Wisconsin unions

About 4 years ago the State of Wisconsin passed a law saying that union members do not have to pay union dues. Since that time 50% of the teachers and 70% of state union members have stopped paying dues. Some unions are lowering the fees but that does not seem to be working. The American Federation of Teachers, which organized in the college system, saw a 50 percent decline. The 70,000-person membership in the state employees union has fallen by 70 percent. It appears that many members do not feel they were getting their money’s worth. While I have always been a backer of private unions, I do not feel that public unions should be allowed. Here is something I wrote sometime back. While I have long recognized the contribution that unions make to our society, I have always opposed public unions. My opposition is based on the simple fact that public employees have a bloc of voters that can determine elections. Whether it be the teachers electing school board members, county workers electing county commissioners, city workers electing city council members or state workers electing state representatives. In all cases they end up sitting across the negotiating table with the people they helped to elect. In addition government unions are negotiating with tax payer money and it is always easier to spend somebody else money. An example of this conflict is playing out in the news today with the controversy surrounding the Grand Jury verdict in the New York Police case. The district attorney knows he needs the police unions backing to first get elected and second to efficiently carry out his duties. Because of this conflict it is very rare that a police officer will be indicted by a Grand Jury. In spite of the fact that there was the very damming evidence of the video tape, the verdict was still not to indict.

Top secret

In the news today it was announced that some of Hilary Clinton’s emails were so top secret that no one will be allowed to look at them. That sounds like a line from a standup comic. I want to know who already broke the law by sneaking a peek. On a serious note does that mean that congress, which is responsible for oversight, is not allowed to see these emails and if so how are they to carry out their responsibilities. There is a part of this story that is missing.

Abortion

Over the past two years the Texas legislature has defunded Planned Parenthood Clinics and the result has been a 13% reduction in abortions. One good result of this is that the state has vastly increased funding for Women’s Health Clinics. One interesting sideline is the report on the cost associated with the increase in births since most of these prevented abortions were for poor women. The state's health commission says Texas will see nearly 24,000 unplanned births between 2014 and 2015 thanks to these cuts, raising state and federal taxpayer's Medicaid costs by up to $273 million. Just think this through for a minute. The suggestion is that one way to save tax payer money is to provide more abortions. Fast forward 18 years and asked these 24,000 people what they think about the issue. A few years back there was a ridiculous idea that the government put crack cocaine into the inner cities to kill of black people. That was not true but the government did have a very good program designed to kill off blacks and that was abortion. Blacks represent 12% of the population but 36% of the abortions. Think how much money that saved the taxpayers!

Medicare for all

In the past I have presented my plan for health insurance whereby companies provide annual payments to employees in the form of health saving accounts but this is not politically feasible. The next best thing is single payer or what is sometimes called Medicare for all. Both Trump and Sanders have indicated they would be willing to go this way. Administrative cost in Medicare is 2% and in the private sector it is 17%. Since private insurance cost about 1.5 trillion dollars this could be a 15% or 225 billion dollars savings. This is enough to provide free health care for all those living below the poverty line. These policies would be much like Obamacare in that they would have high deductibles. This eliminates the casual use of health care. In addition there would be only one government plan so they could ration benefits. Since most health cost occur in the last year of life the big saving in rationing will come from the elderly, the so called death panels. What is not mentioned in this change is that over 2 million jobs in the health care industry would be lost.

Flint

There is much to be learned about the water situation in Flint, MI but it appears that the water having a foul odor and being brownish in color may have saved many from a more serious problem. It likely caused many people not to drink it. The true danger was lead poisoning caused by lead leaching from old pipes. Hopefully the smell and color caused many not to drink the water and parents warning their children not to drink it. As a matter of common sense a person should not drink water that is brown in color and smells bad so let’s hope the citizens of Flint are gifted with common sense.

Palin

As I watched Sarah Palin endorse Trump, I was reminded of how she was attacked in 2008 and how the women’s movement leaders stood idly by. Martin Bashir is a devout supporter of the Obama regime he made that an excuse to argue that Sarah Palin should be defecated and urinated on. Democrats Photoshopped her head onto lewd bodies to discredit her. Here are some comments by other women. added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn’t already have sewn up, the white trash vote.” When I see people crowing about her 'acceptable' speech last Wednesday... I literally want to vomit with rage," "I am shocked by the depths of my hatred for this woman," "It is impossible for me not to read about her in the newspaper in the subway every morning on my way to work and not come into the office angry and wanting to kick things," "I am having Sarah Palin nightmares," I find it insulting to women, to the Republican Party, and to the country," "I found Palin's selection .  .  . insulting." the Down syndrome baby who wasn't aborted; The one thing I remember was when Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska which was true but the lady on SNL changed it to I can see Russia from my back yard and that is what the press quoted after that. The mud-slinging in this election doesn’t have the vitriol that was used against Palin.

Trump voters

Bill Clinton is almost certainly the most popular person in American politics. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that 56 percent of people have a positive view of the former president while just 26 percent hold a negative one. I start with this quote because Bill is now on the campaign trail for Hilary. When a recent reporter following Bill was asked how things are going he responded, great. Last week in Iowa Bill had a rally which was led off by Katy Perry and they had a crowd of 4,000. Trump routinely has crowds of three or four times that number. To counter this, the anti-Trump people say he has people at speech locations in advance to build up publicity. I assume this is true but it seems logical to me that other candidates do the same thing. Trump to me, remains an enigma. I am at a loss to explain the number of people at his rallies. I am convinced that Trump knew right from the start that he could not enter the race as an ordinary politician. First of all he was not one and if he tried to compete on that basis he would have gotten nowhere. His bombastic arrogance rubs many people the wrong way but his bluntness is refreshing to many. One recent example: he was asked by a reporter regarding his challenge to Hilary about her calling him sexist, if what he said to her was a threat and he said, yes. All politicians that I have known would have backed away from the word threat but not Trump. As brazen as that is to most people there are many who also like the directness. The big question that everyone is asking is will all those people who stand in line to hear Trump speak show up to vote.

China's growth

For many years China has maintained a growing economy by building infrastructure. In China there are highways, cities, airports and other facilities that are severely under-utilized. These projects are the result of government spending to provide jobs and keep the economy growing. China now has a large enough middle class that they are switching to an economy based on consumer spending. While this is going on the United States is trying to move from an economy based on consumer spending to government infrastructure spending to provide jobs. These changes will affect American exports to China. Companies like Caterpillar that shipped heavy construction equipment will find decreasing sales but companies like Apple that make consumer products will benefit from new consumer sales. In any event the old saying of what goes around comes around seems to be working.

World economy

Many Americans equate the problems with the stock market with the decline in oil prices but this is not the case. The market is upset because the world economy spearheaded by China is weak. Lower oil prices will affect the profits of oil companies but they will greatly benefit other industries, in particular transportation. Everyone from individual car owners to commercial trucking, rails and most of all the airline industry are benefiting from lower oil prices. In addition home heating cost either with natural gas or fuel oil have come down. Many industries rely heavily on energy cost and their profits will reflect lower prices for oil. These profits will provide extra funds for R&D and expansion. The average consumer is finding savings in home heating cost and gas prices at the pump. The chemical industry which uses petroleum for many of its basic products will see increased profits. Finally power plants will show increased profits because of lower oil and natural gas prices not to mention cleaner air. All of this will spur economic growth but the slowing of the world economy will delay the effects.

Corporate inversion

A large Minneapolis company, Medtronic’s recently completed a corporate inversion. This means they merged with a company located outside of the United States. In this case the country is Ireland where the corporate tax rate is 12% vs the 35% in the US. While most of the news says they did this to avoid taxes, they would not do it if there were not additional benefits. In recent months the government has enacted new rules which made the tax change less advantageous. In looking at only the tax advantages, inversions appeal to companies that receive a large amount of their profit from foreign sales. The corporate tax rate in Ireland is about one-third the rate here in the United States. Medtronic currently has $13 billion overseas and that money can now be brought home with a tax savings of over $8 billion. This money can now be used to invest in new products or facilities or for employee benefits here in the US. Citizens who understand this process are upset but Medtronic does not sell to consumers so the effect is not damaging to the company. For others this may not be the case. Take another large Minneapolis firm 3M. On sales of $34 billion, 3M paid $9.4 billion in taxes or a 28% rate. Since 3M sells many consumer products the process of inversion would likely hurt sales. One solution to this problem is to allow companies to repatriate (bring home) the cash. Apple Inc.’s cash topped $200 billion for the first time as the portion of money held abroad rose to almost 90 percent, putting more pressure on Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to find a way to use the funds without incurring U.S. taxes. It is estimated that US companies have over $2 trillion dollars sitting overseas and if the government would offer a one-time tax break to bring this money home, many companies would take advantage.

Middle income

Before Obama became President, he was the champion of the middle income people and he has said this over and over during the past seven years. In his speech last night he raved about how great the economy is doing stating the 5% unemployment rate and the 2% GDP. What he didn’t say was that wages for middle income people have declined during his tenure and that the labor participation rate is very low. CNSNews.com) - A record 94,610,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month -- an increase of 579,000 from August -- and the labor force participation rate reached its lowest point in 38 years, with 62.4 percent of the U.S. population either holding a job or actively seeking one. The average GDP for the past 50 years is 3.5% so to justify the 2% the President says it’s better than Europe. While the lack of good jobs hits the middle income group the hardest it is even more difficult for minorities and for minority youth it is a disaster. Yet these people are supporters of Obama because they like him and that seems to be enough.

Truck sales

The latest information on what Americans think about climate change is now available and it is not a poll. It is the sale of trucks and SUV’s and the people are not concerned. In polls they say they are but when push comes to shove they are buying bigger vehicles on a record pace. Now that oil and gas prices are cheap again, GM (GM) is capitalizing on stronger demand for SUVs and crossover vehicles. That's critical because those gas-guzzling vehicles are more profitable for GM. The shifting consumer trends helped drive GM's profits sharply higher. The auto maker on Thursday said it earned $1.1 billion profits last quarter, quadrupling its haul from the year before.

Spin

The sex scandals surrounding Bill Clinton have come into the news. When Hilary said that Trump has ”a penchant for sexism” Trump responded by bringing up the past indiscretions. As I watched the reporting on this, the differences between networks were quite evident. One network reported that the wife should not be held accountable for the actions of her husband thus absolving Hilary of any responsibility. The other station pointed out how Hilary treated the victims of her husband’s dalliances by referring to them as “narcissistic loony toon”, “trailer trash” and “bimbo’s “. This is what Hilary recently said about this issue. "To every survivor of sexual assault...You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We're with you." — One station refers to Bill’s activities and the other to how Hilary reacted to those activities. This is called spin.

I don’t believe in hell and by extension, I don’t believe in the devil but there is a devil like entity roaming around and that is my ego. As a young man I fostered his growth and he has come to my rescue on many occasions but he always carries a price. As I have grown older, I have come to realize that this ego tends to get in the way of my happiness so I have taken steps to limit his power but it is a never ending battle. Just when I think I have him in his proper place he rears his mischievous head and turns me back to my old ways. I bring this up at this time since the Power Ball is now at record levels and part of my program to restrain my ego is to refuse to buy a ticket. On the surface this may not make sense but I know me and if I should win a large sum of cash my ego would once again jump to center stage. I can just hear the accolades now as I give millions to various charities and all who know me tell me what a wonderful person I am. I would bask in the limelight and puff up like a toad. I am sure there are many others who would not be negatively affected in this way and I hope they win but it is not for me.

The last year

A presidential candidate is most concerned about domestic issues and runs a campaign based on how he can improve the lives of the citizens. All too often events overtake their plans and this has certainly happened with President Obama. The situation around the world has deteriorated and this is especially the case in the Middle East and Obama is overwhelmed by the whole thing. His response is to give a prime time speech about gun control. He has reiterated his plans for his last year in office as a time when he will concentrate on closing Guantanamo, win a court case on his immigration plans, sign a criminal justice reform bill into law, sign the new trade agreement called the TPP and last but not least climate change. While these are laudable goals, it looks more and more like he plans to leave the international affairs to his successor. His different approach in the Middle East has led Saudi Arabia to believe that the US has deserted them in favor of Iran and this has caused them to rebel. All the work that Secretary Kerry has carried out over the past year to try and negotiate a peace in Syria is now in jeopardy. As Russia increases their help for Assad, and Iran uses their new found cash to increase their mischief, along with the nuke deal with Iran, the Saudis and their allies have reignited the old Sunni-Shia war and the US is watching from the sidelines.

Coal vs natural gas

In 2013, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation accounted for about 27% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions after the Electricity sector. The electricity sector or power plants produce 38% of the total. The first step in reducing greenhouse gases is to change coal plants over to natural gas since natural gas produces only 37% as much CO2 as coal. In addition this will reduce acid rain and heavy metal contaminates and provide cleaner ways to transport fuel. Coal is mined using heavy equipment and shipped by truck or rail while natural gas is piped. Coal produces large quantities of ash and natural gas does not. This change is underway and will continue in the future. Other methods of reducing greenhouse gases can continue and should be encouraged. Things like wind, solar and nuclear can help over the long term but changing to natural gas can and is offering immediate improvements.

Western lands

Protestors out west are claiming the federal government owns too much land. Across America the federal government owns 28% of all land but in western US the government owns more than 50%. Government ownership is not evenly distributed throughout the stats and varies from a low of .3% in Connecticut to 81% in Utah. To many it seems that the government owning that much land in Utah is a little out of line. Most feel that setting aside some of the parks is reasonable but much of the land the government owns is not open to the public. It is land that contains valuable natural resources, things like oil and natural gas. Other resources, like rare earth metals and lithium, which are needed for high tech products will put pressure on the government to allow extraction. This pressure will overcome the objections of environmentalist who have succeeded in closing the doors to mining and fracking on these lands. Politics aside, things will change.

Caucus time

Now that the Iowa caucuses are fast approaching , I want to relate my experience of attending the Minnesota caucuese in 2012. The Republicans were all excited about Rick Santorum and the reason was that single issue voters represented the majority. These were people who were so pro-life that they were willing to spend the time sitting around talking about the issue of abortion. These are the people whose feelings are strong enough to bring them out on a school night to discuss their issue. On the Democratic side the meeting was dominated by the unions led by the postal union and the state employees union. It was all about getting more benefits and very little was discussed about any other issue. Once again these were people who had a personal vested interest in the outcome. If Trump is able to bring out people to these meetings it will be a warning that something is afoot and this means that people who generally do not bother to vote may come out in large numbers. It will be a clear signal to other candidates in both parties that there is a new kind of politics brewing in the country.

Clinton emails

The release of the Clinton emails demonstrates how political operations can fool the public along with the press. First step was go through and select any emails which may pose a problem and dispose of them. The second step is to release the emails in small groups over an extended period of time. At each release the eager press goes through the batch looking for the smoking gun and each time they come up short and each time it confirms to the public that there is no there, there. Forgotten in the whole mess is that it is illegal to destroy government correspondence and the fact that half have been selectively destroyed. Now we await the FBI investigation, the same FBI that reports to the Obama Justice department. Everyone knows that Obama wants Clinton to succeed him as most Republicans would reverse his many presidential decrees. It is said that the FBI is above politics. They had no trouble finding others guilty of mishandling secret government information but most people realize that this case will be different and more to the point, most people won’t care. What this means is that Mrs. Clinton will be the democratic nominee and at this time it looks like she will be running against Trump. This should be an interesting election. We have one candidate who is secretive and considered dishonest and untrustworthy but experienced in the way that government operates. With Trump we have open book, to many, too open. He says whatever he thinks and seems not to care about the political ramifications. He has no political experience and is beholding to no one.