New Jersey Customer Service

 Having lived in New Jersey for 45 years one would have thought I could get used to customer service and the like people. These include phone service, reception people, and others who interface with customers/patients. But no. They appear to all have abject dislike of you, speak to you as if you were some lower species, never address the issue but turn it around to accommodate them, and speak in that God awful New Jersey accent. The make The New Jersey Housewives look like kindly people. 

They mumble in their accent, refuse to state why they are addressing you or your concern, and then drop you like a hot potato when they feel they have accomplished their task. I have noticed it has gotten worse or perhaps I am just aging poorly. When dealing with them in person, the refuse to make eye contact, speak to their desk surface rather than the customer, and refuse in most cases to answer the question. They speak in jargon, and most likely are simultaneously dealing with some app on their phone.

The only thing worse is computer based speech response systems where one is asked to say what you want. You always end up screaming for a person, a human, as bad as they are, they are better than some computer based system. Except one must deal with the accent.

This becomes more evident when seeing my relatives in New Hampshire or West Virginia. Nice people, yes an accent but not nasty, and one gets service.

Five Years Ago

 In a NEJM article from January 2020 the Chinese authors noted:

In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China. A previously unknown betacoronavirus was discovered through the use of unbiased sequencing in samples from patients with pneumonia. Human airway epithelial cells were used to isolate a novel coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, which formed a clade within the subgenus sarbecovirus, Orthocoronavirinae subfamily. Different from both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, 2019-nCoV is the seventh member of the family of coronaviruses that infect humans. Enhanced surveillance and further investigation are ongoing. (Funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Major Project for Control and Prevention of Infectious Disease in China.)

This was the beginning of a Global pandemic. I had noted at the time that this was potentially catastrophic. Unfortunately our Public Health folks were in my opinion clueless. 

Yet there are still questions outstanding:

1. How is it transmitted? Nano particles via lacrimal ducts? So masks are useless?

2. How can it be prevented? Isolation vs careful interactions?

3. How extreme must measures be to reduce impact? Reasonable vs Catastrophic?

4. Is there a reliable vaccine available? mRNA vs classic (dead or attenuated virus)?

Just to name a few.....

Inflation. Thanks DC

 Thought that it would be worth an update:

1. CATV, $250 to $300 per month, 20% pa

2. Insurance Auto $1800 to $3000 pa, 66% pa

3. Cellular $90 to $110 per month, 22% pa

BTW, the $3000 auto is for 3000 miles per year. Insurance is thus $1 per mile. Gas is $3.00 per gallon and 30 mpg so $0.10 per mile! Thanks to the folks in DC for all you have done for us. I have left out food and health care.

Misinformation

 There is an article in the NY Times dtating that illegals pay into Social Security but obtain no benefits. However is one goes to the SSA web site one finds something grossly different. They note:

In general, only noncitizens who have permission to work from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can apply for an original Social Security number (SSN). If you do not have permission to work but need an SSN for other purposes, see "If you do not have permission to work" for further information.

 In general, only noncitizens who have permission to work from DHS can apply for an original SSN. If you are a foreign worker, we only need to see your I-94 (Arrival/Departure Record) or admission stamp in the unexpired foreign passport showing a class of admission permitting work. Some foreign workers must show their I-766 (EAD) or "work permit" from DHS.

 Not to mention employees having to guarantee work legality. They continue:

Taxes: If you need a number for tax purposes and you are not authorized to work in the United States, you can apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Visit IRS in person or call the IRS toll-free number, 1-800-TAXFORM (1-800-829-3676), and request Form W-7 (Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number). If you are assigned a number for non-work purposes, you cannot use it to work. If you use it to work, we will inform DHS.

Are We Seeing a new Constantine?

 In 306 AD Constantine was declared an Augustus, one of the Emperors then ruling the Roman Empire. Over the next twenty years Constantine manged to overthrow all his competitors and name a city after himself. Hidden behind this is Helena, his mother. She in 228-230, before her death in her 80s, managed to get her son not only as Emperor but as arbiter of Christianity, creator and promulgator of the Creed now used in all Christian churches.

Constantine was a brutal manipulator who executed almost all of his competition, a practice permitted at the time.

Are we now seeing new Constantines emerge? Just a thought.

It is Now 20%

 Amazon now loses, delays, destroys 20% of my deliveries. That is worse than anything the USPS ever even got at its worst moments. How they manage this is amazing. It is not that we are distant from any facility, it is just own the road. Gross incompetence! Maybe the Federal Government can give them incompetence lessons and improve delivery!