Illegals

There are certain individuals living in the country who are classified as non-resident aliens. Examples are people here on student visas or work visas. These people earn money here but do not have social security numbers so in order to file income tax they use an ITIN, and individual taxpayer identification number. This means that their employer withholds payroll taxes from their wages. They pay into social security, Medicare and Medicaid but they do not accumulate any benefits. In order to get an ITIN a person must fill out a Form W7. If an illegal alien fills out this form they must lie and check the box non-resident alien and they then received an ITIN. If these illegals have a child here then that child becomes an American citizen and when the child grows up he/she can sponsor their parents who can then become citizens. Once these people become citizens they can apply for their payroll tax benefits to be re-instated. It is easier to do if they keep a copy of all of their W-2’s to prove their earnings and withholding.

Math

Years ago when I was filled with youthful optimism, I felt that a college degree was best described as making green greener. What I meant was a good education would help a person understand things in a way that they could see the beauty in the world. It takes art education to see the beauty in a painting. It takes an understanding of literature to get the full pleasure out of a good book. For these reasons I felt a solid liberal arts curriculum would be the best formal education. I have now changed my perspective. Students graduating today with degrees that provide little opportunity for gainful employment while they are stuck with unpaid loans are a drag on the economy. If a student is going to invest four or five years and a couple hundred thousand dollars, they best get a degree in science or engineering or perhaps business. It is sad that it has come to this but the writing is on the wall, having a degree in theater arts is not going to get it done. We live in a high tech world and this requires people who have a solid understanding of mathematics and schools are not getting the job done. Mathematics is the language of science and too many of our students are math illiterate. I have been substitute teaching for the past two years, mostly at the high school level and I see to many students who are getting passed along and they have little to no understanding of basic math and this means they will choose majors in college that will leave them in debt and without a job. School districts around the country are bagging about improved graduation rates but they fail to say that the kids may be graduating but they are math ignorant. We are fooling ourselves and will not compete with other countries like China and India until we recognize the importance of math. There is still opportunity for those who go on to professional schools like medicine and law but for those with bachelor degrees, math is essential.

Mexico

Donald Trump has stated that he would build a wall along the southern border and have Mexico pay for it and this was considered a joke by many talking heads. The US imports 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Mexico and the current price is $50 per barrel. The border is 2,000 miles long and a double wall/fence would cost 4 million dollars per mile or 8 billion dollars. The US now has enough oil to completely replace the imports from Mexico so they are in a strong bargaining position. The US could tell Mexico that they will pay 10 dollars less per barrel over the next two and a half years and use that money to build the wall.

Centrifuges

The current nuclear plan with Iran has many difficult parts and is not easy to figure out but there is one aspect that is totally confusing and that has to do with what is called, “breakout time”. This is estimated time it would take Iran to enrich enough uranium to build a bomb. The President says the current breakout time is three months and his plan will extend that to one year. The nuclear program in Iran was started in 1950 with the help of the United States and in 1985 they began the centrifuge program. They have been working on this for 30 years and now we are told that they are 3 months away from completion.