School Mx (Mx for Maintenance)

For John, BLUF:  Something is going n here, but I am not sure what.  I hope we don't outfox ourselves.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Health board hears laundry list of Lowell High gripes

From The [Lowell] Sun, by Reporter Aaron Curtis (acurtis@lowellsun.com), 6 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus seven:

LOWELL -- A mouse scurrying across the floor of this Lowell High School classroom has become so common, the teacher named the rodent, according to Faith Salbasfregeau.

Salbasfregeau -- told this by her grandson who sits in that classroom -- shared the story with the Board of Health on Wednesday night.

"This might be a joke, but I take it very seriously," the Lowell resident told the board.

Salbasfregeau was one of the roughly 25 concerned family members in attendance for the meeting. Complaints of rodent droppings and frigid classroom temperatures across the district, and how they are being addressed, were the focal point.

The concern expressed during the meeting was spelled out in almost six pages of complaints compiled by Paul Georges, president of the United Teachers of Lowell union.

The list is part of George's push to place pressure on the city and the district to find short-term solutions to the ongoing problems in school buildings. In December he called the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards, prompting a state probe, Georges said.

The Board of Health went through each complaint regarding the 27 district schools Wednesday night, and the maintenance and repairs to address each of those complaints.

City Manager Eileen Donoghue said the city and district are working aggressively to address issues and apply both short and long-term solutions. The district has repaired "virtually" all the problems listed, according to Donoghue.

The article goes on from there.

It isn't like we are the only industrial government entity with a Mx problem.  The whole German Military has a Mx problem with its equipment.  Which is why President Trump complains about their [lack of] financial contribution to our common defense.

This is one of City Manager Eileen Donoghue's big problems, and she seems to be getting a handle on it.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Man With Balance

For John, BLUF:  We are undergoing a foreign policy review in this nation, and the Republicans, for their part, are doing it more or less in the open.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

On Wednesday of this week the National Defense University Foundation honored former national security advisor and retired Air Force Lt Gen Brent Scowcroft.  It is just and fitting.

Quoting from Foreign Policy Magazine's Blog, "The E-Ring",♠ we have this item to chew over:

Susan Eisenhower told the E-Ring she got to know Scowcroft through her mentor, the late Gen. Andrew Goodpaster, former NATO supreme allied commander and superintendent of West Point. Nearly 30 years later, she said of Scowcroft, “I don’t know what Washington would do without him, frankly. He’s one of those people you can rely on for clear thinking and good sense.” Neither of which, she said, there is enough of these days. “We’ve been suffering from this for a while.”

“Since I’m a centrist, I gravitate immediately toward General Scowcroft’s worldview,” Eisenhower added. “I think he’s a national treasure in the sense that younger people coming along need to look to General Scowcroft and his immediate associates to see that there is a vital intellectual case for the middle ground. You don’t have to be on one extreme or the other to be associated with great ideas.”

What was that all about?  Susan Eisenhower is an Independent who endorsed Barack Obama, twice.  It turns out that the intelligentsia sees a split within the Republican Party on the issue of foreign policy.  It was discussed this AM in an article in The New York Times, written by Reporter Michael D Shear.  The reporter divides the Republican party into "the internationalists who held sway under the elder President George Bush and the neoconservatives who led the country to long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under President George W. Bush."  The fear is that someone like Senator Rand Paul is pushing for a new isolationist approach to US foreign policy.  The essential nation becoming the indifferent nation.

On the other hand, why is it our job to fix the problems of the rest of the world, problems that have festered for centuries and which the participants don't necessarily want our help, especially if our offered solution goes against their self interests.  As both Iraq and Afghanistan show us, it is a complicated world out there.

The article concludes with this comment by General Scowcroft:

"I feel sympathy for them today, because in some ways it's a much more complicated world," he said. "I don't know that it's a more dangerous world, but it's a more complicated world."

I think that the General has hit on a very important point.  It is a less dangerous world than it was 25 years ago, but it is also much more complicated.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In Pentagonese, the E-Ring is the power ring of the five rings that make up the building.  This construction allows for more office windows, since the inner rings actually allow some daylight to filter in.  The E-Ring is the ring where all those with status have their offices, since these are the offices that actually look out across the world, toward DC, Crystal City or Arlington Cemetery.