Rick Rupp

Subject for today’s phone message to Congressman Michael Baumgartner (R-WA): Funding cuts to food pantries

Hi, my name is Richard Rupp and I’m a constituent from Colton WA.

My wife and I volunteer at the Food Pantry in your hometown of Colton and also Uniontown. We supply much needed food to seniors on limited incomes and young working families. The majority of the food we give out comes either directly from the USDA or through federal grant programs. Today our monthly supply truck dropped off half the food supplies we usually receive. The grant funding to buy additional food like hamburger from local producers has been eliminated.

How does taking food away from children and seniors make America great?

Congress needs to act to make sure the money they lawfully appropriated is being spent on the designated programs and not being redirected into tax cuts for the president’s billionaire friends.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Since the beginning of the current U.S. presidential administration I have been emailing or calling my congressman about once a week on a variety of issues. My congressman is Michael Baumgartner of the fifth district of Washington State (the eastern third of the state). Mr. Baumgartner is a freshman Republican who I did not vote for. However, so far he is not as obnoxious as many MAGA Republicans. I subscribe to his weekly newsletter, and between that and issues raised by 5 Calls, I have plenty of material on which I need to share my opinion. Usually I am advising him to do the opposite of what I know he is going to do, but on rare occasions we agree and I let him know that also.

I don’t pretend that these messages are a two-way conversation. The first time I called his office I did get to speak to a staff person, but subsequent calls have gone directly to voice mail. I know my name is not popping up in his email inbox either. Reports are that congressional offices have been overwhelmed by the volume of calls and letters since DJT became president. My most hopeful guess is all these communication efforts result in a tick mark being placed in the appropriate “for” or “against” columns for each issue. As an aside, communications with an elected representative seem like an area where AI would be useful given the large volume of calls and written communication that have occurred.

I do like that these communications with my representative have made me think in detail why I support or oppose a given issue. Although I wish that there was a different person in that office, I probably would not attempt to communicate as frequently if they were someone whose opinions I largely shared. I am fortunate to live in a state with two talented Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, but I don’t feel the need to call them often.

Since I am putting some effort into my calls and emails I thought I may as well post these to my blog also. I don’t expect them to be read by anyone else, although if only one person takes the time to scan a post that would match or exceed the number of people reading it in Rep. Baumgartner’s office.

Here is today’s email to Rep. Michael Baumgartner:

Dear Rep. Baumgartner,

I read with interest in your most recent weekly newsletter that you are sponsoring legislation to reform college athletics. I wouldn’t have expected that this subject would have taken your valuable time when the country is experiencing a loss of civil and free speech rights, congressionally mandated programs are being eliminated by an unelected billionaire, and small businesses and farmers are facing financial ruin from reckless tariffs imposed at the whim of the president.

I also am surprised that your proposal is a rejection of capitalism in favor of a socialistic redistribution of income that would otherwise go to top athletes. You also seem to think that the federal government should be heavily regulating the college athletics industry including setting limits on executive (coaches) pay. This is a pretty refreshing attitude for a freshman Republican congressman. I would hope that you will continue on with further legislation that will apply these same principles to the tech industry. That would likely be the largest economic stimulus this country has ever seen.

You frequently open your weekly newsletters by writing that you are reporting to your “bosses”. This “boss” has caught you working on your tournament brackets instead of the job you were hired to do. Get back to work.

Regards, Richard Rupp Colton, WA

This is an easy decision for most people reading this. I used a PC for my entire working career. The professional software I used for many of those years didn’t run on Macs. Later, when I moved on to open-source software alternatives, it still worked better on PCs than Macs.

I retired several years ago, and my old PC laptop gave out not long after. Digitally, I have been doing more consumption than creation. I’ve had an iPhone for years in large part to stay compatible with my wife (who just wants her tech to work with minimal involvement on her part). I bought an iPad after I retired, and that has been my primary digital device. The iPad is great for reading and watching, but frustrating to type more than a short email. I’ll save my experiences with the Apple Pencil for a future post. I do have a nice Windows 10 desktop, but it is older, and Microsoft has deemed it unworthy for upgrade. Support for Windows 10 is slated to end later this year.

So why do I want a laptop? I’m looking to dust off the web development and python skills I used to have. As a former data science person, I would like to investigate the pros and perils of AI on my own. If nothing else, I would like to compare notes on this with my grandkids.

I feel like I could do my development work on either platform. I do think that Microsoft’s vision for AI Is more developed than Apple’s. I’ve been satisfied with my Apple devices and will continue to use them. It is tempting to stay within Apple’s ecosystem. It is also clearly the environment of choice within the Micro.blog community where I spend a lot of time these days. It would be nice to be able to relate to the tech posts there.

On the other hand, I have 40 years of satisfied experience with Windows (and earlier DOS).

I think it will come down to a snap decision on the day I order.