Are our priorities in order?

I have some ambiguous feelings about social safety net services.  I have known decent people who needed them due to sudden changes in their life.  I don't begrudge them that.  I have also known people that abused the safety net services.  I do begrudge them that.  

Whatever your feelings on them, I would hope that we agree that if it's a benefit we are going to offer we ought to make sure the system works for those that are eligible to receive the benefits.

That is not happening right now in Colorado.  For a variety of reasons* our state is failing at getting unemployment checks out the door and to recipients.  See the article below.

I get it.  There are always lots of things to do in the day.  It's a problem we all suffer with at some point or another.  

That being said, one sure cure for overwhelm is to winnow the list of things you're doing; that includes cutting current demands on time and not taking on new.

As you see laws coming out of the Assembly, as you hear about new government programs that start this year (from previous years), as you hear about new departments added to our government, ask yourself how we're doing at the basics.  

In other words, are we paying out unemployment insurance in a timely fashion while our government is now obliged to hire and manage people whose full time job is to make sure our state has adequate equity for state employees?

If not, maybe a shift in priorities is in order.

*If you're like me, reading that sentence makes you jump immediately to blaming government incompetenece and mismanagement.  I'm sure that's in there, but I think that it's also fair to note that part of the cause is a unique rule re. unemployment claims that Colorado has.  See attached screenshot for the relevant part of the article.

https://www.cpr.org/2023/02/03/colorado-unemployment-benefits-delays/

Interested in seeing (in real time) sources of pollution globally?  Interested in other weather patterns?

I heard about the app linked below while waiting my turn to testify about a bill last week.  I looked it up and fiddled around and thought I'd share with you.

it's called Windy and it lets you get real time satellite imagery and measurements (or, my guess is, calculated estimates of things I am skeptical that they're able to directly measure) for a variety of things.  

Let's go on a quick tour.  First, when you load the link below, you'll get what you see in the unnumbered screenshot.  On the right is a menu of things you can pick to show on the map.  I circled the bit in red that you'd click to see all your options.  As for the map itself, it functions just like a Google map:  you can move around by dragging your finger or mouse, you can zoom in and out in the usual ways, etc.

Look at screenshot 1.  It shows you the options that I was particularly interested in.  The top ones because of pollution of course, and the bottom because I'm interested in drought, have colleagues that farm, and like to garden.  By toggling the button to on, the various things get moved to the outer tray and you can select them there.

Now look at screenshot 2.  This is a map of the globe showing the world's CO concentrations on Thursday 2/9.  No, that CO is not a typo.  This is an image of carbon monoxide.  Why that?  I'm speculating here, but my guess is that we have satellites that can image CO but not CO2.  CO is an important gas in atmospheric chemistry from what I read and it also is an indirect measure of combustion of fossil fuels since no combustion is perfect and some CO will be released along with CO2.  

See the bits boxed in red?  Note especially China.  Now note the population centers in the US along the coasts.  Pretty dark, lots of fossil fuel emissions there.  Now note Colorado in blue.  If you look hard you'll see the Front Range is a shade darker, but compare them to the population centers on the coasts.  

***As a quick aside, when I say that perhaps our time and energy would be better spent on making sure Colorado invents the tech to help us adapt to global warming and also works on helping others lower their emissions, this is a pictorial representation of exactly what I'm talking about.  Should we make our lives miserable to go a half a shade lighter while it's blood red over China and the East/West Coasts?

Lastly, if you look at screenshot 3, you'll see I zoomed into get a look at soil moisture for Colorado.  Surprise surprise the Plains are dry.  They always are, even in wet years.  That's what the Plains do.  Just to reiterate from above, this would be one of the things that I think must be an estimate or an inferred calculated guess.  From what I've read, there are ways to calculate an estimate of soil moisture and I've not heard of anything that directly measures.

FYI and happy tinkering.


https://www.windy.com/-Show---add-more-layers/overlays?awr_0_40,40.631,-103.221,5

I'm doubtful as to whether or not drug addicts respond to prison.  If you've seen or heard some of the things they'll do to get their fix, I'm not too convinced prison's going to be that big a disincentive.

I am pretty convinced that the dealers respond to such incentives and think that is a direction our policy should go in to start working on reducing the harm drugs like fentanyl do:  we should criminalize the hell out of its sale.  

I came across the bill below while poking around and checking to see if there was an update on Sen Pelton's upcoming property tax bill and I liked it.  As I say above, I think an effective policy step to reduce the harm that drugs are doing in our state is to put harsher penalties on those that deal drugs--particularly the kinds of drugs that easily kill.

I put a screenshot from the bill's fiscal analysis up which gives you an idea of what I'm talking about (as well as linked to the bill's page below).

If you're interested in speaking up on the bill,  it's slated to be up in front of the Senate Judiciary committee but, as of this writing, it has no date set yet.  Check back on the bill's page.




https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb23-109