Nuclear

Nuclear is making a come back in the Infrastructure bill. People have come to understand that zero carbon is not possible without nuclear power. Included in the bill is bipartisan legislation known as the ADVANCE Act that will help us build new reactors at a clip that we haven’t seen since the 1970s.  Also in the bill is money for small reactors. Another development in this bill is its focus on small reactor technologies, known as microreactors.   Also in the Inflation Reduction Act there are funds allocated for nuclear. Momentum is building for U.S. nuclear energy and the investments and tax incentives included in IRA guarantee a commitment to nuclear energy that will continue well throughout the nation’s journey to net-zero. In states many new bill are being introduce to promote nuclear power. Five years ago only 10 bills were introduced and last year there were 200. Environmentalist are now including nuclear when they talk about carbon free and venture capitalist are showing interest. China is still leading the way but America is waking up.

Election

The political pundits and the polls indicate a close election and the experts say that the results will depend on turn out meaning which team has the best ground game which means ballot harvesting. Most agree that a large turn out is good for democracy but some question the value of low information voters. Thomas Jefferson said, an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people. Is an uninformed vote better than a non vote. Can uninformed voters be convinced by the harvester to vote a certain way and if so is that good for democracy. These are puzzling questions. In states where the practice is legal, volunteers or campaign workers can go directly to the homes of voters, collect the completed ballots, and drop them off en masse at polling places or election offices. In some states, ballot harvesters can be paid hourly for their work To many this seems like an open invitation to unscrupulous activity. Over the years many states have realized the possible misuse and have changed laws to limit this practice.

Stimulus

More than 476 million payments totaling $814 billion in financial relief went to households impacted by the pandemic. March 2020. First stimulus sent $1,200 to each tax filer and $500 to each child December 2020. Second stimulus sent $600 to each tax filer and $600 to each child March 2021. Third stimulus sent $1,400 to each tax filer and $1,400 to each child This meant a family of four received $11,400. It is not surprising that all of this money went into the economy and that spending it just ended in April of this year. This does not include another $5 trillion that went to other entities including businesses and unemployment compensation. People who normally did not qualify for unemployment suddenly got benefits. As a substitute teacher, I qualified for unemployment and not only received my state money but also $600 per week for 16 weeks. All in all my wife and I received $6,400 in stimulus and $9,600 in unemployment. Then in late 2021, I get another check for $3,500 and I have no idea what that was for. I did not need this money and there are many other retired people who did not need the money. The net result was that working families ended up paying for all this through inflation. It always seems that the most in need get the shaft.

Foreign policy

The US should take on a new role in foreign policy as reshoring brings jobs back home. The first place to start is in the Middle East. The Abraham Accords will unite the Arab countries of UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan with Jordan and Egypt who already have peace agreements with Israel and all of these will work with the US in bringing Saudi Arabia on board. The Saudi's are willing to join in order to receive protection from the US to prevent Iran from taking over their oil fields. With this new agreement the US will back Israel with all that is needed to completely destroy Hamas. The next step will be to get the Arab countries to agree to finance the rebuilding of Gaza using Israeli construction companies and Palestinian labor. Once this is completed, elections will be held in both Gaza and the West Bank where new leadership, somewhat like the old PLO that preceded Hamas, is put in place. At this point the two state solution becomes possible. While this is going on the US will lead NATO to negotiate a peace in Ukraine. The next step is to have the European Union countries fiance the rebuilding of Ukraine, which will allow Russia back into the communities of the West with trade and commerce. The new role for the US will not involve US military or US money. The US will assume a leadership role in bringing various groups together to promote common goals.

Preemies

A couple of years ago when Roe was overturned the abortion issue was widely discussed and this led to the fact that some babies are born after a botched abortion attempt and they were then allowed to die. This information was not public knowledge because under the law that would be murder. This led others to bring up what happens when very old and sick people require special and usually expensive care. It turns out that many times care is limited or refused. As the population ages and there are fewer working age people to cover the expenses of the retired people pressure will build to limit care for the elderly. When the life of a damaged child due to an abortion is devalued this carries over to unborn children with various defects which can easily be transferred to sick old people. It is easy to make a strong argument that a 90 year old man with a bad liver should not be eligible for a heart transplant. From there you just lower the age and other conditions to slowly get rid of old people who are seen as a financial drain on society. In 2016, the annual societal economic cost (medical, educational, and lost productivity) associated with preterm birth in the United States was at least $25.2 billion.

Election

The Trumpification of the country is almost complete as witnessed by the changes in candidate Harris. It climaxed with her border speech when she said, "If someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum,". Our system must be orderly and secure, and that is my goal." Climate change is gone as an issue since both parties now support maximum production of fossil fuels. Both candidates are pro choice. Both have strong support for Israel. Both want to keep import taxes on China. Both are promoting de globalization. Both want lower taxes on working people. Both have abandon any concern about the national debt has each has proposed massive spending programs. Both want to conserve social security and Medicaid. Both promise to keep and improve Obamacare. Harris no longer supports national health insurance. She no longer supports reparations. She is no longer anti fracking. The only place they differ is the war in Ukraine. Harris wants to continue as long as it takes and Trump wants to negotiate a peace. The fears that Trump will become a dictator and end democracy are unfounded since he had the perfect opportunity to do that with Covid when he was president. The national crisis represented what happened during the civil war when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus which many referred to as declaring martial law. Trump challenged the election results but left the White House peacefully when his term was up.

Poverty

Over the past 50 years the US has spent $30 trillion on the war on poverty. Thus, government at all levels is spending roughly $1.8 trillion per year to fight poverty (Figure 1). Stretching back to 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson first declared a “war on poverty,” anti-poverty spending has totaled more than $30 trillion. In 1980 the poverty rate was 13.2% with 29 million living in poverty. Today the poverty rate is 11.3% with 38 million living in poverty. To power the US it would take about 1,400 nuclear power plant at a cost of $5 billion dollars each for a total cost of $7 trillion or one sixth of what has been spent on poverty. If small nuclear units were used instead it would take 14,000 but the cost would be less because of economies of scale as they would be mass produced assembly line style.