Change is in the air

Since the start of the war on poverty as part of President Johnson’s Great Society many poor people of color have received special help from the government in an attempt to make up for past mistreatment and prejudice. After 50 years of receiving this help the statistics show that in many areas things have gotten worse especially in crime, drugs, single parent homes and drop-out rates. There has been a subtle change in attitude in the past year which has allowed people to question the wisdom of this approach. Up until recently it was considered politically incorrect to use phrases like personal responsibility as this conflicted with the idea that all problems were caused by events outside the control of these citizens. Typically the situation found in areas like Ferguson, MO were explained using the concept that these people were victims of some real or imagined mistreatment and they were not at fault for their predicament. A reported explained things this way. People in Ferguson would be stopped for minor traffic violations like a tail light out or improper parking and upon further investigation other offences would be revealed, things like driving with expired license or having no insurance. This then resulted in additional fines sometimes up to $1,000 and the people could not pay so they were hesitant to drive outside of their immediate neighborhood lest they be arrested. Since many of these people worked some distance from home they quit going to work. The reporter went on to explain how these circumstances caused these people to view the authorities in a distrustful way. He left the reader with the impression that things outside the control of these people caused them these problems when in fact it was their failure to keep their license and insurance up to date. It was a failure of personal responsibility. There is hope on the horizon for these people who have suffered the unintended consequences of good intentions. It is now acceptable in some quarters to talk about personal responsibility. Facts show that if black women will do two things it will keep 95% of them out of poverty. First is finish high school and second don’t have a child until you are married. This is asking for personal responsibility and does not require any government assistance. When black leaders begin to emphasize the importance of having a father in the home, then young black men will have responsible role models. Even Jesse Jackson said we don’t need the government to tell our young women not to have babies before marriage or tell our young men not to use drugs. Playing the victim and saying it’s not my fault doesn’t work but accepting responsibility for your station in life is the first step to doing something about it. Let’s quit selling these people short, what George Bush called the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Modern war

As people watch with shock and disbelief the savagery of the ISIS group and how they execute people, I am reminded of how the wars we have fought since WW 2 have changed our perception of war. Throughout history and up to and including WW 2 the purpose of war was to win and that meant destroying the enemy. People often talk about the horrors of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but far more people were burned to death with the fire-bombing of Japanese cities. The same thing happened in Germany. Cities were deliberately targeted because of the civilian population and this was designed to hasten the end of the war. When incendiary bombs were dropped in large quantities it set up a massive fire that burned alive thousands of people in cities like Dresden. On the evening of February 13, 1945, an orgy of genocide and barbarism began against a defenseless German city, one of the greatest cultural centers of northern Europe. Within less than 14 hours not only was it reduced to flaming ruins, but an estimated one-third of its inhabitants, possibly as many as a half a million, had perished in what was the worst single event massacre of all time. Since WW 2 technology and politics have combined to clean up war. We no longer go to war to win but to play for a draw. Politicians dictate strategy to generals and public opinion decides that water boarding is torture. We are willing to fight for our beliefs but not if it gets too messy. We take the high road and leave the low road to those nasty people like ISIS. Those devils are still fighting wars the old fashion way. They want to win and destroy their enemies. Maybe we can explain to them that the rules of war have changed and convince them to start killing people in a more civilized way.

Boots on the ground

About once a week I hear some newsperson on TV say that the people of the United States are war weary and want nothing to do with sending US troops anywhere. Many are not aware of this but the Ukraine agreed to give up their nuclear weapons if NATO promised to protect their borders. They gave up their weapons but when Russian took over Crimea, NATO did nothing. So much for promises! Now there is the possibility that Russia may move into Estonia which is a NATO member so the question arises will the people of the US agree to send troops to defend Estonia. The people want nothing to do with going to war against Russia so NATO which depends on US leadership will likely do nothing. This opens the door for Russian then to retake Lithuanian and Latvia the other two Baltic States which are also NATO members. The people of Russia feel they were humiliated when the Soviet Union collapsed and as Putin retakes territory he is cheered on by the people of Russia. They will put up with sanctions as a matter of pride. Once he starts to move and the west is reluctant to risk troops on the ground he will just continue. He would like nothing better than to rebuild the old Soviet by taking back all of Eastern Europe. Will the American people still refuse troops on the ground? The President has often quoted the polls showing the American people do not want our troops going to foreign countries so will he continue to follow what the people want?

Gas tax

California the state with the highest gas tax at 68 cents per gallon will raise taxes by another 15 cents this year to fund a law passed to reduce pollution. This is the way to collect real money since everyone pays but it is regressive since it hurts the poor the most. This should be an incentive to go to natural gas cars and trucks which might lead the way for the rest of the country. Natural gas produces less CO2 and almost zero oxides of nitrogen and sulfur the main causes of acid rain. To top it off it is less expensive. Los Angeles County two years ago converted its 2,200 buses to natural gas.

Private SS

I was watching Jesse Jackson on TV talking about the situation in Ferguson and I was reminded of the time that President Bush was pushing for privatizing social security and Jackson vigorously opposed such a change. This was proof that Jackson was more interested in politics than in helping blacks. Here is why I say that using the example of a single person. An African-American male who makes it to age 18 will have a life expectancy to 74. This means if he starts collecting social security at age 62 he will collect for 12 years. If he dies before that all benefits stop. A single white female will have a life expectancy of 84. If they both collect $1000 per month the black male collects $144,000 and the white female collects $264,000. The average person’s account value at age 62, based on annuity factors is $200,000. If these accounts were privatized they would be like 401K accounts. This means that when the black male died his account would transfer to his heirs and if his death occurred at age 74 his heirs would get $56,000. If he died the day after starting social security his heirs would get nothing but if he had his own plan they would get $200,000. Federal employees have had just such a plan since 1984 and polls show they are very satisfied. They have a choice of 10 accounts to invest in and these are watched by the government. Typically in a 401K type plan the money is invested in stocks and about 10 years before the planned retirement date the funds are moved into a fixed interest account and the interest is swept into stocks. Here is how it would be implemented. Currently the employee and employer each contribute 6.2% of salary to social security. 2.2% of that will remain in the social security account to cover the cost of disability and survivor benefits. The other 4% will be eligible for transfer to a personal account. It will be done gradually over a 20 year period with 5% transferring each year. The government will make up the immediate short fall through deficit spending but after the 20 years are up the cost to the government for retirement under social security will be eliminated. It will no longer require periodic fixes to keep the fund solvent. I will not show the calculations which I have done a number of times but basically based on past performance if you take the worst 40 year period of the market and using the privatization as outlined about the 401K account would have about $300,000 in it which is $100,000 more than what the social account would have. This would also result in billions of new dollars going into the market to expand the economy.

Police killings

There are about 800 arrest related deaths per year. This is a person killed by an officer. About 250 of those are African Americans. There are another 50 blacks killed by security guards or self-appointed vigilantes. The sites on the Internet say there is no data for how many of those killed were unarmed but that is not true. There is data on every killing and explanations of what happened but no one apparently has taken the time to go through this data. I looked through a representative sampling and I would estimate that 10% or about 30 of these were unarmed. Of these most are cases where the officer felt he was in mortal danger but that is subjective judgment and subject to challenge. If all of these were judged as improper action on the part of the police office that would mean about 2.5 times per month an event like this happens. Of these 30 only a few make national news perhaps 4 or 5 per year. Each time one makes the news people all take sides long before they hear the evidence so when the courts finally rule many are disappointed because they have already made up their minds and they have no room for jury decisions. This happened in the Travon Martin case and in the Casey Anthony case.

Rare earths

In the high tech world of today something called rare earth metals are in great demand for things like solar panels and cell phones. Up until the 1990’s the US produced most of these metals but because of environmental concerns this industry was shut down and today China produces 97% of all the world’s rare earth metals. I bring this up because I recently discovered a legitimate use for solar panels. I say legitimate, because in the past solar companies in the US were merely conduits to send government money to certain individuals who intern made campaign contributions to the senders. There is something called energy poverty which describes the situation faced by almost 2 billion people around the world and it means that they have no source of electric power. The building of an electric grid like western countries is not feasible because of cost but individual solar panels for each home are possible. Throughout Africa there are people living in small huts that could use a solar panel to provide power in the day to charge up their appliances and use the new types of lighting in the night. China has boasted that the west has oil but they have rare earths and they control the price so that new industries that use rare earths are moving to China. The west could encourage China to produce solar panels for the people in Africa but China is not about to do this unless there is a profit in it. Western business people could find ways for Africa to pay but there is no incentive for them to do so. Research is underway to find substitutes for rare earths but since there is not much incentive to help the people suffering from energy poverty it may be a while before anything is done in this area. There is a large supply of rare earth metals in western United States but they will not be mined because of environmental concerns. If these metals were made available a huge industry would come on line that could compete with China and many of the companies that now move to China would stay in the US.

Terrorist

President Obama has from the beginning categorized terrorist as criminals and proposes charging them in criminal court as opposed to charging them with war crimes and apparently he still feels that way. Attorney General Holder while in Ferguson said he was going to bring justice to the case of the black youth who was killed and then said he will bring to justice those who decapitated the journalist. Will the FBI go to Iraq and interview witnesses to this crime? Then will the perpetrators be brought before a grand jury. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says ISIS is the most dangerous group on earth and they are coming after us and Holder apparently sees them as criminals. There seems to be a disconnect between Hagel and Holder. Let’s hope they get together soon.

Prison not fines

I have often said that free market capitalism is the type of government that develops the largest middle class and I have further stated that corruption is the enemy of this form of government. Today Bank of America agreed to pay 16 billion dollars in fines for their dishonest activities in the recent home mortgage scandal. This bank has assets of 2,200 billion and this fine is just a slap on the wrist and will not deter illegal activities. In order to keep corruption at a minimum the penalties for illegal actions must be prison. Only when these people understand they will go to jail will they change their thinking. In addition there must be severe penalties for government employees assigned to oversee these activities who fail because of negligence

Burden of proof

Civil rights claims are generally handled in civil court which means that the burden of proof falls on the person bringing the complaint normally called the plaintiff. If I feel you have discriminated against me because of my age when applying for a job, I have to provide a preponderance of evidence showing that to be the case. Once I do that I have presented what is called a “prima facie case” and now the burden of proof shifts to the defendant who must now refute my case. If he can do that the burden shifts back to me. Over the years this process has shifted in cases regarding discrimination because of race. A case in 1970 started the shift when a university selected a white candidate over a black because the white had a high school diploma and performed better on an IQ test. The plaintiff’s lawyer complained that this discriminated against black applicants and the court agreed and demanded that the burden of proof shift to the university to show that this was not discriminatory against blacks. This type of shifting has occurred regularly since then. This is considered by many as the precursor to race norming.

Yes sir, no sir

Of all the news in the Ferguson, MO case surrounding the killing of a black teen, two only slightly reported items caught my attention. The first was the arrest of two reporters in McDonalds. The reporter was asked by the police to show his credentials and he refused and was arrested. The second was when the teen was asked by police to move out of the road and he said he only had a short way to go. I was riding my bike home from work one night in Naples, FL and it was raining hard and the police pulled me over and asked for my ID. I showed it and they went on their way. It has always been my way that when an officer stops me for any reason, I answer their questions and always say yes sir, no sir. I have never felt I was stopped for the wrong reason or treated in the wrong way but if that had happened, I would have responded as always with yes sir no sir. Later I would have taken my case up with the police department and more if necessary but I am wise enough to know not to argue with the officer at the time of incident. Here is a bit of advice. If an officer ever comes up to you and asks, is anything wrong here, do not answer by asking him if there is anything wrong with him. That may seem obvious to you but apparently there are people who do not understand this simple concept.

Culture

I have mentioned Mary Wright Edelman in regards to her upbringing as a black lady from South Carolina and how her book seemed to be two separate books in one. In the first half she talks about how family and church were the foundation of their way of life but in the second half she talks about how government has to do more for the poor. Here is a list of 25 points she passed on to her children. Note how any modern day conservative would agree with her. 1. There is no free lunch. Don't feel entitled to anything you don't sweat and struggle for. 2. Set goals and work quietly and systematically toward them. 3. Assign yourself. 4. Never work for just money or for power. They won't save your soul or build a decent family or help you sleep at night. 5. Don't be afraid of taking risks or of being criticized. 6. Take parenting and family life seriously and insist that those you work for and who represent you do. 7. Remember that your wife/husband is not your mother/father or servant, but your partner and friend. 8. Forming families is serious business. 9. Be honest. 10. Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important that the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society. 11. Sell the shadow for the substance. 12. Never give up! 13. Be confident that you can make a difference. 14. Don't ever stop learning and improving your mind. 15. Don't be afraid of hard work or teaching your childen to work. 16. "Slow down and live." 17. Choose your friends carefully. 18. Be a can-do, will-try person. 19. Try to live in the present. 20. Use your political and economic power for the community. 21. Listen for "the sound of the genuine" within yourself and others. 22. You are in charge of your own attitude. 23. Remember your roots, your history, and the forebears' shoulder on which you stand. 24. Be reliable. Be faithful. Finish what you start. 25. Always remember that you are never alone. In the first half of her book she concentrates on all of these but in the second half it is all about number 20 which she concludes means government support. I am mindful of how many modern day liberals view the constitution in much the same manner in that they concentrate on the general welfare clause using their interpretation of that to involve government in the everyday lives of people. What they often overlook is that the bill of rights were added to the constitution to emphasis the importance of keeping government out of the lives of people. Today it is considered politically incorrect to talk about how family and church guided the lives of these people because those words define the culture and if anyone talks about the culture in the black community they are branded as racist. The reason is that culture infers that the people are responsible for their lot in life and it is up to them to make changes. That conflicts with the idea that the government is responsible for making the changes because the people have been victimized and cannot improve their situation without government interference. The government though the war on poverty has been helping these people for 50 years and it seems this war has been lost. Maybe it is time to try a new approach.

Race norming

Hilary Clinton is involve in a group called, “The Children’s Defense League” and this group was founded by Mary Wright Edelman. She is a black lady about my age who grew up in South Carolina. Her father was a minister with five children. He emphasized the importance of education and all five children became productive citizens. Mary wrote several books and I read her first one. It was like reading two separate books. In the first half she lauds the combination of church and family as the foundation of their culture. She outlines how they learned to be responsible for their own behavior and how work was an essential part of life. She brags about their self-reliance and how they reached out to help those in need. The second half of the book is devoted to the idea that the government should do more to help people. Here is one quote from the first half. Affirmative action does not and should not mean that unqualified people get an advantage. Everybody has to be able to do the work in school or on the job to succeed. Nobody should use affirmative action as a favor, a crutch, or as an excuse not to be prepared or not to do a first-rate job or to stigmatize. This is what most people thought affirmative action was when it was introduced as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Since then it has morphed into something called, “race norming”, and that differs significantly from Mrs. Edelman’s definition. Race norming it the process of statistically adjusting the scores of minority job applicants on job-qualification tests by rating each test-taker’s scores against the results of others in his or her racial or ethnic group. This shift has caused considerable controversy and case after case has come to light showing what seems to be a bias in favor of minorities. There are a number of cities across the country where minorities were underrepresented in their police and fire departments and race norming was used to correct this imbalance. In other words the top qualifiers were replaced with those who scored lower because of their race. This was justified by saying that past injustices caused certain groups to be less able to qualify. While this may be an acceptable excuse it does beg the question as to why the tests are given in the first place. In the current situation in Ferguson, MO where the blacks are severely under represented on the police force perhaps some race norming would have prevented the chaos now going on.

American exceptionalism

Here is an interesting statement from President Obama When many thousands of innocent civilians are faced with the danger of being wiped out and we have the capacity to do something about it, we will take action. That is our responsibility as Americans. It is the hallmark of American leadership. That is who we are. That sounds a lot like American exceptionalism to me

Cadillac tax

From the beginning I have predicted that Obamacare would reduce cost. This is because of rationing which only a government sponsored program can do and higher deductibles which cause people to use health care less frequently and when they do use it they shop around. The average deductible for an Obamacare family plan is $12,000 per year except for those who get subsidized insurance which is 85% of those who have signed up. Here is the latest move in this direction and will include the plans now offered by most big companies. The so-called “Cadillac tax,” now four years away, will affect health plans that spend more than $10,200 per worker. “The excise tax, when it hits in 2018, will affect both employers and employees,"said Brian Marcotte, president of the National Business Group on Health. Employees will get incentives to reduce costs through such arrangements as wellness programs, including losing weight or stopping smoking. Meanwhile, employers are shifting workers into plans with higher deductibles, just as ObamaCare does in the health care exchanges, and using health savings accounts to help defray the costs.

Mountain top

Obama has said loud and clear no boots on the ground in Iraq but since we now have Marines there and they are wearing boots the new phrase is no combat troops on the ground. Tonight we hear that 30,000 Christians are starving and dying of thirst in the mountains in northern Iraq and The President will decide in a couple of days whether to send troops there to rescue these people. He should just take a few more days and the problem will be solved. I think Obama should listed to the advice given by Mohammad Ali when he said you can run but you can’t hide.

Leading from behind

There are managers, usually found in large government agencies, who spend their entire career trying not to make a mistake in the hopes of making it safely to retirement. The method they use to avoid mistakes is to not do anything. They procrastinate and hide from decisions in hopes that the problem will either resolve itself or just go away. Yesterday it came out that The Presidents policy is, “don’t do stupid stuff” and that sounds a lot like don’t do anything because the only way to avoid mistakes is to not do anything. It helps to explain his leading from behind strategy. He avoids decisions and as a result, problems become more difficult and after a while become impossible. It is at this point that when confronted with the situation he challenges his critics to come up with a solution.

Hedge funds

When Governor Romney was running for president the subject of hedge funds was in the news since this is how Romney made his millions. A group of individuals forms a limited partnership and they select companies to invest in. Normally these companies are new and cannot get financing through the normal channels as the risk is too great for most banks. Since hedge funds to not sell stock to the general public they are not covered by investment laws. It is just their money and they are allowed to invest it without any government oversight. Since these investments carry high risk the money is sometimes referred to as venture capital. It is estimated that 3 out of 4 of these investments loss money so when they hit a winner it has to be big to make up for the losses. There are thousands of companies operating today that would not be there if it were not for hedge funds. These funds are an integral part of today’s business world yet during the election they were exposed in the press as some evil capitalistic scheme to take advantage of people. There are many of these funds and for sure some act in unscrupulous ways but many well-known companies are in business today because of venture capital

Riots

About 300 young black men are killed each year by police or security guards, most of these in the commission of a crime. About 2 or 3 times a year a young black man is killed by an officer who was prejudiced and overreacted and should never have been an officer. When this happens it is a national story and often leads to riots, looting and destruction of property. There are 12,000 homicides each year and 6,000 of them are blacks and 95% of those are killed by other blacks but none of these results in a national news story. Are these 500 young men killed each month somehow of less value? Are their families not just as saddened? Each of these was some mother’s child. Maybe some of these parents should riot and demand that something be done.

In The Presidents news conference this past week he said that those who say he could have left a residual force in Iraq were wrong because he could not get a status of forces agreement with Maliki. His critics say he did not really push for it because he didn’t want to leave troops there and thus used the lack of an agreement as an excuse to remove all troops. Here is an excerpt from a debate with Romney. "With regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe, that there should be a status of forces agreement," Romney told Obama as the two convened on the Lynn University campus in Boca Raton, Fla., that October evening. "That’s not true," Obama interjected. “Oh, you didn't want a status of forces agreement?” Romney asked as an argument ensued. “No,” Obama said. “What I would not have done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. That certainly would not help us in the Middle East.” Now that it looks like it was a mistake to withdraw all of the troop, The President is indicating that he would have left troops if it were not for Maliki.

Populism

Throughout recorded history there have been individuals who tried to gain power over others by promising to redistribute the wealth. This approach is called populism and the latest to use this is Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts. She follows in the footsteps of President Obama who told Joe the Plumber that he would spread the wealth around. The success of this approach depends on exploiting the differences between groups. The rich vs the poor, women vs men, dark skin vs light skin, high school drop outs vs Ivy leaguers, union vs non-union, white collar vs blue collar, blue state vs red state, rural vs urban, east and west coast vs Midwest, wall street vs main street, old vs young and finally north vs south. The man who ran for office pledging to unite the country has by necessity divided the country. This call to the masses of the promise to take from the haves and give to the have-nots is so powerful that even when it is exposed for the fraud that it is, the people still refuse to give up on the idea. Those in the Black community voted 95% for Obama and after six years they have lost ground in every economic measurement and they still are 95% for him because his rhetoric is so alluring. NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous said Sunday, perhaps unwittingly, that black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office. I am quite sure it was unwittingly because The President really believes that redistribution will help the poor and the middle class. What he does not understand is simple math. Just recently it was pointed out that the Wal-Mart family is worth 90 billion dollars and that is more than the poorest 50 million people. On the surface that looks pretty bad but the solution is not to redistribute for if that is done each of the 50 million would receive $1,900 and that would have very little effect on their lives. The answer is to get these people better paying jobs and that is done by economic growth. Data shows that since Obama took office the middle class, for whom he often states he is the champion of, has lost ground each year. Many in that group are committed to this president and they continue to believe that his policies of redistribution will bring them a better life but they are now in the minority. A recent poll showed that the majority now believe that their children will not be as well off as they are and that has never happened before. The famous argument that pitted the one percent against the 99 percent is another example where the math proves it doesn’t work. I don’t know if the aforementioned Senator Warren is aware of the math that shows there are too few rich and too many poor but I doubt that she wants to know. She is a populist and her success depends on people believing that redistribution is the key to their salvation. If only she would propose policies that would provide economic growth but that is not her strategy because real growth comes from the private sector not government and her power comes from government.

Iraq update

As the United States once again enters Iraq, it is time for an update on how we got to where we are. Back in the 1980’s the US along with a dozen other nations gave thousands of tons of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to Saddam Hussein. He used these WMD against Iran and the Kurds in his own country. The western democracies wanted to rid Iraq of these WMD so sanctions were place on Iraq hoping to convince Saddam to comply with the order to destroy the WMD. For years he played a cat and mouse game with the UN inspectors moving and hiding WMD. Then the UN agreed to allow him to sell enough oil to purchase medical and food supplies for the people. This he agreed to and spent most of the oil money building up his military and lavish homes for himself and his sons. Finally he said he destroyed the WMD but would not say where because he knew the UN would take soil samples and prove he was lying. After years of warnings the US invaded Iraq under the pretense that the WMD must be destroyed. It was a unanimous consensus that these weapons must be found and destroyed. The congress overwhelmingly approved and western leaders across Europe approved along with the UN and NATO. No WMD were found and to this day no one knows where they went. After the overthrow of Saddam the country was thrown into chaos and after a number of years elections were held and new leadership was put in charge. Then a civil war broke out and only after a US led surge did the country settled down. By 2011 things were peaceful and Obama pulled all troops out and the sectarian war started once again. The President said he could not leave any troops there because he could not get a status of force agreement but many feel he did not push the issue because he wanted out. With the country in turmoil Islamic terrorist began to take control. They are led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a man who was held captive by the US and then released. This group started in Syria and has now taken over the northern part of Iraq and that is where they are threatening to kill Christians who have escaped to the mountains where they now hide out with no food or water. The US is now attempting to send them aid. How they started in Syria is another subject. In the early days of the Syrian revolution the dictator Assad looked like he would be ousted. President Obama said publically that Assad had to go. Then Russian and Iran stepped into the battle and helped Assad to force back the rebel forces. At that time The President refused to aid the rebels and they soon faced defeat. While this was going on 160,000 civilians were killed and 2 million fled the country but the US just watched and we are still watching today. In the midst of all this turmoil ISSI the Islamic terror group that is now killing Christians rose to power and they are getting stronger each day as the US observes.

Middle Class

The President held a press conference today but before the questions he touted the improvements in the economy using numbers but according to polls the average person does not feel the improvements. In every speech he expounds on his concern for the middle class and that is the very group whose income has declined every year since he has been in office. In his years in office the rich have gotten richer and the gap between the middle class and the rich has widened. He brags about the number of jobs created but doesn’t mentioned that many are part time and most are low paying. He brags about the 4% GDP in the last quarter but fails to mention that the percentage of people working is the lowest since 1979. Once again he feels that if he just talks about his concern for the middle class that will somehow make things better. Even his middle class supporters now realize that words alone will not do the job. The only ones who haven’t figured this out are those in the national press who continue to re-mouth his words.

Hilary

Even though Hilary Clinton has ties to Wall Street and has receive millions in campaign funds along with speeches at $200,000 a crack, most people will not be influenced by that. She will have five things going for her. First, she is not Obama, second, she is a woman, third partisanship, fourth the uninformed public and fifth a friendly press. As long as she does not get bogged down in a serious discussion of issues, she should be our next president and that is the sad commentary on today’s politics. The very things we should be discussing will be shunted aside and too many people will not care.

Sarcastic Obama

President Obama has a habit of using sarcastic humor to put down his opponents and here is a sample that may come back to haunt him. In the final debate of the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama tried to portray challenger Mitt Romney as a novice who lacks understanding of complex world issues. "Gov. Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that al-Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaida. You said Russia ... the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years," Obama said. I am not a big fan of this kind of behavior which I see as sophomoric

Coal

Part of The President’s plan to help Africa includes 15 billion to expand access to electricity to the people. It was not clear on just how this power would be generated but here is example of a project currently underway. Earlier this week, I traveled to South Africa's Mpumalanga province, the center of the country's coal industry and the home of one of the newest coal-fired power plants,Kusile. Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that their tax dollars have been used to underwrite Kusile, but they are. And when completed, the 4,800-megawatt plant will be among the largest in the world. EMalahleni, the municipality in which Kusile is located, means "place of coal" in Zulu. Ninety-three percent of South Africa's power comes from coal, and much of that is produced and burned in Mpumalanga.* While much of it is burned in the region's 11 power plants, 25 percent of it is exported to other countries. South Africa is the fifth-largest producer of coal in the world, and 80 percent of its mining takes place in this province. A significant chunk of Kusile's upfront financing—$805 million—came from a direct loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States to Eskom, South Africa's state-owned electric power utility. Here in the US we are closing coal fired plants because of the pollution but to our friends in Africa we say “Good luck”.

Bills

There was much consternation in the news tonight as the house passed a bill to deal with the problem with children at the border. The big complaint was that the senate has gone on vacation so nothing will be done with the bill. Most likely it will sit on Harry Reid’s desk along with the other 350 bills the house has sent to the senate that are still sitting on his desk. Reid will not bring these bills to the floor of the senate so they just languish lying on his desk. Many of these are jobs bills. “352 bills. Why won’t Harry Reid act? These are good bills; bills that put the American people back to work, put more money in hardworking Americans pockets, help with education, and skills training. “We call upon Harry Reid to get to work before he adjourns in August to pass some of these bills. The American people deserve better.”

Need to know

Are agencies and businesses getting too large to properly manage? The CIA director just admitted he was unaware that his agency was spying on senators. The head of the IRS was unaware that her agency was discriminating against certain groups. The CEO of General Motors was unaware that cars were unsafe. Former Secretary of State Clinton said she was unaware of the safety concerns in Benghazi. President Obama said he found out in the news about the problems with moving guns to Mexico and problems at the border. Instead of being too large have these entities created a culture where underlings keep problems from the top people. It has long been known that there is something called plausible deniability that surrounds any president. Has this idea spread to lower level people?