you, Chris Copeland played forward for the Knicks, Bucks, and Pacers. He had a certain level of fandom and brought joy to this New York Knicks fanbase.

We were introduced to Cope as 28 year old rookie. Beloved by Breen he showcased in his rookie year a 42% 3-point clip and had shown some good rim finishing well on occasion too. He played well enough to secured life changing money on Indiana but he was always cherished in Knicks land. He played 4 years in the league and which during he suffered from a infamous stabbing.

Reality is harsh but if you’re wondering what we’re doing in Copeland, what about the trades or how any of this matters… that is by design. The idea is to build slowly to have a more sound perspective on things that are otherwise emotional or hard to define. With certain foods/meals, it can take a certain pallet to enjoy it as viscously as someone from that culture/region/time, or generally for that matter. The same can be with both the individual words said or unsaid. You can include the overall narrative too.

Fairly and finally before we get to the point or piece that connects all this is all the above and below is my conjecture that can be right or wrong.

The Point

Thibs was COY last year, but it’s not absolvent. He has flaws but there’s no way he’s just throwing shit at the wall to not win. He’s going to try to win with what he knows which can be rigid fundamentally but he does have some nuance with some players he trusts. To the extent he’s even rigid fundamentally is also up for a bit of debate because he’s changed from Chicago to Minnesota and from his time even on the Knicks.

I do believe there’s trades the Knicks could make that could put the players they’re most vested in as advantageous position as possible but to the extent it might be a reality may be the last 8-10 minutes of a game. To change the team around for that short a time, you’ve got to be so precise in your ability to judge talent and how it might complement in alternative situations that it borderlines impossibility. I’m also not terribly creative or have the cap knowledge to facilitate “real trades.” What I do is tweak with numbers to discover more outcomes for better or worse.

The simplest way to I can quantify the concept is to imagine players who qualify the rules of the trade market, your team, and available players as a “piece” in Texas Hold’em.

You’re vested players are the community cards.

Small Blind & Big Blind would be players qualifying for the trade market rules. Your remaining chips or what you bet with separate of obligated money/contract matching, would be your draft capital.

“Winning the Pot” would be acquiring talent that supplements your vested talent. It could be the case there’s no available agreement to be had without including one of those vested players. Maybe there’s a few teams with major draft deficits with unhappy talent that might have other needs. It could also be the case that as the team gets healthy, if that’s possible, you decide to keep you’re current talent and chips and not trade anyone.

In my opinion the ideal 4-5 Rotation game to game would look like:

Randle: 35 Mins
Mitch: 25 Mins
Obi: 25 Mins / 10 minutes w/ Randle
Taj: 16 Minutes / 4 minutes qtr avg

If we’re talking about Sims instead of Taj:

Randle: 35 Mins
Mitch: 25 Mins
Obi: 25 Mins
Sims: 11 Mins

There’s noticeable exceptions but what I want to talk about is Mitch. I’m unsure we can ignore he’s added a lot of weight, and while he’s improved in ways, there’s a glint of freakishness missing and I don’t know if it’s because he hasn’t been 100% this season. It’s just somethings not all the way there and he’s also expressed coming off the bench before. It’s not like Thibs doesn’t trust Taj. What if he just started for 4 minutes? Idk how radical that would be but maybe that’s a way to get Mitch a bit more engaged? I’m spit balling. Until Mitch can play extended minutes for a while, I want his minutes around what his season average is. Also, in Obi’s dream minutes, could he have AT LEAST Copelands usage when he was with us? I’m sure Obi’s better, and as can be inferred above, I hold Copeland in high esteem in Knicks history and lore. Reality never boar it out what he teased he could be in spurts, but Obi seems like real deal and we should lean into that with clearing up some positional overlap.

As for the positional shake up currently occurring with Kemba’s exclusion removal from the line-up and it’s also likely where we’d see traded talent if trades were to occur. It’s hard to say how the remaining positions might look like. I’ll say that even with the exclusion of all those listed vested players, there’s a lot of various contract matching points the Knicks can make depending on how creative they might need to be. Again, this would be assuming the player is also looking for a change as well but I won’t be listing the various amounts of possibilities, but I count more than 10+ casually.

Who were Randle’s comments for?

Now admittedly, I could be out on a limb here for a branch that doesn’t exist. Caveat out, who I believe drew some of the ire of Randle is actually us, fans generally. I think Randle has been through it and is okay with playing in here, signing his extension for lifechanging money, but also flexibility for New York to build with him validates that.

It’s nothing to be in a tizzy about or think he’s being immature because he should expect that. I just think all he’s really saying is he wants to win, they want to win and part of their success, for better or worse, are the fans which brings them up. Just my two cents, but that’s about as far as I go with conjecture because this devolves into fan policing too quick if we’re not already teetering the line.

We’re better than we were last year. That’s objective if only by a margin so far as wins produced. The team is far from optimized but their not all bad problems to have, just having a few growing pains as the team tweaks with the rotation and potentially the roster as the trade exceptions begin to expire. I also think there’s a bit more of the slide but I try to not count wins or losses before they happen once we’re in the season. Even with my thoughts, I still believe this team has the potential to have good stretches for reasons of past precedence of RJ having a slow start and the team performing well late in the season after working out the kinks. I still hold onto the 50+ win dreams.

-Until Next Time

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How to unpack? Politics Scale Measurement Thoughts

How should we unpack? – This Moment, 9-20-21

When I started this project, my limited knowledge has me in a state of long-term learning while I try to make sure my tone isn’t mixed in with my own feeling.

COVID-19

Here we will be seeing how my stated July theory on COVID-19. I’ve written a few pieces which can be used as other examples to show my interest and care in writing on the virus. The entire thread can be found here but the main hypothesis from analyzing the data was, “The most at risk populations are adults between the ages of 25-60 whom are unvaccinated, as well as children too young to be vaccinated. There’s a exponentially compounding issue here.” The briefest way I could summarize what it is lead me to that thought follows as such:

  • The US has a large group of very vaccine hesitant working age adults
  • Obese adults (42% of all adults) face the highest risk for mortality
  • Children and teenagers are mostly not vaccinated
  • The US was 5 to 6 weeks out behind the U.K. as far as COVID impact w/ greater overall obesity rates at the time (7.21.21/7.26.21)

Given all of this three questions were itching at me which drove myself to feel quite strongly about vaccine mandates.

  1. What’s 5-6 weeks out from 7.21.21, an interview with Michael Osterholm (Director at CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) on the Majority Report?
  2. Are there any potential overlaps between the two most at risk populations? Underlined above for clarity
  3. Are there any looming catalyst/super spreader events or situations happening between July 21st and September 1st

I’m not going to lose everyone with the numbers as there’s a base and foundation we have to accept based on the information we have or had at the time.

The American elderly have fairly good vaccinated rates comparing to the whole population. At the time of the thread on July 26th, four out of five adults of retirement age were fully vaccinated and almost 90% had at least one shot. It would stand that while there’s still 5-6 million unvaccinated elderly people, they’re vaccine rates are greater than younger Americans.

Now there’s going to be a very key thing to grasp here that will require a little mental labor, and good faith to begin to wrestle with. It’s no conspiracy that first time parents are getting older for a multitude of different issues. What causes that isn’t the point to focus on but more than it is happening. Secondly, to my second question, are there potential overlaps between the most at risk populations (children/teens & working age unvaccinated adults)? Here’s a couple things we can say:

  • Average age of first time mothers in 1972 was 21 years old, up to 26 in 2018
  • Average age of first time fathers in 1972 was 27 years old, up to 31 in 2018

There’s no judgement for having children whenever people do. This is to simple illustrate & understand this is the current meta or dynamic for families as they exist and where the behavior is trending.

Speaking generally, while future parents are trending to be older, the larger group of people already alive and living today are under the prior number dynamics. Teenagers born between 2004-2007, on average, have parents in their early to mid 40’s or the prime of their working years. Generally, 40% of those adults are obese which has been linked to poor outcomes irrespective of age. If you isolate for non-obese and obese people in a specific age or population, the obese are going to have worse outcomes with COVID-19.

As we mentioned above, the largest group of unvaccinated people at this point in July, and now, are the working age adults not vaccinated already and children and teenagers. Until very very recently, there was no proper dosage amount that’s been tested for safety. This is currently under FDA review. It would then stand that these groups of unvaccinated populations could potentially compound to create multiplicative issues.

If we can establish this as a general baseline, and not take this as a prescription to individuals upon various approaches for a population can this next part be fruitful. I’ll clarify again that there’s no judgment or approach I’m looking to analyze for this apparent behavior, more that these are things we can take away broadly from the data available to us. Enough qualifiers, there were two consecutive events that occurred in-between the period of time from the formation of the theory to early September, Sturgis Bike Rally and the beginning of the scholastic year for most students around the country.

On Sturgis, it’s important to understand the impact it had on COVID cases and deaths last August. Cases and deaths function as lagging indicators and understanding that cycle is important to capture shared social events that impacted and propagated the spread of the virus. I would recommend looking back on cases from August through October of last year to see what wild-type COVID’s growth occurred from these events. Hybrid schooling and remote schooling was most often utilized when possible which is distinctly different from last year to today. Back when I wrote as the effects of Sturgis was beginning to be felt (8.30.20) I wrote these ominous statements, “This is going to be very dark. Things are going to get worst.” This was back when the U.S. death toll was still well short of 200,000. We’ve more than tripled the deaths in a year. Even with the introduction of the vaccine, we apparently lost another 2,000 lives to COVID-19 over the weekend, averaging 1,800-1,900 Monday through Friday last week. These growing cases and deaths would substantiate the pieces of the theory relating to the risks of opening up schools with little to no restrictions (unknown, but would seem risky), and Sturgis (certifiably known) could be some of the major factors to this COVID growth today.

I’ll finish this section with a brief statement about the context of the obesity among adults in the country. No one wants to be seen as obese in the current society so I’ll be as clear and direct as possible with this.

Taking all context above into account and remaining general, the largest population of the unvaccinated are working age adults and children and teenagers. Obesity being one of the leading predictors for poor outcomes is empirical. It’s also known that with the overlap of these populations irrespective of obesity. We know Sturgis propagated the virus in the past and while it’s unknown, there’s some early reporting of issues of children and teens getting COVID, likely exposing their households and their working age parent(s). We known adults over the age of 20 are obese at a rate of 42%. Lastly, we understand the delta variant to have the same viral cycle but with a yield is 2-3x the yield of the wild-type variant.

It means we can say with confidence, that given what we know, the at risk populations have a degree of compounding overlap. It poses an extreme risk to those working age adults whom are obese that are still unvaccinated. Looking at where we’ve been just over a year ago to this moment and it feels that very little has changed. Well… except a more concentrated group of at risk people which is incredibly disheartening.

Afghanistan

It’s both good we’ve now ended our 20 year violent engagement in Afghanistan and that there was never going to be an perfect withdrawal process. Often I find a lot of critiques from the right start by making perfection the enemy of the good which is ultimately defeatist and anti-political engagement. It is community destroying and promotes apathy when we should be promoting civic engagement on a much more local level.

Pokémon Unite

Blastoise needs a nerf and Slowbro needs a buff.

Sports

Without basketball, what do we even have? One more month of dread…

Alex Jones

Terrible conspiracy theorist & incredibly harmful entertainer was quite attractive when he was young.

Texas Abortion Law

Generally, I’m not going to be okay with giving the state the power to police what consenting adults do. What an induvial chooses to do with their body is their own business. It’s also quite incredible that while a man assumes none of the actual burden and risk with carrying a child, some feel they have superior input to what a women should or shouldn’t be able to do with their bodies. It sounds like expanding the states power to infringe on the rights of the individual is what occurring in Texas. While it may be abhorrent to yourself or a group, whether or not something is “okay” with any individual group is not a reason for illegality or state sponsored action to curb. Ultimately your individual preferences are not supposed to reflective of federal or even state law as the idea of separation of church and state is pretty important to the founding documents and the development of the state.

Met Gala & A.O.C.

I think it can be tricky to understand the calculus of wearing a dress broad casting your ideas/ideals. While there’s various approaches to growing the civically engaged population, I’m not about to preach efficacy or say one way is better than another. My only point would be if the approach puts a sour taste in your mouth, then extend the possibility that you may not be the audience.

Personally I don’t give a shit about a lot of these events so I don’t care. I’m only making a comment that attempting to limit the avenues for growing a population and starting a conversation is when you also limit the range of a groups political aim.

Brian Laundrie

He did that shit. I’m not a legal professional, and this is just my opinion, but he killed his fiancé.

Border Patrol

Regardless of how righteous you might feel in treating other human beings of different populations and culture, maybe don’t invoke loaded imagery. What’s being reported here is not just the poor imagery, but blaming asylum seekers for doing what is within both international and U.S. law seems to show a complete misunderstanding of issues. My goal is to not be overly inflammatory; however if the behavior and imagery of the border patrol agents does not bother you, please fix the bankruptcy of empathy and take a step back to understand they’re following the law when trying to come here via asylum. You’re sick in the head if you feel the boarder agents are justified in their behavior and treatment of those migrants.

School Shooting – Virginia

Gun violence will continue to be normalized but nothing is normal about the growing threat of shooters on school grounds.

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Knicks Scale Measurement Thoughts

The Knicks are the NBA “Bar”

Raising the NBA to NYK standard.
Middle of the PackNew York KnicksCharlotte Hornets
Memphis GrizzlesBoston CelticsToronto Raptors
Golden State WarriorsIndiana PacersDenver Nuggets
Teams vying to be on the right side of .500

While they’re not title contenders fans exuberance about their teams play is palpable. Annexed from the scope of relevancy for the better part of two decades, hungry Knicks fans are learning their new place in the league, The Bar.
Referred to by a few different names, the good/bad (bad/good) team, tough playoff out; however in doing this we miss the chance for a more effective title, one of respect. I petition for that team, the one that beats bad teams and catches good teams sleeping and fight ever possession to be the NBA Bar.
Nestled right under .500 having played one of the other hardest schedules, NYK has flipped the Vegas script of being a top five, maybe top three lottery team. Under Coach Thibodeau these young Knicks lead by All-Star Julius Randle are not only playing better but have bulldozed their way to wins and league-wide relevancy. Winning 38 games over the prior two years, they could potentially reach the half way point over the next six. A lot of this rides on the roaster adjusting to play without their defensive anchor for 4-6 weeks (get well Mitch; Feb 13th), but looking to the eight teams between 14-16 wins can provide a bit of context for the next six games before All-Star break.

New York Knicks:
Starting with the primary focus for the Knicks fans, Julius Randle and his All-Star campaign are leading the Knicks potentially to their first post season since 2013. Inspiring play from the rookies and young roaster as they prove week after week, and game after game how together they are as a unit. With Maestro Tom conducting the players to their respective bests, this Knicks team us humming along; the vibes are good. Playing the Pistons twice, they also compete against Sacramento, Golden State, Indiana, and San Antonio. Competitive teams seem to bring the best and help the team reach the fullness of their potential. Champions? Hell no. Top Contenders? Still no but that’s not the point or what Knicks are refereeing too as far as bucking expectations and the trends. From Vegas and from any basketball media outlet, it seemed a forgone conclusion the Knicks were headed to another lottery mosh posh of a season filled with more losing than winning; more ridicule than praise. While it was slow and fraught with defensive denial, the team they’ve reached a point where old narratives have begun to wash away. Old habits are hard to rid and this (almost) half season of respectable Basketball can be an outlier, but this isn’t something new for Tom as he always maximize the roasters he gets for success.
Predication: (4-2)

Charlotte Hornets:
Despite some apprehension dollar figure on the Hayward deal and early season adjustments from the youngest Ball brother with a color commentary to excite, the Hornets are a great watch, and the Knicks direct competition for title of NBA Bar. They can score in so many different ways, the ball is on a string and Hayward is showing the contract may have been judged too harshly, even if the the production falls off as the end of contract approaches. He’s a past All-Star with All-Star considerations this year, played through adversity and injury, and has the skills to optimize good play and develop a confidence with their young players. Luckily, they face some harder teams approaching the break with games against some of the best teams of the West (UTA, PHX, POR). Games against Golden State and media favorite Kings could be coin flips and they end with a HUGE trap game against league worst Timberwolves.
Prediction (2-4)

Memphis Grizzles:
Infected with the injury bug the squad led by Superstar Ja Morant continues to utilize their depth and mix of skills to fill the gaps as to stay afloat. Miami lottery pick, current day Grizzly Justice Winslow is slated for return at the end of the month and Morant’s partner scheduled back sometimes next month if there’s no reassessment needed. Games against the drowning Wizards and reeling Mavericks are a repreive against the other three teams they face. Two against the Clippers, a game verse Houston and finishing up verse the lacking Bucks could leave them going 3-3, but the Bucks are going to be facing pressure to win, and Houston’s been playing hard. For those same reasons, you expect Dallas to be feeling the pressure to preform so they’re facing five hungry teams.
Prediction (2-4)

Boston Celtics:
If you have a Celtics fan in your life, they’re currently experiencing the exact opposite of Knicks joys. Scary Terry (Rozier) is putting together a career stretch and the capacity to play in a offense with multiple creators in the Hornets rotation. This is buyers remorse and seller dread and we’re only talking about one aspect of the tumultuous season, incomplete roaster, and suboptimal/disappointing play from Kemba Walker. All isn’t over with a lighter schedule, but Boston has proven as of late, no lead is too safe that they can hold. Their first four should be “easier” on paper but without their engine and hear in Marcus Smart, even those games seem bleak. Also if your team cannot function with just the removal of one player, unless their a superstar, how well positioned is that team to win. Auspicious horizon for the Celtics unless they can get Kemba right, fast.
Prediction (3-3)

Toronto Raptors:
Playing four teams with playoff hopes would make this seem more difficult then the opponents records would suggest. Games against 76ers are followed by Miami who appear to have (maybe) found themselves, the persistent Rockets, and the first guy in line outside looking in Bulls. The last two are verse the careening Celtics and the Odd Pistons. Odd in that they rise to the good teams but can’t put it together a decent stretch of games. Detroit is currently the worst team in the league and likely the one catching teams sleeping and maintaining their leads and energy. Raptors season was off the road to start the season and have recently rounded back into form behind the creative platoons. They play like Raptors, opportune pack hunters who will work it around to make opposing teams feel there’s too many leaks to fix. Defensively they’re no the same they’ve been, but with such a well rounded roaster and good coaching will lead them to success down this stretch.
Prediction (4-2)

Golden State Warriors:
Steph is leading this team with MVP numbers. While the team has a limited ceiling without Klay and the player he is, they’re causing anguish to people who claim to watch basketball and hate Steph Curry. Small Point guards have limitation, but we’re talking about the greatest shooter of all time when shooting is at an absolute premium. They play against our Knicks, the Pacers, and Charlotte first and finish off on three Western playoff teams (LAL, POR, & PHX). While they’re not the same lottery bound team as they were last year, facing the hardest schedule of the group leaves them facing the most adversity heading into All-Star break.
Prediction: (2-4)

Indiana Pacers:
The Pacers have been up and down. They’ve got some of the best defenders at the anchor of the paint. The awkward fit is offensively with Sabonis and Turner and the bench being hit or miss in their production has them a bit lower, but overall meeting expectations. Facing five playoff hopeful teams and the one team more on the outs has shown out against Brooklyn (Cleveland). They’re not world beaters, but if a team walks in thinking it’s going to be a walk in the park are in for a bit of surprise. I don’t think they go winless but they’ve got the best chance of the eight to see a donut in the win column.
Prediction (1-5)

Denver Nuggets:
Nikola Jokić putting together his best campaign to date for MVP, the team as a whole is a bit of a disappointment. Believed to be in the top half of the West after their inspiring bubble play, that overall team success is appearing more of lighting in a bottle than a standard to hold them to. Murray is back down on Earth and Jerami Grant wanting to take his talent elsewhere has definitely been cited for the disappointment. It would be a shame if that success lead to lax preparation for one of the better teams we saw last year. Keeping the more recent play as the standard, it’s most likely they go even despite being against lesser competition.
Predication: (3-3)

Until Next Time~

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Thought Blurbs

Allow me to indulge in some gratitude…

As someone who’s always felt a bit out of place both in the physical social spaces and at times in my own mental space, it means a lot to have a following here. I’m a mess of contradictions trying to rid myself of those flaws as I grow. Whether you’re here for the politics, the sports, or just the random incomplete thoughts or pictures, I hope to continue to provide that content. I also hope we can grow to appreciate all of these different aspects of interest, but most of all, I hope to foster the idea it’s okay to share what you think. Starting off was the hardest part but sharing our thoughts and being inclusive is how we get to a place of social empathy. Also, don’t be afraid to comment, shoot me an email on anything with Knicks, pics, or politics and I’ll look into and maybe you can see how your voices matter to me. We’re at the start of a journey I hope to continue along with all of you readers on a path towards a more accepting and honest world.

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Data Pictures Politics Thought Blurbs

COVID-19 Factors for Pause

COVID-19 cases per Month
COVID-19 deaths per Month

Let’s ignore the possibility of weather making the virus weaker or stronger because the biggest danger, I pose, is within our control. First lets look at the cases which are seemingly beginning their launch into the imaginary atmosphere. March was our discover, and April brought a temporary understanding but there’s a large degree of change that begins as a simmer in June, coming to boil in July. Another similar trend occurred from October to November where cases more than double month to month. My fear is that the recipe for this kind of situation is preparation for, and subsequent celebration of America’s most participated traditions. July 4th and Halloween would fit those bills and that’s where the feeling of dread seeps in.
We’ve entered a season of mass habitual celebration that our society has already shown are more important than the greater social empathy needed to combat the unimaginable death coming.

The lack of a basic understanding the Coronavirus will be the largest damnation on American culture since the shame brought to the forefront of civil rights movement. To define more clearly, the wrongs done to black people in a “just” nation points to the abject failure to identify our inner bigotries. In its most compact definition as we understand COVID-19, limiting your exposure to other people, wearing masks and maintain social distance when in public places are the best ways to combat the spread of this virus. This is more a measure of expectations because the time to prepare for this has past with Thanksgiving behind us.
We’ve hit the highest deaths since April just in November, which may be surpassed overall in the coming Winter months. The point to take away is that deaths are a lagging indicator of at least a month. Deaths were falling until July, when they begun feel the effects from July 4th, surging in the following Month. August shows how after an event of high participation that the ability to fight the drug of normalcy is harder to resist. You crave that attention after being socially deprived for so long. From some unaffected individuals and families, they’re experience makes them feel suppressed instead of protected. It isn’t just the day itself but the few weeks prior and the weekend through the event.

I’ll end it with a few things on my mind, all in the form of questions, some with general answers. Some may have no answer and a few will be my opinion and the context for that opinion.
1. What’s the percentage of people who have COVID-19 without symptoms?
Over 40%
2. Why should we worry about deaths when the death rate is falling?
The death rate is falling because we have a better understanding of the virus on one level; however, the more responsible factor for the drop is now over 40% of all COVID-19 cases are outstanding which is only growing. The larger that percentage grows, the more active demand is on the medical system already taking on water in certain states. The more those are strained and some begin to break, localized death hotspots are a likely phenomena to follow.
3. How would you rank event’s by the great participation in American culture?
4 Fourth of July
5 Halloween
3 Thanksgiving
2 Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa
1 New Years
My thought’s aren’t an overall ranking or personal preference, but on how many people celebrate these events with gatherings of people for extended periods of time. Those gatherings can have different adjectives and obligations to attend but these events are still effecting you indirectly by the sheer participation by society at large in these events. Certain eateries and stores close or have shorter hours, some jobs are offering timely bonus, or more likely, having workers ask for advances on their pay. I hope that while it is rough to look at our failings of society, ignoring them allows those to fester and debilitate other functions of society indirectly. Lets look into the adversity people are stuck in and achieve solutions with people, not profit, at the center of our problem solving logos.

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Incomplete Thoughts Thought Blurbs

What is the value of life?

What is the monetary value you would pay to achieve just an elevation of an anxiety? What is the value anyone can evaluate that would ever justify the loss of life. Those outcomes to where there is a loss of life are the worst possible outcomes. On the most basic level, survival is based on how well you do in having outcomes that minimize the loss of life. We label it humanity but there’s a profound arrogance with that notion, that we are somehow connected to the engineers of the world around us. Whether its some random chaos or the shared basic values most religions or organizations of thought have, we are only grasping at the straws for understanding how life and nature are. Attempting to solve those mysteries shouldn’t be demonized but framed as what they really are, an attempt to understand, to learn. I think we should always be centering our thoughts about society to minimize the pain of the suffering at the expense of those whose crimes bare sentencing.

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Incomplete Thoughts Scale Measurement Thoughts

Incomplete Thoughts

A pet peeve of mine is discussions about any kind of outcome without validity tied to it. Relating that to Basketball, as the post season has developed along with the continuous inflammatory situations with non-basketball related things with police and black people, how can we begin to think of what’s to come? Remember that all these players are people and in times of crisis, we’re wired to crave certain things when the world around us doesn’t make sense. To be emotionally and mentally alone without your family, especially if you have children must be difficult. These men and women have a lot of free time to think and figure out what they want for these costs in the future, and what makes the decision to play in these isolated conditions. With the news about D. Mitchell and signing a max extension with UTA, and with the Bucks floundering, there’s a world where Antetokounmpo is in TOR and Siakam is left feeling like DeMar DeRozan on the Bucks. A coach Giannis could trust since he won’t question the coaches decisions in game and he developed that trust and respect for Bud. I would say for those reasons that how he expressed himself at the end of the loss against the Butler-led Heat should be troubling.

He seemed to express a feeling of helplessness because the problem is the supporting cast he’s been raising haven’t recognized how much he’s been burdening. In the most recent game he had 3 assists so he didn’t pass well is maybe something you’d think but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Every moment is a playoff game matters, there’s a weight to it and even if it results in a worse loss, if Giannis is passing the ball when three collapse, you need to shoot and with confidence. Even if every shoot is missed, your teammate needs to see that so he can continue to face the wall in front of him. It’s not to say you MUST shoot, but there was too much second guessing and scared passing away from the moment. How’s you’re super star going to feel when he’s going all out, his teammates can’t support him. That’s going to factor into how happy he feels about his team when they face serious contention. If that’s a reality, wouldn’t it make Fred VanVleet more of an complement to help Giannis play with some more space and the ability to punish the way defenses play a “wall” against him. In this world, if FVV not a free agent for NY any longer to pursue, how can you empower your current players?

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Data Graphs Politics Scale Measurement Thoughts

How should we unpack? – 2020 Election

The election we’re having in 2020 is going to be important for countless different reasons but the main thing that’s going to be on peoples mind is going to be COVID-19. Not November 3rd but Oct 9th, 18th, and the 27th, the three weeks prior to the election. If this was a court of law, the evidence would be circumstantial but also past the point of the severity. It would cross a threshold where any standard of deviation doesn’t change the grim picture ahead. While COVID-19 is now begun to being an endemic virus, this is not thing to simply ignore for the populations health and the way that compounds to higher rates of death. Some of what we’ve learned gives us a better glimpse to what we can expect regarding the outcomes of the virus spread. One is that it is rapid and can take days to develop symptoms but with that is deaths lag so don’t fall for rising infections without deaths. We know three-four weeks out of a surge of infections do the deaths begin to add up and we begin to tally them.

First is to look outside to what can be learned for most countries to understand our outlandish position. India has peaked for now but shows the immense risk for their populations. Europe is currently in their second wave, which began to really show itself the end of August. Spain, France, and the Untied Kingdom cases are rising dramatically and providing proof to the theory of the second wave being worse than the first. Mexico is trending upwards and while Brazil’s trends are falling right now, they’re outcomes vary greatly. Lastly, is that Germany seems to be the model not our neighbors to the north. Canada’s cases are starting to resemble the rises Spain and France were beginning to see a month ago.

Coming back home, cases on a whole have begun to rise, but not at the same rate as the European countries in particular are experiencing their second waves. We cannot measure the space the United States is in through the same way we analyze them because they’re statistical profile is so different, highlighted during the summer, you cannot glean the same outcomes in response to COVID-19. Where it’s relative is we really need to understand the scale of the current rise of cases in the United States. The fear is our second wave of the virus can look a lot more catastrophic compared to what these other countries are facing now. Let’s take the analogy of the pandemic waves and think of it literally. The data can represent the crests of the first waves.

The number’s can be used to represent how many cm of height to a wave.
ex: America’s wave would be 750m high compared to Canada’s 27m high.
Current day waves where the same rule can apply.
Ex. America’s wave would now be 370m high compared to Spain’s 102m
This is with an outlier day reported in Spain on September 28th.
Ex. Spain’s wave would now be 310m high compared to the 102m avg.

Now taking out the United States, those other Countries dropped their cases down to a low level for an extended period of time due to their populations preventive behaviors. There’s a clear visible trend to see the rise in cases and be properly concerned to ready yourself once more for being more diligent/militant in those behaviors as they did in March through May/June. The issue with their outcomes and what the United States is that the cases never fell to any discernable level of acceptance to signify the end of a wave.

The situation in America it’s closer to resembling a never ending storm surge that has/had been dropping very slowly. To really understand the current leveling off and stagnation of cases is largely due to behavior in populations and schools holding in-person classes for the wrong age group. For that we need to go to state by state data to know what’s happening beneath the surge for what a second wave looks like for us. Only Arizona, Connecticut, Florida*, Georgia, Louisiana*, NY, NJ, Oklahoma, and Vermont are falling in cases. Twelve other states are stagnant as far as number but that isn’t a good because if the cases have not fallen to low levels like like NY, NJ and Vermont did, that stagnation is not a sufficient and can be viewed in the negative. In the writing of this piece, New York and New Jersey have begun to see their cases rise, Florida’s cases are dropping due to their elderly populations sensitivity to COVID-19. As the dust settles, there are still 40+ states in vulnerable situations where there are 23 states that cases are rising significantly, nine of which are rising in very dramatic levels. Of the 23 states with rising cases, most are almost all rural, but predominantly red states (13 or 56%). While all states were impacted by the first wave, Trump himself made the calculation of looking only at Republican run states as far as judging the response to COVID-19. The issue is that this data is maintaining a stagnation to the already slow falling American cases.

Remembering the first point of the United States having over 80% of the those states are in compromised situations. Next is that due to the issue of the size of our first wave potentially blinding us to and exponential rise in cases which in it’s first iteration or wave, crippled the global economy. Third is that Europe is proving the theory of the second wave being worse than the first wave. In finality, we know that deaths are a lagging indicator so when this begins to really impact a majority of red lead states, there will be a shift. If there’s a coalition of folks who want to have maintained power the data would suggest to, none stop talk about healthcare and the mishandling of COVID-19 by Trump and Conservative leaders. It is not combative to the importance of November 3rd because if that date holds greater importance, the Biden/Harris Campaign or any coalition that wants power would promise and DELIVER on healthcare. It’s really that simple.

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How to unpack? Politics Scale Measurement Thoughts

How should we unpack? -White Supremacy (Pt 2)

Topics: Killings by Police, Prison, Poverty, Home Ownership, & Market Measures (Business)

Early this week I was being enraged by the idea that anyone could ever defend the baseless idea that there’s no such thing as systemic racism. I’m not even sure if the point isn’t to deny that systemic racism doesn’t exist, but to minimize the scope of the problem. I tried to pull the best facts I could to have a document that highlights not only the existence but the very scale of these issues in the things Americans care about most. Front of mind are shared impacts in this immediate moment before touching on Pt.3 which would be legislation should look like to right the undeniable existence of white supremacy through systematic racism. This will likely get long so please use: ctrl + f and use the topics we’re going to cover for ease of navigation.

Killings by Police
Whenever someone is killed by the police, it should be viewed as a failure to prevent loss of life. It means that officers have failed in their duty to deescalate a situation by focusing on protection and safety with their service. Instead of focusing on those cases to which evil seeps from the shadows with anticipation, (Pt. 4 should that come), this is a quick point in that focuses on data gathered on statista.com and PEW research center for population to measure how the cop murder rate compared between Black and White Americans.
Averaging murders by police from 2017-2019 in reported communities (Black, Hispanic, & White) gives you an average of 759 average annual killings, 409 being White, 222 being Black, and 128 being Hispanic. Taking the PEW data from 2017, populations of those groups is that 64% of the total population is white, 12% is Black, and 16% are Hispanic. Now we bring together to the population of those murdered by police and their proportion of total population to compare these groups to each other. While white victims are 53% of all police killings, by their comparison to population they’re killed at a rate 2.9 times less than black Americans on average every year.
On a very basic level, this translates to for every white American killed by the police, three black Americans are killed. If you scaled the populations to equal size, that’s almost 1200 black people killed every year.

Prison
From the latest report from prisonpolicy.org and diving into the actual prison data from the PEW data center more than shows that white supremacist simply used the stipulation to continue the slave industry. Highlighted at the end of Pt. 1, slavery is allowed if it’s subjugating convicted prisoners. I proposed that they were successful and the proof is in the data. First is that the size of the problem is never fully captured. The “Justice System” controls over 7 million people which more than half are on probation of some form.
Second anywhere from 2-2.4 Million people are in prison at any give time. About half a million of that population have not been convicted and are sitting in jails because they cannot pay their bail (tax on the poor; indentured servitude). Add the people there for non-violent drug offenses and you have 900,000 to 1,000,000 people in jail whom are simply not convicted or convicted of minor drug offenses.
Rounding out the scaled view and comparing the prison population compared as we did before to the total population of Black and White people, the incarceration rate is 6:1. To frame it the same way, for every one white person incarcerated, there are six black persons incarcerated.

Poverty
Pairing the data from Census’s from mid 2000’s to about 2011 and a sponsored cite of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI; stateofworkingamerica.org), removed from most of Trumps America to highlight how these issues are only amplified by Trump and conservative legislation. Poverty for Native American’s is the highest the Census found at 27% with Black poverty trailing right behind being at 25.8%. Pairing that with the state of working america provides (27.4%), you can average out 26-27% poverty rate for black Americans. Hispanic poverty rest in a range that varies greatly, anywhere from 16-26%, depending on country of ethnicity. In contrast, the white poverty rate rests between 10% (SOWA.org) and 11% (Census) respectively. These numbers have already been scaled per their comparison to their respective populations.
Poverty is the measure of income inequality to some degree since those in poverty are threatened by great degree from those with unequaled wealth . Consistency is important and a bit dry, but for every white person subjected to poverty and austerity, 2.6-2.7 black Americans are subjected to that same financial austerity. Add trigger happy cops and the pressures of the prison-for-profit pipeline measured above, it’s hard to imagine how black people in this country could stand for these injustices any longer.
The next four points are for those tone deaf and filled with empty platitudes. Simply saying things like, “Invest in property/Buy a home,” or “Take a risk and start a business,” will accomplish nothing if the person speaking doesn’t mention the context to which people in adverse situations live. There’s also the moment we’re in and how underlying things we know are bleaker still.

Home Ownership
In an analysis of data by CNBC with the Urban Institute, the current gap of black and white home ownership in America is 30%. To give that stark number further context, the gap was 27% in 1960 back when housing legislation was explicitly and fundamentally racist. That’s just over a 10% increase from a period of explicit racist housing and redlining policy, to another period where those policies have been deemed unconstitutional. I’m personally unable to square that right now but I will unpack this in another piece to which I can learn more and bring a nuanced point of view. The gap being in a range between 27-30% is unacceptable and regardless and is another arrow in the quiver of “proof” of systemic racism.

Market Measures / Businesses
Taking the numbers from the Small Business Administration, by volume of business’ their size relative to their distribution of population is the least deviated. As we’ve state above, white people make up 64% of the population, black people are 12%, and Hispanic or Latin is 16%. Now there’s still some deviation since white owned business’ make up 71% of all total business (19 million). Looking at black owned business’ at 9.5% (2.6 million), and Latin owned business’ being 12.2% (3.3 million) of the totality of the industry.
There’s ultimately nothing nefarious about the amount of business’ being slightly larger or smaller than percentage of total population. The proof of the inequality stands in the total market sales and the control of U.S. work force (roughly 162 million people). Total market sales is a measure of the liquid economy; goods and services provided to the consuming American people. While white business’ make up 71% of business’, they have 88% of the market sales, and controls 86.5% of the U.S. work force. Conversely black business’ are just under 10% of the business sector, and only make up 1.3% of the market and 1.7% of the work force. Now to be clear, these boundaries aren’t clearly defined but the best way to frame total market sales to the laymen is this is the data that feeds the Stock Market and capital injections (i.e, investments). It’s important to grasping that the idea of market based financial options for attaining and growing black wealth is only true in a very limited and specific scope.
It didn’t happen without immense and continued adversity accompanied with being completely ‘present’ and within a social prison; just another rabbit hole for another time.
Bringing this back to the subject, that is a 9:1 ratio of money going to white verse black business’ despite the relative matching of amount of business being within reason of population. This bleakly illustrates that while there’s been progress from a society with explicitly racist laws, unfortunately there’s a superficiality to the gains made and a severity of the ones in front of us.

In this pieces finality is the goal of summarizing before I asses substantive and legislative measures for progress. The problems do not exist in a silo so the above was the background to understanding the very simple and basic ask that black lives matter. Imagine a world where you were three times as likely to be killed by police than if you were white. Should you be fortunate enough to live, you’re also arrested at six times the rate of white Americans. Compared to your community of color, almost three times as many black Americans are in poverty compared to white Americans. I hope to get a grasp onto how the housing gap is larger now than in 1960, but it still speaks to how ingrained this problem is. In the rare chance a black American isn’t involved in a debilitating pressures of a racist judicial system and are able to persist and start their own business and begin generating wealth, the economy funnels money to white owned business’.
At this point I always try and share one quote from James Baldwin. The quote is but the tip of the iceberg in recognition of the pain Black american’s are subjected to. It’s long, like this series here will be because there’s a lot to consider in the scale of systematic racism.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one’s work. And part of the rage is this: It isn’t only what is happening to you. But it’s what’s happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, indifference of most white people in this country, and their ignorance. Now, since this is so, it’s a great temptation to simplify the issues under the illusion that if you simplify them enough, people will recognize them. I think this illusion is very dangerous because, in fact, it isn’t the way it works. A complex thing can’t be made simple. You simply have to try to deal with it in all its complexity and hope to get that complexity across.

James Baldwin, 1961 Radio interview about what it’s like to be Black in America

~Until next time