Cash

About 50 years ago, I was watching Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes and this was my first introduction to illegal cash transactions. Wallace was interviewing a banker in Miami who was accepting cash deposits and Wallace asked, did you think it a little strange when a man came in an made a $200,000 cash deposit and the banker answered no. Since that time the Bank Secrecy Act was passed which says that all cash deposits of $10,000 or more must be reported to the IRS. One of the first signs that something unscrupulous or illegal is going on is when you see large cash deposits. Now go back to January of 2016 and the United States sent $1.7 billion dollars in cash to Iran. It was delivered on pallets and unloaded with a fork lift in the middle of the night. Why was cash needed and where did the cash go? No one knows but based on cash transfers it can be reasonably assumed that it was for some nefarious purpose.

Press

Judith Miller was being interviewed on TV and made some rather interesting comments. She is the NYT's reporter who went to jail rather than reveal her sources. She was saying that the job of the press is to report the facts in the most objective way. Then she quoted the saying: never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel and followed up by saying the press may come after you if you go after them. She was referring to President Trump but indirectly she said that objectivity may be tempered with retaliation.

Senior taxes

Seniors who do not itemize (basically those with a paid for house) will get a tax break this year. In 2017 the standard deduction for a couple over age 65 was $15,500 and they added to that a personal exemption of $8,100 for a total deduction of $23,600. Under the new law there is no longer a personal exemption but the standard deduction for this couple will be $26,600.

Kim in the USA

As the plans for the meeting between the North Korean President and Trump move forward the place for the meeting is being discussed. It would be great if they could meet somewhere in the USA. Recall in 1959 when Khrushchev came to the US. He was shown around the country and was visually impressed the the farm equipment in Iowa. He was a farmer so this perked his interest. At that time some pictures of Moscow stores showed the empty shelves as compared to the super markets in the US. He had to have noticed that and it may well have influenced his feelings about capitalism. Perhaps giving Kim a tour would open his eyes to the miracle of the free market. Don't forget that within a few months of the collapse of the Soviet Union Khrushchev's son moved his family to the USA where he lives today as an American citizen. Perhaps Kim would enjoy a round of golf at Mar a lago.

Sweet crude

Most environmentalist seem to be unaware of the climate advantages to using US crude as opposed to Saudi crude. One major difference in crude oil is the sulfur content and low sulfur is referred to as sweet and high sulfur as sour. The oil from North Dakota is sweet much like West Texas oil but oil from Saudi Arabia is sour. 1. Sweet crude has less sulfur content as opposed to sour crude. 2. Sweet crude has fewer impurities as opposed to sour crude. 3. Sweet crude is more environment-friendly that sour crude. 4. Sweet crude is easier to process at the refinery (refining costs are also lower) as compared to sour crude. Expanding US oil production would lower climate problems around the world. Sour crude releases two or three times as much sulfur contaminants as sweet crude. Besides lowering the acid rain threat, sweet crude runs cleaners in engines making catalytic converters more efficient.

Economic growth

A few days ago I was presented with information regarding the widening gap between CEO salaries and their employees. Back in the 50's the CEO made 20 times what the average employee made and today that has risen to over 270 times as much. The information I got was about Walmart where the CEO was paid $22 million and this was 840 times the $26,000 that the average employee earned. Interestingly enough if they took the salary paid to the CEO and gave that to the 2 million Walmart employees they would each get $11. This once again points out the fact that you cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor. Throughout history there have always been too many poor and too few rich. Dictators often win control of countries by promising to share the wealth. Bernie Sanders was preaching this in the last election. Some years ago an article pointed out that the six members of the Walmart family were worth $90 billion dollars and this was more that the lowest 50 million families in America. Take their money which is mostly in Walmart stock and give it to those families and each would receive $1,800. The way to help the poor is to make good paying jobs available to them and this can only be done with economic growth combined with innovation. It takes people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to create growth. While it is nice that Gates gives a lot of money to charity it would be even better if he used that money to create new jobs. The economic freedom afforded those in a free market economy is now and has proven to be the best way to help the poor people around the world.

Sinners

I forgive the sinner but not the sin is an old adage and it helps to explain the loss of civil discourse in today's culture. Conservatives see liberals as people with good intentions who have gone astray and fail to understand basic economics while liberals view conservatives as heartless people who are filled with prejudices. Add to this the fact, that Trump won in a totally unexpected and surprising manner, liberals have the added burden of being on the losing side. It is easier for the winning side to reach out and ask for everyone to get along. Liberals want to share the wealth and help the downtrodden and thus are seen as good people who are tying to do the right thing. Conservatives believe that the best way to help others is to help them help themselves and thus can be seen as hard heart-ed and uncaring. Most Americans see the value in both of these approaches and can select a middle of the road path but those on the extremes see only the sin.

Free speech

A Fresno State University professor says people who voted for Trump are f....ing stupid and some want her fired. Many have come to her defense recognizing that we have freedom of speech in this country. Let's speculate a bit and ask what would happen if someone said that N...ers are stupid. Would the defenders of free speech be consistent and come to that person's defense. In February a professor at Princeton used the N word in a class on free speech and the uproar was so great he had to cancel the class. Some speech is more free than others.

Jackson

After Trump suggested that he was a president like Andrew Jackson, I decided to check out what he meant and just finished reading a book about Jackson's life and there are both differences and similarities between the two presidents. Jackson was a part time Indian fighter, part time soldier, part time backwoodsman and only held political office for a few years and resigned before his term was up saying he didn't like politics. He was unhappy with the way elites in the northeast composed of Ivy Harvard grads and big businessmen where running the country. He appealed to what were called the common people and was twice elected and helped to elect his vice president after he left office. He often used phrases the were considered inappropriate and by some vulgar. He did not fit in or in today's vocabulary he was undpresidential. His followers stayed with him even through one controversy followed by another through his entire career. His cabinet members did not think he could win a second term so they were infighting to get into a position to replace him. This caused him to look for guidance outside and his new advisers became known as the kitchen cabinet. When questioned about the cabinet shakeups he responded by saying: "There has been a great noise made about removals....it is rotation in office the will perpetuate our liberty". Jackson took office with great expectations to cleanse government of corruption and restore the nation’s finances. Washington’s elite feared that Jackson would fire everyone that held government positions, even the competent, and replace them with his own people. During his time which became known as the Jacksonian era he founded the democratic party and became known as the president of the common man.

Germany

Germany spends one percent of their GDP on defense and the US spends 3 percent. One of the big differences is that Germany like Japan depends on the US for defense. Germany has had a favorable balance of trade for many years and last year's 285 billion exceeded China's. Angela Merkel is putting Germany first.

China

If a company wants to invest in China it must be a joint venture with the Chinese government owing at least 51% of the deal. There are ten industries that foreign investors are not even allowed in the country. China takes US intellectual ideas with impunity. China has large import taxes. Foreign investors report a range of challenges related to China’s current investment climate, including: broad use of industrial policies to protect and promote state-owned and other domestic firms through employing subsidies, preferential financing, and selective enforcement of laws and regulations; restrictions on controlling ownership of foreign entities through equity caps, limited voting rights, limits to foreign participation on companies’ board of directors, etc.; weak protection and enforcement of IPR; corruption; discriminatory and non-transparent anti-monopoly enforcement; excessive national or cyber security requirements; and an unreliable legal system lacking transparency and rule of law All of this is designed to give China and economic advantage over others.

Wells Fargo

Many people are expressing concerns about the double standard in our legal system in regards to the way the FBI is doing their investigations but this is not limited to government. Wells Fargo was recently fined one billion dollars for ripping off customers. The company has assets of $1,750 billion so this will not be a major set back. More importantly not only will not one of their executives go to jail but they will receive large bonuses. Here is one example: Chief Executive Timothy Sloan's compensation package totaled $17.6 million, a 35% increase from the $13 million he received in 2016, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission A few years ago JP Morgan Bank paid a five billion dollar fine for their part in the mortgage scandal which brought the whole world into a financial crisis. Their assets at the time totaled $2,750 billion. Once again no one went to jail.

Barbara Bush

As I watched the tributes to Barbara Bush and listened to what she said was important, I found myself looking back on my life and I felt very comfortable. Until I got married at age 30 the world revolved around me but all that changed when I met my wife. From her I learned to get out of myself and when my children came along I continued my journey toward sharing. I was not one to go fishing or hunting or other activities that some fathers do with their friends as I spent most of my time with family affairs. We took long trips together spending money I couldn't afford. I attended school related activities and cheered on through victories and defeats. The price I paid was financial since I only worked as much as I needed to provide the basics. I was in a career where income was unlimited if a person wanted to put in the time but I chose not to follow that path. Even today my finances are just enough to get by but I have never heard an old man say that he wished he had spent more time at the office and this was the essence of what Barbara would tell young people.

Davis book

I just finished a book by Lanny Davis entitled The Unmaking Of A President and the theme of the book is that Jame Comey caused Hilary to lose the election to Trump. In the first two chapters he makes a compelling argument that there was nothing illegal about Hilary's private email account. He points out that throughout Hilary's public life the press had been tough on her culminating with the investigation into the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. After years of bad press over this deal the final result was that she had done nothing illegal. Her desire to avoid more negative press led her to use the private email server. Even though no evidence was present to show illegalities the private email continued to make headlines and over shadowed her other policies. Others who agree with Davis on the legality of the emails point out that there were emails that Hilary did not want anyone to see and this led to her deleting some and turning over others. This still provides critics with a reason to doubt the importance of the emails. Beginning in chapter three and throughout the book he points out many reported stories that were either partially or totally incorrect although he never refers to them as fake news. The rest of the book he points out the ways in which Comey interfered with the electoral process. Reading this book gives a quite different explanation of how Hilary was treated as compared to other stories in the press. It is always good to get all sides of an issue especially in today's world where politics plays up to one side or the other.

Illegals

The arguments surrounding the immigration system are somewhat bewildering to many people. There are those who say illegal immigrants, whose only crime is their being here illegally, should be treated differently than those illegals who are here and have been convicted of crimes. If this rule is followed it makes it very difficult to determine a course of action at the border. When a person comes across the border illegally and is picked up, the law officer must determine if that person will at some later date commit a crime. The only reasonable way to do that is to allow anyone in and then wait to see if they do in fact commit a crime. If this is the way they want to do things then they don't need any border guards. This is how California currently deals with illegals but many complain that even after conviction these criminals are not incarcerated or deported. Sometimes convicted criminals are released by local authorities to prevent the federal agents from deporting them. This occurred in the recently well publicized case of the Oakland Mayor. The mayor of a self-proclaimed sanctuary city in California issued a warning to illegal immigrants in the Oakland area over the weekend that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were preparing a raid.

War powers

According to the constitution only congress has the authority to declare war and the last time that happened was in 1941. Since that time the United States has undertaken many military operations beginning with Korea in 1951 without congress declaring war. Korea was called a police action and Viet Nam just crept up on everyone. Because of Viet Nam congress in 1973 passed the war powers act which said that the president must get congressional approval for any military that lasts longer than 60 days but that act has not been enforced. It certainly make sense that congress should decide on such an important issue as going to war but the logistics make it very awkward. The recent missile attack on Syria is a good example. Four military people along with the president spent a week working out the attack plan. If this were then sent to the congress you would have 535 people trying to decide what to do and with the way congress is divided this might never be resolved. It is an out for any president who wants to avoid a tough decision.

Generic ballot

Yesterday on Morning Joe he made the same mistake that many accused Hilary of when she called the Trump voters, "deplorable's". He was discussing the most recent generic ballot polls where it showed the democratic support dropping from 8% to 4%. He said with all of the controversy surrounding Trump the people supporting him must be stupid. He then followed up with other derogatory remarks about Trump voters. While it is healthy for the country when political leaders are criticized for their actions, it is not wise to criticize those who voted for those candidates. It would be like criticizing someone who didn't like the movies you like or the food you like. Even in middle school the emphasis is on the beauty of our differences.

Ethics

In contemplating the ethos of our society, actions can be broken down into four categories 1.Legal and moral 2.Legal and immoral 3.Moral and illegal 4.Immoral and illegal The first group includes most daily activities of most people The second area is somewhat up in the air and on a controversial scale includes things like lying, adultery, abortion, homosexual behavior and pot smoking. Third on the list are times like when the colonist rose up against the king or when blacks sat in white only restaurants. This is an area where personal belief systems conflict with the law. For many moralist it is acceptable to disobey the law when it runs up against personal convictions but those who do so must be willing to accept the consequences. The forth category involves thing like murder and stealing. Societies find certain behaviors if left unchecked can destroy the community and they therefor agree that these activities cannot be tolerated. Back in my youth we listened to radio and one of the programs was a mystery called,The Shadow". The opening line says, who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man? This line is illustrated when a person has a strong feeling about a given subject and then finds themselves in the position of having to deal with that subject. Some people who said they would never have an abortion changed their minds when push came to shove. Others who had an abortion ended up regretting it. Many people who considered alcoholism a moral weakness saw it as an illness when a person close to them fell prey to the disease. Some who were opposed to homosexuality changed their minds when a child came out. Some who object when people change their minds on a subject call it situational ethics. When these areas come up it might be wise to think things through and walk in the others persons shoes before coming to a conclusion. John Rohn was a motivational speaker who died about 10 years ago and he said: Things that I felt absolutely sure of but a few years ago, I do not believe now. This thought makes me see more clearly how foolish it would be to expect all men to agree with me

Comey

As I watched the Comey interview last night, I was reminded of that old movie, Twelve Angry Men" wherein Henry Fonda would answer every accusation of gilt with a possible reason and he would say, isn't it possible. I was thinking of how this would affect a person. Do you think John has stolen things? It's possible. Do you think John is a closet gay? It's possible. Do you think John is a pedophile? It's possible. Do you think John is an adulterer? It's possible. As I watched Comey answer the leading questions which were designed to garner the largest audience with it's possible, I begin to wonder how the one man who has access to all the government secrets could only answer the way anyone might answer. This sort of thing, trial by press is more and more the norm. I am convinced that anyone accused should exercise the right to remain silent. Something is remiss in our justice system and it behooves everyone to take note or as the old adage goes, first they come for the Jew and then they come for you.

Steel

When Trump announced the US will tax steel imports from China many suggested this would cause a trade war. What was not mentioned was that this also happened in 2016 under Obama Prior to this announcement, the U.S. had already implemented trade taxes on different types of imported steel from China. In 2016, the Obama administration imposed duties on some Chinese steel imports by more than 500 percent, causing Chinese imports to the U.S. to drop by almost two-thirds. It was also pointed out that the US only imports about a small percentage of its steel from China but what was not mentioned is that China sells a lot of steel to Mexico and that is used in cars produced in Mexico and shipped to the US.

Syria chemicals

One of the things that last nights attack on Syria brought to everyone's attention is the large number of chemical storage sites that are scattered around the country. This goes back to the Bush 43 invasion of Iraq where the wrong question was asked. The world was asking where are the WMD when they should have been asking what happened to the WMD. It is well documented that the West gave hundreds of thousands of pound of WMD to Saddam beginning in the 80's when he was at war with Iran. When Iraq was invaded and no WMD were found many felt that they were shipped to Syria and this seems now the most likely scenario. Under Obama, Syria agreed to give up its WMD but they seemed to have kept much of their supply. In 2013 Obama sought congressional approval to go after Syria's chemical weapons but Russia intervened and promised to get rid of the weapons. John Kerry, who was U.S. secretary of state at the time, said the regime used chemical weapons “multiple” times that year. Obama then sought congressional approval for the use of limited military force in Syria. A few days later, Kerry said a military strike could be averted if Syria turned over its chemical weapons to the international community. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed such a plan almost immediately—and Syria signed onto it.

Emails

If the government ever subpoenas any of your documents here is the way to handle it. There is much controversy surrounding the case of Hilary Clinton's emails and whether she destroyed subpoenaed documents. She did and she didn't and here is how it went. In September of 2012 a request was sent to Clinton for all documents having anything to do with Benghazi. After receiving no response for over two years the Oversight Committee issued a subpoena in October of 2014 for the same documents. That subpoena along with a law suits filed under the Freedom of Information Act caused Clinton to ask her lawyers to go through the 55,000 pages of emails requested and take out all those they felt were related to Benghazi and send those and then they removed the now famous 33,000 and destroyed those. So that was it: the Clinton team produced what it said were all her work-related emails to the State Department and then ordered its tech people to destroy everything, and then put a new policy in place in which no emails would be saved for more than 60 days. To make sure no copies of the destroyed emails were retained on other computers Clinton then ordered: In December 2014 — after the emails were sent to the State Department — Mills ordered people whose identity was not revealed by the FBI to delete Clinton email archives from their computers. These emails were all on Clinton's private server which was stored in her home so there were no back up copies on any government server as the law provides.

Libby

Today President Trump pardoned Scooter Libby which means it is time once again to review the Libby case. Libby was accused of outing a CIA agent named Valarie Plame and James Comey appointed Department of Justice attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate. Mr. Fitzgerald knew from the outset that Libby did not out Plame because Richard Armitage Deputy Secretary of State confessed to the outing but Fitzgerald chose not to prosecute Armitage. He told Armitage to keep quiet. Mr. Fitzgerald nonetheless pressed on for someone to prosecute, eventually focusing on Mr. Libby, whose trial became a contest of recollections. The excruciatingly inconsequential question on which his conviction turned was whether, as Mr. Libby recalled, he was surprised to hear NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert ask him about Ms. Plame in a phone call on July 10 or 11, 2003. In November 2003, Russert (who died in 2008) told the FBI that he didn’t recall mentioning Mr. Wilson’s wife to Mr. Libby, but couldn’t rule it out. By August 2004 Russert had changed his story. Under questioning by Mr. Fitzgerald, he insisted he could not have mentioned Ms. Plame. The case against Libby was weak but he was convicted of lying and fined $250,000 and sentenced to 30 months in prison. President Bush commuted his sentence but did not pardon him. He did incurred large legal fees and lost his license to practice law. This was later reversed and two years later he was reinstated. Some people believe that something similar happened to Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn but that case is still under review.

Ads

Facebook and possibly Google are under the gun for the way the treat personal data. At this point most people are not that concerned but there is an upside. Perhaps commercials can be directed at possible users and make buying more knowledgeable. For a senior citizens ads about ski trips may not be as informative and ads about cruises. For young people ads about Medicare supplements are a waste of time but ads about new cars may not be. Most would prefer no ads but then that would likely mean no TV. One thing for sure is that we don't need more ads about buying gold or for "My Pillow".

Gay marriage

Yesterday in the senate hearings on the confirmation of the new proposed Secretary of State a question was asked about gay marriage. Several years ago this subject came up in our church and the pastor asked for opinions from the parishioners and I sent him the following letter. I read your letter in The Messenger and if I interpreted things correctly you were asking for input and thus I offer my humble opinion. First of all I have no objection to same-sex marriage whether it be in the courthouse or the church and while the American public may be leaning toward approval they are not ready to accept the concept of homosexual life style and I offer the following as proof that the people are not ready. On any given afternoon watching the Soaps you can see a man and a women in bed together going through the motions of sexual activity. You will not see two scantily clad men rolling around in bed, hands roaming and open mouth kissing and pretending to have anal sex. I maintain the reason you will not see that is that people are not ready. When the campaigning for the law was in full swing it was often said that two people in love should be allowed to marry. I am the first to agree that two men loving one another is a beautiful thing as the world can always use more love but that is not the whole story. The part that is not talked about is the intimacy. The accepted way for homosexuals to engage in sexual activity is either or both oral and anal sex. This is somewhat disturbing to many and a subject they would prefer to ignore. I believe that the gay life style should be accepted by all but it must include the whole story. If we are embarrassed or ashamed by the intimate actions of gays we are not ready. Now perhaps partial acceptance precedes full acceptance and if that is the case we can proceed in steps. I do believe that all too often peripheral issues overtake the main purpose and this may be one of those cases as you referred to regarding the Pope. I have been watching the new Pope and I couldn’t be more pleased. His central theme is to look out for those in need. He recently chastised those who concentrate on divisive issues like abortion, same sex marriage and contraception. These are issues designed to allow people to pass judgment on others. It allows some to tell others how they should live their lives and what they should believe. Notice the,”shoulds”, in that sentence. I believe the Pope is telling us to quit wasting all that psychic energy fighting over issues and get on with sharing your talents, knowledge and experience with others in ways that are helpful. Give up trying to be right and trying to convince others of your right and get on with reaching out a helping hand. There are people around you every day that need what you have to offer. Open your eyes and see, and open your heart to those crying out for help. This is what I hear this new Pope saying to me. Thanks John Novick

SS number

Recent court cases are ruling that using a false social security number to get a job or buy a car is not a crime as long as you use your own name. That follows a ruling last year by the U.S. Supreme Court that a Mexican man who gave a false SSN to get a job at an Illinois steel plant could not be convicted under federal identity theft laws because he did not knowingly use another person's identifying number. He used a social security number that was not his but he didn't know if it belonged to someone else. It could have belonged to another person but he did not know if it did or not. This must be back to idea of intent. He didn't intend to use another person's number.

Assad

During the Obama years three women proposed that the US invade Libya. Samantha Powers and Susan Rich proposed a new doctrine which they called the “The Responsibility to Protect Doctrine”. After having witnessed the slaughter in Rwanda a few years earlier they felt the US could not stand idly by while Gaddafi attacked the city of Tripoli where thousands of civilians would be killed. They along with the help of Hilary Clinton convinced Obama to get rid of Gaddafi and they were successful but left the country open for terrorist to take over and that is where things stand today. We are now faced with another humanitarian crises in Syria and the question is what if anything should be done about. Does the Syrian leader Assad pose an imminent to the US or are we to take action to protect innocent people. Are we just trying to punish Assad or are we trying to get rid of him as Obama suggested in 2011. “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside. If we could get rid of Assad what then?

Syria

The decision to invade Iraq was based on Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and while he had tons of these at one time none were found. Leaders around the world concurred with President Bush that Saddam had WMD. The CIA said he had them and the UN along with NATO. To begin with, numerous foreign intelligence agencies also believed that Saddam Hussein had an active WMD program. The "intelligence agencies of Germany, Israel, Russia, Britain, China and France" all believed Saddam had WMDs. CIA Director George Tenet also rather famously said that it was a “slam dunk” that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We are now confronted with a similar situation but this time in Syria. Everyone says that Assad is using WMD on his people but no one has presented proof. The US is not considering an all out war against Assad but rather targeted bombing to convince him to change his ways. His use of these weapons does not pose an imminent threat to the US but if true they present a humanitarian disaster and many feel that the US should intervene. The use of planes is to be avoided in case a pilot should be captured and the feeling is that missiles can do the job without endangering pilots. People on both sides of the aisle are encouraging Trump to send missiles to destroy Saddams air force and air fields and it is reminiscent of Iraq just before the invasion. Syria a country of 18 million has suffered 500,000 deaths along with many more injured. Over 6 million internally displaced and over 5 million seeking refuge abroad. Currently another million are in danger from Saddam. Some might conclude that no matter what the US does it will be too little too late.

Foreign policy

The foreign policy that the US has followed over the years is mindful of how to keep a teenager happy. You let them do what they want. The US allows other countries to place high import tax on products while keeping US import taxes much lower. The US allows other countries to maintain low cost defense budgets by using US power to protect them. The US pays more thant their share of the United Nations cost allowing other countries to pay much less. The US pays more than their share of NATO while allowing other countries to pay less. The US shares advances in medicine including new drugs with other countries reducing their need for research and development. The US shares high tech innovations with the world lowering their cost for research. The US university system is the best in the world and over one million come here to study while only 300,000 Americans go abroad to study even though the US is only 5% of the worlds population. Last year more than one and one-half million legal immigrants came to America In 2016, 1.49 million foreign-born individuals moved to the United States, a 7 percent increase from the 1.38 million coming in 2015 The US has more immigrants than the next five countries combined. This does not include any illegal immigrants.

More in bias

The messages I send to my daughter are designed to keep her up to date on current events. They are not meant to convince her to think like I do but rather to convince her to think. I receive a response to a recent email which demostrates my purpose for writing. It was a person who took what I said, did some investigative work and responded in a way that broadened my remarks. He pointed out that not only did the press jump to a conclusion about the attack on the gay club in Florida but Trump reacted in the same way. This does not exonerate either party but can serve as a warning not to judge until all the facts are in.

Bias news

Last June a lone gunman, Omar Mateen, attacked a gay nightclub in Florida and killed 49 people and wounded 58 others. Because it was a gay club the press immediately assumed it was a hate crime directed at gay people. The fact that his family immigrated from Afghanistan and he was a Muslim did not enter into their calculation. They had set a predetermined course to reach a predetermined conclusion and they arrived on time. It was only months later when after his wife's trial that all the facts came out. He randomly chose the night by searching the phone book and there was no evidence that he was a closet gay as was reported. As far as investigators could tell, Mateen had never been to Pulse before, whether as a patron or to case the nightclub. Even prosecutors acknowledged in their closing statement that Pulse was not his original target; it was the Disney Springs shopping and entertainment complex. They presented evidence demonstrating that Mateen chose Pulse randomly less than an hour before the attack. It is not clear he even knew it was a gay bar. A security guard recalled Mateen asking where all the women were, apparently in earnest, in the minutes before he began his slaughter. As the trial proceeded more evidence made it clear that he was a Islamic terrorist. There was compelling evidence of other motivations. Mateen had pledged allegiance to the self-described Islamic State during the shooting, and explicitly said that he was acting to avenge air strikes in the Middle East. “You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people,” he told a crisis negotiator over the phone while at Pulse. “What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I’m saying?” As the press approval ratings fall to 30% the public realizes that politics has distorted the news to the point where people must look to several different sources in an attempt to find out what really happened and even then they are not comfortable with the story.

Trade war

Many experts who follow US/Russian relations feel that when Reagan fired the traffic controllers it got Gorbachev's attention in a way that words could not. His action added to his credibility on other issues showing that he was not afraid to take a stand on principle. In a similar vein when Trump puts an import tax on China in an election year people like Kim in North Korea pay attention. With most American presidents foreign leaders know how to push their buttons to get them to back away from controversy. For the same reasons that the news people are frustrated with Trumps unorthodox behavior foreign leaders find him difficult to read but they know he is not afraid to go against the status quo. In the vernacular of the day he is not presidential and that concerns China and North Korea.

Justice for all

Yesterday Scott Pruitt head of the EPA was asked about questionable salary arrangements with two of his employees and he responded that he didn't know about it. “You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did this?” Henry asked. “I found out about this yesterday, and I corrected the action,” Pruitt said. This is mindful of the several occasions when President Obama said in answer to questions that he just found out about the situation when he read about it in the paper. We can now add, I just found out to I didn't know, I can't recall and I don't remember. These along with I didn't intend to do it (intent) can be a get out of jail card for some but not for you. Justice is sometimes tainted. Recall when Ted Kennedy was driving drunk, left the scene of an accident and his lady friend died. Aside from some bad PR nothing much happened.

Votes

The constitution demands that every ten years the national census is undertaken. This count then determines the number of representatives apportioned to each state and these are the numbers used in the electoral college. This means that illegal aliens are used in the decision to choose the president. In 1950 California had 30 congressmen and today they have 53 congressmen. It is estimated that there are 2.6 million illegals living in California and this equals about 4 votes whereas there are 7 states that have only one representative. The estimated 12 million illegals in the US are equal to 16 electoral votes which is equal to all the representatives in Alaska,Delaware,Montana,North Dakota,South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. That is a significant voting block even though they are not allowed to vote directly their votes count indirectly in the electoral college.

Retirement

I was reading about a state trooper who is retiring after 37 years of service and he was asked what he is going to do and he answered that he will spend more time with his wife and grandchildren and do some traveling. I spent many years talking to people about retirement planning and his was a typical response. In today's world many people don't think about the fact that you may have 20 or 30 good years after you retire and it requires some planning. As a general rule you will not do after retirement what you did not do before retirement. When I retired I took a trip down memory lane and visited the many places I had lived before and it was fun but after 5 weeks away from my bed I was ready to come home and stay home. After that I went back to work which is what I did for most of my life. Often times retired people say they are busier than ever but that may not be the case. There is a business principle called Parkinson's Law and it says, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Many retirees work on various projects and they say that keeps them busy but many of those same people worked on similar projects while they were full time workers. People who are self employed like writers and artist continue right on working at their craft and so there is not much adjustment required but for those who work for an employer it helps to have a plan.

Patriot

There are many articles on the Internet challenging the effectiveness of the Patriot anti missile systems that the US has sold to various countries around the globe. They point out that only a few of the missiles actually hit the target. They are making the same mistake that those who criticized Reagan when he moved forward with the Patriot. They forget that once the science is set that engineering follows and in time these systems will improve and become a serious deterrent. Recall the first Vanguard rockets the US tried to orbit. It is not wise to say that something technical will never work which is what many said about Reagan's plan which they ridiculed as Star Wars.

Voters

In a sequel to the Rosanne Show a person asks how anyone could ever vote for Trump after all his lies and affairs. It was 50 years ago when Ted Kennedy ran for president but was not nominated. If he had been the nominee would democrats have voted for him or would they have voted for the republican Bush? John Edwards was the leading candidate in 2007 when it was revealed that he had fathered a child by his mistress and he was forced out of the race. If he had been the candidate would the democrats have voted for McCain? Bill Clinton was elected to a second term even though his first term was filled with scandals. Even after his affair with Lewinsky was uncovered he still maintained high approval ratings. Would democrats have voted for Dole if they had known about Monica? Many people vote the party candidate because they agree with what the party stands for and if their candidate is less than desirable they can overlook the blemishes. Others vote for the candidate and they can switch parties based on what the candidate stands for. Trump attracted voters who liked his policies and many who liked his flamboyance and of course many who just wanted change. Trump is sometimes liberal and sometimes conservative and this throws regular party people into a tizzy.