Trump and Iran

For history buffs there is certain similarity between what Harry Truman did in 1946 with Stalin and what Trump is doing with the Iranian leaders. Stalin saw Turman as a country boy who had only been VP for 80 days when he was thrust into the presidency. He saw a man with little experience on the national stage and a person that could be manipulated. He saw an American people who were tired of foreign wars that seem to go for ever and knew that political pressure would force Truman to back away from confrontation. He was wrong. Truman clearly saw the threat of communism to the free world and vowed to fight against such dictatorship. Today the American people are once again tired of war and want to get on with life but Trump sees a future danger with the dictators in Iran who will try to take control of the Middle East. He is taking the unpopular approach to end the nuclear threat from Iran to save some future president of having to deal with a more powerful Iran. The easy way would be to just ignore Iran but leadership requires taking the road not travelled. Time will tell if this was the correct decision.

Murder rate

The murder rate in the US declined from 10.7 per 100,000 population in 1991 to 7.7 in 2021. Since then, the drop has continued more precipitously to .26 today, the lowest ever recorded. There are a number of reasons for the big drop in 2024 and 2025 but one statistic stands out and that is the number of migrant deportations. In 2024 following an increase in border enforcement, 271,484 migrants were deported and 30% of those had criminal records. Between October 2024 and September 2025, 442,637 migrants were deported and 23% had criminal records. Sanctuary cities did not cooperate with ICE during these two years and police feel that the percentage of deported convicted criminals would have been higher with cooperation.

NY City

A brief lesson on how to get elected mayor can be gleaned from Mamdani’s NY City elections. He was a city councilman polling in single digits when he gave a campaign speech outlining his proposals. His plan included free buses, free childcare, five city owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on 200,000 apartments, a $30 minimum wage, a millionaire surtax and construction of 100,000 low-income houses. The estimated cost of these items is $17 billion. It turns out that the mayor does not have the authority to raise the city individual or corporate tax so his only source of new income is raising property tax. The governor has stated she would not be financing NY City programs. The city unlike the federal government cannot legally borrow money to fund operating expenses.

NYC City

A brief lesson on how to get elected mayor can be gleaned from Mamdani’s NY City elections. He was a city councilman polling in single digits when he gave a campaign speech outlining his proposals. His plan included free buses, free childcare, five city owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on 200,000 apartments, a $30 minimum wage, a millionaire surtax and construction of 100,000 low-income houses. The estimated cost of these items is $17 billion. It turns out that the mayor does not have the authority to raise the city individual or corporate tax so his only source of new income is raising property tax. The governor has stated she would not be financing NY City programs. The city unlike the federal government cannot legally borrow money to fund operating expenses.

Europe

For more than fifty years US leaders have looked longingly at Europe and their great social programs, starting with universal healthcare but the time has come to evaluate the costs. The GDP per person in Europe is $53,000 vs $85,000 in the US. With the help of various government programs, the Europeans have lost the work ethic that has made America great. Shorter work weeks, longer vacations and earlier retirement ages have offered benefits not available to US workers. They are overrun with regulations and have very little innovation. Today they find themselves unable to compete with the rest of the world. They bragged to the world about being the leaders in replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar as they shut down their coal and nuclear power plants. They refuse fracking based on environmental concerns. They freely signed the Paris Accords while the US dropped out. They opened their borders to immigrants who failed to assimilate. They accepted the protection from the US for their national defense. They failed to notice that their population was in decline and now the trend is irreversible. This has resulted in high energy cost (electricity and natural gas) costs are 3.5 times higher than in the US. When they try to raise the retirement age the people riot in the streets. They are now deporting immigrants at an accelerated rate. Their industries are relocating to China and the US. They are restarting their nuclear and coal plants. Their relationship with the US is suffering as they face additional cost of defense spending and new tariffs.

Disparate Impact

In an attempt to overcome past real or perceived discrimination the government has a policy called, “Disparate Impact”. Disparate impact occurs when a seemingly neutral policy causes a disproportionate negative harm to a certain group. Can a test be an example? Requiring a test can be a case of disparate impact discrimination if the test screens out a disproportionate number of applicants from a protected group such as race, sex or national origin. The employer’s intent is irrelevant.

Income gap

The income gap in the US is leading young people to look favorably on socialism where equality is a promise. The uneven wage growth is the result of several things including the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas and the decline of unions but one factor often overlooked is simple math. If I earn $50,000 per year and you earn $150,000 you have $100,000 more than I. If over the next 20 years we both get 3% annual raises you will be earning $271,000 and I will be earning $90,000 and that leaves a difference of $181,000. Carry this out over the past 60 years and a large income gap is expected. The same thing happens with wealth. If I have $90,000 in my savings and you have $50,000, I have $40,000 more. Let us both earn 10% and in 20 years I have $605,000 and you have $335,000 or $270,000 more than you. This is the reason for the old saying the rich getter richer and the poor get poorer. It’s all about arithmetic.